Comments on: Buffalo Spree’s Best of WNY 2009 – Food Station Review

By: j

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:41:17 +0000

10. Fantastic. Simply fantastic.

By: nelson

nelson — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:31:22 +0000

…yet another comment. During Judging for the taste of Buffalo, I ate at all the Indian places. I thought that Tandoori’s was probably the best! (Kabob and Curry was also good.) The owner was super attentive and everything was being run like a Navy ship! So…it just proves that you can’t always judge a place by one experience! …unless we’re talking about Marinaccio’s… which got too many chances and was consistently horrid. …should’ve stopped at experience number at that place!

By: nelson

nelson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:30:25 +0000

It’s pretty relevant in the world of Indian cuisine, as it is in Chinese and many other so-called ethic cuisines. It’s relevant because – being “real” here and not simply politically correct – the best chefs in these disciplines are, for the most part, people who grew up in those cultural and culinary milieus. They know how it should taste, look and smell. Their grandmas cooked it and they ate it everyday. There are always exceptions, but statistically speaking, this is a mere truism. There is a reason that, when you go to your local Chinese take-out, the new Indian restaurant, the Thai place, the Asian grocer, the Vietnamese sandwich shop, 29 times out of 30, the nationality/ethnicity that you see serving and preparing the food matches the ethnicity of the food itself. It’s no accident and it’s not a bad thing to acknowledge it. Also, I know the wait staff, the kitchen staff, and the proprietors ARE all Indian (in this exact case, you are very lucky and one of the chefs is “only” half Indian). Nevertheless, to see a white woman serving the fritters – and seemingly knowing nothing about them or why they are there or what is going on period – is not the best of signs that the food was prepared lovingly, carefully, correctly, etc. I doubt an Indian would’ve been able to stand there and not feel a bit ashamed of this display of minimal hospitality, creativity, skill, and national (or, yes, ethnic) pride. Sure, if the food was great, I would have only privately wondered why there was a non-Indian working the table when everyone I know who is in the employ of Tandoori IS Indian. But, with the food being so lackluster, it was a clue that was indeed borne out into culinary fruition.

By: Eliz

Eliz — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:10:40 +0000

Since all I had were the martinis and the vichyssoise (both excellent), I’ll take your word on this. Nice, thorough summary!

The only cavil I’d have is that if the food had been good at the Tandoori table you wouldn’t have commented on the nationality of the server; I don’t think it’s relevant.