Gateway to India

There is a great Indian Food Restaurant nearby called Gateway to India. My friend Jill came down today and I dragged her here as I've been craving their great food lately. (Okay, in real life I mentioned it and she started to drool. But the dragging thing sounded better.)

This is one of cool lamps they use. My friend Erin wanted to steal one the last time we were here.

I had to order Chai Tea as soon as we sat down. It's my very favorite and they have free refills. It's not too spicy and not too milky and just sweet enough. I love it!

Being the bad friend I am, I talked Jill into sharing some Paneer Pakora with me (that's fried homemade cheese to the non-Indian food people out there.) This is the very last piece because I was so excited to eat that I forgot to take a picture when it arrived. I also don't have any pictures of their wonderful lentil soup, which comes with the entree. I just dug in and forgot about my camera until it was all gone. Jill and I prefer the brown sauce for the cheese...it's kind of a sweet and sour dealie. The other sauce is a cold cilantro cream with a little kick to it.

Sorry some of these pictures are blurry...I was trying to be fancy and use the "close up photography" setting, which apparently makes it really hard for the auto-focus to do its job. You'll notice there are only 2 pieces of garlic naan in the basket. It came with four. Oops.

Then came my very favorite thing! Chicken Korma. It's pieces of chicken simmered in a creamy, curry type sauce. Of course, I ordered mine at negative hot. That means when they say "How spicy on a scale of one to five?" I always say "negative one." I can't stand spicy-hot food. All it does is kill my tastebuds so I can no longer enjoy the food I'm eating. What's the point of that? Their lentil soup is a little hot, but not too bad. As I keep eating it, though, my nose ends up running down my face. TMI, I know.

I love the little container it comes in with a candle underneath to keep it warm.

Okay, this is my plate with the naan, korma and basmati rice. Notice the big bite mark out of the naan? What can I say? It's GOOD!

Although I felt like I ate a ton, I still had leftovers to take home. I love these little chinese food boxes. They're so much better (and cuter!) than the styrofoam stuff. Besides being bad for the environment, I hate it when the steam rises and water condenses on the styrofoam and then drips back onto my food. So all restaurants, take note! Styrofoam is evil!!

How come these are Chinese food containers and not Indian food containers? Do they make Indian food containers? They should make these little boxes for all the nations and just change the picture. Then we'd have Italian food containers and Mexican food containers and greasy American food containers...or maybe not.