/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Decide beforehand whether you want ungodly spicy or just savory foods then ask your restaurant of choice because they all do shit different and you probably don't want to accidentally eat apocalyptically spicy food if you did not intend to.

chicken tikka masala is pretty much the only indian dish i like.

Butter chicken if you're not good with spicy. Chicken Tikka Masala if you like spice. Tastes similar.

if you want appetizers or soup
pakora
sambar with idli or dosa

main dishes
palak paneer
any chana/dal dishes
butter chicken/lamb dishes

dessert
gulab jamun

>>5697289

I like spicy food though.

>>5697293

thanks m8

>>5697285
Pork vindaloo if you like spicy

>>5697297
>sambar with idli or dosa
masala dosa

>>5697293
Boring pleb

give us the menu m8

chicken curries are generally shitty from takeaway

lamb is good

get one meat dish and a ton of vegetables and a roti or naan

>>5697293
>>5697295
You guys should try chicken mikhani. Almost the same shit.

There's not any other non-spicy dishes you like though? I really love a good korma, saag, and aaloo.

There was also this one dish that, while not exactly Indian, was from a Pakistani place which is similar. Extremely spicy goat curry, it was so good I felt high after eating it.

>>5697313

murgh makhani IS butter chicken dude. which is basically the same thing as tikka masala anyway.

why do americans know fuck all about curry

>>5697313
>Extremely spicy goat curry, it was so good I felt high after eating it.
You can make anything really spicy and have that happen

>>5697315
>murgh makhani IS butter chicken dude. which is basically the same thing as tikka masala anyway.

isn't that what he just said?

>>5697313
>chicken mikhani
Apparently it's the same as butter chicken.
I haven't been to an indian place often enough to remember any dishes besides those two. But yes, get naan.

Get either garlic Naan or plain Naan if you don't like garlic. It's a basic flat bread to fall back on if you don't like anything else.

That being said, I'd recommend any coconut curry dish or masala curry dish, the lentil soups, and at least raita (a yogurt sauce similar to tzatziki) on the side. If they let you pick spiciness go for medium on the first time, unless you don't like hot food in which case go for mild. I'm a personal fan of palak paneer as well, which is a mix of spiced spinach and paneer cheese cubes (paneer is much more creamy than salty).

Their deserts are normally rice pudding with nuts/fruit/both, "gublab jamun" with is like a fried doughnut hole soaked in a honey/rosewater mix, and carrot halwa which is basically mashed sweet carrots served hot.

If you can help it, eat at the restaurant and order a thali (pic related); it's basically a sample tray served with rice, raita, and some kind of bread. Some also come with desert. It's really the best way to get a feel for the cuisine if you're unfamiliar with it.

>>5697315
There is some debate about that, in fact. It depends on where you're from in India I'd say. Butter Chicken is the Europeitized version of makhani, the differences you can get between recipes is pretty staggering.

The best curry of all is madras.

It's not actually Indian though.

>>5697342
The best Indian food is Nepalese food anyway so I wouldn't worry about stuff not actually being Indian in general.

Best mild dish: Butter chicken, although if available honey chicken or mango chicken. Personally i prefer the honey or mango, but its not really as available as butter chicken

Best medium dish: Dhansak - normally cooked with lentils and pineapple or Tikka Massala

Best hot dish: Madras - if you can handle hotter than this, youre a champ, but the one time I had a vindaloo, it ripped me apart.

ok thanks guys here's what I think I'm going to get

Appetizer: Paneer Pakora or Seekh Kabob

Entree: Chicken Tikka Masala

Dessert: Gulab Jamun

Side dish: Rice

Still deciding between the appetizers

>>5697392
Galub jamun is like my favorite dessert ever. Make sure they serve it HOT though, I hate chilled galub jamun.

Get some fucking pakoras and samosas for appetizers. This is entry level delicious. Make sure they have a selection of sauces, gotta have some sort of sweet chutney and some spicy mint sauce.

Also get naan and raita dip. Or advance to some stuffed breads like pratha.

Also... Paratha or Naan?

Chicken Tikka Masala or butter chicken?

captcha: savilla better

>>5697408
my personal favourite bread is Peshwari Naan - flat bread stuffed with dried fruit and nuts.

>>5697417
Shit that sounds awesome but the only place around here that does stuffed naan only has meats and stuff. Still good though.

>>5697359
I worked with a ton of Nepalese dudes on a Navy base overseas. One of the best things I ever did for myself culturally was just let those little dudes pick my meals for me.

I told them I'd eat anything they ate other than goat head (which was a popular super cheap after work meal for them) and they went to town.

Eating authentic dal pakwan for breakfast, curry for lunch, and samosas for snacks. It was heaven. Could get anything you wanted for $3 or less.

They would also make this chewing tobacco concoction for you if you wanted. It was this super strong tobacco that they would mix with lime (the mineral) and roll it into a wad for you to put behind your lip. Got you buzzed as shit. They all had necklaces with a little container of lime on it.

>>5697421
it is. I judge a restaurant on their peshwari. Good one's will have the perfect amount of Anise.

>>5697285
> westerners talking about indian food
its all so confusing :/
not bashing actually, its really interesting to see what my food became in the west. for the record, i do like butter chicken even though it tastes pretty foreign. OP what kind of restaurant is it? north or south?

worst thing so far:
> dhansak with pineapple
WTFFFF

>>5697359
>>5697342
kek, what kind of ridiculous generalizations are these

>>5697329
best post so far
but
> masala curry dish
what's that? -_-
means 'spices sauce dish'...

>>5697336
no, almost nobody in india eats those things

>>5697285

Paneer everything.

>>5697448
I dunno if its north or south but the description of the restaurant says Indian/Pakistani.

Anyways, don't Indians and Pakistanis hate each other?

captcha :ordsnter invasion

>>5697448
>north or south

lel. Indian restaurants are Indian restaurants. Very very rarely would you find one that specialises in Indian food from a certain region. And in my experience, its often Bangladeshis who run these restaurants

>>5697459
>Anyways, don't Indians and Pakistanis hate each other?
another ridiculous generalization.

food in the subcontinent (or the world really) is more based on ethnicity and culture rather than nationality. punjabi food is (almost) the same, whether you live in pakistani punjab or indian punjab. there are more differences between punjabi indian food and gujarati indian food than paki and punjabi indian food.

south asian food should be classified by ethnic group, of which there are quite a few - and the cuisines are all VERY different. cross a state border and nothing is the same at all, save a few staple dishes.

and its def a punjabi place btw.

get tutti soup, very good

>>5697460
> Bangladeshis
then it should be bengali food, not north indian food. coming from someone who's been to basically all of india and raised there, bengali food has not too much in common with punjabi food...its like french vs italian.

> no specialization
'indian' food as a generalization is like saying 'east asian food'. its way too broad. from what i can tell, almost all indian food in the west is mughali and punjabi because that's what the brits colonized.

>>5697466
get it with garlic naan, even better

>>5697466
forgot pic

>>5697470
I dont know if my post was clear, its Bengalis who run generic Indian restaurants in my experience. I doubt it would really take off so well if it was called a Bengali restaurant.

http://www.raj-bristol.co.uk/restaurant-menu.html is a pretty standard British Indian menu.

There is a lot of variety in Indian food, and most restaurants are better at making food from a certain region even if they offer dishes from elsewhere. This doesn't really matter for you though.

Many Indian restaurants serve lamb and goat because they don't serve beef or pork, so it's a good opportunity to try these.

A few of my favorites:
- masala dosa: this is a chickpea-flour crepe filled with potato, vegetables, and sauce
- biryani: long-grain rice cooked with vegetables and meat (goat is my favorite)
- vindaloo: a spicy, vinegary curry (lamb is my favorite)
- various vegetable curries

>>5697476
Waiter! What is this fly doing in my soup?

>>5697480
>chickpea-flour crepe
no, its not. its rice and urad dal (type of lentil) paste, fermented. sometimes we use rava (semolina) instead of urad dal but never chickpea.

>>5697478
oh, makes sense. but how do they cook food from other places in india? i've been cooking since i was young, and have barely mastered the cuisine of my home state and people.

i can't access that menu, for some reaosn :(

>>5697285
Chicken tikka masala or chicken karahi
Vegetable raita
Basmati rice
Naan bread

>>5697513
naan bread or paratha? they both sound good

>>5697522
what kind of paratha is it? if stuffed, get that.

These are some of the things I get, I could literally eat only Indian food for the rest of my life and be happy.

I like seafood so I get the king prawn butterfly sometimes, or a lentil soup that they serve with lemon, it's quite a thick soup.

Then I get a king prawn dhansak with pilau rice.
Dhansak is thick, creamy and made with lentils. It's a slight sweet spicy flavour, nourishing is the word that comes to mind. I've never had one with pineapple in it but if it is in it I've never noticed.
Then I get a chapatti bread.
With that they give me free onion bahjees and Bombay aloo which is potato in a spice flavoured tomato sauce.

Other good dishes are sag aloo- potatoes with spinach.
Samosa's are nice too.

>>5697522
Never tried paratha, sir. Didn't have an opportunity either since the naan bread and the basmati rice was included in the menu offer.
Should I try it?

>>5697536
i'm from the ethnic group that invented dhansak (parsi). we never put fruits in it - ever.

> pilau rice
pilau means 'rice with stuff' already

> sag
> chapati
what a strange mashup of dravid and northern languages

here is recipe for dhansak, how my mother makes it.

>>5697538
paratha is like a slightly crispier pita, but whole wheat. can be filled, and usually 4-8 layers.

> gujjus or marathis need not correct me

>>5697285
>(and im not a vegetarian)

even if you are not, you shouldn't be afraid to post what you want without going (and im not a vegetarian) because it makes the trolls feel powerful as if they have instilled fear in the community. vegan or not, we are all here to talk about good food. don't lower yourself to the level of the trolls that would rather we fight each other.

I like indian lentils and rice.

>>5697527
yep stuffed with mashed potatoes and peas

>>5697576
sorry, didnt mean to encourage trolls, its just that I see tons of vegetarian options on Indian menus so I'm just going to assume that a lot of Indians are vegetarians, or a lot of people who frequent Indian restaurants are vegetarian so I wanted to make a disclaimer.

>>5697577
those are pretty good, i make them at home for eating with beef fry usually.

>>5697576
i think its reasonable for him to mention it
nonveg indian is very different from veg indian, and not being veg opens up quite a few options.

eid has just passed, but during that time if the owners are muslim they might have had special dishes.

Super safe meal for a beginner

>butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, or chicken vindaloo (vindaloo is hot)
>Naan bread is crucial with it
>Raita. Its a sauce made with yogurt and cucumbers that goes amazingly with everything
>golob jamon (however you spell it) sweet cake like balls fried and then sunk into a syrup

shit. now I want some curry

>>5697588
- gulab jamon isn't cake - its actually a ricotta-like cheese. that's why it keeps consistency so well.
- raita usually has onion too

>>5697580
if they say pakistani, its likely not veg-only. sikhs and muslims eat shit-tons of meat.

Talking about the same subject.
What do you think as a good alternative to a tandoor?

>>5697580
no don't apologize... I'm just saying. don't be afraid to say what you wanna say on /ck/ because trolls don't deserve to be taken seriously.
>>5697587
okay.

>>5697594
the oven? just a normal oven.
or thati-style grill

>>5697592

hmm interesting info on the jamun.. I would have never guess it was a dairy product

ya learn something everyday

>>5697614
to be exact, its a 50-50 mix of paneer (slightly more soft version than the one in curries) and khoya, which is hard to describe so wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoa
then you add very little of a few kinds of flour, fry them, then soak in syrup. they are actually quite dense before syrup is added - the syrup expands them and makes them soft.

>>5697293
>chicken tikka masala
>indian

>>5697632
it's indian style I guess