Indian

Well... I am going to start writing about resto's I go to, just cos these names escape my memory otherwise. Now don't get me wrong, lots of bloggers out there keep dedicated food blogs, resto blogs etc with minute details of what they had and ambiance and all... I am not there... If this ever gets to that stage, I might consider moving this away into a different blog, just to keep my intense personal rantings out...

We were at Maison Indian Curry House, 996, rue Jean-Talon O coin Brinam, H3N 1S8, apparently the best Indian resto in Montreal. On a rainy Thursday expect to wait in line for about 15 min.s to be seated in the 25-30 seater. Small cramped restaurants, usually offer the best ethnic food... I must say the waitress was nice - I mean not above average, but I expected care-less from my experience at 'good crampy ethnic restos'. Ok it really is not crampy - but if you are in for a dress up dinner with plenty of legroom, well this ain't the place to be.

We had Masala Dosa Masoor Hot (that famous crispy Indian crepe with curried potatoes stuffed and a Thali (an assortment of curries in a little silver dish) with lamb curry and Naan and rice, and for appetizer Chat Papri (ever since one of my Indian friends introduced me to this back in Minneapolis, I have always looked for this North Indian saalad with bits of crispy pastry, channa, cilantro, sweet tamarind sauce and mint sauce). The Dosa was very very good, although the masoor is not recommended - too hot for my hardy Sri Lankan palatte even; the Thali and chat papri was very good too, but I have had better. The coconut chutney accompanying my dosa was a little too watery, but the sambaar and other sauces were good.

The two of us were seated at a 4-person table, and the waitress asked if we minded two other people sitting with us, of course we didn't. They turned out to be two Indian guys who made for pleasant conversation, with such characteristic South-Asian-man traits!! But they claimed they come here couple times a week and it is in their mind the best Indian resto in town - so I guess we didn't miss. "How do you like Montreal?" they asked these OMG-I-Love-Montreal us, this Brazilian-Japanese girl and this Sri Lankan me. "oh do you speak French?" "she does very well, but me, not so well" "oh of course if you speak French it's nice, otherwise you feel excluded" and I thought "but did you assholes try to seek out someone outside your very Indian circle?" but I was in a super happy mood, one of those moods when all your analities (I know it's not a word) seem not so important, so asked it in a more polite language; of course they hadn't and they were not going to anytime soon!!! There are people like Jacob Tierney who tried and were excluded, but people like these two Indians actually dampen the effect of issues like Tierney's.

Sort of reminded me of my hotel de glace episode that I wrote about earlier this year. When I started teaching in Minnesota, one of my mentors said "Students are like dogs, if you fear them they will sense it and bite". I think it is true for people in general.

Super cheap $23 with tip for two!!