July 25th 2014: Dinner at Punjab, Arlington

Today after work, I had a meetup dinner to go too at Punjab, an Indian restaurant in Arlington. I arrived a little early, so I decided to go get a quick bite from Kickstand Cafe right across the road.

After looking at the menu on the wall, I decided to go with the Thai Chicken with Red Curry Soup, with a half portion of the Roasted Portobello Sandwich (mushrooms, organic red pepper pesto, goat cheese, Arugula on pressed Iggy's ciabatta bread).

The sandwich was pretty good, although the curry tasted a little funny. Come to think of it now, I was going to have curry in a sort while anyway, what was I thinking. Oh well.

Heading toward the restaurant, I happened to notice the ice cream place The Chilly Cow, so I had to check it out, getting the Honey Granola ice cream,

which was actually pretty good, although the granola did give the ice cream a weird texture. From here, it was on to dinner, where everyone was already waiting outside. After settling down  for of us decided to share out food  getting the Fried Shrimp Poori (sauteed shrimp with onions and sweet peppers, served with deep fried wheat bread)

and the Dahi Bala (lentil dumplings in tempered yogurt drizzled in tamarind yogurt) for appetizers.

The poori bread was really good, but it actually went better with the yogurt from the other appetizer than the shrimp itself.

For food, I got the special Punjab Lamb Steak (lamb steak marinated with red wine, Indian spices and herbs, grilled and served with minty pebbles, potato and garlic naan),

while my friends got the Chicken Saagwala (Freshly chopped spinach in rich butter sauce), the Lamb Korma (Mildly spiced cream sauce with nuts and raisins)

and the Seafood Masala (Lobster meat, scallops and shrimp in a creamy tomato sauce with freshly crushed garlic and ginger, exotic herbs and spices served in a miniature wok) and Mango Lassi.

My friend complained of not having enough lobster in his curry, while I felt the lamb and chicken in my friend's curries were a little dry. My dish was pretty unique, definitely not tasting very Indian, but not Western either, but delicious all the same.

After a fun dinner, the night still wasn't over for me yet. I decided to go watch "Hercules" at the Capitol Theater in town.

Not really that great a movie after all, but I have to say painting Hercules as an ordinary man performing great deeds in the real world was an interesting twist on the story.