By Yusuke Yamada

Every student knows of the restaurant TAJ MAHAL near the main gate of Sapporo University. But did you know it is one of a chain of Indian cuisine restaurants? Now there are six branches, with two new branches opening this year; one in Sakhalin next July, and one at Moiwa next September, so the number of branches will be eight in all. We interviewed the owner of Taj Mahal, Daniel Mansukhani, to learn about his success story. He was born in Bombay, India in 1949. At present he lives happily with his Indian wife.

He first came to Sapporo to see the Sapporo Winter Olympic Games in 1972 and liked Sapporo very much. At that time he was engaged in the clothing trade. After the Games he decided to live in Japan, and nine years later he opened the restaurant as a side business. His purpose was to spread Indian culture in an area where few foreign restaurants existed. When his restaurants become successful, he quit the clothing trade and now manages only the Taj Mahal restaurant chain.

Are there any secret ingredients in the curry of Taj Mahal? There are 63 kinds of spices used in the curry dishes you eat. When he opened the restaurant, there were almost no spices sold in Japan, so he imported them himself. Now, even though he can get most of them in Tokyo or Hyogo prefecture, he still buys some of them directly from India. We can see many of these spices set in the table in the restaurant. It is very interesting to see and to realize how many and what kinds of spices are used. The base of the Taj Mahal curry is mainly made from onions, and he doesnﾕt use fruit at all, which differs from the way we make curry in Japan. Moreover, he doesnﾕt make the curry beforehand and keep it in the refrigerator. He makes new curry every morning. The flour for nan is a completely original blend of this restaurant. Furthermore, the cooks who work in this chain have ten years experience in restaurants in India.

Mr. Mansukhani had a certain idea when he began this business. He hoped to make his restaurant a place where not only the young, but also families and everyone could have a happy time. Therefore, from the beginning he was attentive to putting ”kid sets” in the menu. At first, he controlled the hotness of the curry because Japanese are not used to it. But now he puts the hot curry in the menu, so you can select one of six levels. From these, we can see his sincere consideration for Japanese customers, and they seemed to understand that.

At the Sapporo Snow Festival in early February, an International snow sculpture contest is held and he has been supplying the curry to the foreign participants as a volunteer about for 15 years. He said the reason for this volunteer work is, ”They have to make the snow statue in a short time. Most of them donﾕt have enough time to go to lunch and don't have enough money, either.” The Indian team participated about 11 years ago, and he has been serving as its sponsor. He said joyfully, "We could win the grand prize in section B, so next year we can take part in section A."

During the interview he repeatedly said, ”Sapporo is a nice place.” He explained by saying that Sapporo is surrounded by nature, the air is clear, it is in a nice geographical location, and we can go to sea or mountains easily. Finally, to our great joy-due to this interview-he announced the following service only for Sapporo University students. You can have as many refills of nan and rice as you like on ”lunch set,” which is priced about five-to six-hundred yen on the average. But "lunch set" is not available on Sundays and holidays. Besides the lunch set, all dishes are served at a 25 percent discount everyday. Of course, you need to show your student ID card, but most students will be satisfied with it. Taj Mahal is open from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on weekdays. On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays it's open from 11:00 p.m. 10:30 p.m. I suggest that on this occasion, everyone go taste the curry, genuine Indian cuisine at Taj Mahal whether you have eaten there before or not.