On Raya Eve...

... we went out with friends. A relaxed dinner outing. Nah! We didn't do anything spectacular. What we did was just hung around in the company of friends. Had a hearty meal, though. 8)

It was sort of a belated birthday visit. For the kids, it was Uncle H'ridas. So we decided to go down to SP for dinner with Haridas and Prabha. Been a long while since we did something like this. Was late in getting to SP... so both of them had to wait a bit. We decided to go for dinner at Jade Restaurant but fortunately for us, there was a wedding dinner. So, we ended up having Indian food, instead. And it was a really nice experience.

Chennai Curry House....located at Legenda Heights, next to Village Mall in SP. Almost the whole block is a 'makan' area. Looks like SP wins hands down when it comes to choices of food compared to Alor Setar.

Food at Chennai Curry House was good. I mean, in Alor Setar we're rather deprived of Indian cuisine. So, anything that is more than the regular tosai and capati stalls that we frequent would be something that is 'extraordinary' for us. This is the tandoori chicken with mint sauce. Chicken was moist and nice.

My photo does no justice to this mutton curry. It's simply delicious! We were all busy tucking in that I forgot to shoot it first before anyone got to it! Ling ordered their house special which was lime mint drink. She wasn't sure at first at Haridas said she might not like it... but the waiter said he'll cancel the order if she didn't like it. In the end, we found the drink okay. It was at least something different.... 8)

Chennai Curry House provides 2 different dining experience, the alfesco and something more towards 'fine' dining. Food for both areas are different. You cannot sit inside and order the food meant for the alresco dining.

So, you get to use tables laid with finer cutlery inside, complete with napkins and all the necessary stuff. This is the first time, I've been to a restaurant with 2 different dining areas with different menus. Oh ya! The head waiter said the chefs were hired from a well-known hotel in India.

Didn't get the pics for rest of the food that we had but I must say that generally the food is nice. Love the way the vegetables were prepared. The herbs in the curries were pleasing to the taste buds and food wasn't that hot that you have to keep reaching out for the drinks.

The waiter said, the food is okay for vegans - separate preparations. We also had two versions of briyani rice - mutton and chicken. I prefer the mutton but again, can't complain much. We tried the different nans that they had... butter/garlic/cheese and I must say that they're good enough to eat on their own. The cheese version was especially nice. Had the potato, ladies fingers and dhal curries. All 3 curries were finger-lickin good!

Maybe my taste buds are not too refined to actually describe the Indian cuisines but all of us enjoyed the food there very much. We'll probably go back there again. And oh yes! I had my first taste of masala tea, flavoured with cardamom. First time I've had spicy tea. It was a good experience.

After dinner, we popped over to Starbucks to get an Expresso shot for Siah... to keep her awake! LOL! You find Starbucks in SP but not our state capital. How's that! Where food is concerned Alor Setar still lacks the choices.

From there, we went back the house for the birthday cake... on a night like this (no moonlight since it was the eve of Syawal) and in the cool night air, Nancy couldn't help but swing around the palm tree... she was imagining herself in some Bollywood movie, I think... you know those running up and down the hill, going round the bush or tree, music, dancing kinda movie??? LOL!

We ushered the 1st of Syawal in together... 8). It was way past midnight when we got home... but it was a nice night out...