"We have a song in India," says Avinash Kohli. "It says lift the candle to another candle. If you burn a candle, then spread that fire to other candles."
You might say that the Kohli family - Avinash, husband Davinder and son Sazzy - are lighting a warm Indian fire in Lower Queen Anne.
"We believe in the soul of India," says Avi, as she's known by friends and family. "I am an American citizen, but we still want to keep our Indian values."
Lucky for Queen Anne residents, keeping Indian values translates to Roti, a restaurant with some of the best Indian food in Seattle, and Salon Image, beauty secrets from the land of marigolds and unforgettable women.
"He is busy over there [at Roti], and I am busy over here [at Salon Image],"says Avi. Over there and over here are about two blocks apart, and this couple, Hill residents for 14 years, have carved out quite a balanced existence. "He feeds me and I chop his hair."
In the morning, Avi schedules salon clients and then walks over to her husband's Indian buffet. If you have ever eaten at Roti, the 10-month-old restaurant across from Kidd Valley, you know that this is a dream existence. "My husband is a very good cook," exclaims Avi. "He puts his soul into every dish, and he has magic fingers in the kitchen."
Davinder Kohli, owner and chef at Roti, is such a good cook that Avi does not even have a favorite dish. "Everything is so good," she says. "I cannot tell you."
With a menu that features more than 75 different dishes, it's no wonder that Avi doesn't have a favorite. There are 11 different tandoori breads, soups, salads, seafood specialties, chicken and lamb curries and 13 vegetarian entrees. Roti also has very memorable apricot, mint and tamarind sauces.
"We grind all of our spices in the morning," says Davinder, a chef for more than 30 years. "We make all of our base sauces. Nothing is frozen or packaged."
"He is an incredible cook, and I am a good eater," says Avi, whose sense of humor is as good as her husband's curry. "A good speaker needs a good audience, right?"
Sazzy, their 18-year-old son, works at the restaurant mornings and evenings and offers his applause as well. "Me and my son go to Roti for lunch and dinner," says Avi. "We don't cook anything at home anymore." The only food they have at home is milk, cereal and fruit.
"The food he makes here is completely Indian-style," explains Avi. Roti, an unleavened Indian flatbread and a staple in India, is baked daily in an imported clay oven. "We want people to come in and feel like they are in India," says Avi. Traditional Indian paintings adorn the walls, tapestry hangs from the ceiling and Hindu gods and goddesses pose in every corner of the room.
"The main thing," offers Avi, "me and my husband have been married for 21 years, and we don't believe in breaking, we believe in boundness. Sometimes we argue, sometimes we fight, but when you have dishes in a basket, they make noise when they hit."
Isn't that the truth.
"If you only have one dish, it will not hit anything. I am a dish," explains Avi. "The basket is the house."
When Avi is not clanking or sampling her husband's amazing food, she "reads" hair a few blocks away. "I think, What will look nice? With anything you do, you read it first. What is her face? What is her hair?"
Today, Avi "reads" my face and informs me that I need to have my eyebrows done. "I am sorry," she says. "It is time: I must thread your brows."
Threading, an ancient method of hair removal, popular in the Middle East and India, removes unwanted hair by twisting cotton thread along the surface of the skin. Unwanted hair, usually from the eyebrows or upper lip, is wrapped within the thread and then lifted out from the follicle. Hair lifted out from the follicle translates to pain, but threading is better for your skin than waxing.
"It pulls out unwanted hairs without removing the upper layers of your skin," says Avi, who also offers Mehndi, the 5,000-year-old art of decorating hands and feet with the ground powder of henna leaf. "We do henna at every happy event," says Avi as she explains the significance this art plays in her culture. "It became a part of a blessing-good luck. We do it at weddings or when people leave to travel. You are wearing an ornament on the body, and you feel proud."
Avi models an elaborate Mehndi design on her own hand. "When you are doing any artwork, you do whatever comes into your mind." she says, offering an entire book of samples to choose from. "You pick the design. I know what you like, but I will add more because I don't want to repeat the same design."
While Avi spends her days beautifying the general public, her husband feeds them. Fresh spices and clanking dishes? Ground henna and curried rice? Clearly, good food, plucked eyebrows and the right-size basket hold some of the answers we seek.
"Delicious food, delicious smile, right?" concludes Avi with a twinkle in her eyes. "Good wife and a happy life."[[In-content Ad]]
