Sunday, October 9, 2011

Adventures In Dining


I love good food and am adventurous in my dining.  Fortunately, New York has a panoply of places to eat of every ethnicity.

One of my favorite cuisines is Northern Indian food.  I especially love Tandoori cooking, which uses a clay oven markedly hotter than a conventional oven.  It sears food like grilling does -- extreme high heat cooks the outside of food with delicious crispiness while trapping moisture inside.  Plus, food put into a Tandoori oven is marinated in spices and often coated with an attractive orange glaze.

Last night I went to a great Indian restaurant on Long Island (Rangmahal).  I had Tandoori vegetables which were phenomenal.  I cook fairly well, but could never make anything as tasty as this.

I also tried something new and different. "Lassi" is a yogurt drink similar to a smoothie.  It is usually offered in fruit flavors like mango or strawberry.  Real Indians drink it savory with salt.  The restaurant last night offered lassi in a flavor I'd never seen before: green chili!

When I ordered it, the waiter warned, "Are you sure?  It has a real kick."  I said, go ahead, hit me. It was delicious. The flavor was like a cup of hot chili peppers had been put in a blender: the taste of pure green chili peppers. And, yes, it had a serious kick which is totally unexpected in a yogurt drink.

Have you ever eaten Indian food?  Or anything else different lately?

13 comments:

  1. Mmm! All that sounds delicious. It's been years and years since I got to eat "real" Indian food. I ate a couple years back at a place downtown Nashville. I wish I had more opportunity to try out more diverse foods.

    The most interesting thing I've eaten recently was some burbon peppercorn chicken. I really really dislike alcohol, but I eat whatever my mom is cooking, provided it doesn't contain my top 3 least fav foods [shrimp, mushrooms, or water chestnuts]. It was surprisingly good, and I actually asked her to cook it again sometime.

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  2. Nothing like a delicious post like this to make me hungry. I am craving Indian food now. There is this wonderful little Indian restaurant here in my town that I have fallen in love with. So glad that one of my good friends drug me along and forced me to give it a try. Some of my favorite dishes were things I never thought I would like before daring myself to live a little.

    I can't think of anything too interesting that I've tried lately. I really love the sound of Lassi though - yet to give it a shot. I might just have to order it though next time I go for Indian food!

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  3. Mmm, yum! I live in a university town with a sizeable international student population so we actually have a few more "ethnic" options than many towns this size.

    Unfortunately, the gluten free lifestyle keeps me from eating a lot of it. Especially in places where the wait staff/cooks don't have a good grasp of English I worry a lot that I will get sick. I know how to explain my food issues in English and Spanish only!

    I did not know that about the oven difference - that explains a lot! Tandoori is one of those things I eat and enjoy, but tend to regret later.

    Slightly off topic, a kitchen specialty shop in town is adding a demo kitchen and classes, and I've been pretty involved in their market research. I made sure to ask for a knife handling class like the one you had mentioned in an old post where you were posing cocktail rings!

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  4. I've actually never had Indian food but have always wanted to try it!

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  5. I love Tandoori food. Beware of the spices though-lassi is perfect to soothe a palate that's had too much spicy food.
    Following your blog now :)

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  6. Indian food is delicious! Though I wouldn't dare try the chili lassi... I expect the yoghurt tempered the chili at least a bit, as dairy usually does.

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  7. random, but have you ever heard of Southern Comfort Conference? It's held here in Atlanta.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Comfort_Conference
    and the only indian i've experience was in london, although there is plenty here. I wanna venture out and try more of it.

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  8. I love eating different types of ethnic food too, but I have to admit that Indian is not one of my faves. I really want to love it, but I end up getting a tummy ache hours later.

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  9. We eat indian a lot, we are spoilt for choice with several indian and chinese restaurants nearby and a couple of thai restaurants and takeaways too. Ironically since we are in the uk there aren't many european restaurants nearby apart from a few italian.

    Actually almost all our indian restaurants are technically pakistani in origin here but universally referred to as indian anyway :)

    sebbie

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  10. I have only eaten Indian food once, but it was DELISH! I had a couple different vegetarian options and can't even remember what they were called, but the flavors were amazing. I don't know why I haven't been back. I am usually NOT adventurous when it comes to food. lol

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  11. I've had Indian food many times (we have a big Indian community on the West coast), as well as Thai (LOVE it), Japanese, Chinese, and Ethiopian. All wonderful, although I find Chinese is a little oily. I like a lot of spice in my food.

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  12. Indian food is comfort food for me. I lived in a neighborhood with a huge Indian community and my mom learned how to cook from the women that lived near us. Tandoori chicken and chana masala is my family's "meatloaf" so to speak. Also, you have to try Santoor. Its in Queens but like near New Hyde Park. http://www.santoorgrill.com/ trust me.

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