Tried Indian Food for the FIRST time...

Krissy, with your lactose intolerance you need to be quite careful with a lot of Indian dishes.  Many of them are cooked in milk products, cream, yoghurt etc, and even those barbecue things like lamb and chicken tandoori are marinated in yoghurt before grilling.  But a lot of South Indian and Shrilankhan recipes use coconut milk instead, and you can find N. Indian dishes which don't use milk products.

Vegetable curries can be quite delicious, as can the various sorts of lentil and chick-pea dishes like Tarka Dhal.  A vast number of Indians are vegetarians for religious reasons!  And don't forget the various frittered canapes like samosas and bhajis!

Kebabs are something I have yet to try over in the UK.  I'm not sure if they're done any differently over there, but when I think kebab, I think chunks of grilled veggies and meat.  Is it the same thing?  Was never fond of them here in the states.. they feel more like a snack than a meal. 

Look out for the donner kebab at the chippie!  One of my favorite junk foods.  It's made with sliced gyro meat, not skewered chunks.  Put the meat on top of a salad and drown it in chile sauce and garlic mayonnaise.  Yum!

Onetiger and the rest of the Boston bunch,

India Express is in the Downtown Crossing food court.  The daily specials are cheap and quick, steamtable stuff.  The menu entrees are cooked to order.  The chicken tikka masala, which I had for lunch today, takes about 5 minutes, but it's heavenly.  Two Japanese tourists asked me what I was eating.  They tried some of my dish, then they bought their own!     Chris

wish i didn't know this.  i am a stone's throw from that food court and i'm always eating subway (for health reasons) but now that i know that's good.....i'm in trouble!

   lol Aimiloo!  I luckily rarely make it to Downtown Crossing - I spend more time in Cambridge...though there are plenty of places there for good Indian!

I had never tried Indian food until my husband first came to visit me in Houston on a holiday. I love it now, but can't get my girls to go near it    I make a great chicken balti 

Terinth, I thought my husband was nuts when he went on about how eating a kebab was traditional after a night at the pub. I was thinking the skewered meat/veggie thing too. But it's more like shaved roasted meat (lamb, beef, chicken) stuffed inside a pita kind of thing, with salad, cole slaw, tomatoes, peppers,  pepper sauce, or whatever you want to stick in there with it. Not my thing, they can be very messy

here's what they look like.

Similarly, there are "gyros" (pron: "heros") and they are sold in Greek fast food places. Here, the kebabs are mostly sold in Turkish-owned shops. The main difference between the two is that gyros have a cucumber sauce versus kebab's garlic mayo (or chili if you prefer). The salad bits can also slightly vary. And the pita bread isn't sliced and opened, just mounded on top and folded.

oooooooooooooooo the vindaloooooooooooooooooooo

                     

  Ah! Meri Sabse aacha khanna Desi Khanna hain!!!! Voh Mera pyardosti!

...If you didn't catch that, my FAVOURITE FAVOURITE food is Indian food. If I had the option I'd eat it at least once a day.

For myself as a vegetarian and Hindu there really isn't a way to go wrong with Indian food. My favourite dishes include: Chole, Bhindi Masala (Okra Masala) and Masala dosa. I am not sure how everyone else prefers their Indian food but when I go out i order my food "Indian hot

I also learned quite well through the example of my aunties and Didees at temple how to make Indian food properly by myself. I make chapati, palak naan (spinach,) coconut rice, bhindi masala, gajar nariyal (a coconut and carrot curry) ladoo etc.

Someone here mentioned South Indian food...how many have you tried it, it is actually very different from the standard northern stuff in restuarants. My Hindi class went out for pure south Indian food about  a month ago and we all had no idea what the hell to order as it was all in Tamil and Malayalam! Nonetheless I dig a good sambar and dishes involving coconut milk.

For our Hindi final tonight our professor Ravi made us chai and Samosas---YUM!

Samantha***

Samantha, when you come over here remind me to show you the way to a Woodlands - a small chain (I think there might only be two) of South Indian Vegetarian restaurants. It's an all you can eat place and is really excellent food and excellent value too.

Samantha, when you come over here remind me to show you the way to a Woodlands - a small chain (I think there might only be two) of South Indian Vegetarian restaurants. It's an all you can eat place and is really excellent food and excellent value too.

Thank you so much Liz! I'll send you an email when a little after I settle in and get over immediate culture shock. London is going to make me one poor girl and I love the word "value" hehe!

cheers,

Samantha***

This may sound vile but for my dinner my local shop sells Chicken Tikka in a big bun. Not with rice of course but OMG it's fantastic. I sometimes just want to buy the whole filling itself and eat it. It is so creamy and rich.  I'm drooling everywhere now!
Anyone else tried a Chicken Tikka Sandwich?