(5) Spicing up my life with Indian cuisine: In the eyes of the beholder

(5)

After such a successful dinner outing with my family at the last Indian cuisine restaurant, I decided to go once more on this cultural quest, just this time I ordered more mild foods. I was more comfortable the second time around with respect to knowing a little bit about what the dishes looked like, foods that I enjoyed and didn’t, how to order, practiced more dipping and scooping, and generally understood the authenticity of the atmosphere. However I found myself questioning what exactly did I like about this place? This restaurant seemed to have a strong community. Everyone that walked in seemed to be a regular customer, as if they were saying “I’ll have the usual, thank you”. It was popular, most of the tables were filled, waiters and waitresses were constantly walking around busy, everyone generally looked happy to be out, happy with their food, and happy with the service. So why did I feel like I was being uniquely authentic? Yes Indian food is out of my comfort zone of food choices but why is it that I deem it so unique and individualized if it seems to be so popular among the people? Our constant quest for authenticity and exclusivity for distinguishing ourselves as individuals is a concept that I have yet to grasp. Is it actually unique? What makes this restaurant so authentic? Fully dependent on all five senses, I started focusing, beginning intra-personally first.

• Sight: dim lighting, candles lit, elephant statues, other unrecognizable statues, unique paintings on the walls, the look of saucy foods, families sitting at dinner tables sharing food and enjoying each other’s presence.
• Smell: The spicy scent of the food
• Hear: Indian music lightly playing in the background drowned out by random conversations, yet surprisingly wasn’t all that loud and distracting to my own conversation with my sister
• Feel: Overall a calming effect washed over my entire body (probably because I rely heavily on my sight) heating the sweet sense of differentiation and destroying the feeling of mass production and commercialization.

In my opinion the message is in the medium of this restaurant, saying to its clientele to come experience the serenities of India while you eat. I thought I escaped the mass regulations and productions of fast-food, commercialized culture, but authentic Indian food has become its own massive cultural expression. The restaurant played with all my senses in order to manipulate the feelings of escaping commercialized productions like Harvey’s or McDonalds. I was onto something I could feel it.

Later that day I was buying groceries and low and behold homemade butter chicken in a jar for your authentic enjoyment. I laughed! Authentic?!? ……I bought the jar. Instructions were basically put into a two-step meal:

1. Sauté the chicken
2. Add the sauce in the jar to the sautéed chicken.

A classic commercialized and originally authentic dish made into a two-step cooking process for the “restaurant-type” results.