What's for Dinner, Wed., Aug. 27, 2025 [View all]

Everything is Indian is a colorful cookbook by Justin Narayan, who has Figian-Indian heritage. I checked it out from the library because I a) like Indian food; b) was so attracted to the cookbook's liveliness and color.

Every page is a different color! There are many photographs, too, not only of the dishes, but with the author and his family. Some are very funny, like one with his Dad. There are 90 recipes in the book, many of them family recipes. He will sometimes tell little stories about the particular recipe and the cook in the family who made it.

From this I decided to make Dhal Bhat. Dhal Bhat has red and yellow lentils, turmeric, tomato, carrot, onion, garlic, cumin and fennel seeds. From the pictures online and in his book, it looks like the kind of dish where you have the dahl bhat, but you flavor it with different items, such as coriander chutney, pickled onion, or some rice (basmati).



The only ingredient I don't have is the bird's eye chili. If I'm by the greengrocer today, though, I can maybe get one there. They look like this:



I'm making coriander chutney, too.

We have an Ethiopian restaurant in the next town over that has similar dishes. I love dining like this. Every bite, depending on how you combine it with a condiment, is like a different dish.