after dinner sneeze

t says:  kp cooked a meal for g, v, a, d, and me (and himself).  It was friggin awesome.  Here are some pictures and quotes/comments.  But I need to apologize in advance.  While my iPhone normally takes crappy pix (it’s a 3G people … not a 4, not a 3GS, a 3G!!), it did especially crappy this time.  So absolutely no justice to kp’s food is done by these – sorry kp!!

App 1: "Hush Puppies"

A composed plate that features a swan-shaped hush puppy, a lamb kebab in the background (it's kind of like a lamb sausage but spiced/seasoned really well) ... and judging by clarity , you can tell that it was NOT take by my iPhone.

It looks like a pot of brown, but it is sweet sweet butter chicken, made with bone-in chicken. So delicious!

I am neglecting a picture of the palak paneer cuz my pic was so bad.  v took some pics of the cookies we made.  I premade some dough balls as described here and then we topped them with a variety of spices (ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon), dried cherries, crystallized ginger, etc.  I wish she had taken pics of kp’s food cuz hers were WAY better than mine.

Pre-oven cookies.

Post-oven cookies.

d also brought some yummy sorbet which was a delightful way to cleanse the palate.  He also man-handled all the dishes.

And let’s round out the evening with some more comments.

a says:  Definitely the best Indian food we’ve had in a long, long time. The chicken was decadent and the hushpuppies were spicy pillows from heaven. And I thought the wine/beer paired well with such a wide variety of dishes (t interjects:  a brought the majority of wine/beer, so his reputation was on the line).

v says:  What an unbelievably fantastic meal!  The unintended cost of eating at kp’s… needing to buy pants with expandable waist bands the next day!

back to t:  I also believe that v was so full that she at one point remarked that she felt as if she was “muffin-topping” and/or “pregnant with a baby butter chicken”.  a was surprisingly ok with the impregnation of his girlfriend by another man.  This meal was delicious from beginning to end – a very typical occurrence at the house of kp.  When we asked how long it took him to make the food, accusing him of “taking all day”, he responded, “no, just since 3”.  Four hours of love went into the food, and you could taste it.  g and d made no official comments as far as I know – more like sounds that were along the lines of “mmmmmmmmmm”.  d was very interested, however, in the cooking techniques and spice mixtures – when kp revealed that he sending us each home with a mix of spices, you could hear/see the gears in d’s head turning.  I anticipate that he will attempt to replicate/expound upon these dishes at future gatherings – but you got to be careful – although he’d never admit it, a lot of kp’s cookery comes from inherent knowledge that he might not really think twice about, while neophytes like myself will completely miss something if not explicitly instructed.