I'm not one for nostalgia, especially in the world of food—it's always about finding the next new thing, you know? But since we're celebrating our 20th anniversary, I've allowed myself recently just a touch of looking back to assess the lay of my editorial land. And in going through old trends, people and reviews, a weird discovery emerged: I've never properly reviewed Laxmi Sweets N Spices.
It's definitely had a presence in this infernal rag, rightfully popping up in our Best Of and food issues. But Laxmi slipped through the cracks in that time, somewhere between tracking the rise of regional Mexican cuisine and hipster Asians. It's a bizarre oversight because this was a formative place in my critic evolution. It was the first ethnic market I ever visited (sorry, folks: Northgate doesn't count at this point), where I discovered Indian food beyond tandoori and chicken tikka masala, where I first knifed through the wonder that is the dosa. Laxmi was a pioneer, among the first Indian businesses in Tustin, a city that has the most—and best—subcontinental restaurants in the county.
I don't go there as often as I used to, but the old standby has aged gracefully. Greeting you are still posters for the latest Bollywood smash or ads showing the rates for calling cards. Even in this streaming age, piles of DVDs are for sale. A galaxy of packaged and dried goods occupy the majority of the restaurant. The buffet remains in the back, always steaming. And the dessert case keeps beckoning, the glistening gulab jamun deserving of its own sutra.
Laxmi never got the mainstream buzz of Dosa Place, or even the nearby India Sweets N Spices—indeed, I don't think I've ever seen a non-desi besides me and whatever guest I brought along. Happily, it's always busy, packed with young adults who were probably teens when I first started visiting. “Neither will there be a time when we shall not exist,” Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita. “We all exist from now on.” And if you think including this passage in a food review is hokey, again I say, nostalgia.
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