Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm just wondering as to the time when this trend started (last 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?). Things like butter chicken, tandoori, naan and paratha I'm guessing are starting to become "mainstream" at least in many of the larger towns/cities.
Of course, this has a lot of historical precedent (such as when sushi and Japanese cuisine became mainstream and associated with being hip in the US some time ago that I have a feeling might have been the 90s, and earlier on of course when say, Italian and Chinese cuisine became incorporated into American culture last century). So many cuisines break into the market or so to speak and then explode in popularity.
AS more people from India started re-locating to America there became a demand for their ethnic dining. When we get exposed to different cultures, hopefully our eating habits are expanded. I will add, I don't think Indian food is as popular and maybe will never be as some other ethnic foods. It has such a distict flavor.
I'm just wondering as to the time when this trend started (last 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?). Things like butter chicken, tandoori, naan and paratha I'm guessing are starting to become "mainstream" at least in many of the larger towns/cities.
They've been around since the early Eighties or before.
There has been an Indian restaurant in the very un-diverse little Connecticut beach town where I grew up for almost 30 years. Great food, nice owners it's always busy. In the diverse Colorado mountain town I now live in there is no Indian food within a 2 hour radius.
There has been an Indian restaurant in the very un-diverse little Connecticut beach town where I grew up for almost 30 years. Great food, nice owners it's always busy. In the diverse Colorado mountain town I now live in there is no Indian food within a 2 hour radius.
I think the secret word here is probably Connectuicut. Even if the little towns are not as diverse, the area is just being on the east coast.
Duluth, Minnesota - which usually has been very late in accommodating foreign cuisine - had an Indian restaurant since 1999. My dad carpeted the restaurant and the owner gave them a few coupons for free buffets. My first time eating the cuisine was there was for my 18th birthday, and I absolutely fell in love. Pretty soon, every week my dad, my uncle (who also worked at the store), and I would eat at their buffet, while my mom watched the store. I eventually started getting take-out, which I found even better than the buffet food, and more suited to my increasing preference for heat.
Quickly I began to preach Indian food to the masses. I introduced it to my friends, a warehouse worker at the store and his wife, etc.
In 2006, another Indian restaurant came to town. It unwisely located one block away from the original Indian restaurant, and deliberately priced its dishes one dollar lower than the original restaurant. Keep in mind that the original Indian restaurant, while under its then owners being almost the best Indian restaurant I tried, was about the most expensive Indian restaurant I had ever seen. They were serving food at 2012 prices in 2004 (and interestingly, they haven't changed the prices on many of their menu items since then). So even the new one wasn't cheap, either.
The new Indian restaurant closed within about a year and a half of its opening, while the original Indian restaurant came under new ownership, and the quality of the food was less to my preferences. It was less spicy, for one thing. A "medium" under the old ownership was plenty hot enough; now, it was practically lacking heat. They've gone under one or two ownership changes since. The last time I was there they were ran by what appeared to be Himalayan or Nepali or Tibetan ownership.
As a side note, remember when Thai food was all the rage? That was more like the early 2000's. Ethiopian and Vietnamese seem to be the up-and-coming cuisines now.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
