Paneer!
Most of our plans with friends this weekend fell through, so instead we spent both days letterboxing! Our friends should flake out more often. I also planted the first box in my Shape Note series over at the St. James. Maybe this one won't get lost or destroyed. (Don't know the status of the Berlin box, obviously, but the other three I've planted in Ohio are all gone now. It's very sad :( )
Yesterday we went to go see The Last Smoker In America. It is a new musical set in the near future where smoking is now a crime punishible by (as the musical progresses) anything from fines to 20 years in smokers prison. There are four characters: the titular Last Smoker, her disfunctional ex-Rocker husband and over-medicated son, and their terrifying born-again anti-smoking-crusader neighbor. It is heavily satirical, with a particulary biting ending. What is most impressive about it, though, is the wide range of musical styles, fairly expertly executed (the neighbor in partcular had an incredible vocal range). It was good fun, and fairly balanced in its anvils (in that everyone is wrong. Everyone. Even you.) Not bad for free tickets.
We went out letterboxing with Susan in the afternoon, planted our own box, and then got dinner at Banana Leaf. Because we were there at closing, they insisted on giving us All The Food. Um, yeah. We won't be cooking this week. Banana Leaf: Best food ever from the Nicest People in the World (tm). Seriously. Because Susan was along, the proprietor decided to give us "special" Dosa and this funky paneer dish. Last time, "special" Dosa meant large size (as opposed to their mini dosa) slathered with hot pepper paste on the inside of the pancake. It was incredible, but we could only eat half of it because we were in danger of passing out from capsacin intoxication. (So we took the rest of it home and it made for a very tearful but awesome lunch a couple of days later). This time, fortunately, there was only a mild sprinkling of hot pepper, but it was a mega-sized dosa split into three parts and rather more fried than usual. Naturally, it wa delicious.
The tour-de-force, however, was the paneer. It came out and...didn't look Indian. And then didn't really taste Indian either. It was chunks of paneer stir-fried with green peppers in a sauce made from a reduction of soy sauce and fresh tomato. It was as if Indian food and Thai food eloped and gave birth to scrumptuous twins. And what's best is it's the sort of thing we might be able to make ourselves! So we melted into a satisfied goo of food-euphoria and called it a night (after, of course, they made us take the entire contents of the restaurant home with us). A perfect end to a perfect weekend!
And this morning Outrage! upated. Huzzah!
Yesterday we went to go see The Last Smoker In America. It is a new musical set in the near future where smoking is now a crime punishible by (as the musical progresses) anything from fines to 20 years in smokers prison. There are four characters: the titular Last Smoker, her disfunctional ex-Rocker husband and over-medicated son, and their terrifying born-again anti-smoking-crusader neighbor. It is heavily satirical, with a particulary biting ending. What is most impressive about it, though, is the wide range of musical styles, fairly expertly executed (the neighbor in partcular had an incredible vocal range). It was good fun, and fairly balanced in its anvils (in that everyone is wrong. Everyone. Even you.) Not bad for free tickets.
We went out letterboxing with Susan in the afternoon, planted our own box, and then got dinner at Banana Leaf. Because we were there at closing, they insisted on giving us All The Food. Um, yeah. We won't be cooking this week. Banana Leaf: Best food ever from the Nicest People in the World (tm). Seriously. Because Susan was along, the proprietor decided to give us "special" Dosa and this funky paneer dish. Last time, "special" Dosa meant large size (as opposed to their mini dosa) slathered with hot pepper paste on the inside of the pancake. It was incredible, but we could only eat half of it because we were in danger of passing out from capsacin intoxication. (So we took the rest of it home and it made for a very tearful but awesome lunch a couple of days later). This time, fortunately, there was only a mild sprinkling of hot pepper, but it was a mega-sized dosa split into three parts and rather more fried than usual. Naturally, it wa delicious.
The tour-de-force, however, was the paneer. It came out and...didn't look Indian. And then didn't really taste Indian either. It was chunks of paneer stir-fried with green peppers in a sauce made from a reduction of soy sauce and fresh tomato. It was as if Indian food and Thai food eloped and gave birth to scrumptuous twins. And what's best is it's the sort of thing we might be able to make ourselves! So we melted into a satisfied goo of food-euphoria and called it a night (after, of course, they made us take the entire contents of the restaurant home with us). A perfect end to a perfect weekend!
And this morning Outrage! upated. Huzzah!