There is no such thing as “Indian food.” It’s a fabrication of the West. Each state has its own regional cuisines: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bengal. And then even the states have subcategories — there’s coastal Maharashtrian, inland Maharashtrian, Muslim-influenced. Sadly, what most of the world knows today as Indian food is bastardized, trivialized — tandoori chicken, black dal, everything deep-fried. And it’s just a shame that many Americans will only experience it in some buffet line in New Jersey.
– Famed Mumbai chef Rahul Akerkar in Wall Street Journal, November 23, 2011
Tandoori Chicken – A Fixture at Most
Indian Restaurants in U.S
Rahul Akerkar is right.
Most Indian restaurants in the U.S. are a disgrace serving food unfit for humans or animals.
Whether they’re run by South Indians or Punjabis, most Indian restaurants in the New Jersey-New York City region serve unpalatable inedible food.
And we say that with cockiness because we’ve dined at over 100 so-called Indian restaurants in NJ and NY.
Some of the worst offenders are Bhojan and Dhaba in NYC, Saravana Bhavan in West Windsor (NJ), Flavors of India in Columbia (MD) and Rangoli in Chantilly (VA).
Indian Food Has Been Bastardized – Rahul Akerkar added by SearchIndia.com on
View all posts by SearchIndia.com →
“Indian Food Has Been Bastardized”
And SI is the prime victim of such bastardization.
we stumbled upon a not-so-bastardized chinese restaurant.. http://www.yelp.com/biz/35-restaurant-cary
For a change we saw Chinese people dining in a chinese restaurant.. Easily the spiciest chinese food I have ever had.. They had frog legs, pork intestine, and black fungus on the menu.. I wanted to try the frog legs but the boss vetoed it. Will try to convince the boss next time.. Excellent food.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Never tried Frog’s legs so far! One of these days surely.
Off-topic: Have u tried caviar?
Tried a new Belgian Beer yesterday – Leffe Blond ($4.99 for the big bottle). Decent. Might even review it. Back to our regular Guinness Extra Stout today
Caviar., haven’t yet. We can probably get it at the grocery store and try it out.. Or SI can visit http://www.caviarrusse.com/restaurant/menus and review it for us 😉
Have tried Leffe once.. wasn’t too thrilled. Liked the 7.5% ABV, but it was kind of dull. After tasting flavorful Belgian-Styled beers like 3 Philosophers etc., I crave for more flavor in my beer. Not sure when you are going to embark on the imdb top 250 journey, but http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/beer-advocates-top-100-beers-on-planet-earth-annotated/ may be more thrilling ride.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Compared to the many beers we’ve quaffed, we thought Leffe Blond displayed some character.
We’ll find a sponsor for your Caviar tasting menu. 😉
I thought I posted something.. it is missing now. Have not tried caviar. Apparently it is available in grocery stores – may try it once instead of going to fancy restaurants..
Have tried Leffe Blonde.. it was OK.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Went into spam folder for some reason.
Grocery store Caviar is like watching a Vijay or Abhishek Bachchan movie!
Sure, they are images displayed on a screen but they ain’t movies for sure. 🙁