This is VERY sad news. Ahmed Aslam Ali, the inventor of Chicken Tikka Masala has died. I’ve had a love affair with Indian food since I went over to India as a Colgate University student in my last senior year semester in 1972. I loved the intricate tastes of the foods. And I especially LOVED spicy food.
I interned on The Hindustan Times newspaper as part of my final semester independent study project. A young Indian who I met in New Delhi took me to a resturant and ordered food, and ordered it hot.
“Do you mind eating hot food?” “No,” I said.
We started to eat.
“Is this too hot for you?” “No..” “Eat some more..” I did. “Is it hot now?” No. “I’m a failure as an Indian! Get me WATER!” he shouted as the waiter filled his glass and he quicklychugged it down. This is a true story,
I went back to India September 1973-May 1975, this time as a freelance reporter briefly credentialled with the New Haven Register — and then with the (now defunct) Chicago Daily News. My love of Indian food grew by the da. Once I returned to the US in December 1978 after moving to Spain where I was stringer for The Christian Science Monitor I started cooking with bottled Indian food sauces and going to Indian restuarants again. (My favorite brand is Patak.)
As a reporter on the San Diego Union, one of my favorite stories was when I discovered a small Indian restaurant, Desmond’s, in what had once been a dry cleaning store in Oceanside. It was the first Indian restaurant in San Diego County. After my story it’s business greatly increased (and there are now tons of great Indian restaurants here).
I took my reporter colleague and friend Greg Gross there. Greg like it hot. Desmond said: “Do you want it hot? Or do you want the rocket fuel?” Like many Indian restaurant owners he didn’t want to lose customers whose culinary aspirations might be bigger than their spicereality tolerance level.
“I want the rocket fuel.” Greg ordered it and ate, saying how great it was, as sweat poured down his face.
I tried the Desmond’s rocket fuel and was OK. But when I ordered Indian food extra spicy at another Indian restaurant I was propelled like a rocket from the toilet.
Desmond’s, which later moved to La Jolla (it later closed), was always a unique experience, You’d sit at your trable and some diners would ask you: “Did you try the rocket fuel?” Of course not all Indian cusine is hot –you give the spice level to the waiter if you’re in an Indian restaurant)–and I also fell in love with Bindi, Lamb Curry, and a long list of superb vegetarian and meat dishes. Vegetarian cooking is now booming in the United States but years ago American vegetarian food was hideously bland when compared to Indian vegetarian food. Because India had centuries of developing superb meals with veggies. American vegetarian food was once to Indian food as grocery store roast beef lunch meat was to prime rib.
There has also been an enormous growth in the popularity of Indian food in the United States over the past 40 years. Indeed, I went to Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Since I graduated many moons ago that beautiful village in upstate New York how is home to the Hamilton Royal India Grill. In San Diego County, where I live, there is now a vast array of Indian restaurants from small ones to upscale sit down restaurants. Indian food is popular on Doordash.
Indian food is now ranked the fifth best cuisine in the world. Chicken Tikka Masala is Britain’s favorite Indian dish. There remains some dispute over who invented it. No matter: I mourn the loss of someone who helped spread the glories of Indian food and it’s wonderful array of spices. As I write this some Tikka Masala left over from a San Diego Indian restaurant now rests in my fridge.
Drat! Now I’m HUNGRY and have to finish off that Chicken Tikka Masala…
Photo 151302223 / Chicken Tikka Masala © Nadianb | Dreamstime.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.