It’s been awhile since I made my last post under JIA. Well anyway, it came across my mind about this great restaurant which really made a mark on me and my family when we were in Falls Church. It’s an Indian restaurant, yes, but it is more than that. It is Haandi.
Haandi is located between he GNC drug store and (If I could recall it right) is the Vietnamese-oowned barber shop, a walking distance away from the main entrance of Giant supermarket, just before you cross over to Staples (a National Bookstore of sorts).
When I first came here in one Sunday noon (of 2001), the first thing I notice was the beautiful smell spread across the restaurant, with walls painted with beautiful Indian artwork. Turn-off I guess was the songs they’re playing.
It’s not the Bollywood music kind that they’re playing across the place but the more traditional one. It made me remember of one of my childhood nightmares whenever I hear traditional Indian music. It started when I was 9, I used to watch an Indian show that airing on an Indian channel on cable TV. The show is called Sri Ganesh, which is about Indian gods and goddesses (parang Greek mythology). At first, it kind of amuse me because of the actors wearing funny costumes but as overtime, it started to scare me, seeing Vishnu having an elephant nose, Shiva with many arms and hands, and a child being buried alive (I was 9, I never understod things then).
Back to the Haandi thing, the first meal that I ate there, I can still recall, is the Murg Masala. It’s like a chicken curry added with Indian spices and everything. I immediately got hooked on this particular type of meal and so does my little brother. Kuya liked the Tandoori, or was it Ate. And since we’re in the States, we had free refills on sodas at no extra cost (although, after 9/11, a lot of fancy restos were cutting back in expenses so the free refill was no longer continued in most of the places we’ve visited including Haandi).
Having lunch in Haandi after Mass became an almost fixture for all of us. After hearing Mass at St. James Catholic Church, we would walk along West Broad Street all the way across the several streets including Park Avenue, the Asian grocery store, Applebees, and the Taekwondo club there, just so we could eat at that particular restaurant. The waiters there have also gotten used to our presence up to the point that they could almost remember what we are about to order. Guess what, in most Sundays, we’re usually the first customers of the day (I’m so happy!).
Other than eating my plate of Murg, I also enjoyed eating their traditional Indian bread, whcih as I write, forgot its name. Before leaving the place, I had this need to eat their signature pistachio ice cream for dessert. Theirs is one of the best there is!
It’s kinda sad that we never actually stayed in Falls Church permanently, but it’s happy to hear that the people there really misses us,a s what was told to us by my mom who stayed in the US longer until 2004.
So if ever there would come a chance for me to go back tp the US, the first place hat I would visit would be none other than the best Indian restaurant there is in Falls Church, HAANDI.
Murg Masala, anyone?
