San Diego Spotlight : Too Much Salt Curdles the Curry at Cafe India

The potato, cold-shouldered by most of Asia, has come to feel quite at home in India.

Beyond the virtue of filling one up nutritiously at low cost, the bland nature of the potato makes it a sort of natural coolant when added to a spicy dish; and, served as main item, it is the perfect recipient for a searing sauce.

All these considerations may have come into play in the original creation of aloo (potato) tikki , or spiced, fried potato cakes, which may be a wonderful appetizer. At Cafe India in the Sports Arena district, the aloo tikki look something like greasy hockey pucks, and are mealy to the bite. The amount of cayenne in the seasoning shocks the mouth, but this is to be expected, at least at times, in Indian cooking; much worse, the fierce salt content in the potatoes and their yogurt-tamarind sauce burns the tongue. Some Asian cuisines have a category of dishes classified as “salty flavored,” but they never go to the extremes encountered again and again at Cafe India, which over-seasons some dishes beyond the point of palatability.

The neighborhood, devoted to commerce, hides quite a number of modest ethnic eateries behind the ubiquitous facades of the mini-malls that line Sports Arena Boulevard, Midway Drive and Rosecrans Street. It often is necessary to search them out by driving back into the uncharted spaces of a mall’s parking lot to reconnoiter.

Exactly such an expedition led to Cafe India, tucked at the back of Sports Arena Village. A familiar mix of eateries, offering seafood, pizza and Chinese and Japanese cuisines, occupy spaces in this retail center. Cafe India in fact would have to be considered the oddity in the bunch, simply because Indian food thus far has failed to inflame the popular imagination in this county--even though the nature of Indian cuisine is to inflame the mouth.

This situation may come to be altered, but Cafe India is not too likely to be the agent of change. The menu, priced in a friendly fashion (most entrees cost less than $8), seems modest but reasonably inclusive. The cooking varies from acceptable to disappointing and, in any case, no one who knows or especially likes Indian cuisine will find himself praising the kitchen’s finesse. The decor and mood, both highly informal, follow the modest tone common to small ethnic eateries; sitar music plays at a semi-subliminal level and a few Indian artworks relieve the walls above the leatherette banquettes.

The menu offers numerous choices to the vegetarian, including curries of potatoes paired with cauliflower, peas or spinach; cheese and vegetable curries; the well-known chana masala , or steamed garbanzos with tomatoes and curry sauce, and bengan bartha , the sometimes ravishing dish of highly seasoned, baked eggplant. Besides these entrees, there are such appetizers as the vegetable pakoras , batter-fried and vaguely similar to Japanese tempura; the moong daal , or spiced, stewed lentils, equally at home as a side dish, and the rather enjoyable matar papri , or green peas with spices, minced onion and tomato, garnished with crisply fried strips of flat bread that can be used as edible spoons. The daal soup, creamy-textured and quietly spiced, has a pleasant flavor.

The samosa s, or triangular pastries stuffed with a choice of moderately spiced chopped meat or potatoes and peas, are inevitable in American Indian restaurants, and are done fairly well by Cafe India. But taste the accompanying cilantro chutney with great caution; besides remarkable heat, which is to be expected in this kind of chutney, there is again a great, searing burst of salt.

This overwhelming saltiness reasserted itself in the Tandoor chicken, which may have had all the qualities requisite in this dish (lengthy marination in spiced yogurt, fast cooking in a hive-shaped clay oven) but was inedible thanks to the salt. Other meat entrees were more moderately seasoned.

The flip side of the low prices takes the form of small portions, sometimes ridiculously so. The lamb biryani , at $8.95 the most costly dish, contained exactly four bites of meat, or not enough to fill out this baked casserole of sweetly spiced rice flavored with saffron, almonds and raisins. Served with greater generosity, the mild stew called bhuna ghosht --marinated lamb chunks in thick sauce--bore the typical Cafe India topping of chopped tomatoes and cilantro, which added interest. The lamb curry, more decisively spiced, was the best prepared of the dishes in this category.

Most restaurants decline to negotiate the heat level of vindaloo curries, which by definition test the diner’s tolerance, but Cafe India did ask to what degree a chicken vindaloo should be seasoned, and the heat was just barely there, simmering pleasantly under the surface. However, there were just a few bites of meat on the bones, far too little for this to be called a proper entree. Other choices include an egg curry in a special sauce based on garlic, onions, ginger, coriander and turmeric, and a choice of chicken or lamb saag , in which stewed spinach creams and softens the sauce. All dishes arrive on a base of basmati rice, the luxury grain with a nutty flavor and an especially fine, firm texture.

Breads and certain side dishes add enormous interest to Indian meals, and Cafe India serves a reasonably good selection. The papad , fried lentil “wafers” that shatter between the teeth, are good at any point in the meal; the poori , puffed like blow-fish after an immersion in hot fat, have a bland, cooling effect when eaten with a spicy dish. Another famous Indian bread, the paratha , is available in several styles but did not seem perfectly fresh when ordered--and like most Indian breads, this one should be cooked only at the moment it is to be served. The mango chutney presumably comes from a jar but is, of course, delightful with the curries, while the cilantro chutney would be a more interesting choice were it not for all that salt.

Western tongues generally have difficulty unlocking the pleasures of Indian desserts, which tend to be enormously sweet and sometimes are perfumed with rose water, an element that does not occur in Occidental cooking. But, given these points, the rasmalai , or fresh cheese swimming in sweetened milk flavored with rose water and chopped pistachios, has a rather interesting flavor that refreshes after a curry. The kulfi , a frozen dessert that defies exact comparison to Western ice cream, is spiced with cardamom, the sweetest and most lovely of condiments, and again cools the mouth after a bout with curry.

CAFE INDIA

3760-5 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego

224-7500

Lunch and dinner daily

Entrees $3.95 to $8.95. Dinner for

two, including a glass of wine each, tax

and tip, about $20 to $40.

Credit cards accepted