The lighter side of Indian cuisine

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): When people outside of India think of food from the subcontinent, images of red, hot curries and spiced legs of lamb, chicken and bread baked in clay ovens come to mind.

Needless to say there is much more to Indian food; the cuisine of India is as varied and as diverse as the country of one billion itself.

The valley of Kashmir lying in the lap of snow-clad mountains in the north is indeed famous for rich lamb curries coated generously in yogurt and spices that help to keep the body warm. The kitchens in the tropical states of southern India specialize in a lot of yogurt, vegetables and lentil dishes, accompanied with extract of tamarind that has a cooling effect on the body.

But eating out was never really part of Indian culture until very recently and since the first restaurants were started by some enterprising Punjabi people of north India, the menu they offered initially has remained the standard food found at most Indian eating houses around the world, including Jakarta. The best place for a subcontinental meal is still in the home of an Indian.

And now even those who eat at restaurants know this, their tastes having been transformed after several bites of the real thing. Today they are quick to express their weariness at the monotony of menus available and are demanding more varied fare.

Many are also on the lookout for a more office-friendly, and less difficult-to-digest alternative to a cholesterol-rich, non- vegetarian meal, especially at midday. A hot favorite to steam out from the kitchens of south India therefore is the dosa which may have been a snack in ancient times but is happily consumed as a meal in itself today.

"To call a dosa a pancake would be to do it no justice at all," says Madhur Jaffrey, author of A Taste of India, of the thin, round plate made from a batter of fermented parboiled rice and split peas stuffed with a mixture of spicy potatoes and peas and rolled up into a pipe made of shimmering gold. This delicacy is gloriously served with a lentil and vegetable soup along with many a mouth watering dip.

Idlis or fermented rice batter steamed into spongy, white cakes and eaten with the same hot lentil soup is yet another delight from the same provinces of the south. And the good news is that now both dosa and idli are available here at many a restaurant.

Thanks to Sarita Shamdasani, a rather sumptuous meal of south Indian delicacies was enjoyed last week at the Queen's Tandoor in Central Jakarta. In between sips of cardamom-flavored tea and spoonfuls of lentil soup, Sarita said that she was born and brought up in Indonesia and for a long time Chinese food was her favorite cuisine. It was only 15 years ago after husband Ramesh asked her to help him start a restaurant that she traveled to India to find out what people in the land of her ancestors ate.

"Ramesh made some films that didn't do well at the box office. He wanted to wind up his business in film production and opened a restaurant instead," recalls Sarita.

Start

Queen's started as a Chinese restaurant on Jl. Veteran and introduced Indian food a decade ago, specializing at first in food that the sprawling Sindi community here were nostalgic about. Sindis left their home in western India in large numbers many generations ago to come here in search of better trade. As members of this community prospered they began to eat out more often and to spend some leisure time at places like Queen's to chatter away in the language of their forefathers and for a taste of what they recalled was cooked in their grandmother's kitchen. Sarita belongs to one such family.

But her business really picked up, she says, when the restaurant moved last year to Permata Plaza on Jl. Thamrin, attracting a more varied crowd due to its more convenient location offering both north and south Indian fare. Even today it is mostly Indians who ask for dosa and idlis at Queen's. But often guests from western countries see people at other tables enjoying a south Indian meal and they want to try it too, Sarita observed.

She also caters for private parties featuring the dishes. At a dosa and idli party, Sarita will arrange for an entire stove to travel along with the gigantic hot plate on which a dosa is prepared one by one and offered to each guest piping hot, straight off the fire.

"We are operating like a food factory these days. It is not just south Indian meals that we prepare but have equipped ourselves to provide food from any province in the Indian subcontinent. You name the food and we promise to put it on your table," added Janum, Sarita's youthful daughter-in-law.

Queen's is located at Jl. Thamrin Kav 57 and can be reached at tel. 3903287, fax 3903286 or e-mail queens@pacific.net.id.