Text 3170, 73 rader
Skriven 2013-08-04 02:34:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Anmol 969
=================
While in Pittsburgh I e-mailed my friend Nicholas and
asked him to meet me at noon for lunch, which he agreed
to. I'd had Su Chiang in mind, but when we met, that was
nixed because (didn't you get the e-mail? I was asked) he
was planning a dinner for Gunther there on 8/8; also
his nutritionist, who is Indian, recommended this other
place in Beverly, Anmol, claiming it the best Indian on the
north shore and perhaps the Boston area, and as Nicholas
always obeys medical advice (as if), we went there.

Turns out I've been to that location several times - the
first few when it had been a bar with decent bar food
(a deal on steak tips, and they'd actually do them rare),
but most recently with my friend Link before a concert
last year, when it had just changed from an all-American
place to what it is now. Funny thing, it's still a bar on
the bar side, unchanged, but the restaurant half has been
tricked out with cheap Indianish knickknacks, and of
course the staff are all Indian.

Our waiter, some kind of south Indian maybe Ceylonese,
bore a strange and creepy resemblance to my junior-high-school
geography teacher, who was a German Benedictine monk. Other
than that he was fine, though he sort of sniffed when I asked
for a Guinness (a bargain at $4 the pint).

The Guinness was nicely poured, and the pipes were clean.

Pappadums with the usual three condiments. The wafers were
a bit burned and bitter, which Nicholas didn't like, but I
thought that that added a little interest, and there's
nothing a heaping dose of onion chutney can't help.

Nicholas ordered seekh kebab, which appears only on the
dinner menu, as they can't be bothered making a lunch-size
portion. Surprisingly, the guy asked how spicy he wanted
the dish, and Nicholas said as hot as you can make it, so
the waiter confirmed, extra extra hot (and this ended up
printed on the bill). The kebabs came, a huge pile on a bed
of sizzling onions and green peppers, very fragrant. They
were sort of semi-spicy but stained the plate with red oil:
inspection indicates that the kitchen probably took the
regular mixture and kneaded a teaspoon or so of chile powder
in, so the heat was noticeable but not prominent; I'd have
preferred maybe a tablespoon of powder and am certain
that Nicholas felt likewise. A tomato-cream sauce such as
you get with tikka masala came on the side: this was very
nice but totally devoid of heat, so putting it on the
kebabs served as a damper rather than anything else. 

Of course my choice was baingan bharta extra spicy but not
as spicy as Nicholas's. This was a vegan, turmeric-heavy
version, extremely similar to the one at Royal Taj the other
day, but the spices were more finely cut. The heat likewise
came in the form of chopped jalapeno and was a couple notches
higher than Nicholas's dish, which pleased me fine.

Rice was pretty fragrant without much spice - a few cumin
seeds and peas was about it. Perhaps it came from the same
Indian restaurant supply as the stuff at Royal Taj.

With the check came a free dessert of kheer, rice and
milk flavored in this case with nothing (it's usually
cardamom and pistachios, sometimes rosewater). The
dispenser of fennel seeds and stuff that usually sits in
the front of the restaurant was brought to us.

We ended up sitting around for close to two hours, during
which we were neither bothered nor asked if we wanted anything.

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