The cuisine of India you didn’t know

Kochi manager Mr. Bola and server Mr. Shebaz at the entrance to the resturant formerly known as Akbar. Photo
Kochi manager Mr. Bola and server Mr. Shebaz at the entrance to the resturant formerly known as Akbar. Photo

Kochi manager Mr. Bola and server Mr. Shebaz at the entrance to the resturant formerly known as Akbar. Photo

 

Kochi focuses on the cuisine of Southern India

If you ask anyone at a business seminar what they should do if they offer a unique product, you’ll get the same answer every time: flaunt it! Give samples! Train all your salespeople to explain its virtues so customers will be climbing over each other to get it!

That kind of marketing is sometimes absent in the restaurant world, particularly when it comes to regional specialties. There can be many reasons for this, including the difficulty of explaining flavors and preparations with which customers are completely unfamiliar. Detailed descriptions on a menu take a lot of space, and having your servers do it takes a lot of time talking at one table while other customers are waiting. Those explanations aren’t always easy; I have spent over thirty years as a food writer and I sometimes have to ponder over how to communicate nuances of flavor.

The restaurant that inspired these thoughts is Kochi, which is the reimagined Akbar in Hermosa Beach. Though Akbar had a few original items, the majority of the menu was similar to other Indian restaurants around town. Kochi is different; it is the first in the area to focus on the cuisine of South India.

Southern Indian cuisine is different for reasons of ecology and culture. North India has a large Muslim and Sikh population and is drier, while the South is wetter and dominantly Hindu. The religious difference means there are more seafood and vegetarian items in the south, more meat dishes cooked in a tandoor oven in the north. The ecological difference means that more wheat-based items are in the north, more rice and coconut in the south. There are many other differences based on historic trade routes and availability of spices, and that’s just the start.

The menu at Kochi lists a mix of Northern and South Indian dishes, many described vaguely if at all. Your options are to interrogate the servers about every item on the menu or to be sure your phone’s battery is charged so you can look things up on the internet.

Once you do figure out what you want, you’re in luck because the cooking here is superb, as good as I’ve found in the Little Bombay district in Artesia. We started with Parippu Vada, fried onion and lentil patties, and Kappa Attirachi, which was described as “goat curry served with tapioca.” Parippu Vada closely resembles a falafel made with lentils rather than garbanzo beans, with coconut chutney to dip in rather than tahini sauce. The chutney was freshly made and didn’t have the oxidized flavor that many people associate with dried coconut, and might be a game changer for some people.

The goat with tapioca was so different from what we expected that I asked our server if the wrong item had arrived at our table. In the US tapioca generally refers to dried starch of the cassava root, which is often made into puddings, flatbreads, crackers, or the little balls used in boba drinks. What we received was the potato-like root cooked in a mild yellow curry with an accompanying bowl of fragrant red goat curry to spoon over it. The goat was tender and had been deboned, neither of which is the case at many places.  

We continued with a signature dish of South India, the masala dosa. This crisp sourdough crepe filled with mild potato curry looks like a meal for several people, but looks are deceiving since much of it is empty. The tradition is to tear off parts of the crepe and dip them in sambar, the vegetable soup provided for that purpose. The same batter is used differently in the uttapam, which isn’t exactly an Indian pizza but fills a similar culinary niche. Think of a light, lacy pancake with vegetables baked in; the one we ordered featured onions, chillies, and cilantro. The uttapam came with more coconut chutney and a medium-spicy chutney that might have been based on tomato.

We also had mutton biryani, a Malabar parotta flatbread, and a South Indian style of fried chicken called Poricha Kozhi. Mutton, meat from sheep over a year old, is rarely seen on American menus. We tend to like the relatively bland meat from animals less than six months old, but the more flavorful meat shines when paired with peppery spices. There was a generous portion of mildly spiced meat beneath layers of rice, fried onions, and cilantro, and it was successful by itself and as a sop for the curries. The flatbread was a very light and flaky, with little flavor of its own but also good for mopping up every drop of sambar and sauce.

The only item we didn’t particularly favor was the Kerala-style fried chicken. It was coated in a batter with very hot spices. This didn’t have the depth of flavor that the other items had, and it’s the only thing we wouldn’t order again.

One thing that hasn’t changed from Akbar’s time is the excellent wine and beer list. We enjoyed a malty Haywards 500, which gets its slightly sweet character from the mix of rice, corn, and wheat used in brewing, and a bottle of delicious Fog Theory Pinot Noir. The wine was on special for $20 a bottle, which is almost the price at liquor stores, and the rich fruitiness and slight touch of smokiness make it a perfect wine with spicy foods. It’s a good choice even at its regular price of $35, but a great one for $20.

Our meal for four people ran $115 with one bottle of wine and one large beer, and we will be back. Kochi serves the cuisine of an India you don’t know, and though they need to work on communicating IT to their customers, their cooking is as good as it gets.   

Kochi is at 1101 Aviation Boulevard at the corner of Prospect in Hermosa. Open Monday and We-Fri 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. – 10 p.m., Sa-Su 5 p.m. – 10 p.m., parking lot, wheelchair access good. Beer and wine served, corkage $12, many vegetarian/vegan options. Menu at kochihermosabeach.com, phone 310-937-3800.

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