The Ganesh Temple Canteen is a basement annex of the temple proper. Visitors enter through a steel door on street level. Next to a security booth, there are neat rows of sandals and sockless shoes, battered and electrical taped empty sockets. Down two flights of stairs, the canteen smells like a fine dusting of curry powder. As a boy I mussed the tops of pewter curry plants that I grew in tomato planters. The smell of rich yellow would cloud my eyes like a bottle rocket set off on asphalt and brimstone. Although my plants died in the St. Louis summer, even hotter than the immense fiery imaginary sun of India, I nourished their memory in the architecture of my upper skull. My sinus chambers would resonate with the twang of pulluvan paattu. I caught a green snake and smelled my fingers. His dusky skin, shedding on my hand, reminded me of my garden, something grassy and thrumming. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Indian
More Roti Roll, Please!
by Andrew Giambrone, Yale University
My first experience with roti—the famed flatbread of India—actually occurred at a Thai restaurant in Midtown. Crispy and unleavened, the roti was served as a dessert dish, drizzled with warm, condensed milk and rolled up like a Hot Pocket (though thankfully more delicious). Since then, I’ve craved roti in whatever form I can find: with curry and cooked vegetables, or, my personal favorite, with scraped coconut and Nutella. Luckily for students of Columbia University, Roti Roll Bombay Frankie—a small, nondescript storefront on Manhattan’s Upper West Side—offers a variety of relatively cheap “frankies” (basically burritos) that will satisfy your Indian fix any time of the day (Roti Roll is open from 11am to 2am).
Filed under Andrew G., Columbia University, New York City, Restaurants, Reviews
The CatManDo Packs Value Into Lunch Box Deal
Nathan S., Macalester College
The reason I stepped into the CatManDo Himalayan restaurant on the corner of Grand and Macalester streets was because I saw a huge sign advertising a “$6.45 LUNCH BOX” in the window. I had also had a very good introductory experience to Himalayan cuisine earlier in the year, so I was anxious to gain some more knowledge and new tastes. As soon as I entered, I observed a very inviting, cozy atmosphere infused with smells coming from the kitchen. A friendly waitress greeted me and showed me to the buffet where the boxed lunches were located. She handed me a box and encouraged me to fill it up with anything from the buffet I desired. Continue reading
Filed under Macalester College, Nathan S., Restaurants, Reviews, Saint Paul
Kalluri ‘Corners’ the Princeton Indian Food Market
Marc P., Princeton University
For two years running, my friends and I have gotten together on or around my birthday to eat ourselves silly at Kalluri Corner’s lunch buffet. Located at the intersection of Nassau Street and Olden Street, due north of Cloister and the E-Quad, the restaurant offers a wide variety of Indian foods and drinks at an all-you-can-eat rate for just eleven dollars per person. Continue reading
Filed under Marc P., Princeton University, Restaurants, Reviews
Top 5 Under-the-Radar Restaurants at University of Delaware
Erica C., University of Delaware
The food-scape that makes up Main Street has for generations allowed university students to have a wide variety of culinary genres at their finger tips. But this proximity also poses problems for restaurants that find themselves slightly off the beaten path. Students become accustomed to hitting the same spots- Santa Fe Grill, Klondike Kates and Cucina de Napoli, and rarely jump in their cars and try to find something new.
Restaurants right up Kirkwood Highway and even down the block in the Newark Shopping Center often crave student attention- even though the fare is usually different, and in some cases way better than what we’ve become accustomed to on Main Street.
So next time you’re going out to dinner, check into some of these options and broaden your campus food horizons. Continue reading
Filed under Dining Suggestions, Erica C., Restaurants, University of Delaware
