Indian Food.....

There is an area on the north side of Chicago that has a lot of great Indian restaurants. I make special trips to the area just to have Indian food. I like to go with a bunch of friends and just order a variety of items, there is very little that I've tried that I don't like. I tend to stick to chicken dishes, on the spicier but not too spicy side. With a side of naan and a samosa or two...I'm hungry just thinking about it!
 
If the restaurant has a "mild" spice option, then I quite like those for masala. Cheese naan is my favorite, though. Indian food might have been where I got the idea of chicken and yoghurt, but I'm sure that the way I mix them up isn't similar enough to be called anything Indian anymore.

The original is usually best, but Indian curry is much much to strong for my taste. I prefer Japanese curry (sorry!)

Is kefir technically Indian? I'm sure that I'd like any traditional Indian sweet stuff, because I have a real sweet tooth.
 
In some respects, you could consider yourself to be cooking or eating genuine Indian food if you are using ingredients genuinely associated with that type of cuisine. I am sure that no two Indian households cook a dish in exactly the same way. Tikka Masala is a British variation on two different Indian dishes. I cook Indian food regularly and it is my favorite take out too. No two take out meals are ever the same when bought from different restaurants.
 
The Indian dish we make most frequently here is chicken curry. Although, what we make is more of a localized version. You could get more authentic cooking in restaurants here I suppose, but honestly there aren't too many Indian restaurants around in my area and I don't think their cuisine is very influential here.
 
I love love making butter chicken, in fact i'll be making it tonight. The recipe not as great as the authentic ones at the restaurants but I have gotten a lot of compliments on it. I also love to make lasi, so simple and delicious.
 
I love Indian food - the hotter the better! I am lucky enough to live near an area called the "Curry Mile" - there is a large Muslim population with several restaurants - and I try and visit once a month. I have tried making my own curries and dhals but they never taste quite as good. Indian cuisine has a great range of vegetarian dishes so is perfect for anyone trying to reduce their meat consumption.
 
I love Indian food, but sadly find most Indian restaurants where we live lacking in taste and variety. Even when we have been away from home to a major city and eaten Indian there it has been lacking in spiciness and taste and both of us have come away thinking we would have been better off eating at home despite telling the waiters we are used to spices and like things hot and tasty!

I have learnt a lot of my recipes from a great cook book called Mango Soup . luckily for me I purchased the paper back version when it was first printed and at £20, now your best option is the kindle version at £3.56. But be warned, you will find you will need to buy lots of spices you never knew existed and learn how to cook again and she does not take short cuts, so this is a book for people who are prepared to take time over a meal, read and plan it and not expect 1 recipe to be the entire meal! You need to cook 3 or 4 dishes to serve with rice and naan/chapatti to make a meal, just as you would in an Indian restaurant!
 
I like South India food the most. Masala dosa with sambhar is my favorite. I also like uttapam, idli ,vada , rasam and lemon rice. I also like the typical Punjabi food like chole-bhature, amritsari kulche, makki di roti and sarson da saag. Among the deserts, rasmalai and moong dal ka halwa are my favorites.
 
Our all time favorite Indian food is the Lamb Biryani. In Singapore it is called Briyani but in Hongkong it is Biryani. I don't know the difference. However, the lamb biryani in Hongkong is the best and the one in Singapore is not that good. And although the lamb biryani is quite hot and spicy, the vegetable salad that comes with it is a very good chaser, to chase away the hotness. We never fail to eat lamb biryani when we go to Hongkong (every year, the last time was in October 2015). By the way, the restaurant's name is Ebeneezer.
 
I'm sad to say the only Indian food I have ever had is Butter chicken. I love it, it's an excellent dish. I know there is an Indian restaurant in my city, or at least there used to be, I'm unsure if it's still there. I heard really good things about it and have wanted to try it but never seem to find someone to go with me. My husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and rarely tries anything new. I have made Butter chicken at home which he actually liked so he may not be such a lost cause. I have had naan though so I suppose the butter chicken isn't quite the only Indian food I've had.
 
Autumn_Hearthwitch said:
I'm sad to say the only Indian food I have ever had is Butter chicken. I love it, it's an excellent dish. I know there is an Indian restaurant in my city, or at least there used to be, I'm unsure if it's still there. I heard really good things about it and have wanted to try it but never seem to find someone to go with me. My husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and rarely tries anything new. I have made Butter chicken at home which he actually liked so he may not be such a lost cause. I have had naan though so I suppose the butter chicken isn't quite the only Indian food I've had.
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That is sad! I couldn't live without Indian food and probably cook at least one curry a week. Its my forte (so I'm told). If its the hot chilli your partner is worried by then there are many mild Indian dishes (Butter Chicken is one). I make my own Naan bread (very easy!). I recently created a curry dish especially for @epicuric who said he wasn't inspired by lentils. He loved it! Recipe Lamb, Aubergine and Beluga Lentil Balti. Just tell your partner that real men it curry! :laugh:
 
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Pleased to say we are beginning to return to Indian food [after a forced absence] but I often wonder how traditional or 'genuine' it is.
As per my thread on 'fish n chips' however I am curious if the food we are served is not simply a watered down version adapted for western tastes [in many cases anyway] from the real thing. I used to work with a Sikh and his opinion of the local indian restaurants was very varied. He offered to bring in some food cooked by his wife but sadly I retired before it happened so I still wonder which of the restaurants he thought more genuine. and what certain dishes 'should' taste like.
 
I made a weight watchers recipe last week which was very similar to an Indian curry. It was called carrot apple soup, but it had all the spices of Indian curry. I am glad I finally got to use my Masala curry powder which I bought once for a recipe, and paid a fortune for , and has been sitting in the cupboard since. I have to say this soup was super delicious. I would make it again in a heartbeat. The complexity of the flavors and the texture were both awesome.
 
I have three Indian cookery books, plus others which contain some authentic Indian recipes, but my favourite book is this one - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indian-Coo...-Dharamjit/dp/0140461418?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc. I bought a copy of this book in 1972 in the days when the only way to get the herbs and spices (except for a few common ones) was to travel 10 miles or so to a large Asian community and raid the grocery shops there. A few years back I had to replace the original book because it was falling apart and my cats had eaten some of the pages. They are not unknown to nobble my dinner if I have a curry.
 
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