Chana Masala

Chana Masala or Chickpea curry, well I actually don’t know too much about it. I’ve had it a few times from restaurants but all I know is it’s boiled, soft chickpeas in a curry sauce. Alongside it, I had some frozen Paratha which I cooked up. I had some rehydrated chickpeas and kidney beans and prepared them according to this recipe from all recipes. I had some problems with the spices, and probably added too much of something, which caused the dish to be powdery. On top of that, the chickpeas would not soften, no matter how long I boiled it. According to my mom, the trick is to just let it sit overnight (off the heat) and it’ll be soft the day after. It was bad. Pretty strong contrast compared to the wonderful meal I had the night before :(.

My dad wanted to go out for dinner, he told me that he was craving Indian food, so I checked out Chowhound and RedFlagDeals to look for a nice Indian place that we haven’t been to. Normally when I eat out with my parents, we eat Chinese or Indian because they have the best vegetarian options for my mother and I, so we have had our fair share of Indian places.

I read about Avani at Mavis and Eglinton and figured this would be a nice place to try. The decor nice and simple, everything clean and new. The lighting on the other hand was unfortunately poor. We were seated in a spot that had blindingly bright light compared to the rest of the seating area, which made us feel that we were under a spotlight. The staff was friendly but our waiter was unknowledgeable about the menu and just simply insisted that I order one dish in particular.

Methi Malai Mutter Curry

I did end up ordering that one dish though, the Methi Malai Mutter Curry. The dish consists of fenugreek, peas and paneer. The dish itself was really good, and I ordered it primarily due to the fact that it was the only curry that I haven’t tried before. It was the perfect amount of spicy and tasted excellent with the garlic naan. The prices at Avani are slightly more expensive than most other Indian places at about 15-25 per dish.