I am a stranger when it comes to Indian foods. I have been to a few Indian restaurants in the past but I always stuck to the "mild" flavor dishes. I like naan bread and Tandoori chicken but that's as adventurous as I would go. I was invited to an Indian wedding and tasted a bit of their snacks/treats. They were too greasy and spicy for me. They must have something healthier and easier on the tongue. I can't wait to read more about it. Al

Not having been to India, I'm limited in knowledge about the food and culture. I've eaten in a number of very good Indian restaurants and enough bad ones to know the difference. Also, having fallen in love with the cuisine and knowing that I would soon move to a more rural area not as blessed with the number and variety of ethnic restaurants I was accustomed to, I bought some good books and embarked on a journey to learn how to cook the foods I'd learned to love.

India is a huge country, the cuisine of which has been shaped by neighbors,geography, history, influxes of different peoples and ideas, a variety of religious beliefs and culinary practices and wide differences in the adaptability and availability of foodstuffs.

Spices and herbs play a huge role in all the cuisines of India, with regional differences as to preference and availability. No cuisine I've experimented with has taught me more about the handling of spices and the different flavors that can be coaxed from them using different preparation and cooking methods than the cuisines of India.

If you are generally open to new foods and willing to try them, I suspect that since you didn't enjoy your experience at the Indian restaurant, it was probably not a very good one or, it might be that the dishes ordered were simply not to your taste.

I would suggest trying a different restaurant. My wife and I tried Indian food on a whim and loved it. We always ate at the same place for several years. When it closed we tried another one within easy driving distance and did not like it. I need to find a new place but there aren't many to choose from here.

Where's Netla? She just spent several weeks in India and could give us some insight into what the local food was really like.

I haven't had Indian food that I cared for much either, but I've been limited to curries, none of which I liked, I don't even like the smell of curry, and a couple of very spicy dishes. Since I'm a heat wuss, I didn't like any of the spicy stuff either. I didn't care for Aloo Gobi (funny, since I don't care for cauliflower, LOL) and the Bhindi I tried was too spicy. I do like lentils and I have a package of something I got at the Mediterranean Market called Dal Tadka, but it says "spicy" so I'm afraid now, if they say it's spicy, it's got to be numbingly so.

I'd like to learn a bit more about Indian cooking, there must be something I'd like besides plain lentils, probably many things.

Annie

What little I know about Indian food comes from three former coworkers. One was from the Northern regions, I'm not sure where, one was from Mumbai, and one was from the Tamil region. I'll always be grateful to them for introducing me to their foods and culture.

Like most large countries, "Indian food" is a huge generalization. There are vastly different food styles across the subcontinent, influenced by many other cultures. Dishes from the northern regions are very different from those of the south, etc. Regions influenced by contact with or settlement by Muslim cultures tend to be heavier on the meat; other regions are heavily vegetarian.

My experience has been that there are a few terrific Indian restaurants, quite a few awful ones, and mostly mediocre ones. The really good ones tend to be in areas where there is a lot of competition and a high immigrant population who can support the establishment serving more authentic foods (as opposed to dumbing it down for us "I'm not eating anything I can't pronounce" Americans. :D I've had the privilege of being invited to share homecooked meals, and i can't say I ever had anything I did not like, with the exception of an okra dish. (Not surprising since I don't like okra in any form.) I espeically like a nice bowl of dahl makhani. Yum!

Indian-grown coffees are really underrated. We got a shipment of Monsoon Malabar one year that was probably one of the besst coffees I've ever had.

The restaurant I went to was actually quite acclaimed. Not too far from Yale and voted the best Indian restaurant by the New Haven newspaper. I think I was just overwhelmed by choices without too much knowledge. I loved the bread, but I think it might have been a texture thing (this from a girl who will happily eat escargot?) I too can't wait to hear from Netla about her experiences.
Jo

I am not a fan of Asian food in general, but Indian food is my least favorite. My friend likes to try foods from all cultures and recently dragged me to an Indian restaurant. I had the Tandoori Chicken and did not like it at all. I tried whatever he had and I didn't like that either. This place had been recommended as being very authentic and there were a number of Indian families there.

I do like Thai and Americanized Chinese. I think if I ever went to India I would have to smuggle a case of peanut butter and jelly with me.

I really do try to enjoy food from other cultures and can almost always find something I like, but in general I am happier with western food.

There is an area called Jackson Heights here in NYC, where it's mostly populated by Indians:

http://karinaioffee.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/101208_0579.jpg

I have been there a few times to try out the food there. Not bad. I will go again.

I also have visited their grocery stores. There was so much stuff in the stores that you don't see on restaurant menus. I would assume Indian restaurant food is very different than normal home cooking.

Also, go to youtube and do a search of Indian street food. Very colorful.

dcarch

Jo, what was the name of the restaurant? DH loves Indian food after travelling there, and complains about the ones around here. I'd love to take him there.

I have two Indian girlfriends and they cook quite differently, maybe they're from different areas? One cooks mostly lentils and her food is not particularly spicy. The other makes a huge variety of curry, all very spicy.

I eat mostly vegetarian, particularly avoiding meat when I'm eating out, so I love Indian restaurants since there are always so many vegetarian options.

AM

I was at an office party, I was surprised that a few indians ordered beef.

dcarch

AM,
The restaurant is called Darbar India. It is on Main Street in Branford. (about 15 min. from New Haven). But if you're going to trek all the way there, go to Le Petit Cafe, instead. It is a small, feels like Province, restaurant with outstanding food. Need reservations. People come from all over to eat there. We go once every summer, just my mom and sister and I, for a girls' night out.
Back to India.
Jo

I am seriously contemplating accompanying my husband to New Delhi this March. He has a business trip, and I would plan to take a market tour / cooking class as I have in some of the other places we've traveled together to for his work. If all goes well and there aren't any travel advisories from the State Dept against this city (there's currently no travel advised to parts of the south), I may have something interesting to say on this topic in a couple months...

Thanks, Branford is far. I know it's only 15 minutes more, but for some reason, New Haven doesn't seem so bad, but Branford seems really far!

I'm in West Haven often enough though, I'll try both places on your suggestion! THank you.

AM

Jazmynsmom - thout souds like a great trip! My DH travels a lot for work too, but I haven't been able to tag along yet. I'm hoping to join him this summer in South Africa for the World Cup, we'll see! At any rate, I can't wait to hopefully hear about your adventures in India! And I'd love to hear about some of the other places you've been. Please post!

DW and I got turned on to Indian food in London (the average Indian restaurant there is better than the average British restaurant, although admittedly that isn't saying much). As noted above, there is a huge difference in what region of India the food represents. Cuisine from Southern India (e.g. Kerala)is a lot different from the Mughlai cuisine from northern India. (They can both be excellent, but they're as different as Cajun gumbo and New England Boiled Dinner.)

Madhur Jaffrey has some fun cookbooks; I have an out-of-print one which is more like a National Geographic magazine with lots of lovely travel photos, and it gives a good comparison of the various parts of India and representative dishes from each area. My favorite book for cooking, though, is Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking. Everything I have tried from that book has been great. She covers everything from the proper way to cook basmati rice to elaborate biryanis and curries. Highly recommended.

Here is a link that might be useful: Classic Indian Cooking

There used to be a dosa restaurant in San Jose that me and my coworkers liked to go to. Closed now, sadly. I think the entire menu was vegetarian. You'd get these gorgeous (and big) dosas (think a large crepe-like thing, but huge and crispy) with various fillings. It's a southern Indian dish. The crepe is made from a combination of rice flour and split black lentils that is slightly fermented.

The most popular one seemed to be the Masala vegetable dosa -- the filling was a mixtures of poatoes, peas, and milkder spices.

I miss that place.

I've linked to a site that lists Indian food blogs. The Times of India is also online and has a great food section.

Indian food, like Chinese, varies regionally.

Here is a link that might be useful: Indian Food Blog list

I thought I posted on this thread so I may have misplaced post elsewhere

I highly recommend Kitchens of India prepackaged dishes. They are made in India and sealed in a foil pouch. All you have to do is heat and eat. They hooked me on a curried spinach with cottage cheese dish. I've had a couple of the lentil dishes and "bombay potatoes". They appeal to me because they are more hot then sweet which is what I associate with "Indian" food.

When I was in school I shared an appartment with an Indian. It was one of the better parts of my education. He was taking cooking classes and delighted in making me things Indian character. One of the problems was getting the grains and spices that Indian cooks use so he taught me to substitute. Now that we have the Internet and curry is a popular dish I'm seeing more and more options for authentic Indian food. LOL... I was actually looking at making a Tandoori oven just last week.

One thing I've noticed about restaurant curry is the sweetness. Not bad and I understand that the dish has been engineered for western tastes. Not really what I think of as Indian food. Another poster noted that India is a huge place... probably second to only China in population (billion or so). One of my very few cookbooks is a book on curry. I've not actually made anything but really enjoyed the education in the variety and regionally particular dishes.

I've spent a fair amount of time over the last twenty years trying to reproduce the curry I experienced at school. For a long time it was very hard to find spices to work with. Even decent hot peppers required a trip to the city. At one time I had to make my own curry powder by chopping up cloves, allspice, cumin, and such with a knife on a cutting board. It was good for my cooking skills to become familiar with each spice that came my way.

Beware the Indian version of a "pickle". One of the hottest things I ever ate was a bit of pickled mango. Imagine a bit of mango soaked in Dave's Insanity Sauce and you have an idea of the heat level.

So that is some of my "Indian" exposure and what of the culture I've absorbed.

: )
lyra

You can always go to another subcontinent forum for information about Indian food.

A lot of "Indian" restaurants are run by Pakistanis and more often than not have Pakistani versions of Indian dishes. Personally, I do not like Pakistani food, as it is less subtle and more heavy-handed than Indian. I have a large collection of Indian spices, but I use them as I see fit rather than follow a recipe. The result is similar to Indian dishes but with my own twist. I simply don't care for certain spice combinations, and so I leave out the offending spices, even if they are traditional.

I've been to very many Indian restaurants, and there is a huge cluster of South Indian restaurants in Artesia (aka Little India). Southern Indian food tends to be hotter than Northern.

Lars

I've had an Indian meal twice at restaurants; the first time the food was good, except for something called "mixed pickle" - the absolute worst tasting conglomeration that I ever put in my mouth! The second time was a now closed place here in my town - not good at all. Guess I'll have to visit a big city to get a good Indian meal. I like to make curries now and then, even if they are not terribly authentic.

Teresa

Arabella Miller - if you are up for an even further trip, a friend of mine from India took a bunch of us to her favorite Indian Restaurant... in Middletown. Haveli's. It's quite good. It's between where I work and where I live right now, so I am meeting a couple of friends/co-workers there later this month. They both traveled (though separately) to India (Hyderabad) on the last project we worked on together, and both enjoyed the food a lot.

Branford is closer to me than New Haven. I'll need to check out both Darbar and Le Petit Cafe. DH does not like Asian spice (I tell my girlfriend's you want to see me w/o him? Ask me to Thai, or Chinese, or Indian...) But he does like provencal cuisine...

I got turned on to Indian food in Hong Kong. Yep, the British version of Indian. But I can relate to Arley on the Brit's take on Indian cuisine being better than their take on thier own (at least historically!) When DH and I were in Edinburgh at a pub, he had shepherd's pie, and I just HAD TO HAVE the Curry!!! Yum!

I love Indian food. I don't know if I've been eating good or bad Indian but regardless of if it's a small buffet down a flight of stairs in NYC or a big fancier restaurant here on Long Island, it's all good to me. Honestly though I'd give a nod to the former.

I would, however, say that every single time I've had a dish containing white meat chicken, the chicken is overcooked and dry. Is that the way they like it, or have I not yet stumbled upon a "good" Indian restaurant?

Here on the left coast we don't have many good Indian restaurants - sad. I love this food and I would like to try more different kinds of it. I am discovering that it is a huge and diverse cuisine - from the internet. Vahrehvah.com with Chef Sanjay Thumma is especially good for the diversity of recipes - he is so cute in his videos too. ManjulasKitchen.com is another one I follow. Manjula cooks Jain vegetarian and vegan dishes - I like her sweets.

Locally I go to Red Fort Cuisine in Torrance and Annapurna's Garden in Lawndale. At the latter they sometimes have a buffet which I like so I can try new things, and sometimes bring out free dosas, so light and delicious.

I like everything I've tried except goat - goat meat just doesn't do anything for me. I like all the sauces and spices in the Indian dishes I've tried. I never get tandoori because it is, according to the owner at Red Fort "what Americans order" and not what he recommends as his best dishes, LOL. DH and I will order 2 entrees, rice (peas pullau - a pilaf), raita (cooling yogurt condiment), and garlicky naan bread. The rice and bread are necessary for sopping up all the wonderful sauce - the "gravy" of the entrees. We try appetizers too - potato-stuffed breads and such. But they are so filling!

We have a good one here that is always crowded. I usually get some kind of mango chicken and it comes with round crunchy lentil bread/crackers. Obviously I don't know the names of anything!
I loove tandoori chicken on the grill, one of my favorite ways to cook chicken.
I always ask for mild spiciness.

I love spicy food and Indian food as well. I'm not quite up to the spice level of a Vindaloo, though, I remember sharing one with a friend and really breaking out in a sweat :-)
For my last birthday we treated the whole famdamily and some friends to a feast at a great Indian restaurant we had discovered by accident on a previous outing.
Tandoori is hard to do right, it can be dry as some have pointed out.
Dcarch, no need to be surprised that some Indians eat beef, it's only the Hindus to whom the cow is sacred. Buddhist Indians are vegetarian, and Muslim Indian dishes tend to beef or lamb/mutton. It's a big country with much cultural variation.
Perhaps because of the British past of this country and our proximity to India, Indian food is extremely common here. If the dish most cooked in Australian homes is spaghetti bolognese (which it is :-) ) I would bet that some form of curry would come in a close second.

Lars, interesting you mentioned Indian and Pakistani food. That reminded me of my own Pakistani food experience.

Back in the days when I was still at school, I had a roommate from Pakistan. Two weeks after she moved in, my throat began to feel very itchy, to a point where I couldn't sleep. I went to see my doctor and she asked what I had been doing differently. I said nothing but I had a new roommate. She said I had allergy. I said, "What? I am allergic to my new roommate?" She said, "No, you're probably allergic to her food."

I never touched her food but it turned out she simmered her spices and onion on the stove top all day long, literally. The spices rose and fell and were on the couch, the carpet, and the curtain... pretty much everywhere and that irritaed my throat! The following week I left for Europe for a month and I didn't have any symptoms the entire time. Once I returned the allergy was back! I had to take medication until she moved out.

I guess I somehow associated Indian food with Pakistani food. Until today, Naan bread and Tandoori probably are as close as I would get to Indian food.

Al

I acquired my taste for curries when we lived in England 20yrs ago. There, Indian restaurants are cheap and numerous - there were two within walking distance of home in our village. They filled the same eat-out/take-out niche that Chinese food occupies here. In our part of England, Chinese was expensive - the locals dressed up, ordered alcohol, and ate with knives and forks. Indian food is such a part of British culture now that it is barely considered "ethnic". Our friends would reminisce about their misspent college years when they would spend Saturday nights in the pub, and when tossed out at closing time, would head for the nearest "Indian" for a real "bum-burner" of a curry to tide them over until breakfast. Indeed, most South Asians felt that the English tolerated and enjoyed a vastly higher level of spicy heat than the average Indian (Mad dogs & Englishmen stay out in the mid-day sun.....).

Before we moved on, I figured I'd better learn how to cook curry, as I didn't want to gamble on being able to find any Indian restaurants on our next posting. I depend mostly on "Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery." It's as authentic as you can get for an author who was born and raised in Delhi, but has spent her adult years in Britain and the USA, married to an Englishman. At least she gives a good list of substitutes for items you cannot find in the West.

Now, living back in Canada, I have an Indian grocery withing walking distance, whose shelves are filled with all manner of pre-packaged Indian convenience and junk foods, as well as a good selection of spices, legumes, and cookware. I never use curry powder. I make a basic curry paste of garlic and ginger, to which is added a variety of spices, depending on the recipe. I tend to follow my recipes fairly closely - I haven't trained myself to improvise yet.

Gina--Artesia is an Indian suburb. I shop there all the time, but I think the best Indian food in LA is at a sort of fusion place, called Tanzore. The place is trendy, but the food is very good.

I use those jarred curry bases from Pataks (not the premade sauces) all the time. Easier than making my own and tastes better than curry powder. Cost Plus always has a big selection. I love the pickles and like to mix them in tuna and cottage cheese for a quick lunch. Love chili pepper pickle--hot but tasty.

Trader Joe's frozen naan is pretty good, but I don't like the boil-in-a-bag dal etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: Artesia India

Gina, did you not go with us to Chakra Cuisine in Beverly Hills when Cathy was in town? (I think it was Cathy.) There are several upscale Indian restaurants in BH. I personally do not much like most of the cheap Indian restaurants, and most them appear to be competing to be as cheap as possible. I've had good Indian food in Marina Del Rey as well.

Lars

I'll second the recommendation of Manjula's Kitchen for an Indian cooking website. It's very approachable and there are videos for almost all the recipes. I notice that she also teaches some cooking classes at High Schools in San Diego. Because Manjula is Jain, she doesn't use onion or garlic (or other roots where one kills the plant to harvest the bulb), therefore many of her recipes use asafetida (hing) which adds a similar flavor but has a very strong smell before cooking. I keep my bottle of in in a jar in a tupperware container. Fortunately, ginger is allowed because one can harvest part of the rhizome without taking the whole plant.

For books, I've been using:
Flavors of India: Vegetarian Indian Cuisine Flavors of India: Vegetarian Indian Cuisine
Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff
Densely packed with lots of recipes, not a picture book.

From Mom with Love - A Complete Guide to Indian Cooking and Entertaining From Mom with Love - A Complete Guide to
Indian Cooking and Entertaining
Pushpa Bhargava
More pictures, fewer recipes but still very good. Has recipes for things like a masala sauce that you can make and freeze to use in multiple dishes.

Manjula's Kitchen has a recipe for Chola Masala where the sauce is simpler to make but achieves a similar result.

I also got Six Spices which had good reviews, but the first thing I prepared out of it turned out fairly blah tasting and I haven't gone back to it yet.

For an inexpensive, tasty and easy introduction to Indian food, I also like the Kitchens of India products.

I was interested in making Butter Chicken from scratch but couldn't find some of the key ingredients. On a whim, I spent a few dollars on a Kitchens of India spice packet. In the vacuum sealed foil packet is paste of Indian spices. One pot and a few ingredients and you're done. It's got a little heat but it's not too spicy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchens of India on Amazon

We love both Indian and Pakistani. Afghan and Tibetan, now those curries are a bit on the unsophisticated side. There are many regional differences in Indian cooking. One of the best is Punjabi, which is not spicy at all and emphasizes fresh herbs and spices, not dried. Indian breads are marvelous, with amazing variety. Curries can be 'wet' or 'dry', and there are as many different spice blends used in Indian cooking as there are cooks who use them. IOW, a curry is an individual blend of spices and seasonings, not a prepackaged spice mix.

There is such a large ethnic population (and many locals who also love Indian and Pakistani cuisine) here in the SF Bay Area, that we have Indian grocery stores galore, and several Halal butchers as well. There's also quite a few chaat cafes (street food or snacks) as well as a couple of Indian bakeries with both breads and sweets.

My favorite is the Chicken Makhanwala, shredded tandoori chicken with an amazing sauce of onions, butter and tomatoes - divine! My DH prefers either biryani or beef jalfrezi, a spicy dry curry with ginger, cassia bark and caraway seeds. The only way he will eat yoghurt is in their all-purpose raita accompaniment!

We love lamb and goat, although good goat is extremely hard to find in restaurants. The dry curries, such as Aloo Gobi, are always good. Also, Indian food is one of the finest vegetarian cuisines around. Although cottage cheese might be subbed for the real thing, the actual Indian cheese is 'paneer', a fresh firm cheese that is a staple source of protein. Lentils of many different colors are used in everything from soup to crepes to dessert.

jkom, if you are in the Bay Area, have you ever tried Ajanta restaurant on Solano ave in Berkeley? I miss it so much! They offer various regional dishes, with a menu that rotates some dishes off every month or so to rotate new ones on. I haven't been there for 6 years (since I moved away), but prior to that I used to frequent the place and never had any dish that wasn't excellent.

For others who are in the SF Bay Area or might visit there and are not familiar with the cuisines of India, the staff is very helpful and gracious with explanations and suggestions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ajanta Restaurant

Akbar in Santa Monica/Hermosa Beach is one of our favorites, and I have internet coupons good through Jan 12th, email me for copies! They have other locations.

In Little India (Artesia/Pioneer Blvd.) we usually head to Udupi Palace ('South Indian vegetarian cuisine') for their massive and varied dosas. jkom51, heads up, they have locations in the Bay area!

I love shopping in Little India. Massive bags of cheap cardamom, lentils, all sorts of fun stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: A bit of Indian food porn - dosas

Yes, rachelellen, we've been to Ajanta and like it a lot, but our new fav is Indus Village. The Pakistani food is gutsy, earthy, and very satisfying. They run a little grocery store and halal butcher shop next door. Jessyf, yes we know about Udupi Palace, it's a long-time favorite for going out with our vegetarian friends.

The original Breads of India has the best breads of all, in a very bare-bones atmosphere. They used to have an upscale Indian place in downtown Berkeley, but it didn't do well and finally closed. A shame, the food was marvelous, equal to the original Gaylord's of India in SF (the current Gaylord's in SF is under different management/chef).

There is a cheap take-out chain called House of Curries, which has 5 locations in the East Bay including one by the Oakland airport. The one thing they do well is the lamb kebabs, Lamb Boti. Big lamb cubes, properly tenderized in a spiced yoghurt marinade, then grilled until they've got luscious crispy edges but are still tender and moist inside. The serving is big enough for two hungry people, and costs a mere $10 - possibly the best lamb bargain in Oakland or Berkeley that we've found so far.

One thing I've noticed in the cooking of India and China (and probably Japan too) is very little use of herbs. In Indian food it's mainly cilantro or mint and sometimes fennel leaves or curry leaves. Lots of spices and a little herbs. European cooking tends in the opposite direction.

But that makes sense, re: herbs vs spices. The food developed around what flavoring agents were local. That's why spices were so sought after and so expensive in Europe, hence, the spice routes.

India is so big and has such a rich regional variety of dishes that if you travel great distances like I did on my recent trip there, you can experience foods you would swear come from totally different parts of the world, and they do - in the Himalayan states you might, for example, encounter local dishes that resemble Nepalese or even Tibetan food, while in Goa you will find food that is heavily influenced by Portuguese cooking. You can also, if you wish, eat the same dishes everywhere, because restaurants that cater to tourists generally seem to have the same 30 or so dishes on their menus, shuffled in a slightly different order (you would, for example, almost always find aloo gobi, several biryanis and pilafs, one or more kebabs, banana lassi and gulab jamuns on these menus).

Indian table manners are interesting to someone from the West. The Indians I stayed with generally didn't drink anything with their meals, rather having a glass of water after the meal, often followed by chai. Although these people belong to the educated and rather westernised middle class, they still prefer to eat with their fingers. I followed suit and found that it adds an extra dimension to the eating experience. Flat breads like chappatis are used to scoop up the food. A spoon might be used to help eat dal and curries with lots of sauce, but curries would also be mixed with rice and either scooped up with bread or with the fingers. The right hand is used for eating, and it is quite interesting to see bread being torn skilfully with one hand while the left hand rests in the person's lap or on the table. Guidebooks give the reason that the left hand is considered unclean, but among educated people the (almost) exclusive use of the right hand is surely by now more of a tradition than anything else.

In Indian restaurants outside India the food tends to taste milder than it does in India. By that I don't just mean less chili, but less spiciness in general, although my favourite Indian restaurant in Reykjavík gives you a choice between genuine and mild. Another difference is that stews/curries where meat would be just one of many flavourings in India, have heaps more meat in them, which can alter the flavour and texture of dishes quite a bit.

I long for the day when someone opens a south Indian restaurant in Reykjavík. We are currently well served in the northern Indian, mughal and Pakistani varieties, but I would love to be able to order dosas and idlis.

If you want to try cooking Indian foods at home, try any of Madhur Jaffrey's Indian cookbooks, or Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking. Both not only give recipes but also regional and technical background to the recipes.

We also have "Dosa Trucks" in Los Angeles that deliver South Indian fast food - mostly dosas, pakoras, and samosas from what I've seen, and they are at all of the street fairs. I saw one in San Diego also at ComiCon 2008. They are a nice change from the ubiquitous taco trucks.

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: Dosa Truck review

Bean, If using spices more than herbs in India and China is because spices are local and most herbs aren't, I still wonder about that because it goes to the question of why aren't more herbs local in China and India.

For spices in Europe, some might not grow well in the colder or drier climate of much of Europe. And perhaps some were guarded to prevent loss of a valuable export market (though usually that gets sidestepped eventually).

But some of the herbs grow so easily and widely, why didn't they migrate there and get integrated into the cuisine? Many are mint relatives and could grow where mint grows. Plenty of other foods have migrated from the Americas or Europe - potatoes, squash, tomatoes.

So, why didn't herbs migrate to India or China?

If by 'herbs' you mean leaves as opposed to the classic definition of 'spice' as "obtained from seeds, fruits, roots, bark, or some other vegetative substance", Asians do use herbs, but they are not necessarily plants that either dry well or will grow elsewhere. The Japanese like to eat fresh shiso, which has only been recently available by specialty produce vendors. You could never find it when I was growing up in the '50's and '60's, for example, no matter how large the JapAm population was in any US city. I only saw it on rare occasions when someone would receive a gift of it from some Issei gardener who grew it in their backyard. The Kaffir lime, heavily used in SE Asian cuisine, is grown for its leaves, not its fruit. Banana and ti leaves are a traditional flavoring element in many Asian steamed rice packages; they not only serve as wrapping, they add a unique dimension of flavor during cooking.

Herbs are commonly used for medicinal purposes in Asia. That's why alternative medicine is sometimes called 'herbal medicine'; infusions and poultices are common uses for a wide variety of herbs. You might not eat asafoetida leaves, but you would certainly have them in your 'medicine cabinet' or the traditional rural equivalent thereof.

That makes senxe. I was thinking about all the herbs used in TCM, and wondering if any of them are also common to cooking. I really don't know enough about it to say.

(jkom, I LOVE LOVE LOVE shiso! We grew it two years ago, and I missed it when we didn't have a garden last year. I use it in some of Eric Gower's recipes. Luckily I have a short drive to a Japanese market when I need a fix)

Last year I went on a campaign to try and get more familiar with Indian cooking because it is one of the great vegetarian cuisines of the world. I made up my own masala dabba, which is a large container (usually round) containing smaller containers of mixed herbs and spices. Mine is actually rectangle shaped since it is a box that small canning jars came in and I store my spices in the small canning jars, which are just perfect for that purpose. I have all my "Indian" style spices in there so when I want to cook Indian I have all the seasonings I need in one place and don't have to rummage through the spice shelf. I love Manjula's kitchen because she is such a warm person, and also because her kitchen is so tiny like mine and she makes it seem so easy. But in my experience it is not. She doesn't show all the pre-prep and measuring, etc. But at any rate, I sure wish they had a show about Indian cooking on the food network instead of some of the bland, blab, blab, blab shows they have. I learned about a masala dabba from Madhur Jaffrey who was a guest on Sara Moulton's "Everyday Cooking" show on PBS. I'm sorry they don't show that one any more, not sure why.

Having said all that, I somehow just do not love Indian cooking. I like it OK, but I don't crave it or relish it. I want to love it, but I don't. I haven't tried everything, but the dals and curries just don't ring my bell. I also made chapatis which I thought were doughy and bland. I haven't made dosas, parathas or samosas yet, so I still have a ways to go before I can completely give up Indian cooking. But those kinds of more elaborate dishes I am almost certainly not going to make on a regular basis. Some of the fried foods look really good, but I don't like to fry for a whole lot of reasons.

I can't figure out what it is with me and Asian cooking, because I feel the same way about Chinese cooking. I enjoy it but don't crave it. I could say it is because I was not brought up on it, but I was not brought up on Mediterannean cuisine either, and it is my "go to" cuisine. I would go out more to Indian and Chinese restaurants if I had someone to go with and knew if we had any good ones locally. I have been to one of our Indian restaurants many, many years ago and it was good then.

Here is a link that might be useful: Manjula's Kitchen