Gorkha Palace

Navarattan Korma

My kid sister goes to college in Texas.  While I envy her "winter", I do not envy the complete lack of ethnic restaurant options in her town. To ad insult to injury, the punk is also a vegetarian, and you can really only eat so many baskets of chips and salsa at the umpteenth TexMex establishment before wanting to scream.  So when she's in town for the holidays, she insists on only eating at ethnic restaurants. Ethiopian, Indian, Thai...they're all on the agenda.

For that reason, Gorkha Palace seemed like the perfect spot for some sisterly bonding before she headed back to her 60-degree winter in the great state of Texas. My sister had never experience Tibetan cuisine, so I was anxious for her to try the vegetarian mo-mo.  While I do prefer the yak variety (really, how often does one get to enjoy yak?), the veggie version was great and the accompanying tomato chutney was delicious. 

I'm disappointed to find that the tea list is not online and I'm kicking myself for not writing down the tea I ordered.  Unfortunately, the need to communicate the name of the tea is not because I found it delicious, but because I thought it tasted like socks.  My sister took a sip and immediately said, "broccoli," so there's a tea at Gorkha Palace that tastes like a hybrid of socks and broccoli.  So, tea-drinkers, be wary. 

The sock tea was the only hiccup to this meal.  We both ordered vegetarian dishes so that we could share (yes, I am a super awesome big sis) and I thought my Navarattan Korma was absolutely wonderful.  We were a bit skeptical of the mention of raisins and cashews in this dish but the tiny speck of sweetness added a needed cooling factor to the spice level. I love food with a solid kick so on a scale of 1-5 I tend to order a 4/5.  The 4 level at Gorkha is pretty perfect, just enough to justify another glass of water and a few clear-the-sinuses sniffles,and coupled with a hefty piece of rosemary naan, the Navarattan was exactly what I needed on a cold January night.  I will find it hard to venture away form this dish on my next trip, honestly.  It was good enough to make me care little about Gorkha's other options.  So the rest of y'all will have to report back to break me out of my rut.

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