The fact that his last name is Irani. A Zoroastrian whose ancestors fled Iran and found refuge in India. And now he is as much a part of the Indian Soul as anyone else is absolutely amazing. When you have that in context its really something how he owns the Indian culture and food. 🔥🔥🔥
The cheesification of Indian street food happened because years ago cheese used to be a luxury but because of Amul it became a lot cheaper and easier for everyone to use it, suddenly everyone could get their hands onto processed cheese. So for the street food vendors it’s like serving luxurious one of a kind type of food.
@@blackmamba9950I agree. It's a Gujarat thing, and Amul certainly helped but it also helped that lot of Gujaratis moved to USA, and brought back their love of cheese to India too.
As an Indian-American, I seriously wish the cheesification happened sooner, LOL. Grilled cheese was a weekly staple in our household along with traditional Indian food. My parents would force us to go to India for a couple months every year, and we'd have no access to grilled cheese which was a huge bummer.
5:37 Small correction: Indians didn't start eating with hand because of poverty, infact even kings of queens of various Indian dynasties used to eat with their hand. Its just a tradition because of its simplicity.
It’s based on Ayurvedic principles. And when you sit on the floor and eat off a banana leaf, you can’t eat with a utensil. Nothing would be as agile as your hands.
@@siddharthmehta6220fc! While I was in school, my parents used to place spoons in the lunch. But after sometime me and most of my friends kind of got sick of it and started to eat using hands and god then I realised how much comfort it is to eat with hands.
I recall one of my undergraduate teachers talking about an encounter she had in France where she was asked, "Why do Indians eat with their hands?" I like her response, "Do you eat burger with a fork?" is a good one. The majority of Indian cuisine is solely meant to be eaten that way; it's yes, simpler and easier.
@@siddharthmehta6220 Not much of it is pseudoscience, although there are very less studies... most of them that exist support that eating with your hand is good for you. (related to enriching gut microbiomes)
I love his attitude. And I love the talk about the different regions and styles. India's a BIG place, and there are a LOT of people. There's no one type or style of Indian food, it's all where you are or who you're with. Just like the rest of earth.
8:41 correction here, curry is an anglicized version of the south indian tamil word kari that means gravy .the brits picked it up and during the great wars went along to all parts of south east asia . The western concept of curry may be not be so old but the tamil dish is not very young
even in north india gravy dishes are called ‘kadhi’ because they’re made in a vessel called ‘kadhai’. many also say this is how curry came into existence.
@@thebawse15even in the East, I can only talk about Bengal tho. "Torkari" is a word used to veg curries I think the same word in Hindi is tarkari. Also the word in Bengali for kari or kadhi is jhol.
Thoroughly enjoyed Chef Irani’s responses. He’s not exaggerating when he compared the subcontinent to Europe. Think in terms of regions when exploring Indian cuisine, and there’s a lot more than can be covered in a ~15-minute video. I hope @Wired brings him back to do a Part 2 (and more, hopefully).
Kudos to the guy. But as an Indian I can proudly tell you, He barely scratched the surface. He did not talk about North eastern food where spices are very different (They don't use garam masala), he did not talk about Bengali cuisine where we use more seeds than spices.. like poppy seeds and we are not just famous for Sweets but fish too.
For real. I was waiting for him to talk about Northeast India. But oh well its not surprising that most people, Indians included don't know much about us.
I am an indian and I will say he just barely scratched the surface. There are millions of combinations and recipes throughout the whole country. Even I discover new recipes every year when I even slightly change the region for my vacation trip.
@@pramitd7761He said a lot of incorrect/half baked things. 1)Indians eat with their hands because their ancestors were poor (It's like an ignorant white person is explaining eating w/ hands to another white person). 2)Garam Masala is a "must-have" for Indian food. No it isn't, even in the North and West parts of the country. It's important sometimes, sure, but not must have. Raw spices (what we call khade masale) and knowledge is a must have. 3) Mumbai is the street food capital LOL. Kolkata easily comes on top it's not even close. 4) Tamarind red chutney is the ketchup for Indians??? Wtf? Ketchup is ketchup for Indians, Red chutney is used VERY differently than westerners use ketchup. And i could go on with the list but it'd be too long.
Loved that he touched on one of the most pervasive myths in cooking recipes when he mentions caramelizing onions take time. All these recipes including Food Network saying 5-10 minutes. Your curry takes a long time because caramelizing onions takes 45 minutes.
@@aleenaprasannan2146 even salt works. Especially if you are gonna add salt later on in the dish, you can add a little bit with the onions to make the process faster.
@@aleenaprasannan2146 this works really well, but it does change the texture of the onions. It makes them fall apart and turn kind of "jammy." That may or may not be a problem depending on what you're making. For example, I wouldn't do it for French onion soup because I want the onions to retain some texture. In other dishes (like if you're going to blend it up smooth anyway), it might be exactly what you're going for.
Yeah same with garlic. "30 seconds to a minute or until fragrant." It takes way longer than that. It won't burn if you lower the heat and stir frequently. Let it toast in the oil/butter til it's golden brown and the sulphur smell is completely gone.
Just a note. South Indians always flips their dosas(unless it has some stuffing), and we dont always use a big stick of butter instead we prefer sesame oil which serves the exact same purpose(makes the edges crispy and doesnt let the dosa to sitck to the pan)
@@astra4598 , but it is not a neutral oil, and for dosas you want to use an oil that is neutral in flavor otherwise it can ruin them. It is not the right ingredient for this type of cooking.
As a Pakistani, he nailed each and every question, there isn't much difference between North Indian and Pakistani cuisine. Most of India still prefers vegetarian food so the Indian food more popular in the West containing meat became popular during the Mughal era
No there is big differences between the cuisines. They use a lot more yogurt than us and we use more tomatoes. Also as you said meat consumption is much more in Pakistan and we prepare it differently. North Indians drown meat in milk and yogurt whereas our Salan in very simple
Chef Meherwan Irani was so great! I loved hearing him explain things and talk about the food. Even cooking up some to show us! I would love to have him back to learn more about Indian cuisine!
He didn't mention the fact that basmati isn't your everyday rice. It's expensive. We use normal length rice like sela, Sona, tukda, indrayani etc for everyday purpose
That's interesting. In my country, Lebanon, my mom considers any rice other than Basmati to be inferior and is willing to take the hit in the price difference because she just wouldn't go for any other kind of rice. So for me, it is indeed an everyday rice
@@aidenbooksmith2351 yeah. It's the king of rice. If you can afford it it's the best out of the rice alternatives in most situation. I say most because some dishes might require a different type of rice
@@aidenbooksmith2351 that's not true tbh.. we have hundreds of varieties of rice & each serve a different purpose.. for example, I can eat kolam rice everyday but can't do the same for basmati.. it's just too much flavour.
In west Bengal and Bangladesh, Basmati is very foreign, to us, premium rice is chinigura which is a very short grain but very fragrant rice and the texture is also superior but it's difficult to farm and expensive to buy
loved this video!! shows how indian food isn’t homogenous and there are many different types, combos, and inspirations that go into one of the most flavorful foods i’ve ever had !!
In Malabar region, they don't use basmati rice for biriyani, they use a much smaller alternative called jeerakalsala rice or khyma rice. The Kozhikode, thalasseri and Malappuram biriyanis are heaven!! Edit: my least favourite biriyani would be hyderabadi! I have tried to love it, but every time it can't beat the kerala taste. My opinion only!
Most southern Indian biryanis (besides the ubiquitous, fragrant but over-hyped hyderabadi biryani) use a different variety of rice. In TN, it is jeeraga samba, which I find is infinitely better than basmati for the style of spicy biryani we have down south.
So informative! I did my study abroad in London and found my love of Indian food there! Fortunately found a few really good spots here in the US too :)
Born and live in glasgow, the chicken tikka masala is awesome, i love garlic tikka masala nan and pakora 🤤 Indian cooking change the way i cook once i started to learn. It gave me so much more confidence, always felt intimidated by how much prep goes into but now i am cool with it 👍
A lot of Indian food is vegetarian, so if u want to go veg, indian cuisine is a great choice. Fair warning: I am Indian and vegetarian so my opinion is biased 😅
This guy is great. As an Englishman, I'm very familiar with Indian food, or at least the version of it we have in the UK, and it's so interesting to hear an expert speaking so passionately about his (delicious) subject.
Thanks for talking about the atrocity that is cheese on everything streetwise in India. And they have the audacity to call it "pizza vada pav" just because there is an inch of cheese melted on top of any dish
I think it's a personal choice. I love Amul cheese, but my Mum wouldn't touch anything cheesy. In Mumbai, some people like cheese toast sandwich, cheese vada pav, and cheese pav bhaji, while others prefer the regular versions. I think they are all awesome. Plus, Amul cheese is pure vegetarian - perfect for those of us who can't eat fancy non-veg, beef rennet-based imported cheeses
He’s so smart! I love how he goes into the history, regionality and diversity of India! He does a great job of explaining the complexity and richness of Indian cuisines! This is eduction 🫶🏽
I love it, although for me it's a whole meal. But then I put more vegetables like cucumber and tomato in it, so it became more like a salade. I had bought two Haldiram's packages. I'd like to find some of those sauce bottles next time so I don't have to make the whole package in one go.
Start with vadapav. It's the dish he put a lot of cheese on. It is an iconic street food of Mumbai and often known as the "indian burger" (albeit pure vegetarian and much cheaper than meat burgers)
I don't know how true this is, but we were always told Indian people who use their hands to eat always use the right hand, because you wipe your butt with the left hand, which is true for the majority of people (right handed people).
It's more of a Persian/Islamic thing (eating only with the right hand and cleaning only with the left hand is a basic hadith/dictum/commandment of Islam), but it's a convention that is also adhered to in many parts of India, though not as strictly.
As Hindus we eat with hands because each finger brings certain energy (like fore finger being Jupiter) to the food. It also helps enhance mind - body (stomach?) Connections & better feeling of fullness. Says so in ayurveda.
@@JivanPal also before Islam conquered many regions - it has pagan cultures. Many pagan cultures are very similar to Indic cultures. So Islam simply absorbed it. That's all. The concept of understanding how hands impact energy absorption is in ayurveda for thousands of years before even the advent of Islam. A lot of this concept also gave birth to mudras in yoga, mudras in bharatnatyam etc..
And thanks for mentioning the diversity of Indian food. There are so many differences, e.g. between maharashtrian, gujarati, punjabi, rajasthani, tamilian food that i have observed myself, both as a cook and a foodie...garam masala in punjabi, cumin in gujarati, curry leaves in tamilian, coconut in maharashtrian..all different, all wonderful...indian restaurants outside india serve only punjabi ("indian food")...such a pity
@@Harshiahaha I personally love Andhra food because it's spiced with hot red chilli powder (the same reason why most people can't eat it)..I had a lovely thali in Bangalore 10+ yrs ago and still remember the tastes that made my tongue (and eyes!) water. And I recently discovered gongura pachadi - one of the best condiments I have ever eaten.
@@aleenaprasannan2146 both are same, I just referred to as telugu cuisine as it is easier than mentioning both states names. Same food and habits are seen in both telangana and andhra, except a few regional dishes, which are popular in a specific region. Hyderabadi cuisine is a bit different tho, while it has all the telugu food due to telugu people and Nizam and persian influence due to the Nizam kings who ruled over hyderabad. Ofc Hyderabadi cuisine is also modified and adapted into other parts of andhra and telangana, and hence the popularity of Biryani and haleem!
As a person who has lived in both Delhi and Mumbai for ten years(among other cities), I have to say Delhi is the pound for pound GOAT when it comes to food and it's not close.
To answer Charles Finch's question, the four indispensable Indian spice powders are cumin, coriander, turmeric, and chili-- preferably Kashmiri for its deep red color and low spice level. These four spices, along with chopped onions, ginger, and garlic, form the foundation of most curries.
It’s becoming more popular here. I live in Florida and there are some excellent Indian restaurants near me. Even my boyfriend who is very picky about food eventually tried Indian and he loves it now
Loved this video. This guy is passionate about food, cooking n eating both. Very simple language, not at all pretentious. Overall great energy. PS: I would search for his restaurant n definitely go there when i m in that area.
This dude said bombay's street food is better than delhi's, as a foreigner having lived in both the cities and beyond for a significant number of years, Delhi's food is hands down the best I have ever had not just restricted to India.
Love the explanations. One note on the word curry: it seems it was the Portuguese who first used it, borrowing the Goa term for the local spice blend in the 16th century. I had to look that up, but it appears in Martha Washington's cookbook which was mid to late 18th century.
I’m seeing a lot of similar comments, but it bears repeating. This guy is incredible! Great presentation style, a wealth of knowledge, and super charming.
10:18 some spices that can almost be used in any indian dish are coriander powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Just use it in this ratio 1 part chilli powder for 2 part coriander powder 1/2 part garam masala and turmeric in a pinch almost any dish will taste nice with this
This man is the perfect example of us Indians.. never knew him before this video but will be my favorite chef henceforth. He explains stuff very authentic and also makes fun , modern Indian relatable jokes
I'm proud of this guy's offense at chai = spice. Chai means tea. Masala chai means spiced tea. Also, the secret to a good curry is - different spices and herbs have different cooking times and they need to be added during different phases of cooking. This is why "curry powder" does not give good curries.
He forgot to say that paratha can be stuffed too! It can be filled with potatoes, paneer, radish, cauliflower, or fenugreen! Very yummy. Also, a lot of people don't use the word "curry" because it's a western thing.
@@coucoubrandy1079 I know you did, but some words in certain Indian language are written with a d in place of r, such as Punjabi. Even then, it doesn't change the fact that the British coined the term curry, it's better to refer to dishes by their actual name instead of being lazy and classifying them as 'curry' since many Indians don't use that anyway lmao.
Love indian food but I don't know anybody else who does to go to dinner with me, so I learned to cook it for when I have the house to myself. I usually use cauliflower rice, and it's actually very similar without the carbs and arsenic that comes with rice.
Arsenic? What kind of poisonous rice have u been eating mate?! 😲 I am Indian - we cultivate and consume rice in massive quantities and I've never heard of arsenic in rice (or any arsenic-rice-related deaths!)
I've never heard of cauliflower rice either - it is not used in Indian cooking. I'd love to try it out though. If u are planning to make biryani, pulao or jeera rice, use Indian Basmati. For khichdi, use Indian short-grained rice like kolam or parimal. For plain steamed rice, any rice variety works.
Great answers! Thanks for talking about the diversity of Indian food behind chicken tikka masala. And also for saying that Indian food is not always super spicy in India.
This guy, made me proud! Gave the answers to all of the questions and even gave trivia`s here and there! Also people, CHAI is what we call TEA in INDIA, it should not be called CHAI TEA, just CHAI would be great!
Roti: simple with nothing added to it(not even oil) Paratha: what he said, but i prefer ghee on it😁😁😁 Naan: uses a slightly different flour(refined wheat flour or maida than roti) Also Roti is a daily basis food, paratha is occasional, Naan is only when you eat in a restaurant/dhaba👀
Boy has his history mixed up. 3:00 says Portuguese gave Indians potatoes. But when he comes to samosas, he says that samosas are 1000 years old and traditionally have potatoes stuffing.
Well samosas traditionally were filled with meat and dried fruits and baked. The version of samosa you see now in India (potato filled and fried) is a recent variety.
Not just cheese, Indian sreetfood (North and West India specifically), these days, is loaded with mayonnaise, ketchup, and butter. Mayonnaise in particular is not healthy, especially the veg version as it is an oil emulsion-lot of oil.
14:32 nah nah disagreeing here Briyani tastes even better with the aromatic short grain seeraga samba rice. Only basmati is used for briyani is a myth. Quite a number of biryani use rices like kollam, seeraga samba, kaima rice etc
Great overview. One thing I wanted to point out though is that the presenter here states that "Unttl the 15th century, Indian food wasn't that spicy"! Wrong, this may be true of some parts of western India but not the south as they have enjoyed black pepper for thousands of years and were exporting it to Rome as early as 2400 years ago.
@@MarcosPrevitali yes, I agree that "capsaicin" containing plants including chilli peppers were introduced much later and have been adopted into Indian cuisine as well and for the "heat", but one has to remember that the word "spice" refers primarily to black pepper, cardamom, garlic, ginger, turmeric, fenugreek and coriander all of which were used in cooking in India several thousand years ago. There is a big difference between using plants to "heat up" your food versus "spicing" things up! I simply wanted to point that out. Cheers!
@@MarcosPrevitali Actually, food spiced with black pepper which contains piperin will "heat" your entire mouth (cheeks, throat, tongue etc.). Its the reason westerners say the heat creeps up on you. Food spiced with chillies which contains capsaicin only heat your tongue. Thats kind of the reason mexican or spanish (highly chilli based) feels so different to other indian foods.
He did a fantastic job for an introduction to indian cuisine. Ofcourse not everyone knows or is right about everything (maybe why he didn't mention north-east). But this was a perfect 'indian food for beginners' video
I happened to have made 2 different kinds of Bhel Pury recently. It all came about accidentally. A couple of months back I bought what I thought were just some crispy mix, but when I opened the pack there were several packets of stuff in there. I didn't know quite what to do with it and put it aside to look up for it and of course forgot. Recently I went to a different store and made the same mistake, only a slightly different version. I then remembered that had a previous package and thought it time to look it up on TH-cam. Most of those video's are in an Indian language, but there were a couple in English and combining all the information I gathered felt confident enough to try to make them. They were a bit more complicated that the one shown by this chef, like adding more vegetables (cucumber, tomatoes and maybe some other stuff that I can't think of now). It was delicious and I highly recommend it.
Eating with hands actually is the Bharatiya way to eat. Biological reason is that eatign with hands makes your digestive system be prepared for meal, better digestion and makes you feel full after you eat with hands. And no, many Bharatiyas will actually judge you for not eating with hands, like my mother. 😂 Also, one of the rice varities is a rice which is unique to the Bharatiya state of Odisha. It's called 'Usuna Chaula'. It is rice which is boiled before sold. Anothe type of rice is 'Arua Chaula'. It is the common rice that you see being eaten by Bharatiyas in common outside of Odisha. Odias eat it either always, on any holy days like 'Sankranti'. And it's fine if he said otherwise as culture in various regions in Bharat are different in every aspect of life. So, don't take this seriously. I am just writing about my region.
The fact that his last name is Irani. A Zoroastrian whose ancestors fled Iran and found refuge in India. And now he is as much a part of the Indian Soul as anyone else is absolutely amazing. When you have that in context its really something how he owns the Indian culture and food. 🔥🔥🔥
This needs to be higher up! Love their food and how much it has given to our cuisine!
Parsi?? The same origin As Freddie Mercury?
@@bgsash242 yepp!
Parsi people are real gems to our Indian society.
*whose
Get this guy his own show ASAP. I need to listen to him talk about and cook Indian food for at least another 12 hours.
Please, do it.
You realise that most of what he said is half baked and clearly he hasn't done his research when it comes to history and culture of indian cuisine?
@@huskaroar6869he has done far more than you have at least
Totally agree!
@@huskaroar6869 if he shares all his knowledge, then it would be a 3 hour episode
The cheesification of Indian street food happened because years ago cheese used to be a luxury but because of Amul it became a lot cheaper and easier for everyone to use it, suddenly everyone could get their hands onto processed cheese. So for the street food vendors it’s like serving luxurious one of a kind type of food.
It's mostly a Gujarati thing, and they brought it over to Mumbai. It's not common everywhere else
@@blackmamba9950I agree. It's a Gujarat thing, and Amul certainly helped but it also helped that lot of Gujaratis moved to USA, and brought back their love of cheese to India too.
Hope this cheesification don't reach in eastern India
Yea and it's a price increaser, and looks good to the eyes.
They can add 10 rs worth of cheese but make the original item +50 rs in price
As an Indian-American, I seriously wish the cheesification happened sooner, LOL. Grilled cheese was a weekly staple in our household along with traditional Indian food. My parents would force us to go to India for a couple months every year, and we'd have no access to grilled cheese which was a huge bummer.
5:37
Small correction: Indians didn't start eating with hand because of poverty, infact even kings of queens of various Indian dynasties used to eat with their hand. Its just a tradition because of its simplicity.
It’s based on Ayurvedic principles. And when you sit on the floor and eat off a banana leaf, you can’t eat with a utensil. Nothing would be as agile as your hands.
I don't care much for pseudoscience, but I am absolutely convinced food tastes better when eaten with hands, especially Indian food
@@siddharthmehta6220fc! While I was in school, my parents used to place spoons in the lunch. But after sometime me and most of my friends kind of got sick of it and started to eat using hands and god then I realised how much comfort it is to eat with hands.
I recall one of my undergraduate teachers talking about an encounter she had in France where she was asked, "Why do Indians eat with their hands?" I like her response, "Do you eat burger with a fork?" is a good one. The majority of Indian cuisine is solely meant to be eaten that way; it's yes, simpler and easier.
@@siddharthmehta6220 Not much of it is pseudoscience, although there are very less studies... most of them that exist support that eating with your hand is good for you. (related to enriching gut microbiomes)
I love his attitude. And I love the talk about the different regions and styles. India's a BIG place, and there are a LOT of people. There's no one type or style of Indian food, it's all where you are or who you're with. Just like the rest of earth.
@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist8 Your reply has nothing to do with his comment. Common man forcing your religion on others
8:41 correction here, curry is an anglicized version of the south indian tamil word kari that means gravy .the brits picked it up and during the great wars went along to all parts of south east asia . The western concept of curry may be not be so old but the tamil dish is not very young
even in north india gravy dishes are called ‘kadhi’ because they’re made in a vessel called ‘kadhai’. many also say this is how curry came into existence.
@@thebawse15even in the East, I can only talk about Bengal tho.
"Torkari" is a word used to veg curries I think the same word in Hindi is tarkari.
Also the word in Bengali for kari or kadhi is jhol.
@@thebawse15 so you're telling kadhai transformed as curry?
its called kadhi in north india as well
@@Jana_San_SS nope, Jhol is Stew.
Macher Jhol is Stew.
Bengali for curry is torkari only.
Thoroughly enjoyed Chef Irani’s responses. He’s not exaggerating when he compared the subcontinent to Europe. Think in terms of regions when exploring Indian cuisine, and there’s a lot more than can be covered in a ~15-minute video. I hope @Wired brings him back to do a Part 2 (and more, hopefully).
For me, Indian cuisine is in the global top 3, along with Mexican and Italian. They all did it RIGHT!
I literally say the same thing, top 3 hands down
This list needs the addition of french, Chinese and Turkish, and the top cuisines list is complete
Insane W
Absolutely, me too!!
I would switch out Italian for Chinese.
Kudos to the guy. But as an Indian I can proudly tell you, He barely scratched the surface. He did not talk about North eastern food where spices are very different (They don't use garam masala), he did not talk about Bengali cuisine where we use more seeds than spices.. like poppy seeds and we are not just famous for Sweets but fish too.
I was surprised he didn't mention fish, I had been expecting him to.
he probably himself doesn't know that deep about eastern and northeastern cuisine.
north eastern food is better left alone...Dog meat is very popular there...
It’s a pity that the entire northeast was not mentioned. We have a very distinct cuisine.
Agreed. It is an entirely different and unique cuisine and should have been mentioned.
I really thought that's what the person who asked about east indian meant north east spices but looks like he misunderstood the question
For real. I was waiting for him to talk about Northeast India. But oh well its not surprising that most people, Indians included don't know much about us.
PART TWO!
Ye bro he should have mentioned about East Indian cousin it is totally different than rest of India
I am an indian and I will say he just barely scratched the surface. There are millions of combinations and recipes throughout the whole country. Even I discover new recipes every year when I even slightly change the region for my vacation trip.
Some of it wasn't too factual either.
@@nivnara Like what?!
Sounds like u hate a fellow Indian
@@pramitd7761He said a lot of incorrect/half baked things. 1)Indians eat with their hands because their ancestors were poor (It's like an ignorant white person is explaining eating w/ hands to another white person).
2)Garam Masala is a "must-have" for Indian food. No it isn't, even in the North and West parts of the country. It's important sometimes, sure, but not must have. Raw spices (what we call khade masale) and knowledge is a must have.
3) Mumbai is the street food capital LOL. Kolkata easily comes on top it's not even close.
4) Tamarind red chutney is the ketchup for Indians??? Wtf? Ketchup is ketchup for Indians, Red chutney is used VERY differently than westerners use ketchup. And i could go on with the list but it'd be too long.
@@pramitd7761 porotta
We need a tech support vid on the person that selects these people. They are always so charismatic!
Loved that he touched on one of the most pervasive myths in cooking recipes when he mentions caramelizing onions take time. All these recipes including Food Network saying 5-10 minutes. Your curry takes a long time because caramelizing onions takes 45 minutes.
I just recently learnt a tip to speed up caramelizing onions- add baking soda
@@aleenaprasannan2146and a pinch of salt! It draws the moisture out of the onions, forcing them to caramelise faster! Thats science
@@aleenaprasannan2146 even salt works. Especially if you are gonna add salt later on in the dish, you can add a little bit with the onions to make the process faster.
@@aleenaprasannan2146 this works really well, but it does change the texture of the onions. It makes them fall apart and turn kind of "jammy." That may or may not be a problem depending on what you're making. For example, I wouldn't do it for French onion soup because I want the onions to retain some texture. In other dishes (like if you're going to blend it up smooth anyway), it might be exactly what you're going for.
Yeah same with garlic. "30 seconds to a minute or until fragrant."
It takes way longer than that. It won't burn if you lower the heat and stir frequently. Let it toast in the oil/butter til it's golden brown and the sulphur smell is completely gone.
Just a note. South Indians always flips their dosas(unless it has some stuffing), and we dont always use a big stick of butter instead we prefer sesame oil which serves the exact same purpose(makes the edges crispy and doesnt let the dosa to sitck to the pan)
I agree with everything, but sesame oil?? isn't a neutral oil like sunflower or vegetable better?
@@ishanthezombiekillingpogch6322bro sesame oil is a vegetable oil, wdym?
@@ishanthezombiekillingpogch6322 oh yes thats true i just mentioned sesame since its the first thing that came to my mind.......
@@astra4598 , but it is not a neutral oil, and for dosas you want to use an oil that is neutral in flavor otherwise it can ruin them. It is not the right ingredient for this type of cooking.
@@ishanthezombiekillingpogch6322 as a tamilian, i have always used sesame oil
As a Pakistani, he nailed each and every question, there isn't much difference between North Indian and Pakistani cuisine. Most of India still prefers vegetarian food so the Indian food more popular in the West containing meat became popular during the Mughal era
This is a misconception. Only some upper caste communities of India are vegetarian. The overwhelming majority in India eat meat
No there is big differences between the cuisines. They use a lot more yogurt than us and we use more tomatoes. Also as you said meat consumption is much more in Pakistan and we prepare it differently. North Indians drown meat in milk and yogurt whereas our Salan in very simple
Chef Meherwan Irani was so great! I loved hearing him explain things and talk about the food. Even cooking up some to show us! I would love to have him back to learn more about Indian cuisine!
This might be one of the best Tech Supports ever. Learned a ton about a cuisine I already love!
He didn't mention the fact that basmati isn't your everyday rice. It's expensive. We use normal length rice like sela, Sona, tukda, indrayani etc for everyday purpose
That's interesting. In my country, Lebanon, my mom considers any rice other than Basmati to be inferior and is willing to take the hit in the price difference because she just wouldn't go for any other kind of rice. So for me, it is indeed an everyday rice
@@aidenbooksmith2351 yeah. It's the king of rice. If you can afford it it's the best out of the rice alternatives in most situation. I say most because some dishes might require a different type of rice
@@aidenbooksmith2351 that's not true tbh.. we have hundreds of varieties of rice & each serve a different purpose.. for example, I can eat kolam rice everyday but can't do the same for basmati.. it's just too much flavour.
In west Bengal and Bangladesh, Basmati is very foreign, to us, premium rice is chinigura which is a very short grain but very fragrant rice and the texture is also superior but it's difficult to farm and expensive to buy
loved this video!! shows how indian food isn’t homogenous and there are many different types, combos, and inspirations that go into one of the most flavorful foods i’ve ever had !!
In Malabar region, they don't use basmati rice for biriyani, they use a much smaller alternative called jeerakalsala rice or khyma rice. The Kozhikode, thalasseri and Malappuram biriyanis are heaven!!
Edit: my least favourite biriyani would be hyderabadi! I have tried to love it, but every time it can't beat the kerala taste. My opinion only!
Most southern Indian biryanis (besides the ubiquitous, fragrant but over-hyped hyderabadi biryani) use a different variety of rice. In TN, it is jeeraga samba, which I find is infinitely better than basmati for the style of spicy biryani we have down south.
kozhikode mentioned Pog, best biryani easily imo tho hyderabadi with basmati isn't bad
@@nivnarauthentic biryani is Hyderabadi rest of it is pulao rice and meat cooking together in one pot is not a biryani but pulao
And just regular rice in the south is often ponni. Either boiler or raw rice.
@@divineflu34567 Whatever the definition, as per purists, it is still called biryani, and it is still better than the over-rated hyderabadi biryani.
So informative! I did my study abroad in London and found my love of Indian food there! Fortunately found a few really good spots here in the US too :)
Born and live in glasgow, the chicken tikka masala is awesome, i love garlic tikka masala nan and pakora 🤤 Indian cooking change the way i cook once i started to learn. It gave me so much more confidence, always felt intimidated by how much prep goes into but now i am cool with it 👍
Stop behaving like a 12year old girl, Robert .
@@dennis65 Robert has lost it.
@@anirudh2704 Don't waste my time .
I’ve never tried Indian food but now I want to try it sooo bad!
Ohhhh you're in for a treat. Indian is one of my favourite cuisines!
Butter chicken with naan. OMG! Delish
A lot of Indian food is vegetarian, so if u want to go veg, indian cuisine is a great choice. Fair warning: I am Indian and vegetarian so my opinion is biased 😅
I have a major sweet tooth, so am gonna recommend a desert for you. Try my favourite desert, "gulab jamun".
@@justayoutuber1906cant go wrong with butter chicken for a beginner
Very knowledgeable and nuanced host! Good job finding and showcasing him, I hope people learn some about Indian food
His restaurants in NC and Atlanta are so good! Really cool to see him answer these questions, especially with historical context.
Do more of indian food, part 2 waiting
LOVED this video and cant wait for more videos of other cuisines!
Indian food just hits different! Lucky to have a large diaspora of Indians in Sydney. Harris Park is awesome!
Indian food in Western Canada is INSANELY popular. I love it, and it's a great cuisine for a spice addict such as myself.
This guy is great. As an Englishman, I'm very familiar with Indian food, or at least the version of it we have in the UK, and it's so interesting to hear an expert speaking so passionately about his (delicious) subject.
same love my CTM
Thanks for talking about the atrocity that is cheese on everything streetwise in India. And they have the audacity to call it "pizza vada pav" just because there is an inch of cheese melted on top of any dish
That seems like a you problem
I think it's a personal choice. I love Amul cheese, but my Mum wouldn't touch anything cheesy. In Mumbai, some people like cheese toast sandwich, cheese vada pav, and cheese pav bhaji, while others prefer the regular versions. I think they are all awesome. Plus, Amul cheese is pure vegetarian - perfect for those of us who can't eat fancy non-veg, beef rennet-based imported cheeses
I've seen that too 😂 and a mountain of cheese that is
i can understand that some people like it on vada paav but ive seen videos where they put cheese in misal paav as well bruh wtf 😭😭
@@indianjanesmithDairy products aren’t “veg”. 🙄
He’s so smart! I love how he goes into the history, regionality and diversity of India! He does a great job of explaining the complexity and richness of Indian cuisines! This is eduction 🫶🏽
Indians r poor don't use utensils 😅
I love how he shoed something like Bhel puri. People almost never talk about Indian snacks when it comes to street food.
I love it, although for me it's a whole meal. But then I put more vegetables like cucumber and tomato in it, so it became more like a salade. I had bought two Haldiram's packages. I'd like to find some of those sauce bottles next time so I don't have to make the whole package in one go.
There are 90,000 indian restaurants to around 14,000 McDonalds in the USA. Way to redefine popularity.
And Indian food also influenced portuguese cuisine - we have Chamuças, our version of Samosas, which are very similar
This was such a great video! I learned a ton. The host needs his own cooking show. ❤
I haven't had a lot of Indian food in my life but the passion this dude has for it makes me wanna try it out more. Plus it just looks really good too
it is a delight!
Start with vadapav. It's the dish he put a lot of cheese on. It is an iconic street food of Mumbai and often known as the "indian burger" (albeit pure vegetarian and much cheaper than meat burgers)
@@indianjanesmith Not as good as hamburgers. Would love if there was a meat filled one of it cause the buns tasted bland with the potatoes.
What a likeable dude, and great explanations!
Love this guy. Energetic and informative.
I don't know how true this is, but we were always told Indian people who use their hands to eat always use the right hand, because you wipe your butt with the left hand, which is true for the majority of people (right handed people).
It's more of a Persian/Islamic thing (eating only with the right hand and cleaning only with the left hand is a basic hadith/dictum/commandment of Islam), but it's a convention that is also adhered to in many parts of India, though not as strictly.
@@JivanPalnaww we have very few lefty in this country
As Hindus we eat with hands because each finger brings certain energy (like fore finger being Jupiter) to the food. It also helps enhance mind - body (stomach?) Connections & better feeling of fullness. Says so in ayurveda.
@@JivanPalit’s been a part of Indian culture for as long as the time goes back.Not a recent concept in Indian subcontinent.
@@JivanPal also before Islam conquered many regions - it has pagan cultures. Many pagan cultures are very similar to Indic cultures. So Islam simply absorbed it. That's all.
The concept of understanding how hands impact energy absorption is in ayurveda for thousands of years before even the advent of Islam. A lot of this concept also gave birth to mudras in yoga, mudras in bharatnatyam etc..
I really love this guy. A real expert encourages what's fun and doesn't gatekeep.
And thanks for mentioning the diversity of Indian food. There are so many differences, e.g. between maharashtrian, gujarati, punjabi, rajasthani, tamilian food that i have observed myself, both as a cook and a foodie...garam masala in punjabi, cumin in gujarati, curry leaves in tamilian, coconut in maharashtrian..all different, all wonderful...indian restaurants outside india serve only punjabi ("indian food")...such a pity
Most people forget to mention telugu cuisine tbh, while it's kinda same as tamil cuisine, telugu cuisine has more spice and flavours imo
@@Harshiahaha I personally love Andhra food because it's spiced with hot red chilli powder (the same reason why most people can't eat it)..I had a lovely thali in Bangalore 10+ yrs ago and still remember the tastes that made my tongue (and eyes!) water. And I recently discovered gongura pachadi - one of the best condiments I have ever eaten.
@@indianjanesmith yes! And that's one of the reasons why most of us telugu people miss telugu food when went to other states: it's not spicy enough!!
@@HarshiahahaIs Andhra food and Telugu food different? I have only once had a proper meal in Andhra, and that was in Pulivendla
@@aleenaprasannan2146 both are same, I just referred to as telugu cuisine as it is easier than mentioning both states names. Same food and habits are seen in both telangana and andhra, except a few regional dishes, which are popular in a specific region. Hyderabadi cuisine is a bit different tho, while it has all the telugu food due to telugu people and Nizam and persian influence due to the Nizam kings who ruled over hyderabad. Ofc Hyderabadi cuisine is also modified and adapted into other parts of andhra and telangana, and hence the popularity of Biryani and haleem!
Love the use of correct Indian map
Thanks for mentioning Bengal and our passion for sweets!! ❤❤
As a person who has lived in both Delhi and Mumbai for ten years(among other cities), I have to say Delhi is the pound for pound GOAT when it comes to food and it's not close.
What have you eaten in Delhi bro, I'm in Delhi rn and want to try out some great stuff
Chole bhature, Matar Kulcha and momos and parathas must have
Mumbai is just normal street food with excess of cheese, butter and weird stuffs.
Yep, Delhi hands down does street food better
finally somebody said it, this guys is saying things which looks pleasing to the ears and is very biased imo.
great ep but aww man wish he could've shared atleast a lil bit ab north east india too since its sucha unique and underrated part of India
you had me at the MAP....love when any youtuber/channel uses the actual map of INDIA.
To answer Charles Finch's question, the four indispensable Indian spice powders are cumin, coriander, turmeric, and chili-- preferably Kashmiri for its deep red color and low spice level. These four spices, along with chopped onions, ginger, and garlic, form the foundation of most curries.
I was amazed and excited to hear him mention his hometown. Thats where my mother's father was born in the 1870s.
Kudos for showing real accurate map of India
Absolutely fascinating! I love all this stuff.
It's wild to me that some Americans don't see Indian food as popular. It's like soccer/football all over again.
Alot of Americans don't even see Indians as Asian. Don't waste your life worrying about their ignorance
It’s becoming more popular here. I live in Florida and there are some excellent Indian restaurants near me. Even my boyfriend who is very picky about food eventually tried Indian and he loves it now
Couldn't have found a better person. All beautifully explained with history and no bias.
Loved this video. This guy is passionate about food, cooking n eating both. Very simple language, not at all pretentious. Overall great energy.
PS: I would search for his restaurant n definitely go there when i m in that area.
This guy's energy is just awesome
This dude said bombay's street food is better than delhi's, as a foreigner having lived in both the cities and beyond for a significant number of years, Delhi's food is hands down the best I have ever had not just restricted to India.
Yeah, Delhi is a foodie city
Love the explanations. One note on the word curry: it seems it was the Portuguese who first used it, borrowing the Goa term for the local spice blend in the 16th century. I had to look that up, but it appears in Martha Washington's cookbook which was mid to late 18th century.
Whenever I eat Indian, I always want naan with either seekh kebab or chicken tikka, or both. Chicken pakora is also pretty nice sometimes
My friend once said "Every cuisine has a chicken mcnugget equivalent." Chicken pakora has entered the chat. (or the chaat? 😁)
They're so tasty!
Ain't that a little dry, try something with a gravy to help the naan go down next time
Hands down one of the best interviews so far! Excellent in terms of quality of content 👏
I’m seeing a lot of similar comments, but it bears repeating. This guy is incredible! Great presentation style, a wealth of knowledge, and super charming.
10:18 some spices that can almost be used in any indian dish are coriander powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Just use it in this ratio 1 part chilli powder for 2 part coriander powder 1/2 part garam masala and turmeric in a pinch almost any dish will taste nice with this
This man is the perfect example of us Indians.. never knew him before this video but will be my favorite chef henceforth. He explains stuff very authentic and also makes fun , modern Indian relatable jokes
Love this video can have a series of this
I love Indian food ❤
Makes you get better grades in math too
Glad to see him use the actual Indian map. 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
As an Indian, I approve that caramelising Onions to perfection is the most time consuming, exhausting but coolest process in the making of a curry.
So nice to see someone who's not a snob about regional food
I'm proud of this guy's offense at chai = spice. Chai means tea. Masala chai means spiced tea.
Also, the secret to a good curry is - different spices and herbs have different cooking times and they need to be added during different phases of cooking. This is why "curry powder" does not give good curries.
I love this series ! Keep it up !
LOVED THIS
So grounded and down to earth.
Brilliant.
He forgot to say that paratha can be stuffed too! It can be filled with potatoes, paneer, radish, cauliflower, or fenugreen! Very yummy. Also, a lot of people don't use the word "curry" because it's a western thing.
I'm not sure about that. I do know that the Portuguese called it kari because they heard it in South India. The British changed the spelling to curry
@@coucoubrandy1079 'kadi' is a completely different dish.
@@RPKD88 I wrote kari with a r . Not kadi, I don't know what that is.
@@coucoubrandy1079 I know you did, but some words in certain Indian language are written with a d in place of r, such as Punjabi. Even then, it doesn't change the fact that the British coined the term curry, it's better to refer to dishes by their actual name instead of being lazy and classifying them as 'curry' since many Indians don't use that anyway lmao.
@RPKD88 sorry, I didn't know that
Love indian food but I don't know anybody else who does to go to dinner with me, so I learned to cook it for when I have the house to myself. I usually use cauliflower rice, and it's actually very similar without the carbs and arsenic that comes with rice.
Arsenic? What kind of poisonous rice have u been eating mate?! 😲 I am Indian - we cultivate and consume rice in massive quantities and I've never heard of arsenic in rice (or any arsenic-rice-related deaths!)
I've never heard of cauliflower rice either - it is not used in Indian cooking. I'd love to try it out though. If u are planning to make biryani, pulao or jeera rice, use Indian Basmati. For khichdi, use Indian short-grained rice like kolam or parimal. For plain steamed rice, any rice variety works.
Thank you for using a proper and complete map of India.
more of this guy please XD he does a good job at explaining and is pretty chill
This guy is awesome! Great attitude and very intelligent
Nope. Tonnes of false info, to mispronunciation. Archiving a load of random “info” isn’t smart. You’re both needing to brush up
Disappointing that you didn't acknowledge Northeast India and its cuisine, which in fact, is very distinct.
For that ne indians should influence rest of India, for that to happen catering business of ne side should prioritize other regions of india
@@stormgg4052 thanks
@@KooperHanghal99I agree. Maybe due it being less accessible to the world. It's not covered as much.
@@juxt_aposition9935 It's 2023. There's enough coverage to be at least mentioned in this video.
As a Indian I don't know much about north east cuisine 😢
Great answers! Thanks for talking about the diversity of Indian food behind chicken tikka masala. And also for saying that Indian food is not always super spicy in India.
This guy, made me proud! Gave the answers to all of the questions and even gave trivia`s here and there! Also people, CHAI is what we call TEA in INDIA, it should not be called CHAI TEA, just CHAI would be great!
People just love their CHAI TEA, along with their COFFEE COFFEE with some CREAM CREAM.
@@LeoTheSunHashira I absolutely loved this reference
There's different name's for it in different regions too
@@crimsonmatter I am not sure with other regions, but in Punjab, will call it just "Cha" without the letter 'i' at the end.
Roti: simple with nothing added to it(not even oil)
Paratha: what he said, but i prefer ghee on it😁😁😁
Naan: uses a slightly different flour(refined wheat flour or maida than roti)
Also Roti is a daily basis food, paratha is occasional, Naan is only when you eat in a restaurant/dhaba👀
Boy has his history mixed up. 3:00 says Portuguese gave Indians potatoes. But when he comes to samosas, he says that samosas are 1000 years old and traditionally have potatoes stuffing.
I think he meant the out covering
Well samosas traditionally were filled with meat and dried fruits and baked. The version of samosa you see now in India (potato filled and fried) is a recent variety.
I put this right up there with the James Hoffman episode. This was fantastic. This is an instant subscribe, if he had his own channel.
Nooooope. I've lived in Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh. Delhi has hands down the best food in India.
Live in Kolkata and reassess 😂
Great video, I hope TH-cam recommends this to as many people as possible. Loved it and Love Indian Food!!
Not just cheese, Indian sreetfood (North and West India specifically), these days, is loaded with mayonnaise, ketchup, and butter. Mayonnaise in particular is not healthy, especially the veg version as it is an oil emulsion-lot of oil.
14:32 nah nah disagreeing here Briyani tastes even better with the aromatic short grain seeraga samba rice. Only basmati is used for briyani is a myth. Quite a number of biryani use rices like kollam, seeraga samba, kaima rice etc
Go Meherwan!! Always blasting minds with your knowledge!!
bruh, mumbai ain't the capital of Indian street food, Delhi & Kolkata have equal, if not better claims to the same...
This was such an informative video. What a great human. :)
Great overview. One thing I wanted to point out though is that the presenter here states that "Unttl the 15th century, Indian food wasn't that spicy"! Wrong, this may be true of some parts of western India but not the south as they have enjoyed black pepper for thousands of years and were exporting it to Rome as early as 2400 years ago.
Black Pepper has no capsein, the effect has some similarities but it is not the same thing, it is drastically different to actual spicy food.
@@MarcosPrevitali yes, I agree that "capsaicin" containing plants including chilli peppers were introduced much later and have been adopted into Indian cuisine as well and for the "heat", but one has to remember that the word "spice" refers primarily to black pepper, cardamom, garlic, ginger, turmeric, fenugreek and coriander all of which were used in cooking in India several thousand years ago. There is a big difference between using plants to "heat up" your food versus "spicing" things up! I simply wanted to point that out. Cheers!
@@MarcosPrevitali Actually, food spiced with black pepper which contains piperin will "heat" your entire mouth (cheeks, throat, tongue etc.). Its the reason westerners say the heat creeps up on you. Food spiced with chillies which contains capsaicin only heat your tongue. Thats kind of the reason mexican or spanish (highly chilli based) feels so different to other indian foods.
Excellent stuff. Well done and very informative
I’m so glad I’m eating Indian tonight. I’m suddenly so hungry.
These wired series are absolutely excellent. Love this guys passion.
Amy's also makes very good frozen Indian dinners.
Loved this!
This was superb. I just know Chef Meherwan's food is to die for.
He did a fantastic job for an introduction to indian cuisine. Ofcourse not everyone knows or is right about everything (maybe why he didn't mention north-east). But this was a perfect 'indian food for beginners' video
I happened to have made 2 different kinds of Bhel Pury recently. It all came about accidentally. A couple of months back I bought what I thought were just some crispy mix, but when I opened the pack there were several packets of stuff in there. I didn't know quite what to do with it and put it aside to look up for it and of course forgot. Recently I went to a different store and made the same mistake, only a slightly different version.
I then remembered that had a previous package and thought it time to look it up on TH-cam. Most of those video's are in an Indian language, but there were a couple in English and combining all the information I gathered felt confident enough to try to make them. They were a bit more complicated that the one shown by this chef, like adding more vegetables (cucumber, tomatoes and maybe some other stuff that I can't think of now). It was delicious and I highly recommend it.
U can also get packed pani puri water and buy puris. It's a healthy snack.
Great video. Thanks!
Eating with hands actually is the Bharatiya way to eat. Biological reason is that eatign with hands makes your digestive system be prepared for meal, better digestion and makes you feel full after you eat with hands. And no, many Bharatiyas will actually judge you for not eating with hands, like my mother. 😂
Also, one of the rice varities is a rice which is unique to the Bharatiya state of Odisha. It's called 'Usuna Chaula'. It is rice which is boiled before sold. Anothe type of rice is 'Arua Chaula'. It is the common rice that you see being eaten by Bharatiyas in common outside of Odisha. Odias eat it either always, on any holy days like 'Sankranti'.
And it's fine if he said otherwise as culture in various regions in Bharat are different in every aspect of life. So, don't take this seriously. I am just writing about my region.