still buzzin'....

...from the rockin' show I saw last night. Arrested Development was at Slim's. Now, I remember a few of their songs from, hm, when was it, middle school? And I like them, but I didn't truly appreciate their musical talent until I saw them on a super cheesy (yet awesome) show called Hit Me Baby One More Time. In this show, groups and performers from way back when (think Wang Chung, Vanilla Ice, Flock of Seagulls, Tiffany!) perform one of their hits and a cover of a current hit, and then the audience votes on who performed the best and that group gets to donate some money to their favorite charity. Well, Arrested Development won. They can really belt it, plus they have great performance energy. So I was super psyched when I found out they were touring and would be in SF.

The location of the venue gave me the perfect excuse to try out a restaurant I've heard good things about but have never gotten around to - India Garden. Funny side story: I heard about this place because my first roommate in SF went on a date here, where at the end of the night they shared the most (in her words) flaccid good-night kiss ever, but he apparently didn't think so because as he pulled away he said "mmm, deadly" - she of course ran immediately upstairs to share this information with me, we had a good bout of sidesplitting laughter, and have referred to him as "deadly" ever since, so much so that I can't remember his real name.

Okay, enough of the side stories. This place is good. We had a really hard time narrowing down our choices. I definitely wanted to try the vegetable korma, but then that left us with only one other entree spot. We toyed with the idea of ordering three entrees for two people but we probably would have hated ourselves in the middle of the show when we were instructed to jump up and down. We debated between the lamb coconut curry and something called "velvet chicken" - the lamb won. We also ordered vegetable samosas, justifying this by telling ourselves we could since we didn't order the third entree. Yow.

You know something is made right when it's deep-fried but leaves you feeling hungry for the rest of the meal. I've always wondered why people order deep-fried appetizers - so many times they are greasy and just make you feel all clogged up for the rest of the meal. Done right though - ahhh, yummy. These samosas were perfect - nice and crispy on the outside, not at all greasy-feeling, with the perfect amount of spice in the filling so that you didn't feel the need to douse it with cilantro chutney to give it flavor. After gobbling mine up I bounced around in anticipation for the rest of the meal.

Our dishes, along with rice and nan, came out a little later. Already things looked promising - the texture of the korma looked fantastic, and neither dish had those awful little pools of oil you sometimes see in other restaurants. The vegetable korma was amazing - nice big chunks of carrot, summer squash, cauliflower, peas, and bell pepper, with crunchy nuts. The lamb curry was also good - the texture of the lamb was much better than some of the other dry, tough chunks I've eaten in the past. It could have used a little more coconut and a little less salt, but I think saltiness in lamb dishes must be inherent - I have not yet had one single lamb korma, curry, or vindaloo that hasn't been very salty. Hm. I wonder why that is.

We were stuffed, and there was even some leftover to take home. I had the beginnings of food coma which did not bode well for the rest of the evening but eventually, the energy of the show pulled me through and I could dance the night away.

Go here!
India Garden
1261 Folsom St (btw 8th and 9th)