There was hardly anybody at work today; in fact I think there were more people at work yesterday. Now that I've started working on weekends and holidays, I've realized that most grad students don't work all the time. During my first year here at MIT, I felt guilty for not working 7 days a week and for visiting Patrick during long weekends. I thought that everybody but me was slaving away while I relaxed. But now I know better. Sometimes people work on weekends, but they also take the time to enjoy their lives (well, most people do; some people seem to always be at work, which makes me sad for them). So, it's good to know how things really are and not feel guilty for enjoying my free time.

In other news, I realize an exhaustive listing of what I ate for dinner won't interest too many people, but I want to keep track of which Indian dishes I like and don't like, for future reference. So, on with the boring stuff!

So yesterday, I ordered Indian food for dinner (from India Pavillion, via Dining In again). I just couldn't eat any more spaghetti for dinner, and I didn't have any ingredients for real dinner. There's a $15 delivery minimum, so I ordered enough for two meals, so now I have leftovers to look forward to tonight! Here's what I got:

Top row: mysterious condiments (the one on the left tasted sweet and a little fruity; the one on the right was kind of like salsa), rice, rasmalai (dessert; homemade cheese in a sweet milk/pudding that tasted like coconut and pistachio). Middle row: vegetarian appetizer "platter" (vegetable samosa, cheese pakora, veggie pakora, aloo bada), tandoori chicken. Bottom row: dal? (it came free with the meal, with "DAL" written on the container; it contains chickpeas, I think), mulligatawny soup, naan.

It was all good, but if I had to rank the meal in terms of my most favorite part to least favorite, it would go: naan, veggie samosa, tandoori chicken/rice, rasmalai, veggie pakora, cheese pakora, aloo bada, dal, mulligatawny soup. I think I would've preferred a saucier entree (like Chicken Tikka Masala or Bhindi Masala) to make better use of the rice and naan. But the tandoori chicken was tasty all the same.

The rasmalai was described as "A delightful pudding made from homemade cheese, served cold with sweetened milk". I liked all of it but the cheese itself, which was too bland and unexciting. I think next time I'd get kulfi instead, except I'd worry about it melting during delivery.

All in all, it was a good meal, and not too expensive. It's fun trying out new things!