Chicken Liver Poori at Gandhi in Flatbush

Lately, Indian restaurants are becoming a substitute for neighborhood Chinese. On Bedford Avenue (yes, the same one that runs through Williamsburg, but miles to the south in Flatbush), Gandhi is the latest restaurant to appear in this category.

The menu sprawls, as it often does in places that seem way too small to make so many dishes, but the efficient staff is well in control of the situation. On a first visit, I checked out a dish rarely seen on Punjabi and Bangladeshi menus around town: chicken liver poori ($3.95), a small meal constructed along the lines of the much more common dal poori, in which a deep-fried flatbread is matched with a dish of chickpea curry, for a perfect vegetarian small meal.

If your ideal for chicken livers is tender, lightly fried, and very moist, this dish isn't for you. The livers have been rendered rubbery, and come deposited in a fluffy, oniony gravy. Which makes them easier to pick up with your extravagantly puffy poori. The dish was a hit with me, but there were dozens of other things I wanted to try at this halal canteen, where the prices seem slightly high for the neighborhood: goan shrimp curry, rupchanda (whole fish cooked with cracked mustard seeds and green chiles), and coconut soup. I did, however, check out the palaka soup, and it was nicely red, mellow, and laced with shreds of spinach, making a great winter potage.

I'm looking forward to another visit with more mouths.

Gandhi
2032 Bedford Avenue
Flatbush, Brooklyn
718-282-7012