Namaskar, Somerville, MA (Battle of the Davis Square Indian Buffets, Part 2)

Namaskar
234 Elm St., Somerville, MA

Now comes the long-anticipated conclusion in our quest to find out which is the better Davis Square Indian buffet. Let's get down to business...

The Offerings:

Chutneys:

tamarind: Weak. It tasted more like sweet and sour sauce. It was lighter in color too.
mint: n/a
onion: n/a
raitha: This stood out in my mind as tasting quite better than the usual. More tang to it.
hot chutney: While I didn't try it, I did observed that it looked almost identical to pickle.

(left to right, top to bottom): lettuce, green pepper, not sure, not sure, orange wedges, not sure, red onion, carrots, cucumber, hot chutney, kheer, raitha, tamarind chutney.

Salad: First, I'm going to apologize, for I can't seem to remember, or make out in the picture what some of the items in the salad section were. This tells me that the salad section was quite expansive. Apparently the 'build you own salad' platform is popular in Davis Square. Overall this one was bigger, however, less fruit and more veggies.

Bread:






































naan: It was delivered to my table. I liked how it was cut into strips. it saves me having to rip it on my own :). This naan was slightly on the thinner side and very flavorful> I kept wondering if it was garlic naan and then telling myself 'no'. I'm pretty sure what I was tasting was the oils and maybe a little seasoning.

Soup:

the hot and sour soup is in the bottom, left pan. (also pictured (top 3): mixed veg. pakora, saag, raswala bataka, and(next to soup) pindi chana)





































hot and sour soup: I've had a soup called 'hot and sour soup' at Chinese restaurants, but this one is different. I would say I'd pick the Chinese version. It didn't have much flavor. There were carrots in it...not too exciting for me.

Appetizer:

mixed veg. pakora: These were of good size. They all seemed to be the same vegetable, despite the name. I think the vegetable was mushroom.

Entrees:

(clockwise from upper left:) raswala bataka, mushroom chicken, tandoori chicken, beef curry, and chicken tikka masala.









































































(above, clockwise from upper left :) raswala bataka, mushroom chicken, chicken tikka masala, and kadhai paneer.

saag: It was just spinach curry; no paneer, no vegetables, nothing. After I got past this, it was fine. It still scooped up nicely into the pieces of the rather tasty naan.
pindi chana: Essentially chole or chana masala. The sauce was a little thin though. It made up in flavor; tangy and spicy
raswala bataka: I'd never seen this before. Once again, a popato dish with a confusing name. It consisted of potatoes in a white, creamy, sauce. I enjoyed it though. I'm not sure how to descibe the flavor... almost lentily, definitely mild. I suppose one could say "savory".
kadai paneer: I enjoyed this kadai paneer alot more than that which I had at Cafe India. Less spicy and more all-around flavor.
mushroom chicken: It was boneless chicken pieces and mushroom in that classic brown curry sauce I always see when a dish has curry in the name. It's a tangy, cinnamony, taste that I enjoy. On a low note, the chicken was dry for my liking. That killed my buzz a skoatch.
chicken tikka masala: What I said about the chicken in the last dish, I'll ditto for this one. Which sucked because the tikka masala sauce was damn good.
tandoori chicken: This may be the worst tandoori chicken I've tasted. The chicken was pretty dry (no surprise there), and it just kinda tasted burnt.
beef curry: This was odd. I was sure that Indian food never used beef. I'm pretty sure this was the same curry sauce that was used in the mushroom chicken. It drove like goat curry, but the beef gave it something slightly heartier and milder in taste. i need to read up on Indian food and if it does or doesn't use beef.

Dessert:

kheer: This was right on. Perfectly seasoned with coriander, not too thick or thin, sweet but not too sweet. A win in my book.

Price: $9.62 weekday (MA sales tax included)

Final Score: 4.0/5

A TIE! There you have it. If you ever find yourself in Davis Square and can't decide which Indian Buffet to choose, in my opinion, flip a coin. As far as food quality goes, both places aren't bad. If you want fancier environment and more common Indian dishes, go to Diva, but beware the stange seemingly non-Indian offerings. For a slightly wider selection and more unusual dishes, than Namaskar is for you. Either way, I intern down the street and have a culinary goldmine (i.e. Davis Square) a stone's throw away. In the end, I win.

Diva, Somerville, MA (Battle of the Davis Square Indian Buffets, Part 1)

Click on picture to see the full image

In Davis Square, (a goldmine for restaurants and bars in Somerville, MA) lie two Indian Buffets some 5 doors down from each other. This epicenter of good eats is just down the street from where I intern. The first time I set foot in Davis and witnessed the dual Indian Buffet situation, I felt as if I had dies and gone to heaven. Having already started this blog at that time, there seemed only one logical course of action: to have these two buffets battle to the death. This is a battle to the death that consists of me surveying both buffets, and deciding if there is one that reigns supreme in medium-spiced goodness. If they both deliver equally, then I suppose nobody dies or gets hurt. If you haven't been to either restaurants, and you find yourself in Davis Square craving all-you-can-eat Indian food, this two part series useful to you. And now begins the first installment of the series. The battle shall begin with the restaurant that is known as Diva Indian Bistro....

Diva Indian Bistro
246 Elm St., Somerville, MA

This may be the most chic Indian Buffet I've been to. Click the link above. Their website will give you an idea, as well as show you photos, of the interior and subsequent vibe of this restaurant. The fancy, tall, copper pots in which the dishes were contained added even more to the posh, sophisticated, aura of this place.

The Offerings:

Chutneys/Sauces:

tamarind: This one was exceptionally sweet. I tend to lean towards the tangy chutneys. It wasn't bad, but not ideal for my tastebuds, which crave a tangy whipping.
mint: n/a. This is what I'll put for now if I didn't try it. Sue me.
onion: n/a
raitha: It tasted like it usually does, refer to post so I don;t have to sound like a broken record describing the flavor. I had it on my salad.

(Clockwise from top-left) sliced melon, sliced apple, tamarind chutney, raitha, onion chutney, mint chutney, orange wedges, tomato slices, red bell pepper slices, sliced cucumber, and iceberg lettuce.



































Salad: Holy crap this was user friendly! Not only did they separate the ingerdients, letting you build your own. There was also an assortment of fruit. We've seen a model similar to this at Pongal.

Bread:
pictured below: garlic naan



































garlic naan: It was basket to the table service. Upon my being seated however, I was given the option of regular or garlic naan. Smooth move. I chose garlic. It was crispy, full bodied, and oily. Thumbs up.

Soup:
also pictured: spicy chickpea salad (I couldn't discern if there was an actual name for it)

minestrone? It was minestrone soup: shell pasta w/ vegetables, but with and Indian spiced broth. I still don't know how I feel about these Indian covers of other culture's food. I suppose it's because I love seeing food I've never heard of.
"spicy chick peas": I suppose I'll put this here because it was next to the soup. I'm guessing it's to be eaten like a salad. Most likely, in my knowledge of Indian food, this was some form of chaat. It was spicy and lightly sauced. The chick peas dominated the flavor, along with the spiciness.

Appetizers:

left: pappadum, right: aloo pakora



































aloo pakora: What we have here, in essence are battered, fried potatoes, cut into sticks. Wait, this looks familiar. In America, I think we call them "french fries". I think I prefer the Indian variation. Instead of flour batter, they are battered with lentil, in true pakora fashion. I'm noticing a continuation in the subtle cross-cultural cuisine theme...
papadums: Here they are again (once again, see Pongal). This time, less on the Muncho flavor and more on the spicy flavor.

Entrees:
front to rear: tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, aloo samgar, saag paneer, aloo chole





































































above (same as previous, from opposite end): aloo chole, saag paneer, aloo samgar, chicken tikka masala, tandoori chicken.

aloo chole: I love it when I find potatoes tossed into a chickpea curry. More to love. This was nice n' spicy n' tangy.
saag paneer: This one gets more points on how promising it looked than how it actually tasted. It LOOKED thick and creamy, perhaps slightly on the lime-green side. However, its TASTE was probably the mildest, dare I say blandest, saag paneer I've tasted. That's not saying much though, because I still enjoyed it. I've tasted worse.
aloo samgar: The curried potato dishes always seem do have different, confusing names. I couldn't actually find one picture or recipe of this dish online. Either they made it up or I'm getting the name wrong. I do recall that the label noted that there was turnip in the dish too. It tasted alright to me. I didn't see much difference between this dish and the Kashmiri Dum Aloo that I had at Mehmaan. Lightly sauced, starchy, and spicy.
chicken tikka masala: Ahh it's time to asses the classic tikka masala bid. Well, it was good, but not great. The chicken pieces were rather large and slightly dry. The good part was that the sauce was creamy, very creamy.
tandoori chicken: n/a
chicken patties? This left me befuddled. A pan full of chicken patties garnished with cilantro. I tried them nonetheless. What I got was something with a completely unique flavor that tasted almost likea completely different meat. This was an interesting wa to pick up some points.

Dessert:

lemon-poppyseed mini muffins: FAIL. I don't want fucking mini muffins for dessert. What the hell are they trying to pull? They're neither Indian nor dessert food.

Price: $9.63 on a weekday (w/ MA tax). Nice n' cheap.

Final Score: 4.0/5

Well I don't know how much headroom a 4.0 is going to give you. It's one of the lower scores I've given out. I heard Namaskar's buffet is a nickel cheaper than Diva's. Speaking quality-wise, Namaskar only has to have slightly better food to win. Diva has a nice ambiance, but I don't take that much into account, I never was very sensitive to ambiance...

Stay tuned for part 2...

No review this week, but that doesn't mean I haven't been eating Indian food...

Somewhere amidst the carefree-ness of spring break, the drunken revelry of St. Patty's day, and spending half the week going back-and-forth across Massachusetts, I found myself without the time or money to do my usual in-depth Indian buffet survey, but don't you think for a second that I went without ingesting curry in some form or another...

Enter the world of instant Indian meals. These vegetarian Indian delights come pre-made in a pouch which one can either heat in the microwave for 2 minutes, or submerge in a pot of boiling water for 4-5 minutes. One could view these as India's T.V. dinners. They're what I eat when I'm not lounging at an Indian buffet. The flavor doesn't match what I taste in my buffet reviews, but at $1-3 a pop at your local Indian grocery store, they're cheap as hell. They DO sell them in most local supermarkets, however, they usually cost $3-4, so buying these at an Indian grocery store is ideal. The Indian Grocery stores in the Lowell area, where I buy these meals include Palika Bazaar on Drum Hill, East West Foods on Middlesex Ave., and Super Bazaar in the AMC plaza in Tyngsboro. I'll leave you with links to some of the makers of these instant meals:

Priya

MTR

Here's even a blog that reviews an instant Indian meal.

Bangin Food

Mehmaan, Nashua, NH

Mehmaan Restaurant
295 Daniel Webster Highway, Nashua, NH

Being that there are 3 Indian buffets in Nashua (that I know of), and having been to 2, I might as well come here to cross Nashua, as a whole, off of our list.

The Offerings:




















Chutneys/Sauces:
large bowl: salad. small bowls (left to right): raitha, mint chutney, onion chutney, tamarind chutney






























-tamarind: 'Twas a very chunky and tangy sauce. I always enjoy this and I always say this here.
-mint: The main difference I notice in this sauce from place to place is its thickness and its paleness. some places seem to have a mint chutney that looks like salsa verde and is cilantro-heavy in flavor. The other is paler in color and mintier in flavor. I like it but I don't love it. It is neat how they
-onion: It was tomatoey and oniony and very acidic.
-raitha: Tasted the same as it always does.

Salad: It was pre-mixed in a bowl, and very onion/green pepper heavy. Actually, I think that's all there was. Meh.

Bread:



























-naan: They used to serve it to the table, now they cut it up into smaller pieces and leave it up on the buffet line. Their naan is very oily. I, personally, loved it; both the flavor and the fact that I don't have to wait for it anymore.

Soup:






















-coconut soup! What a delight! I could have never dreamed this soup up. It was basically a white broth, most likely coconut milk-based. It had the flavor of coconut, but it wasn't sweet like a desert. Oh how I love when ingredients are used in a way I would never expect.

Appetizer:

right: veg. pakora. left: tandoori chicken




























-pakora: The pakoras were medium sized, and solid, which I like better then when they're small and flaky.

Entrees:

left: butter chicken. right: chicken biryani


























left: veg. korma. right: punjabi chole


























left: dum aloo. right: naan



























-butter chicken: I found it interesting that the chicken was cut up into incredibly small pieces. Perhaps it could be that all of the big pieces had been eaten. Either way, the small pieces of chicken made for easy scooping with naan. The dish was also considerably spicy.
-chicken biryani: I don't usually try this dish. It usually features spiced meat and rice. it's a drier dish so I usually tend to stay away from it. I tried it today, however. It was spicy and cinnimony in flavor, but quite dry. I couldn't get over the dryness.
-vegetable korma: The sauce was sweet and creamy. The veggies looked like they could have come from a pack of frozen mixed vegetables, being that the veggies were primarily a mix of broccoli and carrot and the carrots were krinkle cut. They didn't necessarily taste that way though, so think of that last comment as nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
-punjabi chole: This dish is more commonly seen with the name chana masala. It's a classic favorite of mine. Chickpeas in a spicy curry sauce. It's hard to discribe the flavor other than that it slightly spicy and tastes of cumin and coriander.
-dum aloo: This dish looked like cooked potato chunks with an orange tint, perhaps from seasoning. Other than the flavor of the potatoes themselves, I couldn't taste much, perhaps a subtle spice akin to the usual spicier curry sauces.
-tandoori chicken: It tasted like it usually does and possessed the same moisture qualities I usually see. I will note the extensive amount of sliced pepper and onion that served as a bed at the bottom of the buffet pan.

Dessert:
























-kheer: It was delicious. It was thick, almost like American rice pudding. It wasn't too sweet, but still had an excellent creamy flavor. I did notice that there was something in this pudding that looked and felt as if the pudding may have formed skin, or there's some other ingredient in there that I do not know about. Either way, it had no affect on the flavor, which is what counts in my book.

Price: $10.85 weekday (w/ N.H. meals tax) On the steep side.

Final Score: 4.0/5

All in all, the offerings were pretty tasty and pretty classic. I'm gonna need more offerings for the price they're offering. The steep price for seemingly standard North Indian fare is what's hindering their score. If they were priced like Priya, the score would be much higher. It appears by the high price, that they hold their food on some sort of pedestal. Yes, it is really good, but not "I'll pay almost 11 dollars, plus tip" amazing. In fact, I'm gonna turn up the heat and say that for what this place has to offer, I could go to India Palace, pay less, and get food that is just as good, if not better.

Cafe India, Nashua, NH

Cafe India

6 Elm St., Nashua, NH

The thing that I despise most about blogging is the formatting, and how the posting applet works differently in different browsers. Google Chrome won't let me resize images. Internet Explorer won't cut and paste images. Chrome keeps giving me an error every time I try to clear formatting. Internet Explorer randomly double-spaces my posts. I know what you're thinking, that I haven't mentioned Firefox yet. That's because when at home, I blog on my dad's computer, which doesn't have Firefox. My 2004 Compaq PC runs very slowly because I have 20-some-odd gigabytes of music on it and its six years old. Right now, I don't have the money to afford a new computer (preferably a laptop) and a new, properly functioning iPod. I'm knee deep in non-working, outdated electronics...

On to the buffet...

Looks like we have some rather unique Indian cuisine on our hands. Im gonna guess Northern. It can't be South Indian.

The Offerings:

Chutneys/Sauces:

-tamarind: Of course it was my go to sauce. It was thick and slightly chunky in texture, much like the kind at The Pongal. The flavor, however, was milder.
-mint: Didn't try it.
-onion: Didn't try it. It looked like what I saw at India Palace.
-raitha: Didn't try it.
-pickle: Didn't try it.

Salad:

-fruit salad: There was not green salad, only fruit salad. The kind you would see at a summer cookout, but with apples chunks. Why not?

Bread:

-naan: From what I remember, it was slightly oily and soft, like Italian pizza dough. Once again they served it to the table. We're 3 for 4 on this method of naan serving. I asked the waitress for two baskets and she shood her head 'no' and told me that my friend and I would only be recieving one basket at a time. I felt shut down. However, I realized I had misunderstood her when she brought twice the amount of naan in one basket. Problem solved.

Soup:

-lentil soup: No fancy Indian names here. Just a plain English name which explained the soup in a nutshell. Lentils in a slightly spicy broth.

Appetizers:

left: veg. pakora. right: basmati rice

-vegetable pakora: These were the largest pakora I've ever seen; more cusion for the pushin'. Good move, Cafe India.

Entrees:

(pardon the greasy lens) left: katta mitta baignan. right: kadai paneer

left: veg. vindaloo. right: dal

left: tandoori chicken. right: goat

-katta mitta baignan: First time I've seen or heard of this dish. Below the label, it explained that 'katta mitta' meant 'sweet and sour'. So in English terms, sweet and sour eggplant. This dish was definitely sweet. The sour owed more in part to that tangy curry flavor of most Indian dishes. May I also note that the pieces of eggplant where quite big compared to how I've seen vegetables prepared in curry in prior adventures. My buffet accomplice, and I both agreed that it was delicious.

-kadai paneer: Also another buffet first sighting. I've seen this as a boil-in-bag, instant meal in Indian Groceries. It was pretty much sauteed peppers and onions, a little bit of sauce, and paneer (Indian cheese cubes). It was good, but doesn't stand out in my mind, and that's what counts to me. I want to lie awake in bed at night thinking about how good a certain dish is, and crave it badly

-vegetable vindaloo: This was nothing like what I saw at India Palace. The sauce was bright red and chunky. It looked like tomato sauce. There was corn and broccoli in it. It was more tangy than sweet. It seemed similar in flavor to the katta mitta baignan, only milder. I liked how they were generous in topping this dish with cilantro. I love cilantro. I don't know if this is unfair to say, but I didn't like the texture of the corn and broccoli. Something about the dish seemed American to me. There are plenty of places I can go in NH for American food.
-dal: Finally, a dal with flavour. Even Ashley noticed this. It was sweet and tangy. I love when and Indian dish is sweet and tangy. I suppose this goes with Cafe India's theme of having off-kilter dishes. It works to their advantage with this one; not so much with that veg. vindaloo though :-/
-tandoori chicken: This was right on; moist and rich in spice.
-goat curry: There were bones in it! Nooooo! I suppose this is merely a preference thing again. Perhaps I'm lazy, but bones to me means more work having to pull the meat from the bone, as chewing and/or swallowing bone does nothing good for me. The sauce was tasty. It was your typical brown curry sauce that
-chicken korma: I've heard about this dish, and finally I found it. The sauce was like candy: creamy and sweet. There were bits of cashew in the sauce too; amazing. The chicken was moist too, but I found that if the piece was big enough, it warranted for a slightly dry and flavorless center. I wish there was some was to make all chicken as flavorful as that of chicken tikka masala or butter chicken. Perhaps this is because for these two dishes, the chicken is usually cooked on a kebab and pre-mariniated. Maybe once again we're diving into the realm of personal preference.

Desert:

left: chicken korma. right: gulab jamun

-gulab jamun: Ah, so we meet again. Honestly Sir Jamun, I liked you better at Priya. You were more syrupy and larger. At Cafe India you were smaller, the syrup was thinner, and you were drier. The syrup was yellow. I don't know how or if it affected the flavor at all.

-kheer: This kheer looked promising. There was ground pistachio on top of it almond slivers and golden raisins scattered within, but it totally dropped the ball in flavor. It was bland as hell.

Price: $10.85 (including N.H. meals tax) If it's below $11 w/ tax.

Final Score: 3.9/5

Cafe India definitely wins points for the originality of its entrees. It really drove it home with a couple, namely the dal and katta mitta baignan. However, the other dishes were kind of forgettable, and where's the salad? Pongal had both fruit salad and green salad. You've got some explaining to do, Cafe India. Making a lasting impression on the avid Indian Buffetier (I hope I just coined a new term: 'buffetier') is what counts in my book.

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