Cowboys eat Indian food

Kyle is a picky eater.  A picky, vocal eater.  He's a steak and potatoes guy and there's nothing wrong with that.


But I am an adventurous eater.  I love spice and as I've said there's nary a vegetable that I don't cozy up to.


We've been married almost 2 years and between me and Kyle's friend Carlos we have been trying to get Kyle to eat Indian food for a solid 5 years of combined effort.


Welp, Kyle finally caved.  I honestly attribute his change of heart to America's Next Great Restaurant on NBC.  For those of you who didn't watch (which is probably all of you since it was just cancelled) there was a man with a fast casual Indian concept in the top 3.  And he made it look quite delicious!


Kyle and I, along with Carlos and his wife (also named Carissa) took off on our first Indian flavor adventure to Aashirwad.  


I'm hooked.  I might bust out a Bali-wood dance right now..that's how happy this meal made me! The flavors were SO strong and amazing!  It was the most food I've eaten in a long time because everything was so good and unique that I just wanted to keep tasting it.


We started our meal with Gobi Manchurian, which is cauliflower florets cooked in the most amazing sauce.  I kid you not...we ordered it...ate it all... and then I ordered another.  It was THAT good.  And I'm not even ashamed of my gluttony.  

Gobi, gobi, gone.

We also ordered spicy chicken lollipops at Kyle's request.  The chili sauce was tantalizing, but I'm partial to "flat" wings and it's hard to beat buffalo.

Lolli lolli

Then it was onto the main dish.... 

Here's a quick entree rundown:
Me: Chicken Tikka- Boneless succulent chicken pieces marinated in yogurt, mild spices, and cooked in the tandoor.  This was a "dry" dish and fairly healthy from what I can tell.  Cooked in the clay over and totally overwhelming with spice.  In a good way.  When my plate arrived I thought it was broccoli...as you can see my chicken was quite green!

Kyle & Carlos - Chicken Tikka Masala - Grilled chicken pieces in a rich flavorful tomato based curry.  We all dipped and dipped the Naan bread in this rich sauce.  The depth of flavor was wonderful.  We ordered mild...I think I'm just crazy enough to crank it up to medium next time.

Carissa v1.0 (1.0 cuz she's older): Chicken Saagwala- Chicken pieces cooked in a creamed spinach curry.  This was my least favorite dish.  Probably because it had cream and I'm not a dairy fan.  


I can honestly say they were flavors we were familiar with...just KICKED up a notch!  Like BAM!  And there were plenty of "diet friendly" entrees particularly those from the tandoor oven.  Just steer clear of that ugly, evil, nutritionally vapid white rice!


And we burned off some calories later that night singing karaoke.  :)  Don't ya wish blogs had sound right about now...

Have you ever had Indian food?  If not, what's holding you back?


If Kyle can do it.  So can you.


Love and Naan, 
Carissa & Kyle