3 minute read
Let’s Eat
LET'S EAT! By Dan Greenwood
An employee at Kato Burger Pit scoops up fresh fries to a burger basket. Kato Burger Pit has expanded its menu to offer Indian curries. Burgers and Curry
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Kato Burger Pit offers American classic comfort foods, along with traditional Indian curries
By Dan Greenwood | Photos by Pat Christman
Pretpal Mand had plenty of experience working at his family’s restaurant, India Palace in Mankato, so it wasn’t a stretch when he and his business partner decided to add several Indian dishes to the menu in May at their new restaurant, Kato Burger Pit, which initially opened with a focus on American comfort food.
“We thought we’d try out some burgers,” said Mand, who opened the business with his older brother earlier this year. “It seemed like a good idea since there was a drive-thru. Later, we thought, why not bring in some Indian and other international food items in because we have lots of ethnicities at MSU with all those international students.”
The Kato Burger Pit, in the former Massad’s location near Minnesota State University, is known for its burgers too, like the Juicy Lucy, suggested by a friend. It’s a beef patty stuffed with melted cheese made popular at a couple of establishments in Minneapolis, including Matt’s Bar on the city’s south side.
“We also have a mushroom and swiss burger,” Mand said. “Our rodeo pit burger has onions, pickles, barbecue sauce, bacon, cheese and lettuce, and we have a Texas toast burger and a spicy jalapeno burger.”
Mand’s personal favorites are the vegan options on the menu, like the marsala burger – a vegan patty with lettuce, onion, tomato and pickles – and a vegan kabob that is accompanied with onions, jalapenos and ginger ground with
other Indian spices and cooked in a large clay oven.
While Indian cuisine is often associated with extreme heat and spice, Mand said Kato Burger Pit’s dishes, such as biriyani, curries and chicken tikka masala, are mild — although they are happy to spice it up on request.
The chicken tikka masala has a tomato cream-based sauce, Mand said. “We cook it and cool it, then we mix it in with cream and then we add onions, tomatoes, bell peppers and then we add spices. Everything is made from scratch.”
The chicken biriyani is marinated in yogurt and spices, and the chicken curry is complemented with a homemade gravy cooked with onions, bell peppers and rice.
Mand said the curries can vary wildly based on different recipes found throughout India, a country of well over a billion people with 22 official languages.
“Curries can be very different between northern and southern (India),” Mand said. “Some people make it different than others, but most people add ginger and garlic, grind that up and cook it with onion.”
The Indian dishes at Kato Burger Pit are often accompanied with naan, an Indian flat bread used to An employee preps a burger for a customer. Kato Burger Pit offers burgers, fries, milkshakes and Indian dishes.
scoop up the sauces and meat. It’s prepared from scratch using the Kato Burger Pit’s tandoori oven.
“It’s a big clay oven,” Mand said. “It’s open from the top and is a big bowl pretty much.”
Mand said the Indian dishes have been a hit since the Kato Burger Pit began offering them, and he encourages customers to give those dishes a taste if they haven’t tried them. He said one recent customer wasn’t so sure about ordering one of the Indian dishes but decided to go for it, and he wasn’t disappointed.
“He said, ‘I’ll be back,’” Mand said. Kato Burger Pit’s rodeo pit burger: The burger is topped with onions, pickles, barbecue, bacon, cheese and lettuce.
