Hot Plate: Taj Indian Cuisine

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Why is an Indian lunch buffet so enticing? Do we think we’re cheating the system by eating more than our stomachs can hold? Is it the smugness we feel when going back to work reeking of curry so that everyone knows where we ate—and wishes they came with us? At Taj Indian Cuisine, it’s more about overdosing on tasty flavors.

Indian food is very conducive to a buffet. After all, 90 percent of it is a stew or sauce-based, so the short time it spends warming at the buffet only makes it taste better and better. At Taj, the buffet is a great spread every day. The dinner menu is extensive with a large selection of seafood, lamb, and vegetarian dishes. And the breads are just as much a specialty—there are at least 18 on the menu at any given time. Everything from aloo bhatura (a crispy, fried bread with potatoes) to hot spicy naan with green chiles and red peppers (and right from the tandoor.) A tip: If you’re ordering something this hot, get a mango lassi to drink. The yogurt helps cut the heat while the mango soothes the stomach. (So that’s why that drink is so popular.)

For me the real buffet dilemma is that you try something at lunch—the nav ratan korma (nine-vegetable stew), lamb bhartha (lamb and roasted eggplant curry), or chicken jalfrezi (chicken in a spicy, thick sauce)—fall in love with it, order it from the dinner menu and then get stuck on it. That is, until you come back and try something new at lunch. It’s a vicious, delicious cycle.

Taj Indian Cuisine, 7426 Beechmont Ave., Anderson Twp., (513) 233-9777

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