This Whole Time, The Best Indian Food Has Been Hiding....

......in Florida! Or maybe food just tastes better when you're on vacation?  Anywho, Gabriel and I are visiting my sibs in Jacksonville this week so of course they were obligated to participate in the blog.  My sister Sarah (who doesn't care for Indian food) immediately consulted Yelp (typical first-born), and we settled on the place with the highest ratings.

Sarah, her husband Bryan, their two kids, Lauren and Nate, and Gabe and I loaded up in the van and trotted off to India House. Now lemme just tell ya; this place is PHENOMENAL. I don't know what they put in their food, but everything was amazing. I'm sitting here eating my fantastic leftovers while I write this. It's truly inspiring. ;-)

   

        Before going in, the teenagers stopped to take a shot of their sick "outifts of the day" for instagram. Don't you just love the trash can in the middle of my shot?

Pappadam and sauces were waiting for us on the table upon arrival. The Pappadam was the only bad thing I had at this place. My piece of Pappadam was soggy in some places, stale in others and then had some spots that were just right.  It was like Three Bears Pappadam.

Bryan and I both had the Coconut soup, which the menu described as "Coconut cream, sweetened milk and pistachios, served warm." It's not much to look at, but it was a strange and tasty experience. It was mildly sweet, warm, and full of coconut bits. It was like having a microwaved bowl of coconut gelato (my favorite thing!). I enjoyed it, and Bryan commented that it would be something wonderful to eat when one is not feeling well.

Next came the appetizers; Diwani Kebab and Cheesy Pepper Naan. The Diwani Kebab, "Boneless chicken tenders specially marinated with garlic, ginger and special spices," was so incredibly delicious. It was probably the best Indian dish I have ever had, and everyone at the table gave it rave reviews. Sarah commented that she gave it 5 smiley faces. I didn't try the Cheesy Naan, but it looked so good that it was pretty hard to resist. It very quickly disappeared into everyone's bellies.

Bryan had the Maharaja Thali, the complete King Indian style dinner. We all tried many of the dishes and each one was delicious. Bryan gave it 4.5 smiley faces! To the right are the details of what it included:

Sarah had the Chicken Makhani, "Boneless chicken served with fresh cream, tomatoes, and other special Indian spices." The chicken was very tender, and the sauce was sweet and tangy. She gave it 4 smiley faces!

Nate had the Goat Curry. He said he liked it. He said the meat was tender, but it was not easily removed from the bone (I KNEW it!). He gave it 4 smiley faces. 

Lauren had the Chicken Tikka Masala. When asked about it she gushed, "I LOVED it. Five and half smiley faces! It had just the right amount of heat; not too spicy and the chicken was good, hearty chunks." Gabe had the Chicken Korma.  He ordered medium spice, which they executed perfectly! He said it was awesome and gave 5 smiley faces. While I questioned him about it, Lauren chimed in to add, "But, he liked my Chicken Tikka Masala better, and I liked his equally."  Can you tell we had some ham at our Indian dinner?

Note the goofy cousin photo-bomb behind the Tikka Masala.

                                                                                                           

Here's me, starting a blink, with my Lamb Saag! It was so good that I'll even go so far as to say that it was sofa king good.  It was just SO delicious.  The flavor was amazing. I asked for no spice and they obliged! Although the taste was perfect, I have definitely had lamb that was more tender so I gave it 4 smiley faces.

My parting thought? Too bad my dad missed out on all of this. :)

DETOUR and How I Scored a Better Umbrella

This blog entry serves as a cautionary tale of why it is important, when writing a food blog, to write your entries THE SAME DAY you eat the food. I sat down to write to this post five days after it actually happened and couldn't remember the details of who ate what and how they liked it.  After almost a month of nagging myself about finishing this, I'm just going to publish it with a few "I don't remember"s here and there.

                                     

I recently took a trip to New York City with a group of friends and decided to see how Indian fare in Manhattan compares to what I have been exploring in Omaha in recent weeks.  There were four of us so it worked out that each person got to "play" a member of my family.

We went to a restaurant called Dhaba, on 108 Lexington Avenue, an area where there are MANY Indian restaurants and grocery stores.  This one was recommended on Foursquare as having quality food at reasonable prices.

We arrived at the restaurant in the middle of a thunderstorm.  As a city with very little parking and many who arrive to restaurants on foot or having walked from public transportation, New York City businesses often times have a basket at the entrance where one must leave one's wet umbrella.  Such was the case at Dhaba. We all deposited our umbrellas in the basket and went inside to find a table.

The umbrella that I had packed for this trip was small and purple, and sported a faux-wooden handle. It's not my best umbrella but it fits well in my carry-on.  It leaks, and has a broken rib cleat but as my mom likes to say, "It's good enough for who it's for."

I remember that we ate this FANTASTIC appetizer that was big chunks of Paneer with sauteed peppers and onions and big ole' lemon wedge that I sprayed all over it. It was my only memorable food experience from that night.  Besides some weird little sauce that tasted like ketchup with onions added to it. 

Marti decided to be Ken, and have the Butter Chicken. I don't remember now how many smiley faces she gave it. 

                          

                         Here is Mitsie with her dish.

Who knows what Hillary had, but here is a lovely photo of it. 

I have no idea what I ate either, BUT I do remember one interesting anecdote. Hillary's husband Kieren (he joined us later and I have a pic of him somewhere...) ordered Chicken Madras.  I scoured the menu looking for the description of Chicken Madras but I coulnd't find it!  I asked him where it was and he said, "Oh, it's not on there."  How is that possible?  "Well," replied Kieren, "if there's something you want that's not on the menu, you can just ask them and usually they will make it for you."  MIND BLOWING.  I'm assuming this is limited to Indian dishes but maybe the next time I go out for Indian I will ask if they can make me a hamburger.  Heehee.

And lastly, when we left the restaurant my umbrella was MISSING from the umbrella basket.  At first I was miffed but then I noticed that there was another purple umbrella in the box very much like mine.  So much like mine, that the owner must've confused mine with their's.  The purple umbrella left in the basket was nicer; no leak, no broken rib cleat, and a lovely plastic purple handle.  I was quite pleased that someone accidentally stole my umbrella.

I hope my companions from this excursion will fill in some of the missing details in the comments below!

I've Got the Fever for the Flavor of....well, Flavors!

Bahr fam, back again! Bringin' tales of a little Indian- cuisine that is!

Tonight we went to Flavors!  Having already been there a few times for dinner and many times for lunch,  I was feeling pretty certain that this would be a big hit with the whole family and it didn't disappoint!  As a group, it was our best experience so far.

The restaurant started us off with a plate of Pappadam accompanied by onion and potato slices that were breaded and deep fried.  It was very difficult to have only a taste of these. I wanted to eat them all.

Ken had the Shrimp Tikka Masala this time. He gave it 4 smiley faces! He said it had very low spice level and almost a sweet taste. He liked that the onions and peppers were fully cooked and said the tomatoes were good.  He didn't enjoy having to pull the tails off of the shrimp. All in all, a big win for Ken! Yay!

Ruth had her usual, Chicken Tikka Masala.  She said it was sooooooo good! It had a sweet and tangy sauce that delighted the taste buds.  She gave it 4 smiley faces and said it is the 2nd best Tikka Masala she's had so far.

Gabe also had his usual, Chicken Tikka Korma.  But THIS time, Gabe got a surprise!  Instead of chicken, the restaurant inadvertently served him lamb.  It was still very good.  The Tikka Korma sauce was so sweet and yummy that even I couldn't stop eating it. Gabe also ordered some buttered Naan.  No one else tried it, but he ate it all so it  must have been good. 

I ordered the Tanduri Mixed Grill.  It was a heaping plate of meat!  It had large chunks of chicken breast, a few chunks of lamb, two chicken legs, one chicken thigh, and two shrimp.  It was served atop a bed of perfectly sauteed onions, and sprinkled with fresh cilantro and two juicy wedges of lime. It looked very much like an order of fajitas. It was very good!  I gave it 3 smiley faces, though, because most of the meat was a little drier than I like it.

And finally, the restaurant served us a complimentary desert.  Some kind of Mango pudding.  It was very sweet and had a strange texture so I didn't eat it, but everyone else gobbled theirs up quickly. Yay for Flavors! A winner with the whole family! (Kind of made for a boring blog though, eh?)