How to eat Indian food

As a baby barrister, in the days when you knew everyone in chambers, my colleagues and I used to regularly go out together for dinner.

“You must come to X restaurant, “ several colleagues had repeatedly urged me. “It’s amazing.”

So, one Friday, we all set off.

The restaurant’s gimmick was that its naan breads were as big as a table. It was, indeed, pretty impressive to see the naan being brought in, carried by two waiters. But that’s where my admiration ended. The curry, when it came, was what passes for Indian food in too many restaurants in the west. The chicken was stringy, a weird shade of red, suggesting generous amounts of paprika and chilli powder had been thrown into the pot during cooking and the taste, overall, was of eating chewy rubber – very spicy chewy rubber.  My male colleagues, particularly, liked it because being able to eat curry that spicy was a badge of manhood or something.

Indian food is generally spicy, yes, but it is also meant to be flavourful.

First things first. Although I use the term Indian food in this article, a very large proportion of the restaurants in the UK are actually run by Bangladeshis or Pakistanis. 

And there is a difference. Very broadly speaking, Indian food is more vegetarian oriented, especially south Indian food. Pakistani food is more meat-based and influenced by Persian cuisine while Bangladeshi food is a hybrid of several cuisines. 

For the western market, the three cuisines have combined to produce dishes that would, mostly, not easily be recognised in any of the three countries.

Indian food and restaurants have also come a long way since the red flock wallpaper and sitar muzak days of the 80s and 90s. Now you have top end Indian restaurants with tasteful decor and eye watering prices, trendy eateries in converted buildings and ready made Indian meals in every supermarket. There has also been a proliferation of Indian Street food restaurants trying to re-create the tasty dishes that millions of people buy for pennies on the streets of Mumbai, Lahore and Dhaka. 

In each case, the customer is invariably sold  the ‘authentic’ Indian food experience. For a truly authentic experience, go to dinner at the home of a friend whose family hail from the Asian subcontinent.

Otherwise, here are a few tips on having a good restaurant experience. (There will be more tips to come in future and more restaurant recommendations).

At the heart of Indian food is the blending of spices to create food with a fiery but flavourful kick. Chilli powder, fresh green/red finger chillies, bullet chillies and other types are just one ingredient amongst the large range which create the unique taste of good Indian food.

Turmeric (Haldi), Cumin (Jira), Green Cardamom (Cchoti Ilayachi), Coriander, Cilantro, Garam Masala, Ginger (Adarek), Cinnamon, Fennel, Nutmeg, Mint, Cloves, Fried onions and more, in various combinations, all help create dishes that make your mouth water.

Indian food can, of course, make your eyes water too!

The burning sensation of too much chilli is the best known feature of Indian food. Gulping down litres of water isn’t actually the best way to counter it. It’s generally better to eat plain yogurt or put an ice cube on the tongue and let it melt. Bread, naan bread, pitta or anything starchy also helps cool the tongue.

A good way to gauge whether an Indian restaurant is good is to check out the clientele. If there are middle-aged and older customers of South Asian origin in there, the chances are it’s one of the better ones. These are the people who will have grown up on their mother’s cooking, which will have been influenced by either her time living in South Asia or by her own mother’s cooking. And no, it’s not being sexist to talk about the mother cooking in the home. Traditionally, in families of South Asian origin it is the woman who cooks. That said, most chefs in Indian restaurants, interestingly, are male.

Indian food is best eaten with the hands. And there is an art to it, not unlike eating with chopsticks or eating spaghetti. Only when you see Westerners chasing curry around their  plate, trying to ladle it onto a limp piece of naan bread which they’re trying to use as a spoon, do you realise this. The naan is not a spoon. Nor is it a burrito to be filled with the curry and bitten into.

Instead, tear a small piece off the big naan, hold it with the tips of your fingers and grasp the curry with it so that bread and curry blend into one mouthful. If the curry has a sauce you can use the naan as a sponge, again holding it with the tips of your fingers to gather the sauce rather than dipping the bread in it. not surprisingly, there are YouTube videos that teach you how to eat Indian food with your hands. If you’re having trouble, no shame in watching one or two.

It can be done elegantly and afterwards you simply dip your fingers into the finger bowl or wipe them with a tissue and napkin. So, it can be done on a first date! Picking meat off the bones with your fingers can be messier though and possibly less romantic!

 I’ve referred to naan bread but there are different kinds of bread that are served in Indian restaurants:

1. Naan is a leavened bread which is either baked in an oven or in a tandoor. It can also be lightly fried on a tawa which is like a flat griddle. A good naan should be light with a fluffy texture.
2. Roti also known as chappati is a round, unleavened flatbread made from stoneground whole wheat flour mixed with water into a dough. It’s a staple accompaniment to an Indian meal.
3. Paratha is the decadent version of roti. It’s translated as layers of cooked dough. Like roti it is baked or cooked on a tow and usually finished off with shallow frying. The layers are coated with. butter or ghee or oil and folded repeatedly like flaky pastry. Paratha can also be stuffed with a variety of ingredients. Lightly mashed, spicy potatoe is a popular stuffing.

Your tandoori chicken really doesn’t have to be rustic red to be good. That’s just red food dye and you can do without it. The colour idea originally came from Marinated chicken being brushed with a turmeric and paprika paste which gave the meat a yellow/orange look but colour is not necessary. Tandoor, incidentally, refers to a clay oven heated to very high levels. The ovens are traditionally large and deep and can be as hot as 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

The difference between biryani and pilau rice is, primarily in the way the rice is cooked. Traditional biryani is cooked with lamb, although chicken and vegetable biryani is increasingly popular in restaurants. There is some dispute but biryani is generally considered to have been developed in the royal kitchens of the Muslim Mughal Empire which lasted from 1526–1857. Like paella, biryani is thought to have developed from the Persian pilau rice.

Biryani rice is cooked separately from the sauce and the meat. It is then combined in layers. Biryani tends to be heavily spiced. It’s traditionally made with Basmati rice.

Pilau, includes long grain rice cooked in a seasoned broth. The flavour of the meat which is boiled with spices, really should come through in the rice, making it a tasty dish in itself. The rice in biryani requires putting the meat on your spoon too to get the full effect.

Seekh kebabs – the meat should be succulent and taste like meat. Too often, it’s obvious that the ‘meat’ in restaurants is a small amount of real meat mixed with lots of meat substitutes such as beans and lentils, tofu or seitan. For a good kebab, the meat should be sufficiently well spiced that you don’t have to smother it in mint yogurt chutney to give it taste. 

*****

Some of my restaurant recommendations.

(This is, by no means, an exhaustive list and for now is confined to central London. I’ll recommend some further of field in a later article)

Tamarind of Mayfair : 20 Queen Street, Mayfair. Nearest tube station- Green Park.

I recently had dinner at this world-class restaurant to celebrate a special birthday (not mine). Having been taken to another top of the range Indian restaurant for my own birthday last year, my expectations were not high. However, I left, vowing to return, as did others in the party.

The prices are not cheap, but then it was one of the first Indian restaurants to win a Michelin star which it still holds – deservedly so.

Each dish we ordered was fresh, flavourful and just plain tasty. For a top end restaurant it did not neutralise the use of strong spices or chilli for a western palate. The decor is pretty, the staff friendly and efficient and the desserts (not really Indian in origin) are to die for.

Recommended dishes: Griddled Scottish scallops. Not exactly a traditional Indian dish but the mildly spiced sauce is tasty and the scallops are topped with caviar. Calcutta prawn curry. Goan green chicken curry.

(Incidentally there are many restaurants called Tamarind or some variation of the name but this is the one in Mayfair).

Roti chai: 3 Portman Mews – nearest tube station Bond Street. The restaurant is behind Selfridges store.

The restaurant is on two levels. The upstairs is the street kitchen and the downstairs is the dining room. The two have distinct menus. My personal preference is the upstairs street food. 

I was hugely impressed with this restaurant when I was taken there, again, because the food was all about bringing out the different flavours and styles of Indian cooking, instead of a generic spicy taste. The place itself is light and airy, service is good and the prices are mid range.

Recommended: the Bun kebab, Railways lamb, chicken lollipops.

***

Soho Wala: 21 Great Marlbough Street. Nearest tube station Oxford Circus.

This is a small restaurant, slightly hidden away, opposite Carnaby Street but it’s an absolute gem. The food is served in an inventive way and is delicious to boot. It has a street food kind of vibe. The prices are mid range and having discovered it I’ve taken many friends there. They’ve loved it.

Recommended: Pani puri wala. Mirchi matchsticks chicken. Laal mass rajasthani.

Diwana : 121 Drummond Street – nearest tube station Euston.

Described as a casual Indian vegetarian restaurant furnished in wood, specialising in dosas and poori dishes, Diwana is a firm favourite with vegetarians, students, media types and anyone looking for reasonably priced, beautifully spiced Indian food. They have a buffet on Sundays which is a must. I’ve been going here for years and it never disappoints.

Recommended: Aloo chana poori, bhel poori.