The Adventures of a Hungry Couple - the quest for good Indian Cuisine in Chicago

I have only rarely eaten good Indian Cuisine in restaurants in the United States. There are only handful of restaurants out of 100s that I recall the taste and the experience of. To say the least, that is shocking. Having said so, I am now not so sure what exactly is shocking. Is it shocking that I don't like the Indian Cuisine that I have eaten or is it shocking that Indian Cuisine restaurants in the United States really suck? There is one way to answer that question. Visali and I are going to try out one new Indian restaurant every week and write a review. We will go in with an open mind and a empty belly. We will sample as many items as we can and I will follow up with a blog here. I want to believe that it is shocking that I don't like the Indian Cuisine that I have eaten. I want to collect evidence for my hunch that there must be some place out there that serves good Indian Cuisine.

Now, let me state a few traits I would look for in this adventure. For one, the food must taste fresh and reasonably balanced. The word "fresh" here means it should feel like the cook heard me order the paneer korma and then chopped up the herbs, grated the paneer, took fresh oil from the container, fired up the kadhai (wok) and made that korma. The words "reasonably balanced" means, each item should have the right amount of flavor, bite and texture while reasonably matching up with the rest of the items we order. That is mainly it. Fresh and Reasonably Balanced. At this moment, I do not care much about other stuff such as ambience, service, price and other non food items. This is definitely about the food.

Note: I will write this blog and the series following this while addressing all experiences as "My" experiences or "I" doing things. However, my wife Visali is going to be an equal partner. When there is reason to relate to our individual experiences separately in the same dinner, I will call that out separately. So, "I" means "Us" unless I say "I" and "Her" specifically in the same context. I know! Complicated.

If you like a restaurant, do let me know.