Monica Bhide's Article in May 2004 Washingtonian

[DonRocks]

Just thought I'd mention that our own Monica has a multi-page article out in Washingtonian (on newsstands now), talking about her favorite Indian restaurants in the DC area.

Wishing I had your gulab jamun,

Rocks.

P.S. It's pronounced Bee-DAY!

[Fat Guy]

Just saw a copy of it tonight. This is a really nice piece, which runs through 7 pages and includes quite a few photos (as an aside, the photographer's last name is "Dinner"). Best I can tell, the article is not online, but here's the table of contents just for reference: http://www.washingtonian.com/thismonth/contents.html

Way to go, Monica.

[hillvalley]

Congrats Monica!

[Steve Klc]

Wonderful Monica--now there's a good reason to pick this issue up off the newstand. SOP for the Washingtonian is to promote the current issue--and then put it up on their website once the next issue rolls out. So if form holds, and if Monica signed away first internet rights, it will eventually make it online.

[bilrus]

Congrats Monica. This might make me actually buy a copy. I swore it off after the last restaurant issue.

[Anna N]

WOW, Monica - it sounds just fabulous - I do hope it goes on-line so we can all get a look. CONGRATULATIONS.

[JPW]

Silly me. FLipped through the issue when it came in the mail and said to myself "Cool!" without even looking to see who the author was.

Doh!

Monica, I promise to read it tonight and to show Mrs JPW.

[hjshorter]

Great article Monica, congratulations. I am now craving Indian food.

[Monica Bhide]

Thanks all for the nice words and encouragement. I had a lot of fun writing the piece and got to try many different placed. DC metro had close to 62 Indian restaurants.. that I counted anyway.. I am sure there are more. Its heartwarming to see the food coming of age and the service not being far behind. I hope that you all will enjoy reading and more importantly enjoy eating!!!

Happy eating

[sara]

What struck me most when reading Monica's article was her clearly superior writing ability, compared to the other food-related articles. Honestly, I cannot imagine how many of those folks get hired-- they are terrible, awful, no-good, very-bad writers!! Thanks Monica, for producing something both interesting and readable!

[Monica Bhide]

What struck me most when reading Monica's article was her clearly superior writing ability, compared to the other food-related articles. Honestly, I cannot imagine how many of those folks get hired-- they are terrible, awful, no-good, very-bad writers!! Thanks Monica, for producing something both interesting and readable!

sara - THANK YOU. Your words mean a lot to me... they really do..

so did I tempt you to try some different Indian place ?

[sara]

Certainly--I've never eaten Indian in DC at all (I live in a part of West Philly with plenty of Indian food), so I have much exploring to do...

[alacarte]

GO MONICA GO!

[browniebaker]

Monica, I enjoyed the reviews and appreciate having now a better idea of what dishes to try at these restaurants.

My only question is, why in the reviews do you often advise your reader to "forget [a certain dish or drink]" and have [another dish or drink] instead. Does the advice to "forget" mean to "avoid"? If you are implying that a certain dish or drink is not good, I hope that you would simply say so. Here, I am left wondering whether there is something negative about the dish or drink that you say one should "forget" about, or whether it is simply that the other dish or drink you recommend is so superior as to be preferred.

It may be that you are working under the constraints of the Washingtonian's editorial style for restaurant reviews, which has generally seemed a bit soft, in my view. I can understand the whys and wherefores of soft reviews, although soft reviews are less useful to me than the more frank and outspoken.

[Monica Bhide]

The "forget" was more to entice people to move away from familiar dishes and try something new. That is all. If people are anything like me, I tend to stick to tried and tested stuff, this was just my way of saying... dont be afraid to try new things.

Also this was not meant to be a critique of the places but rather an insiders guide to who is serving the best authentic meals. Those were my guidelines. They have reviewers for specifc "harder" reviews Hope that helps.

Again thanks for taking the time to read the piece. I hope you will find something useful in it for you

[browniebaker]

Thank you, Monica. I'm thinking of choosing one of these restaurants for my Mother's Day brunch, when I am queen for the day.

[JennyUptown]

I too read "forget" as "avoid."

[Monica Bhide]

okay point noted. thanks for the feedback -- it should have said something like.. forget the familiar and try the XYZ

[sara]

Going to check out Indique tonite, thanks to that article.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=22370&st=60

[DonRocks]

And now there's this!