OK, OK. My bad. Did I not mention I am notoriously bad at keeping any habit up for long periods, even those as glorious and addictive as blogging about foodie goodness?
Miss me? Well, I missed YOU, my lovelies!!
You're probably wondering what inspired me to get back to the grindstone after my self-imposed blogger exile...all it took was a fairly basic, but YUM meal from Curry Land on Lankershim. The place itself doesn't seem much bigger than my walk-in closet, and thus I've never been inclined to eat there--takeout's the name of this game.
Although they inexplicably changed their name from Curry House to the aforementioned "Land" a few months ago, everything else remains the same for this little Indian gem of the East SF Valley. Every time we have ordered from here, the food has been consistently good. I realized tonight that we were enjoying a total comfort food dinner, though I certainly was not having flashbacks to nights during my childhood where I curled up by the fire with a hot plate of Chicken Tikka and samosas. As I've mentioned in the past, I was a very picky eater growing up and never would have touched most of the items on CL's basic menu...so what is it about the stuff that makes me feel like I've practically crawled back inside the womb? Every bit of the Sag Paner (spinach with paneer cheese-basically the most delicious creamed spinach you can imagine accompanied by cubes of cheese slighter softer and milder than feta) and Sag Aloo (potatoes with more spinach-I guess we were in a Popeye-fying mood tonight) made me feel like putting on my fuzzy slippers and watching, I don't know, "Pollyanna" or something (or would it be "Bollyanna"? Woah, just came up with that, I swear!). Pile those two entrees on some of CL's basmati rice (which seems to have just a touch of saffron in it for color) and you can just plan on mopping up that puddle of happy that is me.
OK, now, to be fair, the meal was not perfect. Along with the two veggie dishes, we ordered Chicken Dansak, described as "chicken cooked in thick lentil sauce with a touch of lemon juice." The chicken was tender, which was necessary in order to cut through the enormous chunks; however, the "thick lentil sauce" was less than impressive. There was little flavor beyond its indistinguishable heat, and no indication of lentils beyond a less-than-desirable graininess in texture.
Another snafoo is actually because of my own faulty memory. Every time we've ordered from Curry House/Land, I've been taken in by the list of delicious naan and insist on ordering some...and every time, I've been disappointed. Rather than the warm, fresh, well-seasoned naans I've come to expect in every Indian restaurant (when I eat THERE), takeout naan comes across as slightly stale, with none of that delicious doughiness. Tonight's choice was garlic, and the garlic meagerly sprinkled on top of the bread seemed bottled rather than fresh. Perhaps third time is the charm, and I'll leave my naan intake to restaurant visits from here on out.
A couple basic things I've learned about Curry Land/House: 1) order plenty ahead of time. The first two times we went there, we waited an inordinately long amount of time for our food. Tonight it wasn't bad, but there were only two people eating in-house. Other times, it's been much busier. 2) Stick to veggie dishes. To each their own, of course, but I've found that the vegetable dishes have been consistently good, while the meat dishes seemed lacking. Not bad, but not worth giving up another serving of Sag Paner, ya know?
Well, I think that is all for this installment. I really have missed you. I hope this wasn't too terribly written--I am feeling really rusty. Tomorrow promises to be another exciting dinner out, so I hope to write about that as well. Glucklichen Freitag und Wochenende!
Cheers,
Em
