Help I'm lost

[Craig Camp]

Certainly my love of Italian food is well known. I also am passionate about the cuisines of France and Spain. It was easy for me to reach out and discover these cuisines because my European heritage and my business led me in that direction. Also as wine was not only my vocation but my avocation I was led towards the cuisines of wine producing nations.

Because food has become a passion in my life this has of course extended my interest to other cuisines. India strikes me as one of the most fascinating of all. However I have never had the pleasure to visit India and taste the real thing so all of my reference points are from Indian restaurants in the United States. While I have thoroughly enjoyed many of these restaurants I always have a vague sense of insecurity about what I am eating. Italians hate to eat in Italian restaurants in the United States because they find the food a disappointing shadow of real Italian cooking. I would imagine the same situation exists for Indian restaurants.

Where is a good starting off point to experience the cuisine of India if you have not traveled there? What are the 'tourist' dishes to avoid and what are standards that you must try? I assume Indian cuisine is just as regionally diverse as Italy - are there representations of this regional diversity here?

Where does a rookie start?

[Suvir Saran]

Certainly my love of Italian food is well known. I also am passionate about the cuisines of France and Spain. It was easy for me to reach out and discover these cuisines because my European heritage and my business led me in that direction. Also as wine was not only my vocation but my avocation I was led towards the cuisines of wine producing nations.

Because food has become a passion in my life this has of course extended my interest to other cuisines. India strikes me as one of the most fascinating of all. However I have never had the pleasure to visit India and taste the real thing so all of my reference points are from Indian restaurants in the United States. While I have thoroughly enjoyed many of these restaurants I always have a vague sense of insecurity about what I am eating. Italians hate to eat in Italian restaurants in the United States because they find the food a disappointing shadow of real Italian cooking. I would imagine the same situation exists for Indian restaurants.

Where is a good starting off point to experience the cuisine of India if you have not traveled there? What are the 'tourist' dishes to avoid and what are standards that you must try? I assume Indian cuisine is just as regionally diverse as Italy - are there representations of this regional diversity here?

Where does a rookie start?

A rookie starts as you just did.. showing a desire to explore and a willingness to embrace what is new, will be different and not always at par with what those from that country have taken for granted.

Craig, welcome to the Indian forum. I am a fan of what you and the gang enriching the Italian forum are doing there. Thanks!

Did you check out the thread on Indian cooking for dummies? It has many threads linked to it that would help you if you have time or inclination.

India is a vast country... Billion people (actually many more already) and growing. hundreds of dialects no less than a dozen languages as rich in grammar and literature as Hindi, French, Italian or English.

It is home to people that represent many religions, sub-religions and ways of life and belief systems. It is home to poverty that will move even the hardest of souls, home to riches that will charm and fascinate the richest person you have known or want to know. It is home to every natural disaster that is known to humanity, it has all kinds of climates and a varied topography. Mountains covered with snow all year long, mountains covered with snow part of the year, mountains that are as high as the highest men will ever climb, mountains that are situated over deserts and mountains that are barren and badland like, all dot the geography of India. The Ganges is but one of many scores of rivers that irrigate the land, give India hundreds of varieties of tropical fresh water fish.

Each state of India will give one discovering something new to fall in love with. A new language, dozens of new dialects, even more local deities and superstitions, foods that mirror the uniqueness of that states people, their religions and social makeup. Each state has its own rich heritage that is Indian today, but was once independently vital and necessary.

One may be able to dismiss some of the riches India has.... but not for long. With a growing and comfortably affluent middle class (estimated already to be millions more than the population of the US), Indians are now being noticed by all countries, US included. Indian culture, like that of Italy, Greece, Egypt, China and some other older and ancient culture, has never been greedy for attention. It comes with just being Indian. How could it ever be forgotten?? It could be abused, it could be hidden, it could be cheated, it could be ignored, but it still is what it is. The rich and well traveled Indian middle class is changing India greatly. Are the hundreds of rich and affluent Indians worshipping French food? NO. Will they anytime soon? NO. Do they have any desire? NO. Are they curious? Yes. Will they care to adopt that cultures ways? No. So, you have in India, hundreds of millions that live rich lives and comfortable lives that are as important and vital to this world as those of the rich middle and upper classes of the US and other countries. This is a group that the now global multinationals are chasing after and realizing quickly as being that segment of global population that is essential today, but critical tomorrow. In India, foreign investors are not coming to teach and change, they are coming to learn and adapt. I mention this for it will share with you reasons as to why Indian food will never have to worry about being ridiculed by anyone that has a closed mind. You can enjoy it if you choose to, or just be a citizen of the world that is unable to enjoy what more than a billion people enjoy daily. No big deal. But it is this that has kept India ticking in its own course. It is also this that can be identified as being the reason for many of India's maladies. India is not above mistakes, horrors, social injustices et al... It is like the US and all other democracies of the world, laden with skeletons in its closet.

Indian food is very diverse. No restaurant in the US or in India or any part of the world has done great justice to sharing in one place the many different regional wonders of Indian cuisine. We have restaurants that give you Northern or Southern Indian food.. but really, there is hardly any regional brilliance even in these. They share a very limited genre of Indian food... India has much greater worries and much larger challenges.... Indian food changes daily and Indian restaurants in India are of much higher caliber. In time, I am sure you will be able to find Indian restaurants where you can find many regional dishes... But with a country and richly diverse as India, it would be a very difficult and tedious chore to showcase all the many regions... It would have to be called the UN of India Restaurant. Also, would a restaurant like that really work? I am happy discovering small places around the country that are marvelous and have rich regional flair. I know friends I send to India, come back with great stories to share with me of their experiences across India. Even in the smallest and poorest of regions, they find great little holes in the walls where they eat meals that celebrate the best of life and a sense of place.

What city do you live in Craig?

What Indian restaurants have you gone to, if any?

What dishes have you tried thus far?

And Craig, I am sure our members that frequent the Indian forum will share with you plenty that will soon, make you an expert. Ask all you want, nothing will ever be too much.

[Craig Camp]

Suvir - you are a very eloquent gentleman. Thank you for the wonderful overview. I live most of my time in Italy, about 1 hour out of Milano very near Lago Maggiore. There is not an Indian restaurant in sight.

However the rest of the time I am based In Chicago where there are many Indian restaurants and a significant Indian community and neighborhood. I have eaten at Gaylord India, Viceroy of India, Klay Oven and 4 or 5 neighborhood store fronts. Kay Oven has been my favorite. I have heard that Tiffen is good but have not been there yet. I should pole the mid-west board for best spots.

Edited April 10, 2003 by Craig Camp (log)

[indiagirl]

Craig,

Suvir said some goood stuff in his post there.

Here are my two cents. Most Indian restaurants in the USA are North Indian. This is probably not descriptive of a regional cuisine and is mostly used as short hand for Punjabi - i.e. coming from a state in North Western India. The food is influenced by Mughlai food and is richer/heavier than, say, Southern Indian food. Many believe this is due to the weather being cooler.

There are some South Indian restaurants in the US too, a much smaller proportion. These again, are not representative of all of South India, but of Udipi food, which is predominantly the food of the state of Tamil Nadu. This food is typically vegetarian, less rich, rather dominated by rice as a staple and wuite unique in it's flavoring.

I don't know of any way to avoid the "tourist" dishes - and if well executed, I do not see any reason to. When done well, most of them do represent an authentic corner of their respective cuisines - it's just rare to find them being executed well. My test is to order a couple of dishes with a similar gravy and if the gravy tastes exactly the same with chicken added to one and paneer to the other, well, you're in a sub-par restaurant.

Again, getting to know the dishes is a good way to start - if you're in a mediocre restaurant and you like the food - hey. Your taste will tune in to the key stuff with time and then you'll be as dissatisfied as the rest of us here

And then there is all the other cuisines that are not represented here at all - Maharashtrian, Andhra, Hyderabadi, Kutchi ..... when you're ready, that'll be it's own journey.

In the meanwhile, welcome to the world of Indian food, we're glad you're here.

[awbrig]

Ive never had Indian food. The only time close is when I made pork dumplings covered with Charlie Trotters Curry Apricot Sauce.

Im going on Sat with fellow eG people and cant wait!!

[torakris]

Ive never had Indian food.  The only time close is when I made pork dumplings covered with Charlie Trotters Curry Apricot Sauce. 

Im going on Sat with fellow eG people and cant wait!!

I am sure you will love it!

Indian food changed my life!

[indiagirl]

torakris, that's awesome. do you remember the first time you ever tasted it? was it awesome the first time or more of an acquired taste? do you think that if you ate teh exact same food now you would still like it? or has your taste refined/changed so much that your standards for judging indian food have changed?

tawbrig, you must post a full report. here. please.