Indian Food - what to try?

[stevel]

What is what?

I'm not looking for "exotic" stuff but the "staples" at Indian food restaurants - kind of like what Enchiladas or Tamales are to Mexican food (not that it has to be similar to those items, but the things that are primarily associated with Indian food).

Steve

[bicktrav]

DEFINITELY get Chicken Tikka Masala! That dish is pretty much always amazing! Some other staples are Samosas, Tandoori Chicken/Shrimp etc, Dal, Lamb Vindaloo, Aloo Gobi and Saag Paneer. But honestly, if you just get an order of chicken tikka masala and some Naan, you'll be in great shape!

[Mr Boggie]

tarka dahl - chick pea
veggie dansak - sweet
anything chicken and your fine.

butter chicken, rice and mixed curried veg and your g2g

[The Funk]

Palaak Paneer (sometimes called Saag paneer).

Its a curried creamed spinach with chunks of homemade cheese. But really, keep reading. Its SOOOOOO awesome and I don't even like creamed spinach. Looks pretty scary. BUT SOOOO AWESOME. I get this every time. Had it today. Yummy.

Chicken Tikka Masala. Not technically Indian, but served in every indian restaurant in the states. Its cubes of white meat chicken (sometimes with tandori spices) in a tomato based curry sauce. Sooooo tasty.

Also goat curries tend to be good. Tandori chicken is good (its like barbecued chicken with a bright red rub. very fragrant and delicious).

Generally you can't go wrong with a curry.

Also get samosas (fried pastry triangles filled with potato and peas and spices). Or Pakoras (fried vegetable fritters). These are apps.

Get some garlic naan. This is a flat bread. Good for mopping up extra sauce with the curries. There will probably be several varieties of naan. I like garlic. You could also try paratha which is a whole wheat flatbread with lots of butter on it.

For dessert I like Keer which is a rice pudding or this other thing that I can't remember the name of which is homemade cheese patty's in a sweetened milk sauce which is to die for.


A good way to try things is just go to an indian restaurant that has a lunch buffet. Always adventurous and rarely not amazingly tasty.

Indian is one of the world's great cuisines. Like nothing else really.

[GCDEF]

Most of them around here have a buffet. Find one of them and try a bit of everything.

[winstabull]

Tikka Masala is the first step. If you like that you can expand.

Vegatable Samosas are little balls of love. I eat way to many of them when I go to the lunch buffet....

You will probably see a bunch of 'Aloo' dishes. These are potatoes that are paired with a veggie. My fav at the place I go is simply called Aloo Bell Pepper.

Chicken Biriyani is a relatively safe dish too.

[Route234]

butter chicken is great for getting your feet wet. Go to a family run place and talk to the waiter/waitress and tell them you want to try stuff. Seriously its the way to go. They will usually bring you food and they know how to break people in if they really make decent food.

[Bluedawg]

Indian restaurants usually have a lunch buffet ...

A good opportunity to try some different dishes and see what you like ..... and maybe don't like.

Yummmy stuff IMHO

:banana

[arthur rotfeld]

Most of them around here have a buffet. Find one of them and try a bit of everything.

A great way to go.

[schmidlin]

Buffets are a great way to start, but I can't stomach them anymore. They are always bland in comparison to fresh cooked, both in flavor and spice.

Which restaurant you go to matters a lot, too. Ask around for the best, and also ask what to get there. Hard to go wrong that way.

[FeloniousBishop]

Just had Indian food for lunch.

I usually get some kind of mixed vegetables and a big portion of dal.

If you want to have meat I recommend trying Chicken Biryani and ask for spicy.

[ACfixer]

Keep king porcelain within sprinting distance.

[Twangzilla]

Indian restaurants usually have a lunch buffet ...

A good opportunity to try some different dishes and see what you like ..... and maybe don't like.

Yummmy stuff IMHO

:banana

Yeah, last time I went to one I got to try the broken glass.:messedup

One of the guys I was with told me not to talk about it because he didn't want his wife (who was at the far end of the table and new to Indian food) to be turned off from Indian food.:messedup

Somebody else said, "at least it wasn't a hair!" Last I checked, hair can't break your teeth or cut your insides. :messedup

I do enjoy cramming tandoori and tikka chicken in my face along with some naan and that magical mint sauce. However, I still avoid buffets.:banana

[darkstar11]

Tandoori Chicken

[FeloniousBishop]

Try garlic naan too.

And personally, I like raita.

[Jahn]

My fave is Chicken Vindaloo. It is HOT but oh so delicious. And as an appetizer?

Papri Chaat.

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/papdi_chat.jpg

This particular chaat, Papdi Chaat, is made of crispy wafers garnished with a delicious combination of potatoes, chickpeas, seasoned yogurt, and flavorful spices and chutneys.

[overunderdrive]

Order the Chicken Vindaloo, but make sure to ask them to make it extra hot.

When the waiter looks at you funny, just tell him TGP sent you!

[Jet Age Eric]

butter chicken is great for getting your feet wet.

+1. Lots of great suggestions, but this was the one that leapt to mind when I saw the subject. -E

[stratovarius]

Keep in mind that there are regional differences, but you may not be able to find all the variations where you live. There is a major divide between North Indian and South Indian cuisine, the former being influenced by Mogul invaders and the latter being more traditional and largely vegetarian.

South Indian cuisine probably won't have as broad of an appeal, but I really love many of the dishes. My favorites are dosa, sambar, dahl, ,upma and kadhi. Probably my favorite North Indian dish is navratan korma.

[small axe]

you should try masala dosa. it is a vegetable based. the veggies so in a huge pancake like tortilla made of rice flour. it is very crispy. they give you daal and other sauces to have wit it. maybe even coconut chuttney

[MightyGuru]

Saag Paneer...yum.

[arthur rotfeld]

Order the Chicken Vindaloo, but make sure to ask them to make it extra hot.

When the waiter looks at you funny, just tell him TGP sent you!

I like CTM, but it's often too mild, so I said, "make it hot."

Wow:eeks:eeks:eeks. It didn't even look like tikka masala anymore! I might as well have had a plate of habaneros. I was tearing up, runny nose, it was rough!

[arthur rotfeld]

you should try masala dosa. it is a vegetable based. the veggies so in a huge pancake like tortilla made of rice flour. it is very crispy. they give you daal and other sauces to have wit it. maybe even coconut chuttney

Dosas are great. The coconut chutney is very good with it, even better--sambar.

[willc68]

Chicken or lamb vindaloo extra spicy is my favorite dish ever.

Also if they have it get the naan with nuts and fruit in it, delicious.

[Sandy Cheeks]

Order the Chicken Vindaloo, but make sure to ask them to make it extra hot.

When the waiter looks at you funny, just tell him TGP sent you!

When I was at grad school, I went to an Indian restaurant with an Indian friend of mine. I told him I wanted it hot, and he said to leave it to him. He muttered something under his breath to the waiter, "buda-buda-bah", the waiter nodded furiously and when the food started to arrive, we should have asked for a fire extinguisher. Even the naan bread was stuffed with chilies! As sweat poured down my face I begged Prakash, what the hell did you say to him? Well, said Prakash, as he wiped his brow, my father was a general, my first language was English and I only learned enough Hindi to boss the servants around...

[Stevil]

Tandoori Chicken
Chicken Tikka Masala
Garlic Naan
Basmatti Rice

+1 on beware the spice heat.

then venture out from there. many of the sauces are similar to Tikka Masala with slight variations. India is a huge place so much like Italian food, when you get authentic regional cooking it's going to vary a bit from place to place. Take Mulligatawny Soup for instance, i don't think i've ever seen it done the same twice. the first place i had it they did this delicious lemon, curry, coconut cream thing, it was amazing. everyplace else it has tasted completely different & paled in comparison. even the original place i had it @, changed owners & chef & the soup is gone.
:cry:

[Sandy Cheeks]

Chicken or lamb vindaloo extra spicy is my favorite dish ever.


Vindaloo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindaloo) is an interesting dish because it's ultimately Portuguese: The name Vindaloo is derived from the dish "Carne de Vinha d' Alhos", which is a dish of meat, usually pork, with wine and garlic.

[zul]

Please stop. Dinner is hours away for me. sheesh.

[Sandy Cheeks]

Dosas are great. The coconut chutney is very good with it, even better--sambar.

When I was backpacking though Malaysia there were plenty of Indian dosa places around, and that was my favourite breakfast: served on a banana leave and eaten with your fingers.

[stevel]

Please stop. Dinner is hours away for me. sheesh.

I know, they're making me hungry too, but I asked for it. Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I didn't even think about a buffet so I'll check - we don't have but one or two restaurants in my area (one has a couple of locations) but I at least have a better idea of what everything is.

And I actually don't mind spicy :-)

Steve

[MadFrank]

All of the suggestions so far are great, but there are a couple of classics omitted.

Onion Bahji. It's like a ball of fried onion, spices and flour. A side dish.

Peshwari Nan. Garlic Nan is ok, but this one is better! Contains fruit, almonds, coconut and sweet spices.

Keema Nan. Contains minced meat. (they never say which kind!)

Paratha. Flat wholemeal bread baked in the tandori oven.

And everything must be cooked in Ghee!

You know, it doesn't have to be 'Hot' to be authentic, either. I prefer the milder curries myself.

People go insane for Indian food over here. Kind of like 'our' Mexican food.

[Sandy Cheeks]

If you like eggplant (I know that's a bit if, but I love it), a good Baingan Bharta can't be beat. Serve with roti.

I tend to prefer vegetarian Indian food, but that's just me.

[mikeratan00]

Try the Nawab restaurant in Va Beach or Saffron
Both have excellent buffets

[fusion58]

butter chicken is great for getting your feet wet. Go to a family run place and talk to the waiter/waitress and tell them you want to try stuff. Seriously its the way to go. They will usually bring you food and they know how to break people in if they really make decent food.

+1 :aok

Butter chicken (a.k.a. Murgh Makhni) is the bomb!

My favorite dish/food ever.

[Rev2S]

I like naan and rice and that's about it. I visited Madras, India years ago and ate all sorts of interesting food. Now, I can't stomach it....

[Charlie_Pace]

If you're new:

Butter Chicken
Samosas
Pakoras
Biryani
Paneer
Saag

[tjmicsak]

Aloo Bondas (spicy) and cold beer!
They are a popular street food snack of deep fried spiced potato balls like the Indian version of a Buffalo chicken wing.

I just discovered Indain food this past year on a whim. The flavors are as colorful as the food appears. The blends of fruits and spices are different than most any other foods you could try, afterall, India is the land of spice.

[coralreefer]

Just close your eyes and point to something on the menu....IT'S ALL GOOD!!

DrMerle

[silvertone1481]

DEFINITELY get Chicken Tikka Masala! That dish is pretty much always amazing! Some other staples are Samosas, Tandoori Chicken/Shrimp etc, Dal, Lamb Vindaloo, Aloo Gobi and Saag Paneer. But honestly, if you just get an order of chicken tikka masala and some Naan, you'll be in great shape!

Those 2 are great....the Saffron Patch is the only Indian restarant I've been to, and they have these awesome fried vegetable fritter-type things......:drool:drool:drool:drool

[Tonekat]

Go for it!

Samosas
Masala Dosa
Butter Chicken (aka Murgh Makhani)
Onion Kulcha

Mango Lassi
A glass of Kingfisher ale

[HoboMan]

Palaak Paneer (sometimes called Saag paneer).

Its a curried creamed spinach with chunks of homemade cheese. But really, keep reading. Its SOOOOOO awesome and I don't even like creamed spinach. Looks pretty scary. BUT SOOOO AWESOME. I get this every time. Had it today. Yummy.

One of my favorite dishes from any ethnicity.

[jb70]

my favorite dish is chicken jalfrezi with a side order of garlic naan

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e296/jbroad70/jalfrezi_zps479ef844.jpg

[johntoste]

Indian is my favorite ethnic food, just nosing out Mexican. I'm a longtime vegetarian and India has had about a five thousand years to get that right.

Many great suggestions in the posts above but FYI, Chicken Tikka has surpassed fish and chips as the number one "take away" food in England.

[babybatter]

tikka masala
vindaloo
butter chicken
jalfrezi

[greeny]

Chicken Tikka has surpassed fish and chips as the number one "take away" food in England. It's more that that I think. Isn't Tikka Massala the most widely eaten dish full stop?

Every village in the UK will have an Indian takeaway. My local village (3-4K population) has 1 Indian restaurant and 2 Take aways.

I like a plain Nan. Nan is essential IMO.
Also partial to Balti, Bhuna and Jalfrezi myself.

But really it's more important finding a restaurant that you like than the actual dish you order (of course don't order something hotter than you can handle)

[english_bob]

All of the suggestions so far are great, but there are a couple of classics omitted.

Onion Bahji. It's like a ball of fried onion, spices and flour. A side dish.

Peshwari Nan. Garlic Nan is ok, but this one is better! Contains fruit, almonds, coconut and sweet spices.

Keema Nan. Contains minced meat. (they never say which kind!)

Paratha. Flat wholemeal bread baked in the tandori oven.

And everything must be cooked in Ghee!

You know, it doesn't have to be 'Hot' to be authentic, either. I prefer the milder curries myself.

All good suggestions. I love peshwari naan and onion bhajis. Chances are that if you go to an indian restaurant you'll have a tray of poppadoms put in front of you before you've even picked up the menu, but if not, order some. They're fried flour(?) discs, a little like tortillas, that most UK restaurants serve as an appetiser or a side dish with an assortment of dips like raita (yogurt, mint, cucumber- kinda like tzatziki), mango chutney (kind of like a jam, but spiced) and lime pickle (pickled, spiced limes- often very hot and very sour).

I've found that just about every indian restaurant has different speciality dishes that you might never see on a menu again elsewhere, so some of the suggestions others have made here might not be available at your local indian restaurant.


As well as the speciality stuff, there seems to be a set of "standard" curries that almost all restaurants offer, at least in the UK. I found this on Wikipedia (spellings may differ):

Bhuna - medium, thick sauce, some vegetables.
Biryani - Spiced rice and meat cooked together and usually served with vegetable curry sauce.
Curry - The most common name for a meat dish (most often chicken or lamb) with a medium-spicy, brown, gravy-like sauce.
Dhansak - In the curry house, it may be made with either lamb or chicken and frequently contains pineapple, though this is not original. The name is derived from a Parsi dish of mutton cooked with lentils (dal) and vegetables.
Dupiaza/dopiaza - medium curry the word means "double onion" referring to the boiled and fried onions used as its primary ingredient.
Jalfrezi - onion, green chili and a thick sauce.
Kofta - refers to dishes containing meatballs (most frequently lamb), or vegetable substitutes (most often ground nuts).
Korma/kurma - mild, yellow in colour, with almond and coconut powder.
Madras Curry - "the standard hot, slightly sour curry at the Indian restaurant."
Pasanda - In the UK, it refers to a mild curry sauce made with cream, coconut milk, and almonds or cashews, served with lamb, chicken, or king prawns (US: jumbo shrimp). The name is derived from a Mughlai dish of lamb strips beaten to make them tender.
Naga curry - relatively new extremely hot dish with unique savoury taste made with the highly aromatic Naga Morich or Bhut Jolokia chili pepper.
Pathia - a hot curry, generally similar to a "Madras" with the addition of lemon juice and tomato purée.
Phaal - "this is the hottest curry the restaurants can make. There is nothing like it in India — it is pure invention."
Roghan josh - a medium-spicy curry, usually of lamb, with a deep red sauce containing tomatoes and paprika. It is derived from a Kashmiri dish of the same name.
Sambar - medium heat, sour curry made with lentils and tamarind.
Vindaloo - this is generally regarded as the classic "hot" restaurant curry. Progressively hotter versions are sometimes called "tindaloo" and "bindaloo."
As others have said, Chicken Tikka Masala is usually a safe bet, as is Tandoori Chicken (chicken, marinaded in spices and roasted in a clay oven). My personal favourite at the moment is a Pathia- spicy, but a little sweet and fruity too. Totally agree with MadFrank that it's not necessary to pile on the chilis to get "authentic" flavour- there are a lot of different flavours in most curries- meat, vegetables, lots of different spices, sometimes fruit, yogurt, coconut milk, cream- and IMO too much chili overpowers everything else.

People go insane for Indian food over here. Kind of like 'our' Mexican food.

A pretty good comparison. Of course, british "indian food" is quite different to what you'd get if you walked in to someone's kitchen in Mumbai, and I imagine it's different again in the US. It's well worth experimenting with several dishes- and several restaurants, if possible- to see what you like.

Anything to drink, sir? Curry goes very well with beer. Very cold lager is par for the course in the UK, but I've yet to meet a beer that didn't go down a treat with a curry. You'd be missing out if you didn't try Lassi once or twice though- a bit like horchata, but can be flavoured too- often with mango or mint.

[english_bob]

It's more that that I think. Isn't Tikka Massala the most widely eaten dish full stop?

It was voted the UK's favourite dish a few years back. It's complicated to make yourself (involves making a marinade for the chicken a day or more in advance, then making the sauce on the day) so I doubt it's the most widely eaten dish, but it's probably one of the most popular takeaway meals.

Every village in the UK will have an Indian takeaway. My local village (3-4K population) has 1 Indian restaurant and 2 Take aways.

Yep. The UK is crazy for the stuff. I live in Leicester, which has one of the largest asian (ie indian subcontinent) populations in the UK, so we're very well served for indian food, in all manner of variations that I hadn't seen before.

But really it's more important finding a restaurant that you like than the actual dish you order (of course done order something hotter than you can handle)

Definitely. Not all indian restaurants are created equal. Find a good one and you'll probably enjoy anything off the menu.

[Che_Guitarra]

Garlic Naan
Samosas
Chicken Korma
Lamb Vindaloo, or Phaal if you love hot hot hot food
Chicken Tikka Marsala
Lamb Rogan Josh
Chicken Malai (if you can find it)
Chicken Madras

Of course, western interpretations of Indian cuisine are always far too heavy on meat content. I doubt any of these recipes, if genuinely made in India, would see meat only interpretations... especially in a land of Hinduism.