Written by Sk. Nishat Abdullah-san
Japanese people who are not much oriented with south Asian curries, consider curry as a single menu. In fact, in the countries where curries are not common, the concept is same. However, to understand the varieties of curry, one has to visit restaurants run by South Asian people like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan. I know, practically the varieties and flavor of curries are endless as I have been eating them for a long time. So, whenever I feel to get the taste of a new curry, I always look for a Halal restaurant preparing curries. This time I entered into an Indian restaurant named “Mantra”. The interior was decorated in an elegant manner representing Indian culture and traditions.
Like other Halal restaurants, “Mantra” has not yet advertised them much as a Halal restaurant. Even in the entrance, there are nowhere even written that they serve Halal food. I came to know through the webpage of Halal Media Japan about this restaurant. When I asked them about halal food, they told me that, all mutton were Halal, but some chicken preparations weren’t Halal. I felt safe to let them know that, I am a Muslim and will not eat anything unless Halal. However, when I opened the menu card, I was puzzled to see a number of chicken and mutton curries with different varieties of rice and naan preparations. It took about 20 minutes for me to decide which menu I should eat. I choose Vegetable pulao, Naan, Paneer Passinda (a cheese curry), and Nawabi gost(a mutton curry). Actually they have also different set menu for both lunch and dinner. They have the arrangement for buffet dinner also. But, as I was looking for something new for my tongue, I choose those menus. Undoubtedly all foods were very delicious. I think any Muslim people from south Asian region can try the delicious curries of this restaurant. Not only curry lovers from these region, I hope even Muslims from other areas of the world along with non Muslim Japanese people having almost no idea about curry other than Katsu curry can try these Indian Restaurant.
Indian foods have been always been the known flavor for the people of south Asia. But whenever I visited India, It was not easy for me to get a Halal restaurant even there. So, it was really exciting for me whenever I found a new Indian curry restaurant in Tokyo. Of course there are a lot of Indian restaurants in Tokyo, but most of them are not Halal. Moreover, even in European and American countries, the Indian foods have been started to become popular. So, even in a curry unfriendly country like Japan, Indian restaurants cannot afford to keep themselves away from the race to grab the attention of people of different country and culture.
More info is here.
HALAL & VEGETARIAN food is Available in MANTRA & AMARA & DIYA
