Aahar: The Taste of India

Aahar is one of those restaurants I've had on my "to try" list for a couple of years. I would drive by their Carling and Churchill location occasionally and make a mental note that I still hadn't gone. I'm glad to have have changed that.

Upon entering the restaurant, I was surprised how bright it was inside. From the outside of the restaurant, it looks like it's really dimly lit, but on the inside I almost wished the lights were a bit dimmer, to give that dining feel.

For starters, we ordered Allo Tikki, which is a spiced potato with curried chickpeas, tamarind sauce, mint sauce, yogurt and coriander.

I would rather there have been less yogurt on the plate. I'm not an expert on Indian food, so maybe that's just the way it is served. Personally, I found that it overly neutralized the spiciness of the potato and took over the other flavours in the dish.

We also ordered samosas, which were quite good. The accompanying sauce was just okay.


For the mains, we order Vindaloo, which included a warning that it was hot even though it was relatively mild. We both really enjoyed it though.

Finally, we went with the typical Butter Chicken. Along with the naan, it tasted great. We even debated over who would get to have it the next day for leftovers.

The service was mixed. The younger guy seemed really nice, although only came out of his shell to chat with us toward the end of the meal. The female working there was polite, but really missed the mark when we gave her feedback on the house red. I told her that the meal was good, but the wine that they served was off. After a quiet giggle, she said, "we don't make the wine." I think it's kind of a ridiculous response. I wasn't assuming that they were producing wine in the back of their restaurant. However, if they're serving wine that tastes bad, they should still feel responsible for the quality of it. It's not like I drank the whole glass and then said it was off. I had two sips and could stand any more of it.

That incident aside, I'd definitely recommend Aahar and intend to go back and order take out from them in the future.

Jewish Minestrone Soup

I fall into the category of people who could have soup every day. I've been hanging with the golden girls as a babysitter/general slave but no complaints - I'm in southern California escaped from the brutality of Canadian winter. My mother's friend "R", not to be mistaken with Psychgrad's "R" showed me her version of Minnestrone soup. We call it Jewish Minestrone and it's quite different than the Italian version that we're all very familiar with. It all begins with 2 packages of Manishewitz Minnestrone dry soup mix.


2 pkg Manischewitz Minnestrone soup mix
3 carrots, diced
3 medium sized diced potatoes
1 head cut cauliflower
1.5 pints sliced button mushrooms
6-8 cups water
1 tsp of granular chicken broth (such as Maggi or Osem)



Take both packages of the soup mix and add to the bottom of the pot.



Add cold water to fill a large pot approximately 2/3 full, keeping in mind you're adding a number of vegetables.
Bring soup mix with water to a boil and turn heat down to medium; cook until the pea and bean soup mix combination is beginning to soften.
Add the diced carrot to about 50% doneness.



Add potatoes and cook to approximately 50% doneness






Now the cauliflower and mushroom and continue cooking until all vegetablest are fully cooked without being mushy. Mix in the granular broth, stir well and you're done.

Ahora

Ottawa may not be a hub for Mexican food...but we do have Ahora (and a few other places of varying authenticity).


It's a small, casual restaurant (almost fast food style), in the market. After picking your dish, you go up to the front counter to place your order. The food is then brought to your table. Even though it was -25 out, I couldn't resist getting a margarita.



The taste was great until I realized that the rim was covered with salt (I thought it was sugar)...after mixing the salt into the drink. I don't fault the restaurant because salt around the rim is (apparently) common and is meant to bring out the flavour of the margarita. Personally, I find the flavour combination gross.

We started with an order of chips and salsa. There wasn't much to them, but I took advantage of the hot sauce selections at the front of the restaurant, which made them more appealing.



For the main, R had a Burrito Grande. His verdict: "It was okay".



I quite enjoyed my Quesadilla de Pollo. Again, the free hot sauces were much appreciated.



In general, I'd go back... But, judging from other online reviews, I'm not as big of a fan as others who have visited the restaurant. I'd probably wait until summer to return because I found the restaurant to be quite cold. It's also hard to "swallow" the summer feel of the place when it's -25 out. The tables are fairly tightly packed in there, which is fine, unless your neighbours feel the need to yell the entire time. I think they got the hint when I yelled to R, "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Gotta love the Canadian-style passive-aggressiveness. Service was friendly, price is good.