Eat In. An Indian holiday dinner.

Christmas dinner is on my mind, and today I'm thinking it may be fun to go a non-traditional route and have Indian food. This may be due to the recent addition of a new jar of Patak's Sweet Mango Chutney to the cupboard. And Trader Joe's has a great frozen tandoori naan. Jamie Oliver has some good curry recipes. With all this rain in L.A., eating London (or India) style is appealing. Fish and chips could be good too--but more difficult to make at home.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: ukcornershoppe.com

Eat Out. Indian food.

If you love a good chicken tikka masala, you need a couple options of where to find it.

My top four L.A. Indian restaurants:

Flavor of India - Santa Monica Blvd. and Doheny Dr. (great spiced iced tea, lamb kebab, vegetable korma, service)

Electric Karma - West Third St. between S Sweetzer Ave. and S La Jolla Ave. (cool back room where you sit on pillows on the floor, good masala)

Nawab of India - Wilshire Blvd. and 17th St. in Santa Monica (been going here for longer than I remember, best masala sauce, and I've seen Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart here twice)

Star of India - Melrose Ave. and La Brea Ave. (very reasonable vegetarian meal for two - enough for hearty meals for two plus a full take-away container of leftovers, for about $30).

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: blog.peacockandpaisley.com