We are having guests who want hindi, any suggestions?

[kitchenelf]

Darkstream - it's probably just a mistake - like asking someone if they are Scottish.

[Lugaru]

Originally Posted by Darkstream

I am interested as to why someone asked for "Hindi".

As far as I have allways been aware, Hindi is the lingua franca for the Indian part of the Indian subcontinent.

It is a bit like BBC English, understood by everybody who speaks English, even if they cannot speak it very well themselves. It is/was designed so that people who naturally speak Kutchi, Bengali, Gujaratti, and so on could communicate in a common language.

Just like peple who speak Gaelic, Welsh, Yorkshire, Lancastrian, or even E**_S**_S**_E**_X ( 'Oi ! 'AWRIGHT??? OR WHAT???) can have a common means of communication.

So does "Hindi" have a different meaning where you are, and if so what is it?

Thanks, it does have a different meaning where Im from but again it's wrong when translated. Basically asking for hindi food would be me translating directly from how people would say it in spanish, which in their case would also be wrong but it's what they are acustomed to.

So indian is the term?

[buckytom]

i would think indian, if it's from the subcontinent directly, or more generally southern asian.

[quidscribis]

India, the name of the country, is Hind in Hindi, the language, (I've watched far too many Hindi movies!) so it becomes easier to understand where the original Hindi request came from. On the other hand, if the request was in Spanish, it's also possible, perhaps even likely, that it's a matter of translation as well.

If you're talking generally southern Asian food, you wouldn't call it Indian - that would be incorrect. Sure, India is a part of south Asia, but so are the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and the cuisine is not the same or even remotely similar by any stretch of the imagination from one place to another. Heck, Indian food varies wildly from state to state, and Sri Lankan food varies wildly from one part of the country to another. And to call Sri Lankan food Indian, for example, would be taken as an insult by a Sri Lankan.

[Darkstream]

OK. I think I see what has happened.

Hindi may well be the word used in Spanish for “Indian”. And a direct translation
from Spanish into English would use that word, instead of the generic and colloquial
English word “Indian”, which is still loosely used today in British English to describe
people and things from the WHOLE of the Indian subcontinent. This is no doubt a
hangover from the fact that it was all governed and exploited by the British East India
Company for centuries, and this word has stuck. This is confusing at times, becuse
this word exists alongside “Pakistani” and “Bangladeshi” which identify specific
nations in the area. “Indian” is also capable of having the meaning of refering
specificaly to India.

Asking for an “Indian” is more like asking for a curry. Becuase there are at least 5
distinct regional cooking styles in India alone, not to mention Bangladesh and
Pakistan.

So asking for an Indian is a bit like an Indian asking for a Europen meal, without
making any distiction as between France, Italy, Germany, England etc.

And in restaurants most places, what you will actually get is Bangladeshi or a
Bangladeshi version of some other nation or regions dish.

English as a language is capable of extremely precise and subtle differentiations of
meaning. But it is now so widely spoken that it’s use may cause confusion and
missunderstanding when the same word has two significantly different and location
specific meanings.

[buckytom]

ain't it great tho? :D