I ordered some Indian food but I’m not sure if it’s authentic Indian. It was very good, the curries were thicker and it didn’t seem like they used any piyaaz. How do they make them so thick? I know one of them at least has coconut milk. Is it common to use that a lot?
And hmm they also use a lot of saffron in the chawal and the curries, which is great. I thought Indian food would be exactly the same as Pakistani, but I am pleasantly surprised, it’s very different and not as spicy as Pakistani either. It actually tastes kind of sweet (the butter chicken and malai shrimp).
gasp sugar and ata for thickening? gasp
ravage which india are we talking abt here?
sarah, maybe they use alot of tomatoes than we pakis do? i know for thickening folks use cream, coconut milk etc etc. Depends on what part of india they are from though, i think.
This must be south Indian food(Tamil Nadu & Madras)... i have seen they use lot of Haldi and coconut milk in their curries and they look so smooth....supposed to be very different from Pakistani and North indian foods.
India is a huge country with many different types of land,weather,culture and religions, the people's cuisine has evolved around and has been influenced by these.
northern India (where they have more water/rivers and flat land land to grow lots of wheat and veg etc and pasture for cows, and more sikhs and muslims..who eat meat ) have a tradition of more meat based food eaten with roti or types of whaet based bread....milk/ curds/yoghurt and cheese is eaten alot here too.
places like Goa have portuguse type infuences, sausages, pork, lots of seafood cooked in spices with things like vinigar.
south india.... they didnt have much access to dairy products so they cook with a lot of coconut products.
places like Chennai/madras.... main carb is rice because they didnt grow wheat there.... they eat roti/puri etc on special occassions.
Gujratis are in general vegetarian and make some of the most delicious veg curries.
the best indian cuisine is found in the homes of indian people...its never same in restaurants.
Good enough reason to make friends with them.
and the best restaurants are ones that cater for indian people in particular.
If you want recipes, Madhur Jaffery has easy to follow Indian recipes for people living outside of india nd paks because she uses ingredients we have access to . The recipes
from proper Indian chefs are quite time consuming and a little too complicated, they also require things taht are unobtainable.
lazy daisy, thats a lot of info for a pushtoon. fess up - your a madrasi arent you? (i agree with everything u said though).
about the topic, your average indian restaurant fare is usually limited to punjabi and a few other north indian dishes. this is not very representative, and there is no one common style of indian cooking. even when you say south indian cuisine, its atleast five major styles, of which only one makes it to your average south indian restaurant. like lazy said, the best way to taste real indian food is at peoples homes, and at speciality restaurants (i drive 300 miles once a month to stuff myself with my native malabari goat and fish delicacies).
