New York/New Jersey Trip: Day 2 (or, Indian food and puzzles: a relaxing weekend day)

On my first full day in New Jersey, I started my vacation on the right foot and didn't do much. I thought a bit about my plans for the upcoming week and e-mailed a few people to coordinate schedules, but mostly just hang out at my friends' place.

The only real event of note was our lunch-time journey to Moghul Indian in Edison, NJ. A quite good Indian buffet, heads above most other such buffets I've had.

Incidentally, en route to Moghul I got the feel of Metuchen. (It had a middle/middle-upper class feel with mostly single-family brick houses.) We passed one house with what I thought was an interesting piece of art on the lawn: what appeared to be black columns at odd (though mostly vertical) angles with trash cans as heads. When returning, someone suggested, rightly so, that it was likely trees wrapped with plastic bags and covered for the winter. But I still like thinking about it as artwork.

Anyway, Moghul Indian's buffer was surprising because in addition to the standard fare they had some chinese stuff (singapore noodles and a chinese stir-fry), imperial rolls (technically vietnamese but theirs looked more like egg rolls), and even continental (like potato skins or tomatoes stuffed with mashed potatoes, and fresh fruit). I thought perhaps this is what an Indian restaurant has to do to attract enough customers in an as unadventurous places as this area of New Jersey. (Clearly my stereotype of New Jersey is coming into play here.) But I realized later this rationale doesn't hold water when Bryson and Catherine drove me down Oak Tree Road in Edison, a quaint downtown with countless Indian places and clearly a strong community. (Thus, Moghul shouldn't need to attract white customers with this type of non-Indian fare; I suppose some Indian customers must appreciate the continental cuisine. Although frankly I'm not sure why they would -- I tried one tomato-wrapped item and it was bad.)

Digressions aside, Moghul was quite tasty. They had good staples like butter chicken, chicken curry, and saag paneer to more unusual dishes like an okra dish and something I've never seen that included crispy flakes (almost like rice crispies) and vegetables and spices that was made on the spot by a server. And every time I got naan at the buffet line, it tasted as if I'd just ordered it. Amazing! I was also happy I tried the dessert they had, a custardy cinnamon rice pudding dish.

The afternoon consisted simply of Bryson and I doing puzzles and such with Catherine's intermittent help. (She mostly had something work related to do.) We mostly did a set of hard word-play puzzles called "Scare Tactics" the New York Times published one recent Halloween. (Sadly, I can't link to it; the New York Times themselves has eliminated the page from its database. I do have a saved copy. If you want it, mail me.)

Dinner was, like the previous night, cooked at home. I helped contribute to dinner (by trimming snap peas) about as much as the night before. Bryson and Catherine used their wok magic to make a tasty Chinese spicy shrimp stir-fry with snap peas. (And I love snap peas.)

Later in the evening, -I'm not sure what incited this- Catherine decided she was in the mood for corn bread. And so she made some. Spur of moment corn bread, from a recipe that she's never tried before. I become instantly even more impressed with the food tendencies of Bryson and Catherine -- choosing good restaurants, cooking well, and doing neat spontaneous food ideas. (I don't do much spontaneous cooking.) And, yes, the corn bread muffins turned out well.

(Incidentally, a week after I returned, inspired by their memory I cooked my own corn bread. It turned out decently, though I don't think as well -- it had less structural integrity and was a little drier. But then my recipe in fact was simple and didn't use buttermilk or sour cream or any diary product.)