Royal India & Extraordinary Desserts (again!)

[original date of post was early August but ended up being posted one month later!]

In celebration of Divalicious's bday in early August, we (meaning me and The Other Rock Chick, TORC) took her out to lunch. We both brainstormed different places and types of ethnic food. In the end, Divalicious got to choose and the top choice turned out to be Indian...This is Royal India, as seen from across the street on Market. It's located in the Gaslamp Quarter notorious for it's tourist trap like quality and the overall shittiness of trying to find parking on a weekend. In our case, we parked at Horton Plaza and walked a few blocks west to get here...
They had a buffet ($12.95) or you could choose from the menu. We ended up choosing buffet because we thought we'd have more variety. The place was so damn dead when we walked in. And in retrospect, we probably should have asked for another table because there was a fkg food stain on the lower left corner of the table (not seen in this photo though). Nice.
That's the buffet at the back wall. It was kind of small and skimpy. There were the usual suspects - salad (iceberg, yuck), the dips/sauces (chutney, mint, tamarind, yogurt), rice (only one kind, boo), tandoor chicken, some lamb dish, a few veg offerings, plus 2 fried offerings (the bhajji and samosas). Dessert, if you wanted it, was fruit.
While the restaurants itself was nice and clean, I was a bit disappointed in this place which touts itself as one of "san Diego's Best". But then again, I've learned to be wary of these labels and who anoints these labels too. I've been to other Indian restaurants that were hole in the walls and they had a better buffet selection...
I liked the curvy cutout along the wall frame...by the way, the bathroom is in the far far right corner. It's not very clean. When I went there, there was, and I shit you not, a Milky Way wrapper on top of the toilet tank. Who eats candy when they're on the toilet? Can you image that shit? What theFKG FK people? There was also a few bits of crumpled TP on the floor that added to the somewhat less than classy ambiance.
This was my plate - samosa, bhajji, rice, some gloopy vegetarian stuff that included chickpeas, potatoes, spinach and curry, but not in that order or combination. We also got served naan but it wasn't very exciting to look at in a photo so it's not included here. Despite my less than stellar description of the food here, my friend really enjoyed her birthday lunch. Sometimes it's not where you eat but the company you share your meal with. Okay, I just ended that sentence in a preposition which was grammatically incorrect.
None of us really felt like partaking in the Indian buffet dessert offering (notice the singular noun), so we drove to Extraordinary Desserts (from here on out, to be referred to as "ED") on the outskirts of Little Italy. I'd already gone here a few months ago with TORC. In fact, we were supposed to go with Divalicious and the Knitting Diva but the former was out of town and the latter got tied up with work. And most recently, TORC and I went to the uptown location of ED after our dinner at Pizzicato. Here's my last post on this location of ED. So, here we were again...
The counters had Japanese wooden Kokeshi dolls on top as well as assorted gourmet teas, coffees, and sweets. The glass cases were filled with a wide assortment of desserts that Karen Krasne is famous for...That's TORC that you see down below, perusing the selections...
These tarts were just gorgeous - they were gussied up with flowers and berries.TORC's mango berry iced tea on the left and my passion fruit ice tea on the right...
Divalicious' coffee below...Look at those sugar rock crystals! I ate one too! Crunchy!
Here we are with our fancy ass desserts...
Diva's macadamia cream cake with caramel swirl...kind of looks like it collapsed. Her dessert tasted as light as a feather - very smooth on the tongue and fluffy!
This was TORC's dessert - I believe it was a version of Tiramisu - (you can see the cross section of the ladyfingers in there). Hers was very rich and decadent...
Mine was the Passion Fruit Pavlova topped with fresh fruit, custard and champagne grapes (I admit, that was one of the main reasons I wanted this - for the grapes!). Loved how they plated this with the quadrants of brilliant fruit purees.
Here is another view of my dessert, which I only had a few bites. I haven't had a real Pavlova) in about 16 years. I had an Australian classmate in my masters program (who later became a colleague in the same district) who used to bring homemade Pavlovas whenever we'd have potlucks. She would top them with sliced kiwis, strawberries and decorate them with tiny Australian flags. So cute!

The Pavlova, if you are to believe the various accounts, was supposedly named after the famous ballerina after she toured New Zealand and Australia in the 1920's. Both countries claim the Pavlova as their national dessert. The pavlova shell looks like a meringue but isn't hard through and through. Rather, it is hard and crispy on the outside but chewy inside, which is a pretty interesting texture and a more enjoyable mouthfeel (to me). I remember looking forward to our monthly multicultural potlucks because I always knew that she would bring a pavlova. While ED's version was pretty fantastic to look at and delicious to eat as well, I still fondly recall my classmate's version...
That last time TORC and I were at ED, we swore we'd have lunch here. Instead, we had dessert here again. Next time, hopefully with the Knitting Diva in tow, we will have lunch here because they have a few panini offerings that we have our eyes on!