Charles Haynes [03/06/09 11:11 +1000]:
So why is it virtually impossible to get pork dishes in Chinese
restaurants in India? It would be like going to a country where none
of the Italian restaurants served pasta!
Well, that'd entirely shut out the muslim diners - and beef dishes would
drive out the hindu diners (not me, but ..). So you dont find a restaurant,
or even an airline that flies into indis, venturing beyond "chicken and
mutton", with the meat slaughtered to halal standards by default (hindus
dont mind eating halal meat, and muslims absolutely require it, so ..)
And the local variant of mutton is goat meat, while mutton usually
translates to "meat from an adult sheep".
To be fair you'll find a lot of cuisine that looks much closer to thai in
their use of spices (coconut milk, dried ginger etc) .. come to kerala and
try an alapuzha fish curry (say at the grand in cochin). They're even
capable of making you taste fresh ingredients (particularly spices and
pepper, though I dont expect anything less of a restaurant in cochin) even
in the "meat and vegetables in a generic brown gravy" cuisine.
srs
