Simon Majumdar

I am ( and have been for a while ) on a low carb diet. The upside is that I have lost 50lbs. The downside is that I can't keep up with my love of baking and desserts. I wondered if anyone could suggest some flourless cake recipes ( apart from the obvious chocolate one ) that I could try? Thanks in advance S

Mrs Balbir is the equivalent of Mrs Beeton in England or even Julia Childs in the US. The book is the centre point of all ( or much ) Indian home cooking and while people develop their own recipes, they will often, if reaching a sticking point, say " I will consult the great Mrs Balbir" I don'y have a copy and I am ashamed to say it is out of print in the UK ( I think ) S

I can only suspect that Trouvaille is becoming a victim of its own success. It has done so well, but the last two visits have seen a slight decline in the cooking. It is a shame, but is often the way. It does make me very sad as dependable places in London are few and far between. I shall go again, but it will be interesting to see how it does S

All of this sound wonderful and makes me long for the days when I used to get invited to these things. Now unfortnately, I am the one telling the editors to make sure they bring me back a doggy bag while I stay at my desk crying over budgets and, of course spending entire friday afternoons posting on egullet Do report back on her reaction. I to am sure she will be grace and charm itself as she has always been to me S

I am and you may. While I would not claim to know her hugely well, she is always kind enough to look at my projects and to listen to where I have been to eat and am planning to eat. She always has superb suggestions to add to my list of NY places to visit Back to food. What does one propose to cook for such a high powered Park Ave Publisher? I am thinking Moghul with plentiful pressed gold. S

I envy her as you will be cooking for her and you as she will be editing your book You will both no doubt be very happy S

Suvir/Ellen You are with one of if not the best imprints in publishing and I do not say that lightly If I am correct, your editor will be Pam K ( I will protect the privacy of the individual ) who is the best. I have produced some books for her from the UK and met with her only three weeks ago. You are in excellent hands S

No it is not your imagination, but I am not sure that this is unique to Indian or indeed any cuisine In Bengal, each family will have its own mix for Ghanto's ( a dry curry equivalent to Bhuna's in other part of the country ) each one will have its own Chingri Jhol recipe ( my mother's is of course the best - she is btw welsh, but spent many years as a good wife should learning at the feet of Tarmar) and each family will keep records of what has gone in each meal. These are never shared but then no one would want them as they would dismiss other's recipes as "foolish" What I think is unique to India is the sheer obsession with food. I am not saying other countries are not hugely passionate about food, that would be stupid. I am talking about life threatening obsession. Our whole family life is predicated around food. We discuss what we will have for lunch at breakfast, what we will have for supper at lunch and so on. we can only remember events by what we had to eat and the first conversation we have when we call each other is what are you cooking. We always say that our way of saying "I love You" is " will you be wanting that prawn/chicken/roti etc" I think this is reflected in every Indian family whereever they are and which ever bit of the subcontinent they come from S

Suvir A wonderful and enlightening post. I love the story about you as a child of 8 BTW, with my book publisher hat on, who is publishing your first book? S

There is, as far as I am aware almost no history of meat curing in Hindu cuisine. And meat consumption is much lower than in the west with vegetables and fish consumption being much higher ( if they were not all deep fried this would be such a healthy way to live ) There is however a long tradition of meat curing and eating in non Hindu areas. The Kerulan christians eat pork as do the Goans. I think this is because of the portugese influence. I have ( in Goa ) had a dish that was, to all intents and purposes, gammon in lentil broth i.e Pea & ham soup. It was spectacularly good S

Condiments are as important to the Bengalis as the main food. meals are not three courses, but tend to be one plate with a number of dishes served on it which can be eaten in any order ( my father always takes his dhal with a spoonful of jaggery - ugh) My favourites are the fiery pickles, particularly the Brinjhal pickles and lime pickles. It is hard to get these in NY. Here in London most of the supermarkets have their own label versions to greater or lesser extent. Two UK companies make excellent preprepared pickles. Sharwoods which has been going for a long time and Pataks which is newer, but to my mind more authentic. Both of these companies now export around the world ( even to India ) and both are available at Myers of Keswick and Tea & Sympathy. The Brinjhal pickle is also good with western food like a ploughmans lunch or just a plain slab of cheese. For any Londoners reading this thread, there is an adorable woman at Borough Market on a Saturday who sells her own chutneys and pickles. Her Malabar Tomato chutney is a wonder and her lime pickle is perhaps the best I have ever had S

No great connoisseur of Italian cheese, but when I do have call to buy, I go to one of the cammissa shops. There is the old one on the west end of Old Compton St and the newer one on Charlotte St ( just north of Goodge St ) I can't swear how much choice they have, but they are pretty good for most things Hope this helps S

For those Londoner's readng this interesting thread, I can heartily recommend the bacon at James Elliot, the master butcher on the Essex Rd ( just next to Steve Hatt ) He smokes his own thick cut backon and it has won innumerable awards. I can say without hesitation that it is the best bacon I have EVER tasted and I am a serious eater of pork products. S

If some man in leather shorts came near me he would most certainly be rebuffed. Andy on the other hand.....ahem! I think they would feel the rough end of his tongue

Calabres That sounds like a great dish and the comparison with chinese pork is an interesting one I am not sure that Kale would have been the right side to have with this because it can have a rather over powering flavour. was this listed with the meat on the menu or did you order it separately? S

Oh, trust me, our American cousins can be spotted a mile off as I am sure Brits can in the US ( blotchy pale skin is the usual give away. Oh and we are usually drunk ) The last time I encountered such an american group, the baseball hats which actually did say "South Dakota Farmer's Union" gave it away. That is unless they are a big seller at Kennedy airport

Its easy. There their clothes don't clash. S

I would claim no great knowledge of the proper samosa, but the best I have ever tasted outside of the home were in Mela in London ( on Shaftebury Ave ) This is a great restaurant specialising in coutry style food and run like a Dehli dhabar ( now I know I have that spelling wrong ) Their samosa are made with mutton, peas a little potato all fried with turmeric, cumin and a little ginger and chilli. The pastry is toothsome (like my women, I hate them too flaky ) and the outside is dripping in ghee. Now that is a street snack Perhaps that is an area where we can make those frenchie lovers eat their words. Surely India must be the home of the superb street snack. God I need a luci ( sounds illegal doesn't it?) S

I am assuming as this is an American attempt at a piss up it will be two bottles of shandy and then home then apart from the Johnson's who, from my own brief ( and entirely pleasurable, I admit ) meeting, will be soused as herrings before anyone else gets there No if you come to the London pub crawl ( planned for April-ish ) we can show you how it should be done. The gauntlet is thrown. Are you board enough to pick it up? I suspect I already know the answer

All Ghoti's are noted for three food related things 1) Love of bones. When my family have chicken, the women eat the flesh, the men eat the bones and crispy skin. I guess this is to do with love of texture. I also adore pork crackling and picking at boney fish 2) A sweet tooth. I have a real weakness for sweets and chocolate and good ice cream. Although bizarrely, I cannot eat many of the milk based sweets of my homeland. 3) A tendency to gentle criticism. If you serve a bengali dhal, he will invariably say " that was wonderful, but I wonder was the shop where you normally buy the lentils closed today?" or if you serve mushu(sp?) dhal ( a bengali speciality cooked, quite runny and with lemons ) with lime instead of lemons which are much more expensive, he will say " that was delicious, quite the best I have ever had without lemons" Perhaps that's where I get it from who knew, it was in the genes all along

Again, Andy What do you mean by "right now" You F, F,C f. S

Your mention of Bengali weddings reminds me of a story my uncle tells me about when he and my ( very straight laced ) father were young men. They were invited to a high society wedding of one of their cousins. It was the event of the year and the brides family had gone to town sourcing the best dishes from every region of Bengal. My father and uncle decided that they were going eat the host out of two dishes Rosgulla and Rabri ( to run out a dish at a wedding was the ultimate shame for the host ) and they proceeded for five hours to do nothing but eat these two wonderful dishes. Servants were sent to try and persuade them to try other tempting sweetmeats but to no avail, they could not be deflected from their path. Finally, after ten hours of gluttony, the host himself came to them in tears and begged them to stop. He even offered money. they took pity on him and allowed him one last portion of rabri which was taken to the grooms father ( as it should be ) and so the shame of the host was avoided. My uncle always laughs and finishes this oft told story by saying " and we then turned our attention to the malai" S

It is interesting how my opinions of Regalade have been dismissed as inability to appreciate or lack of taste. slightly presumptious as people have not eaten what we ate or been treated as we were treated. if people hate some of the places I suggest, I don't dismiss them, I do say that I have had good experiences but they may have been there on an bad night ( can restaurants be allowed to have a bad night- that's another discussion ) I certainly wouldn't suggest a lack of taste or knowledge as, despite my brusque style, I have slightly more respect than that. I guess that is the danger of suggesting the heresy on a US based board that some places in La Belle France may not be that good. Bux - I will gladly give you a list of places I avoid in London, but they are easily found as they are full of people called Elmer who wear that strange mix of South Dakota Farmer's Union baseball caps and Burberry raincoats S

I am not about to argue with Steve on matters baking, but I do have two points 1) I think the fairest anaology between french/western desserts and indian desserts is that of modern medicine to homeopathy. Both have the same roots but one is based more and more on scientific understanding and the other on a received oral tradition. One is based on techniques taught in schools of learning, the other on tried and tested methods arrived at through trial and error. Both have value, but it is unfair to compare. 2) There is a tendency in this thread and indeed on this site to treat Indian food as if it is a) one type of cuisine. It is as vast and varied as european cuisine. what we are primarily talking about here is gujurati food but there are so many others b) There is also a tendency to treat indian food as if it is a dead cuisine, one that atrophied a long time ago. It is not. It is living and developing as every cuisine should and does. The problem is that little of that development is in India. It is in London and the US where it is often dismissed as Fusion ( I abhor fusion food it is fundementally corrupt ) Again this can make comparisons odious S

I am hugely fortunate as all of these ( Rabri, Sandesh, Doi ) are all readily available here in London My favourite place in town is the Pradeep sweet mart near Northwick park hospital where a Gujurati man and his wife ( bengali ) have the most amazing shop selling all sorts of sweets ( incluing 10 varieties of barfi ) and many savouries. They sell doi in the earthenware pots at 50p a throw and it is every bit as good as in India. They also make wonderous rabir and last time I was there let me make my own jaleebi(sp?) I may have to have some ros malai tonight. I can feel an evening of sweets, tagore, Pantha Panchali and sad ballads coming on S