You have to love San Antonio. My husband, close friends and I went from India to Spain all in one evening!

Simi’s India Cuisine, located at 4535 Fredericksburg Road inside Loop 410, was the perfect stop prior to a performance at at the Entreflamenco dance space, 5407 Bandera Road, Suite 107, also inside Loop 410.

We started with vegetable pakora, an appetizer of cauliflower, potatoes and spinach fritters seasoned in lentil batter. Our friend, Ernie, ordered the chai (tea), supposedly the best in town, but I held off because  he said it had enough caffeine in it to keep me up all night. I did have a sip, though, and it was sweet and tasty.

We then ordered two orders of naan and an order each of tandoori chicken, saag paneer, channa masala, rice and the mixed grill. Check out Simi’s dinner menu to decode our order. We ate family style and enjoyed some of each dish. I wrote about India Oven, another local Indian restaurant, in an earlier post, and I’m here to tell you that if you haven’t experienced saag paneer, you haven’t lived. My friend, Carol, is a regular lunch buffet attendee of Simi’s, and she said that she’d always passed over the sag paneer. She won’t be doing that any more.

Carol recently heard Dr. Michael Wargovich of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio give a talk about how the anti-inflammatory agents in spices help ward off cancer and other diseases. In other words, eating Indian food is good for you!

Exercise is also good for you. Sign up to take a flamenco dance class at Entreflamenco! Or if you don’t want to take a class, be sure to attend one of their performances. I lived in Spain for a year and have traveled back to the Iberian peninsula numerous times, and Antonio Granjero and Estafania Ramirez are the real deal, as are the musicians who accompany them.

Simi’s is open daily from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. for their lunch buffet and from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. for their a la carte dinner. Their phone number is (210) 737-3166.

Sign up to be on Entreflamenco’s email list to stay in the loop on their performances. You may also call (210) 842-4926 for more information.

¡Viva San Antonio!