When travelling to New York, it’s important to have a plan of attack. There’s so much to do that you need to have a plan or theme for each day. Otherwise, you’ll just end up getting bogged down and see nothing. Inspired by the critically acclaimed Saturday Night Live skit by the same name, I came to the conclusion that the theme for Sunday August 31st would be a “Lazy Sunday”.  After all, it seems just about anyone with a YouTube account has down some type of tribute to Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell. Very few, if any, of these tributes are any good.

These mediocre parodies ultimately prompted the writers of The Office to do their own version, Lazy Scranton, making fun of all the SNL wannabes.

After sleeping in and waking up hung-over, we made our way NBC studios for a tour of the SNL set. It’s a decent tour and I’d recommend it to anyone. Only $18 and you also get to see the Conan O’Brien set as well as a couple of news and weather centers.  Following this, we hit up the Lonely Planet guide (my sister said she prefers “Let’s Go”. That’s a good one too) to find the dopest route to the Magnolia Bakery for some cupcakes.  Crazy Delicious.

As we made our way back to the hotel, we passed David Letterman’s Ed Sullivan Theatre and the famed Studio 54, now run by a theatre company. Across from the old club was Purnima, an Indian restaurant which looked vaguely familiar. After looking in the window, the reason for this familiarity became apparent.  Purnima has been featured on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.

We decided that we needed to try the food. Despite the nice ambiance, there was no one in the restaurant and this worried us a little bit. Had Kitchen Nightmares made Purnima out to be something it wasn’t? We tried to keep an open mind.

As usual, I ordered a mango lassi and equally as predicatable, was the fact that it came with ice. I wish restauranteurs would just chill the glass and then serve it sans ice. The lassi was quite watered down. While we perused the menu, we were served complimentary poppadums with tamarind sauce. Very nice. 

Common to the many restaurants in Midtown, Purnima offers a Prix Fixed offer of 1 entrée, salad, rice and desert for $29. That being said, the menu states that all entrees come with rice and salad for an average of $22, so not much of a bargain there. My sister had Kashmiri Lamb which usually features some type of fruit (often apple) and an almond flavor. Purnima does theirs with pineapple. Very Interesting and from the taste I had, it yields an amazing dish. I would have been happy having ordered it.

I ordered Chicken Tikka Masala. I would agree with the above YouTube clip, this dish would not be out of place in a head to head battle with any CTM found in England. It was amongst the best Tikka Masalas I’ve ever eaten. Strong tomato and cream flavors. Other than soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai or maybe Katz’s Pastrami, it was the best thing I ate while I was in NYC. The naan and rice were spot on. While we were chowing down though, it became evident that we would not be receiving the previously advertised salad. This left a bad taste in my mouth. As the waiter cleared our plates he asked us if we wanted dessert, which we declined. Shortly thereafter, he brought us a complimentary dessert anyways. Faith restored and missing salad forgotten!! Unlike most Indian desserts, I actually enjoyed the Mango  and Pistachio Kulfi (basically like an Indian Ice Cream). Very nice touch.  

Purnima is good value for Manhattan at roughly $22 dollars a person and the food is excellent.  I debated about giving the experience either an 8 or 9. It doesn’t hurt that they have two consultant chefs, one of whom would probably kick my ass if I scored him low, so I will give Purnima a 9/10. Afterall, my bio only says I have the wisdom of 10,000 Michelin starred chefs. Gordon Ramsay actually is one. There’s a big difference.

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