What’s that you say? Your wife is in labour with your soon-to-be first born and all you can think about is curry? Don’t worry. We understand. Avoid that urge to cook the placenta in garam masala, cream and turmeric. Instead, walk across the parking lot to the North Tower of the Foothills Medical Center and pay a visit to Cravings. This was Ren and mine’s exact plan on a Thursday in early December. Well, except, neither of us is expecting progeny. That we know about anyways. (matt)
While you can visit Cravings on every weekday, it’s especially good on Thursdays when the special is butter chicken. Mondays they have chicken pot pies, tues is Taco Salad, Wed is chicken burgers and Friday has alternated between chili and a bun and discounted donairs for a while. Every day of the week you can get a selection of Jamaican patties, sausage rolls, samosas, pre-made salads, and custom made sandwiches/donairs/falafels. All in all, a pretty solid menu, if slightly lacking in the curry 80% of the time. (ren)
 I work in the North Tower and have been meaning to do a formal review of Cravings with Ren for a long time. They don’t always do curry but they always have samosas, which are quite good. My recommendation would be the potato (they also have beef, chicken and veggie) as it tends to be the spiciest and most flavorful. Thursday is Butter Chicken Day. To say that Butter Chicken Day is well received in the North Tower, would be an understatement. The elevators always reek of curry on Thursday. So much so, that I’m concerned that patients in Addiction Services on the fifth floor, looking for a new drug, might start a rival curry blog to ours. As for my own office, Thursdays are treated, even by the mildest curryphile, with an iconic status usually reserved for people more famous than Ren and I. At least 7 or 8 times during the hours of 11-1300, people will remind each other that “its butter chicken day downstairs, you should really go try it”. (matt)
Of course, if you wait until 1300 (1pm for you non-military types) you will probably be out of luck. The special tends to sell out fast. A few times they’ve only been partially sold out, offering rice and sauce but no chunks (chicken for example), or the butter chicken and no rice, but a couple pitas if you ask nice….. So if you want the whole package, head there a bit earlier in your break. (ren)
With any review, there are always discrepancies and differences of opinion between Ren and I. Today would be no different. Unlike most days though, our difference of opinion would have nothing to do with food:
Matt’s take on events (Ren to provide his take below):
Ren and I had planned to meet for lunch sometime between 1215 and 1230. He sent me a text at 1212 saying he was on the way over from the main hospital in “10mins or so…” I finished reading some information on solvents (don’t ask) and made my way downstairs at about 1230. Ren was nowhere to be found and so I waited outside of Cravings for him on a very uncomfortable wooden chair. I sent him a text asking him where the hell he was. Meanwhile, I was being forced to endure staring glares from the physically handicapped, who presumably wanted the wooden chair I was in. Instead of offering them a seat, I buried my head in the Calgary Real Estate News, while I waited for Ren to text me back and shed some light on his location. No text ever arrived. I finally gave up waiting and placed my curry order while cursing our friendship. Fans of Kenny vs Spenny know that in any duo, there is always one saboteur and one innocent victim who is the brunt of the saboteur’s evil. I’m changing my name to Spenny. (matt)
Ren’s Take on Things (He gets the last word so he must be telling the truth)
Matty and I had planned to meet for lunch. I was in the main hospital dispensary, and being a union job I had to go for lunch from exactly 12:15-1pm. A few minutes before leaving I texted matt saying I would be on my way imminently and proceeded to head over to Cravings through the state-of-the-art leaky tunnel under the parking lot. It’s just like the Chunnel but instead of high-speed trains we have electric go-carts of questionable practicality pulling loads of “soiled” linen, or garbage, while being driven by high-school dropouts who holler “beep-beep” as they pass you because the horn is broken. I left my phone at my work station, since matt knew where I’d be and when.
I got to Cravings minutes later and amazingly the line was nearly non-existent …. Maybe 3-4 people instead of the usual 15 or so. I quickly got in line, expecting matty any moment, rolled through and got my order of butter chicken, a potato samosa and a coke zero. Since it went so quickly, it was probably only 12:20-12:25, and I waited beside an uncomfortable wooden chair for matt’s arrival. After a few minutes I decided that possibly he was in a lounge area just around the corner where there are some uncomfortable upholstered chairs and went to check. He was not, however, so I returned to the uncomfortable wooden chair near Cravings itself.
Still no sign of matt, however, I did see a handicapped woman staring in disbelief at some clown sitting on the wooden chair, huffing solvents out of the Calgary Real Estate News. I tried to avoid eye contact for a few minutes, then decided matty must have gotten distracted at work, went back to the lounge area and ate my food. As fans of Kenny vs Spenny know, in any duo there is a really awesome, funny one, and theres a kinda lame, kinda whiny one who tries to ruin things. I’m changing Matt’s name to Spenny. (ren)
As for the food, the butter chicken comes in full, or half orders for those who are less hungry. A full order of curry (with rice), a samosa and drink will set you back about 9 dollars and fill you up for 3 days. Cravings’ butter chicken is different from any previous dish of the same name. The first thing I noticed was the color. It’s yellow. I’ve had it before and don’t remember it being such a wimpy color. The second thing I noted was that it’s quite watery. That being said, the owners give you more than ample rice which soaks up the sauce nicely. The last odd thing about this butter chicken is the inclusion of tubers. In this case, potatoes. Just bizarre. I don’t really understand it personally but I devoured the dish in no time flat anyways. (matt)
Being the butter chicken aficionado that I am, I have in fact seen yellow butter chicken before. I actually quite prefer the yellow sauce because generally it’s a lot more cream based rather than tomato based. Cravings sauce is a little on the thin side, but with the rice on board, I don’t find it too watery. It generally has a fair bit of spice, and while a little bit skimpy on the chicken, it’s more than enough for a lunch. The potatoes are a little bit untraditional, but it seems like a fair way to boost the “substance” of the dish without adding anything unpleasant. The potato samosa was delish, as always. I always get the potato samosa because I just find them more flavourful, and larger than the other varieties. Also, I really like potatoes. (ren)
Towards the end of my meal, the owner (Mohammed?), came over to ensure that I was satisfied with my meal. He asked me if the dish was too spicy. It definitely wasn’t. Sensing my thirst for spice, he instinctively brought me a chili sauce for what was left of my samosa. That was a nice touch. (matt)
I’ve been coming to Cravings a few days a week for the past year. I always recommend the butter chicken, and the rest of the menu actually, to new people, because the other food options at the Foot are pretty lame. It’s really too bad matty and I didn’t meet up on this one. Last I’d heard he was in the ER with some type of hydrocarbon inhalation poisoning, but I’m sure he’s fine by now. (ren)
I have no idea what Ren thought of his meal. While I don’t actually have any proof that he had the butter chicken, it would be cold day in hell if he ever passed up a serving of butter chicken. I personally, was pleased with the meal. It may only be a piece of naan away from a Starch Hat Trick, but it’s still a good alternative to the bland food they serve in the regular cafeteria. Too bad they only do curry on Thursdays. We’d love to see Cravings try some less Caucasian friendly dishes. I’d pay a dollar to see my co-workers devour a goat curry. (matt)
Cravings scores a 7/10 (on Thursdays only).
Not at the Restaurant:
- Ren?!? (I ate alone!!!)
- Yukon Cornelius (Bizarre Gold Miner from Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Cartoon)
- The reincarnation of Paul Revere’s Horse (Has the Tombstone Blues)
Rating:
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