New Rose Hill Restaurant Anju Hits the Flavor Nail on the Head

From the street, the restaurant Anju is virtually impossible to find, unless you’ve been let in on the secret. What appears to be a Tandoori Kitchen in the Bridle Trails neighborhood at 70th and 132nd Avenue has been commandeered by a new owner and chef, Anjalee Blackwell. Anju is currently a one-woman operation, with Blackwell greeting, pouring, cooking, serving and chatting with customers about her life and love of food.

It's quite a story she shares. Blackwell’s childhood in her native city of Bangalore, India was spent soaking up the sights, smells and tastes of local culture, until she was adopted by an American family in Ketchikan, just before her teens. They say that a person’s eating habits are set by the time a child turns nine. Blackwell brought her Indian palate with her to the wet Alaskan coastal village, cooking familiar dishes for herself and her family.

By the time she was 18, Blackwell was already opening her first restaurant. A true student of the world, she claims a wide range of culinary know-how, from making a great pot roast with amazing mashed potatoes, to mastering both northern and southern Indian flavors, and even impressed the large Filipino population working the canneries in Alaska with her grasp of their cuisine.

The ambiance at Anju was homey. Friends helped Blackwell transform the space using their hands to form thickly textured ridges on the mauve-colored walls. Tables are covered in a variety of floral table cloths that create the somewhat overwhelming feeling of an overgrown garden. Would the food command the table or be lost in the bouquet?

We ordered a variety of curries, including Malabar with tilipia, Rogan Josh with chicken and a vegetarian curry with baby eggplant. And of course we were tempted by some hot fresh naan. Blackwell treated us to an order of crispy samosas complete with spicy, delicious mango chili and cool tamarind mint dipping sauces.

Blackwell’s motto on her blog is that food is an art. Even the bowl of rice reflects this. It is neither plain white nor monochromatically yellow. Instead, it looks like bursts of fire-colored confetti; yellows, oranges and reds pop, making perhaps the most exciting bowl of rice I’ve seen.

The trio of curries arrived after a lengthy interlude in which we enjoyed the samosas and spoke about how great a cold beer would pair with our appetizer. Though the one-woman operation has its drawbacks in terms of speed, there were no complaints from any of us once our food reached the table.

Upon first inspection, one might think that these three curries would all taste alike, considering their similar color and appearance. But that would be a rookie’s mistake.

The malabar was smooth and smelled richly of fennel and cardamom. Creamy coconut milk thickened the sauce, serving as a compliment to the heat of the jalepeno. Whipped yogurt folded into the Rogan Josh simultaneously cooled the tongue and brightened the flavor of the red chili in the sauce. This curry was a bit more grainy in texture, but no less delicious. Three-inch baby eggplants adorned the top of the third curry, a tangy tamarind base with soft whole potatoes and fennel seeds. Is there anything more decadent than an Indian curry?

The chunks of tilapia and chicken were gone long before the sauces, which we sopped up with our naan until the feeling of being completely stuffed became too much to ignore. The leftover rice and curry sauces were deposited into a take-home container that I happily reheated the next day while watching “Eat, Pray, Love” in my pajamas.

Anjalee Blackwell is still trying to figure out the best course of action for Anju, whether to stay open for lunch or just dinner. A good portion of her sales are through take-out orders.

“Indians like to eat late,” says Blackwell of orders coming in at 10:30 at night. So do Americans, particularly those looking to soak up the Friday night cocktails they might have consumed earlier in the evening. Hearty, warm, complexly flavored dishes from Anju certainly fit the bill.