FOR MADELEINE

Well, this blog should probably be renamed. Because a historical event occurred a couple of months ago, one that was so big and huge and crazy, you might have felt the Earth shake a little bit.

Are you ready kids?

(here's where you say "AYE AYE CAPTAIN!")

I ATE YOGURT! And I didn't throw up, gag, cry, scream, dry heave, faint, explode, implode, dissolve, OR die. Nay, I ENJOYED it!

(Cue earthquake)

Let me explain. A group of friends went to this Indian food place called Indika.

Indika= amazeballs. That's all there is to it. Great atmosphere, good service, AMAZING food. Actually.

Ok, I'll admit. I was scared poop-less when I heard we were going to an Indian restaurant. The only thing I could think was "Everything is going to be weird and spicy and funny colors."

Of course, it didn't help when I sat down, opened the menu, and saw "Baby goat brains" as one of the appetizers. I saw that and my heart sank a little. Sorry, my heart sank A LOT. I was like "Ok that's cool, goat brains. Not even regular goat brains, but baby ones. FROM A GOAT BABY. FROM A KID. THIS IS MESSED UP. I'll just eat Icees and popcorn once we get to the movie theater."

But that was all changed about 30 minutes later when it was decided that the cook would just serve us a "Best Of" meal- their best appetizers and entrees for the whole group to share. I was relieved, because that meant I wouldn't have to dig through the menu for something that I thought I might like.

The appetizers (we requested NOT to have goat brain) came out, and I got really excited. Like "Holy mother of pearl, this is all so pretty and yummy looking and I cannot wait to sink my chompers into every single one of these puppies" excited. BUT NOT REAL PUPPIES OF COURSE! Proverbial ones.

We had:
Slow roasted goat on an open faced crepe with spinach and walnuts
Lambchops with mint masala
Crab samosas with papaya ginger chutney
Warm spinach and paneer with a tandoori corn cracker type-thing
and Corn and Mint Chahat

This is where the yogurt came into play. They had brought everything out to the table when another waiter came up and was like "One last thing" and put the corn chahat right in front of me. Then he said "The is our corn and mint chahat with a yogurt dressing."

I eyed the chahat and was immediately trying to trade the goat plate over the yogurt one (yes, that is how much I detest yogurt), when Helen looked at me and said "Just do it, Martha."

So I did, and I'm really glad. It was one of my favorite dishes of the night.

Full disclosure: friends made this possible. If I hadn't had 6 pairs of eyes (YO DIZ A SHOUT OUT TO MAH GURL MADELEINE) trained on me while I whimpered about being scared, I wouldn't have had a single bite. Trusting new food and the people who introduce you to it is SO important.

I'm a believer in the power of food. Not like, "holy-crap this food has given me 5 extra pounds its so powerful" but like "I care about you, and I want to convey myself, so here's something that I am 100% responsible for, and I want it to make you happy".

I just went there.