Exotic flavors served up at Indian eatery

WASILLA — Raghu Khanuja said it was probably his dogs that brought him to Alaska.

“I came here with nine huskies — a whole sled dog team,” he said.

The dogs were his wife’s — show dogs purchased from a breeder in California when the couple lived there. Khanuja said his wife loved huskies and decided to move to Alaska. They figured the dogs would be happier and Khanuja would have been well-placed to live out his dream of learning to mush.

Then two years ago Khanuja’s wife died. Khanuja said he still has the dogs, which he loves and that keep his wife’s memory alive.

Though he thinks maybe someday he’ll try his hand at mushing, now Khanuja is living out a new dream. In December, he opened India Palace, an Indian food restaurant on Hermon Road just off the Parks Highway. He said he is supremely happy in his new business and happy to be in the Valley.

“We make people happy and we can give them the best quality,” Khanuja said.

India Palace isn’t his first foray into the restaurant business. In Anchorage for two years he owned a Great Alaska Pizza Company franchise. But Khanuja said he enjoys cooking Indian food and likes trying new recipes. Pizza, on the other hand, is made the same way every time.

“I cannot make anything new,” he said.

He said he made friends with an Anchorage chef, a former Buddhist monk of Tibetan extraction, who is now his best friend. The chef had trained in a number of restaurants in New York. In Anchorage, he was making bread at an Indian restaurant.

At first, Khanuja said they looked at maybe starting an Italian restaurant, but somewhere along the way he thought, why not start an Indian restaurant?

Even without his chef saying so, Khanuja knew the man had a talent for making Indian food.

“‘I don’t just make the food, I put my soul into it,’” Khanuja recalls his chef telling him.

Khanuja said he and his chef are partners in the business and it’s working out great.

“Every day we discuss. Every day we taste. Every day we try to improve,” Khanuja said. They plan to add five new dishes, original concoctions of their own, sometime in the near future.

One, he said, is a rarity in Indian restaurants — a beef dish. Cows are considered sacred in India. But, Khanuja said, he’s a Sikh, not a Hindu, and doesn’t share in this belief. Also, he’s American now, and eating beef is a widespread practice here.

Also, “Once you eat a goat or a chicken you can eat anything,” he said.

Khanuja, who came to America from Mumbai, is a choreographer by training. He said when he started his career he was the youngest choreographer working in the Bollywood studios in his homeland. He came to America to take advanced training in jazz and tap.

But to hear him talk about food — the health benefits of the various ingredients or the five flavors of Indian food — it’s hard to imagine he has any other passions.

India Palace is the only Indian restaurant in the Valley. Khanuja said he’s looking at possibly teaching Indian cooking classes at the restaurant, but hasn’t yet sorted out business liability issues. Folks who are fans of Indian cuisine have told him they’re happy to have a local option instead of having to travel to Anchorage.

“At nighttime, dinnertime, they don’t want to go too far away,” Khanuja said.

Of course, the business also sees a steady stream of neophytes. He said the cuisine often baffles newcomers who aren’t aware that the food, traditionally, comes in a pot to be spooned onto one’s plate over a portion of rice. But they always walk away happy. He shared a story of a young couple. The girl knew what to order and how to eat it, but the boy was wary.

“I think the girl came to have him try the food,” Khanuja said.

By the end of the meal, the boy was laid back, laughing and visibly happy.

Khanuja said this is the most rewarding part of the restaurant business. “Some people don’t like to try new food. But they should, just one time, to see what they’re missing.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiers-man.com or 352-2270.