Naveen's Cuisine

Ordinarily I love celebrating my birthday, however lately I've been getting a little more uncomfortable with the ever-increasing number. So to combat these adverse feelings, this year I decided my birthday needed a little reboot. Birthday dinners in the past have involved places that are amiable to big groups such as Japonais, Andies Restaurant, Jin Jiu, Folklore or Greek Islands (now just seeing the ethnic food pattern). We always have a fabulous time, but the one thing that I've always disliked is the long table and inability to "really" talk with everyone. Connecting with people is really what this life is all about. After all, how could we get through the highs and lows without our people who surround and support us? But getting to those people, squished against the wall and 20 feet away from you, can create an obstacle toward intimacy.

Naveen's Cuisine on North Avenue helped solve this problem and combined three of my loves on this day - family, friends and cooking. Instead of booking a reservation at a restaurant, I booked a private Indian cooking demonstration at Naveen's. A cooking demonstration is where a chef shows you the ins and outs of making certain dishes - in our case 4 courses: Veggie Tikka Masala, Daal Makhani (lentils), Chicken Boti and salad. (This was not a hands-on cooking class where you make the dishes yourself.)

 

 

This is how it went down. Naveen made everything, we watched in rapt attention, he gave lots of tips, we asked lots of questions and then we ate all the delicious food - every last morsel. Some of his tips were to juice limes or lemons against a sharp knife (see picture above), use a pressure cooker (this is so on my birthday list for next year) to cook the lentils in 25 minutes versus 1 hour plus in a regular pot, employ a dough scraper to scoop up large piles of chopped veggies to transfer them into a bowl or pot instead of the side of a knife (I've totally starting doing this and it is so much more efficient and safer.) Additionally Naveen extended knife cutting techniques and acquainted us with Indian spices. Who knew that I could make my own garam masala and that all the required spices were already in my cabinet?


More pluses to our night. We had plenty of space to mingle and we were not confined to one big long table (as there were several highboy tables throughout the room). It was BYO...cheers! The price was competitive with a normal sit-down dinner and included 4 courses. We came away with all the recipes to attempt at home (made the chicken boti last month and it rocked). But the real gem is Naveen. He was so funny and cracked jokes the entire time. He kept everyone engaged with his great anecdotes and gregarious personality. Everyone kept exclaiming that he should be on TV and how the Food Network should be knocking on his door!

 

So how do you book your next cooking adventure at Naveen's? Simply go to his website and look at his calendar to see regularly scheduled cooking classes or demonstrations. He often offers Thai classes in addition to Indian. So grab a couple friends and make a night at Naveen's - bring an appetite because there will be plenty of food :) If you want a private personal or business event, contact him separately. Naveen also does Grab 'n Go meals too.

 

Birthday = success! It was great in so many ways from the educational and entertaining cooking demo in a relaxing venue to time spent with family and friends. And to top it off, we had fudge chocolate cake from Bittersweet Pastry. Should you ever have it, and I do encourage you to have it, you will never want another cake but this one again. You can and will thank me later. (As an aside, I had a sample of this cake many years ago on their sampler platter. It blew me away. I couldn't stop thinking about it. However, it took me a couple years of trying different chocolate cakes before I found "the one" because they seriously have like 12 different chocolate cakes.)

Waxing Poetry on Floriole

Add caption

Espresso is really what inspired the development of this blog. I was in Spain recently where I had a cafe con leche every day...in a real cup...sitting down...at a table...for a minimum of 10 minutes. This was a ritual that I saw everyone doing every morning; they seemed so....well...relaxed. There wasn't anyone racing down the street with their Starbucks to-go cups in tow. Ah-ha! This is the right way to start off a day, slowly and serenely. So upon my return stateside, I decided to put this morning routine into motion by frequenting area cafes. A friend encouraged, "Why don't you start a blog?" I replied matter-of-factly that I wasn't a coffee connoisseur and couldn't possibly have a respectable point of view. To which my other friend challenged me, "You don't have to be an expert to write a blog." Good point. This became my jumping off point.



My first stop was a cafe that I had passed a handful of times while traversing down Webster Avenue in Lincoln Park. Floriole Cafe & Bakery is a gem and waxing poetry on it is about as hard as eating a Sweet Mandy B's cupcake. Upon entering, you cannot ignore the glass case filled with an endless array of croissants, sweet and savory galettes, tarts, clafoutis, quiche, tea cakes, yogurt, pizzettas, shortbread, salad, fresh bread and more. If some of these names are intriguing you then we are probably compatible food friends, so call me and we can explore more of them together :) My eyes glimmered brightly and my tummy knew it was in for a treat. After I drank it all in, with my eyes of course, I ordered a macchiato, the closest thing I could find to a Spanish cafe con leche, and a croissant. The employee proudly stated that the croissants were hand-rolled and hand-formed. Having watched Martha Bake's TV show on Hallmark, I knew what he meant by this: a LOAD of work! I wouldn't be surprised if Martha rolled that croissant dough more than 10-15 different times over who knows how many hours. It surely made me not want to tackle making the croissant at home. I digress. This croissant was flaky and downright delicious to the point of licking every last crumb off the plate. How remiss of me, also, the baristas here are the genuine article and my macchiato, replete with fun coffee art in the foam, was solid.

Fresh bread, homemade yogurt, tarts

Pizzettas and galettes

Other things I love about this place. Free wifi. Virtually everything is homemade on premise. The food is organic and sourced from local farms as much as possible. They have a small sign that displays what foods and farms they are featuring that week. The quality and freshness of the food is readily apparent. They offer 4 alfresco tables for outside dining which is what I prefer, and there's an upstairs area that is periodically open and a little quieter than the downstairs.

Have I mentioned the quiche? Just do it. You will be happy. I promise. The breakfast sandwiches aren't too shabby either.

Spinach quiche

Flakiest Croissant

If you like good coffee, french pastries and savories, or if you are looking for a solid breakfast or brunch place that you will not have to wait in an hour line for, you won't be disappointed if you come here. You may be so happy that you will want to return, again and again, until you've enjoyed every last morsel they have to offer...like me!