Tandoor of India Review

Okapis love high quality buffets-I know that's kind of a misnomer, but stick with me here. I previously mentioned the Grand Super Buffet which is of higher quality than other area Chinese buffets, but I would argue that the Tandoor of India buffet is an easy two steps higher than them in simple overall food quality. Tandoor serves lunch buffet daily and dinner buffet on Tuesday nights.

This okapi's favorite thing at Tandoor is the Makhani Chicken pictured on the right. It is cooked in a tomato butter sauce and is amazingly good!  I also love dipping the deep fried bread pictured on the left in the creamy, sweet Makhani sauce. 

This is Fancy's plate and shows the vastness of options available at Tandoor. She loves the Saag Paneer  which is a soft cheese in a spinach curry (and the centerpiece of her plate pictured above). Fancy goddamn loves cheese, and that cheese is awesome, homemade, and plentiful. 

Fresh naan is delivered to your table during your meal and this hot, fresh, flat bread is always cooked to perfection. It is slightly crispy on the outside and doughy in the center.

This okapi does not touch the bar pictured above, but I thought I'd include it for those of you into chutney and chutney related items. Sorry about the image, I'm not sure why it looks like there's a fog hovering over this area. I assure you there is not a supernatural fog over the chutney area explaining why okapis don't eat it.

This is the dessert area and this okapi goddamn loves kheer (Indian rice pudding), but not coconut kheer. I'm not a huge coconut person, but Fancy who does dig it wasn't down with the coconut kheer either. 

What's great about this buffet is the overall quality of food, service, price (around $11 for lunch buffet), and selection. The buffet items change often, but some things are always served such as the Makhani Chicken and fried bread. The only negative about the experience is if you don't go early enough, the food begins to develop a film from sitting in chafing dishes too long or the fried bread begins to get hard in places from sitting around. This okapi gives Tandoor 4.5 stars and recommends it to anyone who even thinks they might like Indian food.

Tiffany Stories Part 13

Tiffany and Nick have gone out a couple of times. He had her over to his house where he cooked Chinese food. She says that it smelled great, but tasted terrible. I was out of work for a couple of days and when I got back she had very bad news. Nick was in the hospital!

Here's how it went down: Nick went skiing in Toronto. Why Toronto when there are plenty of great places to ski much closer? Who knows. While he was in Toronto his cousin died. His cousin's name was Ansil Erkil. 

Me: Did you just say ERKIL, like from "Family Matters"?

Tiffany: Yeah. He hates that show.

Me: Is he clumsy?

T: No, he's depressed.

Me: How did he die?

T: He killed himself.

Me: Because of the show?

T: No, Okapi, he drank himself to death.

Me: Why?

T: Because that's how he always said he would kill himself. He's been saying it since he was eight.

So, Nick had to stay an extra couple of days in Toronto because that's where Erkil lived. You can imagine my surprise when the next day Tif told me that Nick was home. I asked what happened with the funeral. She said that it turns out that Erkil had faked his death! 

I asked how and she said that it's really quite simple. He has a friend that works for the newspaper and wrote a fake obituary. (I know that's not how it works, but you know...this is Tiffany we're talking about.) Two of his friends called his parents and told them that he was dead, go look at the paper. So, then everyone believed it to be true until he showed up and let them all know that it was a lesson. They should care more about him. 

When Nick got back into town, he called Tiffany to go see him. She asked her parents permission and drove over to see him. He lives an hour away and she got there at one in the morning. They then played soccer. In the yard. In the dark. She said that it was fun. His friend Steve hit on Tiffany and Nick punched him in the face. Tiffany headed home and Steve drove drunk and caused the car accident that sent Nick to the hospital.

Paulie's Pizza Review

It has been this okapi's experience that most pizza places are good at one or two things and mediocre at best with other items. For example, a place might be great at subs but not so good at actual pizza or great at pizza with sub-par wings; you get the idea. Paulie's, however excels at everything (at least everything I've tried-and that's a lot).

I'm a thin crust pizza person, and so that's how I order my pizza; their regular crust is a bit thicker. Anyway, that lovely pie and slice pictured above are a thin crust pizza. The bottom is browned nicely and quite firm. The sauce is on the sweeter side, yet very flavorful and okapis LOVE pizza sauce on the sweet side.

So, this is the remains of a sheet pizza. Since the boys replacing the tub (post coming soon!) and the girls watching were starving, I couldn't snap a pic until everyone grabbed some slices. This is their traditional thickness slices, and still totally delicious. You can see from the pic that they use both types of pepperoni: the "cup & char" and standard flat varieties. This gives a great flavor experience. Also, on both the thin crust and regular, the sauce is in great balance with the cheese and crust. There are few things this okapi hates more on a pizza than not enough sauce, so well done.

Those pizza rolls are delicious. They are fried perfectly, so that they remain crisp without being greasy. Also, you can't beat the price: $5.15*. If you tend to buy pizza logs, you know what I mean here, those things can be 3 for $5, but Paulie's gives you 5. Awesome.

Pictured above we have a small Stinger Sub. The Stinger is chicken fingers and shaved steak tossed in wing sauce and is served on a sub or a pizza. It's one of the things Paulie's is known for, and damn is it good! I get mine with "hot buffalo" wing sauce and it's perfect. The hot wing sauce is not overly hot, but you get a nice burn and most importantly it's super tasty; this isn't just some Frank's Red Hot, this is a full on secret recipe sauce.

Next up, we have a cheese sub. Fancy and I order quite an odd cheese sub: cheddar and provolone with lettuce, tomato, onion, oil, and mayonnaise, grilled open face in the oven. I know it sounds gross, but once you add french fries on it, it's amazing. Seriously, try it sometime :)

These chicken fingers are also fried perfectly, and man are they big! They give 5 to an order which is awesome and they aren't at all greasy, but very crispy. I grab a side of "hot buffalo" sauce to go with my blue cheese for full on dipping pleasure.

The chicken wings also got a bit picked over before I could photograph them, but these are hot wings. Although not jumbo wings, they are large and meaty, cooked well (I order mine extra crispy and they never burn 'em), and are actually tossed well in the (hot) wing sauce. The tossing is a very important part of the wing cooking process that some places just don't seem to get, but Paulie's gets it and the result is fully coated, consistently flavored wings.

This is the remainder of the Country Sweet wings and they too are fantastic. Did I mention the price for wings?! You can go small and snag 5 for only $3.50, grab a few more with the 10 for $6 deal, or if you want a whole lot score bulk pricing at 40 for $19.50.

There are several things that were not reviewed here (although this review spanned several visits) that I would recommend. First would have to be the Pulled Pork Pocket. This is BBQ (or Country Sweet) pulled pork placed inside pizza dough like a calzone and baked in the pizza oven. It's probably the best pulled pork meal I've ever had. I like to have mozzarella thrown in mine, but you can add whatever you want, or just eat it plain with the complimentary side of BBQ dipping sauce. Also, they have a Paulie's Plate Pizza which is exactly what it sounds like: mac salad, home fries, hamburger, hot dog, and meat hot sauce...on a pizza. This  puppy eats like a meal, and you'll be glad you tried it. Among other things they have brownie bars and cheesecake bites for those of you who dig dessert. I've had both and they are delicious.

Paulie's is a (super friendly) family owned and operated pizza joint located in Greece at the corner of Dewey and Latta. They run several awesome specials such as the "10 + 10 = 1 Deal" which rewards you with a stamped receipt each time you  order $10 or more worth of food. When you collect 10 receipts, they give you a free large cheese pizza! Also, they have coupons on the site that offer a $6 medium or $8.35 large cheese pizza Mon-Thurs among other great offers. This okapi gives Paulie's 5 stars. If you like pizza, subs, pulled pork, fried foods, supporting local businesses, or anything at all, you should go to Paulie's. Do it.

*All prices and coupons are gathered from the website and are subject to change.

Weasel Chronicles Part 2

One day the Weasel tells us that she has come up with a way to make money for rent: Prostitution. I shit you not. I was hanging out with Cow that day and we exchange a look when Weasel tells us that she wants to go down Dewey Ave to do it. I inform her that people don't prostitute on Dewey Ave. What the hell was she thinking?

Cow is laughing hysterically, so the Weasel gets all pissed and goes to change her clothes. She walks out with a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt on and claims that she's going to prostitute. Cow tells her that prostitutes don't dress like that and that she needs to wear short skimpy clothing. The Weasel gets all defensive about it says she doesn't want to be stared at.(While trying to be picked up for sex.) I call her a fucking idiot.

Cow tells her where the prostitutes hang out and Weasel takes off. An hour later my cousin is on his way home when he sees the Weasel on the side of the road. He pulls over and asks her if she needs a ride. She yells “NO!!! I'm working!!!” He looks around and asks what she's working on. She tells him that she's trying to prostitute and he's getting in the way. He asks how many people stopped before he “got in the way”. She stomps away without answering. He is not surprised. She is wearing jeans and a tee shirt. She looks homeless, not for sale. 

A little while later she walks through the door and guess what? Yup, she didn't make any money and had to walk back home.

Ridge Donut Cafe

When I did the Best Places to Eat in Irondequiot series I talked briefly about a place called Ridge Donut Cafe. That piece garnered interest from several people, so yesterday while folks were angrily putting in my new bathtub (post about that coming soon!) I decided to calm the angry beasts by grabbing a dozen doughnuts.

I'll start my review with my favorite doughnut: the jelly square. This is a glazed doughnut filled with jelly to be precise. Guess what shape this doughnut is...

There is just the right amount of delicious jelly in this doughnut and the glaze melts in your mouth. Mrs. Harley tells me that this is a honey glaze-and she'd know, she used to make doughnuts...from scratch!

This in an apple filled doughnut. Mrs. Harley said that this is as good as the jelly square and that's quite the compliment! Again, it's evenly filled and just the right amount of sweetness.

Next up we have the cream filled doughnut. I had a white cream filled which is amazing, and Mr. Harley had a  custard filled one. Both were sweet and delicious.

The top was milk chocolatey wonderfulness and the cream wasn't over done. You might think that these fillings would make the area around it weak and thin, but the doughnuts are dense enough to support it perfectly.

This is Fancy's sour cream fry cake doughnut. Did I mention that she hates me taking pictures of food before we eat it? Anyway, you can see here how the inside is both light and fluffy while still being dense and substantial. Extremely tasty!

The peanut butter and jelly doughnut is better than any PB&J sandwich I've ever had. The peanut butter is rich and creamy, but not over-whelming. 

It has the same great jelly as the jelly square and it balances the peanut butter well. If you even think you like PB&J, this doughnut's for you.

I would suggest Ridge Donut Cafe to anyone looking for a great doughnut. It's totally worth driving to and the prices are not steep (a little over a buck for a single or nine bucks a dozen) especially considering these are freshly made daily from scratch. This okapi easily gives this doughnut wonderland 5 stars. Hungry? Go there immediately.