Walked in and bam! The huge pile of styrofoam cups and plates are stacked 10 onions high, almost touching the ceiling. I hope the grub hasn't changed, either... I opted for take out in hopes that they won't be using the styrofoam. Good move, pouch, they used aluminum foil and plastic containers, instead. Class all the way. Let's see how the grub has stood up the past few years...
CHICKEN 65. Boneless chunks of chicken marinated in garlic, ginger and other mild
seasonings, then batter fried and topped with green chilies, cilantro and curry leaves.
Everyone lurvs these little red cheekan nuggets. They are not spicy at all but I kept popping them in my facehole. The jalapeno, err, I mean green chilies were exceptionally mild in flavor. That little sauce bucket was just something there to dip your chicken balls into.
Fried? I don't quite think so but at least it was really a whole half cheekan... Well, a really small half pigeon. Charga? I don't think so. It's more of a tandoori chicken based on the vibrant red color from the spices and food dye. A tandoori chicken is not always necessarily red, more of an orange color instead, but most Americans associate the red with tandoori. This fake charga fried chicken was pretty dry and lacked the crackling skin from what I assume has been sitting around for a long bit of time... Like some many specimens of tandoori chicken around town. I have yet to eat a really moist, juicy and flavorful tandoori chicken in this town. This charga was a total let down. I was really excited to get me some real charga but got a bone up my ass instead.
This is really what the menu says. I love how they second guess themselves, is it our special or someone else's? We don't know but just to be on the safe side we'll put a bunch of question marks after it. Generous portion is not exactly the word I would use. It's like looking into the toilet bowl in Trainspotting. It was like 2 pieces of meat noodling for catfish in that muddy river water. Good luck finding them in that cesspool. Once found, the meat cubes were fork tender as advertised but the curry needed more herbs and spices... And heat.
Is it eggplant or a poblano pepper... That's the fun part of eating this dish or any other in this place. You just don't know what's in your facehole until it's too late. Luckily, this was eggplant and a decent amount of it. This was not spicy at all, even though the oil slick looks otherwise. Come to think of it, this didn't have much flavor at all, it was all oil and mushy texture. If you eat all of this in one sitting, you'll most likely be sitting the rest of the night on the throne. Oil goes in quick but comes out of your system like molasses.
Could have gluten in it or not... Try your luck. If you swell up like Violet Beauregarde, then you will know the answer. The naan was ok, nothing special, had a nice pull and not too chewy. But does it really matter since you'll be sopping up the curry juice with this bread towel... It will do the job. I wish it would also wipe your ass on the way out an hour later.
I don't know, maybe taking this food home was not the desired setting to eat this Indo-Pak cuisine... Maybe it needs to be served on styrofoam plates to bring out the aroma and flavors of the dish... I have heard that closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam does give ethnic foods a certain je ne sais quoi quality to it. The food was just average at best but the saffron basmati rice I made at home was killer. I guess it will be another couple of years before I head back here. Flush.
1706 Church St.
Decatur, GA 30033
404-477-1400
http://www.luqma.com/
1 comment:
If you like spicy eggplant maybe drop by Purnima (Buford Highway, in the strip mall with Pho 24). It's a Bangladeshi restaurant and I got a couple of things there that were not dumbed down AT ALL. The began, bhegin, eggplant whatever was righteous!
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