Homestyle Indian vegetarian cuisine at Deedee's Kitchen Homestyle Indian vegetarian cuisine at Deedee's Kitchen (May 04, 2001)

By Mary Orlin

Sometimes we find the best food in the most unlikely places. In this case, the setting is a non-descript strip mall. There's no printed menu. Meals are a self-serve affair. Plates and cups are styrofoam and utensils are plastic. Water comes from a cooler in the corner. The tables crowded together almost recall a school cafeteria.

This is the experience at Deedee's Indian Fast Food & Grocery, a vegetarian restaurant and grocery/video store in Mountain View. Daksha and Suketo Desai moved here from Bombay 10 years ago and opened Deedee's in November 1998.

Deedee is Daksha's nickname, derived from her initials, D.D. Her husband, Suketo, says her legion of fans--"the young bachelors"-- call her "Auntie." They flock here for home-cooked meals, where Deedee cooks and Suketo works the counter.

This is homestyle cooking, using less cream and oil than most Indian restaurants. It's also less spicy, the Desais say. But what's not spicy to one person may be very spicy to another. No doubt about it, Deedee's food has a kick to it. It's easily cooled by a big spoonful of tangy raita, a mixture of creamy, fresh yogurt with tomato and cilantro. Raita is always on the lunch buffet, and so easy to go back for seconds--OK, thirds.

Deedee's is a lunch mecca for nearby high-tech workers, easily identified by company I.D.s. For a mere $6.99 plus tax, we found this the best Indian buffet lunch for miles around. Selections changed daily and were labeled. We started with sweet, earthy yellow cake, topped with pickled hot peppers, sesame seeds and black cumin seeds. Made of chickpea flour, it slightly resembled cornbread. Another starter reminded us of couscous studded with peas and carrots. The pulao rice was rich with peas, carrots, bay leaf and cinnamon. Warning: it went faster at the buffet than the basmati rice.

Try all vegetable entrees--chickpeas, called chhole, bathed in a spicy tomato, onion and pepper mixture; golden curried, spicy potatoes; smoky green beans simmered with cilantro; naurattan korma (nine jewels), including corn, peas, carrots, green beans, potato and lima beans.

It was hard to leave behind even one drop of the wonderful sauces, called chutneys. With Deedee's beautiful handmade roti, we sopped up every bit of mint or tamarind chutney, as well as dal, made with lentils.

Deedee and her crew form the roti by hand. This common flatbread resembles a tortilla, made from whole-wheat flour fried on a hot griddle. The small rounds puff slightly while turning golden brown. Once done, they're brushed with oil or ghee (clarified butter) and served hot.

We also kept going back for warm rice pudding dessert, an intensely sweet, milky indulgence, served with the buffet.

Rice or roti plates ($5.99), an alternative to the buffet, were like a vegetable plate in southern restaurants, with starch (the rice or rot)), appetizer, condiment (raita) and choice of two vegetables.

One or two snacks, called chat, could be stand-alone meals and are served at lunch and dinner. The samosas ($ 1.99 for two) were exceptional-fried pastries overstuffed with potatoes, peas and spices and served with mint and tamarind chutney, a brown concoction we'd swear had cinnamon in it. Plus, they weren't a bit greasy.

Bhel puri ($2.99) was a cold salad-like dish of puffed rice, spices, tomato and onion. Bits of roti soaked up the chutney dressing. A true bargain, enough for three or four people to share.

We're still trying to figure out how Deedee's prepares such fabulous food, all made from scratch, at such great prices. Indian food done well is complex cuisine, and at Deedee's it's all done extremely well. Compared to other restaurants on the Peninsula where a meal for two adds up to $100 in a hurry, a full dinner for two here was less than $15. That includes mango lassi (a refreshing yogurt and mango smoothie) and dessert.

Thali ($6.99), a traditional Indian combination-dinner platter, is served on a dish with eight compartments (think of a big, round TV tray). A bowl of lentil soup sat in the middle, surrounded by basmati or pulao rice, three vegetables, raita, salad, pickle (dangerously hot) and chutney. Several roti and a papad (a wafer-thin crisp made of lentil flour) topped it off.

For side dishes, we ordered two snacks. Dahi puri ($2.99), little, airy puffs of bread, were filled with lentils and potatoes. Smothered in yogurt, tamarind chutney, cilantro and tiny yellow rice noodles, the presentation looked like a serving of poached eggs covered in refried beans. The contrasts--crunchy and sweet-proved irresistible.

Sev puri ($2.99) was made for garlic lovers. Big garlic and onion chunks sat on small roti rounds, garnished with chutney, and generous sprinklings of cilantro and rice noodle. We picked them up and ate them like crackers.

Our favorite dessert was warm, shredded carrots cooked in milk, sugar, almonds, cardamom and currants, served with a thali dinner. It reminded us of something familiar, but we couldn't put our finger on it. When Suketo called it Indian carrot cake, we agreed.

Oh, what magic Deedee's works with carrots, and everything else coming out of her kitchen. Deedee's, 2551 W. Middlefield Rd. Mountain View, (650) 9673333, www.mydeedees.com. Hours: Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m.; Sat., 12 p.m.-9 p.m.; Sun., 12 p.m.-8 p.m. Credit cards accepted; $15 minimum at lunch.<$>