1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (223 page)

Although other meats, such as lamb, and seafood, like shrimp and lobster, are roasted in tandoors, chicken is a favorite choice. Its juiciness and distinctive flavor starts with a tenderizing, sour marinade of yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, and ginger, along with a spice blend variously consisting of coriander, cumin, cloves, cardamom, black pepper, and chile—and it ends, of course, with roasting in the tandoor. Although the etymological link isn’t readily apparent to the untrained ear, historians believe that the word
tandoor
derives from
nâr
, the Semitic word for fire, and place the clay oven’s origins in Babylonian times. Especially associated with the Mogul emperors who held sway over India from the sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century, it is basically an oversize jar, with a distinctive beehive shape and an opening at the bottom for adding and removing fuel.

Chicken, usually cubed and skewered on long sticks, takes especially well to the tandoor treatment, its mildness an ideal foil for the roasty flavor the oven imparts; another technique involves placing halves or pieces of the bird in a casserole and setting that in the bottom of the tandoor, for delectable, fork-tender results. But the tandoor is also often employed to make bread, a dramatic process in which the dough is slapped onto its vertical walls and quickly bakes into disks thanks to a combination of radiant heat and convection.

Tandoori chicken can become the basis of other dishes as well. In chicken
tikka masala
, it is sauced with a rich stew of tomatoes, cream or coconut milk, turmeric, paprika, and other spices. As chicken
makhani
, it is coated in a spice-laden sauce of butter, cashew paste, and tomato puree. But it is as the original, unsauced tandoori chicken, thrillingly red and tangy, although milder than it looks, that it provides one of the most elemental pleasures of the Indian kitchen.

Where:
In New Delhi, Dubai, Abu Dhabi,
London, New York, and other locations
, Moti Mahal,
motimahalindia.com
;
in Delhi
, Karim’s Hotel, tel 91/11-2326-9880,
karimhoteldelhi.com
;
in New York
, Tamarind Tribeca, tel 212-775-9000,
tamarindrestaurantsnyc.com
; Tulsi, tel 212-888-0820,
tulsinyc.com
; Dawat, tel 212-355-7555,
dawatnewyork.com
;
in Boston
, Maharaja, tel 617-547-2757,
maharajaboston.com
;
in Cambridge, MA
, Punjabi Dhaba, tel 617-547-8272,
royalbharatinc.com
;
in Washington, DC
, Rasika, tel 202-637-1222,
rasikarestaurant.com
;
in Chicago
, Jaipur, tel 312-526-3655,
jaipurchicago.com
;
in Houston
, The Bombay Brasserie, tel 713-355-2000,
thebombaybrasserie.com
; Kiran’s, tel 713-960-8472,
kiranshouston.com
;
in Los Angeles
, Mayura, tel 310-559-9644,
mayura-indian-restaurant.com
; Al-Noor, tel 310-675-4700,
alnoor-restaurant.net
;
in San Francisco and environs
, Shalimar at two locations,
shalimarsf.com
; Amber India, tel 415-777-0500,
amber-india.com
.
Mail order:
For Indian-made residential clay tandoor ovens,
tandoors.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Classic Indian Cooking
by Julie Sahni (1980);
Indian Cooking Unfolded
by Raghavan Iyer (2013);
cookstr.com
(search tandoori chicken);
foodandwine.com
(search grilled tandoori chicken).

Uthappam is a much-loved vegetarian dish.

The practice of vegetarianism has extremely ancient roots in India—and particularly in the South Indian kitchen, which produces this intriguingly bubbly, soufflélike, egg-free pancake. Often the centerpiece of a South Indian meal, the
uthappam
is usually eaten with a cucumber-or chile-brightened yogurt
raita
, curried vegetables, rice, and bread stand-ins such as
dosa
(see
listing
). Magically, its batter contains neither eggs nor dairy products but is instead based on ground rice and the fragrantly flavorful black lentils known as
urad dal.

Seasoned with earthy fenugreek seeds, the dal and soaked rice are allowed to ferment for about ten hours at room temperature, a process that helps the batter puff up and gives the finished pancake its appealingly light texture. Additions, such as green, white, and red bits of chiles, potatoes, peas, cabbage, grated fresh coconut, and sometimes ruby flecks of tomato, are optional, and the final uthappam may be mildly or very hotly seasoned. Preferably fried in ghee, India’s clarified butter, on a hot stone griddle or an iron pan, the pancake is slowly cooked on one side only, until its top begins to bubble. To retain its airiness, it must be served immediately after being garnished with lacy green sprays of cilantro.

In an amusing variation, a dozen or so uthappams can be stacked up in layers, each spread with a pungent, savory chutney of the relatively dry school—think onion, mint, coconut, or peanuts. For serving, the stack is sliced layer-cake style, or vertically, to reveal a rainbow of colors and flavors.

Where:
In Delhi and environs
, Sagar Ratna, sagarratna;
in New York
, Madras Mahal, tel 212-684-4010,
madrasmahalnyc.com
;
in Cambridge, MA
, Punjabi Dhaba, tel 617-547-8272,
royalbharatinc.com
;
in Washington, DC
, Rasika, tel 202-637-1222,
rasikarestaurant.com
;
in Chicago
, Udupi Palace, tel 773-338-2152,
udupipalacechicago.net
;
in Los Angeles
, Mayura, tel 310-559-9644,
mayura-indian-restaurant.com
;
in Toronto
, Udupi Palace, tel 416-405-8189,
udupipalace.ca
.
Retail and mail order:
In New York
, for rice flour, Kalustyan’s, tel 800-352-2451,
kalustyans.com
.
Further information and recipes:
indianfoodforever.com
(search vegetable uthappam; rava uthappam);
vegrecipesofindia.com
(search uthappam).

Dazzled by the embarrassment of choices on an Indian vegetarian menu? Then take the easy and delicious way out by ordering the tasting menu, or
thali
. In this traditional Indian feast, a multitude of dishes are presented all at once in a colorful array of textures, temperatures, aromas, and flavors. Either placed together at the center of a table or compartmentalized on a metal-rimmed platter called, like the meal itself, a thali, the spread is a sight to behold. The thali is typically served without utensils, the bread and rice providing all the vehicle that’s needed for scooping up the treasures its bowls have to offer.

Although, in the U.S., the multifaceted meal often shows up as a vegetarian offering in South Indian restaurants, in India a thali is for carnivores, too. Either way, it is no random assortment—the dishes are carefully paired to complement one another in terms of flavor and texture.

Small metal bowls called
katooris
hold a variety of chutneys and dips. A cool yogurt
raita
will be in evidence, as will fresh salads, dals (see
listing
), and
sabzi
—a category of vegetable dishes cooked in sauce that includes
dum aloo
, whole potatoes dressed in spicy yogurt. Other staples include rice and breads, such as whole wheat roti (see
listing
), which are placed at the center of the thali, and pickles, which sit toward the platter’s edge.

The rest is up to the cook’s discretion, but will most certainly involve a curry or two. And on the all-encompassing plate, dessert is frequently a feature, too. You can even eat it first, if you like—in some parts of India the sweet porridges are eaten along with the rest of the dishes in the thali. It’s all part of that legendarily sweet-fiery-salty-cool-bitter balance that Indian cuisine so often strives for and achieves.

Where:
In Delhi and environs
, Sagar Ratna,
sagarratna.in
;
in New York
, Vatan, tel 212-689-5666,
vatanny.com
; Madras Mahal, tel 212-684-4010,
madrasmahalnyc.com
;
in Chicago
, Udupi Palace, tel 773-338-2152,
udupipalacechicago.net
;
in Los Angeles
, Mayura, tel 310-559-9644,
mayura-indian-restaurant.com
;
in Toronto
, Udupi Palace, tel 416-405-8189,
udupipalace.ca
.
Mail order:
For traditional thali plates, amazon.com (search thali stainless steel plate; puja thali; meenakari floral peacock puja thali).
Further information and recipes:
Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking
by Madhur Jaffrey (1981);
indianfoodforever.com
(search indian vegetarian recipes).
Tip:
If you choose to eat this the Indian way, foregoing utensils and using your hands with bread or rice, remember to rely only on your right hand, which is considered good etiquette.

Male and female nutmegs reveal mace-wrapped nuts inside.

“Convicts and sailors sometimes have recourse to nutmeg. About a teaspoon is swallowed with water. Results are vaguely similar to marijuana with side effects of headache and nausea.” In his novel
Naked Lunch
, the counterculture prophet William S. Burroughs was referring, of course, to the supposed hallucinogenic properties of the Indonesian spice, which are said to exist only when it’s taken in large quantities. He could say similar things about mace, which is derived from the same seed. But what’s most special about both spices are their warm, aromatic essence and peppery-sweet, deeply rich flavors.

The
Myristica fragrans
tree (literally, “musty scent”) is the only plant that’s the source of two spices. Its seed, which closely resembles a walnut in both size and shape, was once upon a time a zealously protected commodity. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was an object of war between the Dutch and British, who vied for its native Molucca Islands (also known as the Spice Islands). Those islands were the sole place the tree grew, so nutmeg and mace were enormously rare and consequently expensive. Nutmeg’s cost soared even higher in the seventeenth century, when doctors prescribed the spice as a preventative for the Black Plague, and Dutch entrepreneurs reportedly sold it at a 60,000 percent markup. Dutch law prohibited exporting the nutmeg tree from the Spice Islands, but in the 1740s, the adventurous one-armed French botanist Pierre Poivre managed to smuggle the tree to Mauritius, where it flourishes to this day.