a food everyone should try at least once goat balls is one goat brains is another one and some of the insides you know the animal has sacrificed their lives so you know nose to tail let's try to eat everything that's inside misunderstanding and that's putting it like very mildly our food is very spice forward hi I'm Alexandra Lloyd a French Canadian who's called Birmingham Alabama home since 2,017 welcome to from where to here the podcast that celebrates the rich diversity of languages cultures and the stories that connect us all each month I'll sit down with inspiring guests from different backgrounds to explore their cultures languages and tackle some fun in our truth there or debunk segment whether you're a language enthusiast a culture lover or just curious about the world you're in the right place let's dive into your next favorite cultural adventure every dish on this menu crossed the border before it crossed your plate immigrant stable finds the story in between oh my god oh yeah we're making this the real thing I got those printed today that's awesome for the occasion where are you originally from originally from India actually which part of India I am from the eastern part a town called Ranchi small town but I was sent away at age 10 to boarding schools last 5 6 years of my life I was in the north I went to a Catholic school for I think I went to Catholic school all my life from kindergarten to college Catholic kindergarten Catholic elementary Catholic boarding school and college how did that shape the person that you are today amazing yeah they were amazing there were no violations hahaha we did good okay what this reminds you of what dish reminds me of home on our menu or anything both you know the street food that you get on the streets in India is only available there like you can't replicate that the water the vegetables the spice like it you just cannot replicate it so when I go home and I tasted we're like 80% there and like some of our stuff that we do so that the balance of the 20 does never happen so that but apart from the dishes yeah Indian street food really kind of my nose uh kebabs the kebabs that India has so those two things one ingredient you can't live without salt salt salt any specific type of salt no it's just regular salt you can't have food without salt you don't need any other spice as long as it's salty sweet or savoury savoury I actually like the combo of both but savoury what's the first thing people should order here a burrito a chicken tikka masala burrito or a hella vegan burrito that's my favorite you put a samosa inside the burrito oh really it's just brilliant it's it's a well I'm gonna make an order after this it's amazing a food everyone should try at least once a food everyone should try at least once goat balls is one goat brains is another one uh and some of the insides you know the animal has sacrificed their lives so you know nose to tail let's try to eat everything that's inside can you tell me more about the goat balls yes my grandma my mom's mother used to make me goat balls in a pakora format if she would fry it in a batter and that would be a four PM snack with chai or we'd have chopped up goat balls over toast with some lemon for breakfast amazing and then goat brains is just another level if your restaurant had a theme song what would it be we have a theme song what is it Curry up now Curry up now freeze from the streets we base you up now it's amazing you come up with that yes are you a singer too no hell no you saw me sing what's one thing people don't know about your culture you know that we're not all vegetarian that we're not all this is a tough question hmm that's a good one already yes but we're also it's a very modern country now like it wasn't at some point but we're there I mean it's what the fourth largest economy now in the world or the fifth largest economy it's gonna be the third largest next year I think there's a lot happening in India that people don't know about it's not all dirty and it's not all you know the food doesn't make you sick the food is so fresh because we don't have cold chain as much so we have to just buy stuff that they're gonna sell in one day or half a day and then we go buy more so there's some preconceived notions about you know dirty and this and that it's it's there but but it's not like everywhere yeah do you have different levels of that absolutely anywhere you go finish this sentence food is food is everything to me that's what I live for has it always been like that it's always been like that I grew up in a very food forward family ours was literally the party house in town every night we had people over I was making Campari soda and Campari spritzer people when I was 7 years old it was amazing my mom used to do cooking classes so I was eating Mexican food in Ranchi small little town at age 7 at age eight we were eating pizza we would make our own pizza at home so just things like that so yeah we come from a very food forward family that sounds yeah awesome it's difficult to eat other people's food sometimes though so it's spoiling to you cause when I go out I'm like this food sucks yeah you appreciate and you know what good home cooking one word in your language for this food that doesn't translate into English oh my god this is a tough one it is we'll come back to it let me think let me think yeah yeah why Birmingham why not number one it's a good food city it needed Indian I don't think Indian food is doing justice to Indian food here and I mean you know when people talk about Indian food Indian food is like we're only doing maybe 10 maybe 5% of it Indian food in every state in India is different you know my mom's from Kashmir which is way up north bordering Pakistan and China and the food's completely different so we eat that at home a lot we have one item from there on the menu uh what is it lamb Rogan Josh and it's very authentic Kashmiri but like chicken tikka masala was not even in India 20 years ago we didn't even know what it was it was invented in Scotland that people don't know that but this is the truth it was made in Scotland we have butter chicken which is also created in the forties but like when you go to South India I mean there's eight different cuisines there there's four states five states they all have different like every 20 30 miles there's different food so it's very hard to say we do Indian food we do very little part of Indian food interesting and going back to your mom cooking when you were very very young what was the first dish you cook yourself do you remember first dish I cook myself was probably a pizza actually we would have this pizza night maybe Sunday night I don't remember the exact but you know we'd she'd make the dough and then we'd go into the kitchen and do the whole thing you can personalize it too yes so fun what's your favorite thing about this city I like the weather not withstanding the rain right now but the weather for the most part it's been good I've been here three times now it gets hot but I think in the evenings there's some pleasant stuff happening I haven't found good food here yet so that's why you started your own restaurant well that maybe but no we had good tacos yesterday that was actually good I was very surprised pleasantly surprised I don't have any other favorites yet sorry okay okay okay we want honesty here what do you hope people feel when they walk in you're not welcomed for one and not overwhelmed we don't want people to feel silly or or dumb or for lack of a better word stupid when they're placing an order you know when they're looking at a menu I wanna say OK let me get a bowl I know what a bowl is it'll have rice or you know we don't do salad but rice or if they want street food there's four things on on 4+ there's other street food classics but the burrito is you know it's it breaks the barrier of entry so you just go in you order a burrito everybody knows what that is the bowls and then you know we've got things like fried ravioli everybody knows what a ravioli is you know and then the wraps we've got a couple of wraps on the menu we've got a 550 calorie menu so you know people if you wanna eat whatever you want if you want keto or gluten free we've got that so something for everyone we'd like to keep it like that yes if someone came here for the first time what story would you want them to leave with that we started on a food truck way back when I was 39 years old I'm gonna be 56 this year no so it's 17 long years I've grown up with Korea now right I've matured with it so we try to bring you know we welcome everybody obviously any any size any color any gender whatever your beliefs are you know you're welcome we don't judge anything or anybody so we want them to leave feeling that way but at the end of the day they come here for one reason they come here for food and we just want to wow them and delight every guest every single time and that's how I want them to leave that's beautiful now tell me as we wrap this rapid fire what's the most misunderstood thing about Indian food for people who did not grow up with it spicy our food is not spicy it is a complete misunderstanding and that's putting it like very mildly our food is very spice forward and you know chili is just one of the spices at least 100 spices that's available but you know turmeric cumin coriander star anise cinnamon I mean there's just so many spices that we put in our food there's two different cardamoms that we use we use two different cinnamons even um two types of cinnamon two different cinnamons yeah one's very sweet one's not as sweet so yeah that's the first time I hear that yeah yeah yeah there's cinnamon that comes from Sri Lanka there's cinnamon that comes from India there's all there's all kinds of different cinnamon uh or even the Asian cinnamon is a little different but yeah I mean the black pepper I mean there's just so many spices that that end up in a dish um but it's not spicy that I mean it can be spicy there's food that is spicy but it doesn't have to it doesn't have to be and it shouldn't be it should be you know it should be spice is there to to be an accompaniment to the food right it shouldn't take over the food same thing with the spice sometimes you're just eating like you know some of those really spicy chicken wings I love them but you're just tasting spice you're not tasting anything else so yeah I think spice is the most misunderstood thing about Indian food that it's too spicy no I wanna know if you can only pick three spices in your kitchen what would these be is salt a spice or salt is a seasoning so I would do cumin coriander salt if that's a spice uh but if it's not if it's a seasoning then I would do cumin coriander and garam masala which is a mix of seven or eight different old spices that we grind up oh okay okay I see so that's a cheat what does a typical Sunday table look like back home what's always there Sunday table back home back home India or back home here both most of us have most of the families will eat non vegetarian food maybe twice or thrice a week maximum three times a week it's a very veggie forward food so lunchtime is different to dinner and nowadays because of work people don't really eat lunch together families don't eat lunch together we had one rule at home which was

00 or whatever I can do whatever I want but I have to be home for dinner right for dinner for dinner you've got to be home and eat with the family and that's what we have here as well but for the Sunday so in India growing up it was dosa which is South Indian food we would go out for dosa with my grandparents or with my parent you know that was every Sunday uh that was a custom that we even do here but we don't do it every Sunday it's just hard but if it was available next to my house I would probably do it every Sunday but here at home our daughter we have three daughters they're all in college now one's come back home and lives with us but Sunday night is usually a mellow kind of uh night where we're eating a lot of leftovers we just want to get rid of all the food that we've cooked we cook every day wow uh once a week we'll probably eat out but every day we cook so that's that there's always baking going on on Sunday so somebody or the other is baking there's always cocktails being made or there's wine being opened and yeah we do a Sunday night kind of you know sometimes we'll call some friends for an early dinner that's what Sunday looks like that sounds amazing yeah you really know how to take food and the drinks and everything to have a gathering and connect with family and friends and we we like to sounds like that's at the center of your life yes it is in a beautiful way it is and I have to answer one more question what was that question again oh the previous one no there was one earlier that I couldn't answer yeah that doesn't translate to anything yeah yeah uh let me see one word in your language for this food that doesn't translate into English I I appreciate you trying this one's really tough no it is yeah I have no answer for this sorry OK no please don't be sorry no this was great I fail on this one well that's a wrap really thank you thank you Akash it's amazing I appreciate it thank you yes thank you so much so the one word that doesn't translate to any other language relating to Indian food but it's got many other meanings is jhuta J h o t t a which literally means you don't wanna eat somebody who's somebody's somebody else's food so if you're not a sharing guy or you don't wanna eat from somebody else's plate but it also means Judah also means liar so no that's yeah it's a fun word that wraps up our conversation with Akash Kapoor from Curry Up now if you loved hearing about the gold balls today wait until you hear the languages we get to speak into next time at Joseph Stable bringing Mediterranean Lebanese food to Birmingham grab the samosa stuffed burrito at 4 to 5 20th Street South in Birmingham every plate has a story let's find the next one together