I think it’s highly unlikely that a particular category of ethnic restaurant, but no other, would adopt this strategy (even assuming it works, a topic on which I profess no knowledge).
Anyway, I’m married to an Indian woman, cook Indian food, and eat Indian food all the time in the same general geographic area as the OP, and I have never noticed any difference in the “kind” of full I am after eating Indian. Except that the “kind” of full I am after our weekly trek to Woodlands in Langley Park is “absurdly full,” because I consider it a light meal there if I make only three trips to the buffet.
I suspect that a similar phenomenon may lead to the impression that Indian food itself creates a different “kind” of full. That is, for many people, Indian food is the food they most often confront in buffet form, and thus that they most often confront without the usual strictures of budget or the conventions of the two- or three-course meal.
I realize this thread is “old”, but the information (found via Google) is still valid, as is my addition:
Baking Soda is indeed used in Indian Cooking and helps ‘fill out’ dishes that require that consistency. Dhokla, Channa Masala and other dishes require it and substitutions are similar products, such as ENO (foaming antacid). A purchasable Chana Masala mix, direct Product Of India, states clearly on the box (MDH Brand) to add Baking Soda.
It does produce gas bubbles and adds a nice ‘fluffy-ness’ to the dish. Like other aerated dishes (pastries, breads, etc) as well as drinking carbonated beverages while eating, it makes sense that it would fill you up sooner and maximizing such effects at All-You-Can-Eat Buffets, while possibly frowned upon for ‘honesty’ of an establishment, is merely another way of making the food last longer to allow for more customers.
It isn’t puffing up in your stomach. Baking soda in any real food is going to be neutralized by something-or-other before it gets to your plate, which means that it can’t neutralize in your stomach. If it weren’t already neutralized by that point, you’d notice the flavor, which is quite disagreeable.
You can’t hide baking soda in food - pop open a box and give it a taste and figure it out for yourself =) It is a hit you in the face with a brick salty/chemical taste, very strong. It also doesn’t ‘expand’ when it gets wet, it dissolves like most any other powder.
It is common practice in some restaurants to add bicarb to green vegetables. It makes them look brighter and greener on the plate but the downside is that the Co2 destroys the nutrition content.
Not sure about Indian restaurants, but baking soda as a meat tenderizeris commonplace for Chinese takeout. And I can’t notice the taste.
On the taste point - baking soda does have a very pronounced (and unpleasant) flavour. But it works to settle the stomach, chuck a teaspoon in a small glass of water and drain it and see for yourself. In a stronger solution it’s good for sore throats as well - just gargle and spit.
As for the bloated feeling - many Indian dishes are full of butter and cream. If you’re not used to it I imagine this is the culprit.
I Registered to clarify that it is actually a part of Indian Cooking and a handful of Recipes…
Here are some examples of it on an indian boxed spice (multiple sources to not show preference, but they are all the same example of “add Baking Soda”, seen at about the fourth line of the Recipe):
I don’t know why I didn’t notice this when the thread was live before, but three people so far have described baking soda as “salty”. It’s not at all, no more than lemon juice is salty, or sugar is sour. What baking soda is is bitter. And while humans like salty and sour flavors in moderation, and sweet flavors even out of moderation, bitter flavors are almost universally considered bad.
From the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article on sodium bicarbonate: “It has a slightly salty, alkaline taste …” and “The word saleratus, from Latin sal æratus meaning “aerated salt”, …”
It also forms a salt (not necessarily NaCl) when combined with an acid which also adds a salty flavor to some foods.
Remember: taste is very individual. What you think something tastes like isn’t what everybody will taste.
Yeah, I don’t find it salty either, but I can see when it’s tasted in a dish containing many flavors people might identify it as salty.
Baking soda can be used to tenderize meat and I’ve seen that used in a variety of Asian cooking. I was once given a recipe for Orange Beef that had the instructions to use baking powder to tenderize. I questioned that but was assured that baking powder was used. It was a translation issue, the meat turned out tasting like soap which I assume was because the baking powder reacted with the fat in the meat.
I’ll chime in… to a 9 year old thread that I already posted in, and point out that I have several Indian cookbooks, and not a recipe includes baking soda as an extraneous ingredient in a sauce or main dish.
Yes, I’ve seen recipes for amounts indicated for “tenderizing” which produce thoroughly icky results.
The worst I’ve ever tasted in a restaurant–and to give them an explanation, but no excuse, it’s not a simple (quick) task–was a bicarbonate-accelerated dish of tripe.
It sounds to me like you’re describing the process of velveting. I usually do it with cornstarch, not baking soda, but I’ve seen (or at least I’m pretty sure I have) recipes that use the latter. Or maybe it was a mix of both. Never seen it done with baking powder, though. That’s odd.
Here’s the Cooks Illustrated article on velveting that incorporates both cornstarch and a smidge of baking soda.
I made Chicken 65 using cornstarch, egg, and lemon juice last weekend, turned out delicious. I’ve found velveting chicken can be achieved without these methods in a wok when I could carefully control the temperature and sliced the chicken thin enough to cook quickly. In that case it does require cutting the chicken with the grain or it will lose that texture. Based on a video for the Chicken 65 and it’s larger chunks of meat I cut the chicken across the grain to avoid stringiness and that turned out fine, though that’s generally how I would cut larger chunks of chicken anyway. I loved the way the Chicken 65 turned out after the initial frying. I used the two step method to fry it first after marinated followed by further cooking in the sauce mixture, a lot more work than the one step frying methods, but I think it was worth it. Next time I’ll probably try the simpler method to see how it turns out.
I sometimes velvet, most of the time don’t bother, but the results have been different for me, not just in terms of tenderness (and I’m not really sure how much more tender the meat turns out), but there’s like this, well, velvety film on the exterior of the meat that I don’t get if I just fry the chicken dry, no matter how thinly it’s sliced and carefully it’s cooked. I typically water velvet, though, not the oil velvet as I try not to deep fry too often lest I stink up the kitchen too much.
Oh, no–that technique is well described and clearly different; most descriptions I have seen skip the baking soda, and are perfectly acceptable and effective without it.
The powdered sledgehammer of bicarbonate (just came up wth that metaphor) is, like the addition of MSG/aji-no-moto/Accent, more in line with a cook’s inside technique (the French chef’s truc) than an established cooking procedure, and is mentioned only sporadically in recipes.
