pickled onions, fresh green garbanzo beans, puffed rice and the chick pea noodles, the sev. john: oakland now in terms of like artists and chefs has, basically kids swoop in priced out of san francisco. it s still possible for a place like this, which is basically funded by preeti and her wife, to open up. i mean in san francisco i don t think it s really possible anymore to do that. you know, you need like big investors. you need lots of money. anthony: the food is both familiar and uniquely her own. preeti: chili paneer is one of my favorites. this here has bok choy, braising arugula and amaranth leaves. none of which would traditionally be in a chili paneer. anthony: does authenticity have any meaning or relevance anymore at all? preeti: i mean, like i would say our food is not traditional. is it authentic? hell yeah. it s a hundred percent
going strong, all these years later. and still has what i want and need. the essentials. my friends worked in the kitchen here, starting the tradition among my set that cooking work was noble toil. at that point i never intended a career as a chef. it s great to be a cook. i was getting to that. yes. this is homemade portuguese kale soup, made on the premises. its been a long time, thank you. enjoy. portuguese soup, a p-town version and just what i remembered. kale, fiery red chorizo, kidney beans, potatoes. oh, i missed you. i missed you bad. and that was precisely what i loved about the food here. the portuguese thing, dishes like this stuffed cod crusted with ground portuguese sausage, bread crumbs, stuffed with scallop and crab. some sherry, red sauce. i hadn t been working for a while, i was a deadbeat. i mean, i was just just scarfing off everybody else.
that have to happen. preeti: this is our manchurian cauliflower. it s indian-chinese. basically like general s chicken made with vegetables. it s one of our most popular dishes. it s vegetable candy. anthony: juhu beach club, in a strip mall in oakland s temescal neighborhood. an unassuming but utterly delicious new addition, started by this woman, preeti mistry. anthony: oh, so good. so good. preeti: thank you. so i know you ve been to india a bunch of times. so maybe you ve had a bhel puri. it s a puffed rice salad. anthony: oh yes, yes, yes. preeti: so what we do, because we re in oakland, we serve it in a ball jar. tamarind, chutney, cilantro chutney, pickled cabbage,
i don t think anybody becomes a romantic about it probably until the taos painters arrive. anthony: starting a long-running tradition of artistic pilgrimages to catch the spiritual groove. every kind of utopian dreamer, eccentric, new ager, they all came here in search of, whatever. mm, chilies. server: more chili. dan: all right, thank you. server: and this is level three. dan: that s level three? server: yes, sir. dan: all right, okay. server: be careful with that. dan: all right, we will be careful indeed. anthony: new mexican chilies come in two varieties red or green. dan: that s the by the way, the state question in new mexico. anthony: red or green? dan: red or green. anthony: ordinarily, i like green. it s like yankees or mets. you gotta pick one. this green, however, is not ordinary green. my face is burning off. [ laughter ] this this ain t normal. oh god, this hurts. dan: i m going to join you. fate lies right here. anthony: def con one,
dan: they thought of it as a hard place. um, for one thing, it was exceedingly remote. when you were here, this seemed like one of the farthest reaches of the globe. i mean, initially, americans began coming here because they perceived that santa fe was so remote from the rest of the spanish empire that it was possible for the united states to pluck it. i don t think anybody becomes a romantic about it probably until the taos painters arrive. anthony: starting a long-running tradition of artistic pilgrimages to catch the spiritual groove. every kind of utopian dreamer, eccentric, new ager, they all came here in search of, whatever. mm, chilies. server: more chili. dan: all right, thank you. server: and this is level three. dan: that s level three? server: yes, sir. dan: all right, okay. server: be careful with that.