By: Kirsten Haalboom, food critic
mmmm...mango lassis
Saturday night is date night, but what should we do and where should we go? There is always dinner and a movie, but that gets a bit old if you always go to the same place for dinner. We need to spice things up a bit. When we realized that the movie we wanted to see was playing in Hobart, it solved things for us… we would swing by Taste of India, at 761 East 81st Avenue in Merrillville, before the movie.
Indian food has long been a favorite of Gus’s, and we were thrilled when a sign showed up in what used to be a Caribou Coffee store announcing the new restaurant. We had missed eating at our favorite Indian place in Minneapolis (also called Taste of India, oddly enough), and so we waited in anticipation for this restaurant to open. Now we eat there whenever we have an opportunity to go to Merrillville around dinner time.
My favorite dish to order is usually Saag Paneer, which is spinach and cheese, eaten with fresh naan, which is delicious flat bread. Gus usually gets lamb korma, which is lamb cooked in an almond sauce, served over rice. The wonderful thing about Taste of India is that they spice your dish to order, so if you do not want a burning mouth, you can get it mild. But if you want it spicy, you masochist you, you can go for it.
Favorites aside, for the purposes of this article, we ordered the House Special Dinner for two. This included a tandoori platter, vegetable korma, lamb curry, rice, naan, and a choice of dessert, all for $34.95. You can get the same meal for one for $19.95, so it is more cost effective to bring a friend. For the vegetarians in our midst, there is an option called the vegetable thali for one, which includes vegetable korma, dal makani, saag paneer, rice, naan, and dessert for only $15.95.
My four part analysis of our meal is as follows:
1. Ambiance
As stated above, the previous use for the building housing the Taste of India was a Caribou Coffee, and you can still see some of the northern influence around the edges of the restaurant. However, the decor was fairly tasteful overall, with a rather muted color palate and simple art work. The tables were slightly crowded, but elegantly set. My only complaint about the ambiance at Taste of India was that the music would have suited an elevator. It was instrumental versions of love songs from the 90’s. It actually made me a bit sleepy.2. Service
Overall, the service was unobtrusive, but efficient. There was not much charisma involved, due primarily to the fact that the servers did not chat or linger longer than necessary to provide us with our drinks and food. However, the food was brought out quickly and we never needed to ask for a refill. Also, our server told us what everything was on our platter, which was nice since it was a combo platter of sorts, and I might not have known each item by sight alone. My only complaint was towels before they brought our dessert. We actually believed that, horror of horrors, they had forgotten our dessert. But do not worry, it did come eventually.
3. Cost
The prices of the dinners range from $9 to $20, but the price given does not include rice or bread, and many of the dishes really need at least rice or bread to be complete. However, if you are in Merrillville at lunch time, there is a lunch buffet, and students are given a discount at this. Also, the options for meals listed above are very cost effective, especially because they do include rice and bread. The meal Gus and I shared was huge. We both ate until we were filled, and we had leftovers! $35 is not terrible for the two of us to eat two meals each.
4. Taste
Our meal began with the tandoori platter. It included chicken and lamb and was very tasty. The tandoori chicken was not the best I’d ever had, but Gus really loved the lamb. The rice and naan came next, along with the vegetable korma and the lamb curry. I served some vegetable korma over rice for myself. The rice was, of course, cooked perfectly, and the vegetable korma was flavorful. If you do not like the taste of cauliflower, you would probably not like the vegetable korma, because that is the overriding flavor in the dish. However, if you do like it, and I do, the dish is savory and delicious, with peas and carrots accompanying the cauliflower in the almond sauce.
I like to dip my naan into the lamb curry sauce. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Indian food, this curry is not the yellow kind you may have seen in school cafeterias. It is brown, like the meat it is prepared with, and it is delicately spiced to give just a kick to the flavor. It is also very tasty served over the rice. If the spice is too much for you, or if you ordered your meal spicy and want to stop the burning in your throat, I recommend ordering a mango lassi. A mango lassi is a drink made from yogurt and mango puree. The yogurt kills the burn, and the mango tastes amazing.
With our meal we got to choose a dessert. We decided to try gulab jamun, which are dumplings made from milk pastry and served in saffron syrup. I enjoyed the dessert, but Gus thought it was too sweet. We both agreed that they were a good end to the meal because they left a wonderful flavor of saffron in your mouth, allowing us to go to the movie without curry breath.
Conclusion
If you are looking for someplace different to eat so that you can spice up your diet a bit, Taste of India is a good choice. The food is made with care, with the spice to taste, and there are a wide variety of options. If you are nervous about trying a new cuisine, the buffet or the House Special Dinner might be good choices, because they allow you to try several things and decide exactly what you like. Otherwise, I would recommend coming with friends, and having everyone order something different. That way you could eat family style and share.
Kirsten is a 3L and can be reached at forum@valpo.edu
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