“India itself is a big country with a lot of different cuisines,” says Mohit. “A major portion of our dishes are from the northern part of India, but that does not mean southern Indian dishes are not represented. It’s very different to the northern part of India. We wanted to incorporate that as well, we have a Kerala Coconut Curry which is from the southern part of India, which people are really liking. It comes with an option of fish or prawns that we source locally. “It’s also just not all about butter chicken, even though we have made a point that we wanted to basically make sure we give the best butter chicken we can. But there are a lot of other dishes on our menu we wanted to focus on as well. One is our tandoori lamb chops that we do, it is a very big hit among the locals. We get a lot of repeat orders, and it’s one of my favourite dishes.” The educational aspect of their service is something the Dureja’s take seriously. Mohit acknowledges it was a source of frustration when he first settled in Australia how Indian food was represented, but he has been determined to break down the barriers one dish at a time. Opening his own hospitality venture has just allowed him and Pooja to extend the reach further than they could have ever imagined.
“There is a big stereotype about Indian food that we wanted to break - that it’s spicy. That’s not true” - Mohit Dureja He also credits the Indian diaspora in the UK for doing a commendable job in educating people about the diverse spectrum of Indian cuisine, a practice they emulate in their establishment. “It did use to frustrate me [that there is] a lack of knowledge. It is more about educating, and that is a job of us as Indians,” Mohit says. “If you go to the UK, a lot of Indians have done a good job there in terms of representing our cuisine. When we get a lot of UK customers who are touring, they have a lot more knowledge about the Indian food, because they have had been exposed to that. “It’s been slowly changing in Melbourne and Sydney as well and we are trying to do that in Tasmania, in terms of educating the people about the Indian cuisine. When anybody comes in, we make it a point of explaining all our dishes and giving a recommendation so that they 21 Tasmanian Hospitality Review Oct/Nov Edition
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