That Dreaded Indian Food

I am not fond of Indian food. I didn't like it before India, I didn't like it during India, and I don't like it now that it's after India.

But almost everyone I know tells me they love Indian food. I was complaining to a friend recently about Indian food, about how it does nothing for me, and I don't get why so many Indian restaurants have sprouted up in our city and why everyone claims to like the one-taste-one-textured stuff. He said, "The problem obviously, is you have not had good Indian food. I am going to arrange a dinner and get take out from Banjara, my favourite Indian restaurant. In fact, I'll get my neighbour to come over too because he usually makes the food selections from that restaurant. He's Indian and he knows what good Indian food is and he knows what to order."

Even Bro agrees that Banjara makes excellent Indian food.

This week, I went to RJ's for dinner. When I arrived, all the food had been ordered and were keeping warm in the oven. His neighbour asked, "What is it you don't like about Indian food?"

I said, "It's that all the dishes are sauces in varying degrees of spiciness smothering either some vegetable or meat. I can't tell what's in the sauces and can't taste the difference between them. I just taste the spiciness, then it's over. I can't tell what kind of vegetable or meat I'm eating because the sauce takes over, and indeed, sometimes I can't tell if I'm eating meat or vegetable, or whether the food was meant to be shredded or if the food is overcooked and the food has gone to mush."

He said, "Well, yes, urr... yes, Indian food is pretty much how you describe it."

After dinner, someone else said, "Did you like food tonight?"

I said, "It wasn't bad. But here's what I realize. It's not memorable food. When you eat it, you get this immediate excitement on the tongue because of the spiciness. But there's no depth. The food doesn't leave you with a lingering good feel. You forget what it tastes like after and you have no desire to have it again. So you get kind of annoyed because you went through the whole trouble of putting up with the tongue assault and you get nothing out of it."

He thought about it and said, "That's actually true, it's not memorable food."

But I am not one to give up on food. This is food from a culture of over 1 billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, that I am annoyed with. So I bought a cook book - 1000 Great Indian Recipes. I thought if I made my own Indian food and could control the spices used, I would appreciate Indian food more.

Last night, my good friends came for dinner. I made butter chicken. I made it less spicy than the recipe suggested. It's true that with less tongue-biting spiciness, I could taste the subtle blend of the other ingredients in the sauce more. But the chicken itself was rather bland despite having marinaded in tandoori sauce for 24 hours. And after, I still thought, What's the fuss about Indian food?

Tonight, I am having dinner with Jill from the march in India. We had talked about going to the Indian Rice Factory. I am not sure I can do that now. One more try at Indian food, or quit before I actually hate the food?