I keep meaning to do a highlights of Greater Nashua post, so let me just do it a cuisine at a time, I guess.
When I moved back to New Hampshire about 20 years ago, the first thing everyone told me was that it’s sooo much less white here now. Like, really consistently. Particularly noticeable since I’m white, and you know, nine times out of ten when a white person tells another white person that a place is less white than it used to be, it reads like a warning. Let’s give people the benefit of the doubt and consider that they were conscious I’d just spent a decade in New Orleans, I guess. I probably didn’t shut up about it.
It’s true that New Hampshire is only the fourth-whitest state now, and when you go from 98% white to 96% white (I’m making these numbers up), you’ve doubled your non-white population, so okay. It sounded to me like a very silly thing to insist on at the time, but it’s true that there have been significant changes to the demographics. Almost half of the Asian American population in New Hampshire is South Asian, concentrated in Nashua. The convenience store/misguided pizza place/disaster that opened on Broad Street when I moved here is a Hindu temple now. A Patel Brothers opened up in between the Trader Joe’s plaza and the Pheasant Lane Mall. You can get bitter melon and curry leaves at Market Basket. And the excellence rate among Indian restaurants is much higher than it is among, for instance, Chinese or Mexican places.
It’s pretty fucking great.
Personally, I don’t know anything. I grew up surrounded by stone walls and cow shit. I don’t think I even knew what curry was until I went to college and happened to move into an apartment next to an Indian restaurant, and all I really learned there was that I liked this, I liked that, and aloo means potato. But living here, we’ve actively sought restaurants out and expanded what we’re familiar with, and we’ve seen a number of great Indian places come and go (that place with the masala corn! aw man). Here’s the lay of the land as I’m familiar with it:
I guess I’m glad I didn’t get around to doing this while Aatma Curry House was open, because they’re gone as of this week! They were a takeout-only joint operating out of the old Culture space in Milford, by one of the Greenleaf co-founders (who used to work for Maneet Chauhan of Food Network fame, whose Nashville restaurants are terrific). They had barely set up in that space before they relocated to Boston, after popups at Eastern Standard and up north at Super Secret. I liked them but also felt … uncertain … about a white guy opening an Indian fusion place in a small town whose largest minority is Indian. The Bombay sandwich was very good, though. I’m curious how they fare in Boston, especially since they are the third local restaurant to relocate there, after Crush pizza (RIP pistachio pizza) and Cremeux (which is still here at its original location as well, thank God).
Himalayan Curry House (Daniel Webster Hwy, Nashua).
This is in the same plaza as Shanghai Osaka, which used to make for some very tough decisions before we discovered even better Chinese food in Chelmsford and Merrimack. Which is no shade on Shanghai! It just means we’re not diverted when questing for momos.
Himalayan Curry House is a Nepali restaurant, of a common type: the menu is mostly Indian (or Nepali versions of Indian dishes? I’m not familiar enough to say), with a Nepali section that includes momos (steamed Nepali dumplings, notable for the tomato-based dipping sauce; if you haven’t had momos, you’re missing out), ko masu (a spicy complex curry), and a few other things. They’ve diversified the momos in the last couple years, so you can get them fried, sauced, sauteed with chiles, etc.
This was my introduction to Nepali food about five years ago (as I recall, they had opened shortly before COVID lockdowns), along with a brief-lived momo delivery place that closed some years ago. I’ve since had it in Manchester, Portsmouth, and that place in the back of the African market in Concord. Himalayan Curry House has the fewest Nepali offerings out of all those options—they don’t have the mustard oil pickles that I love so much from Durbar Square in Portsmouth—but it’s nice to have the “regular” Indian options at the same time. Sometimes you want momos and korma!
Our typical order is chili paneer (dry style here: logs of paneer sauteed with spices, peppers, and onions; I believe the paneer may be housemade, and if not, it’s from a better supplier than most) and one of the 65s, navratna korma (mixed vegetable korma, but definitely not the usual frozen mixed veggies), and naan. Personally I really like the keema, but my wife’s not a fan (of keema at all, not specifically theirs). The malai kofta, which was my go-to order in college, is okay here, but not a standout. Nothing has been bad, though I find all the tandoori offerings dry, the way they are at like 90% of places (and the other 10% is why you keep ordering them). I used to get the goat ko masu frequently, but when we’re already doing two very spicy appetizers, it’s hard to muster up the fortitude for a super spicy entree as well.
A good move: order more chili paneer than you need. Put the leftovers on pepperoni pizza the next day. Or on a steak bomb. Or on a fried egg sandwich. We also usually order chili paneer and a 65 to have with leftover potato salad when we run out of hot dogs after one of the hot dog holidays.
Taj India (downtown Nashua).
This is right by Crosby Bakery. Go get a doughnut or the tiramisu!
This is related to a restaurant in Manchester, I think? Don’t hold me to that.
They’re very good, and the menu is, you know, pretty much the standard Indian restaurant stuff. The garlic naan is the best (i.e. most garlicky) that we’ve had in the area. I don’t want to suggest that you necessarily do what we do because that’s a lot of responsibility for me if you don’t dig it, but what we do a little too often is order our main meal from Bawarchi or Himalayan, and then garlic naan from Taj India (along with a couple other items to hide the fact that the naan is the real goal). Mrs C loves their vegetable korma as much as Himalayan’s, and I like getting the onion bhaji and dunking them in the korma. The aloo naan is great too.
India Palace (Amherst Street, Nashua).
Back in the days before Doordash and Grubhub and so on, this was our go-to, partly because Amherst Street is an area we’re in more often than downtown or the mall, and partly because it’s right by where Lanna used to be, the local Asian market. Sadly, they are one of many places that had a great buffet before the pandemic, and they haven’t brought it back.
We’ve never settled on a “regular order” with them since we used to go to the buffet a lot, and they’ve changed their menu a couple times, adding more small plates, chaats, and things like mango avocado salad. I like all of their lamb and goat dishes, especially the Murch Vagan. When we went to the buffet, I would load up on chicken 65 every time, which I … don’t … see on the menu anymore? Come on! I was obsessed with the chicken 65, and spent a lot of time trying to make it (it always comes out fine, but not the same). I was so sure that after the Nashville hot chicken craze cooled off, someone was going to make it big with a chicken 65 sandwich. They still could! Put it on a nice soft roll, make a pimento cheese type thing with lime pickle, get some fried curry leaves on there. Some raita on the side.
Desi Chowrastha (Daniel Webster Hwy, Nashua).
This is a chain, which probably explains why they’re on the salty side—too salty for Mrs C, like salty enough that I only get a full meal from them when she’s out of town. But they have the second-best garlic naan in the area, and are one of the only places to do a bunch of street food – Bombay sandwiches, frankies, vada pav. (The nearby Street Magix seems to specialize in that food, but I haven’t gotten around to them yet.)
I like that they have a variety of Indian breads/bread like things, like uttapam and dosas; that the appetizers go beyond the usual samosa, pakora, gobi, chicken options to include various preparations of baby corn and goat (and the gobi is available in like six different varieties, for that matter); and that they have things you don’t see on a lot of other menus around here, like egg curries or gongura.
Bawarchi Indian Cuisine (Tyngsboro).
Tyngs counts as Greater Nashua. I’m pretty sure the welcome sign says “Welcome to Tyngs: Where Nashua gets its weed gummies.”
I believe Bawarchi is a chain, although this location is not mentioned on the Bawarchi Biryani website (unless it’s a relocation of the Framingham location). But they’re great, man. I’ve got leftovers in the fridge right now. I’m pretty sure that other than pizza and Five Guys, this has been our most frequently ordered takeout since they opened a year ago.
I guess their specialty must be South Indian, since there is a South Indian Specials section, but one reason we keep going back is the weekend specials, many of which are rotating. If they have a weekend special appetizer made with cilantro or mint, that’s what you want. Paneer, Gobi, chicken, whichever it is. That’s what you want. Like Desi, they also have baby corn among the regular apps. Because it’s a chain, I want to draw attention to the fact that this is one of those places where I will occasionally encounter a spice I can’t identify. You know what I mean? We’re out beyond the Hannaford spice aisle here. You take a bite and get that oomph of something a little camphorous. I know a little bit, enough to recognize it’s something I’ve had before, but for the life of me couldn’t tell you what it’s called.
Mrs C loves the butter paneer here, and we get it pretty much every time. I am a fanatic about three specific things: the chana masala, which is ridiculously flavorful; the poori with bhaji, which is puffy fried bread served with a mixture of masala-seasoned mashed potato (it’s just so good); and the paratha. I know, I just said beans, potato, and bread are the best things here, but I stand by it.
The paratha is what originally sold me on this place. When Mrs C is out of town, that’s when I try new takeout places, because why cook for just me? (Well, I cook for just me, too, because Mrs C doesn’t like Buffalo wings or spaghetti all’assassina.) I got the paratha one week and we ordered it again as soon as she was home. Here’s the thing, though: it’s always good, but it’s only transcendent about ten percent of the time. On those times it’s flaky like a croissant. It will flake all over and make a mess and you’re going to have to vacuum. But it’s so fucking good.
You can get the paratha three ways: by itself, with a small portion of something (keema, veg curry, egg curry, goat curry), or baked with a curry in between the layers. I have to admit I don’t really understand the last option: flaky bread like this, when you sandwich a wet curry in between, it’s like the way puff pastry gets tough when it’s wet. I mean, it’s delicious, but you lose the texture that makes the paratha so good. I’m an outsider here, I feel like there’s something I’m just not seeing or appreciating.
But man, you get a paratha or a poori, layer some of the potato bhaji on there, put some gobi or paneer or chana masala on top? That is heaven. I’m full of noodles right now (lunch was dan dan noodles and a rougamo from House of Noodles in Merrimack) or I would go finish those leftovers.
The biryani and pulavs are also good, and there’s a huge variety of them. I rarely order them simply because we’re getting so many carbs in our must-order items, but they’re deeply flavorful and satisfying, and I’ve never been disappointed. I’m actually regretting, now that I’m thinking about them, that we didn’t get one in our last few orders.
Not a restaurant: Patel Bros (Daniel Webster Hwy, Nashua)
Patel Brothers is a chain of Indian grocery stores, and in season (around May), they have kesar mangos.
Oh big deal, why bother pointing that out, someone asks. That is someone who has not had a kesar mango. You wouldn’t know why music’s a big deal either, if all you’d heard was Matchbox 20 and the Pepto Bismol jingle. The kesar mango is If I Needed You, Love Hurts, Kelly Hogan’s cover of Papa Was a Rodeo.
They also have a pretty good selection of produce, spices, mixes, frozen food, prepared snacks (turns out the cool little grainy sweets that taste like maple syrup are meant for nursing mothers, FYI), and British chocolate bars (Mrs C used to live in Australia, so I always make note of this). No meat, I don’t know why. I mean, it’s not a vegetarian store—there are frozen meals with meat in them—but there’s no meat department.
All right, that’s enough out of me.
