India

For all the Indian restaurants found across the world, you’ll rarely eat authentic Indian food outside of the country unless it’s a place catering to Indian immigrants. Curry has become the national dish in England but if you go into an Indian restaurant you’ll find dishes like Chicken Madras. Aside from the fact that the vast majority of India is vegetarian, naming a dish after a city is quite meaningless. Try asking for a Danish pastry in Denmark.

Most Indians are too poor to afford meat even if it wasn’t forbidden by their Hindu faith. Hell, many of them can’t afford vegetables -with the exception of onions, the major source of vitamins for India’s lower classes. The average Indian living in poverty will get by on rice, dal and chapattis. Throw in some chillis, salt and maybe some spice and ghee and that’s all they have.

Yet for those who can afford it, the Indian cuisine is rich and varied though much of it might seem the same to the traveler – strong spice and chilli are standard features as are cheap oil and sugar.

Alu Gobi – This is potato and cauliflower curry.

Bhaji – Not the pakora that the English think it is, bhaji refers to any curry dish – Indians can rarely afford to mix too many vegetables so a spinach curry will be a spinach bhaji.

Chapattis – These are made by making a dough from flour, water and a little oil. It’s kneaded, left to rise a little and then made into pancakes and cooked on a hot pan. Then it’s thrown onto the coals and the air bubbles inside puff up. Sadly, it’s almost always made with white flour these days. Chapattis are the standard accompaniment to a bowl of dal.

Chutney – Much easier to digest than it’s cousin the pickle, chutney is a sweet paste and makes any boring dish tasty.

Curd – The Indian name for yoghurt but is often very thick. The best kind is made from buffalo’s milk and is served in clay bowls that you just throw back on the ground afterwards.

Dal – There are many, many kinds and colours of lentils that fall under the name, ‘dal’ and this is the basic protein source that keeps India running.

Ghee – Purified butter. It goes through a process which takes out the unhealthy part of butter but leaves it with a very strong taste. Ghee buried underground for a year is considered a tonic and if left buried for ten years, it becomes a cure-all remedy.

Idli – Sour rice cakes made by allowing the rice to sick together. Comes with a coconut bhaji and a tomato curry.

Khalfi – Indian ice cream. Sweet beyond belief and not advisable to eat if it’s sold on the street – ask yourself how many times it’s melted and been refrozen before it reached you.

Kheer – the original rice pudding, often with cardamom and cinnamon.

Kofta – A kind of a vegetable dumpling, often with nuts and dried fruit inside.

Kurma – a creamy curry, sometimes a little sweet.

Lassi – Yoghurt whipped up with some milk in a blender. Normally sweet and can be mixed with fruits. Bhang lassis are with marijuana leaves and can be quite fatal.

Masala Dosa – Dosas are very thin flour pancakes that are filled with curry. A South Indian favourite.

Palak Paneer – Spinach curry cooked with a soft cheese called paneer.

Pakora – spicy batter deep-fried, this is what the English mistake for bhaji.

Parantha – This is like a chapatti but with much more oil and ingredients like mashed potato, chilli and onion are often thrown into the mix. Pretty greasy but a good breakfast.

Pickles – India is the home of the pickles, mangos, tomatos or aubergines spiced in vinegar. Not so easy on the liver. A little on the side of your plate goes a long way.

Pilau – Pilau rice is cooked with aromatic spices like cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. It’s sweet and greasy.

Puris – These are deep fried chapatti disks, usually accompanied by a spicy bhaji.

Samosas – Vegetable curry wrapped in thin pastry and deep fried. Utterly addictive but the oil is probably cheap and nasty.

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