The Madcap Cousins Try Indian Cuisine

My cousins and I got together recently.  Actually, we had an additional two cousins- once-removed join us, as well.  The group is expanding.  Pretty soon we will be an army of cousins.   Or we could start a cousin street gang and all get the same tattoos.  I’ll work on the secret handshake later.  The point is, we will soon conquer the world.  This time around we wanted to conquer Indian food.

The six of us descended upon an Indian restaurant and took up residence at the center table under a ridiculously large and flashy chandelier.  I’m not sure exactly how this fits into Indian decor, but as you can see above, it was something to behold.  My dear Indian friends, perhaps you can shed some light on this matter.  Ugggh, that pun was totally unintentional, but in the spirit of silliness, I will let it stand.  Maybe very large lighting fixtures are the norm in India and I just need to be enlightened.  Ok, that one WAS intended, I must confess.  I’ll hang my head in shame now.

There we were, under said chandelier and the excitement was palpable, though not yet palatable.  Three of us love Indian food and the other three hadn’t had it before.  The tension started to build as we ordered some Vegetable Samosas for the appetizer.  Oh no!  The samosas were deliciously spiced, but the level of hotness could not be denied.  What was somewhat hot for me was going to be too hot for our neophytes.  I could see it in their faces, this was an ominous precursor.

I hoped that this would not sour them on the dishes to come.  I ordered my favorite dish which is Saag Paneer.  I’ve also ordered it as Palak Paneer.  Is there a difference?  Again, I defer to my Indian friends.  Thank goodness I have many and they put up with me, at least so far. The rest of the crew ordered many different chicken dishes, all in red gravy.  Theirs all looked alike.  I decided to go green.  That’s kind of my style anyhow, so it was fitting.  Leave it to me to be different!

I won’t name names to protect the innocent, but for those of you who follow me on Facebook, you can probably figure it out.  Three of us loved it, as we knew we would.  Of the three who had never had Indian food before, one had a “meh” reaction and two were decidedly underwhelmed.  I thought it was adventurous of them to try something they had never had before and I was proud of them.  I just wished they liked it more.  Maybe if they had tried something green.  Maybe, oh so many maybes.  Sigh…If only I hadn’t told them how great it was.  If only I hadn’t raised their expectations.  Yup, there were a lot of “if onlies,” too.  When it comes right down to it, I know it wasn’t my fault.  I blame the samosas.