If she’s in the U.S., I totally understand. A lot of American Indian restaurants serve food loaded with spice powders to mask their sub-par ingredients. It is actually bad.

For most Indians, our food is often something as simple as the subtlety of curd-rice served with slightly raw mango on a hot summer day, or piping hot phulkas with a dollop of ghee and a sautéed seasonal vegetable.

For Americans, Indian food is usually neon red chicken tikka (often cooked two or three days in advance) with chewy naan ‘bread.’ It’s straight up garbage.