Last year, Top Chef alumn Preeti Mistry left her job as a chef at Google, spent a month eating the street foods of Mumbai’s Juhu Beach, and came back to riff on her findings in a funky pop-up lunch joint in SoMa that she launched in March.
The Ohio native comes from Indian stock. The recipe for spicy dahl was translated directly from a phone conversation with her mother and to a bowl. Her delicate, handmade samosa wrappers encasing mashed potatoes and peas are fried and topped with a cilantro chutney. Beef short ribs are braised with black cardamom, slathered with cooling raita, and sandwiched inside an Acme bun. Even messier and just as delicious is the fugly Sloppy Lil P, filled with a vegetarian mash of cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, and peas brightened with tamarind and a topping of pickled onions. “In India, they serve this with the bread for dipping, but I made it into a sandwich,” says Mistry with all-American practicality.
This kind of grub seems to call for a good after-hours beer. Luckily—after being closed next week for a R&D trip—they'll reopen starting on April 26, Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 am to 8 pm. Follow Juhu Beach Club on Facebook.
Juhu Beach Club, 320 11th St. (inside the Garage Café)
