Houston Diwali Foodie Adventure 2023

Thanks to my Yelp friend Sara I. helping me to host the Foodie Adventure on Sunday, November 12, 2023. It happened to be on Diwali. So, we chose to be in the Diwali theme. [Event Page]

We dined at Kathmandu Curry during Diwali UYE

I have been rebranding Chinatown Crawl Meetup events to Foodie Adventures because the events are outside of Houston Chinatown. There is no exception to this one. But the meetup style remained in progressive dinner as Chinatown Crawl, we dine, shop and dessert in 3 hours. 

Customized Name Tags for Diwali UYE 

We featured Kathmandu Curry as our dining restaurant. The timing was right on point. There were not many people during lunch on that Diwali Sunday. We believe the customers were still at the temples. Service was just okay. We ordered a few dishes to share. Sara introduced Nepalese Momo and Pani Puri as their signature dishes. Momo was a Nepali style dumpling served with tomato chutney. Pani Puri was a round, hollow puri, crisp and filled with flavored water, tamarind chutney, chaat masala, potato, chickpeas. 

Sara explained each sweet during the dessert presentation at Raja Sweets

After lunch, we walked to Raja Sweet at the next mall. We were concerned about their Diwali crowd and had plan B for chai tasting. Just in case they were closed due to supply shortage. I contacted the manager Sharan 2 weeks prior to the event. I need to make sure the event runs smoothly. She has been very helpful through the process. 

Selected items were featured during Diwali UYE 

During the preparation, I sampled each dessert item every week for 2 months and compiled a sampling menu for the crawl guests. Because of the sign at the door saying the restaurant had limited supplies for the Diwali weekend. I purchased all of the sweets to be sampled the day before to avoid disruption. On the other hand, Sharan brought chai for everyone plus Jalebi and Gur para in addition to the selected sweets. For the price of $5, I was able to cut up 6 different sweets in 6 portions and shared them with 8 guests.

Spread of cut up sweets at Raja Sweets

After the dessert sampling and presentation at Raja Sweets, few of the guests proceeded to Keemat Grocers for some shopping. We parted ways at around 4 pm. Overall, the event went over a little over 3 hours. But there was a lot of conversation and cultural sharing. That makes the best of Chinatown Crawl Events during an Asian Holiday!!

Shopping at Keemat Grocers during Diwali UYE 

Here is the blog posted on Houston Chowhounds by Gregory B 

Facebook Reel posted by Houston Asiatown Tours.

Lou cutting up sweets at Raja Sweets

Lou and Sharan at Raja Sweets