Sleepy_Dragon

I've not been there myself, but I've heard plenty of good things about Chace's Pancake Corral at 1606 Bellevue Way SE. Pat

Yeah how true now that you mention it! While the pictures were pretty, I'd probably never do it at home. Also, one thing I kept thinking was how little sauce there was. That's one reason why the blobs of Indian food never bothered me... sauce was a promise of good things to sop up with bread and rice! Shouldn't that be appetizing to everyone? The recipes themselves seem tasty, I'll probably try making something at some point, just without the fancy knife work. I really don't need every piece of paneer in a perfect 3 petal flower shape! (re: The Ashok Group's Paneer Akbari) Er, unless those of you in the know about the hotel industry think their food isn't worth the effort. Pat

Yeah, it is important, and I also like how the kids in Japan take turns serving the lunches too, rather than thinking they are above such work. And therefore, above the people who do it. I'm sure that's all rather idealistic of me, and the reality is not like that 100% of the time, but still, it seems like a good start, social contract and everything. Pat

Just had to pipe up here after reading this comment about Thundering Hooves' chicken. I'm on my fourth one this year, and each one has been amazingly succulent. It's hard for me to try to do anything else other than roasting it because it's so good just on its own. Good as in delicious chickeny juices streaming down my chin good. And the bones and neck make great stock. None of the Rosie, Rocky Jr. or any of the other organic brands even come close IMO. I haven't tried any of their other meat yet on account of it not being available, but I've got an order pending for this summer. Can't wait. Pat

I wish we could have gotten lunches like these. They sound delicious. I'm a child of the New York City school lunch program, and that was pretty bad not just because of the constant hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets (though they at least tried to give us one small apple or orange with each meal, but sometimes that was a syrupy canned fruit snack instead) but I was also a student during the NYC school lunch scandal years, where tons of food up to 5 years past its expiration date was used for student lunches. Anyway, no, it's not good for kids in the US to be eating that kind of processed food, not with their taste buds developing. It makes them accustomed to refined and processed things, and when they get older, I think they will lose most desire to eat anything else, to the detriment of everyone, not just themselves. Pat

Yes, quite. And just because you can -run- Spokane doesn't guarantee you'll be able to get anyone to try anything other than Cyrus O'Leary's and fast food. Anyway, that whole buffet manners thing really grosses me out. What is wrong with people. (I know, rhetorical question) I'm sure the whole thing around power buying layers of disconnect from the source of things figures prominently into it. Even so, the parents of those young men should be slapped for breeding them. Pat

Tomorrow's our buffet, all you can eat for $6.50, from 11:15AM - 1PM. We keep bringing out different freshly made items as guests finish them, so please come by if you're in our neck of the woods. I'll try and snag the new menus for the bistro and restaurant for the next two weeks at the beginning of next week. Pat

Thanks for the article, Monica. Always nice to see other people's takes on older parental types showing love and care with food, as well as a facet of what it means to hold onto people who are important to you. Now I need to figure out who I should make chai for... My friends and chosen family, they all don't like it and are either unapologetic coffee drinkers, or in the case of my partner, just can't stand tea with anything else added except water. Hmph. On the other hand, I could sip it all day while munching on savory spicy snacks. Pat

Royal Indian Recipes by the Master Chefs of The Ashok Group of Hotels has nice photos too. There are blobs of food in them as well, but the main thing is having the chunks of solid food in the sauce cut into identical shapes. Or if it's a piled blob of something, then to have fresh garnish in contrasting colors, and also sliced or slivered attractively, sometimes to create symmetrical circular patterns. Or to fan out the identical food chunks and ladle the sauce over the lower half of the fan while leaving the upper half exposed, and so on. Plus messing with cream and yogurt to swirl shapes into the middle of bowls of soup. The photographer is Deepak Budhraja. Pat, hasn't attemped to cook anything out of this book yet

Now that you mention it, I think I'd like illustrations. But like others have mentioned before, it depends who you want your audience to be. One thing I was uncertain about with tonight's cooking was seemingly obvious things like what a "chop" amounted to when chopping an onion or bunch of spinach. I recall Madhur Jaffrey mentioning in "A Taste of India" that there are different knife cuts used depending on the recipe type. So, if you're interested in catering to us clueless newbies, knife cut illustrations could be really helpful. Pat

I've never had any trouble with lingering aromas, and I'm an effete urbanite living in a studio apartment with no ventilation. I like coming home to them the next day, makes for a pleasant welcome. The only time when it is an issue is when I'm pan-frying oily fish like salmon or something. Now that scent is not pleasant the next day. I scrub down my entire kitchen after that, because it's the only way to prevent the smell from lingering into rancidity. Pat

Well, the cooking and eating is done. And it was good. So very, very good. I followed one of her menu suggestions and made: Aloo Palak Diced Potatoes and Spinach This was flavored with golden fried onions, chopped tomato, garlic, ginger and spices. I was a little too impatient with this dish, and ideally should have chopped the tomatoes more, as well as let it cook longer. It's just that it was the last one I finished, and chopping and frying yet another onion until golden brown was almost the last straw! But it tasted good. Just have to tweak the chopping and cooking times a bit to get a more cohesive look and mouthfeel to the dish. I went through 5 onions tonight. Channa Dal Split Yellow Channa Lentils This was my favorite dish out of the three. Maybe that sounds a little strange considering the richness of the chicken dish, but cooking-wise I think I hit this one the most accurately. I love the garam masala recipe she's got, especially the addition of bari elaichee (large cardamoms) and sticking with kala zeera (black cumin seeds), and this combined with the bhagar of fried onions and white cumin seeds made for a meaty dal dish with an extra smoky element to it, even though there was no charcoal involved whatsoever. Maybe this is old elementary news to you all, but it was a revelation to me, and something I intend to keep in mind for other foods. Her suggestion to squeeze lemon juice over the dal before eating was all the more perfect because of that smoky taste. All throughout the clean-up, I kept dipping a fresh spoon into the dal pot, just to have a perpetual one last mouthful. It was truly irresistable. Murgh Irani Chicken with Fresh Cream, Saffron and Green Cardamoms Well, I am sure this dish would have been better had I been able to control the heat and not curdle the aforementioned fresh cream, along with the yogurt. Argh. But it still tasted good. In addition to the description above, this was also flavored with black cumin, cayenne, black pepper, almonds, saffron, fried onions, ghee, ginger and garlic. It had a really nice orange-ish color with a clingy sauce when I got done with it, all accomplished without a single drop of that "tandoori" food coloring! Next time I'll be more careful with the heat, as well as remember to toast the saffron in a frying pan first, but it was still very fragrant and tasty. I'd also probably reserve the chicken breast for another use, and only cook dark meat parts in it. The chicken gets browned first in the onion flavored ghee, but this didn't seem to prevent losing all the flavor in the white meat. So that's everything, plus rice and yogurt. Well, thank you again for the recommendation. I think I got lucky finding this book, it's great. I hope it sees a second printing. Pat, with leftovers galore

Well, feel free, just know that it's not an original! iirc I read it in one of the Dalai Lama's buddhism books. Pat

Padma Lakshmi and Nigella Lawson... separated at birth? Well, I guess this is yet another idea for Rushina's book. When in doubt, stick a model's face on the cover to move copies! Ok, time to start cooking with Mrs. Rushdie's help... Pat

Bitter gourd, because it helps to regulate blood sugar, though I'm clueless as to its place in Indian cookery because I understand it to be something with a cold water energy to it, and don't know how spices would affect it. Pat

How does this work? If it was a texture thing, I'd understand that because there are certain things I really dislike unless prepared in a particular fashion (ex: bell peppers in any form except when diced in tabouleh). But spicy is spicy and heat on the tongue no matter what the cuisine, even though in my experience things like kimchee aren't as hot as they look. Pat

Can't sleep on a full stomach, and would wake up feeling even worse, so even if I'm feeling insomniac, no snackies. The most I'll do is drink a big glass of water if I'm feeling hungry, just to momentarily fill up in order to fall asleep. If on the other hand we're talking deliberately staying up in the wee hours to work on something, then just about anything meaty or savory with protein works for me, like seasoned Japanese rice balls, cubes of tofu with grated ginger, chopped scallions and ponzu sauce plus a bowl of miso soup. The main thing is the food can't be sweet or (only) cold (hence the soup along with tofu). Sometimes I'll use insomnia as an excuse to prepare something for the next day, rather than for eating right then. Like dishes that require hours of marinating time. Just the act of preparing the food is a kind of meditation that can quiet a severe case of chattering monkey mind. Pat

Pearl Balls are balls of minced pork with bits of ginger and green onion in them, with the entire ball rolled in some glutinous rice to cover it, then steamed and served with a soy sauce based dip. Couldn't tell anyone if they are Shanghainese though, despite the fact that my parents were Shanghainese. Pat

Not just that, but only in California as well as far as the US is concerned: http://www.yoshinoyausa.com/ I ate this in Los Angeles once. Rather have that than McDonald's, but even so... Pat

...and some of this is probably my responsibility too because I was the first to ask whether or not learning ayurveda might make things easier for a non-Indian cook. Wasn't an attempt to New Age woo-woo the food, but rather my own attempt at fumbling for an anchor somewhere that bore a little resemblance to what I grew up with around Chinese cookery and medicine, as well as trying for a possibility of mental organization beyond one of ack, I have dozens of spices, I better use them in exactly the quantities called for. Pat

Yeah, whippy for the record while I did say "cultural vampirism", I wasn't using it in reference to anything you'd posted. Mostly was just trying to pull apart something in an effort to try for something productive amidst all the morass around racism and colonialism anyone would have to deal with when trying to figure out how to learn about something that's been on the pointy end of that morass. Basically, I was interested in what you'd asked and at the same time I could see why mongo might have gotten pinged anyway; all I wanted to do was figure out where the lines were, while brainstorming a bit on how possibilities around respectful dialogue could take place and what larger purposes they could serve. Anyway, I agree that there's some talking past each other here, but I'm hopeful we can get through it to get to the questions. [edited this to make it sound less presumptuous, hopefully!] Pat

I dunno, the onion rings at CC's Gourmet Burgers could give them a run. Anyway, I'm excited at the prospect of frites on the street too. Gonna try and get my own paper cone tomorrow after school. Thank you to the A-B's for the alert. Pat

Here it is: Group 1: haldi kay masalay (turmeric spices) lehsun / garlic adrak / ginger dhania / ground coriander lal mirch / red chilli powder haldi / turmeric Group 2: garam masala choti elaichee / small cardamoms bari elaichee / large cardamoms kala zeera / black cumin seeds dalchini / cinnamon kali mirch / black pepper laung / cloves tejpatta / bay leaves jaiphul / nutmeg jaivitri / mace Group 3: harey masalay (green spices) hari mirch / fresh green chillies hara dhania / fresh coriander leaves pudeena / fresh mint leaves She also says adrak / fresh ginger would count here as well as in Group 1, but hari pyaz / green onions would not though they would be considered close relatives. Group 4: panchphoran (Bengali five spices) sabut safeid zeera / white cumin seeds methi dana / fenugreek seeds rai / mustard seeds sonf / fennel seeds kalonji / nigella seeds Lastly, she mentions some herbs and spices always thought of in pairs: dhania + pudeena / fresh coriander + mint leaves lehsun + adrak / garlic + ginger dhania + zeera / ground coriander + cumin jaiphul + jaivitri / nutmeg + mace choti elaichee + bari elaichee / small + large cardamoms All this was accompanied with a mention that none of this was set in stone, and people are free to highlight particular spices of their choosing while using others for background at different times, and each spice has a clear identity which can be used with others. Hopefully that was a decent paraphrase! Pat

Yeah, I agree with this, and furthermore, it seems the more there are of precise measurements and steps to follow, the longer it takes to make something and the more complicated it is, even though the precision is supposed to provide simplicity and reassurance. Maybe we could discuss exactly where we all find the imprecision to be liberating or stressful. IMO: cut onions nicely + fry masalas till smell comes = stressful, gah! (though it's also hilarious! Which cookbook was this?) cook until meat falls off the bone + cook over medium heat until brown = liberating As much as I will always (heart) Mrs. Jaffrey's books for all they've taught me, I'm looking forward to figuring out how to take things to a more instinctive level. And at the same time, I wonder what affect this will have on an upcoming career in the backs of restaurants, given the requirement to always knock out a particular dish exactly the same each and every time. Guess time will tell... Pat

I've finished the shopping for my first meal out of it. Bit too late to get cooking, but I'll cook everything tomorrow and report back. As for Sameen Rushdie being Salman's sister, I would have suspected a connection just based on the occasional flash of acerbic wit. I cracked up at her suggestion to substitute channa dal with another dal if farting and inconvenient social situations was a concern. Was like getting another facet into how her brother and the now-deceased Angela Carter got on so well. Anyway, I'll be attempting three recipes tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Pat