The day before Thanksgiving, MSPD and I hit up an absolutely phenomenal Indian buffet in Burnsville for lunch. At a little under $8 for lunch, this 15+ item spread was an absolute surprise given its nearly invisible location and total lack of attention elsewhere in the local food-related blogosphere. The flavors were incredibly sharp for the usually muddied buffets seen elsewhere around town and the fresh ingredients and ever-changing menu have me clamoring to return again and again. A second more recent visit showed several repeat items on the buffet but several new including one “Bangladeshi Fish” dish that was seriously so good that even though I was stuffed to the gills (har har) I went back once more to make sure it wasn’t a fluke (har har again).
Well, it was through the original review that I got some attention (an e-mail, an e-card, and a phone call) from the owners of Ramadan who invited me back to see them again (full disclosure: on their dime) and eat lunch with them. After some discussion and a tour of the market next door they agreed to offer up a $40 gift certificate to their restaurant for one lucky Lazy Lightning winner. The rest of you cronies get a 10% discount just for mentioning our good name.
While in the review of Ramadan Restaurant and Grill I didn’t give much attention to the Halal market next door, after the private tour I had a much better appreciation for everything they have to offer there:
- 1. Bulk spices for far less than you’ll find at any of the local stores. While they’re no Penzey’s, I’m sure for your day to day needs you won’t be disappointed with selection or volume for the price.
2. A huge selection of teas.
3. Minnesota grown honey for at least 50% less than you’ll pay at the local farmers markets but sourced from the locals just the same.
4. A full service meat market with locally grown animals purchased farm-direct on Tuesdays and butchered in-house less than 24 hours later
While I’m all for the hyperlocal grown meats and especially the butchering, the biggest draw for me which has made me a 100% convert to shopping for all my beef at Ramadan’s Halal Market is the price. I ordered hyperlocal, freshly butchered filet mignon for $9.99/lb. No, you’re not reading that wrong, there’s no “1″ in front. I said $9.99/lb. Aged for 8 days when I picked it up this was some of the better filets I’ve ever made in my home for less than half the price I could get it elsewhere. Cut to order and local, I will never shop anywhere else again for my steak and the best part is I can now afford filet mignon twice a month instead of twice a year. If you’re looking for good meat, this is the place for you. If they can impress me by sourcing some amazing filet for my own holiday meals (I now have 4 good sized steaks instead of two!), I guarantee you won’t be disappointed for the price either.
However, I’ve lost sight of the real reason for the post. We have a $40 gift certificate to give away for all of you foodies out there looking to hit up their ~15 item lunch buffet or their incredibly detailed 30+ item Sunday brunch buffet (which is only $10.99)!
Even though many of you already know the drill (as we’ve done this many, many, many times before) here it is again anyway:
- 1. Post a comment below to enter. Nothing fancy required. However if you note you’ll promise to head over to Ramadan and at least hit up one of their buffets and tell them you heard about the site for your 10% off I’ll throw in an extra entry for you.
2. Like the Facebook post about this contest.
3. RT @SouthMetroNews’ tweet including the URL pointing to this post on Twitter.
Each of those three things are worth one entry each (well, unless swear up and down that you’ll visit them and mention Lazy Lightning, then it’s two for the first). You can only have up to four entries total regardless of how many reminders may be posted to any of the social networking sites or how many comments you write below.
The contest will run through Saturday 12/31/2011 at 11:59:59 PM (happy new years!) and one lucky individual will be chosen at random by my patented SQL methodology. The winner will be notified by e-mail as well as a post on here, Twitter and Facebook. Please note that I have made arrangements to make this gift certificate much easier to obtain than prior contests and no in-person or mailed certificates are required. So for those of you scared about meeting a hairy-faced blogger, you’re in the clear on this one.
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Have you been to Ramadan Restaurant and Grill in Burnsville? If so what did you think? Are you an Indian food fan? What is your favorite dish to order? If you were going to win the gift certificate what do you think you’d order off Ramadan’s menu? Whatever you have to say about the $40 gift certificate giveaway from Ramadan Restaurant and Grill, and especially to get an entry, go ahead and comment on below!
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December 26th, 2011 at 7:55 am
Free Money!! I’m in!
December 26th, 2011 at 7:58 am
Oh, and I’ll head over to Ramadan this week…
December 26th, 2011 at 8:02 am
…an that’s a promise.
December 26th, 2011 at 8:04 am
Congrats to C&V on comment #300!
December 26th, 2011 at 8:15 am
…and I’ll mention LL (and Bill) when I get there. [...channeling MSPD :-) ]
December 26th, 2011 at 8:43 am
Looks good, we’ll have to try this place! And I’m not scared to meet a hairy-faced blogger!!
December 26th, 2011 at 8:43 am
Hi–My family would love to use this gift certificate and promise faithfully to do so–and will undoubtedly go to Ramadan’s on our own in the very near future–with or without the gift certificate.
December 26th, 2011 at 8:54 am
hb, I’d reconsider the fear part… there’s a reason people fear things, or people… ;-)
December 26th, 2011 at 9:09 am
Sign me up, i would love to try this place.
December 26th, 2011 at 9:18 am
I have been to Ramadan and would go again soon.
December 26th, 2011 at 9:26 am
Crony #2 officially entering.
December 26th, 2011 at 9:30 am
i’m in
bb
December 26th, 2011 at 9:41 am
I’m in for free money. And I’d LOVE to hit up an Indian buffet, but no one in my life but me will eat Indian. If I can get someone to come with me I promise to go!
December 26th, 2011 at 9:52 am
I am going to eat at this place for sure! I will go with you dm!
December 26th, 2011 at 9:54 am
well wouldn’t that just be… interesting, Lefty!
December 26th, 2011 at 10:05 am
My husband agreed to go, so consider this my ‘promise’ post.
December 26th, 2011 at 10:13 am
I hereby promise that, if selected, I will go to Ramadan Restaurant and Grill, enjoy at least one buffet, and inform the applicable personnel that I learned of them from Lazy Lightning.
December 26th, 2011 at 10:32 am
Oh heck, I’ll go this week whether I win or not, and definitely let them know I heard about it on LL. :)
December 26th, 2011 at 10:37 am
I don’t think promising to go if you win was quite what Bill was asking for.
December 26th, 2011 at 10:52 am
I just clicked over to Ramadan’s menus…sign me up. Even if I don’t win the gift cert, I’ll still go and mention LL for 10% off, which is a good deal in and of itself. I’ll also probably do the liking of the facebook thing. Probably not on the twit thing, though, because I’ve tried the twit but I just don’t get it.
December 26th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Ever since Bill posted the other article, I’ve been making plans to go here that keep getting thwarted. I AM GOING! And I will mentionn LL when I do yehehe discounts!!
Thanks for describing the market a little too. I’ll give their meat section a look see and if their tea selection is good they will be seeing my face in their shop A LOT!!!
December 26th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
No work this week so I promise I’ll head to Ramadan this week for the lunch buffet. Been meaning to try it ever since reading your review.
December 26th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Thanks for the giveaway and the coupon. I promise to go in 2012, with or without a gift certificate.
Sincerely,
Chrony in training
December 26th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Dan N is employed?
December 26th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Sounds like a trip to Burnsville is in order!
December 26th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I’ll be heading to Ramadan soon, that’s a promise.
December 26th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
totally promise!!!
December 26th, 2011 at 11:50 pm
Sounds like a place I’d like and I will be sure to go this year regardless of if I win. And I will mention you either way as well. :)
December 27th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Oh yum. I promise to go!
December 27th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I’m hoping to get down to Ramadan in the near future. It’s not a food category I’d typically gravitate towards but I’ve heard too many good things about it to ignore it.
December 27th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Had a heckuva time posting a comment using my phone, so let me try again with my laptop. I’m in for an entry; make it a double, as I hereby promise to head over to Ramadan for the cheap meat, bulk spices and highly recommended buffet. Oh yeah, and my LL discount.
December 28th, 2011 at 8:30 am
Been waiting to find a day off to try out Ramadan since you mentioned it in your first review. Yum! Boy oh boy am I going there … especially for 10% off!
December 28th, 2011 at 8:34 am
So if I mention LL, I can get beef tenderloin for $9.00 per pound? That’s crazy.
December 31st, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Pick me! Pick me! I did a location scout tonight.
December 31st, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Cross my heart and hope to spit: I’ll mention LL when I am there.
January 1st, 2012 at 11:51 am
And the winner is: N! Congrats. I’ll be in touch.
Methodology:
The facebookusers.txt file consisted of those who commented on Facebook and RT’d the information on Twitter and those who had a second entry on the site for promising to mention LL.
January 2nd, 2012 at 9:00 am
woot!
January 16th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Just my two cents. Tried the market based on what I read here. Bought $40 worth of filet. Not worth it. It was the toughest, stringiest steak I have ever had. Won’t be back – for the meat anyway. If I ever need six pounds of star anise, I know where to go. But as for the butchery – skip it.
January 16th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Please note that because the meat is butchered (and cut) generally before your eyes a bit of time must pass before it becomes tender. It was recommended that my filet age 8 days before I consumed it.
I don’t know if this recommended aging is from the time the meat is cut or from the time it’s butchered however. You may want to ask the butchers or Huq (one of the owners) the next time you’re in there.
January 16th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
From here: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ0856.html
Remember, Ramadan’s beef is generally butchered on Tuesday/Wednesday so if you’re buying your steaks on Thursday or Friday you’ll want to wait at least a week before eating the steaks out of your fridge.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:25 am
Well I can attest to this aging process. I bought several pounds of Ramadan Tenderloin a few days before New Years Eve and decided to give it a whirl on New Years Eve. I cut the tenderloin into 12 filets. While I ate my entire filet it was rather tough and stingy but I kept to myself to see if my wife thought the same thing. She did and was not all that impressed with the tenderloin and we were in the same camp as J Layman. Thinking to myself, damn, I just threw $50 out the window and have 6 tenderloin steaks barely suitable for stew meat. I resorted to the internet to see if there was any way to salvage the remaining steaks and learned more about dry aging vs wet aging and thought I would give dry aging them a shot. I have to say after dry aging the remaining steaks and letting the tenderloins age, I ate a tenderloin a day for the next successive days and each successive steak was better, more tender, and approached the quality of a dry aged steak that I am accustomed to consuming. I am now in the process of dry aging another Ramadan Tenderloin, and a few rib eyes, we shall see how this pans out. I purchased these cuts on Saturday and learned quite a bit as I watched Wilson, the butcher at Ramadan, cut to order the specific cuts of beef right in front of me. Prior to seeing this process on Saturday, all I really knew was the type of cut from the standard poster you see at most meat markets. It was interesting to actually watch Wilson go to the cooler, pull out the side of beef and butcher the specific cut from the side of beef. I was in line for 30 mins on Saturday and there must have been 7 orders phoned in while I was standing there with people coming from St. Peter to retrieve their phone orders.
January 17th, 2012 at 10:16 am
Now this is what I like to hear!
January 17th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
I dont have much to add, but will say this is very interesting and I would not have known to age the meet myself.
Does this apply to meet you have butchered as well? And does time in the freezer accomplish the same thing?
I ask because we purchase part of a cow each year, have it butchered, and then eat the meat out of our freezer over the course of the year. It has always been very good this way, but I now wonder if we should be doing something additional to the meat.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Chad, many sites note that you shouldn’t age meat yourself. I’m guessing that Ramadan should do it for you but of course that requires you take the time to preorder.
I would bet that the beef that you receive from the butcher has been aged already.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Deleted MSPD’s comment and it was re-posted here: http://www.lazylightning.org/ramadan-restaurant-and-grill-burnsville-mn#comment-163875