We heart Indian food!

A feast fit for a Queen...and her princess ;)

Salaam ya'll! Well we finally got Old G (our car) back and boy are we happy! We also are still on cloud 9 in regards to Cap'n's interview being set so we decided to celebrate! Take-out Indian was in order. Delicious!

We have a little local Indian restaurant called Sitar. In the past I've been pretty ambivalent about it; sometimes good, sometimes sucked. :) This time it was AWESOME. With the exception of the paneer pakoras (chickpea-batter coated cheese appetizers). They were horrid but they had waaay too much batter, not used to htem that way.

Everything else was delicious. Hot and fresh. Apparently being the first diner has it's pluses! ;) We called in before they opened and made our order to-go. We also saved about $10 on drinks and tip so I consider it a good thing. :) And we live about 8 minutes away so it was all hot and fresh.

I've been craving veg laterly so we got the veg thali or platter. It has palak paneer (spinach with cheese cubes), veg korma, and dal makhani (buttered beans). It came with a piece of plain naan, pappadums (papad, lentil crackers) and 2 kinds of chutney, mint and onion.

I asked for mild and it was very mild. I could have taken a bit of heat but I didn't want too much; I like to enjoy my food, not be annhilated by it! lol We also ordered the paneer pakoras (won't do that again, tho) and one order of kheer or rice pudding, as well as 1 piece of peshwari (fruited) naan.

Peshwari naan, how I love thee!

In total it was like $26 but I am not kidding when I say we have enough for at least 2 more meals! Now Aaminah's fave is the palak paneer but minus the cheese. She just wants the spinach with plain naan! We enjoyed our meal and I'll be putting it away in a bit; I'm just too full and tired to right now!

Funny tho because this is supposedly just enough for 1 person. We did not buy a 2 person thali. Subnanallah! We have 3/4 of both the veg korma and the dal makhani left, maybe a bit less than 1/2 of the spinach as Aaminah adored it. Loads of rice, all the pakoras, and still almost an entire piece of naan. I eat very little now that I am so sick.

I had (literally) 2 cereal spoons of rice and 2 cereal spoons each of korma and palak paneer. One of the makhani. I did eat half a piece of naan tho and a small papad. It was so light and fresh it almost felt as if you weren't eating it at all. :)

Anyway we fel tliek celebrating a little but with the cost vs how much food we received, it wasn't much of a splurge. I don't have to cook tomorrow either. :)

Alright, ma salaama ya'll!

To all my south asian sistahs

Can ya'll see any desi features on her? Curious...

A'salaamu alaikum ya'll. As you may or may not know, my darlin' little Aaminah is half Indian masha'Allah. I try to encourage her to learn (in age-applicable ways) about the other half of her culture. Masha'allah she's got alot on her plate.

1. M-U-S-L-I-M of course is first and foremost. 'Nough said.

2. American. Amreeki. Amreekiya. Whatev, howev you say it, she was born a southern girl and that is of course my basis for life after being a Muslim.

3. Indo-pak/desi. Please if any of these terms are offensive, tell me. It seems simple to say Indo-Pak but I've never definitely heard if it's rude; if so please excuse me and feel free to call me a redneck if ya wanna. :-))

So I guess it goes to say she will never learn Urdu. First English then Arabic and no one to teach her Urdu. Her Abi left when she was 3 months old and returned to India (after I had traveled to India to marry him, completed his visa, waited apart for a year, brought him over as his sponsor on his relative visa, worked while pregnant with Aaminah and he make TWO trips back to India and didn't work, blah blah blah) LOL Sorry really not bitter at all just want ya'll to have the WHOLE picture in your mind and not think I am trying to keep her from anything anyone.

Anyway I want her to know about her more interesting (to me!) cultural half. Here's where ya'll can help. Anyone out there reading who has a couple of choli-lenghas or shalwar kameez sized to fit a sturdy almost 3 yr old, give me a holla. The bright metal bangles, anything really. I have a few things for her but most of the clothing she outgrew as the waist was made for some very slender child and while masha'allah Aaminah is perfect, made by Allah, she is sturdy not a will-o-wisp. :-)

I am more than willing to pay S&H plus cost but I am not looking to spend $$$. Used is best as it costs lest and I save more $$$. :-)) I would also love to have a sari for me to wrap as a rida (really neat way to cover) or a woolen jamovar/stole/pashmina???? jeeze thought I knew some things but guess not.

I know I can go on eBay and search but I am so leery of getting poor quality in things I am not as well-versed in, such as Indian clothing. Hence my appeal to you.

Now, if you have the goods, you wanna sell, we can make a deal. If you have the goods but kinda feeling, Oh I should save it for my sister's daughter or my cousin's baby, then please do and don't worry. :-) I like to hand things down in my family too or help out those less fortunate, alhamdulillah.

I knooooow this might be stretching it but I would also love to find some jewelry for her; earrings or bracelets. She has a pair of silver anklets given by a sweet friend but I of course would like to put her in some bling-bling gold, insha'Allah, the kind I cannot seem to find in the US.

Oh also just plain play shalwar kameez, shoes, whatever. Sorry trying to be more explicit in what I am searching for. Alright looking forward to hearing back from someone in the near future and if not, alhamdulillah. Maybe one day her Abi's family will think of her here in the US and send her some little token of her other background, wa Allahu alim.

She said to me the other day, rather poignantly, "I want someone to look like me" or something to that effect. She knows I have green eyes and my hair isn't quite the same as hers and her stepsiblings have a more North African/Arab look, and her brothers have light brown hair and startlingly blue eyes. Subhanallah she picked up on that! I want her to be proud of her mixed heritage but I have to find ways to present it to her first insha'allah.

Ma salaama ya'll...

My miti Rani or sweet princess!

*Aaminah in her Indian finery masha'allah!*

A'salaamu alaikum ya'll! All of you with girls know how they love shiny sparkly happy things. :-) I think it's just a part of them. So Aaminah is no exception and she loves the pretty, the glittery. She has a few absolutely STUNNING lengtha choli outfits another sister gave her before she was born. They are so beautiful.




She wanted to put on something for dress up and I got this out. She said, "Ohh it's coot (cute)!". Masha'Allah she is sweet. She loved it and was a pretty good sport about it til the end of my photo shoot. Insha'Allah I'll dress her up soon and take her outside to get beautiful pics; these were just in front of a bedroom door. :-)

Just a quick post and please remember to say, "Masha'allah"!