As I said in a post earlier this week about Indian and Pakistani food, my view of the fare has been fairly closed-minded. For so long, I’ve considered the dishes of my native land - curries, cooked meats and flat breads - to be of limited varitey, only differentiated by the people who made it.

Then I went to the Clay Oven in Irvine where standard Indian isn’t what makes it to your table, it’s simply the jumping off point for seasonal cuisine so creative that it’s changed the very concept of what Indian food is, at least to me.

For the purpose of full disclosure, I’ll say that owners Praveen and Geeta Balsal, who used to own the now shuttered Bombay Duck in Laguna Beach, knew we were coming because they had recently sent me an E-mail about their tandoori turkeys ($54.99), which can be ordered year round, but are obviously most popular during Thanksgiving and Chrismas time. Praveen even cooks them halal or kosher if need be.

While we were there for the turkey, we also wanted to try a couple of other things. Praveen insisted on a tasting menu for us, bringing out small plates of out-of-bounds Indian that should not be missed.

A good number of the herbs, fruits and vegetables are even grown in the garden of the Balsal’s Irvine home and the dishes, Geeta Balsal says, are designed to take familiar flavors and do something new with them.

Like Royal Khyber, most dishes run $15-$23, but a quick scan of the menu gives light to the experimentation in this kitchen. While scant stalwarts appear - daal, jalfreezy and chicken tikka are the limited few - the majority of the menu features the same ol’ Indian with a twist (habanero vinadloo with lamb or chicken, tandoori jerk chicken, shahi quail, mozzerella and sun-dried tomato naan).

And that’s kind of how we arrive at tandoori turkey.

Before we can talk bird, let’s talk oven. This tandoori oven is the same one Praveen’s been using for over 20 years at his restaurant and it shows. To make the turkey, first the skin is pulled off and then it’s rubbed down with spices including cinammon, cloves, cardamom, two types of cumin, ginger, garlic, cilantro and fresh herbs. Everything is left to marinate for three days before getting cooked for 45 minutes in this 650-degree oven.

It’s stuffed with cranberry-vegetable pilau and is served with a side of cranberry chutney, which unfortunately wasn’t on hand yet. The rice is fantastic, especially the chewy, tart cranberries that are plentiful here. We try slices of the breast meat, which is well-spiced and flavorful throughout. The turkey is moist and juicy, which is a bonus when we’re talking white meat. I could easily see this turkey, between 12-14 pounds, getting devoured at the dinner table.

While the tandoori turkey is the most stunning of the dishes we try, it doesn’t hold us back from picking apart a trio of samosas, sea bass and … tandoori baby back ribs? Check out the other dishes in this Clay Oven slideshow.

Clay Oven
15435 Jeffrey Road #116
Irvine
949-552-2851

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Thanksgiving is only a week away, and if you’re in a better position than me, you’ve at least begun shopping around for great turkey day deals. If you haven’t, you can still take advantage of some great sales at local supermarkets.

Check out a great Thanksgiving Deals post courtesy of OC Deals blogger Marla Fisher where she breaks down the best bargains for your bucks.

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I love when I come across a dish I’ve never heard of before, only to taste it and be converted for life.

That’s where tinga comes in. What’s tinga? Well, I’m no expert but a little Internet searching tells me it’s usually a shredded chicken dish, but it can also be made with pork or beef.

At La Cocina de Ricardo in Lake Forest, a family-owned restaurant in the same strip mall as El Toro Gourmet Meats where I recently dined with some friends, the tinga is a variety called Tinga Poblana, which is made with pork, and an added bonus … more pork!

If that doesn’t make you want to read the rest of this post, well friend, nothing will.As the story goes, this dish, along with many of the others are all passed down by the family’s Grandma Juana. When the owner (Ricardo) graduated high school in the 80s, he decided to use granny’s recipes for his own place. Now there locations in Lake Forest and San Clemente.

Back to the tinga, which is $6.99 at lunch, with rice, beans and tortillas.

The waiter tells me they take the shredded pork and cook it in finely ground chorizo. Oregano, thyme and chipotles make their way into the dish, but it’s not spicy at all. Pig this good should be against the law. Lucky for you, it’s not.

While you don’t really see the pieces of sausage, you do get the salty, slightly greasy flavor of the meat, which compliments the small chunks of shredded pork very nicely. What sounds like it could be a heavy meal is surprisingly filling without making you feel like you’ve got an anvil in your tummy. The beans are nice, the rice a little dry, but the standard cilantro and onions give each bite a very fresh taste, especially when paired with some guacamole.

We just happened to have guacamole at our table too ($6.95 for a large).

It’s perfectly chunky and the avocados taste fresh, but the dip feels like it’s missing something. We all agreed that “something” was a splash of lime juice and some salt. Once we added these two ingredients, we had a primo guacamole on our hands.

Because I didn’t eat alone, I’ll let a couple of my dining buddies tell you what they thought. I’ll add that Jonathan purchased a taco plate for lunch that I somehow forgot to photograph. It was three street tacos - one beef, one chicken, one tinga - with rice and beans for only $4.99. For the money, this might be the best lunch special in all of Lake Forest.

Angela orders Camarones Al Mojo De Ajo (shrimp in garlic butter, $10.95). I’ve had this dish, a personal favorite, many times at other places, but never have I seen it look like this.

Usually the shrimp just take a garlic butter bath, but not at Ricardo’s. Here, the shrimp are covered in an obscene amount of garlic, enough to make the city of Gilroy jealous.

Angela says:  ”My food was freaking delicious. The half-order was more than enough food for me. The shrimp were big and plump and covered with an insane amount of roasted garlic. No vampires around me tonight (sorry, Twilight fans).”

Sam takes a good, long look at the tinga but at the very last moment is too-tempted by the Chile Colorado ($8.95).

Sam, who is a huge fan of this dish, says: “I had a half-order by the way. It was small chunks of tender, slow cooked pork swimming in a slightly spicy red chili sauce, as it should be. It had a nice, almost garlicky aftertaste and was perfect when rolled in a tortilla. The sauce didn’t need extra seasoning, but for my taste could have been hotter. All in all, a real nice lunch for not much bucks.”

Sam nailed it actually. If you’re in Lake Forest (or San Juan Capistrano or San Clemente!) and looking for quality home-style cooking for a reasonable price, Ricardo’s should be at the top of your short list.

Talk back: What is your favorite specialty Mexican dish and why?

La Cocina de Ricardo
23532 El Toro Road #11
Lake Forest
949-586-1480

401 S. El Camino Real
San Clemente
949-498-7808

Ricardo’s Place (also affiliated)
32082 Camino Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano
949-493-4941

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Since we already had one beer post on the blog, I figured we would highlight another, this one courtesy of Register scribe Paul Hodgins.

In his latest “Booze on a Budget” post, featured on Fast Food Maven, Hodgin’s tries to move past his love for Miller and experiment with some pricier bottles of brew.

Talk back: Are hand-crafted beers worth the price? What’s your favorite one?

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I remember trying Red Nectar back in the day, and I never thought much of it. But I recently gave it a second chance to make a first impression, and I came away stunned - this is a truly singular brew that should be on your short list of Saturday night sippers.

There’s a nice, moderately hoppy bite and great balance in strength - full-bodied, but thoroughly drinkable. Most importantly, it has these absolutely unique notes of fruitiness that I can only compare to those little honeysuckle blooms with, yes, sweet red nectar.

What makes Red Nectar great, though, is that the flavor is so perfectly mild - nothing like those raspberry wheat brews or cranberry lambics. You can find this stuff, usually at around $6.99, in good liquor stores and most supermarkets.

Post from: Food Frenzy

Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you that I don’t eat my own country’s  food.

It’s been a big problem throughout my life, as I was born in Pakistan and my dad is from Mumbai, so Indian and Pakistani cuisine have been staples in my house. Unfortunately, I never developed a taste for the spices, and especially the heat, that Pakistani food packs.

Only a few dishes won my favor; among them are anything tandoori, samosas and especially nihari, best described as a spicy stew with big chunks of beef in it. And where can you find some of my favorite nihari?

That would be Bismillah Restaurant in Buena Park, where the wife and I dug into this, and a couple of appetizers, all for less than $20.

Maybe there’s a lot of nostalgia mixed into all of the turmeric, garlic, ginger and chili, but each spoonful of this broth, which has been thickened with flour and is slick with oil and beef fat, is worth suffering for.

The tingling intensifies until it gets so bad that my eyes begin to water. I ask for a little plain yogurt and keep going, taking a piece of the most garlic-loaded naan ever, sandwiching some tender beef in it, and then soaking it in the broth and a little yogurt for comfort. All of this can be yours for only $8.99, by the way.

And back to that naan ($1.99). It’s downright addicting.

Coated liberally with garlic and parsley, this leavened bread is chewy in the middle and crispy on the edges. The perfect vessel for eating nihari with your hands.

Instead of naan, Nadia goes for the stuffed paratha ($3.25). Here, the crispy wheat dough cradles a filling of potatoes, onions and spices, including cumin and turmeric. She really likes it, but I prefer the un-stuffed version, which is topped with butter — much better.

I’m biased though, as we’ve already sampled the samosas ($2.99), which come stuffed with same mixture as the paratha.

Bismillah’s samosas are a personal favorite. Theirs are super-thick and fried to a perfect golden brown. The amount of potato filling is just right, and doesn’t fight with the samosa shell.

In looking over the menu, there is also a nice variety of tandoori items, kebabs and biryani. Judging by the quality of the nihari, I’m sure the rest of these choices are fantastic. I’ll probably never know, though. With nihari this good, it might be hard to pull away for anything else.

Bismillah Restaurant (aka Bismillah Halal Tandoori)
8901 Knott Ave. #D
Buena Park
714-827-7201

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Post from: Food Frenzy

We had Food Frenzy Foodie Fest Part Deux the other night at Lou’s Red Oak BBQ, letting us get together with our regular readers, and I think we ate enough to cover a Chevy Silverado Grill.

Seriously, you know how sometimes you eat so much you feel like you’re going to just pass out? Well, about 10 minutes after I got home, I passed out.

When I viewed the photographic evidence of the culinary carnage the next morning, though, I was already getting my appetite back. Come along, and see the BBQ bonanza!

Meals at Lou’s start with mini pretzel bites.

I found it slightly egregious that they were served with BBQ dipping sauce, but hey, when in Rome. (A side of sour cream mixed with whole grain mustard worked much better, I thought.)

Regardless, they were more funner than regular bread; the daughter of guest Julie Scott liked them lots.

There were also several mugs of baked beans passed around.

Everyone found them decidedly bland, but there was saving grace in the form of big strips of pork found in most spoonfuls.

Guests Shirley Stephens had the pulled pork plate; she had nothing but good things to say, and especially enjoyed the crispy sweet potato fries.

Her husband, Jim Stephens, went with the pork roast. “It’s not common to find pork roast on the menu, and it was quite good,” Jim tells me.

I should note that Lou’s is a Santa Maria-style place, and that means fresh salsa comes with your BBQ.

I’m an admitted salsa addict, and I can confidently state that this stuff is exquisite - sweet tomatoes, refreshing cucumber and no small amount of heat from jalapeno chunks.

It goes well with the house specialty, tri-tip, which is shown on my mixed plate at top. That said, our group was not unanimous on the tri-tip’s tastiness.

Daniel Schoonover of Eat in O.C. said it ”was excellent, tasted almost like prime rib,” and my co-blogger Niyaz also approved, as did attendee Jan Stankovics, who called it “outstanding.”

I guess I agree with respect to the prime-rib similarities, but that’s not what I want with tri-tip. The fat, the grain, the lack of crust - just didn’t seem like tri-tip to me.

We reached consensus, however, on the linguica. Niyaz summed up everyone’s positive reaction this way: “The sausage brought to mind Indian food, as the high amounts of cinnamon and cumin made the meat taste like tandoori.”

Ribs were on the fatty side but fell apart like pork pot roast and were very meaty; I wouldn’t get a full rack, but they were solid.

Wifey Heather ordered the half-chicken, shown above; the meat was moist, and the skin was really outstanding. Alas, it lacked much of a smokey flavor, which was a recurring problem that left all the meats a bit shy of their potential, in my view.

Most of us found the (free) garlic bread rather snooze-inducing, and the gravy was also like meat-flavored Nyquil, but the silky-smooth mashed potatoes were well-received.

Lou’s has fresh pies, and the slice of pumpkin was also a hit.

Dan also had dessert, and has this to say: “I took home a slice of cherry pie to my wife and she really liked it, so much so that she didn’t share any with me!”

You can actually satisfy your sweet tooth for free, though, thanks to the little brownie-like cookies that come with your bill.

Prices were fair, mostly in the $13-$17 range for plates that included two sides. While we had some quibbles here and there on the food, the service was outta sight - the staff let us move tables around like crazy and made sure late-arriving guests received food extra quick, so they weren’t left out of the meal.

That hospitality came courtesy of the real-life Lou, shown below, who Jan says “was so gracious and accommodating” in achieving “5-star service!!!”

We suggest you pay him a visit and see for yourself.

Lou’s Red Oak BBQ
21501 Brookhurst St.
Huntington Beach
714-965-5200

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Ate an absurd amount of tapas during two visits to Boqueria. See the snazzy pics and my review by clicking here.

(Pic above is roasted pork with endive, persimmon, walnuts and pomegranate vinaigrette.)

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It has plenty of sentimental soft drinks, such as Orange Crush and Bubble Up, as well as tons of offbeat beverages, such as Jeff’s Diet Chocolate Egg Cream Soda, Plantation Style Mint Julep Soda and Sweet Blossom Rose Petal Soda.

I wish they had a bottle of Crystal Pepsi, just for collectible keepsake purposes, but oh well - what’s your favorite so-dee pop?

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