anil

I agree that Europe is very expensive for poor folks who earn in USD. Anyway, there is a well known FF tip -- Never take the tariff quoted on the website seriously - Especially the high end hotels Make a call or two directly to the hotel's international business development manager or G.M. see what you get. It's just like the Air consolidators and discounters, never disclose the airline/airfare till the end

Meant to swing by today; off-shot by a few blocks and landed in your backyard -- Jones St. for Festival of Light events in South Street Seaport and food fair

for 800BGP, I could fly from NYC to Amsterdam, stay two nights @ Renassiance/Marriott, indulge me'self and be back at work as if nothing happened

you went already! Hmm !! Wait patiently ....

You'll can easily remedy the situation --- Put your money down and food in the mouth @ Amma on 51th between 2nd & 3rd and chat up with Suvir while having lunch/dinner

Just returned from downtown NYC {Jones St. between Water & South} where street foods of India dominated the Festival of Lights celebrations and fireworks are due at dusk. So, nearly every Catering House had Bhel-Puri and more. Comparative analysis of 'northern-indian' style bhel-puri, the 'Gujurati house' interpretation with the Sukathme' Catering authentic Bhel

Alu methi is much different from Alu Palak. I would say that in the former case, more alu less methi. In fact in the northern part of punjab, the methi was in 'chonk' quantity.

The Tasting menu is a bit Rich and Heavy.

Are we talking about the same place ? The corner place right ?

It used to be good, but off late either they stopped caring to prepare certain dishes just right {e.g. steamed fish/Tilapia (over cooked)), soggy baby-bok-choi ..... anyway just returned an hour ago from Congee Village, which is consistent in congee, Fried bread&condensed-milk and baked rice They do make sub-par mixed drinks

..... bhel puri is something akin to a dirty-water hot dog When I was young, I'd eat bhel-puris nearly every other evening on the beach by my naani's house. When I returned after a decade plus, I was warned not to touch anything in Juhu Beach stalls - sure enough I ignored and became sick-as-a-dog. Now my bhelpuri fix is not through a hawker-stand. I still have hot dogs on the go anywhere in NYC without thinking dirty-water and all .....

Nah ! not mystfied - There is nothing that a little Derrida deconstruction cannot explain In the meanwhile A little bit of Expat Culture to amuse or horrify some of us

Let me take a stab at it - Bhel Puri (street snack) is the latest and current metaphor of hawker-stall food (here in the US) patronized by really busy folks who want to eat-on-the-go. These type of stands used to be lined up along the Churchgate/Fort in the early '70s onwards (maybe earlier) or the Chole-Bhature stands around CP or some-big-office-complex in Delhi. They used to be quite crowded during lunch time and normally busy during the shoulder hours too. Many of the street-type foods began to show up in the menu around mid-to-late '90s in NYC {I'm not sure how prevelant it was elsewhere in the US}. It did coincide with the Y2K rush-to-fix and DOTCOTBOOM. Around that time, I began to notice clusters of 'desi-coders' standing outside our building (any many others around manhattan too, I would think) at all odd hours munching/eating from stainless-steel tiffin-boxes talking cobol-speak - Sound familiar ? The need for bhelpuri could not be too far away no ? Contrast this with an indian restaurant in the late '70s {Boston, MA} serving dosas&idlis as weekend special filled with nostalgic desi community flocking to it on Sat./Sun. dressing in their finest silks for a south-indian fix. In any given month we could expect to bump into other desis from neighboring towns working at DEC/Wang/E&S. Dosas & Idlies were the Udipi fix of the Bombaites. South Indian restaurants in NYC are here to stay - They have proven to survive on their own and do not need the mughalai/Awadhi/North Indian dishes to fall back on. So we have come a long way. The bhel-puri (or for that matter street food) is addressing a cognitive need to connect Who knows if Frankies or Pao-Bhaji is next ? Here is another: In '89 on the north-east corner of 43rd & 6th, an enterprenual immigrant started offering brown basmati rice with grilled chicken hot sauce + white sauce, along with hot dogs and pita-bread fare. His rice offerings began to sell out in the first hour or so. The grilled chicken becaue more elaborate and turned into some kind of curry-flavoured chicken. There were long lines for his basmati rice and chicken fare. That was a hawker stand. Now, kazzillion carts around midtown offer chicken+basmati rice variations along with standard hot-dogs, Jamaican beef pattis - What Next ? Ya never 'no in Noo Yok !! Do ya

North of the border; VYR [Vancouver] and YYZ [Toronto] have reputable high end as well as value-laden restaurants. Just hop-on-a-puddle-jumper from DEN

Where is Curry Hill ? I'd say that a few months ago I stumbled into a canteen style restaurant on 31st between 5th & Bwy, where I spotted a couple of sardarji's busy in the kitchen -- One could have easily (off hours only) convince them to make ya one ? I did ask them if they could make me a maaki-de-roti [can't take a punj of of me], which they smilingly obliged. The daughter of one of the original owners of Mirchi was very accomodating with off-the-menu dishes (I think Suvr knew her too) and stuffed parathas was one of them. I do not know the quality or value of a couple of taxi-stand type joints along the length of 10th Ave. Maybe someone to explore those too.

Nyet (Or so I guess)

Having followed this discussion with a lot of interest, I suggest professor, why don't you pin a list of plate lunch places by the Islands ? Would help tremendously us conference goers on restricted per-diem budgets

In that part of the world (i.e Northern Africa, Mediterrean,Bosphorous) Istanbul is the place to get spices - My favourite is Arifgolu Spice Co. in the Egyptian bazzar a.k.a Spice Bazzar. They were planning on opening a cart/stall in Ataturk International Airport because of the number of folks returning back wih their spice mixtures What is in Ras al Hanout that you cannot get in Mumbai ? Any special ingredient ? My understanding of it was that it is like garam masala; the proportions of the mixture of ingredients were the key. But then I'm not really a cook, I could be wrong.

You have pretty much done a lot of Tuscany - You could try and stay in San Giovanni - I'd suggest San Gimignano, but then you considered it too touristy. You will be a tourst no ? even if you stayed there for two weeks ? Actually on another site, we normally ask or post what our daily budget per person is - that way one can get a perspective on the trip-logistics.

I might as well double the rate, and stay at Danieli (sp?)

USD3.99 ? at Dimple

Cheers raising my glass downing it in one shot - Munna !!! Ek Patiala aur lai ah mere dost ke naam se

Actually each country in SEA has a few dishes which are vegetarian in some sense - i.e they contain no meat; but then again they are cooked in meat or fish stock. You could make 'roti kanai' with vegetarian curry instead of chicken; have a Viet rice noodle soup with fresh vegetables. Good luck on your restaurant - and do keep us posted on it's progress..

SOG

Excuse me, but VIE is the code for Vienna, VCE is Venice. Oops my slippery fingers, I did mean VCE Thanks for pointing out - I'm sure the mistake would have not gone unnoticed beyond a few minutes on FT