Gori Girl

Thanks GG and D for your responses to my post.

Well, let's see, I've tried a fair amount of foods and have only liked a few.  (Mostly I "tolerate" the foods)

We actually flew to Raleigh this past weekend to visit my bf's friends for the weekend so I had more Indian food this past weekend then in the last few months combined! I discovered a new food I like-samosas! I had three for dinner and three the next morning for breakfast. That was a big breakthrough and I'm still smiling when I think of this…however, I do remember having them over a year ago at a local restaurant and not liking them very much. So I guess it depends on where they're from.

I like Naan, lentil soup (tried it twice at different places), veg and paneer pakora, some Indian snacks and that's about it. I did try butter chicken (homemade by my bf's friend this weekend) and that was "tolerable". But I've tried Tikka Masala and a few other entrees in the past and didn't like them at all. I also don't like the rice (unless plain or more mild). I'm thinking there is either 1) a particular spice I don't like or 2) a bunch of spices…my bf thinks it's garam masala. I just don't know!

It's very frustrating because in 6 months I'll be in India for 3 weeks and I really, really want to be able to eat most of the foods. Do any of you know of anybody who didn't like Indian and "learned to like" or developed a taste or at least a tolerance for the foods?

Thanks guys!

I agree about the samosas, butter and tandoori chicken, and dosas as good "gateway foods" for Indian cuisine.  But I love Indian food and loved it even before I met my husband.  Since we've been together I've tried a bunch of new things, and there aren't too many foods I don't like.  My in-laws even say sometimes that I can tolerate more spicy foods than they or my husband can!  Among the things I don't care for are "meat" (i.e. goat meat – I just don't like the gamey flavor), idli (more a texture thing), and many Indian sweets (they're waaaaaaaay too sweet for me).

Jenn23, I don't know if this would be helpful, but maybe before you go to India you could talk with someone (a friend, or a member of your boyfriend's family, if you're in touch with them already) who knows Indian cooking and could help introduce you to the different foods and spices.  As DJain suggested, the sort of food you get in Indian restaurants in the U.S. may not be entirely representative of the kind of food you'll find in India, or even homecooked Indian food there or here.  It might also be fun to get a basic Indian cook book and/or go to an Indian grocery store and play around with making some of the dishes yourself!  That might help you develop an appreciation or at least a tolerance for Indian cooking… :)

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. I'm going to keep trying! My boyfriend (from Lucknow, North India) has told me that his mother cooks pretty mild. He has also said that the food is much more mild over there than the restaurants here. I'm going to try to cook some new things over the next few weeks and see what happens! Yes, I do like Mexican food so I don't think its the cumin. I think you may be right, D, because I made rice with cardamom and didn't like it. I'm just so happy that I like at least a few things. Mocrodith, I don't like the sweets either-too sweet for me too. Kurkure is the snack we munch on at home and I just love that! That's pretty spicy I think, yet I love the flavor.

Do you guys think its likely that one can develop a "taste" for something? I really hope so!

I don't think I like many of the foods with garam masala. (which is most foods I've tried!) Too much spice for me. I want to try the garlic chicken you mentioned. Perhaps I'll like that. I'm going to keep on trying new foods for the next three months until we leave for India, and while over there I'll just try everything! My fiance has said the food is less spicey over there than the restaurants here (in his opinion) so he thinks I may like more of the foods there. Guess I'll find out! :)

Jenn — try to see if you can find any Indian Chinese restaurants or Indian restaurants that serve Indian Chinese food. Having a fusion of something more familiar like Chinese food with the addition of some Indian spices might help you develop a taste for those spices. Vegetable/chicken Manchurian, chilli paneer/chicken/shrimp, American chop suey, hakka noodles and crispy lotus are all pretty common good dishes at Indian Chinese places.

I can't think of a single time that I've had a dish in a cream sauce at my MIL or didis'  houses in India.  Those heavy, creamier dishes that you see at restaurants here are Punjabi or Mughlai-style, and not really what you'd see in everyday home cooking.  I'm confident that you'll find things to enjoy when you're in India!  And of course I can't wait to hear all about it when you get back.

Post edited 3:17 pm – August 13, 2009 by Auroracoda

I agree with DJain…in Maharastrian food there is very less of the creamy sauces.  Those are mainly found for anything called “butter”.  Although, I'm a big fan of the Mutter Paneer subji which is creamy!  :)  Mainly though, when I cook it's either with gravy (the spices are fried first and then veggies are added and fried together and then water is added and the whole thing is cooked for a bit).  Otherwise, I do dry subji and we eat that with roti.  When making rice, I love it plain but I also like to add jeera seeds to it to give it some flavor.  

One thing that Bear taught me and that I fell in love with is Poha!  So good!  And if you don't have the flaked poha, you can make the same thing with already cooked and dry rice.  Here's how we do it…try it and see what you think!

Poha

2 cups Poha (Beaten Rice)

1 Potatoes

1 Onions

2 Green Chillies

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

2 tsp Peanuts

4 tblsp Oil

1 tsp Turmeric powder

1/4 tsp red chili powder

1 Lemon

Few Corainder leaves

Salt to taste

How to make aloo poha :

Sprinkle the poha with water until not dry but not entirely wet either. 

Add some salt , turmeric powder , keep aside.

Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes, chop the onions, chillies.

Heat oil and put mustard seeds, peanuts, and fry until they crackle.

Add potatoes , saute for few minutes, then add chopped onions, chillies.

Cook till they are done. Add the poha, corainder leaves and stir.

Keep it on slow flame for 5- 7 minutes.

Let it cool for sometime and add then lemon juice.

ps:  You can add a little bit of sugar to help cut the spice a bit.

Just wanted to say I had a major "breakthrough" with Indian food over the last few days and I'm so excited!

On our way to Oak Tree Road for shopping this past Saturday, we stopped at a restaurant for the lunch buffet. I actually enjoyed almost everything I tried! I now can say I like more than just samosas and naan! :)  I liked the dal and aloo gobi…I had more than a plateful and really enjoyed it! Last night we did take-out and I had dal, aloo gobi, samosas and naan (same as lunch this Saturday) and liked all these things. I'm still not liking most of the chicken dishes, but this is a huge improvement-I'll take it! And couldn't be better timing, as we leave in 3 1/2 weeks for India!

Yay, Jenn!  Where did you go for the buffet?

About those creamy sauces: I don't think that in any type of South Asian cuisine those creamy sauces are found in homes. The food served at restos as "Mughlai" is some Punjabi inspired genre of restaurant food. It is rich and creamy and meant to be different than authentic home food because the genre developed that way. Who would go out to pay for what is available at home. And the popular of the British-ized and also Americanized  Indian resto (meant for non-Asian patrons) has also influenced this genre. First, it is neither authentically Mughlai, nor authentically Punjabi. Qormas, biriani, etc. in North Indian Muslim, Indian Hyderabadi Muslim, Bangladeshi, or Southern Pakistani homes , which as prepared today are the descendents of the true Moghal dishes, are nothing like those qormas filled with cream and birianis filled with nuts and raisins and all. I have a book of authentic Lucknawi nawaabi recipes, and these are filled with unusual perfumed waters, ground nuts, and other extravagancies (like warqa or silver foil) but not one single recipe outside of the sweet section has cream. The chicken tikka masala and butter chicken as Westernized Indian foods (the latter being inspired on the Punjabi chooza makhni) have made their way back to India though, because I know people cook those foods sometimes, adding cream, just to emulate the resto dishes! For Americans who loved their local Star of India Palace creamy saag paneer, they are sometimes disappointed when they eat the saag paneer and other Indian foods in an Indian home because it is so unlike the restos. I find that in the US unless you are going to a specialty regional restaurant, usually one that is in a large area of S. Asian shops and restos, you will never find any Indian resto that has anything remotely close to home cooked food. I like the creamy stuff sometimes, though. It was the first thing I ever knew as Indian food. It is really hard to learn to cook the South Asian food of your husband's particular ethnic community if there is no way for you to taste the dishes and cookbooks meant for beginners are far and few between. There is loads on websites, but often they are meant for non-beginners and contain lines like "a totka: use a chutki of such and such thing, then put on dam." And you are like "huh?" I now have a great collection of regional Indian English language cookbooks, and a couple of Pakistani as well. But man, was it hard starting out.

I own a great Maharashtrian cookbook by the way, which is published in the US so should be available there. It is Hemalata C. Dandekar's Beyond Curry: Quick and Easy Cooking Featuring Cuisine from Maharashtra State. Definately worth checking out if you are interested in Maharashtrian cooking.

My mother in law was also born and raised in Lucknow. Lucknawis are known for delicately spiced yet intricate foods. They also serve a lot of raitas and chutneys at the meal with only one or two main dishes. This is all according to my MIL, anyway.

I'd like to know what you have to say about Lucknavi cuisine when you come back…please do let us know. I dunno if your ILs are pure veg or not, but according to my MIL,  Lucknawi Hindus are experts at recreating traditional Nawabi fare with pure veg ingredients and also if not pure veg, then with beef recipes in chicken and lamb to a perfection, like chicken nihaari, so I'd be interested to hear about that.

Be sure to try, sheermal (a flatbread), Tunda's kabaab offerings (tunDa means a one armed person, apparently this guy has a famous kabab stall somewhere, probably your in-law's know it) with galawati kabaabs and kakori kababs. As far as home foods, there is khatti daal as the Lucknavi speciality I can think of right now.

Anyhow, the book is only available in India as far as I know (published there). It is not showing on Amazon, but is showing on this website for 34$, when I only paid a few hundred rupees for it in India…so get it there. It is Dastarkhwan-e-awadh by Sangeeta Bhatnagar and R.K. Saxena.

If you'd like to check out a movie w/ lots of scenes of Lucknow, see the old version of Umrao Jaan (with Rekha, not the crap re-make with Aishwarya)

OK LuckyFatima,
Wow!
Thanks for that post.

samosas, pakoras, aloo tiki, some kibabs, Buttered chicken, tandori chicken were all great.
There are some spices that are too much for me.
I admit that I can't eat "hot."
Yet, when I go out to mexican restaurants and am with others who "can't stand hot," I tend to find their tastes bland.
So, I guess that "yes," you can learn to like certain foods.
But, don't try to eat something that you don't like.
You might try spicing it down.
Hey, last time I went to an Indian Restaurant, I had "Mughlai chicken." I think that this is the way that it was spelled.
It was not spicey and quite good.
(LuckyFatima talked about it — and I thought that I found a gem that was cooked in Pakistan/India). –[smile]

There was also a chicken dish with cashews that was particularly tasty.
You know, I don't know if it was just the ppl that I was with:
But, we all ordered something different and shared/tasted everything. My hosts, a wonderful couple (with their four children) suggested it and seemed to have a great time.
One point for communal eating.
 And, you can make cucumber mint salad,  which is like cucumber raita,  which is good.
some of the salads might have a bit of ginger in them, but are good.
I think that what first threw me is having a dessert or sweet that smelled like perfume: (Quera and/or rosewater).
I still have a hard time eating it.
But, I love Jalebis and a nut carrot halwa something which I wish that I could learn to make  — if I only remembered the name.
(ok, I am bad at spelling). I can't see the menu, so don't know how they are spelled.
Hey, what about parathas (can't go wrong with them). Although, I don't find them in restaurants, only at stores unless you are ambitious enough to make them yourself. My particular favorite is the aloo paratha (potato paratha).

Note:
I took my daughter to  an Indian restaurant when Imran was visiting.
On the way out we had those wonderful ani seeds.
My daughter and her BF hated them and were trying to get the taste out of their mouths all night.
But, I love that black liquorice  taste. I am thinking about getting my own "Ani seed dispenser."