We recently went to Indian food with my mom, who had eaten very little of it previously. We ordered:
Samosas–vegetable. Lots of them. What’s not to like?
Tandoori Chicken. Again, what’s not to like? It’s just like a barbecued chicken.
Saag Paneer. This is my favorite dish. Ma wasn’t crazy about it.
Naan. Everybody loves some naan.
Mango Lassi for the Beansprout. He loves it.
And every meal comes with a chick pea or lentil dish and jasmine rice. Yum.
I think this made a good “beginner” meal. Afterwards, ma said that she had wanted to try some chicken vindaloo, as she reads a lot of English mysteries, and everyone in them is always eating chicken vindaloo. Why she didn’t tell us this beforehand, I don’t know, but she probably would have found it too spicy anyway.
And I have Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian cookbook. It’s excellent. I especially like her “very spicy delicious chickpeas.” I haven’t made that in a while. Maybe I’ll make it today…
Wow, kudos to you for actually finishing it. I don’t think I’ve seen that done before, although the that’s partly down to my local in Birmingham serving more than enough curry for two people. I’m still very impressed though.
Hello Srcibble - nice to see another Udipi fan here in Columbus. I live about a mile from there and we eat there or get it to go about once a week. I might see you there sometime. But never heard of The Dosa Corner, and couldn’t find it in the Y pages. Where is that one?
Punjabi/North Indian: naan is really popular but if you can try the really poofy puri bread, I forget what it’s called. It usually served with a chole (chickpea curry) and chopped onions and some pickle. God, you have to have Punjabi blood in you to make that damn extra large puffy puri stuff…my mother has tried and failed miserably. It is ambrosia. I only eat this ambrosia once a year b/c I would like my arteries to not harden before the age of 30.
If there’s no buffet a lot of restaurants will also serve a “thali” (thali means "big plate) and that tends to function as sort of a “taster” menu at a lot of restaurants (at least, this is the case in Massachusetts semi-upscale Indian restaurants). A thali usually comes with naan, rice, papad, daal, curry, salad, and a dessert.
For dessert try either gulab jamun (fried something flour balls in a rosewater syrup), rasgulla (paneer cheese balls in a runnier sugar syrup), kulfi (indian ice cream…yummm), khir (tapioca milk pudding…it’s runnier than American tapioca pudding), or rasmalai (paneer cheese dessert in a milk and saffron sauce).
Here are some random things that you might find in a restaurant that specialises in more than just the more typical North Indian menu
Pani puri/bhel puri-Indian street snacks. Little puffed fried rice thingies that are served with a mint & tamarind sauce chutney and vegetable matter. Very tasty.
Dhokla: it’s a Gujarati appetizer that is served with a mint chutney…it’s made out of chickpea flour.
Chaat: Gujarati appetizer featuring some fried stuff and minted yoghurt with tamarind sauce and mint sauce and some tomatoes and stuff. It’s yummy.
Dahi Wada: fried chick-pea flour nuggets in a spiced yoghurt with some tamarind sauce on top. This is one of my ultimate favourite foods…my mom makes it for me on every birthday.
I’ll bet you already have, and just didn’t know it.
It won’t be in the yellow pages yet, since it only opened about 4 months ago or so. It’s at 1077 Old Henderson Rd. That’s the Kenny and Henderson area, right across the street from the strip mall area that has the Staples, Restaurant Japan, and Sher-E-Punjab. I take Kenny going northbound from the campus area. Then I look for the Kinko’s/FedEx sign on the right. The Dosa Corner is right next to the Kinko’s/FedEx. The phone number is 459-5515.
Variety, certainly. Helps if a bunch of you go along and you order plenty of odds and ends to go with the main course. There are many kinds of bread (naan/paratha/chapathi/etc) and they all have a distinct appeal. Keema naan (flat bread with spiced minced meat filling) is a favourite of mine. Onion bhajis are fantastic. Methi gosht (meat curry with plenty of fenugreek, which is what “methi” is) is tasty and not over-hot. Raitas of one kind or another - salad vegetables in yogurt dressing - help to cool your tongue if the curry is a tad hot.
DO NOT DRINK WATER TO COUNTERACT HOT SPICES. It brings temporary relief but leaves you over-sentitive to the next mouthful. Give up or tough it out if you’ve inadvertently ordered something too hot.
Once in a while when you’ve got the taste for it, push the boundaries and order something really hot. It’s not just “macho posturing”, though that can be fun; it means you accustom yourself to the heat and can thereafter eat something medium-hot and notice only the flavour.
** Zero** another Dallasite, woohoo! I’ll try your place if you’ll try mine: Taj Mahal off of central–West side on Meadow. Their vindaloo if phenomenal. Before becoming a regular they would askme how spicy I wanted it–I’d tell them hotter than you think I could stand! It’s perfect!!!
