Hey Y’all! So after last week’s adventure I thought it was
time to cross one of my food challenges off the list. When my friend Jake
invited me to lunch this week I knew exactly which one I could do. Ethnic food.
Jake is probably as adventurous with food as I am conservative. I’ve heard him
say more than once that the best restaurants are the ones the health inspector
hasn’t found yet! My tastes tend to lean more towards the vanilla side of
things. My friend, Abby could not have described it more perfectly when she
said that I have a “conservative palette.”
After telling Jake what I wanted to accomplish for this week’s
entry he knew just the place to test my cuisine boundaries. So Monday afternoon
I pulled up at Jai Ho, an Indian restaurant with a lunch buffet tucked into a
little shopping center off of Fowler Avenue in Tampa. I’ve heard good things
about this place from my pal, Scott, who absolutely adores Indian food. In fact,
he said that if he had to pick his top restaurants to eat a last meal at Jai Ho would be on his list. And that’s saying a lot.
So we went inside the restaurant and were greeted by the most
precious little man who happened to be the owner. After getting settled into
our booth and ordering some waters we headed up to the buffet. Apparently I was
going to need some water as a few of the dishes were going to be a little spicy
as Jakes tells me. I’ve already mentioned how vanilla my taste buds tend to be
so this makes me a little nervous. Spicy food and I don’t always get along if
you know what I’m saying. ;-)
Here’s what Jake loaded up onto my plate…
Nan- light Indian bread
Steamed White Rice- self explanatory
Butter Chicken- chicken marinated in a yogurt and spice
mixture
Chicken Biryani- chicken cooked in a copper pot with basmati
rice, herbs and spices
Vegetable Pakora- basically fried vegetables
Murgh Tikka- chicken with Indian herbs cooked in a clay oven
Goat Curry- goat mixed with a curry sauce
Baingan Bhartha- eggplant mashed with tomatoes and onions
with herbs and spices
Dal Makhani- black lentils steamed with Indian herbs and
spices
Jake explained to me that I was to
use the nan (bread) as a utensil and eat with my hands! What???? I half
expected that to go about as well as when I forget that I have no coordination
whatsoever and try chopsticks and end up with rice all over me. But it wasn’t
too bad at all. I just tore up some pieces of nan and scooped up my food with
it. Although that only lasted about two or three tries before my inner etiquette
queen started freaking out about eating with my hands. So I switched to the
fork and knife that must have been provided just for silly white girls like
me. Jake tells me that it’s a good thing we’re in ‘Mercia and not India because
there wouldn’t be a fork to be found!
I surprised myself with how brave I
was because I tried everything on my plate without hesitation. Didn’t even
blink! I probably just didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of Jake. To my
astonishment everything was really, really good. I couldn’t believe it. Here I
was, someone who absolutely refused to try this kind of cuisine because of my “conservative
palette” just eating it all up like it was no big deal. Th goat curry was actually quite delicious but I do have to say the
butter chicken and vegetable pakora were probably my favorites. Shocking, I
know. I would like anything fried or that had "butter" in the name. Must be the
Southern girl in me.
Dessert is always my favorite part
of a meal so I was super excited when Jake went to get it from the buffet. He returned with these
little donut hole looking things that had been soaked in honey (gulab jamun)
and a bowl of carrot pudding (gajar ka halwa). Both were just scrumptious. I
mean, how could anything soaked in honey not be good, seriously!
I can’t believe I was so afraid to try
this out! Lunch was completely delightful and I will definitely go again. Maybe
I’ll even be able to eat my whole meal with just the nan?? On second thought, that might be
pushing it. J
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