Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

Lifestyle Parenting, Household Affairs and Cuisine corner
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What do you think should be the best choice of desi food , if you were to introduce it someone non desi , who has never ever had indian food in their life !!

Dont wanna scare them away with spicy biryani or strong flavours .. What would you guys recommend?

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

shami kabab / aaloo ki tikya (without excessive spices)
Chicken Pulao / matar pulao
Aaloo Gosht
Mix vegetable (ggajar, aaloo, mater) or aaloo / matar
meethe main anything from Kheer to Rasmalai, doodh dhulari

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

May ask them if they would like to try something indian if they say yes then u can do the following

Chicken tikka / kebabs of any sort / wings

Biryani/ pulao/karahi/korma/dam pukht

Ras malai/ gulab jaman / kheer

Or u can do a bit of desi n non desi like bbq as starter ....main course something that is not desi

Dessert desi n non desi?

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

I would do some sort of pulao, chicken curry/karahi/butter chicken mild, a mix vegetable mild, chicken tikka mild, kababs mild, samosas mild, naan, kheer or ice cream, salad,raita.
I would probably choose a rice, curry, veggies, dry dish, naan, salad, raita, and dessert.

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

Tandoori Chicken
Naan
Veggie pulao
Butter Chicken

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

I like this combination , its simple but got the zing .. What say people?

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

^I like it too... you can do matar palao too.

Every non desi that I know loves chick peas.. so yeah you can add chana masala :d

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

ThanDaii...tell them the health benefits of the ingredients used [flower petals, seeds and other herbal preparations].

i'm sure they will fall for it! :)

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

I think I would make dishes that have one strong taste rather than the strong mix of flavours we like. Maybe ginger chicken or something similar. I would add spinach as a vegetarian option.

Have a kebab or kasturi boti type thing as a side.

Then make a blander mutter pulao, and a raita to help dilute the mirchi taste. And keeping the vegetarian options open.

And definitely keep some achar and meethi chatnis so they can taste some of the strong tastes in small amount.

Maybe have firni as a dessert.

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

A daal with a mean tarka!!! Either that or chanay but I lean more toward daal.

Aloo ki tikkiyan....another non-spicy food that goes well with daal.

Palak...either with chicken or paneer.

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

Anything except curry. Maybe pulao? Or biryani?

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

We make seikh kababs , chicken tikka , shesh kababs , we put everything in them but hold all kinds of mirchain. We offer all kind of chutnies with and without usual zing With parathas,naan and mater chawal

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

Whatever you serve, serve very slowly to ensure output rate < input rate

Serve brown halwa for dessert

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

So these are pretty much most desi foods....I guess better Q would be, what foods do you NOT serve to newbies? :)

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

kakee may have some suggestions

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi’s ..

Most anything can be served to a non- desi if you greatly reduce the quantity of mirchain. For instance I add a teaspoon of chili powder to chicken karhai and I use 3-5 green chillies. So , if making this for a non-desi, I could cut the quantity of chili powder to half a teaspoon and use fewer green chillies or omit them altogether. Or I could keep the one teaspoon and omit green chillies, etc etc. Maybe reduce quantity of garam masala as well…if that’s also found to be hot…although I don’t find it to be as spicy as the chili powder.

But that’s what raita is for… To put out the fire in your mouth. Tsk tsk them weak non-desis. :nahi:

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

I had a few friends from Germany, France, Poland and Romania. They all loved peas pulao. I feel pulao is so better option as compared with biryani. It has more flavour and less spice.
I'm not a fan of chai or "doodh patti" but my French friend always insisted on that.
Fruit chaat was popular among my language classmates. :)

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..


wow! you have friends from every corner of Europe...i also have friends from ALL corners of my pinD. :)

true. yaKhni pulaao or chick peas or green peas pulaao is great for non desis. my neighbors love my Bhabhi's green chana pulaao. :)

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..

^
I got to know almost all of them in my German language class. A few others were parents of my children's classmates.

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Re: Introducing desi food to non desi's ..


oh i see...:) good for you. :)