susruta

For Chinese food, the best place in North America is probably Toronto, according to my Chinese friends (I would say "foody" friends but most Chinese have an interest in food that far surpasses that of people in other cultures). The general consensus is that it has surpassed Vancouver in the level of the cuisine; I've even heard some people say it is giving Hong Kong a run for its money! We were there last weekend and enjoyed two wonderful meals. The best was at a fairly new restaurant called Jade Village in Don Mills. It featured peking duck, lobster with ginger, a superb fish dish, a wonderful seafood soup, pork and eggplant, and a vegetable dish at a munificent cost of $40 (US) for four people, though six could, have been satisfied. (The same place features banquets costing up to $900) I live in Chicago but come from Toronto, and the difference between the two otherwise similar cities (both of which I love) couldn't be more striking Chinese restaurants in Chicago are ok but nothing on the Toronto level. In fact, I know of families who drive up to Toronto for the weekend to eat. There is also an incredibly degree of specialization in Toronto: restaurants that specialize in dumplings, in noodles, in tea, in eels, etc. The largest concentrations are in the suburbs, where tourists probably never go. There is also an interesting subset of restaurants featuring West Indian and Chinese cuisine.

Here's a Maharashtrian recipe: PEANUT POTATOS 1 1/2 lb potatos, boiled, peeled, and cut into pieces 1 1/2 inch square 2 tb oil 1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, ground to a powder 1-inch piece of ginger, finely minced 1 tsp whole cumin seeds 1 tsp cumin powder 1 tb coriander powder salt and chili powder to taste Use a nonstick pan or spray the pan before heating the oil. Fry the ginger and cumin seeds until they stop crackling. Add the boiled potato cubes and fry for 5-6 minutes until they start to turn brown. Add salt, the cumin, coriander, and chili powders, and the ground peanuts. Toss gently and throughly for a couple of minutes and then remove from the fire. Decorate with grated coconut and coriander leaves.

Thanks, Pan. After starting the topic, I discovered an earlier thread on this subject which has some recipes. I also explored my collection of Indian cookbooks and found that bamboo shoots are widely used in the Northeastern states Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, etc. as an ingredient in stews and curries. So I'll try one or two of them as well.

A friend just sent us several pounds of fresh bamboo shoots that she picked herself and then bo iled. Does anyone have recipes? We know a couple of way sof preparing them but we'll be eating them for quite a while!

Piperdown, do you recall the name of the restaurant in Toronto where you enjoyed that dish? I'm from Toronto originally and when I go back on visits I'm always looking for good Chinese restaurants.

In his wonderful book "Lucknow: the Last Phase of an Oriental Culture" Abdul Halim Sharar writes In Delhi the most popular food was biryani but the taste in Lucknow was more for pulao. To the uninitiated palate both are much the same but because of the amount of spices in biryani there is always a strong taste of curried rice whereas pulao can be prepared with such care that this can never happen. It is true that a good biryani is better than an indifferent pulao for the pulao may be tasteless and this is never so in the case of a biryani. But in the view of gourmets a biryani is a clumsy and ill conceived meal in c omparison with a really good pulao and for that reason the latter is more popular in Lucknow. Another definition is given by Digvijawa Singh in "Cooking Delights of the Maharajahs." He writes that when rice is cooked in meat or vegetable stock and spies, it is called pulao but when it is first cooked in water and meat and other ingredients are added later in layers, it is known as biryani.

Have you noticed that samosas in the U.S. at least are getting bigger and bigger, especially at receptions and buffet lunches in Indian restaurants. Some of them must weigh a pound. I don't know whether this is to save time making a lot of little things or to fill people up so that they don't eat other things. I find it a very dismaying trend.

I visited Pondicherry about a dozen years ago as part of a government-organized culinary tour of South India and looked for evidence of the French influence on cuisine. But alas, I found nothing. There was a tiny hotel whose name I have forgotten run by a very oldFrenchman which probably has long disappeared. The only signs of the French presence were the names of the streets, the wonderful pastel seaside buildings, and the kepis worn by the policemen. Also, most of the older inhabitants spoke a very nice French.I wrote an article about this for the Toronto Globe and Mail. I've often wondered what would have happened had the French been victorious and become the rulers of India. It certainly would have an interesting effect on Indian food! Has anyone ever seen such a scenario?

Chang & Kutscher: An Encyclopedia of Chinese Food and Cooking: 1000 Recipes Adapted to the American Kitchen I'm glad to see this book was mentioned; it is my standard book for Chinese food. No photos, no frills, no editorial or historical commentary -- just a lot of recipesI don't even know where or why I bought it but I'm glad I did. It's very easy to use and always has a recipe that covers whatever ingredients I have on hand -- so I don't need to go running to the store.

I own dozens of Indian cookbooks but the ones I've used the most often over the years are the following: Indian Cookery by Mrs. Balbir Singh, the Julia Child of North Indian cuisine. Her recipes can be very complicated and but they work and produce some fabulous results. She is the master! Prasad, Cooking with Indian Masters by J. I.S.Kalra, regional recipes from hotel and restaurant chefs. The instructions are detailed and leave nothing to chance, and the results gratifying. Indian Cookery by the mythical E. P. Veeraswamy, an oldie but goodie. Recipes aren't too complicated and he gives many variations on a single dish For Kerala food, the books by Mrs. K.Mathew are very good. A new edition has just come out of her classic Kerala Cookery.

Interesting question. Traditionally Indians don't, as far as I know, eat any meat or fish raw. Perhaps this is due to the hotness of the climate. Is raw fish or meat eaten in any tropical or semi tropical countries? I think even ceviche is limited to the cooler parts of South America, though I could be wrong.

Last week one of the top Indian chefs in London said to me "Gujarati food -- that''s the real Indian food. " I totally agree. It will be interesting to see whether these upscale Indian restaurants start adding real Gujju dishes to their menus -- not just horribly overpriced bhelpuri.

My husband and I came to Chicago in 1967 and at the time the city had only one Indian restaurant whose name I have forgotten --something generic, like House of India -- run by a Colonel Abdullah who claimed to have been in the Indian army and to have a PH.D. in psychology from St. Xaviers, Calcutta. We got to know him and it turned out he was actually a black guy from Tallahassee, Florida, who was based in Calcutta during WWII and liked Indian food. The restaurant was in the nightclub district and was rather upscale. He used to hire Indian students ( and there weren't very many in those days ) as waiters. A few years later a local PR guy named Chablani opened Bengal Lancers, which was again rather posh and ostensibly featured dishes from British India. The restaurants and their interesting owners have, alas, long since disappeared.

Does anyone have any thoughts about what might be the first Indian restaurant in North America? (In the UK, of course, it is Deen Mohammed's Hindustanee Coffee House, which opened in 1809.)

I think the parathas are good mainly because of the texture, which is perfect, slightly hard outside and crispy inside. The rather decaying atmosphere is appealing (at least to me) and they are very cheap -- about 20 cents.

Just returned from delhi t oday where my husband and I did some serious eating. We always make a pilgrimage to Chandni Chowk to Parathawalla gulli, where you can get the best parathas on earth for around 8 rupees -- quite a contrast to what we paid in the big hotels! Karims nar the Red Fort (not the other locations) is perhaps the best Moghlai restaurant in the world. However, some people might be squeamish about the environs. We tried one of the famous Kabab Factories run by Radissons (the one in the hotel near the airport).l The concept is great,. the food was so so. The kabobs at some of the little places on and off Chicago's Devon AVenue are generally better.

In Chicago, the Chinese grocery store on the North Side where I shop sells plastic-wrappedSun Ming An bacon made in Brooklyn.. The ingredients include cinnamon and gin!

Tissue, what is bo zai fan? I could not find it in any of my Chinese cookbooks but this is probably a matter of transcription. What would some alternate English spellings be?

Thanks, everyone! These are great ideas.

Does anyone have a recipe for Chinese bacon? My husband and I are crazy about it but the only way we know how to cook it is with sauteed green vegetables. There must be some more interesting things to do with this delicious ingredient.

Who actually are Garwhalis?Is their language Indo-European?Would they be considered "tribals",i.e.,members of scheduled tribes?

What is considered a good bargain meal in Toronto? In Chicago, you can get a very satisfying ethnic meal -- Thai, Indian, Polish, Georgian (ex-Soviet), say -- for between $5 and $8 per person, including a soft drink and a shared dessert. This would be $6.50 and $10.40 in Canadian dollars. I only go to Toronto on visits so am not on the lookout for cheap eats as I am in Chicago where we eat out all the time!

The following was omitted from my previous message. T The food courts have many stalls featuring all sorts of specialties, including eel, and there are also at least two restaurants on the second floor. Outside in a row of stores is another restaurant which I am told is quite good.

For Chinese food, shopping, and an all round fascinating experience, I recommend Pacific Mall at Steels and Kennedy in Markham. It is perhaps the largest Chinese Mall in Canada and contains hundreds of specialty shops along "streets" named after those in Hong Kong. It has two large food courts on the second floor featuring all sorts of inside the mall as well as one outside in a row of stores that I am told is quite good. The whole thing is authentically Chinese (i.e. Hong Kong) but most people speak English.

Speaking of Danish food, in the early 1950s or maybe even the late 40s when I was a very little girl, there was a Danish restaurant in downtown Toronto called Little Denmark. It was perhaps the most exotic restaurant in the city in those days of Toronto the Good (apart from Lychee Gardens and other Chinese restaurants). I remember my parents taking me there on some special occasion; it was dimly lit and seemed the height of high living. They served Danish open face sandwiches, among other things. Does anyone remember it, or any other "foreign" restaurants from those ancient times?