South Indian and West Chinese cuisine- exotic food at its best!
January 3rd, 2008 - by 2point6billion.comIndian and Chinese food is cherished all over…so much so that there are new restaurants being opened for their lovers worldwide. Just heard of two fine dining places breaking new grounds in Louisville and guess what they have plenty in store for you.
One of them is Royal India- this is turning out to be the hottest in town and has had reviews of being the topper so far as Indian food goes and gets its credits for the following reasons:
( & these could be tips for entrepreneurs looking at restaurants as the next venture !)
a. a wide selection of familiar Northern Indian dishes
b. the only place in town where you can find the taste of South India
c. attractively decorated with pale green walls and bright paintings of Indian villages along with attractive mahogany chairs
d. Indian music- playing quietly in the background- this reminds me of the Taj Pavilion in Beijing
e. a crazy selection of main dishes — 46 meatful dinners and 16 vegetarian choices
Lets now see what’s brought the Chinese one (called as Red Pepper Chinese Cuisine) the limelight it has:
a. Chinese-American as well as “authentic Chinese” menu
b. wide selection of more than 100 familiar dishes
c. excellent Chinese green tea
d. a skilled Sichuanese chef- from Chicago’s Chinatown
So if you want to try out the Cumin lamb, a West China specialty, or the Dosa, Idli & Sambhar with the coconut Chutney (first picture) from south India, you know where you need to head out when in Louisville.
Email This Post
Print This Post
January 7th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
where in beijing can we get any south indian cuisine?
January 7th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Good question Chin Wang, and funnily enough a subject I was debating just last week with my girlfriend. Most Indian Restaurants in China tend to concentrate on Northern Indian cuisine, but South India (and Sri Lanka) has a totally different style, more use of coconut, fruits and yoghurts making less fiery dishes. In fact some of them, such as Chicken and Mango curry are not hot at all and are absolutely delicious. Use of herbs and spices such as curry leaves, cinnamon, galangal and lemon grass impart a totally different array of flavours than the more chilli pepper based north. Much of the cuisine can be identified as “Kerala” or “Tamil” coming from south-east India, so as a tip, look out for those. In Beijing, my personal favourite for South India cuisine is the Ganges Restaurant: http://ganges-restaurant.com; while the Indian Embassy in Beijing helpfully puts up a listing of all Indian restaurants in China at: http://www.indianembassy.org.cn/Indian_Restaurants_in_china.asp
You’ve now made me hungry writing this reply !
Bon Appetito !
Chris Devonshire-Ellis
January 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Try out at the ‘Indian Kitchen’ and ‘Punjabi’ resturants
January 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Chris - south indian food is much more spicy than north indian food. The rest you are smack on! Makes me lick my lips as well…
By the way - the best Indian restaurant in China is the Bukhara Grill in Shanghai. Try it out!
January 9th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Well Ram I’m not going to argue with you - but the fiery chilli spiciness of a Vindaloo for me at least seems to outdo Southern Indian cusine in it’s ferociousness. But it’s ALL good ! Curry Leaves don’t grow outdoors in Beijing’s winter climate so I have a small garden herb potting on my balcony that grows them instead…
January 13th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Chris - you are going down the English line as well and stumped by a googly! Vindaloo is a portugese origin goan dish, not north indian cuisine. The history of vindaloo - check out this on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindaloo