
mongo_jones
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Everything posted by mongo_jones
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far be it from me to speak for tommy but i got the sense that the "ass-kissing" he's referring to is that of egulleters complimenting suvir and hemant on this forum--not the other way around. not all us indians are as polite as suvir either. not me, of course--i'm the very soul of diplomacy and charm and only tell people to go fuck themselves under extreme duress (like if they make eye contact).
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this thread is getting to be quite the monologue. okay, so i found a couple of links to kathal-rice dishes, one even called a kathal biryani. one site lists their dish as being from kerala, the other does not give a provenance: http://www.bawarchi.com/cookbook/kerala4.html http://www.rumela.com/recipe/indian_biryani_kathal.htm it also appears that kathal is being grown in some places in the u.s: http://www.fairchildgarden.org/research/jackfruit.html this other site, which gives more info on the fruit suggests that attempts to grow the trees in the u.s have not been very successful: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/jackfruit.html suvir, where are you sourcing yours from? edited to add yet another link: everything you wanted to know about jackfruit but were too afraid to ask
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yes, the dal was washed exhaustively--over and over again till the water ran clear. i should add i cook dal of one kind or the other every other day. never had this reaction before. wonder why it happened this time--as far as i can tell i did everything the same way. the only variable is that this was the first time i cooked this particular dal after our move to boulder. perhaps this is the way the bacteria in my gut respond to altitude. will have to see if it happens again.
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call it bengali-centrism! so, anil, do you know of jackfruit biryani elsewhere in north india?
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suvir, i'm very intrigued by the jackfruit biryani on the menu at amma (which has received positive reviews from people on the new york forum). does the fact that you refer to the fruit by the bengali name (kathal) mean that this is your take on a traditional bengali preparation? (or is kathal not just the bengali name for jackfruit?); in any event, can you tell us a little more about the origins of the dish? bengalis, of course, cook a lot with kathal (both the raw and ripe versions) but i am not familiar with this particular preparation. regards, mongo
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Mongo, our butter chicken is the staple you find in most Indian restaurants. We happen to use Farm Raised Chicken... if that makes a difference.. and we are very careful about not overcooking the chicken. But for the rest of it, there is nothing too surprising about this one dish. suvir, could you expand a little on why you guys included this dish on a menu that is otherwise largely revisionist? don't get me wrong, i'm not objecting to butter chicken per se (i like a good butter chicken as much as the next delhi-ite); it just seems a little out of place in a restaurant which seems in some ways to be re-inventing traditional indian food. a point of comparison might be with bolognese meat sauces showing up on the menus of very fancy italian restaurants; but in those cases the traditional sauce is actually cooked very differently than the debased version in your average american italian restaurant. butter chicken on the other hand is a fairly recent invention even in north india--there's no question of restoring the traditional way of making it (some would even say that it is a debased dish to begin with); and you yourself suggest that other than the farm-raised chicken there isn't much difference between this and the average non-creative indian restaurant's version. why not then let those who would want butter chicken get it in those restaurants and give the more adventurous lot who come to your place something else--like, say, dhansak or even the east-bengali style chicken roast? i have a separate question about your kathal biryani, but i'll post that on the india forum--we don't see you there much anymore. hopefully this is not because you've made your crossing from "india" to "new york" complete :-) regards, mongo (still plotting a trip to nyc so i can come eat at amma) (edited to add link to the newly created thread on the india forum and to add: another way to come at this might be to ask how often butter chicken is ordered at amma and by what diner-profile)
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well, keep in mind you haven't actually eaten any of my cooking. it is possible that i write a better dish than i make. but you are kind to suggest it anyway. however, in my current line of work i get 4 months off in the summer and one in the winter.
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i have nothing to add except that i made some channa dal yesterday (is that a bean?). the dal turned out spectacular but has also increased the production of natural gas in our home by a couple of orders of magnitude. this has never happened before. as far as i can tell i cooked them the same way i always have. possibilities: i got a mutant batch of beans/split peas (they were from a new bag; i usually eat them with something else that counteracts this effect and this time didn't.
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True, Mongo, but it doesn't say anything about whether the food is fresh, if the chef cooks on that night, etc. It's my birthday! I get to be picky. And I forgot to respond to the type of food question: Anything that pairs well with good red wines (and maybe some Champagne). oh, i wasn't trying to be prickly. just suggesting that if you gave us a list of monday night enabled restaurants from the zagat we might be able to better answer the qualifying questions. i've eaten at a range of very good restaurants in l.a (lived there for 10 years till last summer) but suddenly can't remember which of them are open on mondays. as such my recommendations will be meaningless.
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the zagat, whatever else it might or might not be good for, is good at telling us which restaurants are open on mondays.
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has anyone had the butter chicken at amma? how does it compare to the butter chicken at the average indian restaurant in the u.s? i'm assuming they have it on the menu so that there is something familiar there for less adventurous people but i'm having a tough time conceptualizing a fancy butter-chicken--apart from quality of chicken i actually can't imagine too much of a distance travelled from one end of the butter chicken continuum to the other (unlike, say, for tandoori prawns or biryani).
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have to ask: metal or biological?
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i'd hesitate to call the orient express that i knew 10 years ago a great french restaurant. in general french food in delhi was always a dodgy proposition--other stalwarts in those days were la rochelle at the oberoi and pierre at le meridien. perhaps things are better now.
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okay, so when i say quick and easy i should also mention the words "pressure" and "cooker". this is my mother's recipe for cholar dal (what the rest of india calls channa dal). i've tinkered with it for years but never surpassed the original. after eating my mother's version in delhi this past december my wife has undiplomatically requested that i no longer attempt to be original. the base recipe first, followed by some suggested variations: ingredients: 2 cups channa dal 1/2 cup moong dal 2 medium vine-ripened tomatoes chopped finely 2 tablespoons onion-ginger-garlic paste (i make a whole lot with 1 medium onion, 8 garlic cloves and a 2 inch piece of ginger and then use it in a whole lot of things) salt sugar garam masala turmeric- 2 tspns red chilli powder 1/2 tspn 2 tablespoons torn coriander leaves for garnish prep: wash the dals together and pressure cook with 6 cups of water, salt and 1 tspn turmeric till just soft. (in my stone-age prestige pressure-cooker this translates into 4 whistles over medium heat and then letting it cool down on its own while i prep and make the tarka.) in a karhai, heat oil and add everything except the garam masala and the coriander. reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until tomatoes completely decompose, everything cooks down and there is no water left. add the dal, bring to a boil and simmer over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes. check the consistency--if too liquidy increase the heat and boil it down. the final consistency should be thick but pourable. taste for salt, add the garam masala, boil for another minute and then garnish with the coriander (cilantro) leaves. eat with steamed rice or chapatis. --- variations: 1. add vinegar to the tarka along with everything else for a sweet and sour flavor 2. fry some cumin seeds before adding the rest of the tarka ingredients 3. replace the tarka above entirely with a very spicy concentrated keema curry
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discovered today at my local indian grocery that the mushoor dal i've been buying from them is actually a product of turkey. so it wouldn't surprise me if it just is malka masoor that has been peeled and split. might also explain why, no matter how hard i try, i can't get my mushoor dal to taste exactly like the dal back home (though water etc. plays a large part in this too obviously).
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monica, i take it you didn't grow up or go to college in delhi? if you want to do a follow-up on your next trip let me know and i can suggest a number of places to go to that fit the general bill you're working with here. i enjoyed the photos and the log but couldn't help but notice the absence of certain essential elements of the non-restaurant delhi food scene: the matka-pir biryani folks; all of parathe-wali gali; the ubiquitious roadside kabab and tikka-walas in every delhi colony; and above all the heavenly anda-paratha and alu-parathas with chai at the dhabas next to the petrol pumps off the dhaula kuan crossing (where the jaipur highway begins). this last is the non-moneyed delhi-ite's answer to the 24 hour coffee-shop of the 5-star hotel. not sure what they're like now but back in the day it was usual to find a fairly motley crew of delhi-ites gathered here after midnight (when all the restaurants are shut)--from hardcore truck-drivers to westernized but financially challenged college students. i'd also hesitate to characterize the delhi food scene in terms of the poles of five-star restaurants and street vendors. there's an entire world in between as well, and many of the best pleasures of delhi food come from here: the chaat-houses etc. cheers! mongo
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chicken lady loves life! (nothing to do with this thread but noticed someone named chickenlady is reading this page right now)
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morimoto was the final iron chef japanese on the cult japanese food show (iron chef). he was also the head chef at nobu matsuhisa's nobu in new york for a while. morimoto in philadelphia is his first big restaurant of his own (and fueled i think partly by his fame on iron chef, which airs also on the food network in the u.s). friends of mine have eaten there and they rave about it. on the show he was notorious for his global interpretations of traditional japanese cuisine. he has the reputation of being both a maverick and true to his roots: on the one hand the real hardcore traditional japanese chefs who went up against him on iron chef couldn't abide him and his experiments--on the other he yelled at bobby flay (on the iron chef in the u.s special) for not respecting his cutting board. there were episodes in which he made japanese dishes with indian accents. would be interesting to know how it goes if he does make it to the taj's series. keep us posted.
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who remembers the flap when the four seasons beverly hills' restaurant was shut down because of health code violations?
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I have a can of Spam I bought in Kumi, Korea sitting atop my computer monitor. I think of it as a sort of "Kitchen god" to ward off evil (email) spirits. here's a link to a related thread on spam and the question of "tradition" that went nowhere: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...=0entry448721
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excuse me? oh, you said "mango". carry on.
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then again spam's become pretty "traditional" in a number of cuisines--see hawaiian or korean.
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since i have a refrigerator and microwave in my office i usually take dinner leftovers with me and torment everyone on my floor (i teach at a university) with the aromas of home-cooked indian food while they eat their stale bagels and suchlike crap.
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how's that emily dickinson poem go again? "cook all the food, but cook it slant-- success in circuit lies too jejune for our infirm delight the food's traditional surprise" or am i misremembering?
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he-crabs and she-crabs might be more appropriate at a sex-disease clinic than at a restaurant. stirs up all the wrong kind of images for me.