Anonymous wrote:I love Indian food but the aftertaste keeps me from wanting it again (that sense like I need to burp but I don't for hours after).

You need that yogurt sauce to calm your stomach after

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looove indian food. It's not always spicy, but I love the spicy ones. I love the layered flavors, all in harmony, spices dancing on my tongue.

I do too, though I don't like Indian desserts. I've never had one that wasn't cloyingly sweet.

Agree on both.

Ananda in Howard county is a gem

Love Indian food and British Indian food (yes, chicken Tikka Masala! Yum.) The only thing I ever ate in an Indian restaurant I didn’t like was a fish in mustard sauce that was really fishy. It wasn’t even the recipe’s fault, just too fishy fish. So good! I’m not going to make it as home though, because my DH hates the smell.

We have a gas station, of all things, with amazing Indian food here in our small town in the Midwest, so I don’t have to! I swear these home cooks in a gas station cook better food than Rasika. I don’t know how we lucked out!

-average midwestern white person

Love: saag paneer, naan, pickled chilis, cashew chicken, those giant crepe-like things

Don’t love: small takeout portions! rice

Anonymous wrote:I find it interesting that Indian food somehow can achieve great complexity in flavors and be very repetitive almost boring. I also have found that Indian food at an inexpensive Indian grocery store or mom/pop shop can be equal or superior to a nice or higher end sit down Indian restaurant.

That’s how I felt about most western hemisphere cuisines (except Mexican food) until I had more experiences with them as an adult living in ny and in Europe. French - butter, cream, herbes de provence. Italian - tomato, garlic, basil. American - ketchup, bbq sauce, salt, sugar. Most eastern hemisphere foods seemed so much more complex and aromatic with all the herbs and spices. Now I appreciate both. You can’t eat at a couple of takeaway places and think you understand the flavors of civilizations that developed over millennia.

I love Indian food but the aftertaste keeps me from wanting it again (that sense like I need to burp but I don't for hours after).

Anonymous wrote:I struggle with Indian food because I HATE coconut milk, and it is used in so many Indian dishes.

So many people will tell me you can’t taste the coconut milk, but then I try it and can always tell which dishes have it.

It’s hard to describe food as “Indian food” since there is so much variation depending on region. I believe that coconut milk is used mostly in food from certain areas of India - Goa and places on the coast. I love Sri Lankan curries, which often does contain coconut milk, but not always.

Northern Indian food uses dairy, yogurt, paneer, and ghee instead of coconut milk. I can’t think of a northern Indian dish that uses coconut milk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rasika West End is the best. I also really like Tamashaa (you must get the black garlic naan), Pappe, and Daru (get the lamb chops). All three of them are quite expensive and high end.

You can’t go wrong with tandoori chicken, saag paneer, and vindaloo. There are a lot of great South Indian dishes too which are totally different, but there’s not much good South Indian in DC.

So Rasika West End has both South Indian and non-South Indian? Do you know if they have space for a gathering of 40 people?

No sorry my two paragraphs were two separate thoughts. Rasika is North Indian. There aren’t good South Indian places in DC that I know of. Yes, Rasika has space you can rent out, I’ve been to private gatherings there. It’ll be pricey but they do a good job!

I don't like that if you're not in the mood for that flavor profile (a poster called it CCCGG?) then you're really out of luck and need to move to a different cuisine/restaurant.

Anonymous wrote:I looove indian food. It's not always spicy, but I love the spicy ones. I love the layered flavors, all in harmony, spices dancing on my tongue.

I do too, though I don't like Indian desserts. I've never had one that wasn't cloyingly sweet.

I don't like the mushy things, but I love the warm spices, I love garlic naan, samosas, all the rice dishes. The curry though less and less these days because I can't do spicy foods.

I love northern Indian cuisine, particular various iterations of goat curry. Being Japanese, I love curry in practically all its forms (except when it has coconut).

Prepandemic, I would have recommended Passage to India in Bethesda, but it's gone downhill. I don't actually have a great recommendation.

Anonymous wrote:I struggle with Indian food because I HATE coconut milk, and it is used in so many Indian dishes.

So many people will tell me you can’t taste the coconut milk, but then I try it and can always tell which dishes have it.

I’m South Asian and I too hate coconut milk. Admittedly I don’t go to Indian restaurants very much, but I think you can mostly avoid it in non-South Indian food? Most Indian restaurants serve North Indian food anyway.

I get it, though. I don’t go to SE Asian restaurants because it’s hard to avoid coconut milk. I just don’t think of Indian food as being coconut milk heavy, though.

Indian food is very diverse. You’re beginning to see some regional cuisines show up in restaurants- until recently, it was pretty generic Punjabi/ North Indian food.
A2B in Herndon is quite authentic for South Indian food. Rasika and Celebrations by Rupa Vira are more fancy/ fusion, but do have some tasty dishes. Ditto Bindaas (more casual)
I’d check out Chai Pani, which opened recently in DC. I’ve eaten at the original one in Asheville and it’s pretty good.