THE COLORS OF CUISINE
Chitra Pillai

Bombay Palace, a classy restaurant a few blocks away from the White House in Washington, D.C., was one the favorite dinner destinations of President Bill Clinton. But Indian cuisine does not need any presidential endorsement to vouch for the fact that it has been gaining popularity all over the world, particularly over the past decade or so. From Manhattan to downtown San Francisco, pricey Indian restaurants are packed to capacity, be it for business lunches or leisurely dinners. Even the smaller, dhaba-type eateries are rapidly gaining a fan following.

Yet, what about the non-Indian component among Indian restaurant patrons? Although the Indian restaurant customer base is largely Indian and American, the question arises: Do the other ethnic minorities favor Indian cuisine as much as mainstream Americans? Although no one seems to have conducted any study on this trend (or non-trend), from a purely personal survey based on past experiences, we rarely find such ethnic minorities as African Americans, Chinese, Korean or Japanese Americans, not to mention Hispanic Americans, being a significant percentage of dinners at Indian restaurants in the U.S.

Even if it is unscientific to regard this as a hypothesis – that other ethnic minorities don’t eat Indian food in large numbers – it is still a worthwhile endeavor to find out what they feel about Indian cuisine, and perhaps what can be done to broaden the curry’s appeal, in a manner of speaking.

Cassius Kennick, a 32-year-old African American who works in the logistics industry in New Jersey, started eating Indian food three years ago when the aroma of Indian curry got his attention. “There is Akbar Palace close to my work place and I generally take out food from there. I love the curries with beef and chicken in them,” he said. The other international cuisines he enjoys are Japanese and Spanish.

For Jacqueline, too, an African American who lives and works in California, it was the aroma that led her to an Indian restaurant during her pregnancy. She had never tried it before and loved what she got. “Indian food is always going to be part of my lifestyle,” she affirms.

Suggestions from his Indian colleague had made the choosing of a dish easier for Kennick. “Otherwise, I would not know what to go in for,” he says.

Introduction to Indian cuisine from a co-worker or friend seems to be a key in foraying into this new territory. Such is the case of Luu Nguye, originally from Vietnam. Nguye, who owns an automobile repair shop in Middlesex, New Jersey, has never been to an Indian restaurant simply because he has never been taken to one. He loves the spicy curries and cooks them at home. Due to his familiarity with foods from Thailand, Japan, China and, of course, Vietnam, Nguye and his wife Chimai, who is from China, tend to eat out a lot at restaurants offering food from these countries.

“If an Indian would introduce me to the fare available in an Indian restaurant, I would be more confident to go there and eat,” explains Nguye. The familiarity of the other Asian cuisines is a factor that encourages him to place orders without hesitation. But since his wife does not like curries, trying Indian foods is not on top of her priorities.

So, is familiarity a factor that brings most people to a particular restaurant? It sure is in the case of Cathy Hottensen, a Puerto Rican who is married to a white American. Hottensen has never been to an Indian restaurant and it is something that is not on her agenda, either. “I just do not know what to expect,” she says.

She has heard of the spicy sauces that Indian cuisine is famous for, but “I am scared to even try it,” she adds. This is in spite of the fact that Puerto Rican food is not exactly too low on the spice scale.

As Nguye explains it, “It is a different kind of spice. Indian spice is different from Thai spice which in turn is different from Spanish spice.” So it is back to the issue of familiarity once again.

Familiarity, as we all know, puts most people at ease at once. Food is no exception. “I am just not brave enough to go to an Indian restaurant and order food that I know nothing about,” says Mae Chen, who is originally from China and lives with her family in Somerset, New Jersey. “I have eaten Indian food cooked by a very good Indian friend, and am comfortable with the thought of being able to eat Indian food at her place whenever I want to.”

In fact, they often meet for potlucks with people from their church, and those hailing from India bring along Indian food. It has been ten years since she ate at an Indian restaurant. “I think the name is Pooja,” she remembers apologetically. Pooja is the closest restaurant to where she lives, and she is not aware of any other Indian restaurant in the vicinity.

Chen is of the opinion that the menus should be more explanatory to help a person who is unfamiliar with the names.

“There could be waiters trained to understand customers and suggest the dishes that unfamiliar palates would like,” she elaborates. “We eat out very rarely. There has to be a special occasion. Generally, the choice of restaurant would be Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Italian because I know what I will be getting for my money’s worth.”

Like Nguye, Chen, too, stocks her larder with curry paste and cooks chicken and potatoes with it. “I would love to attend Indian cooking classes so that I can cook the dishes I like. Then maybe going to an Indian restaurant and ordering food will be a lot easier,” she adds.

To cook or not to cook has never been an issue for Betty Marquez, a native of Ecuador who lives and works in the Bronx in New York City. She loves Indian food. “When I was younger, my sister’s Indian boyfriend, my sister and I would eat out a lot. Invariably it would be at an Indian restaurant,” she says. Marquez is certain about the fact that having an Indian in such close circles did influence her dining choice at an Indian restaurant. While she does eat at Spanish, Italian and Mexican restaurants, Indian and Italian are by far her favorite choices. Four out of the five times that they dine out, in fact, will be at an Indian restaurant.

Martha Chopra, an Ecuadorian married to an Indian, says that she loved Indian food even before her sacred ties to India were made. Her sister, Victoria Kim, from Yakima in Washington, loves the lamb preparations although at home they are vegetarians. “My husband, who is Korean, and our two daughters, love all kinds of food. We eat Mexican, Korean, Thai and Indian food.”

Like Marquez, Kim shares the same reasons – of comfort and familiarity, of having Indians (two sisters have married Indians) in the family – as being the chief guide to their fondness for Indian cuisine.

According to Sonya Ayscue, an African American who is a programmer from Wayne in New Jersey, “I have been to an Indian restaurant only once with a group from my office. I loved the Tandoori chicken. Yet, I have not been back again simply because I do not know what else to order.”

Donna Kelly, who works with ADT Systems in Florida and hails from Jamaica, eats at an Indian restaurant once in six months. “I find it very interesting that the flavors in Indian and Jamaican food are so similar,” she commented.

With comfort zones and familiarity being ways to overcome any hesitation in trying Indian cuisine, it seems that there needs to be a spirit of adventure in order to experiment with food so different from one’s own culture.

“Definitely,” states Floyd Cardoz, executive chef of the New Age restaurant Tabla, which opened in Manhattan in 1998. “That is what needs to be done. Innovate and adapt to entice people from all ethnic groups,” he says.

Cardoz and his partners call their specialty New Age Indian-American food, since they have created an original way to showcase the aromatic flavors of India. Tabla’s clientele spans all ethnic groups, with the delectable innovations probably being the major reason, in addition to the ambience and service.

Cardoz also firmly believes that foods from the different ethnic groups should be adapted to Indian styles of cooking in order to popularize Indian cuisine, and to attract those who are still skeptical about the taste and fear the kind of spice and flavor they might be served. For example, African American chicken pie could be prepared with Indian spices. The much-loved pork ribs could be prepared in a Tandoor.

“We serve Tandoori Lamb and that is a big favorite among people of all groups,” Cardoz says. He suggests mouth-watering changes to attract people from the Spanish-speaking belt. Avocados and salsa, he says, could be included in the Indian menu.

Nanking, a restaurant that has won the hearts of Indians in New Jersey in the five months of its operation, serves Indianized Chinese food, which is Chinese food with a strong accent on Indian spices. “Occasionally, we have catered to specific tastes of other communities as well. There was this Filipino doctor who gave them a recipe for a fish preparation. He was very thrilled with the outcome. Maybe some day we will be in a position to cater to all such specific requests of people from different ethnic groups,” assured Feroze Buhariwala, Nanking’s general manager.

Buhariwala has been in the restaurant business for the last 24 years. He predicts that in the next 5-10 years Indian cuisine will be as popular among all communities just as Italian cuisine is today.

If the phenomenon of seeing more Indian faces in Indian restaurants holds true on the East Coast, the story on the West Coast seems to be a trifle different. “One is likely to find Caucasians outnumbering even the Indians,” according to owner Marc Xavier of Sitar, located in Pasadena in California. “It is purely representative of the spirit of adventure that the white American is known for,” he adds. It seems to be just a matter of exploring anything.

Unlike on the East Coast, there are relatively fewer ethnic enclaves on the West Coast. “It is such a global culture that all ethnic groups sort of merge with one another,” emphasized Karen Leonard, professor of anthropology and Asian studies at the University of California, Irvine. “Food is no exclusion.”

Food preferences do have a political history framed by class, cultural and imperial relations. That probably explains why people who have traveled frequently to India or have lived in Britain have an affinity for Indian cuisine.

Interestingly, everyone in the U.S. is familiar with Chinese food. Says Madhur Jaffrey, the celebrated cookbook author, “It is not hard to understand that their food is more easily available to the common man. They came here long before the Indians did. Besides, they worked on the railroads and were closer to the common man. Indians came here as professionals - either as scientists, doctors, engineers or, more recently, as computer professionals. It takes a common man to attract the common man.

“We probably need to have more affordable Indian restaurants; probably a chain of restaurants like Burger King and McDonalds spread out all over the U.S., even in areas like Harlem and Chinatown in New York. This is a sure-fire way to popularize Indian food among all ethnic groups as well as among middle class Americans.”

Santokh Singh of All India Café, in Pasadena, recommends that there should be more festivals celebrating the varied spices and flavors of Indian food from all the states of India. Jaffrey concurs: “We could invite the skeptical among the different ethnic groups by drawing parallels between tortillas and chapattis. We could highlight the similarity between Venezuelan cornmeal arepas and the Indian dosas.”

Jaffrey’s magnum opus, “From Curries to Kebabs,” traces the movement of Indian spices from India through Pakistan, Bangladesh, all the way to Fiji, Kenya, Uganda, Guyana and Trinidad.

Besides reasons of adventure, education and frequent travels, are there other more compelling reasons for the lack of attendance at Indian restaurants amongst these other ethnic groups? Could the variety of food available within their own African American, Latino and Asian cultures account for their poor turnout at Indian eateries? Most African Americans true to their palates would crave for the old-fashioned chicken pot-pie accompanied by fresh corn casserole. Nicaraguans would still retain a soft corner for picos, and Panamanians would crave empanadas. Japanese sushi and the Korean pulgogi beckon those who have grown up on the fare.

Despite the growing popularity of Indian restaurants, its flavor profile has not become sufficiently “Americanized” for mass consumption. “There has to be a courage of conviction demonstrated while popularizing our own popular aspects. Great cuisine is definitely one of them,” affirmed Jaffrey. When Indian cuisine is as colorful as the subcontinent itself, every taste and flavor should be matched by variety in its clientele.