Topic: North American Curry - What to Expect

[joshallen2k]

After eating at well over a hundred curry restaurants across Canada and the US, I thought I'd post this as "typical" for anyone who travels over here and wants a curry.



Clockwise from top right:

Chicken Tikka Masala - notice the capsicum and onion chunks. Robustly spiced, this bears little resemblance at all to BIR CTM. No sweetness, no cream, no coconut. Its more like a cross between a BIR Jalfrezi and Curryhell's North Indian Special. The chicken tikka is mostly similar to BIR though.

Pilau Rice - almost always with cumin seeds (and often way too many) this one has peas. Colourings other than turmeric aren't all that common.

King Prawn Korma - it may look like a BIR korma, but its not. Not even slightly sweet, it is a mild dish with either almond or cashew powder and cream. The absence of a sweetener and coconut makes it a very different dish to BIR. The "standard" starter curry for the less adventurous tends to be Butter Chicken.

Chicken Madras - at first glance, it could be a BIR Madras, but again, not even close. Notice the curry leaves and mustard seeds. In addition, this dish has coconut. Its actually quite a tasty curry, but I can't think of any BIR dish that I'd equate it with. I usually order it "as hot as you can make it" in order to get it close to BIR Madras heat. Only a Vindaloo over here is what I would classify as a hot(ter) curry.

The curries themselves are almost always made with a base gravy, but are more heavily spiced than BIR, but with much less chilli across the board.

The net of it is, there's some decent curry houses out there - but if you're looking for BIR you will most definitely be out of luck.

-- Josh

[976bar]

Hi Josh,

Having been quite frequently to Chicago and Florida, I can agree with your findings on USA Indian Restaurants. The Indian's there are mostly South Indian or Sri Lankan and produce mainly traditional Indian Curries. I also have found Madras with curry leaves and mustard leaves, definitely not BIR, but a few of the restaurants did produce some amazing dishes, like Bhuna's.

I would imagine if someone actually opened a BIR restaurant in the USA, it would make a fortune. I know I can get all the spices necessary around the Tampa area in Florida, (having done this personally before), so there would be no shortage there..

It would knock every other Indian Restaurant into touch!!

[Salvador Dhali]

Thanks for that, Josh. It backs up my findings from visits to the USA - though being such a vast country I live in hope that somewhere, someone in America will have embraced the BIR concept as well as they have with craft beer/real ale/micro breweries. Having expected to find nothing but insipid Bud, Miller and Coors, etc., I was surprised and impressed to discover pockets of proper beer heaven almost everywhere I travelled. At many of the micro breweries I found, the brewer would rave about how the holy grail was ESB / IPA or some other fine English ale style, but how things have changed. Now we have brewers over here emulating APA (American Pale Ale), packing a 5% plus punch, stuffed to the brim thrice over with New World hops and bursting with notes of citrus joy. (The Dark Star brewery in Partridge Green does a superb APA, which I highly recommend should you come across it, folks.)

But I digress...

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Brick Lane Curry House in New York, but I was intrigued to see on Man vs Food that they profess to do the hottest curry in the States, using 10 different types of chilli. Not sure if it's BIR, but it sure looks hot!

The Hottest curry in the world..on Man v Food

[commis]

Hi
If your looking for something close to BIR. There are a few little places in the greater Boston area.
Regards

[scott123]

After eating at well over a hundred curry restaurants across Canada and the US, I thought I'd post this as "typical" for anyone who travels over here and wants a curry.

I've eaten at over 400 Indian Restaurants in the US and London, and I can tell you that your experience isn't at all "typical" for the US.  Grouping the US and Canada into one lump entity is incredibly shortsighted.  Most of what passes for curry in the U.S. is a crime, but it all boils down to where you go.  You basically have areas where there are North Indian/Punjabi populations where the food is almost identical to the UK and you have areas with little to no Indian population where the food is garbage.  The most populated American area is Northern NJ, and, within Northern NJ, you have two towns that have massive Indian populations, Parsippany and Edison.  Both towns have restaurants that are almost identical to BIRs.  The differences are very subtle. BIRs will use coconut milk as an ingredient and they might add a bit more kasoori methi than their American counterparts..

New York City has Little India and Indian Restaurant Row, and those areas have very BIRish offerings, but New York also has a lot of pricier Indian places that tend to be pretentious and miss the BIR mark.

Out of around 300 places I've been to in Northern NJ, I've never had a CTM that didn't have cream in it.  Capiscum (Green Pepper) can make it's way into CTM occasionally, but no more than about 3% of the time.

Over the years, heat levels have dropped a tiny bit in the area, overall, but, there are some chefs that go heavier and some that go lighter.  If Northern NJ Indian food is slightly less hot than the UK (and, if it is, I'd probably say it only varies by percentage point or two), than that's, imo, an improvement, as the best Indian food has a sense of balance when it comes to scovilles. It should have some intensity, but it shouldn't be a sweat fest.

[beachbum]

I checked out one at random in Edison http://www.delhigardenrestaurant.com/#/main-courses-menu and it looks very similar to the Aussie menus and presumably BIR. Lots of familiar names like sagwala etc. Can't complain about the prices, almost half what I'd pay up the street here