Text 4977, 91 rader
Skriven 2013-09-23 00:35:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 206
================
Ever eager to show me the glories of her town, Nancy next took
me to Tandoor, off by her alma mater RIT, which boasts her
favorite Indian buffet, and a wide-ranging and elaborate one
it is. For $10 (a buck more on weekends) you get an assortment
of ten or so main courses and at least five desserts. and
nonalcoholic beverages are included. Also soups and appetizers,
which I didn't bother to look at. A good deal.

Nancy was greeted like a sister, and we were shown to a nice
table right by the curry station.

She gave me a taste of her sambar, which was heavy with lentils
and pretty good; I was unwilling, though, to waste stomach space
on much of it.

Of course there was tandoori chicken, and though not so fabulous
as the stuff I'd had in Santa Rosa recently, it was pretty good,
plus, for you white-meat lovers, there were big half-breast-halves
available along with the usual drummers and thighs.

A chicken mushroom korma was very nice and not nearly so creamy
as usual, which meant 1. not quite so good as it could have been
and 2. not as many pills were needed as usual. It was spiced a
little differently from what I am used to, and I can't exactly
place my finger on it.

Chicken makhani was sauteed chunks (as opposed to the tandoor-
roasted of butter chicken) in a creamy tomato sauce that I
thought a bit too sweet but otherwise nice sopped up with the
naan or folded into the pretty good basmati rice.

Beef curry was the weak sister, undercooked chunks of rather
tough round roast in a blandish sauce; but few buffets these
days offer red meat at all.

A red kidney bean curry was likewise on the bland side.

Saag paneer came with a surprise (to Nancy): peas and carrots.
Otherwise it was the standard creamy mild thing. I tasted the
spinach, which was good but wouldn't satisfy an urge for
creamed spinach, if I had one, and managed to avoid the chunks
of cheese, which in this version came in discrete chunks and
not falling apart into the sauce.

My big disappointment was eggplant methi (with fenugreek leaves),
which though nicely spiced was way too sweet for me and a little
too sour as well, becoming in essence a sweet and sour dish. Here
was a case where Dale's modus operandi saved me - if I had ordered
a main dish of this, I would have not have enjoyed the meal. As it
was, I put on my plate twice as much as I should have and had to
force myself to eat the last six tablespoonsful of it.

Vegetable xacuti (a coconut based curry) was quite tasty, though
I'd have liked it better if it had meat in it.

Starch: basmati rice was very good; there was fry bread, I forget
the Indian name, on the buffet, and naan brought to the table. The
naan was very good; the fry bread a bit heavy.

The buffet beverages were masala chai, of which Nancy had several
cups, so it must have been fine, and mango strawberry juice, which
was pretty good for what it was, though I'd have preferred it
without any strawberry.

Lots of fresh fruit: the orange slices were tasty.

The desserts (there may have been one more that I don't remember) -

milk fudge, very good if you like that sort of thing and are not
lactose intolerant;

fried chickpea-batter doughnuts in syrup, the usual, but the
syrup, though deadly sweet, was not quite as sweet as normal;

chickpea candy, which fell apart into sand and pebbles when you
bit into it - the good thing was it was not too sweet; the bad
thing was the taste and texture were, well, you had to have grown
up with it I guess;

rice pudding (kheer), the usual thing, not quite enough cardamom
in it, which I suppose has become usual as the price of the spice
has skyrocketed in recent years; and

mango pudding, both very fruity and very milky at the same time,
probably very nice, but I had only the tiniest taste of it.

On the way out I noticed some $1 off your next buffet coupons and
scooped one up for Nancy.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 Join Us: www.DocsPlace.org (1:123/140)