mongo_jones

i will post long, boring thoughts about some of this after lunch. in the meantime here's some more pictures for you to look at: 1. pics from our recent trip back to lost angela 2. pics from our trip to india in the winter

okay people--i could go forever about the historiography and literature of english colonialism in india but this is supposed to be about food. lunch today will be a bizarre mish-mash of leftovers. the only new thing i am making is a sweet and sour'ish preparation of mackerel to go along with leftover mushoor dal and some of mrs. jones' korean scraps. this is a dish i improvize anew each time i make it but i won't make claims of originality since i am sure thousands of other people have similarly improvized the same thing. all culture is communally created and should be so attributed. if there is interest i can document the mackerel transformation in digital photographic form.

ah the royal engineers were an interesting group. was he a graduate of haileybury? i went to a talk last fall by a historian who specializes in the history of colonial engineering. a large part of the british enterprise (with regards to engineering) he argues was the building of large monuments that could compete with the architectural history of the mughals. thus while they built lots of railroads and bridges and dams and so on they also often erected bizarre statuarys and columns in the greek style near them. from what i remember of his talk many of the more interesting engineers were men like your grandfather and didn't get along well with the high colonial bureaucracy.

um. an aromatic leaf from some tree or the other. originally from south india, i believe (the real experts on indian food will have to step in with details--i'm glad to see that many of them are reading the blog, hopefully they'll keep posting). i'll post a picture once i get 'em. the local grocery gives bunches of it free with purchase to regular customers.

very interesting. i'm still not entirely used to being in the 21st century. when you said your grandfather was in india at the beginning of the last century you threw me for a few seconds. what was he doing in india? was he in the civil services or business?

why mangoes are the forbidden fruit: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=41363&st=0 and while you're there folks check out the rest of the india forum

Can you give me more of a descriptive on the spices please? the standard north-indian repertoire. off the top of my head: turmeric hot chilli powder kashmiri chilli powder (not so hot, imparts a nice color) coriander powder cumin powder curry powder (commercial) amchur (mango powder) garam masala (commercial) hing (asafoetida) mace whole cloves, cinnamon, green and black cardamom black peppercorns black salt dried bay leaves black mustard seeds methi (fenugreek) seeds cumin seeds panch phoron (the bengali five-seed mix) my mother's "only made in my house" spice mix for sprinkling on things (god knows what's in it--okay, so this one isn't standard but doubtless most indian homes have their own variation) kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) chaat masala poppy seeds ajwain (spacing on what this is in english) black cumin kalonji (onion seed) sambhar masala (commercial) rajma masala (commercial) dry red chillies fennel seeds i've probably missed a few. the fact that i've only marked some of them "commercial" doesn't mean i manufacture the rest myself. these are merely the spices that indian food purists insist should be made at home. that's as maybe but as i've said in conversations in the india forum, if commercial spice-mixes are good enough for millions of home cooks in india and the diaspora they're good enough for me. and now, lest anyone has concerns about the lack of pictures in this blog so far, here's one of breakfast: a cup of lipton green label darjeeling tea. like a good calcutta bengali (which i'm not but my mother is) i drink my tea brewed in the english style. i'm not opposed to masala tea but darjeeling is not the tea for that.

excellent. this blog business is paying off immediate dividends. i'll wait for the tyler/rivers sightings to pour in. in the meantime, does anyone in colorado know why every restaurant in boulder is in a strip mall?

i know some of you are wondering why i agreed to do a blog. i'll get to that in a minute. first let me give you a rough sketch of what you can expect foodwise. the following are the current contents of the jones household freezer, refrigerator and larder: 1 whole chicken 2 lbs mackerel cut up 2 small whole yellow croaker (a chinese/korean fish) 2 lbs catfish fillets 1 cauliflower spinach potatoes 1 highly out of season small butternut squash tomatoes 1 sweet potato all kinds of dals (lentils) red beans garlic all manner of indian spices 1 lb medium shrimp cilantro green chillies i will visit the local indian grocery tomorrow to replenish my supply of ginger and curry leaves. if they have any i will also purchase raw mangoes and okra. most of the above will be cooked at some point. all of this constitutes normal food operations in our house. the only differences from a non-blog week are that a) mrs. jones will not cook quite as much (though for your vicarious sakes i hope to talk her into doing it once or twice) and b)as a special treat i will make something my cardiologist doesn't want me to make: chicken liver curry (chicken liver was the only "for the foodblog" purchase but the whole package cost 59 cents. hmmm maybe there's reasons other than cholesterol why i shouldn't eat it). i will take requests for things to do to the listed raw material and will probably disregard them completely. i will cook what i know and what we like to eat and, while patience holds, will photograph them on my crappy 2 megapixel digital camera. right, why did i agree to do the blog? there's many reasons: i'm a windbag; nobody loves me and i need validation; and most importantly, i know there must be some doctors out there: i have this horrible thing (or more accurately series of things) on my ass that i'll be posting pictures of; i hope somebody will be able to prescribe something. i like eating doughnuts but sitting on them to work at the computer is really messing with my chair. (edit to add refrigerator contents i'd forgotten about)

unless its a boba

"perhaps this yarn is the only thing that holds this man together, some say he was never here at all"--tom waits, swordfishtrombones as everyone knows form and genre are more important considerations than content and so after being tagged i spent some time looking at how some recent bloggers approached their blogs. as far as i can see i'm supposed to introduce myself here, describe and possibly post pictures of my pets, talk a little about my daily routine, list my food perversions and then start furiously taking pictures of everything i eat for the next 7 days. who am i to buck tradition? as most of those who've encountered me on egullet know, i am a shy, unassuming, uncontroversial type and i hardly think this foodblog is the place to buck that reputation. so on with it. the david copperfield kind of crap: i was born and raised in india. my father was in the indian airforce and so we lived all over the country two years at a time (very unusual for indians who are even now largely moored to their region), and in iraq for three years from 1978-1980. i also went to an ex-british boarding school in darjeeling for 5 years--which means i know what eton fives are and i get to behave like an authority on tea even though we drank the most terrible muddy-brown glop three times a day. my last 5 years in india were spent in new delhi--first getting a degree in literature at the unfortunately named hindu college and then taking 2 years to realize that a potentially lucrative career in advertizing was not for me. for reasons that i can now no longer remember i applied to phd programs in literature in the u.s and in fairly short order ended up at the university of southern california in los angeles. i remained there for 10 years, not getting and then getting my degree, and more importantly discovering the most glorious chinese, korean, mexican, thai and central american cuisines. along the way i also discovered just how bad indian food in the u.s can be and just how excited many americans are willing to get about it (but doubtless there'll be more on this in the days to come). in los angeles i also became a fan of the clippers--which may be as much as anyone needs to know to understand my psychology. nba basketball is fun to watch but football (soccer) is life. last summer mrs. jones and i upped and moved to boulder, colorado. so i get to represent both india and the exotic rocky mountain region on the foodblog map. i am still an indian citizen but i don't yet have a colorado i.d. pets: my evil wife will allow no pets (she has enough trouble cleaning up my dung), but if she did i would have dogs and not cats. a well-kept secret that i am willing to let you in on free of charge: dog people are better than cat people. but the blog demands pets and so here's pictures of two stuffed animals instead: i am not much for cutesiness but this is the minky and this the original mongo jones i won them at games of chance at a carnival in los angeles (well, universal citywalk actually). they don't need to be fed but i am happy to pose them next to plates of food if people would like that. i would post a picture of myself but i don't show up in pictures or mirrors (makes shaving very painful). the daily routine: like every other good indian i rise in the morning from my bed of nails, propitiate the family god (in colorado it is considered heresy to have any god other than john elway) and wash the elephant. this done i spend two hours doing yoga and meditating on the mysteries of the universe (questions i have recently considered include: why does fairfax avenue between olympic and pico boulevards in los angeles only have one lane in each direction? and have steven tyler and joan rivers ever been seen together?). this done i fall into a vegetative state in front of the computer, rising only to void my bowels and bladder and to cook and eat (more on this too in the days to come--my bowels and bladder i mean, i know that's what you're really here for). i don't watch as much tv as i used to but i still believe that everything anyone needs to know can be learned from the simpsons. and that when all else fails monty python and the kids in the hall will save us. and oh yes, i watch about 15 movies a month and read far less than i should. food perversions: i am an omnivore. there are very few things i will not eat. these include: dog, cockroach, spider and most importantly, eggplant/brinjal. i don't believe any explanations are necessary. as you can see i am a man of few words and fewer principles and will be willing over the next 7 days to endorse from this awful (in the old testament sense) bully-pulpit any and all political/social agendas that have payment behind them (paypal information will be transmitted in a dream). was that graham chapman's voice i just heard, telling me to "get on with it"? right

my name is mongo jones and i once selected "revolution #9" three times back-to-back on a jukebox in a los angeles bar. the jukebox was shut off 3 minutes into the second playing. i'm just saying. see you all tomorrow. and if it all ends in tears, recriminations and mass-excommunications blame adoxograph.

okay, so i did a little research and as of 1990 there were roughly 245,000 chinese immigrants in los angeles county (the majority in the san gabriel valley). monterey park was already the second most popular destination for immigrants from china and taiwan (the most popular for the taiwanese) behind nyc. my understanding in my years in l.a (i too arrived after 1990, though not from china) was that the real explosion happened in the mid 90s. wonder what the numbers are like now. this is the study i'm drawing on: http://www.camla.org/history/sangabri.htm i suppose another question might be this: how much of toronto's immigrant chinese population is first generation? my sense of san gabriel valley chinese populations is that they're made up of vast numbers of newly arrived immigrants. that being said, let me amend my initial statement and make the claim i made for north america for the united states only.

thanks for a wonderful blog adoxograph. i pity the poor loser who agreed to do one after you.

i hope these weren't served with uncle john's special sauce

handle in store, buy online

that's 5 times as many people total in the city i currently live in! no idea what the total chinese population in the san gabriel valley is. but now i must go order some crappy chinese take-out.

oh, i don't object to it in the slightest--sorry if i gave that impression. not sure to what degree restaurants and bars honor these temperatures though or how i could myself at home without a thermometer.

susruta, not having explored chinese food in toronto (or toronto itself) in detail i can't comment. i wonder, however, if you or anyone else have eaten in both toronto and the san gabriel valley--it would be nice to get a direct comparison. the valley comprises a number of smaller cities--monterey park, rosemead, alhambra, san gabriel--and if toronto has a chinese (people and food) presence of this scale i didn't see it (which is not to say it isn't there). the specialization you speak of is what the san gabriel valley is all about--as the article indicates the competition there is so strong, and the primary audience so discriminating, restaurants that aren't very good don't survive more than a couple of months. i would love to do a food trip to toronto though--i ate some very good indian food there (it was 6 years ago and i don't remember the name of the restaurant). regards, mongo

where's the war against inhuman chemical weapons of terror and destruction when you need it?

while i agree with, and celebrate, all of this in principle i think it is worth pointing out that egullet's reach isn't as international as we might think. while some of the european fora have members actually located in those places, the fora for the rest of the world are populated largely by people originally from there and now residing in the u.s. some seem to exist more as resources for american tourists. (offhand i can think of only three active members of the india forum who reside full-time in india--vikram, episure and rushina. this is not because india doesn't have a huge internet culture--it does.) in many ways this site remains american-euro-centric. i don't think this is anyone's intention and i'm not sure how it could be remedied. i'm sure people will disagree with this description and i'll be interested in reading other takes on it. (edit to fix spelling and clean up paragraphing)

well, we're not big wine drinkers. is this the kind of place that will treat you like pariahs if you don't order more than a glass each to start things off and maybe a dessert wine to end the meal?

have you been speaking to my mother? or mrs. jones? adoxograph and other americans: is a demolition derby the same as a monster truck rally? once went to the latter at a fairgrounds outside los angeles. i believe we ate corn-dogs. the deep-fried snickers bars may have been consumed at the county fair at the same location at a different time--it was all so long ago and after the deep-fried snickers bars my relationship with the space-time continuum has been a little strained.

will lori still address me as "miss mongo"?

yes, the place on friday night was indeed the terrace maya. i'll say this much for it: the part of town it is in (if it is indeed in town) is as close to a border area as boulder has, and there were some people in the bar inside who seemed to be playing the part. the restaurant itself was annoyingly loud and our waitress annoyingly incompetent. the food was less than inoffensive. i got the seafood enchiladas and they tasted like a tortilla rolled up with boiled shrimp and scallops inside it. and, of course, there was the usual adherence to the smother everything in a gallon of sauce approach. however, the salsa they put on the table was excellent! and i had a nice beer: the oasis scarab red that i mentioned on the beer forum. perhaps i'm a crotchety old lady too but with the food not being close to remarkable the only reason i could see to go there again would be if i was in the dating pool or if i wanted a place i could take noisy kids to. i don't plan to be in either category any time soon. i'm glad we went though if only because we drove by the only strip club we've seen in boulder to date. who knew boulder had a strip club--not terribly new age is it? but that's not where we went for our post-dinner drink. we went to a place off the pearl street mall called trilogy. a strange mix of downhome folks and kids dressed in black. the waitress couldn't remember what local beers they had so i got a guiness. it was way too chilled. next stop for mexican: santiago's in lafayette