Dhaba

I was happy to realize I had a few friends living in the Murray Hill area - yay! it's not all gel-haired 22 year olds!  Wendy happens to be one of those friends and after weeks of non-jiving schedules we found a window of opportunity and went to dinner last week.  Due to the large number of Indian restaurants in the bottom section of the area, it's often referred to as Curry Hill.  We decided to try Dhaba, one such restaurant that neither of us had been to but that came highly recommended on Yelp.

I knew I wanted to order a chaat, which is pretty much a chaotic mess on a plate.  Typically I don't like sloppy food with everything mixed together.  I usually like my food not touching so I can mix it as I wish - I guess that's the control freak in me.  However, after an Indian friend ordered it for me at a restaurant and told me I had to eat it, I learned I could enjoy a pre-jumbled mess.  We went with the aloo tikki chaat, which is potato patties topped with yogurt and chutneys.  It started the meal on a super high note.

For the rest of the meal we ordered a ton of food knowing we would be bringing home the leftovers.  We just couldn't help ourselves.  I thought Southerners had the market cornered on butter, but two of the dishes we ordered (chicken butter masala and methi mataar malai) were filled with it, which of course made them extra delicious to me.  We also ordered lamb vindaloo and naan so that we could sop it all up.  The food wasn't as spicy as usual, but the flavors were all there.

I don't know that we'll ever be able to make our way through all the Indian restaurants in the neighborhood but our first attempt was a success.