Kabab Palace
has roots in Indian street vendor culture

2003-11-28
Sue Kidd, King County Journal

In India, street food is very much a part of the culinary tradition of the country. A tour of many Indian towns might yield tandoori huts with street chefs cooking chicken thighs scented with an aromatic blend of spices. Tiny ice cream and sweet shops are situated next to informal cooking areas set up by men who grill kababs over hibachi grills.

It’s the sights and sounds --and most importantly, the scents --of the Indian street food that have influenced Qudus Malik, who opened Kabab Palace in Redmond this past summer. His menu --which is also 100 percent halal (more on that later) --is influenced by the street food culture of India.

Ever since he was a child, it was the ice cream that Malik loved. It was easy to find in small ice cream shops and his family made their own ice cream. He begged his father to let him help make the ice cream, even though it meant churning and churning the hand-cranked machine. "I got hooked on it," he says.

Today, he has a much more sophisticated operation for making his ice cream. He has a professional ice cream machine set up at his other Indian restaurant, India Gate, 3080 148th Ave. S.E., Bellevue. There, he cooks batches of milk, reducing the liquid to a thick mixture, and blending in a variety of traditional Indian ingredients, including rose water, coconut, pistachio nuts and chopped fruits. He also has a few nontraditional ice creams, such as coconut almond fudge and his favorite "tootiefruity". The menu at Kabab Palace has no fewer than a half-dozen ice cream choices at any time.

Malik has also defined his menu with ground meats that are slowly cooked while turning over a hibachi. The menu offers beef, lamb or chicken kababs, each of which is spiced with a heady blend of spices and herbs. They also serve meats cooked in a traditional tandoori oven, as well as Indian boti rolls.

"The food comes from the authentic cooking of the street vendors. The tandoori huts, it's what you see people lining up to eat in India. We don't have street food or street vendors here, so we serve it at our restaurants," said Shah Khan, Malik's brother who has helped operate several restaurants with his brother over the years.

Together, the brothers have operated India Grill (sold a few years ago), Moghul Palace and India Gate. Khan is primarily busy with his other restaurant, an Italian-style family restaurant in Bellevue called Cucina Mama Mia, but he stops in to assist Malik with his menu and other details.

Malik thought it important to offer a menu of halal food, which essentially means the food has been prepared following a strict set of religious rules. Very few restaurants in the region offer a menu of halal foods. Malik orders his halal meats, which have been prepared using the strict halal rules, from a company that imports its meats from New Zealand.

"Because there are so many workers from India at Microsoft, we wanted to give them food they could eat," said Malik, referring to those Indians who abide by the rules of halal foods.

So far, his diners mostly are Indian families, although Malik says more Americans are discovering Kabab Palace. "The Indians are bringing their American friends," says Malik with a grin. He also thinks his ice cream might have something to do with it. to top to top