Harvest of India

Buffet Offers Indian Cuisine

By Joanna B. Lewis

One of the best ways to get to know Indian food is to go to a buffet served at many Indian restaurants at lunch. Harvest of India’s buffet lunch, which costs $7.95 Monday through Friday and $8.95 on Saturday and Sunday, is served from 11.30am–2.30pm all seven days.

There you will get an assortment of salads, raita (yogurt with cucumbers and sometimes raw vegetables, cut up fine), chutneys, entrees, side dishes, bread and desserts. Nan is the only bread served at the lunch buffet.

At the lunch buffet recently, there were four salads, raita,two chutneys and the following dishes: lobia kabab (black-eyed peas and spices rolled into a cylinder and deep-fat fried), tandoori-chicken (skinned, marinated chicken in a 500 tandoori oven), pulao rice (basmati rice with herbs), chicken tikka masala (chicken in an onion and tomato sauce), corn and mushroom korma (those two vegetables in a white sauce), aloo mutter (potatoes and green peas in a curry sauce), yellow dal(a lentil dish), beans foogath (green beans with coconut), as well as nan, fresh fruit and dessert. This should give you an idea of which sauces appeal to you most, and when you return for dinner, tell the waiter which dishes you liked and he can recommend similar ones.

Most curries are made in two steps. The basic sauce is simmered for a long time over low heat. Then at the last 15 to 20 minutes, the sauce is used to finish cooking and re-spicing the meat and vegetables. This means most curries are cooked to order. There are many basic sauces. This restaurant uses at least six at any time. There is a spinach sauce, an onion sauce, a tomato sauce, a white sauce, vindaloo and yogurt sauce, among others.

Dinner entrees cost from $8.95 for the vegetable entrees up to $18.95 for the lobster. For starters, have an order of Samosas, triangular pastries stuffed with potatoes, peas and spices. Tandoori chicken is safe bet for palates new to Indian food. The dishs they sell the most are chicken tikka makhanwala, lamb rogan josh and bhuna gosht, als lamb and Goan shrimp curry. There is a vegetable dish, gobi kaju (cauliflower, cashew paste, anise seed and rose water in a white sauce), which is not to be missed.

Even if you are indifferent to cauliflower, you will love this dish. Be sure someone at your table orders this. As with Chinese food, sharing dishes is recommend, and ordering both meat and vegetable dishes assures a balanced meal. Indian vegetarian dishes are among the best in the world.

Try the chutneys that are served with your entrees for the full experience. Order a couple of different breads as well as raita and mango chutney. Order a mango lassi, a drink made of mango, yogurt, honey and sugar and served on ice.