- Hey kids! - Hey Uncle Eugene! - What are we doing today? - We are eating Indian food! - We're going on an Indian food tour all throughout Los Angeles. Three restaurants, one special guest. - Wassup? - [All] Yay! - Thanks for having me guys. - Yeah, thanks for coming. - Today we're going to three
different Indian places. We're going to a classic
Indian restaurant. We're going to one that
puts a modern twist. And then we are going to
an upscale restaurant. - This is a huge ass van. You know, I kinda feel like
we're the Queer Eye guys. You're Jonathan Van Ness. - Who would I be? - Can you believe? - So where are we going first? - We are going to somewhere
called Samosa House. It's a classic sort of restaurant within a grocery store. - Oh really? - Yeah we want to go legit. - Can I teach you guys how to say I need or I want Indian food? - (speaking Hindi) - [All] (speaking Hindi) - You did it! - [All] Yay! - My name is Vibha Bhojak and the restaurant is
Samosa House in Culver City. Samosa House first opened in 1979, starting with grocery,
then we expanded this side. We are vegetarians. The food is vegetarian. You are too? - Suckers! - These are called samosas, so they are pastries that are made out of potatoes and peas. They're savory. - [Keith] And vegan? - And vegan and gluten free so- - Oh! - We made our samosas with
corn instead of wheat. - Wow! - Fun fact Samosas singular, samosa plural. - Oh! - You don't say, samo-say. - Our first stop, it's called Samosa House, we're literally eating a samosa. - Mmm, that's good. That's good because also the crust is not too thick, it's not so like, intense to eat. It's nice. - So when my aunt started, she started with samosas, there was a big line for samosas. - Really?!
- Yeah. So samosas were very popular at that time. We named Samosa House after that. - Samosas, I purposefully go for the potato and peas. - Yeah, the original is potato and peas. - And the inside all mixes
together really well, like the potatoes kind
of blend with the peas. - If someone comes over to your house, this is definitely the thing you would serve first when they come over. It's like the most common welcome type of snack. - This is Panipuri. - Yes! - So these balls are puffed pastry balls, sweet and sour water with filling. - The thing about this
is you have to have it in one bite though. And literally with your finger, you can just go like that. This mixture of stuff, there's potatoes in here, there might be chickpeas, there's gonna be some spices. Put them in there. - Panipuri. - [Lilly] And then, what
you're gonna do with this, you're gonna do one, you can either dip or you can pour. Get it, get it, get it. - Minty. - Refreshing! - The perfect, like chips and salsa.
- [Lilly] Yep. - But with a little bit
more of a sweetness kick. - And, if you want to get really crazy, - I do! - I've had it before where you can put vodka in it and have it as shots. - Tell me more about this vodka shot. - Mm-hmm vodka shot Panipuri. - So are these sort of seen
as an appetizer as well? - Yep, these are appetizers and this is like really common street food in India as well. - Oh damn! - These are garlic naans. We got our signature dish. So this is a tropical
fruit from Southeast Asia. So looks like pork, it tastes like pork, but it's a fruit! It's called jackfruit. And it has more protein
and fiber than any meat. It's proven by NASA. - NASA says this is healthy. - NASA! You know what they do? Explore space. - And rate food on the side. - It looks like pork.
- I've never even had anything like this. That's crazy. - Yeah, jackfruit's
surprisingly a really good pork substitute. - [Vibha] Most popular is jackfruit dish. We have in place of
meat, is veggie chicken made of gluten. - Cheers! - [All] Cheers! - Out of this world. NASA. - Houston, I got no problem with that. - It's so good. - It definitely doesn't
taste like a fruit. - It seems like there's a fattiness to it. - Yeah. - Dare I say, jackfruit, prepared like this, is better than the meat substitutes. - Yeah. - Oh, wow! - Like the tempeh and the seitan. - Dare I say it's better than pork itself? - Whoa! - Don't go that far. - This is called Papri Chaat. Tortillas with yogurt,
cilantro, tamarind sauce, onions, tomatoes,
garbanzos, lentil noodles, spices, and cilantro. - Wow, wow. - Is it like nachos? - [Ned] It's like loaded nachos! - Holy cow! - Yeah, it's like wow, everything is- - This is really good, I'm super good with this. - [Ned] It makes me like chickpeas. - Like you don't need meat in this meal. There's so much flavor. Vegetarian food has a
reputation for being bland but Indian vegetarian food's so flavorful, so explosive. What makes it so good? - [Vibha] They make the base gravy which will include onion, ginger, tomatoes, green chile, garlic. It will be cooked in slow flame, they will add all the spices to it. So the base is so flavorful that you can put any
vegetable or lentils on it. So the base is the key. - Yeah, all about that base. - Onion, tomato, and chili uttapam. In the same circle as a pancake, but we just garnish it with onion, tomatoes, chili, and cilantro. - Oh yeah! That's delicious. - It's like a savory pancake. - I also see a lot of chilies on this. - I know. - You know, it's a little spicy, little bit spicy, spicy coming up, you know what I'm saying? - Yeah. - Want some water? - [Vibha] The spices are
not just the spices like turmeric, coriander, cumin, every spice plays a
different role in the party and it has been used
from thousands of years, different healing properties. - Good for the stomach, good for the body, good for the soul. - Masala Dosa here. - [All] Whoa! - What?! - So the crepe is made
out of rice and lentils, there are potatoes,
onion, lentils inside it. And there is vegan soup, lentils and vegetables, coconut chutney, and tomato, garlic, and onion. - It really is like an Indian crepe. It's like slightly fluffy but crunchy at the same time. - The middle potato in this, every time you're at a brunch place and you order breakfast potatoes, or like homefries, this is what you're
hoping you're gonna get and it never comes close. - Indian people really know
how to prepare potatoes. - So what's your favorite
thing you've eaten so far? - I think this! Forgot how good the samosa is too. - Think I like the chaat. - I actually really like the naan with this jackfruit. I just love naan. Went so long in my life never having naan and it's such an excellent bread. - Oh it's great. - So talk to me about some
of the desserts you have, the sweets that you have. - We make fresh Jalebi, it's made up of all-purpose flour and simple syrup, so it gets fermented, fried. It's like- - [Lilly] Fried sugar - Funnel cake? - It's like funnel cake. - But a lot sweeter.
- But way better. - [Lilly] It's my best
memory of being in Punjab, is I love eating jalebis from Punjab and the guy makes it fresh and literally hands it to you and it's like piping hot and amazing! - I'm drooling and I don't even know what it tastes like yet. This is it, this is jalebi! - [Vibha] That's jalebi. - [Keith] That's the sugar that's fried? - [Lilly] Yes, can you
guys ask for jalebi? Do you guys remember how to do that? - Could I have some jalebi? - [All] (speaking Hindi) - [Lily] Let's all break
off a piece of this. - [Eugene] Yeah, I'm so excited. - Cheers y'all cheers. - [All] Cheers. - Wow. - This... - Oh my god. - I actually love this, it's actually not unbearably sweet. It's a good sweet jalebi. - Yeah, it's really great. - [Zach] Having this
restaurant but also this market and all the things you have, do you feel like you've been able to be like a cornerstone for the Indian-American community here in L. A.? - [Vibha] I try to do it one-stop shop, even my son knows half
of the Indian culture from those books. This is my baby, I love this place. - That's lovely. - It's a beautiful baby. - [All] Yay! - It was so delicious!
- Thank you so much! - Thank you for feeding us. - How do you say thank you in Hindi? - (speaking Hindi) - [All] (speaking Hindi) - She's like, "Yes, that was not correct." - How about you all talk about your personal experience with Indian food. - Yeah
- When did you first try it? - I was 100% scared of Indian food because I didn't know anything about it. I grew up in rural Tennessee, there was not Indian food. I think the first time I had Indian food, I had saag. - Nice! - And I was afraid to have it but everybody said it was delicious. First of all, as a kid when someone's like,
"Do you want spinach?" You're like, "No!" But it's so flavorful. - I used to get in trouble
all the time as a kid for not finishing my saag. - You know, Indian food right now is probably my number one. - [Lilly] Really? - Yeah absolutely! I've been trying to eat
more leaning towards vegan so I still eat meat but
I can't do any dairy. Vegan Indian places- - When we would go visit my
grandparents in New York City, we would go to really
good Indian restaurants and that is my first vivid
memory of having Indian food. - Asia, especially in the West is kind of seen as pan-Asian. They're like, "Oh, you're Asian." - Right. - It's such a huge continent. I'm Korean. It's so far removed from India and I have to say like I grew up, my parents
would not touch Indian food but I started eating a lot of Indian food in college out of rebellion. - Really? - Because it just wasn't
something my parents took us to.
- Oh you're a bad boy. - And it's amazing because
opening up your palate- - Yeah. - Even just traveling across Asia will just fuck with your mouth in the best ways.
- Oh yeah, 100%. - All right, next we're going to somewhere called Badmaash which I know many of us have actually visited before. - Love Badmaash!
- [Lilly] Super popular. - Yeah it's one of our favorite Indian restaurants here in L. A. - Badmaash means naughty,
rascal, bad ass in Hindi. Growing up in Toronto, Canada, our grandfather would always say like Badmaash (speaking Hindi) which means don't be a badmaash. We apply that to food, we basically take traditional Indian food and do it our way. - [All] Oh! - To start you all off we have our mixed pickle plate. Seasonal vegetables pickled
with different spices. I have some traditional things straight out of Amritsar, Punjab. This right here is our Punjabi Fish-Fry. - I think this is one of the most wonderful things. - Looks amazing. - [Keith] It's little catfish bites. And you dip it in this
sweet and savory sauce. - [Ned] Whoa! That's the lightest fried fish little bite I've ever had. - [Keith] It's so good. - [Owner] And these over here
are buttered chicken samosas. Traditional but not so traditional. And these guys are our traditional Punjabi samosas. - Oh my god! - [Eugene] It feels like it's just straight out of the fryer.
- 100% yeah. - [Zach] I can't think of
another thing I would rather have at like two in the morning, coming back from a bar. - It's so much like a
homey egg roll in a way because like it's got
potatoes and peas inside of it but it has that crunch, you know? - I love you white people. - Thank you. - It's a homey egg roll. Oh, feast. - This is our chicken tikka poutine. This is literally Canada
and India in one bowl. - This is you in a bowl.
- That's you in a bowl. - We moved here from Canada, shout out to Lilly. - Yeah that's a funny thing, right? I'm the only non-Canadian in frame. - What a minority. - I'm a minority!
- You're a minority in so many ways right now. Oh yeah. - Wow! As a chicken connoisseur, I think this is some
of my favorite chicken in all of L. A.
- Look at that! - As a fries connoisseur I'm gonna say that these are the best
fries I've ever had. - [Keith] You guys do
fusion things as well. You have the poutine. That is just inspired by the fact you wanted to have Canada represented? - We wanted a poutine on the menu because we're Canadian fat boys and like at the end-
- We wanted to eat a poutine. - Yeah, at the end of every night we're like, "Yeah, we want a poutine." - This is some of the
best poutine I've had. - Man had to move from India to Vancouver and have children that made this beautiful dish. - That's why anyone whose anti-immigration can never eat fusion food. - [Owner] Crispy yogurt
puff which we named it. It's traditionally a dahi puri. You want to have it in one bite. - [All] Cheers! - The garbanzo with the yogurt and cumin. - [Owner] Spiced lamb burger. - [Keith] Oh shit. It's a really good lamb flavor. I feel like with burgers sometimes, everything becomes one but the flavors are really- - So you can taste every distinct, yeah. - Also it's like orange on the inside. I don't know if you can kinda see that. - [Owner] And then this is a
fried butter chicken sammich. - It is an Indian spiced
chicken Parmesan sandwich. - [Owner] We've got some
traditional Indian street food. We've got some new takes like our fried chicken butter sammich which you've had before. - It's great, so good. - The bun is smooshing
in a delightful way. There's a ton of sauce here. - [Eugene] That is ridiculously good. - That's crazy! I see the chicken Parmesan
that you're talking about. - Just spicy enough to
make me feel something but it's not too spicy. - Uh-huh it's not too spicy at all. I feel like it gets spicier
each time I come too. Are you guys ramping up the heat on that? - We're working you up. - I came last time, I was like, "It's so much hotter!" - This is spicy. - Yeah. - And I know his tongue, he's- - This one's bearable. - Being a real trooper. - Guys, guys
- Shut up! - Now that you're all
done with the appetizers, - What?! Those were appetizers?! - [Owner] Butter chicken, butter
paneer for the vegetarian. - Yes! - We're Punjabi so we gotta
have our fresh naan bread. - [Eugene] Your naan here is so good. - Chili cheese naan is just like Indian quesadilla it's so good. - Cheers. - [All] Cheers. - Oh my god yes. - Oh yeah. - This is brilliant! - I'm Indian and even I'm like oh my god! I've never tasted anything like this! The idea with naan and roti is you're supposed to turn it into a scoop. You go like that and scoop but if it's too big of a piece, you literally just fold like that. - This is how New Yorkers eat pizza. - Like this? Like I've scooped it. - Punjabi masala because you gotta get your beans and lentils. Saag paneer, this we call the good ol' saag paneer, this is mom's recipe. - That saag paneer is so good. - [Lilly] It's spinach
that has like cheese in it. It just tastes like so
much more than spinach. - [Owner] Indian food is,
it's extremely laborious and it takes a very skilled hand to make. So it takes a long time
to make everything. You have to be a master of spices. We have something called a dabba and a dabba means box. And in that box you
have a few little boxes and those are pretty much little boxes- - It's like a palette of spices. - Yeah a palette.
- Particularly a baker's palette. - You open the steel lid and it's just more circles. - [Owner] And with those
few eight or nine spices, you can make every curry and every flavor. It just depends on how much you use, when you use, and how you use them. - This is a Punjabi version of a Goan dish called lamb vindaloo. - Oh I've had this. - Be careful with that one. - That one will fuck you up. - I'm afraid of that vindaloo. Vindaloo everywhere I've ever been has been the hottest thing I've ever had. - I'm eating as much spice as possible. - [Keith] Actually I've
never ordered this here because I know it's the spiciest thing - You said that you can handle spice. - Oh yeah! - What type of chili is this? - You should bite into it. - Lilly... - Do you want this to
be a viral video or not? - [Zach] No, no, no! - [Lilly] Oh no! - [Eugene] Is it spicy Ned? - Wow you really are a try guy. - I'll tell you what, I'm a try guy and I wouldn't do that shit. So not a prerequisite to be with us. While Ned comes down back to Earth. - Let's try this vindaloo.
- Cheers! - Cheers. - That flavor is unbelievable
- Perfect! - Oh there it goes! - The spice is just starting. - Oh wow. It's so hot so fast. - Oh my god. - Whoa! - [Zach] Guys, I'm sweating. I'm glad all my hair's gone because it would be drenched with sweat right now. - What are this? - [Owner] Parle-G Ice Cream Sandwiches and some Bombay Cutting Chai. - Cheers. - Cheers. - [Zach] Oh this is perfect. - Wow, that's actually really good. - [Owner] So that is
actually the number one selling cookie in the world and it's only sold in India. For adults with tea or for kids with milk. - I will say this is a perfect cookie. - Oh yeah. - [Owner] Alphonso
Mango Mousse right here. - [Lilly] Wow! - And then Chai Spiced
Chocolate Pot du Creme. Nice! - That's beautiful! - When people eat your guys' food, what do you want them to feel? - [Owner] Your at your
mom's place and she's telling you to, you know, have your dal, don't be a badmaash. - Trying to make it cool and fun and just light, you know? Nothing too serious. - There are so many awesome like authentic little things that you guys have brought to the table here. And also so many fun twists
like with the poutine. - Their desserts have really impressed me. You guys have really done a
really good fusion job here. - Badmaash! - [All] Badmaash! - Badmaash. I-I am so full, I am really full. - All right kids, we've got one more stop left on our Indian food tour. - [All] Woo! - I'm too full. - Where are we going now? - We're going to a Beverly Hills upscale restaurant called Spice Affair. - Beverly Hills?!
- Schnikeys! - I've only read about that. - I got you guys something. - You got us-
- Yes! I bought you the little
container I was talking about to hold all of those spices! - [All] Wow! - [Eugene] So we got this at Samosa House but you talked about it at Badmaash. - Exactly! And this is in every Indian household. It is where we divide all of our spices, definitely in the cabinet. - So instead of having a cabinet with a lot of mismatched little bottles you just have a tin with
a lot of little bowls? - [Lilly] Yep! - I mean that's great. - [Lilly] Yep!
- I would totally use this. - So you are the new Late
Late Night host on NBC? - [Lilly] I am, thank you! - Congratulations! - Thank you so much! - And the show launches in September. - [Lilly] It does. - And until then you're
stuck hanging out with us. - And I would have it no other way! - I am Dr. Puneet Chandak
and this is my wife Sonia. And we are the owners of
Spice Affair in Beverly Hills. It's an upscale dining and restaurant. We serve both contemporary Indian cuisine as well as Indian food with some fun and modern twists. So I do have here a Lychee Melon Martini and a Mumbai Mule. - Oh wow! - We do have drinks
served over there as well. The Moscow Mule for example is called the Mumbai Mule and it's served with cardamom bitters. So basically vodka. - Pineapple Quencher. - Pineapple Quencher? - So it's a palate-cleansing appetizer. - Oh! - So this is an appetizer? - It is.
- [ All] Cheers! - Thanks for having me y'all. - A delightful tang. - Oh! - Oh it's both sweet and spicy. - Wow!
- This is like eating. - As an appetizer, you cannot miss our Coco-li Flower. That's to die for. - Coco-li Flower. It's a vegan appetizer, one of our more famous ones. Cauliflower tossed in
our coconut cream sauce. - Oh damn! The richest tastes ever. - It's like you're eating coconut shrimp. - That is the creamiest
non-cream dish I've ever had. - It's really in a very nice presentation, very healthy. - So a little carrot tree. - [Lilly] That had to be
sliced just thin enough to wrap around like a little bouquet. - Yo Ned, I see another pepper on a plate. - Yeah that's what I was saying. - We doing that thing again?
- Do you wanna? - The thing is this
dish was very not spicy so it would be a crime
to just- (eating noises) - That one's spicy. - Yeah, they're always spicy. - Artichoke Hearts. - Artichoke hearts? - They marinate it with tandoori masala, nine different spices,
yogurt, and paprika. - So we've taken the old and also given it a twist so you'll find very unique things over here also. We serve the tandoori artichoke hearts. I doubt if you'll find that in any other Indian restaurant. - Artichoke is one of the few
vegetables that has a heart which I like eating the heart. - It has that like roasted flavor. - The char of it has this
really nice bitterness. - We give you spice as in flavors not as in heat. Just an amalgamation of many many spices and that's why we call it an affair. - Oh that's why, okay. - It's a marriage of
many spices put together so that's where the name came from. - [All] Whoa! - So here we have our Avocado Bhel. Potatoes, avocado, tomato, topped with mixed spice puffed rice. - Avocado what? - Behl. - Bill? His name is Bill. - B-H-E-L bhel. - Behl. - We'll work on it after the video. - Avocado Bill. - That's basically like crab cake. - It's like a Thanksgiving poke stack. - [Sonia] So we've
taken Bombay street food and just given it a modern twist as well local produce put together. - I'm a big fan of the
mouth feel at play here. Mush with the crunch. The very- - You okay? - Yeah. Yeah I just burped a lot. - There are three elements to fine dining. One has to be service. - You guys know a place is fancy when they clear your plate inbetween. - Feel it, it's so warm. - I put it on my fingers. - So long as the service is great, that's most important to me. To her the taste matters even more. So how about we match
both of them together. - We have a Bombay Farkari Pulao. It's rice mixed with some vegetables and yogurt topped with
some cucumber and mint. - Thank you.
- Woo! - Man, this rice is the bomb! - I don't care how full I am, if there's a rice dish... - Smells great.
- Smells amazing. - Feels great, is great. - It's almost like how your rice tastes after it's been mixed with
everything on your plate. - Yeah. - Oh yeah!
- That's delicious. - This is how you want rice to be. - [Dr. Puneet] We have
everything which is separate, not a single dish is pre-prepared, not a single dish is having
to carry, transfer over. - I can't even begin to explain the amount of flavors that are
dancing atop my tongue. - I wouldn't be able to name
what's actually in this. - Right. - These aren't instruments,
it's a symphony. - Beautiful, wow. - Here is a lotus root and a walnut kofta cooked in the cashew sauce
with lotus root garnish. Yellow lentils. - [Zach] Yellow lentils?! - [Eugene] Oh that looks delicious. - [Lilly] A little sweet. - You know?
- Great texture. I love lotus root too. - This is great, this is kind of like a masala. Delightful and puts a smile on your face. - Really good balance
of texture and flavor. I just saw some naan hit the table. - [All] Oh! - Naan alert! It's pulled, layered! I've never seen that! - It's like when Pillsbury came out with those biscuits that were like peelable biscuits. - Exactly what it's like. - You know what I'm saying?
- It's amazing! It's slightly wheat-y and... - It actually tastes kind of like a roti to be honest. - [Dr. Puneet] India is even
more intricately diverse. All these places are different, I miss so many of them. Very specific cuisines. It gives an opportunity for us to put all of these options into one umbrella and that's Indian food. - Lentils! - Lentils. - This tastes like home.
- Hits the spot. - This is the most staple food item, which is strange that you guys are only trying it now. You can get yellow dal, you can get brown dal, there's many types of dal. - This is the best dal I've ever had. - It's so smooth in texture. - Not to mention the health benefits that come with having the spices. - Take care of Alzheimer's, antibodies, the turmeric- - Inflamation. - Lobster served on a- - I'm sorry, what?! - The barbecued lobster served on a bed of rice with some mustard and coconut sauce. - Barbecued lobster?! - I'm excited for you
guys to try the lobster because I've never seen lobster on an Indian menu. - To Lilly! - [All] To Lilly!
- To us! Friendship! - [Ned] It's amazingly tender. - Wow! - With that sort of tandoori char, a little spice and to say that I've never had those two come together , it's like water and fire meeting. This is like Danny and John getting it on. - Complex flavor on top of a complex food. This flavor is a spice affair. - Oh! - Do you have any stand out desserts that are really popular? - I can eat 20 ras malai- - So wait, do you have ras malai? - We do! - So you guys haven't tried ras malai yet. It's a white cottage dumpling, very soft. - And very fulfilling. It's comfort food. - You guys are getting the three probably most popular desserts. - [Eugene] Wow so fragrant! Little bits of the saffron
just like set it all. - It's like someone took
a delicious vanilla cake and soaked it in like creamy rose water. - [Dr. Puneet] I just wanted
to have a place where, where I could be an
ambassador of Indian cuisine and providing in culture and hospitality to the high-end population to show them what we are and our best. - I think it was a lovely day. - [Lilly] I agree. - We had so many different
experiences together. - But the best experience was friendship. - At the end of the day the best dish was the friends we made along the way. - Yeah. - Well what a day guys. - What a day!
- I'm full! - Are you full? - I'm a little full. - I think I'm actually full now. - I had a little bit to eat today. - [Zach] Samosa House having
like the whole grocery store there's something about
the vibe that I just loved. Able to go in the back and watch them make that candy. - [Lilly] That was super
cool and the fact that they did that for us is
like really accommodating. I loves seeing people do something that just lights up their face like it's really really special. - [Eugene] Badmaash does
speak to us on a level of like we are like young big city kids so we do like those types of restaurants. - [Lilly] Yeah the
fusions elements really- - [Ned] A lot of attractive foods there. - [Lilly] Yeah they're
from Toronto they win. - I'm gonna give it to Spice Affair. That was elevated, that
was really high end stuff. But it still felt traditional. Because it seemed like somewhere that I could take Ariel on a nice date. - [All] Oh! - That's your spice affair! - That was what it was about, it was like sharing and spreading
happiness through food. - Isn't that what food is all
about regardless of culture? - Yes. - Thanks Lilly Singh for joining us today! Lilly thanks so much! - Oh my god! Thank you are you kidding me?! Thank you for having me!
- For eating all the food. - We're dropping you off here. - All right, goodbye. - No, no, no that's traffic. - It's like a homey egg roll. - I was gonna say the same thing.
