For those of you who knew about that nice little Indian Buffet on Church that seemed to disappear, well, it’s back. And it is amazing. Seriously, the food is the best Indian food I’ve ever had. Each thing had about three flavors. Let’s take the chicken tandoori. First, you’d taste the kind of pinky-pinkness and then the tender chicken and then, at the last second, a hint of cinnamon. Cinnamon! It’s the perfect spice for that dish.
And they had this rice that looked like confetti.
And they had something, I don’t know what, but it was brown on the outside, kind of yellowy on the inside and covered in warm honey. When I am Queen of All, I will take baths in that. It’s that decadent.
I’ve always kind of been ambivalent, leaning towards positive about Indian food, but this was so good that I have decided that I like it.
I give it five Brown Things Covered in Warm Honey out of five.
Tiny Cat Pants 
Ya mean gulab jamun?
I’m so glad to hear that they are open now. The old owners did an OK job, but now it’s the people who own Sitar running it, which is one plus, and serving southern Indian food, which is a second plus.
I may have to get lunch there tomorrow, now that I know they’ve opened up.
Ooh, yes, I bet you’re right. Not honey at all. But yum.
Also, we tried to replicate your potato dish yesterday. It didn’t go so well.
What went wrong with it?
If I had to guess, I think we had the heat a little too high, because when we flipped it, it didn’t hold its shape and egg went everywhere and yet the bottom was a little, shall we say, well-done. Still, we put it back in the pan and it ended up tasting fantastic.
So, the taste was not the problem. The egg flood we had was. I think that’s got to be a heat too high problem, don’t you?
Yes, it sounds like it. You don’t need the heat above medium for this. It sounds like you also might not have had quite enough oil in the bottom of the pan when you put the egg in, but it’s a little hard to tell.
The point is that while it gives one a feeling of competence and accomplishment for the tortilla to hold its shape, it will taste just as good no matter what it looks like.
When is the primary date to vote you Queen of All?
Can I be one of your delegates to the convention?
Is it truly run by the Sitar folks?
We were planning to catch this joint sometime; if they’ve got the Gulab Jamon on tap, I’m tempted to hit it this week-ish.
Truly. Or, I should say that that’s what I’ve seen in the newspapers.
I just got lunch there today. Mmmmmmmm.
Hurray! Did you have the Gulab Jamon?? Would it be wrong to kidnap a couple of their cooks to make it for me to bathe in?
No, I had the vegetable korma and some pakoras.
It would be wrong for you to kidnap any of their cooks under any circumstances; first, it would interfere with their personal autonomy, and second, it would interfere with my ability to continue to get my lunch there in such an enjoyable manner. (I mean no disrespect to whoever was cooking the kormas when the place was Taste of India under different management, but, um, there’s no comparison.) It would not be wrong, however, for you to inveigle one or more of the cooks away, so long as you have them cook for me in the intervals of pouring more syrup into your bath.
Fair enough. I was stunned at how good the food is, so tasty and… can you say that a taste has a lot of texture? Somehow their food’s taste has a lot of awesome texture.
It spices up the mouth in several places, with several flavors, and makes the mouth happy without being in the least bit overwhelmed by any feeling of “too much!”. Plus the food has a variety of textures because of the variety of ingredients. The way some chefs can’t get that part to work puzzles me.
Yeah. None of this is making me crave Chicken Tikka Masala any less.
Blogger lunch at Madras Bhavan?
That would be great fun. Can we do it the week I’m back from Canada (I get back the 9th).
Bah! You people and your food and bloggy meet-ups. I’m stuck here in what has to be the one bit of ethnic LA without accompanying good ethnic food. Even the holes in the wall are just holes in the wall.
Elegy Written on Nashville’s Church Street
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
But Madras Bhavan’s tablecloths were clean,
And, all agree, its food beyond compare.
No mute inglorious Milton could express
The sorrow that my bosom did supply,
To read the message, “Sorry. Out of busniss.”
What caused this Indian restaurant to die?
What?! But… but… The food was so good!
I don’t have a f*@**^ing clue. I wasn’t the only one staring in the windows (tables are still set) and wondering aloud. I don’t think it can have been lack of business that did them in.
I was seriously planning on eating there for lunch on Friday.
That’s it.
They just knew I was coming.
Well, I was seriously planning on eating lunch there today, so you can imagine my surprise.
Yeah, that’d be kind of a real killjoy.
But they had business cards!
That’s probably what tipped them over into the loss column.
So The Tennessean says that the chef left. And that the Sitar people are thinking about putting an Italian restaurant in the space instead. Excuse me while I sulk.
Wow, you know… I’m just going to stop suggesting restaurants for my Tennessee visit. Everything I suggested closed up.