I Love Indian Food

Monday, December 10. 2007

I really adore it. All kinds, except maybe stuff with lots of meat. But it's very easy to be a vegetarian in Southern India; there are always ample, clearly marked vegetarian options on every menu. Product of a society which is more than 1/2 vegetarian.

I spent my last week in Bangalore, which is in the center of Southern India for the FOSS.In software conference. Unfortunately, I got the "Tipu's Revenge" and was largely uninterested in food for most of the week, but I did manage to get in a few good meals.

Indians, of course, have plenty of street food, which is generally unsafe for visitors to eat. Sugarcane juice is a popular tooth-grindingly sweet drink (Indians really like sweets), and in December roasted peanut sellers are everywhere, as are coconut sellers.

In India, breakfast is not fundamentally different from other meals. This complete breakfast includes milk coffee, bhatura (puffy flatbread), chana dal (chickpea curry), califlower curry, bisibele bath (rice stuff), masala vada (savory donuts) and sambar (cup).

On Wednesday, we went out for Punjabi food. One of the things I discover when I travel internationally is that Americanized versions of ethnic foods lack a lot of the regional distinctions they have in their native lands. Punjab is an area in the Northwest of India, split by Pakistan. Most of their food owes its heritage to Mogul influences, centering on flatbreads and skewer-roasted meats.

We went to Legacy of Punjab, a somewhat touristy restaurant with good food. Note the heavy use of ethnic decorations; those are spools of thread over our heads.

First, we started the meal with some traditional Punjabi beer.

Then we had the skewers. Since I'm not big on meat, I mostly had the fish and the paneer.

This was followed by curries (chicken, dal and fish here) with assorted traditional flatbreads. Note that in Bangalore I never heard the word "curry" once except when referring to curry leaves. These dishes were instead called "gravies".

As with other parts of India, the "gravy" course is eaten off a thali, a large deep platter, with your hands. Here it's accompanied by a paratha, which is brushed with ghee and crumpled and rolled out for a pastry-like texture. You tear off a little bit with your right hand (only) and use it to scoop up some of the curries. It takes practice to master tearing flatbread with one hand.

Kerala cuisine later this week. Oh, and one note: do not go to Opus near the Windsor for the food. They're strictly a bar and club and while they pretend to high-class Goan food, it's really just fancy Indian pub grub.