Most of the Indian restaurants in the Chicago area focus on foods from the northern part of the subcontinent, meaning a steady offering of lamb, chicken and bread, all cooked in vertical ovens.
Thattu, a new restaurant on Chicago’s North Side, goes in a completely different direction, featuring dishes from India’s southernmost state, and as a result the menu is unlike anything else offered in the area.
The Indian state of Kerala is tropical, with a massive coastline that stretches out more than 300 miles. Spices like black pepper and cardamom originate there, and coconut trees are abundant.
So when a local couple decided to open a restaurant dedicated to the food from that region, they had to consider the source of their spices as much as any other decision they had to make.
Margaret Pak’s story is a unique one. A Korean-American, she’s the chef and co-owner of Thattu, a new southern Indian-focused restaurant next to the North Branch of the Chicago River.
“I fell in love with Vinod and Kerala cuisine around the same time, 20 years ago when we met,” said Pak. “Coconut is life. Coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut chips, roasted coconut. Coconut is a huge part of the cuisine.”
You can indulge in a fried chicken sandwich at lunch, served with tater tots dressed in chaat masala. The batterless chicken is fried, dressed with greens, spicy cucumber pickle and a homemade curry leaf aioli, all sandwiched between brioche buns. Their chicken bites are made the same way, with the same marinade.
The Food Guy
“Kashmiri chile, some ginger-garlic and a multitude of spices including black pepper, cumin. And then that’s served with a cooling yogurt sauce,” she said.
But there’s also plenty of vegetarian-friendly options.
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“Chorum Kariyum – and that loosely translates to ‘rice and curry.’ It’s a black chickpea; we make it into a Kadala curry salad; that avial dressing is where the curry leaf and the coconut and the coconut milk come into play,” she said.
The black chickpea is also combined with roasted coconut gravy, served with either rice or fluffy-crisp appams, made from coconut milk and rice flour; the perfect vehicle to scoop up the savory stews, as well as pappadum.
“Pappadum, that’s a crispy chickpea wafer,” she said.
Fish rotates, but on this day, it was three small fillets of catfish in a saffron-tinged marinade.
“Kashmiri chile, some turmeric and then salt and lime. We have a methi chutney and then a watermelon and onion salad,” said Pak.
Visitors should definitely try one of their drinks, whether it’s a Kapi – a combo of dark roast beans and bitter chicory combined with scalded milk – or a more refreshing Malabar Cooler, containing black pepper and cardamom syrup, plus mint, lime, pineapple and watermelon.
Pak says she only started cooking professionally about seven years ago, but her frequent trips to Kerala over the past 20 years have yielded immense knowledge.
“And I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Vinod - and from his mom,” she said.
Diners should know that the menu is tight at lunch with several more options at dinner, including steamed fish, bone-in pork chops and mussels, but do try the vegetarian dishes to really get a sense of Southwest Indian cooking.
