Restaurant and Grocery Review: Namaste India Groceries and Kitchen

This is something of an unusual post for us, in that we don't have any original pictures.   This is what happens when you forget to bring your camera.  

Anyhow, about Namaste.

Namaste India Groceries and Kitchen is, as the name would suggest, both an Indian grocery store and an Indian restaurant.  While it isn't our favorite local choice in either category - we prefer India Star as Indian restaurants go, and Maria Grocery as Indian groceries go - it is nonetheless pretty good on both counts.  As the restaurant side of the business goes, they serve pretty typical Indian fare, most of it pretty good.  They have a lunch buffet, but we've never eaten there for lunch and thus can't comment on the quality of the buffet.  As a grocery, they are quite good, with a nice range of produce - including some things  I've rarely seen at Maria Grocery - and they also happen to be a good source for some unusual ingredients.   Goat, for instance, is not easy to find in Des Moines, but they are well-stocked at Namaste.  They also have a pretty good selection of frozen Indian dishes.  Maria has an overall better selection of stuff we use most often, though, and some of the produce - the mangos, for example - are far superior to what we've seen at Namaste.

On this occasion, we ate at the restaurant.  We had vegetable samosas, matar paneer (peas and cheese in a curry gravy) and lamb vindaloo, plus a double order of naan.  All were quite good, with the matar paneer being the stand-out of the bunch. 

While the food was quite good, the service on this occasion left something to be desired.  I dont' recall it being quite this bad at past visits, but Juli says she recalls the service being pretty poor on other visits as well.  Either way, I was less than pleased with tonight's service.  While the waiter was in a hurry to get our order, he didn't bother filling our drinks until after the appetizers arrived, and he never refilled them, or even asked if we'd like a refill.  It also took a ridiculously long time to get our check once we finished our meal.  I'm pretty sure we sat at least 15 minutes past our finishing before he even came by.  This poor service is part of why I don't think Namaste will be replacing India Star as our favorite local Indian restaurant any time soon.

In sum, Namaste India Groceries and Kitchen is a pretty good Indian grocery, and the Kitchen part of the business serves up pretty darn good food, but the service leaves a lot to be desired.  If you're in a hurry to get in and out, I would definitely not recommend Namaste, but if you don't mind waiting and aren't too bothered by iffy service, the food is maybe worth the wait.

Namaste is located at 7500 University Ave., Suite A, Clive, IA 50325.  Hours are:  Grocery, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily; Lunch buffet: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Dinner is 5-9 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday; 5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Mondays.

For some of what others have thought about Namaste, check out these links:
http://desmoines.metromix.com/restaurants/indian/namaste-india-groceries-and-windsor-heights/607258/content
http://desmoines.metromix.com/restaurants/restaurant_review/datebook-diner-indian-cuisine/1585473/content .

Drew's Chocolates- Dexter, Iowa

Jeffrey and I decided to go to Omaha for part of the Labor Day weekend.  We left Friday after work, and stopped in Dexter to fill up the car's gas tank.  I spotted a sign that said, "Drew's Chocolates - 3 blocks", and it didn't take much persuading to get Jeffrey to agree to check out the place.  I was pretty sure it was going to be closed, but we were in luck- the shop had about 10 minutes left before their normal 5:30 closing time.


We went downstairs to a chocolate- lover's paradise.

There were chocolate creams, caramels, toffee krunches, a wide variety of nuts dipped in chocolate, peanut butter cups, and just about everything chocolate you could imagine.  The small shop was decked out in beautiful fall colors, and the gift boxes were nicer than any I've ever seen.

This machine tempers the chocolate.



We got to see the chocolate tempering machine at work.  It moves the glossy chocolate around almost as if it was a miniature chocolate river.  Then the owner showed us how to fork-dip a cashew nut.  The fork is an antique - they've been in business since 1927 - and it looks almost like a flattened out Easter egg dipper, but much sturdier.

We sampled some dark chocolate on the spot, and it was very, VERY good!  The thing that really caught my attention was their salted nut rolls.  I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy a Pearson's Salted Nut Roll again after tasting the Drew's version!  It's like comparing a can of store-bought peaches to a fresh, fully ripe Colorado peach pulled fresh from the tree on a perfect sunny day. 

I also indulged my sweet tooth with a cute little clear container of pure caramel, which came with a tiny white spoon on top.  I had intended to save it for a day I really needed a pick-me-up, but I couldn't wait.  I ate it today!

Just a small part of the candy counter

We had hoped to stop back at Drew's on the way home and buy another little box of treats, but our timing was off.  It's definitely worth a drive out to Dexter, and one we'll be making again!

Drew's Chocolates is located at 426 State Street in Dexter.  State Street is the main drag in town.  We took I-80 exit 100 and followed the signs to Casey's, then went another 3 blocks to the shop.  If you're coming from the west, you can also take exit 97 for a more scenic drive through part of the town, which includes some well-kept gravel roads.  Just watch for the Drew's sign, it will take you right to the shop.

Store hours are Monday-Thursday 9AM to 5:30 PM, Friday-Saturday 9AM to 5 PM, and Sunday 12 noon to 4 PM.  We highly recommend this place!

Iowa State Fair 2011

The Iowa State Fair has changed a lot from the days back in the late 40's/early 50's when my Great-grandma Myrtle got up at 3 AM to fry up a chicken or three and packed up a big picnic lunch for herself, her children, and the grandkids, which included my mother. 

For one thing, there may be a few more people.

A crowded day at the fair!

Estimated attendance today was 112,542 people.  I think it was more.  It felt like a LOT more.  By the time we rolled in, around 12:30 PM on a sunny Sunday, all the parking lots on the fairgrounds were full.  That wasn't so bad, because it cost $10 just to park on site.  We found a $5 spot on one of the local resident's lawns, and trekked over to the north gate.  Another $20 got us in.  Our state fair is a great state fair, as the song goes, but it can also be an expensive proposition, so Jeffrey and I only go every 2 or 3 years. 

J. wasn't terribly keen to go this year, so I promised him I'd have my picture taken with a big snake this time, and it sealed the deal.  That might sound crazy, but the last time we were at the fair, there was a very well-kept, if nerve-wracking, display of all kinds of snakes, and at the end of the exhibit, you could get your picture taken with an enormous python.  I declined then, because snakes kind of make me scream. 

AIIIEEEE! 

BUT... I really wanted to go this year, so I had to give Jeffrey some incentive to come along.  Fortunately, I do not have a picture of me and a constricting snake to show you- if there was a snake display this year (Snakes Alive!, where are you?), we managed to miss it.  I was not very sad.

We went looking for food right away.  Jeffrey started with a Greek gyro at a place right across from Bauder's Ice Cream, but I was holding out for the excellent lamb kabobs at the Iowa Sheep Producers Stand.  We shared some really great pizza, too. Neither one of us was interested in deep-fried butter on a stick, a new fair treat this year.





Then we made our way past the sheep barn.  Look at the building entry, isn't it neat?  The tile around the entrance is amazing.  It's kind of hard to tell, but on either side of the "SHEEP BARN" proclamation, the end tiles are three-dimensional sheep heads.

We heard a commotion, and found a lot of exhibitors, like this young lady, tidying up their sheep for competition and showering them clean with curly garden hoses.  The sheep do NOT like their bathtime, and it was a discordant symphony of baaing and bleating!



Next we went to the 4-H building, and my favorite fair drink, Lemonade Shake-ups.  I asked the lemonade lady how much sugar was in each drink, and she told me I wouldn't want to know.  I'm guessing maybe a quarter cup for each glass.  But so good!

It was really a hot day, hotter than the forecast had promised, and so it was a relief to go to the air-conditioned building where quilts, knitting, and other handwork are displayed.

So many little pieces cut out and sewed back together again!

We next tried the Varied Industries building, but it was so crowded, and people were moving along at the approximate speed of drunken snails.  Honestly, what is there to look at there that's so riveting?  Do these people dream of replacement windows, college campus info, and hot tubs/sauna closets all year long?  (Ok, maybe I understand the hot tubs.  But still!).  I had hoped to find a dealer that might have sewing machine tables/cabinets, but we both agreed to exit as quickly as we could.   Fifteen minutes later....



We stopped for ice cold root beer, probably the best value of the day at $2.25 for a big glassful, and went to the Bauder's Ice Cream stand.  I usually get their superb peppermint ice cream sandwiches, but we wanted something smaller and settled on a scoop each of strawberry and peach ice cream.  Easily the best ice cream I've had this year, if you don't count our own Hawaiian Ice Cream. 

Another year, another fair.  This was a fun visit, but next time we go, I think I'll take a day off work and hope that the weather is rainy so that there aren't as many people vying for space.  What are your favorite things to do/ foods to eat at the fair?  Drop us a comment!

Update:  Our sympathies to those involved in the tragedy Saturday at the Indiana State Fair.  Compared to that, slowly shuffling through the Varied Industries building doesn't sound like a bad deal at all.  -Juli

Kone Korner

Reed's Kone Korner is something of a summer mainstay in Knoxville.   It opens around Memorial Day every spring and closes sometime in the fall, and in between those times, it serves up a lot of ice cream and fast food. 

Kone Korner opened in 2000.  Since then, it has offered soft-serve ice cream, sundaes, shakes and other wonderful ice cream concoctions incorporating a wide array of flavorings and toppings.  They also serve tacos, taco salads, beefburgers, tenderloins, fries, fried cheese balls and other sorts of fast food.   The prices are very reasonable, especially when one factors in the ample serving sizes and the quality of the food.  On nice days, Kone Korner is generally quite busy from lunchtime until closing.   Knoxville also has a DQ, but I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to go to Dairy Queen when Kone Korner is open.

It's really a pretty simple place.    The store itself is a little building located in a good-sized parking lot.  There are several picnic tables arranged beneath a shelter, providing ample seating.  You simply walk up, make your order, and in a couple minutes you've got a tasty summertime treat.

Last time Juli and I stopped by Kone Korner, I got a Banana Split, while she got a Tropical Siberian.  This was sort of unusual, because I usually get a Siberian while she gets a sundae of some sort.

The Siberian is more or less Kone Korner's take on the DQ Blizzard, i.e. a soft-serve vanilla ice cream shake with a whole bunch of tasty ingredients mixed in.   Choices include fruit, nuts, chopped-up candy and cookies and so forth.  The Tropical is made with pecans, coconut and pineapple, but when we order one we always ask them to include some banana as well   They're delicious.

The Banana Split is pretty standard:  A sliced banana and three piles of soft-serve topped with hot fudge and pineapple and strawberry sauces, plus nuts, whipped cream and a cherry (I skipped the whipped cream).  It's an ample helping of ice cream goodness with excellent toppings. 

If you're in or near Knoxville, Iowa on a warm summer day or evening, drop by Kone Korner.  You'll be glad you did.

Reed's Kone Korner is located at 405 West Pleasant Street in Knoxville, IA.  Their hours are Mon-Sat 11 am to 10 pm and Sunday noon to 9 pm.

A Day Off from Cooking

I love cooking, but there are days when I just don't feel like it.  Yesterday was one of those days.   It was my birthday, and even though it would have been a beautiful day for grilling, I just felt like taking it easy.  So, with that in mind, Juli and I went out for lunch and picked up some pizzas to warm up for dinner.   The lunch was great.  The pizza, sadly, was not so great.

For lunch we went to Kwong Tung Restaurant on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines.  As Chinese restaurants go, Kwong Tung is generally pretty average.  Their lunch specials offer a generous amount of food for around $5.00 (give or take a bit depending on what you order), but there's nothing particularly memorable or unique about their daily offerings.   Sundays are quite another matter, though.  They offer dim sum every Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm, and their dim sum is worth writing about. 

For those unfamiliar with the tradition, dim sum is a Chinese meal consisting of small portions of various sorts of food, typically served up in steamer baskets or on small plates.  In China, it is usually associated with drinking tea, but I don't recall anyone - including the Asian customers - drinking tea at Kwong Tung yesterday, unless you count iced tea. 

Dim sum restaurant fare typically offers several dozen dishes from which the customers choose.  Some are familiar Chinese restaurant fare, often served as appetizers (pot stickers, crab rangoon, fried wontons, egg rolls, spring rolls and barbecued pork, or char sui).  Other dishes typically include numerous types of dumplings, or gao, usually steamed but sometimes fried, and baked or steamed buns and rolls filled with meat, vegetables or bean paste.  As far as the dumplings, sui mai is one of the standards served at Kwong Tung.  These tasty steamed dumplings are filled with chicken, pork or shrimp.  Cha siu baau - fluffy buns filled with barbecued pork - are among the standard sorts of buns.  Fried squid, spare ribs, steamed meatballs, taro dumplings and chicken feet (fung zao) are some of the other standard dim sum dishes served at Kwong Tung. 

Dim sum also typically includes a few sweet dishes, and Kwong Tung follows this tradition by offering standard dim sum dishes such as egg tarts (pastries filled with egg custard) and sesame balls (jin deui). The latter are among Juli's favorites.  These balls of dough filled with red bean paste are rolled in sesame seeds then deep fried to make a chewy, tasty snack.  KwongTung's dim sum also includes a variety of noodle dishes, characterized by ample portions of soft- or crisp-fried noodles, vegetables (most prominently baby bok choy and mushrooms) and chunks of chicken, beef, pork or shrimp. 

At Kwong Tung, one orders Dim Sum by selecting what one wants, and how many servings, on a half-sheet of paper that lists the various dishes and their prices.   We ordered two helpings of crab rangoon, fried crescent dumplings and pan-fried potstickers, plus sar har (egg noodles) with beef, pan-fried noodles with shrimp and one order each of sesame balls and pork egg rolls.  Every single one of these dishes was excellent.  The fried crescent dumplings - little crescents of rice flour dough filled with spiced meat - and the potstickers are particular favorites of ours. 

As usual, we ordered a bit more than we could finish, because the leftovers are one of  the great things about going to Kwong Tung's dim sum, but we could have been more than stuffed even if we'd entirely skipped the noodle dishes.  All of that came to about $30, including tip, which isn't bad considering how much food we got.  Considering how good it was, that price is a bargain!

We had to do a bit of shopping, so I decided to drop by the Gateway Market on Woodland Avenue in Des Moines.  Gateway Market features organic produce, fine cheeses, excellent meat, imported pastas and a wide range of hard-to find spices, condiments, snacks and imported food items, plus an excellent cafe.  Although it is a bit pricey, Gateway Market has become one of our go-to places to shop for various odds and ends.   During previous visits, their store-made, ready-to-cook pizzas had caught my eye.  They looked delicious, and I decided my birthday was a good time to try them out.   We bought two 10-inch pizzas - one pepperoni and one margherita (soft mozzarella, tomato slices and fresh basil) at $7.49 each.

I have generally been quite pleased by my Gateway Market purchases, so I was surprised to find the pizzas pretty disappointing.  I didn't think they were terrible (though Juli really disliked the margherita one), but they weren't particularly good, either.   They struck me as the sort of pizza you get by being more concerned about healthy and organic ingredients than with flavor.  Honestly, I'd have been just as happy warming up a couple frozen Tombstone pizzas, so given the price, I didn't find Gateway Market's pizzas a very good deal at all, and I doubt we'll be buying any more of them any time soon. 

Gong Fu Tea

One of the things I really love about working in downtown Des Moines is easy access to all the neat shops in the East Village.  One of my favorite places is Gong Fu Tea located at 414 East 6th Street. They sell the most amazing loose-leaf teas I've ever had the pleasure to drink, and their shop is beautiful. 





Each canister holds a different aromatic loose leaf tea.



My favorites are Constant Companion, which is their take on Bigelow Tea's Constant Comment, and Spice Tea, a lovely, comforting cinnamon tea blend that I like to drink when the weather is cold.  Jeffrey likes Chocolate Mint, Moroccan Mint, La Pina Colada and Black Mango tea.

Several of the small packets of Gong Fu tea we have at home.



Today we went in looking for an Oolong tea, to be used instead of wood chips to flavor some barbecue.  Jeffrey chose Wuyi Shan Red Cape tea.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend, and we can post that recipe soon.

The staff are all very friendly and knowledgable about each tea.

While not inexpensive, buying an ounce or two of a really deeply flavorful tea is an affordable luxury that I indulge every once in a while.  

-Juli

Jeffrey here.  Check out the website link above- it talks about the business, and you can also order their fine products, which include teapots and serving sets and other tea-related items, in addition to their great variety of excellent teas.

America's Test Kitchen: Great Products, Iffy Customer Service

A portion of my library of America's Test Kitchen products.

Those who have followed our blog will recall that I frequently make recipes taken from various America's Test Kitchen publications, including Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, the various "Best Recipe" cookbooks and so forth.   By and large, I've found the recipes taken from the ATK line of products to be reliably excellent.  I have also learned a lot from the cooking tips, product reviews and so forth that are sprinkled throughout their products, and I subscribe to (and have recommended) two of their online sites, cooksillustrated.com and cookscountry.com.  As such, my impressions of America's Test Kitchen have been overwhelmingly, and almost entirely, positive until very recently.

That changed when I had to deal with ATK's customer service.

Although I already subscribe to the Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country websites, I decided to sign up for a 14-day trial membership with the AmericasTestKitchen.com website.  This features lots of videos taken from the America's Test Kitchen TV show on PBS, as well as recipes for the dishes featured on the show.   I like the show, so I thought the website might be worth having, but after looking it over carefully, I decided that while there was lots of good stuff there, there wasn't enough content not already covered by my other two memberships to justify paying for a third.  

Thus, that very same day I contacted ATK, both by email and via their "contact us" option to let them  know that I was cancelling that membership during the 14-day trial membership.   I did that to avoid being charged for something I'd decided I didn't want, and figured it was a done deal, since I got an auto-reply to the "contact us" message.

That's not how it worked out, though. 

The day after the trial membership would have expired, had I not already cancelled it, I got an email notice that I'd been charged for a  membership to AmericasTestKitchen.com.   I tried to access my account information to check on this, but was unable to access that information for the ATK.com account or for either of my other two memberships.  I immediately emailed ATK again, noting that I'd cancelled my membership during the free trial period and noting that I'd received an email confirming they had received the original cancellation message.  I also again once again sent a "contact us" message.   Interestingly, this time I didn't get an auto-reply to that message.   Still having received no response, I decided to call ATK's customer service.

That's when I found out that ATK doesn't exactly go out of their way to give you a contact number.  I had to do a fair bit of bouncing around the site before I found one.  Personally, I don't think it's good customer service to make it almost as hard for a customer to locate your phone number as it would be to locate the direct line to the Oval Office, but hey, after only about a half-hour of searching, I did find it, and called.

That's when I discovered that the customer service number provided on the website - which had taken a fair bit of effort to even locate - didn't give you any option whatsoever to talk to an actual person.  After listening to the options menu twice, I left a voicemail message explaining the problem and requested they repay the charged amount to my bank account.

I got no reply that day.  In fact, I never did get a reply to that voicemail, or to the email or the "contact us" message I'd sent that day. 

Frustrated by this lack of response, I wrote a bit about this on the Cooks Illustrated bulletin board, and on CI's Facebook page.  A couple days later, in response to the post on the Facebook page, someone from ATK finally contacted me.  Steph Yiu, the Social Media Manager for ATK, contacted me to say she had seen my post and that she was sorry to hear ATK's customer service had let me down, since she'd seen my blog posts and my posts and pictures on the CI Facebook page.  She asked for my phone number and email address and said she'd pass the information along to customer service.   In return, I thanked Steph for her offer of assistance and provided her with the requested information.  This led to further correspondence with Steph.

I am, by the way, very appreciative of Steph's efforts. In my contacts with her, she has been wonderfully courteous, supportive and helpful, and if she hadn't contacted me, I suspect I'd still be tangling with ATK over this issue.   

A few days later, I let Steph know I'd still heard nothing back from customer service.  In replying, Steph again expressed sorrow at customer service's dropping the ball, and she said she'd passed along my information to Jacqui Valerio, the head of ATK's customer service.   She also gave me Jacqui's email.  I've been pretty busy, so I didn't email Jacqui right away, wanting to instead see if I'd ever get a response from ATK.

Finally, almost two weeks after I first contacted ATK customer service about my having been mistakenly charged for a membership I'd cancelled during the free trial period, I heard back from someone at customer service.   Specifically, Jacqui Valerio called me, following up on Steph's heads-up.  I told her I couldn't talk long at that moment, as I was quite busy at work, and we made an appointment to talk the next morning.  The next morning I called her.  We spoke for about 10 minutes, during which time I explained the problem and my desired solution (they cancel my membership and repay me the fee).  Jacqui was very polite and patient as I explained things, then she accessed my account, made sure I could do the same, and reversed the membership fee.   She said had never seen the emails or "contact me" messages I'd sent, or heard the message I left on ATK's voicemail.  She also said she did not know what had happened to those messages, but assured me she would look into it.  Since then, my bank account has been credited with the refunded membership fee.

I contacted Steph again to follow up.  I noted that Jacqui had handled the problem, and been quite polite in doing so, and I once again thanked Steph for having passed along my concerns to Jacqui.  I also summarized how long this process had taken, and noted that this sort of thing doesn't do ATK's reputation any good.  Steph said she had passed along my suggestions to her superiors and discussed my situation with them, in hopes they'd take my suggestions under consideration.

I should note that the whole "this stuff damages ATK's reputation" thing isn't something I've come up with my own.  If you enter "America's Test Kitchen" into a search engine, you don't have to scroll through very many entries to find accounts of people's frustrations with ATK's customer service.  You can even find some comments of this sort on the various ATK bulletin boards, though discussion elsewhere suggests that a lot of the complaint posts made there are deleted by the board moderators.  Heck, one of my favorite cooking message boards is made up largely of people who used to be ATK fans, but who became frustrated and eventually left the ATK bulletin boards - and, in some cases, stopped following ATK's products - due to experiences much like my own.  I have to wonder, if I hadn't been an active participant on the Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country Facebook pages, and thus noticed by Steph Yiu, would things have worked out as well as they did for me?

Despite the fact that many others have had similar experiences of frustration with ATK's billing and customer service - and, in many cases,  have fared worse, sometimes giving up in frustration rather than continue to get nowhere - my hope is that some of the higher-ups at ATK will look at this pattern of difficulties and do something about it.  The products they put out are great, but bad service can kill any business.



These ladies and gents do their job.
The customer service department could
do with some improvement, though.


I've previously suggested our readers consider getting a paid or free trial membership to one of the ATK websites in order to access recipes from their products which I've made and posted about.   Given my experience, I have to wonder if any readers have followed through with that suggestion, and if so, if that has worked out okay for them.    Should any of our readers experience any problems with ATK due to my having recommended their sites, please drop us an email at jeffreyandjulicook(at)gmail.com and I'll be glad to forward you Jacqui Valerio's contact information, in hopes this will help you get things sorted out with the ATK folks.  Meanwhile, I'm no longer going to recommend people sign up for the trial memberships to the various ATK websites, given the hassles I experienced.   I get a lot out of the two sites to which I subscribe, and if you want access to huge selections of recipes, reviews and so forth, purchasing a membership is a good value, but if you're only looking for a specific recipe or two, you might be better off seeking out those recipes elsewhere and not risking the headaches that might accompany a trial membership.