Early Valentine’s dinner
Last night, Jac and I went out for an early Valentine’s dinner.* We went to the Red Turban Indian Restaurant, which is at 1514 Albany Hwy, Cannington. We had their standard buffet for $23.90 per head. On Friday and Saturday nights they have a Grand Buffet for $28.90 a head. It was quite early when we were there, with hardly anyone in the restaurant (more staff than customers at that time!). I felt very conspicuous taking photos, so I took them very quickly. So here’s the first pic. In the front is the dhal, which was really tasty, and at the back is vegetable bhaji. The vegetables were thinly sliced and fried, reminding me of tempura (but of course, spicier!). I had potato, sweet potato and zucchini bhaji.
In front here is the butter chicken – oh, this was so damned delicious! The chicken was really tender and had a lovely charred flavour. The dish at the back is the zucchini and potato aloo, which was very nice.
Next, front: beef rogan josh (labeled “MILD”), and back: beef vindaloo (labeled “HOT”). The beef was cut into quite big chunks, but was tender and not chewy at all.
The four pieces of tandoori chicken sitting there look pretty pathetic! Of course, I picked the thigh. It was really good, with that great charred flavour. I didn’t actually try the pappadam, because I ended up having two pieces of butter naan (next picture) instead.
Of course, there was rice to go with the curry, and butter naan. That naan was the best I’ve ever had. I could’ve sat there and eaten my way through a big pile of that naan (better still, I could’ve yanked that tray out, carried it back to my table and eaten all of that naan!).
I’m not a big fan of chutneys or yoghurt with meat, but Jac loves it.
Front: fruit salad, and back: some sort of creamed rice, topped with sultanas and nuts.
In the back was a kind of chopped salad or salsa-style salad. In the front here is pickled beetroot and yoghurt with mint.
My plate, round one. From the bright red tandoori chicken at the top left of the plate, working clockwise, next is the naan, then the beef rogan josh, vegetable bhaji, dhal, rice and that gorgeous butter chicken.
We both ended our meals with a bowl of fruit salad.
While we had our dinner (we took our time, rested between rounds and just relaxed) the restaurant slowly filled up with buffet as well as a la carte customers, and quite a number of people picked up takeaways. There were indian customers, which I took to be a good sign (like chinese people eating in a chinese restaurant is a sign that the food is good). The staff were friendly (though there were too many people rostered on; they were just desperate for things to do – our plates and napkins were cleared away super-quick each round!). Another promising sign was that two couples who ate off the a la carte menu took home doggy bags. Heheh. If you like indian food or are curious and would like to try indian food, I would definitely recommend The Red Turban. It may have been cheaper to order a couple of main dishes and some rice and naan off the a la carte menu, but with the buffet we got to try lots of dishes in one sitting. We’d been meaning to go out and have indian food together somewhere – this was my first time ever in an indian restaurant – I was glad we went, and I hope to go again soon.
This year, Jac and I will have been together for nine years in May. That’s pretty good, eh?
*Note: we don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day. I reckon you should show your partner how special he/she is every day, not just one supposedly special day. It’s nice to have an excuse to do something fun/different, though.