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anil

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Everything posted by anil

  1. anil

    Trip to Italy 101

    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
  2. 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
  3. anil

    Wine shock at Petrus....

    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
  4. anil

    Amma

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

    SUVIR SARAN

    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
  6. anil

    $6 bhelpuri

    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
  7. 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.
  8. anil

    Amma

    The Tasting menu is a bit Rich and Heavy.
  9. Are we talking about the same place ? The corner place right ?
  10. 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
  11. anil

    $6 bhelpuri

    ..... 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 .....
  12. anil

    $6 bhelpuri

    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
  13. anil

    $6 bhelpuri

    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
  14. 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
  15. 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.
  16. anil

    $6 bhelpuri

    Nyet (Or so I guess)
  17. 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
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. anil

    Trip to Italy 101

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

    $6 bhelpuri

    USD3.99 ? at Dimple
  22. anil

    SUVIR SARAN

    Cheers raising my glass downing it in one shot - Munna !!! Ek Patiala aur lai ah mere dost ke naam se
  23. 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..
  24. anil

    Amma

    SOG
  25. anil

    Trip to Italy 101

    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
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