Relaxing at the Indian
Buffet by
Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
I
loved taking my daughter Florence out for lunch at India’s Clay Oven in
downtown Monterey, California with my poetry -writing friends in the late
1990s. We all liked discussing books at
our window table with a view of treetop and tourists going to Fishermans’ Wharf
below at “India’s.”
Our
1990s drink orders were for chai – a spiced tea and milk drink from Central
Asia that was becoming all the rage in California – and mango lhassi – a mango
purée and yogurt drink that tastes like a tart milkshake. Florence loved mango lhassis and usually
ordered two.
India’s
Clay Oven claimed to have eighteen items on its buffet, but they did not
include all the soups or freshly chopped salad fixings and fruit in that
number.
Thanks
to labels above the food items, I knew that on my first visit I had filled my
plate with flat, thick rounds of blistered naan bread and bright red thighs and
drumsticks of tandoori chicken. This
combination is a hit everywhere in India.
These
two items typify what is known a Punjabi-Moghul cuisine of Northwestern India
according to Smita Chandra in her cookbook/history book entitled Cuisines of India: The Art and Tradition of Regional Indian
Cooking.
When
the Punjab region became divided between India and Pakistan, Hindu refugees
from Pakistan had to make new lives for themselves in India. Many of them settled in Delhi, the capital of
India’s ancient Mogul Empire and opened restaurants featuring food cooked in
their traditional tandoor, a clay oven lined with charcoal.
Chandra
further relates that the former chefs of the princely Northwestern Indian
states, who lost their jobs after Independence had to find work much like
French chefs after the French Revolution.
These chefs cooked Persian influenced Mogul cuisine featuring richly
spiced curries and meat and rice and dishes; Indian food is not all vegetarian.
After
several trips to “India’s,” I checked out Premila Lal’s The Complete Book of Indian Cooking to read up on tandoori chicken. Tandoori chicken marinates in yogurt with
seasonings such as lemon juice, cumin seeds, cinnamon, bay leaf, peppercorn,
and cardamom.
Lal
writes that a daughter-in-law knows she has been accepted into an Indian family
when her mother-in-law shares the family spice recipes with her.
Lal’s
cookbook share naan’s recipe as well: flour, eggs, yogurt, milk, and ghees –
clarified butter. I knew why I liked
this warm naan bread so much, which has a few heat blistered spots that crunch.
My
poetry writing friend Debra said I should really try the vegetable dishes,
too. I like the following tasty items:
-vegetable
deep fried pakoras – potato and onion fritters
-bhartha
– puréed roast eggplants with cumin, turmeric, paprika, garlic, green chilies,
onion, gingerroot, and garam masala (spice combination) with sour cream
Between
trips to the buffet table, we did talk about poetry like Neruda’s Birds and Rumi’s poetry of love.
Going
to India’s Clay Oven was a sweet, mango lhassi lunch. Metaphor is about all I can do in
poetry. Metre is too hard.
(Note: India’s Clay Oven is now closed, but Ambrosia
in Monterey serves wonderful food in a garden atmosphere with huge Nataraja
statues from India presiding over the dining room.)
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
