London’s Cult-Favorite Indian Restaurant Is a Love Letter to Second Daughters

Asma Kahn has a law degree but no culinary training. Everything she learned to cook—prawn malaikari, venison kofta, fluffy fried puri—she learned from women in her family, though much later in life. In fact, it wasn’t until enduring a hellish winter in Cambridge, where her husband was a professor, when she felt inspired to return home, to Calcutta, to learn the recipes of her mother and aunts and cousins.

“我觉得我正在漂流，”汗告诉我Darjeeling Express，她在伦敦开放的Soho餐厅的热门餐厅不到一年，但已经至关重要。（第二个地点即将开放，Per Khan的Twitter，这将庆祝加尔各答街头食品。）“这是一个移民的故事。亚搏电竞许多移民发现，他们唯一可以抓住的就是食物。亚搏电竞我真的需要那件事才能将我锚定在我所知道的国家。”

她说，一旦她学到了一道菜，她就学会了所有的菜。她回忆说：“当我听到我想开一家食品生意时，我的家人感到恐惧，因为我所有的堂兄告诉我，他们所允许的就是做饭。”亚搏电竞“我是家庭中受过教育最受教育的女人。没人能理解，但这是我的呼唤。”（从那以后，她的家人访问了大吉岭，他们是忠实的粉丝。）

回到剑桥后，她邀请了一些丈夫的学生共进晚餐，他们的脸上的表情（纯净，不中介的喜悦）触发了她的职业生涯。搬到伦敦并获得了英国宪法的博士学位后，她知道自己不想教书。实际上，她已经从南肯辛顿公寓（South Kensington Flat）开始了秘密的晚餐俱乐部，我们的意思是秘密，以至于她的丈夫不知道它们，即使它们发生在自己的家中。（“他是一个非常反社会的老人，”她笑着说。“他不喜欢人。当然，除了学生。”）

Darjeeling Express

When she decided to start her supper club in 2012—which spiraled into one of the city’s best worst-kept secrets—she went to the Harrods sale and bought a pot for 50 pounds. Six years and one brick-and-mortar later, she’s garnered international acclaim for her food and her story.

这种做事的承诺以不同的方式扩展到厨房人员配备。汗（Khan）仅在餐厅厨房里看到男人而感到恼火，因此确保雇用所有像她这样的女性没有传统的食物。亚搏电竞她说：“他们没有烹饪背景，没有。”“他们主要是保姆。我在他们的眼中看到了一些东西，我想让他们完整。”

At one point, she realized almost every woman in her kitchen was a second daughter, as Khan is. She recalls the hurt of her childhood—school children taunting her that her mother was too grief-stricken about having another girl that she couldn’t breastfeed.

“在印度，当第二个女孩出生时，就像死亡一样；很难，”她说。“由于嫁妆，因为男孩没有出现。在贫穷的家庭中，有恐慌。”她发现，在传统上，第二女儿分享了独特的东西。她的大部分工作都是为了传达这一点。当可汗和她的母亲非常亲密，她的心为其他可能感觉不到的第二个女儿而痛。

“I want a second girl to know that when she gets pushed around—‘Everyone cried when you were born, nobody loves you,’—she can turn around and say, ‘No. Everyone partied when I was born. And there were firecrackers,’” Khan says. “I want a generation of girls who can turn around and say that to every boy who touches her and pushes her around. She needs to know that, very far away, there’s a kitchen full of second daughters. I want parents to understand the second daughter may become someone amazing. People may write about her. Talk about their family. Honor her and don’t make her feel like she has to constantly justify her existence.”

最近，在Darjeeling Express，可汗注意到一张女性桌，都穿着红色。她接近他们，他们告诉她他们从未见过，但是他们都是第二个女儿，他们已经在网上取得了联系并决定开会。每个人都哭了。汗说：“现在是时候哭泣的时候了。”他们穿着红色，象征着生活，“因为他们是出生的。这不是死亡，”他们告诉她。

“I’m absolutely convinced that second daughters are the healers,” she says. “They’re the bridge in the family. Even across traditions ... somehow, I always think, they need to justify their space and existence.”

她的烹饪有深爱的东西。她的菜是复杂而深情的，每天都从头开始制作的每件物品。The menu is thoughtfully small for this reason—each dish, from the Indo-Chinese-inflected chilli garlic prawns to the vegan kala channa, is absolutely essential, and, if Khan says so herself, unlike what you’re likely to find at the countless Indian restaurants on London’s Brick Lane.

“My food is so different from every Indian restaurant; it’s homestyle,” she says. “Other restaurants have 25, 35 dishes on the menu. How do they do that? We make it fresh. We cook it for you. Food becomes a way of communicating love and achievement. How do you show who you are?”

A prime example of this ethos: Despite having a cult-like following from her supper club days, Khan’s samosas are not on the menu at Darjeeling because they are far too labor intensive—she refuses to freeze dough, or take any shortcuts, which would make them nearly impossible to pull off during lunch or dinner rush.

She feeds me her smoky beet croquettes with burned chilies. I dip it in her mother's chutney of tomato, apricots, and raisins.

她说：“这很简单。”“当您这样做饭时，您不需要很多。”

Kingly Court, Carnaby St, Soho, London W1B 5PW