We have recently received some scathing criticism from a friend and/or owner of a curry shoppe. His advice is that food reviews should focus on the food, not the adventures of two idiots who happen to be eating curry. We completely disagree. If that’s what you want, read John Gilchrist like the rest of the lemmings. And, we will not have our literary license fear-mongered. Or fish mongered. To illustrate this point and to give the proverbial middle finger to our critics, the following review will have even less to do with food than it usually does. Our apologies in advance to the owners of The Taj. (matt)

To explain the situation a bit more fully, we originally recieved a facebook note from someone saying that they'd noticed our review of Surahi was fairly scathing and that he'd heard they were under new management and that the food was now fantastic.  We sent back a note saying thanks for the heads-up, we'll check it out when we get around to a second visit.  A couple of weeks later, we received an email from someone with a similar (but not identical name) basically saying the same thing but adding that they thought food reviews should focus on food and not on the patronage.  They also offered to "contact the owner" to see if they could hook us up with a free meal.  This, comment and the fact that they seemed to be taking our original review rather personally made me look into things a little deeper.  The facebook account that had contacted us seemed to be a sham, with no friends, and the first name was Ren....probably inspired by my name.  The facebooks last name however was the same as the first name of the person who later emailed us.  Hmm, suspicious.  (ren)

I just used the term “fish monger”. In Hamlet, Shakespeare used the same term as a euphemism for the term “pimp”. I have no intention of trying to one up “the Bard”. But I do wish I had his awesome nickname. I guess that’s the thing about a nickname, you can’t just give yourself one. If you try, you just end up looking like a jackass. (matt)

Last summer we were contacted by a restauranteur whose business we'd reviewed poorly and who wished to speak with us about how he could improve things.  We went to check it out, thinking maybe we'd been too harsh the first time around.  However the meal was still not to our liking at all.  We decided in the end not to contact the owner, and did not bother to write a second review as it would add nothing to the first.  However, Mr Surahi owner....we will revisit your establishment some time.  And we will review it again. And if it is not drastically improved you will have two scathing reviews on our site instead of one.  I hope you are confident in your ability to change our minds. (ren)

What’s the deal with New Brunswick? Why do we need this province? Other than a few lobsters (which we can get from Nova Scotia anyways), they really aren’t contributing anything to the rest of the country. French and Western separatists could make it easier on themselves if they just all moved there. They can have their own country and Fredericton can be its capital. None of us would really care.(matt)

One of the comments that was made was that we should not have written about the appearance of the patrons or the serving staff at the restaurant, since in the end, it's the food that matters.  While Matty and I agree for the most part.  This is after all, DODGYCURRY.CA....a website that was born to review DODGY CURRY RESTAURANTS!!! A little smudge on a glass, or a filthy table will not change our opinions if the food is excellent.  However we will still mention it.  And if your serving staff has creepy jailhouse tattoos, and the other customers look like sleazy little pervs on their way to pick up hookers, we may mention that too.  But really....we don't care.  This isn't much more than a laugh to us.  An excuse to go out and have a tasty meal together every so often.  If we like the meal, you get a good score.  If we don't, it doesn't matter how fancy and clean your establishment is, or how wonderful and nice your staff is.....you're still getting a shit review.  But either way, we're still going to tell our story. (ren) 

Tips for Taking Matching Tests:

Tip #1: Read the question carefully before you begin matching items together. Make sure you understand what you are being asked to match.

Tip #2: You should spend your time reading the column that has longer choices because you will be able to scan the shorter choices quicker as you go through the questions.

Tip #3: Go through and match all those you are absolutely sure of first.

Tip #4: Cross out each answer as you match it - this will help make it easier to see what choices you have left.

Tip #5: Make you best guess on the rest of the answers - hopefully you will have eliminated some of the choices reducing your chance for error. (matt)

I think matty is just randomly pulling stuff off of wikipedia at this point.  That's cool.  Hey readers!!! Do any of you have wikipedia accounts?  You should write us up a wikipedia page.  That'd be pretty cool.  If any of you out there decides to do this, we'll take you out for a curry.  Wouldn't that be fun?  Yes, I think it would. (ren)

I think eventually everything comes down to “la lingua pura”; mathematics. Eventually if you learn enough about the respective sciences, they probably fuse into each other and then morph into numbers and math. There are probably complex equations to explain the differences between world religions. It hardly seems necessary to fight wars over math. (matt)

I figure it's about time to actually write a something about the Taj.  It's in discovery ridge.  That is the one "Ridge" in Calgary that we predicted would never have a curry restaurant.  Boy are our faces red. (ren)

The first lesson children learn from marital infidelity is how to deal with emotional pain. Then they learn how to lie. Then there’s probably a lesson about how to be callous and indifferent to others. Only after they have learned these important lessons can you explain to them why they have two mommies. (matt)

I can't even start to compete with this.  Matt has completely lost it.  (ren)

Here, for your enjoyment is a diagram of the reproductive anatomy of flowering plants:

Um...yeah.  I've got your peduncle right here!!! (ren)

Most influential on the fabric of our society: Gordon Lightfoot, Stompin Tom Connors or Peter Mansbridge? Debate. Then get back to me with your answer by one of the following methods: Smoke signal, Interpretive Dance and/or Björk song. (matt)

Sometimes when I'm really bored, I like to play a game.  I'll select a random article on wikipedia.  Then I'll open another random article in a new window.  Then what I do is try to work from one of the  articles to the other just using the links within the articles.  It can be really, really fun.  Ok...not really.  But it passes the time, and you might just learn something. (ren)

Today’s “featured Wikipedia list” informs me that there are 51 listed Grade I buildings in Bristol, England. Grade I buildings are apparently buildings of outstanding or national architectural or historic interest. Featured articles in the daily Wikipedia dish include information on Hurricane Nate while random pictures of the Light-mantled Albatross and Fighting Polar Bears are also featured. (matt)

In summary, the food at The Taj was good. We give it an 8/10.

Not at the restaurant

• Lee Fogolin
• Teddy Ruxpin
• Lou Bega

Rating: