Chai Pani in Asheville, NC won the James Beard award for best restaurant in America, two years ago. I was instantly intrigued and thought, "I have to try out that Indian street food"!

Thus began an obsession that I have totally worn out on this blog. My apologies. But finally, today was the moment of truth as I sat inside the Decatur, AL Chai Pani with a bit of most everything sitting inside a metal plate.

I took my first bite, hmmm spicy and interesting. I bit into the next item, hmmm spicy and intersting. The same thing happened with everything else and I realized the only difference in each was the composition, and they all used the same spice!

I decided to have the chicken over rice as a second dish but I could barely finish it. It was all sitting in my gut like a rock, and I thought WTF?

I was the second person through the door at lunch time and the place had since become packed. Folks here obviously like the stuff, but I decided that the bloom is off the rose and I'm never coming back.

It's funny how you can fantasize about something until it becomes bigger than life, then it ends up crashing and burning to the ground. That's exactly what just happened to me.