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!