Tag: Buffet

AlbuquerqueBuffetIndianNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Taste of India – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:16 AM

“Don’t go and cook Indian food if you never cooked Indian food, you know?” ~Wolfgang Puck Those who can’t do, write.  The pan is mightier than the pen. Pick your aphorism.  When it comes to cooking Indian food, both certainly apply in my case.  Every effort to prepare even the most basic of Indian dishes is a painful reminiscence of the Chemistry courses which confounded, confused and frustrated me in equal measure.  Sure, covalent bonds made sense (because they were easy), but the math-based system of writing complex chemical equations may as well have been Klingonese.  So, too, are most recipes for Indian dishes. Yes, a passable phalanx of premixed “instant” Indian food exists, but what’s the fun in preparing that?  Aspiring Indian food cooks (and masochists like me) prefer to prepare everything from scratch.  That includes grinding and roasting ingredients for our own garam masala, an essential Indian spice mix which Epicurious considers “the Indian equivalent of French herbes de Provence or Chinese five-spice powder.”  Somehow, my mix always has the taste appeal of a lethal bleach and ammonia combination.  After years of trial and failure, I’ve arrived at  the painful realization that I may never be able to…

AlbuquerqueBuffetIndianNew MexicoRating: Very Good

Maharaja Indian Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In his Netflix “23 Hours to Kill” special, comedian Jerry Seinfeld posed the question:  “What is the idea of the buffet?  Well, things are bad.  How can we make it worse?  Why don’t we put people that are already struggling with portion control into some kind of debauched Caligula food orgy of unlimited human consumption?”  Frankly, that’s a notion I’ve contemplated myself, but it’s not the only reason I don’t partake of buffets.  As an independent observer of the culinary condition, reviewing buffets–irrespective of how good they might be–is not a true indicator of a restaurant’s quality.   For that, you’ve got to order off the menu. Please don’t get me wrong.  I’m not anti-buffetite.   My Kim loves buffets.  So does our friend John Martin, a fellow trencherman.  During the height of the Cabrona virus, even culinary cognoscenti believed all-you-can-eat buffets were a thing of the past, just like sending Christmas cards.  The more fastidious among us were relieved that sanitation protocols would be the riddance of those too short plexiglass sneeze guards and the sharing of serving sporks and tongs.  Sadly, doing away with buffets–even if only for a short time–resulted in the permanent closure of such buffet favorites as…

CorralesDog FriendlyNew MexicoPizzaRating: Very Good

Village Pizza – Corrales, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:48 PM

Research has proven that taste buds are dulled by high altitude and cabin pressure, so as an aircraft climbs, our sense of taste diminishes by as much as 30 percent. That explains why many passengers praise airline food on flights in which meals are actually served. It’s probably not that the food is good; it’s more likely that their sense of taste is diminished. Alas, it’s not solely high altitude and cabin pressure which can diminish the sense of taste. On this blog I’ve catalogued some of those factors: the use of spices (i.e., cumin) that mask the purity, earthiness and richness of red chile; the use of inferior ingredients that can’t mask the lack of quality; the impairing effects of alcohol on the senses of smell and taste; improper preparation time and so forth. One factor I have not touched upon is “too much of a good thing.” At Village Pizza, the pizza buffet  (discontinued since the Cabrona Virus) was so inviting, so tempting, so alluring that you were bound to consume more than you should. In all its glory and splendor, the pizza buffet was as enticing as the sirens of Greek mythology who lured nearby sailors with…

AlbuquerqueBuffetIndianNew Mexico

Naan & Dosa – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.” ~Mark Twain >Ever since Eve succumbed to the wiles of a serpent who moonlighted as a used car salesman, humankind has been easily led into temptation.  As playwright Oscar Wilde once jokingly remarked, “I can resist anything except temptation.” We can all relate. We all face temptations of one sort or the other.  Like the forbidden fruit of Eden, temptation can be very attractive and very difficult to resist.  Though technically sin–actions or offenses that are offensive to God–is a concept to which only Christianity and Judaism subscribe, most of the world’s religions do believe in the concept of right or wrong–as defined by the laws and rules set forth by their respective gods and as interpreted by religious leaders within the respective faith. Sometimes (or quite often as has recently been revealed) those religious leaders are also led astray.  One of the more benign examples involves a Brahmin, a member of the priestly class in Hindu society’s caste system.  Since alcohol was forbidden to Brahmins, one tried to ferment his own with rice.  When his efforts failed, he poured out the contents onto a pan and made…

BuffetIndianRating: ExcellentRio Rancho

Namaste Restaurant – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:37 AM

Several years ago while leading my organization’s e-business marketing and communication effort at Intel, I had the great fortune of hiring a phenomenal Web developer recently arrived from India. In the process of filling out one of our complicated employment forms he transposed his name, writing his last name then his middle initial and first name instead of the way hinted at on the complicated form. As a result, during the entire time he worked for us we all called him Kolli, his last name. He was too polite to tell us his first name is actually Srini. Over time Srini became more acculturated, maybe even a bit “Americanized” (he’s now a huge Dallas Cowboys fan), but he’s never lost his personal warmth, good humor and impeccable manners. Politeness and great manners seem to be a hallmark of Indian people…or at least those in the service industries. When colleagues ask for a romantic dinner recommendation, I frequently suggest one of the area’s Indian restaurants where impeccably attentive service and consistently excellent food impart the effect of making diners feel like welcome royalty. Most Indian restaurants, like my friend Srini, embody the spirit of a traditional Indian salutation, “Namaste” which is…