][1]Your blogger is not going to pretend to be an expert on the subject but, traditionally, a large proportion of Indian restaurants in the UK owe more to Bangladesh and Pakistan than India.
The invention of the Indian curry house concept was useful for Brits who couldn’t be bothered to distinguish between people from the different countries in the subcontinent or indeed the food from different regions in such a vast area.
The idea that people in the Punjabi plains would eat a different diet from those in Kolkata on the Ganges Delta tended to be lost on the often beer-befuddled customers of the early curry restaurants.
Most punters couldn’t care less and the restaurateurs were quite content to serve ‘Indian’ food as long as it kept the customers coming in.
Everyone was happy and the idea of authenticity didn’t seem one that was worth pursuing.
These days, there is a little more regional specialisation as some restaurants look to stand out from the crowd.
The new Tanjore on Clerk Street in Edinburgh is one such restaurant.
Recently opened across from the old Odeon cinema, it specialises in southern Indian cooking.
As well as a massive veggie selection, this means lots of different flavours of vadai or gram flour fritters; an emphasis on idli rice cakes; lots of dosa crepes and, their close cousins, uthappam pancakes.
The blog intends to swing by for a karaikudi curry asap. Lamb marinated with roasted and dried flower pods, star aniseed, fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves . . . well, you get the picture.
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