lunch at Dawat - you don't dislike Indian food, you've just never really had it

Consulting; knew it would be like this, wanted the money. I'm shameless. And after a few hours, what else to do on a dreary foggy day in this Endless Winter of Corporate Discontent, surrounded by Endless Documents and Highly Paid and Over-Educated People Whose Skill Sets Do Not Include Finding Things?
Drinking comes to mind, obviously, but at this stage that would be maudlin. So I dragged a trusty companion uptown to Dawat, which is an old favorite. The moving spirit is Madhur Jaffrey, the quality of the ingredients is first-rate, and there are many, many things to choose from. The menu choices are multi-regional. In many of our Indian restaurants, the starting place is essentially 2 proteins, chicken and gray meat, and 3 sauces, yellow, reddish, or tan, and the menu plays mix and match. Here you can read the menu and think -- hmm, that sounds good. There are some old colonial favorites. Chicken Tikka Masala is to Indian cooking what Chop Suey is to Chinese cooking. There are those who love both. Not all Indian foot is red-hot spicy; not all Indian food is curries; and not all restaurant lunches in Indian restaurants are buffets of steam-table chewy lumps in gravy.

Companion was suspicious but game to try.

We had:
Poppadums with mint chutney
Chicken and yellow lentil soup, mild, hot in temperature, comforting
Lamb Rogan Josh (boneless lean lamb in seasoned light tomato sauce)(also available with Goat but not at lunch)
Tandoori (oven-roasted) Fish - still moist and tasty- tandoori chicken, tandoori lamb (Indian mixed grill)
Saag Paneer - Spicy creamed spinach with some home-made cheese
Zeera aloo - Home-fried potatoes
Lemon Basmati rice
Naan bread
Raita - yoghurt dippy sauce
Rice pudding
Tea
$15.95 each before tax and tip. Cab back to Scene of The Not Yet Adjudicated To Be Crimes, to deal with those who are, despite degrees that have them and their parents in deeper debt than Madoff investors, NOT TOO PROUD TO DISCUSS WHOSE TURN IT IS. I hope their mothers are proud.
What I wore: to cheer self, a Liberty print shirt purchased at Liberty's quite some time ago that STILL FITS, after all those years and all that food. Including today's lunch. Black slacks, black jacket. Stern expression. Here's the Liberty print,
I still love it!