66. Indique Heights
It’s not you, Indique Heights, it’s me. The reason I didn’t eat in the restaurant wasn’t because you don’t look like a nice place even though you are situated above the Metro bus terminal in Friendship Heights. And it’s not because I couldn’t figure out where to park and ended up parking in the Clyde’s parking lot which costs $5 an hour. It’s my fault. Well actually, it’s the Real Housewives of New Jersey’s fault. I had like four episodes on my TiVo and I couldn’t stand one more day without knowing why Danielle was a “prostitution whore”. So I got take-out, okay? And I think if a restaurant puts out good take out, that means a lot. And Indique Heights definitely DID.
I also have to state for the record that I am not a big Indian food person, so I was a little worried about liking my food. Also, I really hate curry and am allergic to cilantro, so I had to tip-toe around the menu to find something that I liked and wouldn’t send me to the hospital. I took the recommendations of Washingtonian and my coworkers to heart and ended up ordering the vegetarian samosas, the lamb biriyani and the saffron Malai kabob. Here is my Indian for dummies explanation of everything, wherein I will most likely insult an entire culture. First off, the samosas, much like little egg rolls, were great. Even with the twenty minutes of steaming they endured in the take-out container on my front seat, they were crunchy and tasty and a great starter. I actually ate them in the car stuck in traffic, and if they start selling those at gas stations on the way to the beach, I wouldn’t have to eat so many potato chips. Next I had the saffron chicken kabob, which was obviously soaked in yogurt along with the saffron which made the chicken moist and flavorful. Last was the lamb biriyani, which seems like a cousin of fried rice but luckily was much more flavorful than your usual Chinese take-out fried rice with left over protein scraps. The big chunks of lamb were cooked really well, and the raisins tossed in with the rice added a great layer of tanginess. It was a huge portion and I’m pretty psyched to have a couple more meals of that in my fridge.
Now on to why being an Indian novice and take-out don’t mix. With my two entrees and one appetizer came five sauces. I have no clue which sauce was supposed to go with which dish. I ended up sort of mixing them all together which I’m positive was wrong, but what’s a girl to do? I really liked two of them, which I will now describe and sound completely stupid: one that had a sweet coffee flavor (which I ate with the kabob) was wonderful, and a thick sticky and very spicy sauce I ate mixed with the rice made my toes tingle it was so spicy but I loved it. I’m not going to win any James Beard awards for that food writing, but hey, I must report all that I eat.
I might need to go back and try Indique Heights again so I know how to eat everything, but it was some great take-out. That’s probably not what they’re going for, but whatever; my money is just as good at the hostess stand as it is at a table. And I’m betting they don’t have Bravo on a continuous loop in the restaurant like I do in my house.
