After a brief conversation about Dover's finer side of take-out cuisine, I had curry on the brain. So I call up the "Taste of India" on my way home and have them prepare some Malai Kofta (my personal favorite) and "The vegetarian curry with lots of chick peas in it". Well, I couldn't remember what it's called, but my wife loves the curry with the chick peas in it. So I ask.
The response is "Do you mean the yellow curry?", to which I almost said, "Yes, that's it" before I realized that all curry is yellow. All curry is yellow, and all things cooked with curry are yellow. Actually, I think it's the saffron (another common ingredient in Indian cuisine, and also of most commercial curry powders) that makes it yellow. I have a plastic kitchen spoon that will be yellow forever because I once stirred a curry with it. I will be long dead, the Sun will go supernova, and Eminem will be cool long before the yellow curry stains fade from my spoon. In short: CURRY IS YELLOW.
But, after a quick clarification I was given a suggestion that I thought sounded familiar, I said "Sure, I'll take that too" and salivated in anticipation for the remaining 15 miles of my drive.
Now, you're probably thinking that it was rather rude of me to order like that in the first place. But I know the owners and most of the staff there very well. I always forget the name of that dish. In fact, I still don't know it. So this is kind of a routine. We used to live 247 feet behind and to the left of "Taste of India" and ate there several times a week. They are very used to the routine and I always get the right meal even though I don't know what the hell it's called. I got a warm welcome "Hello Eric my friend!" and a free dish of rice pudding when I arrived. Damn, I love that place. They make a mean rice pudding, by the way. And their Masala tea will reduce the most noble cup of chai to tears.
But the icing on the cake — err, curry — is that while writing this blog, I searched for a review on "Taste of India" and the only reference I could find was this: a mention of the restaurant from none other than the one who started all of this by bringing up Indian food at work today. It's the circle of life man... the circle of life.