Do you know what I love about late summers in Tokyo? Certainly not the heat and humidity. But the almost weekly festivals. However, if you try to go to every one of them, it will cost you a pretty penny. So this year I limited the festivals I was going to go to. I was still working weekends when the Thai Festival came along (but that was in May). I also missed out on the Azabu Juban Festival, I skipped the Vietnam and Sri Lanka Festivals, and I didn't know there was a Mexican Festival until the last minute. However, I decided if there was one festival I was going to go to, it would be the Namaste India Festival. Indian curry was calling my name. So I invited a bunch of friends to gather on a Sunday to enjoy. However, the planned Sunday's weather forecast called for rain. But as you can see from the picture above, not only did it rain, it rained all day. But since I didn't go to any of the other festivals, I dragged Mikako with me and said we're having curry for lunch!
僕が夏の終わりごろの東京はなぜ好きでしょう？猛暑日がつづくその時はまったく好きではありません。でもその時期は毎週どこかでなんかの祭りが開催してる。全部行くと財布が悲鳴をあげますよ。だから今年はどの祭りに行くのを絞ってみました。タイフェスの時はまだ平日休みだったので、行かれなかった（タイフェスは５月ですが）。今年は麻布十番納涼祭りを遠慮して、ベトナムとスリランカフェスも諦めた、メキシコフェスが開催してる情報が遅すぎて、それも行きませんでした。絶対行こうと思ったフェスはナマステインディア。友達を大勢に誘い、日曜に予定した。だが、天気の悪さで誰も行こうとは思いませんでした。自分も雨が止んだらちょっと行こうかなと思いました、残念ながら、一日ずーと雨でした。でも他のフェスもいかなかったもんで、嫁を無理矢理に連れだして、昼食は雨の中の代々木公園でインド料理を食べに行った。
This festival is usually just as crowded as the Thai Festival but because of the weather, the turn out seemed pretty dismal. Still, there were hardcore festival fans who braved the rain to check out the foods and products of India.
晴れたら凄い混雑するフェスなんですど、やっぱり雨のせいで客が少なかった。誘った友達も当然この雨の中に外出ぜす、嫁と二人で楽しむしかない。（ま、楽しんでるのは僕だけと思うけどね。）
These tandoori chicken skewers looked too good to pass up.
タンドリチキンの串焼きが良さそうだったんで、もちろん買いました。
Delicious!
美味しい！
I was happy to find sag on the menu (that would be the green curry on the bottom and is a spinach curry). This also included chicken curry as well. You can never go wrong with any Indian curries in my book!
サグがあってうれしかった。サグはほうれん草のカレー。インドカレーの定番チキンカレーも召し上がりました。
We had to have some type of beverage to wash our food down so I chose these two different Indian beers.
飲み物はやっぱりインドビールにしました。
We also shared a
samosa (on the left)
and a
batata wada (on the right which is a spicy Indian croquette).
サモサ（左）とバタタワダ(右）も食べました。バタタワダはスパイス入りインド風のコロッケ。
We ate under the large tents hoping the weather would get better...it never did.
テントの下で食べて、雨が止むのを望んでましたが。。。晴れる気配無し。
As it was only the two of us, we did not buy or try a large variety of dishes but this looked too interesting to pass up. It was called a
hariyali kabab (a chicken skewer with a spinach/yogurt sauce).
嫁と二人ですから食べる量も限られてる。会場で最後に食べたのはハリヤリカバブ（ほうれん草・ヨーグルトソース掛けの焼き鳥）。
A bit of Indian art / インドアート
More Indian art / 他のインドアート
You can't have an Indian festival without a picture of the Taj Mahal!
インドフェスに欠かせないのはタージマハルだ！
Before leaving the festival, we bought one more item to take home with us - pasta with prawns.
持ち帰りで最後の一品を買いました ‐ 海老入りのパスタ。
Until next year....
また来年。。。
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