Using Your Hands Makes Eating More Enjoyable

When I began thinking about the kind of restaurant that I wanted to visit I knew that I wouldn’t have to go far to find something. The secret was to make sure the restaurant that I choose reflected its cultural authenticity. I began with asking a friend whose boss is from India, which restaurant in Bloomington had the most authentic Indian cuisine. He told me of two restaurants and one of them was Shanti, located at 221 E. Kirkwood Ave, Bloomington Indiana, just west of the Monroe County Public Library. I had to do a little research on Indian cuisine prior to my visit and discovered several interesting cultural facts after reading Etiquette in Indian Restaurant at www.food-india.com. To begin with, two interesting facts about Indian restaurants is never ask for beef or pork most Indians are either Hindu or Muslim. In Hinduism, the cow is considered a sacred and Muslims consider the pig to be a filthy so neither one of these meats would be served at an authentic Indian restaurant. The second fact is most Indian restaurants do not serve alcoholic drinks. Another interesting fact that I discovered in this article was its ok to eat with your hands. The Indian philosophy being, that eating with your hand is a very sensual thing, by using all of your senses (tasting, smelling, looking and touching) it will make eating more enjoyable. One last fact that I learned is the concept of “jutha”. Jutha means something that came in contact with your mouth, your saliva or your plate (while eating). I t is considered very rude and unhygienic to offer someone else your “jutha” unless you are very close family, a couple, or close friend. Now that I have built a cultural context foundation in the cultural practices of Indian food, I will now venture into Shanti with my mom and my sister as part of my Restaurant Visit Encounter Project.

Before even walking through the doors of Shanti, we were greeted by the smells that are very unique to Indian cuisine. Most people that I talk to, do not care for the smell of Indian food. I love it! I couldn’t wait to order my food. We arrived at the restaurant at approximately 6:15 pm and were seated immediately. The interior decorating didn’t strike me as any particular culture, but pretty much Americanized to appeal to everyone’s tastes. There was traditional Indian music playing in the background it was at just the right volume that you could carry on a conversation. Our waitress brought our water and menus. We began with our drink order, my sister and I ordered King Fisher Indian beer and my mom ordered the Glen Ellen Chardonnay white wine. My sister and I were very pleased with the flavor of the King Fisher beer. We thought it would have more of a bitter taste like that of European beer, but it did not, it was a very smooth “safe” flavor, a beer that would appeal to the American palate. My mom’s comment regarding the white wine was “its white wine, what can I say” so I took that as, it was not that great. Our waiter arrived and I decided to ask him what he recommended as the two favorite appetizers that most people ordered. He recommended the Vegetable Samosa and the Egg Plant Pakora. He was very kind to tailor our appetizers to accommodate three people. We continued our dinner order and our waiter said we made very good choices.

Our two appetizers arrived. The Vegetable Samosa, which consisted of deep fried patties stuffed with mashed potatoes, green peas and freshly ground spices and the Egg Plant Pakora, which consisted of slices of egg plant battered and deep fried. Both appetizers came with two condiments; Green (hot) Chutney, which was a blend of cilantro, green chilies and garlic and Tamrind Chutney a sweet and sour fruit pulp combined with various spices. Both condiments were presented in small stainless steel bowls. These appetizers were definitely going to require all of us to use our hands. The Vegetable Samosa had an unfamiliar flavor at first, but the two different dipping sauces made for an excellent flavor experience. The Egg Plant Pakora we really enjoyed it reminded all three of us of deep fried zucchini. My sister tried the Green Hot chutney, but avoided it after one taste, it was too spicy for her stomach. My mom and I enjoyed the dipping sauces. Both sauces were a new flavor experience that I highly recommend.

The main courses arrived shortly after we finished our appetizers and we were very enthusiastic about trying our new cuisine. Since it is culturally acceptable to offer your “jutha” we began to exchange different sampling of each of our meals. My mom and I ordered Tandoori Dinners. These are dinners that are prepared in a clay oven and heated by an open pit charcoal fire. Each tandoori dinner was served with a side order of Basmati rice and a curry sauce. My mom order the Fish Tikka, a filet of salmon fish marinated in mild spices and herbs, and served on a sizzler (a very hot cast iron serving platter All three of us really like the Fish Tikka. My mom said it was the best salmon she has ever had. Now I am not a big fan of salmon, but I thought it had excellent flavor and this particular recipe most definitely changed my mind about salmon. I ordered the Mixed Tandoori, it was a combination of half chicken tandoori, seekh kabab (ground lamb and special spices) and shrimp marinated in mild spices and herbs served with onions and lemon on a sizzler. I really liked the seekh kabab and shrimp but the chicken was a little dry. I doubt that I would order this dinner again at least not the chicken tandoori. My sister ordered the Lamb Biryani rice specialty, boneless cubes of lamb, sautéed with naturally fragrant Basmati Rice. All three of us enjoyed that particular dinner. To compliment our meal we also choose the Garlic Naan, a white flat bread stuffed with mildly spiced minced and the Tandoori Roti, whole wheat flat bread. Both of these flat breads are served freshly baked from the clay oven. I highly recommend the Garlic Naan flat bread. None of us were particularly thrilled about the Tandoori Roti, but that is probably because the Garlic Naan was so tasty.

To complete the whole food experience, we decided to order dessert. Since we were so full from all of our dinner entrees we ordered two flavors of ice cream. Mango Ice cream/Kulfi, ice cream flavored with specially imported Alfonso Mango pulp and Pista ice cream/Kulfi, ice cream flavored with saffron, nuts and Cardamon spice. The ice cream was definitely different than American ice cream. It was different in two ways one was that it was served cut into cubes and served in small stainless steel bowls and it was not as sweet. My sister did not like either of the ice creams, however my mom and I did. We thought the ice cream created a nice contrast of fresh cool flavors to the exotic spicy flavors from our main course.

We all very much enjoyed our cultural encounter at Shanti Restaurant. Our service was excellent and the food was awesome. I highly recommend this restaurant if anyone would like to try Indian cuisine. I realized in the middle of our restaurant encounter that we were actually eating most of our food with our hands. Taking the Garlic Naan flat bread and dipping it in the Basmati Rice and curry sauce followed by a few bites of shrimp or salmon I really felt that we were using all of our senses; it really did make eating more enjoyable.

This is my response to the Fourth Encounter Project Restaurant Visit.


Etiquette In Indian Restaurant. 9 November 2007.
http://www.food-india.com/