"Malabar vs. Shalimar": a very backdated Seattle post, Day 1

We drove to Seattle directly from the Vegan Holiday Festival, and it was an easy 3-hour drive, made even easier by the grungetastic music we heard the whole way up. We met up with AA's brother and wife, walked around Chinatown where I bought a teapot, then we headed to the U District to eat at Flowers.

Now I have heavily played up this restaurant to AA for the past year, but little did I know that after 5 pm, their famed all-vegan food coach turns into a pumpkin, serving nary a vegan thing on the menu. Maybe one, but it certainly did not pay up to the hype.

So we ate somewhere very close by, Malabar, a South Indian restaurant who employs the same font in their menu as Shalimar, a restaurant up the block, which confused us at first. Then we realized Shalimar was North Indian, Malabar was South. Oh Ho! Do we like South Indian food in this joint! So we ate there, and it was out of control good. The dosais were pretty amazing, but one of the highlights for me was this okra and green mango dish -- spicy and sweet and tart oh my!

We mostly get our South Indian fix from our own house (there aren't many Indian restaurants period, let alone South Indian restaurants in Portland, so this was most pleasing. At the end of the meal, the head waiter came up to us and said "So Malabar vs. Shalimar?" I think he thought we ate at Shalimar before, but whatever, Malabar was the winner of the day!


Here is a picture of me, looking sated and happy after a trip to Malabar and Sidecar, the vegan grocery in the U-District. Yeah, this is a picture in front of Pizza Pi.