Well kids, this is the first time in over a year that I have tried a different culture’s cuisine (excluding the Universal Yums boxes of course). Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a huge fanatic of learning about other cultures. Despite the fact that we haven’t been able to meet up with large groups of people in person, I’ve been proactive with going to virtual club meetings and events throughout the past year. I’m in a meditation club at my university, and the group leader asked us if we would like to go to an Indian restaurant. As you can envision, I voiced excitement, and my spirit was jumping for joy!
Since I had never tried Indian food before, I had no choice but to do my research. I knew that Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, and Curry are Indian dishes and that Samosas are a popular appetizer. Other than that, my knowledge of Indian food was narrow. Though I also knew that Naan is a popular Indian flatbread, and I ended up getting Cheese Naan along with Chicken Biryani. Biryani is a rice dish that is supposed to be really spicy. But I can’t do super spicy foods, so I wanted mine spiced moderately. I mean, I can’t even eat Chipotle’s Tomatillo sauce without my mouth burning up. Yogurt came with my biryani to cool down the heat, but mine was tame enough to eat plain. I did eat some of my chicken biryani with yogurt, and I will tell you how that was in a bit. Mind you, the yogurt I had is not the “Yoplait,” “Dannon,” or the Greek yogurt type you’re thinking about.
Though first off, I tried the Biryani. I tasted some of the spice in the back of my mouth. It wasn’t super flavorful, but it was manageable to get through. Although as I ate, I tasted something in my mouth that was peculiar to me. I inspected what looked like a sunflower seed but was actually a cardamom seed. Those were placed in the rice to add more flavor and were meant to be taken out upon eating. Now that I know I tasted cardamom in my mouth, I never want to have plain cardamom again. It eventually came off as a lemon to me, but I’ll give that spice a hard pass.
Next up was the cheese naan. It was low-key—not super cheesy or anything like that, but it was satisfying. I tried eating it with biryani to act cool (or nah), and the mix of textures were complimentary to me. Naan is supposed to be eaten with a dish like curry, but I didn’t order any curry. Hey, I ordered cheese naan and not plain naan for a reason. Though about eating the yogurt with biryani. There was something about eating yogurt with biryani that tickled me fancy. I can’t put my finger around it, but I think the liquid texture of the yogurt mixed with the solid texture of the rice gave me a rush of pleasure. I don’t think the yogurt did much in terms of flavor, but it was an interesting combination that made me feel internally cool (no pun intended).
And while this is something I don’t do all the time, I also ordered dessert to compliment my Indian lunch. I had something called Gulab Jamun, which is an Indian dessert made of milk, flour, and other baking ingredients. It’s supposed to be incredibly sweet, especially with the sugar syrup. I won’t lie, it had that syrupy sweet flavor, but I was more focused on the ball being incredibly soaked in that sugar syrup. While trying to be the quasi-critic that I am, I made a face that made my friends around me laugh. You know that face you make when you’re trying to taste something that’s in your mouth? That’s what I did there.
I wasn’t a fan of the super soggy texture, but then again, I am not a fan of super soggy dough. But before anyone fries me, I was aware of what the dish was beforehand. Nothing wrong with going outside of your comfort zone to get the full experience, and that’s what I did. In life, sometimes you have to do things you don’t like in order to get the most out of it. Let me not get philosophical here, but I truly have no regrets about trying Gulab Jamun. Plus, I ate all of the first container I had, because I thought it would be rude to not eat the whole thing. I definitely couldn’t spit it out. That was a no-no on all fronts.
On a whole note, I really enjoyed the experience of trying Indian food! I will definitely have it again but with a different dish next time. I got a kick out of eating Naan, so I intend to order that again as well. In the meantime, I have extra biryani and cheese naan that I will eat up very soon for dinner.
Have you ever tried Indian food before? If you did, what were your thoughts on the experience?
