Shree Indian Cuisine in Petaluma easy on the wallet and offers something different

It’s fun to run across something new and different at a restaurant. And such was the experience of the Kashmiri Biryani ($10.95 ???) at Shree Indian Cuisine in Petaluma.

First, the rice dish was pastel pink - the same color one finds in My Little Pony play sets. At first taste, it was surprising to find that it was sweet, unlike the more common savory biryanis that are made with meat.

The rice was studded with bits of fresh fruit like pineapple, apricot, apple, and - here’s where the pink color comes from - a little pomegranate.

Slivered almonds were also added. Kashmiri rice dishes are typically known as pulao rather than biryani, and besides almonds, often contain pistachios, walnuts, and cashews.

A third addition is dried fruits like raisins. Again surprisingly, mild cheese is folded into this mixture. Finally, the dish is brightened with Indian spices like cardamom.

If you grew up with this sweet and fruity rice dish as a child, it would surely be your go-to comfort food. For most Americans, rice pudding is about as close as we get to pulao, but Shree’s willingness to offer something authentically Indian that most of us have not encountered before is admirable.

What’s less admirable about Shree is the painfully slow service, even when the room has just a handful of customers. The problem? The waiter hanging in the kitchen, chatting with the cook.

The wine list is short, but long on inexpensive bottles, such as Carneros Highway Chardonnay, a second label of the Highway 12 winery. Allan Scott Pinot Noir is $30 and came a long way from New Zealand, where it was grown. Predator “Old Vines” Zinfandel features a ladybug (the predator) on the label, costs $30, and comes from Lodi. Silver Buckle red blend at $25 is from Central Coast vineyards. Corkage is $10. If you like beer with your Indian food, there’s Taj Mahal, Flying Horse, Maharajah, and Kingfisher.

Foamy cold beer is the perfect accompaniment to Aloo Tikki ($3.50 ??), consisting of mashed potatoes mixed with mild cheese and Indian spices, formed into patties and deep fried to a dark brown crust. You get two.

Order Vegetable Samosas ($3.50 ??) and you get two cone-shaped appetizers stuffed with lentils or peas, potatoes, and spicy-hot condiments, cooked so the chickpea batter wrappings are crunchy hard and the stuffing is steaming and redolent of spices.

Kashmiri Chicken ($12 ??½) is nothing like the fruity pulao. First, chicken is roasted in a tandoori oven and the meat cut into pieces. It’s then finished by cooking it with butter, spinach, and spices that make a thick brown sauce for the chicken. Now is when you need naan, the tandoori bread you tear into pieces and use to swoop up the meat and its sauce without getting your fingers sticky.

There are 11 kinds of naan or breads to choose from. Onion Kulcha ($2.50 ??) is a kind of super naan made with onion that acquires a rich flavor when flash-cooked in the tandoor oven.

The naan also comes in handy when eating Rogan Josh ($11.50 ??½), a curry sauce of garlic, ginger, and onion, loaded with very tender chunks of lamb, and spiced any way you wish. I asked for very spicy and paid the price, but it hurt so good.

For dessert, Mango Kulfi ($3.50 ??) will cool down all that spiciness. Kulfi is house-made ice cream flavored with pureed mango pulp. Delicious - and cooling.

An interesting aspect of Shree’s menu is its selection of dishes from various parts of India. Besides the Kashmiri items, the menu has several dishes from southern India, such as Hyderabad chicken curry and Hyderabad lamb. Hyderabad cuisine counts tamarind, coconut, peanuts, and sesame seeds among its key flavors. The menu also features desi chicken, a curry claimed by both northern India and Pakistan as its own. (Remember, today’s Pakistan was part of northwestern India until 1947.)

Shree has an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet for $8.99. If that sounds like something attractive to penniless college students, you’re right. Students at the Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State also get a 15 percent discount on dinners.

To sum up: A good, inexpensive Indian restaurant that’s kind to college kids.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review for the Sonoma Living section. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net