Ouch. Had the lunch special again. That wonderful $4.00 box stuffed full of rice and vegetable dishes? Yeah. That thing. Brown rice. oddly enough, it's not that brown. Almost barley brown, if that's a descriptor (and no, I wasn't trying to spell barely). Today's vegetable options were dal (savory and not very spicy), soy (still a tad too salty for me, but fascinatingly quirky), beets (they just taste like shredded, stewed beets. also slightly too salty for me), potato and tomato stew? (or potato and stewed, slivered hot peppers), cabbage (which still tastes like slightly bitter bok choy with a few large pieces of hot peppers), and what was almost like a cool salad made of shredded carrot and chunks of red onion, cucumber and tomato mixed in slightly watery yogurt-like base.
Highlights: I quite enjoy that dal. I also find the soy amusing. It reminds me of Chinese deep fried gluten products, but in what almost looks like watery rabbit dropping form (don't let this stop you from trying it). The yogurt and veggie option was a nice save from the burn (more on this later), but because it was sitting atop the hot rice, it wasn't quite as cool as I'd have wished it to be. Perhaps next time, I'll ask for this on the side.
Oddlight: I ate something that was probably top three on my spicy list. It wasn't an in-my-face sort of burn. It was a slow, throat burning sensation, and boy did it burn. Think alcohol throat warming, but considerably more intense. I had a whole small iced cap with chocolate mint shot and three papadums trying to keep the burn at bay. It helped...minutely. I have a feeling it was the potato stew, but I wasn't willing to risk more throat burn to have that confirmed.
Oddlight part 2: They gave me a very small container of what I believe was some kind of broth? If it wasn't broth, someone, please tell me, because I drank it (I didn't know what else to do with it). It was almost a brown/grey beef broth color, but didn't taste of meat. It tasted soup and spicy. Someone help? It was odd, but not in an entirely unpleasant way.
Lovely perk: In one of my previous reviews, I mentioned that there is no menu here. That being said, almost every time I've come, I've pointed at something and asked what it was. This time, I pointed at something that looked similar to a timbit, albeit more deep-fried looking, and less iced (icing iced, not frozen iced). I was told it was sweet. I declined. I'm not particularly fond of sweet, especially if I don't know how sweet. While packing my food, my server decided he was going to give me one of these sweets. Score! It was almost like a Chinese donut (like the ones at congee places), except it has a very small spicy burn after. He told me they were five for a dollar. I caved.
Total damage: $5 for my very stuffed veggie lunch box with rice, a small container of what may or may not have been soup, three papadums (I think they were supposed to give me two, but two of them got stuck together), three small hot peppers (because my lunch was totally not spicy enough...said in the most sarcastic tone I can muster online), and 5 of those lovely, sweet...sweets...
Side note: Those sweets. I asked what they were called. The answer I received was, "Sweet. Five for a dollar." That's what I'm going to call them next time I want to order them. read more