THURSDAY THE LONG WAY: JO JO MESS CLUB

Thursday highlights food from out of the way places, food memories that have formed the way I view food, both cooking and eating it. They may be inspired by recent meals, the food-media, or anything at all.

I've loved Indian food ever since I can remember but where does this love come from? I certainly remember having had Indian food as a very little kid. There was an Indian restaurant on Long Island that had a buffet that I have vague memories of but they don't resonate like the Jo Jo Mess Club.

When we lived in Hong Kong from 1985-1990, my parents would take me and my sister to a little Indian restaurant in Wanchai that I want to say was run by Sikhs. Wanchai was a little gritty back then and fun to ride through on the second level of the double-decker trolleys and buses where you'd get a great view of shop signs with humorous English translations.

Even as a nine year old kid I kind of felt sorry for the Jo Jo Mess Club. It had to be explained to me that we weren't going to a place that was a mess but that I didn't get that this was a reference to 'mess' as in mess hall or cafeteria. Remembering the place now, I wonder how I could have been convinced. Jo Jo's was a hole-in-the-wall, bare bones kind of place. I remember a simple white fluorescent sign with black capital letters hanging above the doorway on the street. Up the stairs the restaurant was pretty threadbare too-- formica tables, fluorescent lights overhead, chairs with chrome metal legs and sad padding.

But we didn't go there for the decor and all I had to do was listen to my two best friends, my tongue and my stomach to be convinced that it was all about the food man, tasty! Saag paneer (spinach and cheese), naan (Indian puffy bread), raita (yoghurt with cucumber), onion kulcha, chicken tikka, butter chicken (!), chicken tikka masala, korma, aloo gobi, samosas (cone pastries filled with meat or vegetables), pakoras (vegetable fritters) and gulab jamun (above, right)-- oh, gulab jamun, my lovely, my tasty, my precious warm and sweet little chou.

Having found a website for the Jo Jo Mess Club, I'm happy to discover that we weren't the only ones who liked the food; there are four locations. They must have redecorated or more likely, moved because the Wanchai restaurant (left, all pix c/o jojofood.com) I remember had white walls not windows overlooking the street. Good for Jo Jo. I think I must have been Indian in my past life. Like sushi, I could eat Indian food every day.