Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Mount Everest chef Jatinder Minhas prepares tandoori chicken in the kitchen of the Los Gatos restaurant.
No need to climb Mount Everest for Indian food
By Suzanne Cristallo
The Indian cuisine of Mount Everest restaurant in Los Gatos attracts a faithful American-born clientele and has been a mainstay for 14 years to the local British population. Owner Harminder Parhar bought the eatery a year after it opened in the shopping center across from what is now Staples. He feels fortunate to be able to remain where he is and to focus on providing the authentic food of his Punjab homeland at reasonable prices while nearby businesses struggle with the nearly tripled rents brought on by new building owners.
The first thing that impresses customers as they walk through the front door is the aroma of naan freshly baking in the tandoor oven. As soon as a customer is seated, the chef slaps a hand-sized clump of leavened white dough into the oven. The round tandoor oven is built of brick and clay into a tile counter. Open at the top end, it is used to bake foods over an open gas fire. Bread is baked by slapping the clump of dough against the hot clay wall where it sticks, and after a minute, balloons outward as it begins to brown. The chef removes it with pokers. It is then served piping hot as an appetizer.
Several tandoori breads may be ordered for $1.50-$2.25. They contain onion or garlic, spiced potatoes and peas and ground lamb. A special treat is naan fashioned around sweet dried fruits and almonds.
Also baked in the tandoor oven are chicken, lamb and fish. Chicken drenched in yogurt and paprika has a shiny red appearance and is either prepared in cubes on a skewer, called boti kabob, or served in whole pieces. The most popular chicken dish, according to Parhar, is Chicken Tikka Masala--cubes baked in the tandoor and served in a tomato and cream sauce for $8.75.
Combination meals--dubbed "extravagant dinners" on the menu--consist of Tandoori chicken, lamb cubes in tomatoes and spices called rogan josh, chicken in spinach and cream (saagwala), lamb in a mildly spiced cream sauce with nuts (pasanda), rice, naan, tea, coffee and dessert for $13.50. A vegetarian version is $11.95.
Mount Everest attracts a regular luncheon crowd who come for the buffet, with its selection of eight rice, vegetable and meat dishes, several sauces, salad, dessert and naan. It's all-you-can-eat for $5.50. Catering is also available.
While Parhar runs the front desk and does much of the cooking, wife Sukhgit waits tables. In the kitchen, Parhar's brother, Minvar, and his cousin, Jadindersingh, help with the cooking. On weekends, 12-year-old Amandeebsingh--the eldest of Parhar's four children with the others aged 5, 3 and 1--might be seen setting and clearing tables. "It's a job that may take a week for some adults to learn, but my son caught on very fast," Parhar says proudly.
Before Parhar came to the United States, he worked for eight years as a chef of Italian food in Germany. He spent some time cooking in the San Jose area before he could buy Mount Everest. It wasn't until five years ago that Sukhgit was able join him here.
Mount Everest, 412 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Open for lunch Mon.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Dinner daily 5:30-10 p.m. 408.354.2427.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
