Tiffin Coming To Wynnewood

While running errands today, I saw that Tiffin was setting up shop in the old Wynnewood Pharmacy location. This is just doors down, if not next door, to Elevation Burger. Man, Wynnewood is getting lucky! I've been looking for a good indian takeout place since I stopped patronizing Khajuraho due to their horrific customer service (have not been there for nearly 4 years!). So for suburbanites like me, what an exciting opening to look forward to! Whoohoo!

Indian Chinese Food, Yes, You Heard Me

Since I knew we were going to be roaming around in new jersey, I remembered this little tidbit in the back of my brain from years back. Indian chinese food. In new jersey. So I reached out to my friends who had told me about this and finally tracked a place down. So on our way home from Mitsuwa, we stopped for dinner at Ming. So before my friends ever told me about this phenomenon, I had no idea that indian chinese food existed. What is it? It's chinese food with indian influence. They love chinese food too! And there's a number of these types of restaurants in Edison.
It's kind of a fancy place. But not snooty. Next door is a proper indian restaurant. Let's just say that H/A and I were the only non-indian people in the whole place. They give you some pickled cabbage... which I loved!
I had no interest in an appetizer, but of course, H/A went ahead and ordered a random one. Crispy lamb "beijing style". It was supposed to be crispy fried lamb tossed with shredded carrots, bamboo shoots, and green peppers in a sweet and spicy flavoring. They forgot to say that it also includes giant heaping strips of ginger. EEK. I like ginger as flavor, but I don't like to bite into it as a main ingredient. And you couldn't differentiate the bamboo shoots from the ginger. It was terrible. The sauce itself was great. But too bad you couldn't get over the hunks of ginger. The lamb was thin fried strips, so you couldn't really taste lamb. You just tasted crunchy batter. Mark my words. I'm not going to let H/A order any appetizers in the future without my approval. If I knew he was going to order one, I would have certainly picked a different one.
So here's my biggest gripe of the evening. Rice didn't come with your meal. And a bowl of jasmine rice cost $6. Yeah, seriously. Do they not know that you can get a giant 10 lb bag of jasmine rice for $5? And they were charging me $6 for a bowl of rice? Grrr... I've been to places where you have to order a side of rice (e.g. banana leaf), but the price was ridiculous. But how can you eat chinese entrees without rice? It would be illegal!
The chili chicken hakka style. There were a lot of dishes on this menu that was prepared in this hakka style. What is hakka style? I still have no idea. We asked, but the server did a terrible job explaining. Apparently, Hakka is a type of people in China, but when you are talking about hakka style food, especially in an indian chinese restaurant, it really bears no resemblance to actual hakka style cuisine. In any case, this hakka style chicken was really good, savory and sweet. With a kick. And we asked for it less spicy. But man, it still had a really strong afterkick of spice. Whoa.
We also got the eggplant with paneer in spicy hoisin sauce. Now here is a dish that is obviously a mix of chinese and indian. You can't name one actual chinese dish that would ever have cheese in it. Yet this one did. It was typical eggplant, but instead of being stuffed with shrimp or something, it was stuffed with cheese. And then there was a spicy hoisin sauce on top. Again, this one was deceptively spicy! It was such a strange dish, but I liked it. I like paneer type dishes in indian food, so that probably helped.

All in all, this was a really interesting meal. I'm definitely glad I tried it. Would I want to try it again? Well, I wouldn't go out of my way to have it, but if it was available, then yes. But this place was also quite expensive, especially for chinese food, so perhaps if there was a cheaper alternative. And if there was one that gave you rice with your darn entrees.

Ekta Takeout

I was hankering for some indian food, it had been such a long time, so I decided to get some take-out. I planned on Minar Palace, but then I started reading some reviews about the newly opened one. They were all pretty bad.  So I nixed that. Instead, I went with Ekta, in Fishtown. I picked mutter paneer and tandoori chicken, along with garlic naan and onion naan. The paneer was amazing. I love this stuff. You know I'm totally a flesh lover, but when it comes to indian food, I've had some great meals going veggie. The sauce on this was amazing, and I love the substantiveness of the cheese. And I love anything with peas. 

The chicken tandoori was mad spicy, like too spicy. And it annoyed us because it had all kinds of bones. Maybe I was spoiled before, but in the past when I'd had chicken tandoori, it had always been nice hunks of boneless chicken breast. Not so here. There were bones everywhere and it was rather difficult to eat. Both the naans were amazing, especially the onion, which I'd never had before. I'll skip the chicken tandoori next time, but I'll definitely be getting more take-out from Ekta!

Mie N Yu

Another day, another neighborhood. So on sunday, we went to georgetown. I've been in DC a few times, but never to georgetown. There's a main strip there, full of shops and restaurants, so we roamed around a bit and then finally stopped for brunch at Mie N Yu, a place that dubs itself as a place of "Silk Road Celebration”. Which means they combine american cuisine with flavors from Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. So it's all kinds of fusion basically.

The decor is also a hodge podge, but cool. They have tons of indian / hindu type art and religious figures.

Also middle eastern type decor as well, lots of curtains and drapes and rich jewel colors. The place is very moody and romantic. There's a variety of seating options including booths, big tables with cushions, a nook up the stairs, etc.

The menu is a hodge podge as well. To me, it was heavy on the indian and thai side. Or may be that's just becauase it was a lunch menu. Not sure. But we were both starving so we got a couple of lassis, hoping they would come out super fast. They did not. But once they did, they were amazing. The pomegranate lassi was so freakin good. And so was the mango lassi. I've had mango lassi tons of times, but this was the first one where mint was mixed in with it. Normally, I do not like mint in my food. But for whatever reason, it totally worked in this one. These lassis were dreamy. I wish I had another one right now.

J got the banana walnut pancakes. These were huge, and full of big hunks of banana and walnuts. Absolutely great. And you even got some potatoes and a little fruit skewer. And it was pretty cheap. Seriously. We were expecting DC prices and DC portions, but it was tons of food for a really good price. I'm talking less than $10.

For me, I stayed away from traditional brunch fare and went with their steak & egg fried rice. This was a giant heaping of fried rice, which had beef and egg in it, along with some thai basil. And then there was an additional helping of steak. The menu said there was bean sprouts in it, but it did not have it. And I love me some bean sprouts. But that's ok, because this thing was beyond tasty. We both loved it.

Service was ok. There only seemed to be one waiter, and he was very harried, so it was hard to get his attention. While tons of other runners brought the food out, it was only delivered by the waiter, so he ended up being a huge bottleneck. Also, your food does not come out quickly, so don't be in a hurry. But it was worth the wait. So just take in the ambiance while you wait, because you'll eventually get some great food.

Tiffin!

I love me some indian food, but I actually haven't had it regularly in quite a long time. I used to go to Kajuraho near me all the time, until my last horrific customer service nightmare there, and I haven't been back since. That was years ago. I can definitely hold a grudge when it comes to bad service. I've heard nothing but great things about Tiffin, and when B invited me out to go there, we took a spontaneous trip.

Dining is upstairs. Tiffin's located on a somewhat shady spot on Girard, but once inside, you wouldn't know you were surrounded by sketch. It's a pretty cute spot with brick walls and beautiful photographs of india. We went on a sunday night, and it was pretty empty. I didn't mind that at all. Mango lassi. Yum. The standard trio of little dipping dishes. Top left was something bizarre that I did not care for. Middle right was some kind of extremely sweet fruit chutney, which was pretty good. The bottom thing was fantastic. I can't tell you what it is, I did not ask either what was in it, but it had a bit of a kick, tasted a bit cilantro-y, and was just overall terrific. B ordered some veggie samosas. These were pretty simple, filled mainly with beans. These were fairly plain, but still good. Dipped into the mystery green sauce, this was a nice little appetizer.
B got the chicken korma, because he has some sense, and I, like a crazy woman, got the lamb vindaloo. Dude, I can do spicy, but I should have been smart and realized that at Tiffin, it was actually going to be pretty damn spicy. Can you see that bowl of fiery red death? Yeah, it was as spicy as it looked. I didn't last very long, but for what it was worth, it was good. If I wasn't such a damn wuss, I would have been actually able to enjoy it more. The korma was quite good though, and much easier to eat, as it didn't burn my insides. The garlic naan wasn't quite as good as I wanted them to be, mostly because they didn't show up piping hot. Naan should be fresh from the oven, no?

Service was good and prices were reasonable. We pretty much closed down the place, and we didn't feel rushed at all. There was barely anyone dining, and they pretty much left us alone to loiter. Next time, I'm not gonna be a jackass and I'll order something I can tolerate.

Quick Stop at The Palace at the Ben

I attended a Yelp happy hour at The Palace at the Ben last week... or at least I tried to. All the evil work powers that be were against me, but against all odds, I made it there, for the last wee half hour. It's a fairly new indian joint inside the Ben Franklin House. Witness the hallowed gilded halls. Swanky, yes?



Since I got there so late, there wasn't much to choose from as far as food. See, I didn't even get to taste the papadum and whatever various small dishes it came with. Damn you!



I did snag one piece of the chicken tandoori. And let me tell you, it was good... and probably not just because I was starving.



I also got one of these fried onion things. No idea what it's actually called, sorry. Again, this was good.

There were special complimentary rangpur rose cocktails for us... these were disgusting. It was straight up booze with a fairly strong ginger flavor. Blech. But they were free, so I drank two, and I was feeling pretty darn good.

From my very limited visit, I could still tell that this is a pretty cool place. It's a thousand times swankier than most indian restaurants, but regardless, the food is good in my book, even from the two small bites I got. I would totally come back here for a proper meal.

Namaste, my spiritual trifecta

While down in Delaware, we needed dinner. We were in Delmar Delaware. Not exactly the pinnacle of haute cuisine. But luckily, it's just a hop skip and a jump from cosmopolitan downtown Salisbury Maryland. Ooh la la. P and S took us to Namaste, an Indian place in a strip mall, behind a strip mall. Seriously, it wasn't in just a regular strip mall. There were two strip malls, and you had to drive behind it to get to this hidden one. It is quite the international strip mall though. There's also a mexican ice cream place, a caribbean joint, and a brazilian restaurant. After Mantra, then Karma, and now Namaste, I've completed my restaurant spiritual circle.

Namaste seems to be a local gem. P and S love this place. You have to love a place with name the president paper placemats. I love these. The last and only time I saw these was at a different indian restaurant. They must have the monopoly on these. The menu was standard fare with your typical choices. The prices were quite reasonable compared to other places. You normally see $12-15 for entrees. Here, they were $9-12~ish.

Z had some mulligatawny soup. Yum. They used to serve this at my last job a lot in the cafeteria. I think I might have been the only person that ate it, but boy, did I love it. We also ordered a crap load of other dishes. We had some garlic naan and aloo paratha. Man, these were some of the best I've ever eaten anywhere, especially the garlic naan. And they were just super fresh and hot. Perfect! For entrees we got some chicken vindaloo, aloo gobi, mattar paneer, chicken tandoori, and malai kofta. The chicken tandoori was fantastic. It was cooked perfectly, wasn't dry at all, and had plenty of kick ass tandoori oven flavor. The malai kofta and the mattar paneer came in a similar sauce and it was a bit too sweet. I think they overdid it on the sugar a bit. It was still good, but too sweet. And I usually love sweet food, so surprised me as well. The vindaloo and aloo gobi were quite good as well.

Service wasn't too hot. There was only one waiter, and he seems a little frazzled. P and S said usually the service is excellent and that the owner comes by and says hi. On an interesting note, the waiter was chinese. But not chinese chinese, but indian chinese. Which is all starting to make sense since some of my indian friends have told me about fantastic indian chinese food that they have back in india, and that you can find "locally" in Edison NJ. Might be worth the trip!

Namaste Indian Cuisine

717 Roland St

Goliath Shopping Center

Salisbury, MD

410-912-1455

Karma Karma Karma Chameleon

On Friday the 13th, we tested our luck and dined at Karma, an Indian restaurant in old City. It's a fairly classy joint. Fancy decorations, cloth napkins, extensive wine menu. They have a lunch buffet that I hear is fabulous, for dinner, no such buffet.

I love indian food. As shocking as it may be, for someone who just loves food and eats an awful lot, I never had it until about 8 years ago. At the time, I worked with an adorable little old indian man. I swear to you the guy was 72. Seriously. And on my last day there, he took me to eat indian food for the first time. I loved it, and I was hooked forever.

I live near one of the "best" indian restaurants in the Philadelphia area. I won't name it because I had the absolute worst customer service experience I've ever had in my entire life there. And I won't ever go back there. Not ever. I pass it twice a day, on my way to and back from work. I crave their food. But man, they ticked me off so much, and my friends so much, that I can't ever go back there again. SIGH.



In any case, I was definitely excited about eating indian food. I usually always get chicken tikka masala. Not very adventurous, I know, but hey, I love it. I even "make" it at home with the stuff I buy in a jar. C was getting it, so I decided to mix it up by getting butter chicken. Haha. It's pretty much the same, except here, the butter chicken had pieces of chicken, and the chicken tikka masala had big cubes of chicken. They were both great. We also got naan, of course. I have eaten it as a meal before I love this stuff so much. We had garlic naan and also kandhari naan, which was filled with pistachios, raisins, and almonds. Everybody loved that one, I didn't try it.



Some of the veggie dishes that were ordered included chana peshwari (chickpeas), saag paneer (cheese cubes), mattar paneer (cheese cubes), veggie biryani (rice). I'm certainly not a vegetarian, and would rarely order a veggie dish. However, all these were incredible. I especially loved the mattar paneer. It was just friggin good.

There were some other dishes ordered, but I have no idea what they were. The best one to show is this green chicken dish. I haven't a clue as to what it is. It's chicken, that I know. It's freakishly bright green, that I also know. How they got it this color, I have no idea. It certainly is fun to look at. I tasted it and liked it, but I can't describe it. Is green a flavor? In all, this was some of the best indian food I've ever had. I highly recommend it! Service is pretty good and prices are reasonable.

After dinner, we walked on over to Franklin Fountain. This place is as cute as can be. It's run by two brothers from Media and they serve old fashioned ice cream and fountain drinks. It's a beautifully decorated places with lots of old-timey everything.

The ice cream boys wear cute little aprons and little hats. They write down the orders on little slips of paper. And they hand make everything, including the delicious ice cream. I had a ladies choice ice cream soda. It was raspberry soda with peach ice cream and whipped cream. It was bright pink and it was lovely. It's the perfect ending on a warm summer evening. Good friends, good food, good ice cream.

Indian, Tiger Tiger style

It's been a heavy cook at home week. Now I don't go out to eat all that much, but this week has been especially full of actual activity in the kitchen, beyond popping something in the oven. Not sure why. I made one of my most favorite dishes to make last night - Chicken Tikka Masala. Indian, you say? Yes, Indian. Not from scratch mind you, but it doesn't get much easier than this. I use the Chicken Tikka Masala sauce from Tiger Tiger. Now you can also find similar sauces at Trader Joe's or even your grocery store, but typically they are not Tiger Tiger. When I say Tiger Tiger is the best, please listen to me. Their sauces are by far the best when it comes to Indian cooking. I've tried Patak's, and it ain't no good. And neither is Trader Joe's. Tiger Tiger is your only choice.

I used to have to drive all the way to Delaware and go to World Market to get this stuff. Whenever I'd go, I would buy 5 of them at a time so they would last awhile before I had to go back. Lucky for me, now I have a much closer source. I live near the Ardmore Farmers Market, which is also conveniently located 10 feet from the Trader Joe's. There's a new spot at the Market called Adriana's Caravan. It's not a store, because well, it's not a store. It's right at the entrance across from Trader Joe's when you walk in. You see Genji Sushi right in front, and to your left, is the nook that Adriana's Caravan occupies. This place is GREAT. It basically has every ingredient you will ever need to make any international dish. EVER. All and any ethnic cuisine you can think of, they've got what you need. And they carry all of the Tiger Tiger products. Apparently they have an exclusive agreement. All I know is that now I'm only 5 minutes away from Tiger Tiger goodness. Plus, the lady who runs it is super nice. And she named the place after her daughter, Adriana.

So when I say this is easy, I mean it. Cut up the chicken and onions and cook it for awhile in some oil. Then dump the sauce in and simmer for a bit longer. Put over rice and start shovelling. Seriously kids, it's delicious. If you buy some naan from Trader Joe's, then it's even better. So tonight's dinner was the leftovers. Plus, today at work, it was Pretzel Thursday. All hail Pretzel Thursday!