Restaurant Find - Monsoon Cuisine of India, Sacramento, CA

Let me preface this review by saying we attended as part of a Yelp Elite event.

(Photo from Yelp.)


At the end of last year and for 2012, Yelp gave me the Elite badge.  Being an Elite is pretty sweet because Yelp throws special events throughout the year which I get the chance to attend with a guest (or sometimes guests) and it is coolio to rock the Elite badge.  Anyway, this was our first Yelp Elite event.  It was fun and even better, FREE for us.  That said, I think it's only fair that I tell you we did not pay for any of our food or beers last night, other than tipping the bartenders.

Monsoon is on the corner of 16th & I.

You may remember the location as being Bistro 33 Midtown, then Spin Burger.  Once upon a time at the beginning of our days The Cyclist was a server when the restaurant was Bistro 33 Midtown, so we know the building well.  You might remember the funky-schwanky white rocks and white leather booths from those days.  Then later when it became Spin Burger it was a more kick-back bike themed dealio.  Why am I telling you all of this about the decor?  Good question.  I think Monsoon finally got the space right, a little flashy, but still classy.....check it..

(These are not my photos, by the way, I pulled them from Monsoon's website.)

Let's get to what's really important.  Food!

(again, none of these are my photos, they are all from Yelp from here down.)

Vegetable Samosa Spicy seasoned potatoes and peas wrapped in a pastry

Not the greatest image but you get the idea.  These were tasty.  The spice was present but not overpowering and although they were fried, they were not greasy.  As someone who cooks, I think that fried but not greasy balance is hard to achieve, especially with something that is pretty heavily breaded or wrapped in pastry, like this is.  They served it to us with the sauce you see on the right, I can't pinpoint exactly what it was, but it was good!

Mixed Vegetable Pakoras Crispy light fritters made with fresh vegetables

Nice photo!  Another fried deliciousness dish.  Again, fried but not greasy.  There is not a lot of veggies in these, but if you are looking for a tasty appetizer this is a good one.  They were nicely spiced too.

Chicken Tikka Boneless pieces marinated in tandoori spices and yogurt

OK, this is a guess.  I'm pretty sure this was one of the items on the big hors d'evours tray that had different meats.  I am not typically a fan of tandoori chicken.  Something about the bright pink outside just throws me.  It's not that I think it tastes bad, I'm just freaked by the pink.  This chicken though, was good.  And it was more reddish and spicy looking on the outside than pink.  It was nice and spicy but not overpowering.

Lamb Something This isn't really the name of it, but I don't know what it was other than it was lamb

Yeah, that's right.  Lamb Something.  Pretty creative don't you think?  I'm thinking of starting second career as a menu writer.  So, I don't know what this was on their menu, but whatever it was, it was good.  A nice tender piece of lamb, spiced generously, but you guessed it, not overpowering.  The spice on everything here was done very well.

Naan

I was waiting for some naan all night.  I thought we missed it because as soon as I saw a tray it would disappear just like that.  But towards the end of the evening, some made it our way.  I think we had the plain variety.  It was warm and chewy perfection.  When I go back, I'll order the garlic naan....

The Cyclist & I had a nice little date night.  Here we are in deep conversation, cause that's what us married folks do...

All of the other Yelper's were very friendly, as was the staff and a gentlemen who I believe was the owner.  He made sure we still had food even when the event was technically over.  Although super busy, the bartenders were doing a great job and even let me keep my ticket when they thought I waited too long for one of my beers.

Oh!  Speaking of beer, they've got some great choices, including Lagunitas IPA on tap.

So, if you are looking for some tasty Indian fare in a nice location, check out Monsoon!  You can peep the menu on their website.  Click this link for my review.

Thangs

In case you were wondering.....but maybe you weren't....but I'll tell you anyway.

I've been missing from the blogosphere for the last couple of days!  But.  I learned how to add code and the nifty little buttons to the right.  Now you can link my Facebook page, Twitter and RSS feed just by pressing the button.  I felt like the sidebar was getting cluttered so I fixed it up.  I have to send a big THANK YOU to Alicia for this post which was so incredibly helpful.  Now that I think I am a super code writer, those buttons will probably change up until I find some that I super like, but the basics are good for now.

Also, I have made another change on the little bloggy.  When I started this shindig, I made a conscious decision that I would not use this space to be negative.  There is too much of that in the world.  This is a happy spot.  I do enjoy reviewing things though, so initially when sharing recipe's I called them "Recipe Review(s)" and put them under the "Recipe Review" tab up above.  But, since I'm not really reviewing, but more sharing a good find, I've changed the tab and the titles to "Recipe Finds".  From now on that's what I'll be calling it when I share a recipe from someone else on the blog.  I will continue to use Yelp to do actual reviews, good and bad (but trust me, it has to be really really bad for me to actually put it in writing).

Did you see the Farmer's Market Live post?  This was a brilliant idea of friend & fellow blogger Eek! - Slurpees in spandex.  I'm going to do these as often as possible.  If you live in the area you can get a peep of what's at the market that morning.  Sweet.  Thanks Em!

Have you seen Pinterest?  It's nifty.  You can see what I'm pinning by pressing the button to the right....


I'm beginning to forget who Old Lady and the Computer is.

Oh yeah.  So, I don't promise to stop nerding out but I do promise to get back to real blog posts.

Until then!

Lots of Food = Tri Time

After eating stuff like this: Wasabi Balls & Thai Hot Wings and this: Gorgonzola Tenderloin with Brandy Cream Sauce and this: The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Baked French Toast

(here is a picture of mine)

and this:

(this dish was made by The Cyclist, yum!)

and, of course, this:

...although our Graham Slam packaging wasn't all Phillies'd out.  Apparently Graham Slam has become the official flavor of the Phillies.  Excellent choice!

Anyway, after eating all this good stuff on our vacation/wedding/honeymoon, my pants are suddenly tight, so it's time to get down to business!  Which means I am now officially training for this:

So.  This week I rode my bike to work everyday - it's only 4 miles each way so this isn't a huge accomplishment training-wise, but it is a big accomplishment towards getting back in the rhythm of daily workouts.

On Monday I did ride 20 miles after work.  I should have risen early Tuesday to run, but I failed to do this. Wednesday I swam with a friend and managed to swim laps for about 40 minutes.  Considering I haven't been in the pool for about a year, I was happy with this.  I would like to get a run in this weekend.....a run and a ride would be beautiful, but we'll see, we have a race on calendar so time may be an issue.  (More about the race later!)  I will soon need to pick a real training schedule to follow, but for my first week out I am giving myself a score of pretty good!