Devon Avenue

Destination: Devon Avenue
Date: 1/30/11
Cohort: Laura
Cohort’s favorite thing to do/see in Chicago: Soldier Field and the zoo. Mostly Soldier Field.

So, just to clarify for those unfamiliar with the neighborhoods of Chicago, when Devon Avenue is listed as an attraction, it really just means a little bit of it; the Desi Corridor in Roger’s Park.  AKA, Little India.  A significant portion of the street is jam-packed (or should I say chutney-packed?  No?  Okay.  I won't then) with Indian and Pakistani restaurants, shops, and grocery stores.  I had never been before, and was most pleased when Laura suggested we go. 

We were both very excited to embark on our adventure - we’d heard so much build-up about how it’s like being in Bombay that we felt like we needed our passports and a crash Rosetta Stone course.  After pondering the dollar-to-rupee exchange rate on the North Side, we popped into a couple of stores.  The shopkeepers were very welcoming and helpful, but since we were neither actually in the market for a sari, nor passable as your everyday casual sari-shopper, we kept our browsing pretty brief.  It’s fun walking into the shops from the dreary February streets, though.   Like walking into a rainbow factory.  (Are there rainbow factories?  I would TOTALLY go to one…) 

If there were rainbow factories, I suppose this is what the workers would look like.  Except the headless guy.  Rainbow factory workers all have heads.  Some are indeed missing a hand though.  Rainbow-making is dangerous work.

Laura found a reasonably-priced scarf that she really liked, after which we found some other small white people who had done the same.

We went to a couple of big grocery stores, which were so vast and vastly different than our own grocery-haunts, that it really did feel like being in another country.  Or at least some sort of fascinating food museum…  I was excited about the varieties of cool and exotic produce.  Like a dosakai - a round yellow cucumber used in a lot of curries and chutneys and whatnot.

Laura took some time to check out the expansive rice collection, which sort of reminded me of how hard it is to pick out toothpaste at the store when you don’t really have any brand loyalty.  There are so many kinds!  They are all slightly different!  How do you pick???  Thank goodness when you choose the wrong toothpaste, though, you aren’t stuck with 9 ½ more pounds of Colgate.

At Patel Brothers, I became fascinated with, and purchased a bottle of coconut juice with fun coconut flakies in it. 

I wondered if I would like it...

I did not.  At all.

Ew.

Even though we kept buying little snacks everywhere, we resisted the temptation to munch since we were looking forward to our lunch at Mysore Woodlands.  When we were sufficiently hungry, we headed in and ordered a feast.  After a masala tea for Laura and a killer mango lassi for me, we got our appetizer of aloo papdi chaat, which Laura determined was the equivalent of Indian nachos.  While we were still deciding what nachos of different cultures would be, the rest of our food came.  There was naan, of course, masala dosai, which is like a big spicy crepe, and a nice spinachy saag paneer curry with rice. 

It was all wonderful, and as an added bonus, wrought no havoc on my belly like Indian food often does.  (Wink, wink!)  (I’m talking about POOPING!)

After we were totally stuffed and exhausted, we spent a good five minutes kneeling on the ground trying to take a picture of us with a Ganesha statue.  Despite all of his claims, however, even Ganesha could not make us fortunate enough to get a good shot.