GNO - Indian Style

My friend/colleague, Sri, took me out for my first ever Indian lunch.   She decided to take me to an Indian restaurant in Mid-town Manhattan.  At first I was very apprehensive since I have the funky taste bud issue and I get really nervous when trying new foods.....I mean REALLY nervous!!!  I almost go into panic mode when put in a situation that I have to try something new and am not sure if I will go into the gag reflex.  Since my daughter, Sarah, has been home from her two years in NYC she has done a lot of the cooking (ok, who am I kidding, she has done most of the - umm, no, honestly she has done ALL of the cooking) and she has introduced a lot of new things to my diet....because of this I wasn't as apprehensive as I normally am about trying new foods.....Indian food here I come!!!!!

First, all, I need to say that Sri likes the best of the best and so we didn't just go to any ole Indian restaurant - we went to a very nice one.  They brought out the appetizer (a very flat bread with seeds - I can't remember the name) then we decided to order two different things so that I could try both....chicken and shrimp -- can't go wrong with that!!!   The main course also came with a cabbage dish and lentl soup....and she also ordered the naan (flat bread) which was to die for!!!!  It was soooo good we ordered some more!!!

Appetizer - very flat and crispy and the Balsamic Rice

Naan - served with a small amount of melted butter on it....yummmm!!!

Main course -- Curry Chicken and Scrimp in a tomato and different spices mixture
Both were wonderful!!!!

Dessert - Mango Ice Cream

You can see the ice cream just wasn't any good at all!!!

Later that evening we went to a dinner party at one of her friends' house in Long Island.  This was basically a GNO - Indian style!!!   A couple of the ladies were dressed in their Sari's while others were very casual.  
This was a 6 hour dinner party!!!   I honestly don't think I have ever been to a dinner party that lasted 6 hours - but most of my dinner parties don't include glasses of wine!!! 

When we arrived we were served drinks (diet coke for me!) and appetizers -- oh, my gosh, they were sooo good -- the hosts' mom was here and she cooked her own Indian recipes --- then they drink more wine, talk, eat, drink, talk, eat, and drink.  Then around 9:30 - 10:00 the dinner is actually served --- I could have just had the appetizers and been in heaven!!!  The mom served the typical lamb dish, rice,  a cucumber/tomato/onion salad, curried cauliflower, cauliflower chutney, and the most unusal dish to me was a curried catfish......I did eat some of it but it wasn't my favorite for sure (I mean I am from the south and we FRY catfish - not bake it with spices).  We actually finished the dinner around 11:30!!!

My head bounced back and forth while these ladies spoke Benglish!!!   They had a way of beginning a sentence in Bengali and ending in English....we just laughed because that is how they always talk amongst each other and it was hard for them to curb the Bengali for the non-versed American.  But overall it was a fantastic dinner party/GNO for me!!!  I might have to try something like that at home....(wonder if Sarah could cook up some Indian food for my party)

For now the doctor is out.....contemplating learning to speak Benglish....umm, wonder how long that would take??????