I don’t think of disliking various foods as a moral failing. In fact, I feel sorry for people who don’t like lots of different food. They are missing out on so much.
Sqweels also may have been thinking of hari, cilantro chutney, which may or may not have mint in it too, dhania pudina.
I’m really getting hungry here.
This. I just don’t particularly like the combinations of flavors I’ve had in Indian food that I’ve tried. But it’s a big sub-continent. There might be a sub-cuisine out there that I’d like. I just haven’t found it yet.
The “too hot” comments amuse me. My complaint about Indian food is usually just the opposite.
The base of much of Indian cuisine is oil or yogurt so Indian food is rich. While I like the taste my stomach often just can’t handle it.
I’ve spent 1 month in India, but the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten was in Bradford, UK.
My experience is admittedly limited, but that’s the only sauce/condiment (like there’s always a big difference :dubious:) that they had.
I’m pretty much addicted to soy sauce (is that in no way a condiment?), so if they had some of that, I’d have been happy.
I’ve got another one.
If you just scanned the average Indian menu, you’d see prominently featured a number of base ingredients that aren’t super popular in the average American diet. I’m thinking lamb/goat, cauliflower, eggplant, okra (yes, yes, I know that there are some Americans who like cauliflower or okra, but you’d likely not serve them up if you were catering a function and looking to please the broadest American tastes). This could be offputting from the get-go (a lot of Americans have a visceral distaste for lamb/mutton, or think they do, in the modern era, and might be suspicious of any menu that has a bunch of lamb dishes).
Well, no, by “sauce” in this instance I meant the curry/gravy that many dishes are cooked in – which you can’t really avoid the way you can a side condiment.
The two most commonly-stated reasons I’ve heard for disliking or refusing to try Indian food are:
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“I just don’t like the flavor.” Can’t argue with that. There’s no reason you should be forced to eat something you really don’t like.
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“I don’t like curry.” Like noted above, lots of people mistake curry to mean Madras curry powder, which has a really distinctive flavor that some people just don’t care for. It’s in precious few Indian dishes. I think I’ve tasted that flavor more in Vietnamese food and used it only once or twice in 10 years of cooking Indian food.
I live quite near a Bangladeshi neighbohood and I LOVE indian food despite the fact that I don’t like “hot”-spicy spiciness beyond the moderate, oily food, cilantro, or curry powder-flavor. I also detest eggplant and can really take or leave okra. I don’t like lamb because it is so often fatty or has gross bits of cartilage attached. There are SO many delicious options that are none of those things! I would have to say, that super-hot-spicy, eggplant, okra, lamb dishes are very small portion of the options. It seems like chicken is by far the most prevalent meat, and lots of stuff is vegetarian using such terrifyingly unusual vegetables as peas, tomatoes, and spinach. Try a chickpea, go crazy.
There’s a local place (yeah, it’s called “Tandoori Hut,” so?) where the Chicken mahkni (butter chicken, but actually chicken in a totally un-spicy, creamy, reddish sauce) literally makes my mouth vibrate with joy. I usually get saag paneer (stewed greens with chunks of firm cheese, flavored with ginger), some samosas and a few thousand garlic naans (j/k) and I’m good to go.
Anyway, if you’re unpleasantly sensitive to things with intense flavors, obviously, you’re not going to like Indian food. Even the blandest dishes have a lot of taste.
It is a big country and the unfortunate thing is that what most people think of as “Indian food” is really the cuisine of one region (Punjabi food). Very few restaurants in the US (even in the big cities) have food from other regions. But some of the other stuff is generally a lot lighter than typical Indian restaurant food. (I doubt that even Indians in India normally eat food as rich as is served in a typical Indian restaurant here.)
The good side of that is . . . good. It’s why I can without utter horror contemplate the scenario in which I’m forced to subsist on daal (so many kinds) and papri chaat indefinitely, with no meat.
This is considered simple street/snack food . . . and I count 23 separate ingredients.
I wouldn’t say I dislike all of Indian food, but I can’t stand curry and that seems to be a large part of it.
In an effort continue fighting ignorance, do you mean that you dislike all stews (“curry”) or that you dislike a certain spice mixture (“Madras curry powder”)?
I’m not a big fan of it either.
I find that properly made Indian food usually doesn’t need a flavoring condiment (beyond the standard lime wedges, salt, and green chilis to taste).
However, I do like to dip my shingaras (samosas) in something – my preference is Maggi tomato ketchup (regular, hot and spicy, or chili)
The sort of food you were raised on will influence what you like in later years. In Houston, the baseline “meat & three” is usually heavily-peppered soul food–with a strong & even spicier South Louisiana influence. By adulthood, most of us have made our peace with okra. We were also raised on Tex-Mex/Mexican food; Tex-Mex is often picante & “purer” Mexican recipes may boast complex spices. Cumin & cilantro? Sure!
For a Houstonian, it’s not a huge leap to Indian food. From the common Northern style to the extra-spicey vegetarian that’s great during hot spells.
We never had lamb growing up; I believe the older generation was traumatized by institutional mutton. But I’ve tried it as an adult & enjoy it.
Paprika comes in many varieties (although you wouldn’t be able to tell from your average grocery store spice rack), sweet and hot being two of them.
Paprika definitely has flavor–a good portion of Hungarian cuisine is based on the flavors of paprika, onion, and lard. Spanish cuisine makes good use of their smoked variety of paprika. However, generic paprika–and even the McCormick’s brand–is pretty much just red colored sawdust. Good paprika smells like red peppers. Buy a good Hungarian or Spanish paprika and give it a shot.
Ah, that explains it. I had been baffled by the assertion that paprika had no flavor, but I haven’t used anything but good Hungarian in decades.
Also, paprika’s flavor compounds–like all chile peppers–are mostly oil- and not water-soluble. So if you want the flavor of peppers to permeate the dish, you really need to add it to the oil or lard at the beginning of your cooking, before you add your liquidy stuff, just to give it a minute to dissolve in the oil. You do need to be careful not to burn it, though, as paprika will easily scorch. I generally take the pan off the heat, add the paprika, swirl it around for a minute, and then add my wet ingredients before returning it to the heat.
I LOVE Indian food, even though I’d never tried it until visiting England. So, okay, maybe it’s not “authentic” Indian, but I came to love whatever is represented as Indian in British restaurants. My fave is Chicken Tikka Masala, which I understand has now been identified as British in origin.
My first experience with Indian was very mild - Chicken Korma. The person I was dining with suggested it as a good starting point. It’s tasty and creamy, but not hot. Once I decided that I liked the flavor of the spices, I “ramped up” to spicier fare.
My mother loves naan, but not any of the main dishes. I think it’s the combination of spices that make up “curry” that she doesn’t like. It’s not the heat factor, because we live in So Cal and I grew up on Mexican food. Or what passes for Mexican in So Cal.
BTW, most English food is bland, but my husband (The Brit) **loves **him some Indian, too. But he won’t touch Mexican if he can help it.
Smoked Spanish paprika is wonderful. I have some here that tempts me to snort it off a hooker’s rack every time I open the jar.
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Boy, do I feel sorry for them! I’m no big fan of goat or mutton, they’re just a bit too “rich” for my taste, but lamb! And kid! Mmmmm! Personally, I rate those meats way above beef, half-way up to venison. Tasty and tender, with a unique flavor. IMNSHO the best “kept” meat I can get.
And don’t mention pork or chicken. Those meats are bland and tasteless (and the animals have usually been raised indoors in a huge industrial complex). The only reason for eating those is that it’s nourishment (and required in some ethnic dishes like Southern fried chicken 
).
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