Indian Cuisine

I feel sort of stupid typing out "Indian Cuisine" as the title for this post, as it could be talking about Indian Cuisine or the restaurant "Indian Cuisine." A preconceived immutable truth I had before encountering this restaurant was that Ethnic food places tend to try and capture the ethnicity of their food in the title of their restaurant. Looking at the Indian places in Tampa, you see places like Tunduree, Taj, Bombay Masala, and Udipi Cafe. Indian Cuisine on the other hand, just sounds like a generic placeholder for a restaurant name that is yet to come. Indian Cuisine would be the category on Yelp where you find this place. All the same, we have all of four Indian restaurants in the whole of Gainesville, so this one is going to get a shot. As Indian is probably one of my favorite types of food, I can be somewhat on edge when encountering inauthentic or poorly done Indian food. Before I get to the food though, there is something my fellow non Indian friends should be aware of. This article seeks to create clarity on this point first.

India is a big country. If you've looked at a map, you've probably realized that. Along with a billion people, India has a lot going on. As is normally the case with that kind of thing, the food will vary substantially as well. Most Indian food Americans are familiar with is of the North Western type from a region called Punjab, which nestles between India and Pakistan, southwest of Kashmir. Why? It's pretty simple. It's basically the closest to food we already have experience with. It's also a highly populated area with Delhi generally considered part of Punjab and a ton of people have emigrated from there. Interestingly enough, the Punjabi ethnicity is one of the closest ethnic groups to people of European descent. The coincidence unfolds in an interesting way when I explain the food. In any case Punjabi cuisine is probably best known for its savory dishes with large doses of cream and butter. In fact, one of the most popular Indian dishes we have in the US is called Murgh Makhani. Translated: Butter Chicken. That's tracking right there with the Paula Deen approach to cooking.

Westerners, as started by the British really, jumped all over Punjabi cuisine with its rich and exotic qualities. Michelin Star Chef Gordon Ramsay calls a type of Indian curry, tikka masala, one of the most popular dishes in Britain. As Indian people emigrated to the US, they spread their cuisine here as well, and it has caught hold with a lot of people. Of course, northern Indians were not the only ones to emigrate to the US. Realistically, people from all over India moved here, and many proceeded to set up restaurants.

We're getting to what will likely be a common theme of this blog. A very common thing in the US is that people from a country or continent on the Planet, no matter how huge, will make food from a region inside said country or continent that they don't actually know that well. The most common example of this is what we see with Asian food here in Gainesville. Chinese restaurants are run by Vietnamese and Korean immigrants, and vary rarely are the Chinese who serve these Cantonese inspired dishes from the Canton region. Similarly, I'm pretty sure the majority of sushi places here in Gainesville are actually run by Korean immigrants. That's not to say that these people can't learn to make the dishes they're creating, but it becomes pretty clear when you go to their restaurants and they have dishes from the type they're actually used to making, you see a huge difference in quality. Tucked away in some menus are gems from the chef's or owner's locality that they refuse to half ass because it's part of their culture.

Due to India's vast size, most of the people making Punjabi food in the US are probably not from the region. Usually they're just attempting to capitalize on what the average citizen desires. Sometimes they succeed and make it work. Sometimes they fail and put out food they really have shouldn't be when they could be putting out good food they actually know. If you want to know the trick for determining whether or not the Indian place you're eating at is truly into the Punjabi style, look to see how much fish they have on their menu. I don't mean that they just replaced chicken with shrimp (as is the case with most North Indian places,) but they have dishes that are specifically made to work best with the more delicate flavors of a fish. Coconuts tend to be more involved as well. Generally speaking, the dishes tend to be built in a far more rustic style compared to the sometimes overly rich Punjabi style dishes. It's no wonder Punjabi cuisine has won out in the minds of Americans and the British.

Personally, I've come to enjoy the merits of both. While the south Indian can be a bit more an acquired taste, depending on the dish, a good south Indian dish can still probably please the palette of a novice eater of Indian food. Oddly enough, Gainesville happens to have a South Indian place that does not seem overly reluctant to actually be South Indian, going so far as to have a section on their menu dedicated to South Indian cooking.

My actual reviews of Indian Cuisine, Kebab House, and Taj will be incoming over the next couple weeks.

-Charles