The Dining Divas and Dudes visited Adda, the new Indian restaurant in West Lafayette’s Wabash Landing where Moe’s used to be. There is an Adda in Chicago and this is their second location. From their website, Adda means “An everyday place or spot where friends gather. Our food presents the classic yet unexplored charm of India’s diverse regions combined expertly with the local flavors.” Five of us gathered and explored the charming flavors of Adda, assisted by our knowledgeable server Kevin.
The Adda menu is extensive and features many vegetarian and vegan options, lots of seafood and meat too. There is also a Bombay Street Food section of the menu, and we ordered appetizers from there. Dani Puri is an explosion in your mouth; a combination of potato, spiced yogurt, tamarind, coriander, onion, and tomato in a crisp bread puff. Be careful when you eat one, but there are 5 more left if you have a Dani Puri mishap on the first try. We also had Bhel Puri, which looks sort of like a bowl of Rice Crispies. It is billed as Bombay's best loved street food and consists of puffed rice with crisp gram threads, peanuts, onions, tomatoes, and tantalizing spiced sweet & sour dressing. You eat it with a spoon and it’s surprisingly light, quite spicy, and as Tetia said “you can eat a ton of it and not feel full.” We learned too late that people eat it with a spoon. We only had forks, and it was a challenge trying to balance it on our forks.
Linda ordered Shrimp Pataka (shrimp tossed with house special sauce). You can’t really count on Linda to be a food critic where shrimp is concerned. She’s rarely met one she didn’t love, including these. This is a dish from the appetizer menu meant to be shared, and she begrudgingly let us try one.
Jo had Tandoori Shrimp (seasoned jumbo prawns, carom seed, Indian tandoori masala). It is unusual that Jo can order an item off a menu without asking for adjustments, so that was something. She said they were sizzling hot, perfectly cooked, and not dry like you might expect after baking in a Tandoor oven. They were also really spicy hot, which she was not expecting, but liked.
Tetia selected Dal Tadka (mixture of yellow lentils) and roti, an unleavened Indian flat bread. Tetia reported that it was “flavorful with a hearty soup like texture. The roti that I ordered with it was a perfect vessel to deliver it to my mouth.” The spice was mild, and she wished it was a bit more pronounced.
Ken, not an aficionado of Indian food, gamely tried the Saag Mushroom (freshly chopped spinach, sliced mushrooms, blend of spices) and was pleasantly surprised. He also sampled the appetizers and a few bites we shared with him. We hope he’s been won over.
Kay chose from the Bombay Street Food menu, a vegan meal (Kay was missing Margy!) Podi Masala Dosa (rice and lentil crepe filled with spiced potatoes, onions, and crushed lentil spices served with vegetable stew a coconut chutney). It was huge and flat-out delicious. There was enough to share, and everyone agreed, it was one of the best things we got. The crepe was crispy, yet tender, good enough to eat on its own even without the tasty filling and accompaniments. The spice was medium and if you’d like it a little more heated spice-wise, try the Mysore Masala Dosa.
Kevin brought us a small assortment of sweets: Carrot Halwa (caramelized carrot pudding with pistachios and cashews), Rice Pudding (caramelized basmati rice with pistachios, almonds, and raisins) and Gulab Jamun (dried milk pastries in honey and cardamom syrup). We didn’t have much room left for dessert, but we managed to polish them off with gusto.
We all agreed Adda was a special place for friends to gather and enjoy good food and a great addition to the community’s food scene.
