My Analysis on the Indian Restaurant Boom in Cebu City

I wasn't always a fan of Indian food (at first). I remembered eating in an Indian restaurant before that didn't serve good quality food. However, I had made some friends with some Filipino-Indians during my stay in the University of San Carlos (USC) as a business administration student. I finally at the house of an Indian friend of mine. I tasted some of their food which more mostly meat dishes though I prefer the vegetarian food routine. Some Indian restaurants popped during the 2010s though I preferred halal restaurants. Indian restaurants usually don't serve beef because most of the owners are Hindus. Hindus don't eat beef because cows are considered sacred animals to them. I remembered that some Indians protested against McDonald's due to the beef problem in the international marketing class. As courtesy, please don't ask if there's beef in their restaurant.

Mr. India, now Bollywood Tandoor

I was soon an MBA student in USC in 2011. Soon enough, Mr. India opened in 2012 in Gaisano Country Mall. The place is owned by Soni Vasnani whose children are rather fluent in Bisaya. The restaurant was a peak of curiosity. I admit, I almost didn't want to try it because of my bad experience in an Indian restaurant I don't want to mention its name. I did try the food there eventually and enjoyed it.

Later, the Gaisano Country Mall branch shut down some time after I got my MBA degree. Vasnani closed down the branch when he opened Bollywood Tandoor. Speaking of which, the very place where Bollywood Tandoor stands is where Dakimong used to stand. I wonder what led to Dakimong's closure as a foreign investor? Instead, Bollywood Tandoor took over that spot ever since then. I usually ate vegetarian food in Mr. India. Later, I tend to eat vegetarian food in Bollywood Tandoor such as their delicious bindhi masala (Indian pinakbet) and chole batura (a dish made of chickpeas and puffed bread).

I think the reason why Bollywood Tandoor got established was because Mr. India was having too many customers. If there are more customers then it's time to build a bigger place or another branch, right? However, rather than build a branch, they chose to build a bigger venue to accommodate more people. I could remember taking out stuff from Bollywood Tandoor and there were some unused packages of Mr. India used to wrap the goods. I could even remember seeing the Mr. India signboard in an earlier visit set aside.

The South Indian restaurants popped in

Though, there was the competition of Cherry's the Spice in Banilad too when Bollywood opened. I tried Cherry's the Spice which is Hyderabadi-style cooking. It won several awards in Sun Star. Also, there's Hyderabad Dine-In too. Its owner Reddy Katkuri Prakash serves a different variety--South Indian food. South Indian food has been known to be rather strong. True, customers could have their orders modified for the Filipino taste. The differences can be startling though. South Indian cooking tends to use coconut milk. If I'm not wrong, coconut milk is usually added to South Indian seafood. Personally, I don't really find myself looking for Indian seafood. However, I think a lot of Filipino customers are fond of it based on my observation. It seems that seafood biryani and seafood kebabs are popular choices among Filipinos. I didn't immediately take a liking for South Indian food especially with it being spicier than usual.

At that time, I didn't bother to understand the differences between North Indian and South Indian cooking. It's pretty much like how the lechon in Manila and the lechon in Cebu are prepared differently. Both regions had their differences. So, I ended up realizing that South Indian restaurants may actually prepare meat dishes better. For one, I enjoy South Indian mutton and chicken dishes. The same happened to me when I ate in Bharat Spice in I.T. Park. Bharat Spice is owned by Vijay Vasandani. Bharat Spice's best dishes for me are the mutton and the chicken. I observed that like the previous places--Filipino customers tend to order seafood dishes along with chicken.

I would think there's a feeling of familiarity as to why the South Indian restaurants that serve even more intense food survive. For example, samosa can be called as empanada. Ordering chicken samosa would provide a different twist to the traditional chicken empanada. Couple it along with some fish or shrimp biryani. If I'm not wrong, South Indian lentil masala tends to use coconut milk which some Filipinos cook their mongo (which is also called mung dal, dal is bean in Indian) with coconut milk. The tandoor chicken would be an alternative way to prepare lechon manok with an Indian twist. I guess that these dishes manage to keep Indian restaurants alive--by providing some dishes that are popular among Filipinos. Some of the desserts might feel familiar to Filipinos like payasam is benignit or falooda is halo-halo. Though, the only Indian restaurant I know that serves falooda is Bollywood Tandoor which isn't Hyderabad-style cooking.

The arrival of the vegetarian restaurant, Little India Healthy Cuisine may also be because of this Indian restaurant boom

Little India Healthy Cuisine is founded by Raj Prasad and his Filipino wife, Mona Prasad. Unlike the other Indian restaurants--they serve sattvic vegetarian meals. Sattvik is the philosophy of eating like a Brahmin or a Yogi. It's also pretty much the diet of the Buddhist monks. That's why the branch in Diliman may also get a visit from Buddhist priests and nuns (who usually prepare Chinese vegetarian food) from time to time. Sattvic also means the complete absence of pungent spices and alcohol. That's why, unlike other Indian restaurants, they also don't serve alcohol.

Pretty much, to understand the concept of sattvic--you may want to listen to this video by the late Ven. Master Sheng Yen. The video discusses why onion and garlic are also not eaten in Buddhist temples. You may want to watch the video first before reading through the next paragraph. If not, then you can go ahead and read.

The restaurant did manage to click and establish two branches--one in One Pavilion Mall (OPM) and the other in SSY Lahug. Both places are considerably smaller in size than Bollywood Tandoor and Bharat Spice. Like Hyderabad Dine-In (which also opened a branch in Banawa after having a branch in Talamban), the space isn't so huge per branch. I wonder if the owners themselves were aware of the boom in Indian restaurants in Cebu City. I was wondering if the absence of garlic and onion in Little India Healthy Cuisine may have made the taste more tolerable to the Filipino palate. That's just my assumption though that the absence of both spices may have made it milder. Garlic and onion together with garam masala could make an intense combination.

So, this also provided an alternative path to trying Indian food. For some, Hyderabad-style cooking might be too intense (though you can request for less spicy) so Little India offers a milder option. Not too spicy yet one can enjoy its spice. I think I tend to enjoy the soya meat biryani over the use of real meat for biryani in Indian cuisine. I tend to prefer meatless samosas dipped in tamarind sauce even when I also enjoyed mutton samosa from South Indian restaurants. As of late, I think Indian vegetarian tends to be my favorite as of late. I guess it's because I seek to eat less meat and more vegetables too though I still eat more meat whenever I'm stuck with heavy tasks. As of right now, I personally recommend eating at Little India Healthy Cuisine though I also enjoyed the others too.

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Yes, we should never forget what history teaches us. A classmate of mine, back in high school, wrote a simple and blunt essay called "History: A Teacher". I doubt he still has a soft copy, given it was already more than 20 years ago. I'd like to quote Duterte critic Andrew James Masigan wrote this in Philippine Star --something that should remain relevant: I would never undervalue the 1987 Constitution. It dismantled the legal framework of a repressive regime and established the democratic institutions we enjoy today. For this, I am grateful. The 1987 Constitution was crafted with the best of intentions. It sought to put the Filipino first in all aspects of governance and to level the playing field amongst sectors and peoples. But it is far from perfect. It failed to consider the importance of foreign capital and technologies and the stiff competition we would have to face to obtain them. In short, its economic provisions were short-sighted . So despite the Constitut...

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