East Asian food is finally taking off in India

It is not immediately obvious because we think it already happened a long time ago.

But the truth is that far eastern-food is finally taking off in India only now. Contrary to what we may sometimes think, there has been very little authentic East Asian food in India till now.

 

What we do have in India is our own Chinese cuisine, which is now effectively, a branch of Indian cuisine. Over the last decade, we have also seen a boom in junk sushi, consisting mostly of sushi rolls made with cooked fish.

 

   Needless to say, neither cuisine is one you will find in the country of alleged origin. No Chinese person will recognise Indian Chinese as having anything to do with China. And the Japanese who tend to be more philosophical about the things that the world’s restaurants do to their food, regard our sushi boom as just another example of sushi breaking free from its Japanese roots.

 

   But now, there appears to be a boom in real South East Asian cuisine of the sort we have not seen before. The five star end of the market has always had high quality Nobu-Zuma versions of Japanese. The trend was pioneered by Wasabi in Mumbai, but we do have Edo in Bangalore, Megu in Delhi, and more. That market has now expanded. You can get reasonable to very good Japanese food all over India at non-5 star prices.

 

   In Mumbai, such restaurants as Izumi and Mizu serve food that is at least as good or better than the five star places. The Izumi in Goa is arguably even better than the original in Mumbai.  At Mizu, a young chef called Lakhan Jethani, who has worked in Japan, does adventurous and authentic dishes of the kind you won’t find at many places in India and is technically skilled (his chawanmushi is perfect). Both places are always full, of course: Indians love sushi. Even Lakhan who wanted to do a non-sushi kind of place has had to put it on the menu.

 

   In Bangalore, the most difficult restaurant to book is Naru noodle bar, a small Japanese restaurant. It was opened by Kavan Kutappa, a classically trained (in the western tradition) Chef, who developed a love for Japanese Ramen when he studied at the Culinary Institute of America. It is hard to get good quality Ramen in India. So Kavan struggled while planning the restaurant. He mastered the broth quite quickly, but could not find the noodles he wanted. In Japan, the best Ramen places rely on specialist noodle makers who make the Ramen to order. That is not possible in India, so Kavan ended up importing a Ramen machine from Japan to make his own Ramen.

 

   When he opened, Kavan was not sure that enough people would want to eat real Ramen, so his restaurant had a counter with only eight seats. When the demand got so ridiculous that he would have been booked out for a whole year if he had accepted every booking that came in; he expanded his restaurant to 20 seats.

 

   Of course that has not been enough, and Naru is still jammed out day after day. Is Kavan surprised by the response? Yes. But he is not as surprised as every other restaurateur in Bangalore, who did not believe that Kavan’s little noodle bar would become the city’s hottest ticket.

 

"Last week, in Bangalore, I discovered that Malaysian food had not just arrived in India, but was also a big hit."

   Japanese food in Delhi has yet to reach the standards of Mumbai and Bangalore, but there are hopeful signs. Gurgaon is full of Japanese places, though some are dismal. I had a bad meal at Ebisu when I went, but the owners wrote to me to explain that the Chef had just left. He has since been replaced, and I am assured the food is very good again. There is also the no-frills Manami where I like the food.

 

   Korean food has finally arrived in India thanks largely I suspect because of the power of K-pop and K drama. As you probably know, there are two broad kinds of Korean food. The formal cuisine is an acquired taste, but funkier (and sometimes less expensive) dishes have taken over the international market: even in New York where Korean is the new Japanese.

 

   There was an excellent article about Korean food in Brunch a few weeks ago, so I won’t repeat it all except to say that such dishes as Korean fried chicken are irresistible: it is probably the second greatest fried chicken in the world.

 

   Last week, in Bangalore, I discovered that Malaysian food had not just arrived in India, but was also a big hit. Kopitiam, a new casual restaurant is always jampacked, though it emphasises authenticity and original flavours. The restaurant is the brain child of Vinesh Johnny, the celebrated Pastry chef, and his Chinese-Malaysian wife, Joonie Tam. They went to their friend, Darren Teoh, who is the Chef at Dewakan, Malaysia’s top restaurant with two Michelin stars. Teoh sent the Kopitiam chefs all over Malaysia, so they worked in local restaurants and finally at Dewakan itself.

 

   The result is a menu that takes no prisoners. If you order a Nasi Goreng, you will get the real thing with dried anchovies, not the antiseptic version you get at hotel coffee shops in India. Service is still a little shambolic, which is not surprising, given how new the restaurant is. What is significant is that Kopitiam demonstrates that India is ready for authentic south-east Asian flavours.

 

   Is it also ready for genuine Thai food? That’s a tough one. I love Thai food, but there is not one Thai restaurant I would go to in Delhi. In Mumbai, many years ago, when the Thai Pavilion opened, the late Arvind Saraswat, one of the Taj group’s top chefs, told me that he was sceptical that Thai food would takeoff in India.

 

   Arvind‘s argument was that real Thai food had thin curries while Indians were used to the thick red curries of Chinese and Punjabi restaurant food. In the short term, Arvind was right. The Thai Pavilion flourished when Ananda Solomon was the chef, but it ceased to be an iconic restaurant once he left (the one meal I had there in the post-Solomon period was catastrophic), and all the restaurants that had sprung up in its wake soon wound down.

 

   But now, I think we may be on the verge of a new wave.

 

   The first signs came in Mumbai when the late Kishore Bajaj brought Nara, a Thai chain to the city. The food was great and much appreciated. Then Seefah Ketchaiyo, who I knew when she was the Thai chef at San Qi at the Four Seasons in Mumbai, opened Seefah, her own restaurant.

 

   Seefah became a rage, and the chef is now opening a QSR operation dedicated to the best fried chicken in the world: the Thai Khao Man Thod and its non- fried cousin, Khao Man Gai. I have had her Khao Man Thod before (she serves it at the original Seefah) and it is absolutely terrific.

 

   And the big boys have moved in. Rohit Khattar of Indian Accent has teamed up with David Thompson, the iconic Australian chef who took Thai cuisine to the world to open a mini chain of Fireback Thai restaurants all over India. The first one is up and running in Goa and two more will open in the next few months.

 

   Riyaz Amlani (Smokehouse, the Socials, etc.) is talking to Garima Arora of the two Michelin starred Gaa in Bangkok to open a new Thai restaurant in Gurgaon, and more such collaborations are on their way.

 

   After so many false starts, East Asian food is finally taking off in India.