Tandoor: An Indo-Pak Culinary Delight Lokvani received an invitation to attend the grand opening of Tandoor in Manchester, NH on August 17, 2002. It was exciting to read that Indian and Pakistanis can get together to do something wonderful and what indeed is more wonderful than good food! Manchester, nicknamed the Queen City, straddling the bank of Merrimack river is about an hour's drive from Boston and Tandoor is located in the Maple valley plaza, which is very easy to find.

One of the owners, Mr. Ijaz Akhtar Eshan extended a personal welcome to the guests. The restaurant is neatly decorated and had a warm and welcoming ambience to spend an evening. The dinner menu for the evening had a mouth-watering collection of appetizers, vegetarian and non-vegetarian entries and of course a wonderful selection of desserts.

Our course began with the traditional Indian appetizers: the samosas and the vegetable pakoras, which were very freshly prepared. We were then served malai kofta and bhindi kadai according to our choice prepared in Indo/Pakistani style. Our final course, the dessert, were phirni and gajar ka halwa. The phirni was one of the tastiest I have ever had. The credit for the delicious food goes to Mr. Arif Ali, who has several years of cooking experience in Indian and Pakistani cuisine.

The evening was not just a feast for the stomach but a feast for the ears as well with the local music group Yaadein, founded by Harish Panchal, adding melody to the evening. The group played a variety of Hindi songs that ranged from golden oldies to the current mega-hits . One of the vocalists Vijay rendered some great Rafi numbers. The female singers were talented and presented a wide range of songs.

"The major ingredients of our food are love, affection and peace. Everyone loves mother's food because it has all these components", says Ijaz."We plan to have similar evenings at Tandoor, where there is combination of delicious food and music from South Asia."

Lokvani wishes the Tandoor team good luck in their endeavor.

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