Rasoi, Albequrque, NM

Rasoi
110 Yale Blvd. SE, Albequrque, NM

Even from simply looking at the red adobe building in the picture above, one can tell we're not in Kansas anymore, or New England for our sake. We're in New Mexico to be exact, known for its Mexican cuisine, adobe buildings, and landscapes that appear as if they're straight out of a Marlborough ad. I recently road tripped out to California for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. I thought it would be neat to hit up a buffet on the way out there, and see how a buffet of the other side of this vast country would compare to those in the Boston area...

The Offerings:

note: I lost my photo of the salad/chutney section of the buffet. Seeing how looking over the photos is my method of recounting each item, I will do my best to recall this section purely from memory. I apologize ahead of time if it comes out a little vague or I miss an item.

Chutneys:

tamarind: I could never forget a tamarind chutney. This one delivered with plenty of that tangy flavor that I love. It was a little chunky as well.
mint: n/a
pickle: n/a
raitha: Their raitha stood out to me. It was perhaps a bit more peppery than I'm used to, which I liked.

Salad: Alright, let me rack my brains here... If I remember correctly, the salad ingredients were separated, salad-bar style. There was lettuce (obviously) sliced green bell peppers, sliced carrot, sliced red onion, sliced cucumber, and more of the usual salad bar ingredients. I remember that the veggies seemed especially fresh.

Bread:

naan: They follow the basket-to-table method of supplying bread. I've found that this is the system most Indian buffets adopt. The downside being that one has to depend more on the server to serve/refill the naan, the upside is that the bread is usually more fresh. this bread was extremely fresh, still glistening with oil, buttery, and crispy. Jolly-good show.

Appetizer:

(front to back: pakora, basmati rice, saag paneer, and veg. korma)





































pakora: These pakoras were huge, not to mention delicious. I couldn't stop smothering these in they're delicious tamarind chutney. No surprise there.

Entrees:

(front to back: saag paneer, vegetable korma, and cabbage aloo)





































(chicken curry on left, tandoori chicken on the right)





































saag paneer: Jeez, this was amazing. It was not only thick and creamy, but nutty too. I swear I sensed hints of cinnamon. This could be the best saag paneer I've ever tasted.
veg. korma: They knocked this dish out of the park too! Sweet and creamy, and a perfect consistancy. There were even bits of cashew in the sauce as well as potato chunks. I'm a fan.
cabbage aloo: I don't know how I felt about this dish, mostly because I'm not a cabbage fan and the dish was sauceless. It was still well seasoned, relatively moist, and of a good consistancy; not to hard and not too mushy.
tandoori chicken: A friend who attended this buffet with us. He's a chef who'd never tried Indian food. He raved about this. Perhaps that could be because he's a sucker for smokey-flavored meats. This chicken was awesome; thoroughly spiced and juicy.
chicken curry: This particular dish tasked more like chicken tikka masala (which I wish they had) than the usual dishes called "chicken curry". Either way, the chicken was nice and moist, and the sauce was sweet, tangy, and creamy all at the same time.

Dessert:

(mango custard on left, "sugar candy" on right)






































mango custard: It's not my top pick for an Indian desert, but it was still good anyhow. I believe I've seen this at India Palace in Nashua. It had a pudding consistency and bits of fruit mixed in.
jalebi: The waitress told us what the name was but I forgot! (5/12- found it) It was similar to rock candy, but smoothed-out, and chewier. I wasn't crazy about the flavor, but it was a nice touch.

Price: $9.45 (on a weekday includy New Mexico meals tax). Cheap!

Final Score: 4.8/5

This place does their dishes damn good. There was nothing that let me down. I just wish there was more of a selection. I didn't give them a perfect score for that reason and also because they aren't the magical place I have envisioned in my head that will serve both north and south Indian cuisine flawlessly. Maybe that place doesn't exist... It would be sad never to see an Indian Buffet that gets a 5.0, but I need to stick to my guns...

No Review- The Magic of Ghee

As much as I love Indian food in the form of an all-you-can-eat buffet, I also like to attempt to recreate its spicy goodness in the comforts of my own home. Many recipes for Indian dishes call for either ghee or vegetable oil to fry up diced onion, ginger, garlic, green chilis, etc.. Since I rarely plan ahead, and there aren't any Indian groceries within roughly 30 miles of where I live, I would choose the latter, seeing how I could grab it at my local grocery store. The final product would come out much more bland. I still would find myself dumbstruck as to how to recreate the creaminess. Well, I finally picked up a jar of ghee at an Indian grocery in Lowell. This particular jar of ghee was made by Swad (they also make instant Indian meals). "What is ghee?" one may ask. Clicking the 'ghee' hypertext will bring you to Wikipedia's definition. In the English speaking world, we call it 'clarified butter'. Upon opening the jar out of my natural curiosity as a human being, my first observations of the product was that it reminded me of popcorn butter in both the way it looked and smelled. I took it home and proceeded to make this saag recipe that I had made before (sans ghee). I could already tell, during the cooking process, that this was gonna taste better. The smell was so much more savory. In the end, the saag paneer came out much smoother/creamier than when I used vegetable oil. The ghee made a world of difference. It is fattier than veg. oil, but we can't always align taste and health, look at Southern cooking.