Olivette Station serves up Punjabi cuisine inside an Olivette convenience store
Owner Nazia Afzal offers chicken tikka, channa masala, and broasted chicken at the BP gas station.
Photo by George Mahe
Chicken Tikka with naan, tomato cucumber salad, and green chutney at Olivette Station
In early December, Nazia Afzal opened the only combination BP gas station and Punjabi eatery in Olivette—and possibly in environs even more far-reaching. The original name was The Waffle Chick, but as Afzal's Indian dishes became more popular, she changed the name to Olivette Station (9680 Olive).
The kitchen’s at the rear, right behind the counter. You can pay for gas, buy a lottery ticket, and order breakfast or lunch in the same place. There’s a propane-fired grill and a version of a broasted chicken fryer that works like an air fryer.
Photo by George Mahe
Chicken tenders and a veggie samosa at Olivette Station
If you're of a certain age, the “broasted chicken” will conjure memories of your grandfather. “Broasting” is a way of cooking chicken that combines pressure cooking and sizzling hot fat frying. The chicken is sealed with all its juices in a perfectly lovely crusty golden coating. For some reason, the process appealed to the veterans who came home from WWII and took to broasted chicken like a trout takes to mayflies. Olivette Station's chicken comes with waffles.
We were far more enthusiastic, however, about the fried chicken tenders and French fries. The breading is thick without being heavy. The crunch, the juices, the deep, chicken flavor—if you like chicken tenders at any of the commercial fried chicken joints, then you’ll be happy here.
In addition to the chicken, Afzal added some classic Punjabi-style cuisine: samosas, chicken tikka with jasmine rice or naan, and channa masala with puri. Although all items are served in to-go styrofoam. One thing it isn’t is your typical convenience-store comestible.
The short explanation is that channa masala is a chickpea curry. While sitting at what was until recently the counter for a gas station, we tucked into a splendid, masterful example. Even the onions get special treatment; they’re browned but not caramelized, so instead of a sweetness, they’re tangy. Garlic’s added, along with turmeric, coriander, and ginger. What comes out is a thick slurry, bubbled with chickpeas, and an exotic, appetizing aroma.
Photo by George Mahe
At present, the channa masala is available during the week, but the halwah puri is only available on Saturday and Sunday.
Alongside are a couple of puri, circles of deep-fried bread that puff up like whoopee cushions and then deflate. They're the perfect edible spoon of sorts to scoop up the channa masala. Of all the many Indian breads, puri are most like French croissants in texture, light, fluffy, rich. The plate (OK, it’s a to-go joint, so it's a Styrofoam clamshell) is finished with a big dollop of halwa, which is like the boba in boba tea—it’s as much about the mouth-feel, the grainy texture, as the mildly sweet taste. Imagine a bowl of Malto-Meal with sugar added, just a touch, along with “something else.” If you’ve had rava-kesari, a popular dessert at a lot of Indian lunch buffets, you get the idea. The difference between the two is that the latter is tinted with food color to a bright orange.
Every cook has a preferred consistency for halwa. Sometimes it’s nearly a pudding. Here, it’s in moist, slightly crumbly slabs that are a splendid accompaniment to the puri. The channa and halwa puri are one of those foods you try and think, Well, it’s OK. Then, a week or so later you think, You know, I think I need to try that again. Trust us.
Oh, and while you’re there, try the “Straight Outta Punjab” chai. It’s $2 (the menu warns that if you call it “chai tea,” the cost goes up a dollar), and there isn’t a better companion beverage to your meal, most of which are priced at $6.99. (A veggie omelette and a breakfast chicken burrito are less than $5.)
We’ve written about the abundance of offerings at Wally’s in Fenton, with more road food than you could consume on an entire circumnavigation of travel. Even so, not even Wally’s has halwa puri. If you want that, go to the BP’s Olivette Station.
