mongo_jones

in a related note, ketchup is also called tomato sauce in india. in fact, i remember a new tomato sauce launched in north india in the mid 80s had in its ad jingle the line "ketchup hota kaddu bhara"--meaning "ketchups are full of pumpkin"--i don't know if their established competitors did add a lot of red pumpkin to their ketchups but the idea was to associate competitors' brands with the word "ketchup" and the pumpkin connection, while their own brand was to be the true "tomato sauce". now, if i could only remember the name of the brand. nestle, under their maggi imprint, markets a whole range of flavored/spiced ketchups in india. indian stores in the u.s usually carry the two best variants: the hot and sweet sauce, and the chilli-garlic sauce (both red and ketchupy in consistency). i'd recommend them both highly to ketchup aficionados.

okay, thanks. i'm indian so i'm aware that curry usually means something different to me than it does to pacific rim asians. my wife, who is korean, was flabbergasted, when i first cooked for her, by the fact that i didn't have any huge blocks of curry lying around the kitchen. was patak's the brand you bought? they have both a madras and a vindaloo paste. (i have no idea what the hell a madras curry is, by the way, but that's a thread for the india forum.) i usually add a spoon of the vindaloo curry paste when i'm frying up spices for a keema (ground meat) dish--had no idea chinese cooks use these things too.

when you say you regularly try to overcome this do i understand correctly that your regimen consists of a lot of old-goat licking? if so, where do you live? i'm trying to locate goat-farmers in an attempt to source fresh goat-meat.

right

don't have the patience to read through all the posts so forgive me if all this information has been posted before: in boulder, colorado, where i live now, there is only one place to go for indian groceries. i forget its name but it is in the de facto ethnic grocery store central on 28th street just shy of valmont. boulder must have a lot of south indians since this place has more brands of idli fixings than it does of basmati rice. apart from all the greatest hits of the indian spice world it also carries pretty good vegetables (good okra/bhindi, pumpkin) and also guavas! the nice thing about this place is that, in keeping with indian vegetable-cart seller tradition, they give you freebies with your groceries. in delhi it is usually cilantro and/or green chillies; here it is curry leaves. (another bonus: they're right next to a hispanic grocery that sells halal goat meat.) in the los angeles area the best/largest grocery is in artesia--on the corner of pioneer blvd. and some street or the other (a few doors down from the udupi palace and raaga). if you're not up for the trek to artesia there's a multitude of india's sweets and spices all over los angeles (no idea if there's central ownership). my favorite destination used to be on pico between crescent heights and fairfax (opposite the savon)--but only because i could go to the india sweet house next door, order my alu-parathas and sag panir and then go over and shop till it got cooked. the new india sweets and spices just around the corner from this place (on fairfax just north of pico) has groceries and alu-parathas under the same roof but the food at the india sweet house is superior. the alu parathas in particular are as good as any i've ever had in north india.

i'll tell you what i don't like to see written on menus: "made from scratch". that has never conjured up an appetizing image for me. "just like mom makes" doesn't do it for me either--sometimes it can be a disincentive.

now, that sounds tasty. do you stir fry the shrimp separately and then stir them into the sauce? and what kind of curry paste are you referring to?

pan/michael, yes, i suppose i sound somewhat humorless right now--ah well. and yes, i do laugh at ethnic jokes from time to time (i'm even known for making horrible jokes about indians and bengalis). but the thing is i don't then turn around and make torturous justifications for laughing at them (as i see bux doing here). it would be one thing if the thread was about malapropisms in general--it isn't, and the few attempts, by people such as suzanne, to turn it that way haven't really worked. it remains largely a joke at the expense of one particular group, and i'm surprised that it is going on this long--especially among people who do have such an obvious respect for chinese food and culture. i should add that i'm not suggesting, let alone alleging, that anyone who has participated in this thread (or taken pleasure in it) is some sort of racist--it is possible to have the best of intentions, and a great deal of respect, but still unwittingly replicate offensive structures. in any event i'm glad i'm not the only one who has expressed some discomfort about this. mongo

bux, you're right, i've got it all wrong. by god, what a dense fool i've been. here you all were writing paens to the industriousness of chinese immigrants and i read it as essentially being endless good-humored, urbane variations on some redneck saying "that furner speaks english funny". my mistake. i see it now: these aren't jokes at the expense of second/third language english speakers at all--they're tributes to them. and the fact that some people of chinese origin are participating in the thread should have tipped me off that it couldn't possibly be offensive anyway. and i should have realized also that this is really a thread about malapropisms in general, in any language--that it is just a huge coincidence that it is happening in a thread about chinese menus on a chinese food forum and that almost every contribution is about chinese malapropisms in english.

i do believe that's among the top 5 ways to kill alleged enemies of the revolution.

i was in australia for a month 4 years ago and ate quite a lot of kangaroo. it was tasty, and i was told extremely low in cholesterol. how prevalent is kangaroo in australian cuisine? i remember vaguely being told that there are lots of restrictions on slaughter etc.

ah, those funny chinese with their silly spelling!

mushoor (masoor) dal, the orange split lentil, is perhaps the definitive west bengali dal (though moog dal fans may object). here are two recipes for it. they're very similar and involve almost all the same ingredients--it is just the mode of preparation that is different. these are both light, subtle home-cooking recipes: you are unlikely to ever find dal made this way in a restaurant. ingredients: 1 cup dal (washed thoroughly and drained) 6 cups water 1 tspn haldi 1 1/2 tspsns salt 1 medium tomato--diced 1 small onion--sliced or diced 1 inch ginger--crushed and minced 3 cloves garlic--crushed and minced 1 thai green chilli--minced 4 cloves 1 inch piece cinnamon 1 tblspn cumin seeds (for preparation 2) 2 tblspns canola oil (for preparation 2) 4 tblspns cilantro leaves 1/2 lime preparation 1: dal made this way is the easiest and, in my opinion, the most satisfying bengali dal--a must have ingredient of a meal of bengali comfort food: put all the ingredients (except the prep 2 stuff and the lime and cilantro) into a large saucepan, cover and bring to a boil (till the dal threatens to spill over). uncover briefly, stir, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook for 20-25 minutes. resist all temptation to uncover and taste or inspect till the 20 minute mark. at that point, taste and check for salt. if you'd like the dal to be more mushy cook for another 5 minutes. if not, stir in the cilantro, remove from heat and serve immediately with steamed rice (or have it alongside the rest of the meal as a soup). if eating with rice, squeeze some lime juice over it. if you desire you can also add a tspn of ghee before you serve the dal. personally, i like the non-fat version. preparation 2: this resembles more closely the north indian dal preparation in which the dal is cooked and then a tadka added: put all the ingredients except 1/2 the onions, 1/2 the garlic, the cumin, cilantro, chilli, lime and oil to boil and cook as above to the 20-25 minute mark. when the dal is done to your liking, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds--saute till they darken and add the remaining onions, garlic and green chilli. saute till the onions begin to brown and pour the entire tadka onto the dal. mix well and serve as above. (you can vary the tadka to your taste: some save all of the onions, garlic and tomatoes for the tadka; some saute the onions till they're completely crisp--experiment and see what works for you.) enjoy!

my first trip to chung king in monterey park (in the san gabriel valley adjoining los angeles) would probably be my pick. there were 4 of us and we ordered enough food for 8. the best ma-po tofu i have ever eaten; the most amazing pork spare-ribs with medicinal ash; the hot-chopped chicken: little cubes of chicken barely visible in a sea of red chillies swimming in chilli oil; the most amazing whole pumpkin stuffed with spiced ground pork (this wasn't on the menu--we saw it on other people's tables and demanded it); not to mention the cold appetizer buffet bar. i could go on and on. if you live in los angeles and you haven't been to chung king you owe it to yourself to go. take the 10 east, exit on garfield, turn right at the bottom of the ramp--keep on trucking till you pass garvey. chung king will be on the left side of the street opposite the designer shoe warehouse. warning 1: this is the spiciest food i've ever eaten (and as a bengali i eat pretty spicy food) warning 2: there is only one person there who speaks english so you have to be patient (since you'll likely be the only non-chinese speakers in the tiny space this probably won't be a problem). however, you'll need to stock up on the water early since the food is dangerously hot and you may not see the english speaker every time your tongue catches on fire. which leads me to: tip: they don't serve alcohol but allow you to bring in your own beer (no charge); there's a liquor store right next door. nobody will look at you askance if you walk in with a couple of 4-packs of boddington's or some other crisp lager.

i will be in delhi next month too. i would say that i would check it out as well, but am not sure that i want to.

thanks for the recommendations--now i guess we have to figure out how to get around the city. i have no idea what hotel the airline is going to put us up at or where it is. scrolling down, i see there's been a recent thread on bangkok eateries. unlike the original poster there i'm not interested in elegant surroundings, but it sounds like the same advice might apply to me. walk around, try the hawkers and eat where there seem to be lots of thais. i'm also intrigued by episure (a fellow regular on the india board) noting that it takes him two days to adjust to the heat level of the food. i don't know if this is because he is an effete mumbaikar or whether it will be the same story for a bengali and a korean--we only have the one day anyway, so we're just going to plunge in and hope for the best. i do know that thai food in india is exponentially hotter than thai food in the u.s.a. did anyone here eat at baan thai at the oberoi, delhi when it first opened in the early 90s? i remember bring startled by how hot the salads were. at any rate my digestive tract will get the shock to its system a day early--if it wasn't for the fact that we get to kolkatta in the middle of the night i'd stop for a mutton roll on the way home, and follow it up with a couple of fresh roshogullas and lots of syrup. oh man, i wish i were leaving tonight.

i wasn't sure if mool naeng myun would be a noodle dish or a cold soup. i guess i could have just asked my wife. mool naeng myun and bibim naeng myun are among my favorite korean dishes--one of the things i miss most about l.a is access to the wonderful, open 24 hrs, hodori at the corner of vermont and olympic. it was always our destination for mool naeng myun on summer afternoons and bibim naeng myun or yook gae jiang on a late weekend night. here in boulder there is but one korean restaurant and it gives the japanese items on its menu top billing. my wife--who is korean--is a great cook but there are somethings she doesn't make: the naeng myuns are among them. a couple of bbq places in l.a--the prosaically titled corner place among them--also serve another great cold noodle soup, which smells like a calcutta drain but is incredibly tasty and refreshing (lots of sliced cucumber in what tastes like water that's been used to soak a lot of kim-chi and then drained). anyone know what i'm talking about?

is mool naeng myun a soup? if so, that's my favorite on hot summer days. also my wife makes a mean clear ox-tail soup.

hi all, i'll be stopping bangkok for a day on my way to india next month. will only have time for one lunch and dinner. where should i go? money is, unfortunately, an object--so no high-priced recommendations please. thanks!

if it didn't have lentils in it it wouldn't be called a dal. kadhi maybe? is there no way for you to get in touch with ms. vakil? what did the seeds taste like?

since i'll be going to calcutta on this trip i'll bring back some kashondi (the bengali mustard "sauce")--alu-saag isn't the same without kashondi.

i usually bring back 10-15 pounds of animal fat. mostly wrapped around my belly. and i bring a packet of korapak shondesh that usually doesn't survive the flight home.

excellent points all bong. i'd add to your list of things usually made at home and not available in stores one of my childhood favorites: the goja, a crossover between a savoury and a sweet. i should say though that some accomplished home-cooks in the diaspora (my eldest aunt in singapore, for instance) can prepare professional quality shondesh and so forth. of course, when you live in calcutta such labor is madness. by the way, i am going to spend a week in cal this winter. i can already feel my cholesterol go up as i contemplate the nalen-gurer shondesh, the rajbhogs, the chom-choms and the lal-doi i'm going to be eating at the end of every meal. not to mention my father's favorite breakfast: lucchis with roshogullas and syrup. i will try to get my grandma to categorize all the sweets for me. if she cooperates and i remember to write it all down i will then post a breakdown upon return.

i mentioned chhana in my previous post. what is it? click and read on http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/Publication/apah85/163.htm

while it is possible you are being at least a little bit sarcastic i'd like to point out anyway that my knowledge of bengali sweets is entirely experiential: that is to say, as a bengali i have eaten almost every kind of bengali sweet there is--and like most calcuttans have uncles who claim to know the best shop for every particular variety. however, while this knowledge extends to knowing that neither the bengali shondesh nor the kalakand has any relationship with gulab jamuns (which are not even bengali sweets) i know very little of the chemical/compositional makeup of all the sweets and so am not able to provide a detailed breakdown. with that caveat here's a general description: essentially, bengali sweets break down into two categories: dry and wet. the shondesh is the king of the dry, and while the roshogulla is the king of the wet, this category includes a lot of other things as well. both types of sweets are usually made from chhana, though mishti doi (a close second to roshogulla in the wet category) is made directly from curd. in the shondesh family the water is removed from the chhana after curdling and sugar syrup is rarely used--nor is there usually any frying. the roshogulla and other wet sweets of its ilk are either cooked in sugar syrup or soaked in it (with or without frying involved). there are also flour based sweets, but i personally don't think bengali versions of these are as good as the north indian ones. all of this is open to correction by people who know more about the ins and outs of these things--i am not a professional food writer or sweet maker. vikram may be able to point us towards more definitive information. in the meantime i'd advise a cursory glance at the pictures of the sweets on the page i posted a link to earlier today: it'll give you a sense of the family affiliations of different sweets.