By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Taichung (Taiwan), Oct 23 (IANS) Dishes such as butter chicken, naan and dal makhani are favoured by Taiwanese people at Indian restaurants, say restaurateurs in Taiwan.
"During the weekends it is the Taiwanese people who mostly come to our restaurant. During the week days, it is the Indian tourists or businessmen who come here," Sophia, partner in Bollywood Indian Restaurant here, told IANS.
According to her, the restaurant has around 100 covers and plans to open the outlet's third branch in Taipei.
"We are looking for a suitable location in Taipei to open our third outlet," Sophia said.
The second outlet is also in Taichung. Sophia said there are around five or six Indian restaurants in Taichung.
"Taiwanese people like butter chicken, korma, naan and other dishes. They also eat spicy food," Dev Singh, restaurant's chef, told IANS.
Singh said he came here around four years ago from Chandigarh.
According to Sophia, the restaurant offers three levels of spiciness -- low, medium and hot -- for the guests to choose from.
The menu card is also elaborate as it is in restaurants in India.
Echoing Sophia and Singh was Deepak, the chef at the 70 covers Maharaja Indian Restaurant in Tainan city.
"It is the local people who mostly come and eat here. We also get Indian tourists or businessmen," Deepak said.
"We are here in search of a component vendor for our company in India. For the past three days we somehow managed. Somebody told us about Maharaja Indian Restaurant and we are here," an Indian visitor waiting for food at the outlet told IANS.
He was here with his colleague. It was evident they were really thrilled to have some familiar food after a gap of three days.
According to Deepak, the spice levels in the dishes are adjusted as per the preference of Taiwanese guests.
Officials at both the restaurants told IANS that the ingredients like spices and others are brought from India.
The outlets largely serve North Indian dishes like roti, naan, butter chicken, lamb curry, chicken curry and others. South Indian delicacies are absent from their menu.
"Cooking South Indian dishes like dosa, idly, sambar, vada and other items need space," Deepak added.
However, the Bollywood Indian Restaurant has Madras Curry -- chicken/fish -- dish.
While food at both the outlets is good, the price may seem to be on high side as compared to prices at which the dishes are available in India.
But that is the price one has to pay if one wants home-like food several thousand miles away from home.
(V. Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in).
