Back in the 1980s, when I lived in New York City, you could find between 20 to 30 Indian Restaurants on this one block in Alphabet City (Southern Manhattan, East of Greenwich Village). A friend who taught himself Indian cooking explained to me that the reason these restaurants were so affordable (OK, cheap, I was a starving student back then) was that they all bought the spices in bulk for all of the restaurants (super-wholesale), then divided them up among themselves. Indian curries and sauces, he explained, use mostly the same spices, only in different combinations and proportions. I had always found that idea fascinating, as I could taste the difference between one restaurant's curry and another's.
We are delighted to have a unique addition to our already large collection of cookbooks: Masaleydaar: classic Indian spice blends by Nandita Godbole. More than just a cookbook, you can read about the cultural history behind each region's cuisine, recipes for all different kinds of meals, and, of course, how to blend the spices. This cookbook is the only one in our collection that covers the fine details of how to blend Indian spices and how they differ region by region and dish by dish.
That block of inexpensive Indian restaurants no longer exists, or at least not as I remember it from my time living in New York City. Oh well .
