The Curry Club
2 locations: Setauket and Lake Grove, NY
Being a foodie, not only do I enjoy sampling other delights that people cook for me to eat, but I also love to cook in general- from Italian, to Mexican, to Bite-size Foodie concoctions, you name it. However, while my repertoire is no where as impressive as I would like to admit, I am willing to try to cook anything, as long as my budget and roomie sister can stand it! One fare I have yet to attempt is Indian. While I'm a big consumer of the food, I have slight trepidation about trying to cook it. Maybe it's the abundance of spices? Who knows, because my dad used to cook it all the time at home and it seems simple enough. But, while I hesitantly wait for the day when I attempt it, I will happily eat at an Indian restaurant.
The Curry Club is a...... wait for itttt...... Indian restaurant! located in Long Island where my family has eaten at repeatedly due to its reliable (or so we thought) food. We hadn't been here for a while, so we figured, why not? So, we waited in mock suspense for our expectantly good food. Well, let me tell you, the mock suspense turned into actual surprise when our food arrived.
Since I've been here so many times, I will first tell you what I recommend:
Vegetable samosas: think of a fried pierogy, the size of a baseball-- pastry puffs filled with a yummy combination of potatoes, vegetables, and spices. One of my all time favorites!
Chicken tikka masala: chicken in a creamy tomato sauce with spices
Navrattan vegetable korma : cream curry garnished with nuts and raisins. Please read more below about this dish
Chicken biryani: sort of a chicken and rice variation with Cinnamon, bay leaves, cumin, etc.
During this visit, Fiona, my dad, and I ate: vegetable samosas, dal makhni (black lentils in a creamy sauce), navrattan vegetable korma, shrimp jhalfrezi, tandoori chicken--marinated in yogurt and spices cooked in a tandoor oven, roti and naan unleavened breads to mop up all the yummy sauces on the plate. We also ordered rice with our meal, which is another prominent staple in Indian food. The samosas were just as I expected; crunchy pastry on the outside with a slightly spicy filling. I could probably eat 3 of these in a sitting they are just so good! Dal makhni was initially subtle, relative to heat, then the spice hits you the next moment at the back of your throat. This visit was the first time we had tried the lentil creation but it was lovely and I would certainly order it again. Korma was the big disappointment. I usually love this dish and rave about it when I'm eating it, especially from Curry Club, but visually and taste-wise it was drastically different, unfortunately. It was white-- a big old warning sign that something went awry, when the millions of other times we've had it, the sauce was yellow. Also, it was bland and there were no raisins, as Fiona pointed out, which is the big component that offers a bit of sweetness to the savory dish. The jhalfrezi is a particularly spicy chili masala cooked with vegetables, reminding me of what my dad made on his curry nights, which were usually blow-out-your-brains-spicy. Thanks, dad :) Finally, the tandoori chicken was good, a bit dry, but tasty. I think this is a mild dish and good start for someone who has never tried Indian food. Also to note, not all Indian dishes are spicy. Spice does not always = Indian food.
Regardless of the disappointment of part of the meal, the roti and naan made me happy. I definitely recommend ordering some sort of bread whenever eating Indian food. I absolutely love them carbs, and naan is the one for me. It's great and absorbent to sop up the goodness that your fork failed to scoop up. And certainly a more polite tool than licking up the plate. Wouldn't want to insult anybody, would we?
Unfortunately, the next time I go to the restaurant, I am going to ask for their old recipes back, as the new changes were far below our expectations, not only for the food, but for the restaurant. They have been serving up hearty, delightfully tasty food for years, so to change it now seems a bit puzzling. As the old saying goes, don't change it if it works.... or maybe I just made that up, but you get the point. Maybe this visit has lit a fire under me to cook my own Indian food.. I'll let you know how it goes, when it happens!
