Samrat

Ahhh, Samrat. Those of you who have been to a Samrat already know the divine pleasure that can be found there. Butter Chicken, Malai Kofta, mmmmm.... so tasty.

Anyway, I am trying to keep my posts sequential in time. I can hardly remember anything that happened during the middle part of freshman year. I can remember a couple things in the beginning of the year and a number of things towards the end of the year (which I will definitely get to) but not much in between. Then after freshman year I have a bunch of memories that I don't know when they happened and then I have a bunch from certain years. Isn't it strange how they work?

Anyway, back to Samrat because this is something I can remember from freshman year. Samrat in Kichijoji used to be upstairs somewhere, I don't remember exactly where, but I remember Aria and Adair and maybe Siv and Jen taking me there. I was terrified! I hadn't been out of the States for very long and all I was used to back home was pizza, cheesesteaks, mexican food (tacos and fajitas) and italian food. I ate some Japanese foods from when I had lived in Japan before but I didn't even eat Chinese or anything else like that. I was not very adventurous at that time in my life. The first few times we went to Samrat, I could not even order anything. Indian food??? Completely unheard of in my universe!! I don't remember what I did for food those times. Maybe I had already eaten or something, I don't remember, but I do remember having no interest in tasting the food. I believe the first thing I tried was a samosa filled with potato and peas and spices. I remember it being really spicy but tasting pretty good otherwise. Mind you, I didn't eat a lot of spicy foods back then either (I don't really now, but I can stand quite a bit more heat than in those days). Something I remember strongly is Aria telling me that whenever she went to Samrat, her braces would get stained. She had that opaque kind that was ceramic or something. I'm not exactly sure. Anyway, she complained about whenever she went there she and Adair would get butter chicken and it would turn the braces yellow or orange. This is how I can remember that Aria and Adair weren't always vegetarians. That soon changed and then the fun began trying to find places where everyone could find something to eat ... but I digress.

Eventually, after all the peer pressure to try the food, I started eating and enjoying the curries and other food at Samrat. I came to absolutely love it and to this day Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines of all time. Aria and I used to go to Samrat and order the Malai Kofta (after she became a vegetarian) and consume it in silent bliss. It is so delicious. Sometimes we would go for the lunch special and for 890 yen get 2 curries and unlimited naan and rice. Of course, to get the naan and rice you had to ask a waiter for it and they generally kept out of sight during lunch time so you couldn't even ask for it! Oh yeah, I think it included a drink too maybe. Lassi was of course my favorite (the sweet variety). I can remember many a lunch or dinner (or really really late dinner in Roppongi...) at Samrat. I've never been able to find its equal anywhere else with regard to quality although I have eaten my fair share of Indian food.

Here in the States, all-you-can-eat indian lunch buffets are quite popular, although there aren't any good ones near our new house. Our favorite was in Delaware right across the street from my apartment. We went there WAY too often! I think lunch was $7 or something like that and you could get an ENORMOUS amount of food! And there wasn't a single thing there that I didn't enjoy. That doesn't happen very often at restaurants.

Well, I've babbled long enough about Samrat and Indian food. I'll have another story later about another Indian restaurant.