NADU Pop-up on Madison Avenue
By Senghor Hill on 22 Oct, 2014
When Madison Avenue's hottest advertising agencies cater lunch for their employees, they don’t call anybody. Enter NADU, a pop-up Brooklyn restaurant based out of the McCarren Deli at 57 Nassau Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Specializing in South Indian Cuisine, started by my friends, Nalini Periasamy and Josh Sachs. South Indian Cuisine uses rice more often and the sauces tend to be thinner, whereas in the North the rice is more often replaced by bread because of the prominence of wheat growth in the region and because it assists with the eating of thicker sauces.
I tagged along for a day to see what it takes to cater lunch for 200 people at a swanky Madison Avenue advertising agency (TWBA). I learned that curry means any blend of spices, in this case it was coriander seeds, cumin, fennel seed and black pepper corn, which were briefly roasted and then ground up into a potent powdered curry that’ll make your eyes water if you get close enough.
All photos courtesy of Senghor Hill
The night before, Josh was cutting up whole chickens from a local Polish butcher, which resulted in a brilliant chicken curry dish. NADU takes its name from a state in Southern India from which the owner is from. Nalini calls the pop-up “Fun, something different, but definitely a lot of work.” The Fashion Industry started the pop-up theme where top designers open up shops in empty storefronts for limited amounts of time, usually in Soho and Brooklyn.
The restaurant industry took notice; now pop-up restaurants pop up every weekend in New York City. NADU has been popping up since March and the momentum is building. This was their first venture into catering and I was glad to be along for the ride.
All ingredients are authentic to India and recycled material make up all of the bags, trays, containers and cutlery. Another bonus is that the food is all Gluten-Free which seem to be the bee’s knees these days in health consciousness here in the States.
Josh does all the artwork for the flyers and brand design. “There’s a wide variety of restaurants in Brooklyn,” says Nalini “...if your food is not
good, people can go up the block...”. That’s the thing about New York, there are so many restaurants that if the service or food is no good within 3 blocks you can easily find a replacement willing to step in and fill your taste whether it be Greek, Indian, Italian or just a good old burger and fries.
The next scheduled pop-up event is for November 1st at 57 Nassau Brooklyn, so if you happen to be in town or wanna try something authentic from another part of the world, come through, they’ll love to have you.
My tray/taste of Southern India consisted of a plain dosa stuffed with potato masala, with peanut, garlic, tomato chutney dippers along with the poriyal stir-fried veggies. I went with the chicken curry, which I was lucky enough to sample the night before. As far as the sauce goes, all I can say is that I wanted to fill a thermos canister with it and sip it all day long.
