Punjabi was the first Indian food we fell in love with. Not only was the cuisine relentlessly rich and meaty, but it actually seemed to improve as it sat on the steam table in the narrow greasy spoons where it was served, with gravies colored every shade of coffee brown from "lots of cream" to "none at all." And there was a parallel universe of strictly vegetarian dishes, which—when they didn't feature frozen mixed vegetables—were alluring enough to distract us from the meat, flaunting rectangles of fresh cheese and strange veggies like snake gourd and loofah.
As Southern Indian and Gujarati appeared, and later a dozen other regional cooking styles, we were temporarily distracted from Punjabi, which originated in a region of northwestern Indian known as the Punjab ("Land of Five Rivers"). This fertile alluvial plain is where much of India's wheat is grown, resulting in a lush collection of flatbreads, often extravagantly stuffed with herbs or minced meat. While the earliest Punjabi steam-table joints were aimed at cab drivers and other budget diners, a new sort of establishment has arisen in the farthest corners of Queens, tendering a refined version of the cuisine meant for a Punjabi-American middle class.
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