Is there anywhere, anywhere at all in Kunming, to get Indian food, besides at Makyeame ( the Tibetan restaurant)? I mean not just "curry" in the Chinese Western Cafe sense. Will be very grateful for insights into this pressing matter.

haaahhhhh, yes... a pertinent question indeed.

i just visited Kunming from Shanghai, and while i enjoyed some Makyeame, it doesn't quite scratch where it itches... and i reckon the lack of "decent indian" food puts a city pretty much into the "unliveable" category.

at the airport my interest was piqued by the number of indians i saw... this made me wonder about trade/tourism between yunnan and india, indian expats living in kunming and the likelihood of an indian restaurant showing up in the spring city sometime soon... here's hoping...

After searching for nine months, I haven't come up with anything resembling Indian food here in Kunming. I just returned from a week in Hong Kong where we wound up eating Indian three times. Before we left, I made trip to a wonderful indian restaurant supply store in the Wan Chai district and loaded up spices. It'll have have to be home cooking until a few more Indian expats settle here in Kunming before we get some some delicious, fragrant food. By the way, if you headed to Beijing, Asian Star in the Choayang District has outstanding Indian food!

There was an Indian guy looking to start a restaurant in Kunming last year. I guess it didn't work out.

Is there really a large enough market in Kunming for an Indian? Would the locals go for it and, if not, is the foreign community large enough to sustain it?

There have been a number of foreign restaurants that started in Kunming only to close down within a few months. Le Cri de Papillon flopped. Shanti Shanti was Indian-styled and didn't last. Might a new Indian suffer the same fate?

Check out www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item.php?blog_id=76 about Al Medina, a Bangladeshi/Indian restaurant across from the airport. Starting next week they'll have an Indian chef who's been working in England. Hopefully it will be as good as it sounds.

Has anybody tried Al Medina ?

I have some second-hand info on Al Medina from some very hungry friends who said that the food was decent but overpriced given the small portions, and that the menu was still way too limited. This was as of late October. I'd love an update from anyone who has gone more recently... what happened to that new chef?

It's a bit of an open secret that a plan is afoot to start a new Indian restaurant somewhere on Wenlin Jie. Thanks to gokunming we can do a little research into local tastes. There are literally hundreds of different Indian dishes and the planned opening menu might only have 30 of them. My question to the good folks of KM is:

What item(s) are a MUST on an Indian menu?

get some kebabs in there - chicken/lamb tikka being the starting point. curries, well, where do i begin... madras, kadai, tikka masala, vindaloo, jalfrezi, korma... oooh, indian veggie is real good - jeera aloo, mutter paneer, samosas, dal... get yourself some lijaat popaddums too - seriously interesting story behind the brand... beer: kingfisher? sauces: lime chutney, that green stuff i forgot the name of, mango chutney. resham soup is good stuff too. i reckon the secret to a good indian restaurant is that the curries do not end up all coming out looking the same. good luck piers

that green (coriander/cilantro) chutney.
channa masala, dhal: delicious and vegetarian, which is worth catering to since many travellers and expats are.
don't leave out the breads either (i would kill for chapati
luckily it seems like lamb and chicken are both readily available in kunming.
take advantage of stuff that's available locally -- seasonal mango chutney, fresh mango lassi, do something with tamarind
sweet spiced rice deserts
spiced ice cream (cinnamon, coriander, generic "chai" flavor) -- maybe salvadors would sell it to you?