Originally Posted by
Mr H
That’s a fair point Yukira. I think the sceptics amongst us would wonder whether his menu and ingredients would remain unchanged for long – or whether he might find that the clientele started to look for slightly different flavours, etc.
In the UK where we have lots of Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants, you find that Bangladeshi restaurants will also have an Indian menu; that Indian restaurants will have dishes from all over India that would never be on the same menu in India; and that most of the sauces are far wetter than in India. In fact, the Tikka Massala was invented because customers in the West Midlands found tikka meats too dry and wanted them served with a sauce. Probably also the UK versions of curries have way more chilli in them as a particular type of customer likes to prove his macho credentials by eating fiercely hot curries. So, in order to survive in the UK market, Indian and Bangladeshi cooks have to change their menus.
Which is exactly why you need to find the ethnic restaurants that cater to their own ethnic groups (Or as you pointed out, have separate menu's). You can find them if you look in the right places - I've had friends tell me that restaurants I take them to (or that they taken me to) are just as good as back home.
Granted you miss the atmosphere by a long shot (at least in DC where all the great ethnic joints are in strip malls - no joke!), it still helps fill the void ;-)