Hacker News Reader

Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

Indian food is labor intensive and uses expensive ingredients. Restaurants are also low margin businesses that don't scale well and are super risky, not something I'd advise someone to do unless they have a passion for it and ability to fail and carry on with life.

I have not been to a single Indian restaurant that can compare to a home cooked Gujarati meal, especially made by someone who grew up there.

View on HN

I'd be thrilled if there were some restaurants that passed a much lower bar than that. I don't agree about expensive ingredients. Lots of restaurants (not all!) have figured out how to serve non-spoiled vegetables. When I lived in Singapore I lived near (and patronized regularly) a bunch of Indian restaurants that did that without refrigeration (at 1° N latitude).

The labor costs are an issue. I cooked a curry with garden vegetables and Gulf shrimp over the weekend, and it took over an hour (perhaps it would have been unpalatable to a real Indian person, but three hillbillies from the Ozarks liked it just fine). However, it's possible to purchase e.g. frozen okra that's already sorted and chopped.

But yeah restaurants are difficult. Way too much competition in that space unless you really like running a restaurant. Chinese-Americans seem to have had some success, however.

For home cooking, pressure cooking makes Indian meals much easier. In a restaurant you'd presumably make big batches

Pressure cookers make lots of stuff easier! They don't chop up vegetables though...

> Indian food is labor intensive and uses expensive ingredients

Labor intensive yes, but expensive ingredients? Maybe saffron, but it's used very sparingly in only a few dishes, and a little goes a long way.

Generally, vegetables are more expensive than grains and more perishable.

By mass, Indian food is mostly grains and pulses (Rice, wheat, and split peas).

You should try Rajdhani in Artesia, CA if you get a chance. But that's the only one I have found.

Or Shahnawaz, not too far away.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com