A Taste of India

Dining at the Spice Shop

by Roane Beard

If the Spice Shop had been stolen off the streets of Calcutta and dropped just behind Mitsogoshi department store in Kaohsiung, the dining experience wouldn’t be much different. The first thing you notice as you walk through the door is the aroma of the spices that give the restaurant its name. Garam masala, turmeric, coriander, and the other spices that have traditionally given Indian food its unique flavor are imported whole and ground on site. The scent permeates the place. Hindu imagery, along with the gods Ganesh, Lashmi, Krishna, and Rava watch over diners as traditional Indian music lends its presence to the dining experience.

“We call the restaurant the Spice Shop because curry, in the Indian language, means a spice flavor,” says Ronny, the Spice Shop’s owner. “Not really hot, but spicy. When you enter the spice houses in India, you can smell the spices. When you come in here, you can smell the spices.” Ronny’s the owner, manager, and head chef at the spice shop, and knows what he’s talking about. He grew up Chinese in Calcutta, working in his parent’s restaurant. He started cooking there when he was 16. After moving to Taipei about 10 years ago, he worked successively for the Bankers Club, Sherwood Hotel, and the Pig and Whistle. His stint at the Pig and Whistle moved him to Kaohsiung. When his brother opened the Spice Shop I in Taichong a few years later, Ronny saw his chance, and opened the Spice Shop II shortly thereafter.

In addition to an extensive use of spices, Indian food traditionally uses a wide range of products in its distinctive cooking. Milk products such as gee and dahi (clarified butter and curd, respectively) and an extensive selection of breads (of which naan, a flat tandoori baked wheat bread, is the best known) are common throughout India. Of course a wide variety of seafood, meats and vegetables make up the staples. As a country with a diverse ethnic mix and long history, India’s cuisine has long struck a balance between vegetarian and non-vegetarian cuisine, and the Spice Shop keeps that tradition.

The food reflects the care taken with its preparation. In keeping with its name, the Spice Shop serves a wide variety of traditional Indian food from different regions of the country. Chicken and naan are served hot out of the tandoori, the famous charcoal oven widely used for Indian cooking. Naturally, there are many different kinds of curries, most not recognizable as such in the conventional sense, but all delicious; bhaigan bharta, masur dhaal, chana masala, and jhal fraljie to name a few. That translates to eggplant curry, lentil curry, chickpea curry, and pan-fried spicy vegetable curry.

“Chinese people don’t know much about Indian food. So they just eat curry with rice. But the best way to eat curry is with Indian bread, naan. So the curry we make is with different flavors, and must be eaten with naan,” says Ronny. Naan is frequently eaten not just as a side to the curry, but is used as a utensil as well, scooping up the curry to be eaten directly on the bread. A well rounded meal will include one or two curries, an entrée such as tandoori chicken, an order of naan, and perhaps a yogurt drink, lhassi, to wash it down. You, of course, should decide the specifics of your meal, and the Spice Shop offers a wide selection to choose from.

“Every dish is a separate dish in India, so we have different choices,” Ronny says. “We have two types of beef, two types of chicken, and three types seafood. We have spicy and non-spicy and just a little bit of spicy. We really don’t have a lot of really hot food; the spices are subtler than that.”

The Spice Shop II is located at 478 Kuangsi Road behind Mitsogoshi Japanese Department Store in Kaohsiung. They are open daily from 11:30 AM—2:30 PM; and 5:30 PM—10:00 PM. Call 07-5362299 for more info.