Dinner with an ex-Pres

Okay so not really, but we did eat at Bill Clinton's favorite restaurant in Delhi. A fact they can't seem to tout enough...you can order the Presidential Platter with all of Bill's faves or even a Chelsea Platter.

As we were out with Jules' work peeps there was a set menu but with the amount of food brought out I'm sure we had at least of few of Bill and Chelsea's choices.

Bukhara, named after the lentil dish Dal Bukhara, is the most expensive restaurant in Delhi and described as "the finest Indian cuisine on planet earth". Pretty high standards to live up to and amazingly enough it did not disappoint.

Everything from the lamb kabobs,to the dal, to the chicken tandoor, to the paneer (cheese), to the giant naan and even the mystery dishes was delicious.

We were a little wary of the hug bibs we had to tie around our neck but when we realized we were eating with our hands it seemed pretty appropriate.

Definitely a meal to remember and the best Indian food we've had thus far.

WILL WORK FOR SALAD

I know we've been pretty lazy about our food blog so I just wanted to update you on our eating habits here in India...

Due to Jules working late we tend to eat in the hotel most of the time. The food here is pretty good and more importantly they have "non-Indian" items on the menu...so when we can't take another bite of anything with masala flavor we chow down on a thin-crust pizza, a sandwich or some shrimp fried rice. They actually have the best ristotto I've ever had, perfectly cooked wild mushroom and lamb.

The food at the hotel is about 10-15 times what you pay outside of the hotel so we have ventured into some local eateries. In this case it is easiest to stick with what names I recognize. This means I'm pretty much guaranteed a meal of Chicken Tikka Masala or some sort of Dal (lentils) and bread. I've had some good CTM and some that was a bit iffy. Dal is a safe bet saving its spice level which can range from "spicy" to "make you want to rip your tongue out".

The hardest thing is that when you are ordering an Indian meal you either chose "veg" or "non-veg"...meat dishes contain no real veggies. You're lucky if the gravy is made with tomatoes and you see an onion or two floating around in there.

Because of health reasons we have to avoid things that are not cooked, like salad. Which, I thought I'd be pumped about but in truth I would probably do just about anything for a freaking salad right now.

Although, I love Indian food it does get tiring...everything from potato chips (although I have become fond of the "magic masala") to soups to the seemingly innocent crispy bread served with dinner is highly spiced and usually hotter than Hades.

In general though the food, although prepared in an unfamiliar way, is fairly normal. We get the normal meats outside of beef and pork...a lot of chicken and mutton/lamb. There are some strange veggies and with the majority of the population being vegetarian there are endless choices of veggie curries.

All I can say is at this point Jules is dreaming of a hamburger and I'm really looking forward to eating a Greek salad every single day!

We'll try to be better about recording our dinners/eating experiences...the good, the bad and the ugly.

Easing In

Our hotel has three restaurants; an Indian, a Japanese and a “global” that serves everything from Indian to Italian. We chose the latter for our first dinner in India. Jules had a pizza, one girl had pasta and another had an Asian dish.

I chose to have an Indian dish because, well, because I’m in freaking India. Although, I’m sure soon enough I’ll be ordering pizza too.

I had the hyderabadi dum biryani, a dish I was familiar with from eating at Bombay Café in Atlanta. Basmati rice and chicken with fragrant spices are all cooked together in a sealed pot. Delish.

The best part was that along with the typical yogurt it was served with a spicy pepper gravy. I was really happy to be in control of my spice level and towards the end of my meal I was drenching everything in it and almost sweating.

It was so good that we ordered it from room service the next night.

From blog photos

to eat or not to eat?

It seems Julie and I were not the only ones curious about the small centerpiece-like dish on our hotel coffee table. A couple of the other girls here were asking about them at breakfast…”What is it? Are we supposed to eat it?”

So we decided to ask our housekeeper today just exactly that this little orange tower was “food or décor?”

Seems we were right it thinking it was food…gooseberries.
I decided to give them a try and found them to be delicious. Very sour as you can see but delicious.

ribbit

to "kick" off our culinary adventure i decided to try the frog legs at zaya in inman park...although the preparation of the meat was a little too heavy on the lemon flavor for my taste the old saying "tastes like chicken" held true.

this was one big frog!