Indian subcontinent Naan spread to the
Indian subcontinent during the Islamic
Delhi Sultanate period. The earliest mention of naan in the region comes from the memoirs of Indo-Persian Sufi poet
Amir Khusrau living in
India during the 1300s AD. Khusrau mentions two kinds of naan eaten by
Muslim nobles; Naan-e-Tunuk and Naan-e-Tanuri. Naan-e-Tunuk was a light or thin bread, while Naan-e-Tanuri was a heavy bread and was baked in the tandoor. During India’s
Mughal era in the 1520s, naan was a delicacy that only nobles and royal families enjoyed because of the lengthy process of making leavened bread and because the art of making naan was a revered skill known by few. The
Ain-i-Akbari, a record of the third Mughal emperor’s reign, refers to naan being eaten with
kebabs or
kheema in it. By the 1700s, naan had reached the masses in Mughal cultural centers in South Asia.
Indonesia In
Indonesia, naan is a popular alternative to
rice among the
Indians,
Arabs,
Malays,
Acehnese and the
Minangkabaus, similar though not the same as
roti or
roti canai which was introduced from
Tamils. This dish is known as roti naan or roti nan, and is cooked using Indonesian spices such as garlic.
Myanmar Naan bya () in
Myanmar is traditionally served at teahouses with tea or coffee as a breakfast item. It is round, soft, and blistered, often buttered, or with creamy (boiled
chickpeas) cooked with onions spread on top, or dipped with
Burmese curry. It is also an integral part of
Uyghur cuisine and is known in Chinese as 饢 (
náng).
Japan After being promoted by Kandagawa Sekizai Shoukou in 1968, which is now the sole domestic manufacturer of tandoors, naan is now widely available in Indian-style curry restaurants in Japan, where naan is typically free-flow. Some restaurants bake ingredients such as cheese, garlic, onions, and potatoes into the naan, or cover it with toppings like a pizza.
France In
France, the classical naan has been revisted with cheese, to create Cheese Naan in
Paris in the 1970s. The most likely origin is attributed to André Risser, who, concerned about the French reception of Indian cuisine in 1967, decided to fill naan with cheese spread. Another hypothesis attributes the creation of the variant, in
Paris in 1976, to an Indian family from
Bombay.
Elsewhere In 1799, the word naan was introduced into the English language by historian and clergyman William Tooke. Today, naan can be found worldwide in restaurants serving South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine, and it is available in many supermarkets. Fusion cuisine has introduced new dishes that incorporate naan, including naan pizza and naan tacos and even huevos rancheros (an egg dish) served over naan. Naan pizza is a type of
pizza where naan is used as the crust instead of the traditional pizza dough. Chefs such as
Nigella Lawson, and supermarkets such as
Wegmans offer recipes for people to make their own naan pizza at home, though it is certainly not traditional. ==Gallery==