Indian food thread

[chezlaw]

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a) Are there are any clues that you can use about an Indian restaraunts menu to determine the level of healthiness involved in the food?

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Red tandori chicken is a common bad sign in my experience. It should be orange/brown and the redness is food colouring for no good reason.

chez

[ThaSaltCracka]

I have never tried Indian food. I like curry, but it is usually homemade and probably nothing like true Indian food. Coincidently, I really have no desire to try it.

[punter33-3]

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I love Indian food, but lately I have been ending up with a lot of stuff that is realy greasy, seems to have clarified butter coming out the wazoo, makes me feel sick, etc... etc... My questions are

a) Are there are any clues that you can use about an Indian restaraunts menu to determine the level of healthiness involved in the food?

b) Does anyone have any specific NYC Indian restaraunt suggestions that are not only super tasty but also don't have the nasty greasiness to it. Pongal is my favorite place in the city, but it is in a part of the city that I never go to now.

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Dawat on 58th between 2nd and 3rd is a really great sit in place. They deliver if you're close enough. Another great place is Tamarind on 22nd between Broadway and Park.

And for anyone else who likes Indian food, you gotta try Kati Roll in the West Village. Also Indian Bread Co which is 1 block down from there. Both of these places serve really good rolls(chicken tikka or potatoes or paneer tikka wrapped in indian flat bread or naan). Really tasty stuff. Def try it when your in the West Village. Its on Macdougal and Bleeker.

[turnipmonster]

paluka,
I really like tamarind and amma. vatan can be good also but in my experience is hit or miss. if you feel like trekking out to queens, jackson diner is excellent also.

[JooWish622]

Clearly Brick lane on 6th and 2nd... amazing rotti rolls and korma

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

i eat indian food probably once a month. its very heavy and i find it hard to eat more often that that.

[cognito20]

Indian food is my favorite food on the planet. I had never even tried it until I moved to Australia when I was 27 years old, and was quickly converted by about, say, the second time I had it. One of the first things I do when I visit a new city for the first time is to find out where the Indian restaurants are and try them out. I'm also lucky in that the small upstate NY city where I live, Ithaca, has 2 very good Indian restaurants in New Delhi Diamonds and Sangam. Actually, that's one of the few good things about Ithaca come to think of it....it has an unusually large number of good ethnic restaurants for a city of 30,000 people, mostly I'm sure due to the presence of Cornell and IC. My personal favorite dishes are lamb roganjosh curry with spicy onions and mango chutney, garlic and/or mushroom naan, mushroom spinach sag, Goan fish curry, and kheer for dessert. I like the -taste- of vindaloo, but I find it's generally so hot that it tends to overpower the taste of the food itself. BTW, if anyone here ever goes to Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontatio, one of the best Indian restaurants I've ever eaten at (the name escapes me at the moment) is just up the hill from the casino....if you come out the main front entrance and walk one block up the street, it's just on your right as you get to the next intersection.

Here's a question for people to ponder that I've been wondering about for years...why is it that every small town in America has at least one, if not more, Chinese buffet but you don't usually find nearly as many _Indian_ buffets? Indian food works so much better as a buffet serving. A good number of Indian foods are forms of curry, which really when you get down to it is a kind of stew. Stews tend to improve in taste and quality the longer you let them sit (well, up to a reasonable point, that is :P). Therefore, most curried dishes are not negatively affected by sitting under heating lamps for 4 or 5 hours. Chinese food is much, much more flavorful when served fresh, directly out of the wok....it does not seem to "age" well under the lights of a buffet. The only advantage for the Chinese buffets might be that there is a more diverse range of food offered at them which appeals to a wider variety of people, where at the Indian buffets I've been to if you don't like curry you're pretty much screwed. Not that I have anything -against- Chinese buffets, mind you, just that I wonder why there aren't MORE Indian buffets.

--Scott

[JooWish622]

[ QUOTE ]
I love Indian food, but lately I have been ending up with a lot of stuff that is realy greasy, seems to have clarified butter coming out the wazoo, makes me feel sick, etc... etc... My questions are

a) Are there are any clues that you can use about an Indian restaraunts menu to determine the level of healthiness involved in the food?

b) Does anyone have any specific NYC Indian restaraunt suggestions that are not only super tasty but also don't have the nasty greasiness to it. Pongal is my favorite place in the city, but it is in a part of the city that I never go to now.

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brick lane on 6th and 2nd

[Al Mirpuri]

I am UK based and it is eye-opening and very pleasing to see that America has an appreciation of Indian food.

I have not read every post because the desire to respond to many would overwhelm me (though I may yet) but I would like to correct a very very minor point: chicken tikka masala is a British bastardisation of Indian cuisine. The British wanted a 'gravy' to eat their chicken tikka with so a special 'masala' came about. The British like their curries hot as a rule though the chicken tikka masala is not but it has become the national dish of Britain. Indian takeaway food (you might call it 'food to go' akin to pizza delivery) outsells every other type of takeaway food.

Historically, Indian food has been influenced by its geographic neighbours: nan bread is Persian (modern day Iran) the Korma and Pilau rice were brought into Indian cuisine by Turkish invaders, Vindaloo is half Portugese ('vin' meaning wine, 'aloo' meaning potatoes, this is the 'hottest' of all Indian dishes and will make your eyes water, indeed as I write this my tastebuds have started playing up).

History lesson: of the European powers, the Portugese got to India first, followed by French, Dutch and the ultimate successors in India, the British, India being a British possesion from 1757 until 1947. However, the Crown only took official possesson in 1859 after the Indian Mutiny (1857-59) with Queen Victoria being declared Empress of India in 1877. The British never ruled the whole of it, there were many independent Maharajdoms that had treaties with the British accepting them as the paramount power in India.

To repeat: it is great to see America has an appreciation of Indian food (I always knew you couldn't be all bad [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]).

[NaturalSelection]

Interesting article from Saveur:

http://www.saveur.com/saveur-travels...ras-49153.html