Talk Elections

I realize there are many, many regional variations, but there seems to be a consensus that the North and the South are broad groupings.  If you want to get into anything more specific, vote 'other' and elucidate.

I love both, but prefer South Indian overall. 

South Indian for sure.

It is one of the few categories of food that I completely do not enjoy

My parents would have agreed with you.  And, oddly enough so would a majority of Thais.

Four responses?  That's all I get??

I don't know the difference and I dated an indian girl for 2 years. Otherwise, I'd vote in your poll.

Northern because the owners of the restaurant I favor are from Northern India and the food is awesome.

To be fair, my experience is solely based on the restaurants in Memphis, and (as far as I know) there is only one Southern place, which I don't like as much. I have a huge sentimantal attachment to one Northern place in particular. It's around the corner from the zoo, which is free on Tuesday afternoons. In my younger days, we would always get high, tear up the lunch buffet, and then go see the animals. I guess it was around the same time as the Lord of the Rings movies, because I always used to refer to the Palak Paneer as "my precious." I haven't been there in a while. Need to get back to India Palace :)

I have no absolutely no idea what the difference between the two is. I like saag paneer though.

I've eaten American restaurant Indian, American homemade Indian, and Indian from three states in northern India, and I still don't know the difference, except that curry is supposedly more northern Indian, southern Indian is spicier, more vegetarian and if it has coconut it's definitely from the south. :)

South is terrible. Everything that's good is either North or British.

If I visit Memphis I want to go there.......and to the noodle place you rave about :)

Narrow taste there.

For those of you who don't know the difference, get out there and find out! Where is Lewis Trondheim when he is needed?

Dosa, Uthapam and Thalis are South Indian. If you see any dish with "malabar" in the name, that's South Indian as well. Coconut heavy dishes tend to be South Indian, but my mom makes some bomb coconut shrimp which is Bengali food, which would be considered northern. I don't know how prevalent South Indian specific restaurants are outside California, none in Nashville at least. If you are ever in the Bay Area, try out Saravana Bhavan in Sunnyvale. And if you are in Los Angeles go try out Tirupathi Bhimas in Artesia,CA. At the same time you can check out "little India", even though not many Indians actually live in the city but anyways...

Opebo, it's amusing that the Thais don't like Indian food. There are a lot of similarities, at least the stuff that is popular in America. Definitely with South Indian food there are similarities with the liberal use of coconut in their food. I guess they are still sensitive about the Cholas colonizing them, eh? :P

Dude, I love home cooked South Indian food. Miss it so much...:(

Britain has good food?

Coconut, rice and lots of chili. And some deep fried meatless snacks. The Thai "don't like Indian food"? Well duh, they've been raised on an exclusively South Indian diet and would like a change when they go eating out.

There was at least one in St. Louis, used to go there all the time.  But for sure, North-Indian is a lot more common around the country.


No, its just that they think Indians have atrocious B.O., and that it may at least partially come from their food, which Thais also say 'mehn mack!!' (stinks badly).  The Thai food you get in the US is almost always the more 'Indianized' style dishes - in practice their cuisine is quite different from Indian - hotter but less 'heavily' spiced if you see what I mean - more of a 'fresh' taste, intense but not 'lasting', unlike Indian which you may be burping up or farting out for a few hours, and for sure exuding from your pores for a couple days.

For example, when I used to constantly eat Indian food in the US, and go visit the family, I usually arrived home after my father had gone to bed.  The next day he said he always knew whether I was home because he could smell Indian food (he hated Indian food of course, like most bedrock middle-americans).

No Lewis, its quite different.  The Indian influence in Thai cooking is not as big as you may think.  For example in most regions of the country coconut milk is rarely used.  Keep in mind what you get in the West is only a small part which suits Westerners palates better.

Thai food is definitely a lot simpler and less heavy.  Thais simply can't digest Indian food without a lot of complaints, and it does 'stink' by their standards.

My preference is no.

Of course it's not identical. I doubt the Thais have all the ten-thousand-varieties-of-lentils stuff.

Ouch! Although I daresay I have consumed more South Indian food than anyone on this forum, sans Sbane. And maybe Lewis?

No, they don't like lentils much at all.  They like meat.


Why have you consumed so much South Indian food?  Are you an Indian?

I've never really tried South Indian, so North. Especially Bengali cuisine- really that as opposed to "north Indian".

Aren't you south Indian? If you are, you have definitely eaten more than me.

Indian food that you eat at restaurants isn't really what people eat.  They are usually much more loaded with fats, spices (though not necessarily hotter)and meats than what people eat. It's usually roti, dal and some vegetables. In Bengal usually some fish. Same with south Indian food. They usually don't eat dosas and uthapams at home. And lol at the Thais complaining about BO. The smelliest flight I have been on was one from Taipei to Bangkok full of a bunch of working class Thais. Yeah they have an inferiority complex.

Tends to be the case with restaurants, of course.

Indeed.

Yeah, I know day-to-day fare is quite simple in India and that restaurant versions in the West (or Thailand) are not precisely analogous.  Alas for me I have never tried a uthapam, though I often eat dosas.

However, if you know actual Thais (middle class central Thais), I've never met anyone with less of an inferiority complex.   Also generally Thais are astoundingly clean and fresh smelling. 

The only South Indian I've had came from a corner market, and tends to be dosas and snackier fare like that.  What are the entrees like?

North; I like meat and I don't like it when my food is so spicy that I can't taste it.


Aren't you Bengali?

It's good food.

Yeah, but being Bengali it seems odd that he would eat home cooked South Indian food often.

Our neighbors back in India were South Indian, from AP.

Rice, Dal and various vegetables. Similar to most of India of course, with less reliance on roti (naan). I like the way they prepare their Dal.

Is Dal Saag popular in Southern India......it's so damn good.

I think that's a northern dish, but wouldn't be surprised if the south had some version of it. What's really popular in the south is Sambar with rice, and Rasam in Tamil Nadu, both being different preparations of lentils (Dal).

I love Sambar but I always eat it with idli and/or vada, and the little sides of chutneys, never with rice.

To the very poor in the south, dinner is either food, or on a good day food with Sambar.

Food being rice. Yeah, I've heard it actually used as synonymous in English, and it's common enough in Dravidian languages apparently.

Yes here 'to eat' is 'kin caow' kin meaning 'take' and 'caow' meaning 'rice'.  To take rice.

I was reading up on African cuisine the other day, and I think most would agree it is not a celebrated cuisine.  I've only ever been to Madagascar, where they eat a lot of rice, but I couldn't imagine eating that chewy starch they apparently eat in most of Africa (fufu and so forth, made from manioc or plantain or whatever it is they use).  Rice based and bread/potatoes based cuisines sound good to me, but not that other stuff.

Ethiopian food isn't bad, though their bread is too sour for me.

Also in bengal as well sometimes people will ask you "Bhath khecho" when asking you whether you have eaten. That literally means have you eaten rice. There is another word for food though, and using that makes infinitely more sense to me than assuming rice is food. Of course traditional Bengalis eat rice for breakfast...bleh.

Yea here the word for 'food' ('ahan') is quite distinct from rice, but you say 'take rice' for eating.

I like that Ethiopian 'bread', and Ethiopian food generally, though most of the time when I eat it back home I do get a bit of a tippy tummy.

The other word being "khawa", yes?

Khawar khecho?

Fufu? Ethiopian bread? (I presume you mean the spongy flatbread called injera and not the regular "Dabo" or "ambasha")

()

The thing about injera is that its spongy nature makes it literally expand in your stomach, so it's more filling than what you're initially eating. This is part of its popularity.

In a similar vein, I feel like cuisines of cultures where "a square meal a day" is not a given tend to be richer.

Yes, I mean injera.

I prefer Northern, because I'm allergic to chilli so I need flavour without the heat...

South Indian, for sure, but I can go either way.  Also, East Indian food is good.

In the US it is not uncommon to find a mix of cuisines on the menu.  Typically, you can order chicken vindaloo (more Goa than dravidian, I suppose), Saag Paneer (definitely northern), and Gulab Jamun (western), and Thukpa (East Indian), all from the same restaurant.

I think much of what we call "northern Indian" is Punjabi, but actually persian in origin.

Not sure, but I like having meat in my diet, so certainly whatever Indian food I am eating is westernized to some degree.  This (http://www.haandi.com/) is the restaurant I go to for my Indian food.  Would anyone know if the food (meat aside) there is primarily northern or southern in origin? 

Very northern.

Here is the one I go to.  Nice prices, amazing food. (http://www.tasteofindiapittsburgh.com/)

Like Lewis said, everything is basically northern with a heavy mughlai influence. Of course a lot of food, especially those found in restaurants, has a heavy Islamic influence.

I love Indian food, but I'm not sure which things I've had are Southern and which are Northern--can anyone give entrees for each? I think most I've been to have been Southern.

If the restaurant doesn't serve Dosa or Uthapam, it's not southern.

I'm currently sort of seeing an Indian girl. I think she's from Southern India. She's a vegatarian though so I don't know if her food preferences would be very representative.

South Indians are most always vegetarians, yes.

Wow, I think that's the first time I've known a white guy who was 'seeing', even 'sort of', and Indian girl.  Do her parents know?  Or do you mean you just have a coffee with her between classes at the Starbucks? (though I would say that is already pretty shocking).

Haha. Her parents are in India so I doubt they would know anything, no.

And, no, I don't mean having a coffee either...the 'sort of' is more in reference to the fact that I already have an open relationship and she's leaving the country in a month so it's not anything serious.

Almost all food that is considered "Indian" in the UK and widely eaten "to go" or major shop brought/ eaten in restaurants is an adaptation of Indian Ingredients for Anglo-Caledonian tastebuds.
As a half Indian myself I have been able to access both authentic and westernized "Balti".
My fave Indian food?
Chapati's, Naans, Pilau Rice, Chickpea curry, Jalfrezi,Spinach Saag,  Bhuna, Tiika Masala, Rogan Josh, Bhajis.
I absolutely dispise Indian sweet food.How anyone, let alone Dad, can eat those blandified sugar cubes evades me.

Astounding.  Your masculine allurements must be prodigious and overwhelming!  Well worth subsequent immolation.

I actually misread that as "almost all food is considered 'Indian' in the UK."

Huh? What are the blandified sugar cubes? In terms of Indian sweets I really like ras malai and gulab jamuns are ok. Not a fan of gajar ka halwa. I don't like rasgulas either. Not a fan of sweet foods in any case.

It's not 1950 anymore opebo! I think there have been six marriages in my family since 1995; all but one have been Indian female-white male. I've certainly never gone on a date with another Indian; the odds are simply statistically unlikely since Indian females compose like 1% of the people I interact with.

Even marrying a Pakistani boy is something that isn't smiled upon but merely tolerated.

:P

It's hardly astounding - I don't think my masculine allurements are anything to write home about. And I'm not sure what you mean by immolation either. Would that be me not buying prostitutes or something?

No, immolation means to be consumed in a fire - it is a common method in some cultures of dealing with daughterly errancies.

Oh, you meant it literally, I was trying to interpret it as a metaphor.

Beside the facts that she comes from the upper echelons of society where I think values are more progressive and that a white boy is probably way more acceptable than a too dark-skinned Indian (to Brahmins fairness is apparently very important), I think patriarchal societies usually punish the women rather than the men for such things so I don't feel too worried. ;)

EDIT: I just realized that this might have been what you meant, i.e. worth it for her even if she gets burnt up afterwards. :P But, yeah, that wouldn't happen either.

Yes, I was formulating a pick-up line before I travel to the sub-continent - 'hey sweet stuff, my manly allurements are so prodigious and overwhelming you won't mind the inevitable subsequent immolation'.  (don't worry, I would keep it lighthearted by working my eyebrows up and down or winking broadly - perhaps both if she looks like a 'go-er')

I am starting to see why no one will sleep with you unless you pay them.

I think a more suitable line would be "sleep with me and you will not only get burnt on the outside, if you know what I mean"

Other ...

There is no Indian food where I live. There's only a Chinese.

A little better, but you wouldn't be getting laid either. :P

Better, how so? :D

I do get laid every once in a while, but I never used a non-ironic pickup line, so...

I come here because I'm getting Indian for lunch, a newish place in town from whence I only got samosas before.

Don't mean to resurrect this corpse of a thread... but the Comedy Goldmine directed me here and the bolded bit amused me. 

opebo, if you don't mind I'm going to start referring to Starbucks as "the Starbucks"

That is the correct form and practice, my dear protege, and soon all the kids will be doing it.  I thank you for your adept attention.

I can be your protege?  Oh, cool beans.  Alright then, I'll spread your use of the English language (and credit you with it, of course) among the youths in the Bad Place if you agree to enshrine me as an adept prognosticator of presidential elections.  Look at my sig and you'll see you've already done so, but I'm a bit of an egoist and I require praise.