Got Curry? And some bizarre art?
2009-02-07 11:57:29
There's this little Indian restaurant in Milwaukie, Oregon called Got Curry?; it's a family owned place where they live upstairs, mom cooks (and she's a great cook) dad hosts and tends bar and the teenage boy does his best to wait tables.
The food is southern Indian style, and very tasty. There's not a huge selection, but it hardly matters as whatever you order seems to be great. As I mentioned the owner is also the bartender, but that's recent. He made fine drinks, but I've never had to explain what goes in a gin and tonic before (that would be, well, gin and… um… tonic?) His wife muttered with a bit of a chuckle 'What are we going to do on Valentine's day?'
The decor is a little odd as the place was apparently a Mexican restaurant before and they haven't invested much in changing it over to Indian. There are a few elephants and traditional artwork, but the beer comes in glasses proclaiming the 'Rael Experience' and Casa Rael, and there's still a lot of Mexican artwork hanging on the walls.
This one, in particular, caught my eye:
The frame has the title 'Visions of Yesteryear' and it hangs, not so proudly, in the men's room. This is definitely artwork of a different kind of Indian all together. (You can click on the image to see the full size photo.)
I'm still not entirely sure what the painting is all about. The man behind the plow is definitely crushed and broken and very old. I assume the skull is buffalo, not a steer, so he's probably seeing the dead remains of the life he once knew. It's a morbidly depressing painting, which may be why it's been relegated to the men's restroom.
To me it's one of those bizarre moments where going to the bathroom in an Indian restaurant makes the artwork is so completely out of context with the moment, and somehow makes it more interesting and more noteworthy.
Not that it's where any artist probably wants their work hanging, but, it does make you stop and look, and then wash your hands and go back to dinner.