Today my boyfriend and I decided to spend the day exploring Little India. Little India is located about thirty miles south of Santa Monica, in Artesia. While it lacks the glitz and cohesiveness of someplace like Chinatown, it also feels more authentic and provided us with an entertaining day.
First we went to the Naz 8 Cinemas to catch a Bollywood film. Naz 8 boasts to be the first multi-cultural cinema showing international films seven days a week…but I’m not so sure as to the veracity of that claim. The theaters reside in a mostly vacant strip mall and have a very aged feeling to them, but the staff was quite friendly and there were many families out together.
On the recommendation of a friend, we went to see Three Idiots and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know it is playing a couple different places around Los Angeles, so if you get a chance I highly recommend it. It is quite long (there was an intermission an hour and a half into the movie), but it moves quickly and the characters are very endearing.
After the movie we went to one of the local restaurants that is very well reviewed, The India Restaurant. Despite its unoriginal name, the food was exciting and delicious. Service was fast and everything tasted great. For about twenty-five dollars each we had an entree, naan and rice for two, as well as crispy bread and chutneys for an appetizer. I would visit this place again, for sure, to try all the different dishes.
As a final stop, after reading about it in my 2010 Eat: Los Angeles guide, we visited a sweets shop, named Ambala Sweets & Snacks. Upon walking in and glancing up at the undecipherable menu, we promptly turned around and went back out to the car to reread the page in the food guide. We weren’t sure what they were, but the guide recommended the rasmalai and cham-cham. So we went back in and ordered those as well as a rasgulla, because I thought it looked cool. On the whole, we decided maybe we were just not cut out for Indian desserts, as they all seemed to be cold and soggy. Of the three, the rasmalai, soaked in a bowl of milk, was the most tasty.
Now, here I am at home, quite content with my stomach full of Indian cuisine and my heart warmed by the Bollywood film. I would recommend a day in Little India for anyone in LA looking for a mellow but interesting near-home adventure.
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