Interesting Week

Random food and drink related blips from this week:

Blip 1:
For my birthday, hubby gave me roses (this is a BIG deal since he never gives me flowers) and took me out to Lehja, the new Indian restaurant in Shortpump. Where he takes me on my birthday is always a surprise and since we headed out to the far west, I could not have imagined what he was thinking. It turned to be a great choice. The interior is modern chic with clean lines, bright colors, and nice textures.

We ordered Snake Charmers at the bar (Patron Silver, ginger, and lime). I loved the ginger bits (or the snake bites), but the lime was more of a margarita mix and killed the taste of the tequila.

For food and wine, we moved into the dining room and ordered a Torbreck Woodcutter's Shiraz to drink. Lehja offers a wide variety of wine, both red and white. The hard part is figuring out what pairs well. The Torbreck was a winner with our food. Appetizers were shrimp for him and paneer for me and an order of garlic naan. Big jumbo shrimp with pineapple-basil chutney. The paneer was chunks of soft cheese in a hot sauce with peppers and onions (this appetizer could have satisfied for a main dish). For the main course I ordered Chicken Tikka Masala and hubby had a lamb dish with a mango pomegranate sauce. All good and there ae other menus items that must be tried upon our return.

Blip 2:

I had to run an errand south of the river and stopped by three of my favorite places. Vino Market was conducting a wine tasting and I had this wonderful chenin blanc from South Africa called Essay - very citrusy and clean tasting. And then I let Dave show me all of the great stuff on sale, including a Blue Eyed Boy Shiraz from Molly Dooker. Then, on to The Wine Cellar. John had gone home by the time I made it to the store, but I picked up a Snowqualmie Merlot from Washington State to try. Finally, I picked up ribs, hushpuppies, and onion rings from Q Barbeque to eat at home. The onion rings did not travel well, but the other stuff did. Love the puppies! And the ribs were smoked and meaty and the meat was easily separated from the bone.

Blip 3:

I pan-seared a white/black pepper NY strip and served it with dragon's tongue beans with sauteed onions and garlic/turnip/potato mash. Yummy. We opened a 2003 Domaine du Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape to go along with the meal.