India Garden

We had dinner tonight at India Garden.   It's one of the best Indian restaurants I've ever been to.     The restaurant has a sliding scale for adjusting the spiciness of your meal.  I usually order level 2 out of 10.  Also, India Garden entrees come with rice.   They even offered to give us more rice for no additional charge.   Another Indian place nearby charged for their rice separately.

Tonight, I had the shrimp soup, Indian bread basket, chicken saag, and kheer for dessert.  The shrimp soup had little morsels of shrimp in a thick garlic-tomato base garnished with cilantro.  The bread basket is ideal for sharing, and features 3 types of naan bread.   Chicken saag is my favorite dish at Indian restaurants.  It is a creamy spinach sauce with tender boneless chicken.  I found it to be slightly spicier tonight than usual, so I ordered kheer for dessert.

If you haven't had kheer before, I highly recommend it!   It's a creamy rice pudding.   The rice grains are tender and covered with a mixture of milk, sugar, and spices, served chilled.  The consistency I've experienced varies from thin to traditional pudding texture.  It can be garnished with almond slices or cinnamon.   When eating spicy food, creamy foods can help get rid of the burning sensation in the mouth.

I think tonight's meal will make at least 2 servings of leftovers for me.

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play

We went to see In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, tonight.  It was the first play I have seen done by the Cleveland Playhouse since they relocated to the newly remodeled Allen Theatre's Second Stage at Playhouse Square. The space was amazing!   The stage was surrounded by audience seating on three sides in a stadium configuration.

I was actually surprised by the content of the play.  I was expecting a straight out comedy with lots of sexual humor.  Although there was some of that, mostly, it was a show about frustrations in relationships.  The setting is the Victorian Era, in the household of the doctor who invented the vibrator.  The device in question is a medical treatment for "hysteria," and it serves at a catalyst for the main characters to reevaluate their relationships. 

The play is surprisingly poignant.  It touches on the topics of martial frustration, heartbreak, infertility, and infant death.  I can understand why it was nominated for three Tony Awards.  Also, I was not expecting the male nudity.  It was tasteful, but unexpected.   The web page does warn about it though.  The costumes were amazing!  

Anniversary Dinner at Georgetown

Last night my husband and I went out to Georgetown to celebrate our anniversary.   The food was wonderful and I was inspired to create this blog (I had been kicking around the idea of blogging for a couple of years).   Two of my great passions are good food and wonderful theatre.   I often take pictures of food and post them to Facebook.  I've had many positive responses, so I figured, why not put them on a blog?  Actually, most of my status updates on Facebook concern either neat shows I have seen or things I've gotten to eat.  I hope to describe the things that I like in a cohesive narrative.

This was the first dish they served us after we had ordered our official appetizer.  It was a radish salad I think.

This was my husband's appetizer.  From the website: Braised Lamb Shank Risotto · English Peas · Lemon Zest · Toasted Pistachios ⋅ Port Reduction

 This was my appetizer.  Pan Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras · Toasted Walnut Bread · Strawberry Relish ⋅ Basil ⋅ Balsamic & Cardamom Syrup ⋅ Rhubarb.   Those are little slivers of dried strawberry decorating the dish.

The bread was nice.  There was herbed butter, that wasn't too salty.   We got three types of bread, two pieces of each type.  There was a salted stick, similar to a pretzel, a traditional crusty French loaf, and the soft multigrain bread pictured in the foreground.

We each had a bowl of the clam chowder.  Manhattan Clam Chowder · Fresh Herbs · Potatoes ⋅ Tomato ⋅ Applewood Smoked Bacon

Chili Grilled Hanger Steak · Crispy Sweet Potato Croquette · Pear Compote · Sautéed Parsnips · Balsamic Reduction.   I thought the potato croquette was particularly interesting.  It was crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

Parmesan Crusted Lake Erie Walleye · Grilled Asparagus · Parmesan Potato Cobbler · Whole Grain Mustard Beurre Blanc.   I really enjoyed this main course.   The fish was tender, with just a bit of cheesy crispness on the outside.  The asparagus was tender.  Parmesan potato cobbler was just delicious!   I never thought of cobbler as anything but a dessert before.   It was nicely savory.

Almond Cake ∙ Layered Almond Cake · White Chocolate Butter Cream · Raspberry Crush ⋅ Passion Fruit Sorbet ⋅ Almond Brittle.  They put candles on this dessert when they found out about our anniversary!   It reminded me of our wedding cake, with the almond cake with raspberry flavor.   I particularly enjoyed the almond brittle garnishing the top of the confection.  It was salty and sweet.

When I go out to eat, I often estimate how many meals I can get from the leftovers.  I was able to have my soup again today for lunch, and the last of my walleye for dinner tonight.  My husband had his soup and hangar steak for lunch too.  That's a total of five meals for this outing.