Episode 7 (part 1): A New Christmas Tradition?

With promising-seeming Chinese restaurants either having disappointing menus, or being closed on Christmas (as a Jew from New York and a former resident of Flushing, Queens, a Chinese restaurant being closed on Christmas, or indeed on any day of the year at all, is the first case of culture-shock I've had since coming to Maine), for lunch we needed to deviate from tradition. (Well, we didn't need to, but life's too short for General Tso.) Being in downtown Portland, we stopped in the first open restaurant we saw on Congress Street, India Palace.

Indian food is comfort food for Hot Librarian. How that came to be for a Jewish girl from Peekskill with a low tolerance for chili heat is one of those enduring mysteries that gives marriage its charm. So, to be honest, most of what I'm looking for in an Indian restaurant is that it pleases her.

It's not the first Indian food I've come across in Maine, albeit the first I've eaten. HL has been cooking batches of some of her favorite dishes--paneer makhani, rajma dal--over the weekends to pack for her lunches at work. Masala Mahal in South Portland has been indispensable to us, allowing us to replenish our spice collection since our move. Any cook who uses a lot of spices should make a habit of visiting the nearest Indian grocery store; the brands that cater to a South Asian market are usually packaged in larger, more economical containers than the supermarket brands, and if there's a large enough clientele they tend to move off the shelves faster. That's the key with spices: If left on the shelf too long, their more volatile (and tasty) flavor chemicals will tend to oxidize or evaporate.

Returning to India Palace and HL's verdict: "I'd rather cook my own." The naan was flat and greasy, as if it had been cooked on a griddle rather than in a tandoor oven. Her shahi paneer was too sweet, with very little paneer. My lamb vindaloo likewise had little lamb, and strangely, hadn't been padded out with much aloo (potato). At least mine had plenty of vinegar (vind), a weakness I've noticed at other Indian restaurants, but not much of the chili heat for which vindaloo is famous (though it did smell and taste richly of other spices). Also, the prices were high by Portland standards. It was fine in a Christmas pinch, but not a place I will be returning to quickly.

So will Indian supplant Chinese as our family tradition for Jewish Christmas? Perhaps. It will depend on the outcome of visits to other Indian restaurants, whether those stay open on December 25th--and on whether we can find some decent Chinese around here.