So you're thinking alright!....Matt's back from the british isles and we can get back to some regular curry reviewing.  Not so fast my friend.  First we had to go to Saskatoon and freeze our asses off at the Vanier Cup.  Huskies vs Rouge et Or.  Good times. Except the Saskatchewan Buffalo Bills Huskies didn't win.  Oh well.  At least I got to have some curry.  Not that I didn't while matt was away.....it just wasn't up to usual standards.

Curry 1 was taking my parents out to the Taj Mahal (Calgary) for some food.  The meal was tasty as usual but I was quite disturbed to find that my father is a salted-lassi quaffing, twisted-ass freak.   I tried a big sip of his just to make sure that my assesment of the drink was still accurate and that they hadn't slipped him a sweet lassi.....or a McD's vanilla milkshake.  Nearly threw up.....hypothesis comfirmed. 

Curry 2 was homemade......by angela.    That means that it was fantastic.  Or more accurately....not really.  Chicken tikka.....dry.  Butter chicken....pretty good.  Rice from a biryani kit....very strange.  Beef korma....kinda blah.  Naan.....too soft to be a shoe's outsole....but too hard to be an insole.  Beer.....thank god for beer. 

So lets say I was definitely looking forward to this trip to Saskatchewan and a return to normal curry operations.  (ren)

When a man loves a woman, he buys her a ring. When a man loves another man, he buys him football tickets. Which is what Ren did for me. 11 months in advance. Little did we know at the time, that our beloved Saskatchewan Huskies would be in the big game. And little did we know that it would be –25 degrees Celsius in Saskatoon. Actually, come to think of it, we probably could have foreseen both of those. 

Clearly curry was in order.  

But first, we needed to remind ourselves about our past lives as pharmacy students by walking around “Thorv” and getting drunk at Louis in the early afternoon. By the time our friend Theresa joined us before dinner, we had already each consumed 3 Smithwicks, 2 shots of Southern Comfort, 2 GW Pilsner, 2 Canadian. And, according to Steve Frericks, another “sixty, no, no, Eiiiiighty” beer. (matt)

Needless to say, this may be the most inaccurate curry review we’ve ever written.

Saskatoon’s Taj Mahal has a history of winning dining awards. One year I think they won best Indian restaurant in western Canada. That was a few years ago and I think Vij’s in Vancouver now usually wins that honor. Upon entering the restaurant, I was struck by a) the number of white people b) how full the place was and c) the sign indicating that seafood was now a dollar more than indicated on the menu. There were a couple of large families dining out and we got a kick out of watching a grandpa shovel back an entire tandoor of chicken. He then got into a disagreement with the owner about the bill. Classic. (matt)

The Taj Mahal seems pretty decent.  Not the dodgiest place ever and not the nicest ..... mostly just a regular family restaurant vibe but with indian art on the walls instead of 80's movie posters and ads for brands of olive oil that you can only get in sicily.  Our server, and the apparent owner both seemed very friendly and eager to please. (ren)

After briefing Theresa on the ins and outs of Indian cuisine, we ordered an appetizer. The bhajia (potato skins) were okay but likely derived any and all flavour from the tamarind sauce they serve with it. We felt that they were likely over priced at 4.50 for 8 skins. The mango lassis on the other hand, were fantastic. Very buttermilky and also quite mangoey (Is that a word? Probably not).  (Matt)

I agree that the Bhajia were a bit overpriced.....but its nice to have a change from the usual pakora/samosa routine.  One of these days I may actually succeed in convincing matt that we should get an extra entree rather than an appy.  (ren)

As for the entrées, we were actually too drunk to remember what the names were (luckily Taj’s menu is online). I’m pretty sure I had Makhani Mutter Paneer (one of their specialties), which was fantastically spiced. I would definitely order it again.  Ren’s dish was the Nawabi Badami Murgha. It wasn’t as good as mine but had a funnier name. Looking back at the menu, if I had to guess what Theresa ordered, I’d say it was the Murgh Kashmiri although I don’t remember any apricot flavour. Her dish was quite tasty and would probably be well suited on an Indian flavoured pizza. The service was for the most part fantastic and attentive. One potential bone of contention was the differentiation of spice level. When we ordered, our waiter offered each of us a choice of Mild, Regular, Medium, and Hot. This would have been okay except he kept changing the order of “Regular” and “Medium”, such that we weren’t sure which was hotter. Subsequently, Theresa found her meal to be too hot. While we admit to being hammered, we have no delusions about the quality of the naan. It was bordering on being stale to rock hard. Disappointing. (matt)

My nawabi badami murgha was, like matt mentioned, simply ok.  Unfortunate since the menu declares that it is a “SIGNATURE DISH”.  Honestly none of the 3 dishes we had really jumped out at me.  All 3 seemed to be in the same creamy tomato-based sauce with minor differences in additives.  Apricot and walnuts vs Almonds and saffron.  Mine however was the only one with the adjective “decadent” which may explain why we found it lacking.  In the wikipedia it states “in modern use, decadence is often defined as a decline in or loss of excellence”....so there you go.  The naan, was on par with and possibly even worse than the homemade stuff mentioned above.  (ren)

We got into another debate about the diseased foot score for this restaurant. The alcohol intensified the debate and Ren punched me in the face. We were subsequently asked to leave. We would like to apologize to the owners and patrons of Saskatoon’s Taj Mahal. The debate/fisticuffs continued outside in the parking lot until Saskatoon City Police finally mediated a score of 7/10. (matt)

I don't recall a punch to matts face....but i do recall him being thrown into a snowbank and then sacked for good measure later in the evening. Lets hope a return to regular reviews also results in a return to sobriety and decent behavior.  (ren)

Rating:

Addendum/Update

After the restaurant we went to the Hose and Hydrant, an old fire hall turned bar. There happened to be a Pharmacy Student pub-crawl there. For the three of us, this was akin to the scene in A Christmas Carol where the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge and shows him what he used to be like. We came face to face with the people we used to be. And really the face of the pharmacy student hasn’t changed that much in 6 years. We were still able to pick out the ridiculously drunk guy, the throngs of gorgeous young farm girls strutting their stuff on the dance floor in “the big city” and the couple that has been together throughout university and will likely split up after university. Deep down we probably wanted to be invited onto the pub crawl but realized that we were much too old for that now. Besides, we were on our own bar tour.

After The Hose, we made our way to Maguire’s, which to the members of Captain Morgan’s Pharmacy hockey team will always be known by its previous name, Cheers Roadhouse. We met up with our friend Bruck and I got into a fight with the waitress. Classy. Bruck drove us home to my parent’s house where because we decided we weren’t drunk enough, proceed to drink some red wine and scotch.

In the end, the whole thing reeked of an awkward free beer night we once used to attend. At least I didn’t have to miss class the next day.  (matt)