From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published April 11, 2007 Taj Mahal 2$ Old Metairie: 923-C Metairie Rd, (behind Hibernia Homestead), 836-6859. Lunch and dinner Wednesday-Monday (closed Tuesday) AE, DC, MC, V. Indian. The Taj Mahal was the first Indian restaurant ever to open in New Orleans, in 1983. Anila Keswani and her late husband Har had a tough battle persuading Orleanians to try what was in those days a very exotic cuisine. They stuck with it, moving from one location to another and opening other restaurants (they also own Nirvana) along the way. And they're still standing. The premises are sub-optimal. The restaurant is at the end of a driveway more or less behind Hibernia Homestead. Inside, the extensive use of Indian furnishings seems kind of thrown together. You don't come here for atmosphere. The Taj Mahal lost its long-time manager after the storm, and that hurt--the guy always kept a lid on things, and never failed to give great suggestions as to what to try. However. Anila Keswani knows the cuisine of India as well as she knows anything, and she's always kept the kitchen running at a high and authentic level. The standard appetizers--samosas stuffed with cheese or potatoes, mulligatawny soup, cucumber salads, small kebabs of chicken or ground lamb--are good enough. But I find they fill me up a bit too much. So I usually just have a poppadum (the wide, wafer-thin crackers made from lentil flour) or two with the dipping sauces while waiting for the entree. The heart of the menu is curry. That word means something much wider in scope than most Americans know. The seasoning blend differs from curry to curry, so much so that you could choose two curries here that have nothing in common other than they're served in the same kind of metal dish. (I don't know what Indians like those things, but they sure seem to.) The curries range from mild, buttery, and tomato-dominated to fiery concoctions in which many varieties of pepper ratchet each other up to the hottest flavors you can stand. I like them all, but what gets me excited is the latter. My favorite such dish here is lamb rogan josh curry, seasoned with rendered lamb fat. It carries an amount of flavor so intense and various that you palate comes close to what radio guys call overmodulated. They'll make any of these various curries with lamb, chicken, or vegetables, giving rise to an enormous number of possibilities. For many people, their introduction to Indian cooking involves tandoori dishes. A tandoor is a clay oven about two feet across and three feet deep, fired with gas to a very high temperature that quickly roasts whatever's placed inside. The most common and popular tandoori is chicken, skinned, marinated in a red-colored yogurt, skewered, and cooked to a nearly fatless but delectable tenderness. Kebabs of lamb, fish, and an herbaceous elongated meatball called a seenkh kebab get the same treatment. All are good. Indian breads are also hard not to like. The dough for nann, the most common, is slapped up against the inside of the hot clay pot, there to brown to a yeasty, toasty irresistibility. They slather on some butter (garlic butter is also an option) and send it out. It's not unlike pizza crust, but lighter. Naan can also be stuffed with potatoes, peas, or spinach. It's filling, so watch your consumption of it. Indian restaurants have long lists of vegetarian dishes. They're good, but dull here. The best are made with butter and cheese, but they have pure vegan dishes here, too. Saag paneer, made with spinach and the fresh cheese made in house, is especially tasty. Also good are the biryanis, often called Indian jambalaya. It's primarily basmati rice, whose thin, long grains have a fascinating flavor and aroma. Biryanis tend to the dry side (this is appropriate) and can contain chicken, vegetables, lamb, shrimp, or combinations. Not much for dessert. Indian beer is the beverage of choice, unless you've developed a taste for lassi--the Indian yogurt-based drink. Like Indian restaurants everywhere, lunch is served primarily from a buffet, and is a very inexpensive way to really stuff yourself. This was a restaurant in the 2007 Top Sixty Ethnic Restaurant Countdown. To view the entire list, click here. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com.