My husband works with a lot of international students. This is advantageous for a foodie with an international palate. It serves me well to find the famous Chinese chef in town that all the Chinese students and tourists know about and make it a point to visit. Who better to critique Indonesian food than someone who has grown up with it their entire life. Thankfully the students find the good or decent ethnic eats in town and my hubby passes along the information. Recently there has been a wave of students from India. Lucky for me it's one of my favorite, if not favorite, cuisines. My love affair with Indian food was not love at first taste. No, not at all. I knew nothing about it but was up for any epicurean adventure in high school. I went to place called Clay Oven I think in SW Fresno. I don't think it's there anymore...I don't know, I haven't been to that part of town in a while. I ordered Palak Paneer because I like spinach. The server delivered a dish of dark green goop (that looked like poop-sorry, I couldn't resist). In high school I was not fond of cooked vegetables especially unrecognizable vegetables. I asked the server for a fork and took 3 good spoonfuls and couldn't take in anymore. I was raised to finish my plate clean so that's why I forced 3 spoonfuls and not just one. Oh the lack of texture, the unusual spices, oh and some weird spongy thing (which later I found out to be cheese). The horror! I didn't touch or even consider Indian food for several years. In college I had a couple of Indian girlfriends that kindly showed me the light. They took me to an Indian buffet. I highly recommend Indian buffets, especially if you have no idea what to order or even what it is you're ordering. A good buffet will have a nice assortment of dishes for a very reasonable price (little to no commitment necessary for each dish).
Masala's was a recommendation from a student when it first opened a couple of years ago. Nice, clean ambience with friendly service and good food. I loved that you could order dishes and determine the spice level because I like it HOT and their hot lived up to my taste buds. But it was pricey for Indian food. Maybe because it's in the new shopping center in the new part of town. We still went back despite the price tag. What I longed to try was their buffet. Buffets are not only good if you're new to Indian food but they're also great if you're already familiar with what you like because you get multiple dishes for what you would normally pay for just one. It's a food bargain. Mmm...Masala's buffet lived up to what I imagined it would. They offered pakora, basmati rice, chicken tikka masala, aloo gobi, tandoori chicken, dal tadka, lamb ball curry, raita, gulab jamun, and some salad items. I enjoyed most of the items. The pakora had little to no vegetables, it was mainly tasteless, greasy batter. I've never been fond of tandoori chicken (too dry in my opinion) so I never waste valuable stomach space on that dish. I'm not a fan of lamb but the curry it was in was good. I'm glad I never paid for dessert on my previous excursions here because the gulab jamun was mediocre. All the other items I've enjoyed here in the past and enjoyed them at the buffet. I could live w/o the chicken in the tikka masala; just imagine a spiced tomato curry laden with butter - drool. If you like cauliflower cooked a little over al dente with turmeric, you'll like aloo gobi. Too bad Masala is getting rid of their lunch buffet starting 10/27/08. They're going for a California fusion lunch. Maybe to compete with North India Bar & Grill.
Lunch Buffet $9.99
Masala Indian Cuisine & Cafe
7735 N. Blackstone Ave., Suite 105
Fresno, CA 93720
(559) 431-0060
masalafresno.com
YUM Meter: **
2 comments:
I didn't realize they were getting rid of the buffet - thanks for the head's up.
I hadn't tried Indian cuisine before Masala; while I didn't know what most of the dishes were, I found it to be an enjoyable experience. I could eat the naan bread all day.
Anyway, thanks again for the write-up.
Yeah, it's really unfortunate about the buffet. For your first dive in Indian food, Masala's was a good choice. I want a clay oven so I could make my own naan! Thanks for reading.
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