anil

So there you go - It is not a rumor anymore Do you know the bawarchi in question ? Is he still alive ?

In SCL Hotel Majestic One of the local hosts of mine had never had indian food. Even though had a collection of prints of ancient indian iconography..... So, last night we located one - It turned out to be a Best Western property run by an Indian of Sindhi ethnicity. The restaurant is attached to the hotel and I suspect it does a fair amount of its business by catering to diplomatic and consular staff. The exotic spices impressed my friends, but I was dissappointed because they managed to overdo some excellent pieces of Ecudorian shrimp pakoras. I asked if they had any sindhi speciality in the restaurant like sai bhaji, jeera aaloo ?

There used to be a very nice restaurant in Khan Market which stuck to the original recipe for Butter Chicken. MotiMahal´s Butter/Chicken popularity has do do with a rumor that Nehru on his official trips abroad took the bawarchi from Moti Mahal; Butter Chicken was something he served with almonds and black cardamom.......

Miraflores district has many restaurants. Cerviche of various different types (yummy) While they have very tender slices of steak, they somtimes are soaked in fresh lemon mustard sauces. I had an excellent Shrimp doused in fresh tomato and herbs sauce. Foe peruvian regular fare, do try chicken stew on rice with raw sliced red-onions and yum, french fries Also try their favourite alcoholic drink pico sour and the popular non alcoholic inca cola.

The Mogual influences were reflected in cooking in ancient Avadh as well as Deccan, of which came two popular styles - One in the north: coming out of Lucknow and other from Hyderabad. I may be wrong .....what do I know of history of Food styles eh ?

I do not know what distinguishes US Punjabi from UK Punjabi ? Much of what we (punjés) eat vary with availability of local produce. In a sense, a typical indian restaurant in NYC will have a mixture of northern cuisine and Avadhi (Mogul ) style cooking. Heavy sauces and cream more prevelant in Lucknow/UP region. With a few dishes labeled vindaloo, a reference to Goa. Much of punjabi cooking does not involve a lot of spices or gobs of garam masala. Of the regional cooking styles under-represented in the West are from Gujurat,Maharastra, Bengal, Andhra, Kerela,Kashmir, Rajasthan all of which have different way of preparing the same set of produce. Also imported from elsewhere but assimilated over the centuries is Parsi and Goan/konkan cooking. A few south indian restaurants have opened in NYC which have begun to get kosher certification to attract a set of clientele that would not have ventured into other indian restaurants that mix meat and milk in their preparations. A belated Welcome to tommyf

Today,Sunday I woke up early (before the light of the dawn) and decided take a walk, avoiding a buffet breakfast at the hotel which was about an hour plus away. I planned to take a stroll along the Ave. Higgins and grab a light chilean fare and some coffee. With all stores and restaurants closed, I finally found one that was open. It had diner-style seating -- No aqua, no coffee -- It served booze and heavy steaks and chicken sin arrozo and a lomita solo. So I ordered the lomita. Seedy as the place looked, it did´nt bother moi, after all I´d been in stranger places at all odd hours from HKG to GIG to Berlin, and not to talk about good ól New York. Two minutes later, two cops enter, and the whole place becomes silent. In this crowded place all heads were down.... Finally their gaze lock on me; having recently seen a BBC piece on the Pinochet era Santiago,I was a bit unnerved. Avoiding their gaze I looked out the window ....... the light ofthe dawn was cracking out from the snow covered andes mountains... With my passport locked in the hotel safe, I had no ID. Two nights ago, at a restaurtant I was asked to write down my passport no:/ID on my charge card, which I had refuse to do so,much to the chargin of the manager. One of the securitida guys walked up to me, said something in rapido spanish. Not comprehending half of what he said, I reluctantly got up and followed him outside. Theother guy asked me why I was in this place ? I explained in English interspread with spanish words that I was looking to have a breakfast ands ome coffee and wanted to try out some local fare..... ´´delequiente´´ ´´problemas´´ were some of the words they used. A cruiser pulls overand they ask me to come along. I refuse (by this time I am quaking in my boots so to speak.) Another cop-type gets out andsays that I should not be in that dangerous place. Offering to drop me back to my hotel. I politely decline. I gave athumbs-up tothe guys in the cruiser and I began to walk back with two cops a step behind me as few early morning buses and cars wizzed past. Assoon as I turned into my hotel entrance I exhaled a sigh of relief. The guard and bellboy came over,and after a few minutes of rapido conversation they shake hands andIwalkintothe lobby. More conversation between the front desk staff and the bellboy andthe story unveils- As I had stepped out a pair of cops outside the hotel had radioed that I was a hotel guest walking out and had to be watched, few blocks off the two cops hadspotted me enter this place,which was a notorious hangout od undesirables and shady dealings went on in this diner, suspecting that I wasnot aware ofwhere I was, and concerned of my well being, they pulled it out before someone in there began to hassle me..... Oh ! Well ................. None of t he locals inSCLhad warned me thelast two days, Hey it could not be that bad .... Couldit ? {This being keyed in from an unfamiliar keyboard and broken spacebar}

I third it.

I would avoid restaurants there. This is a ¨pukka¨suggestion.

Oh !! I knew Behram, I also loved his columns when I was young and in Mumbai -- never found anyone like him in NYC.

Well- a DBC (Denied Boarding Compensation) allows me to go back to SCL -- Just for a few nights Will see where my local contacts take me this time

One night ? Hilton Caribe has a OK spread in their restaurant...... BTW Hilton was running triple miles /Double dip not so long ago ?

I grab my coffee from the 'guy outside my office, passing-over the 'bux --oops ''*bucks" served at the Commissary -- Oh Well !!!!

Oh Boy !! This looks like a pandora's box

And that has changed ? Nah !!! I'd recommend Son Cubano few doors up. Better food and little more umphff

Not sure if this is the same place I went, but taking the ferry up the Bosphorus to the village at the end of the line is a worthwhile experience. We had a great lunch of deep fried mussels and grilled mackrel at one of the waterside restaurants. You probably went to one by the islands. This place has no ferry boats going to it. I went to the place you mentioned in '02.

I have generically written about food in IST in this forum (check the archives) - Last month, most of our meals were at places not really accessible to general tourist, hence no elaborate trip reports. However, I could comment about late-late night (or early morning) post night-club hangover food Tripe Soup !!!! It would be advisable to have only one or two restaurants selected in advance, and let the rest of your meals go with the flow. We had mezes and Pils beer at the mouth of Bosphorous & Black Sea - Breathtaking views. The sleepy village not know to any tourist (on the asian side of .TR) Not to talk about endless rounds of mezes, Fresh fish chosen to be cooked on the spot, and a bottle of raki over a period of many hours watching ships go by till it was dark............ Do try Gozlemes in the Grand Bazar, Eat outside the mosque by the bridge in Ortakay (sp?) and do not get tempted to things I would not get tempted to Watch your wallet. Enjoy Constantinopole a.k.a Istanbul

Could you set a base-rate or comparative threshold of what you would consider a good greek ?

Jhaal Muri as I remembered it

Nearly very street-cart vendor on Mott (south of Canal), Canal had pile-load of lychees this weekend.

Try it I made a leap of faith Things other than food distracted me in Mogador -- Just as Pan eluded to ............... But then, being human and mortal, I'm easily distracted.

Doing Tandoori Fish requires extra vigilance - Something many punjabi restaurants do not because of timing and effort. However, Pritams in Dadar (E) they were able to mix the two. I agree Trishna does grilling quite nicely - Never been to Apoorva, Where is it ?

Hve you tried Zitoune ? Its on little 12th St. and Greenwitch St.

I've been twice to this place - Once, to have a big bowl of rice-soup (cure a hangover, before it took hold ) and then for BBQ (We was so-so) I will give it another try

The pampas grass fed free range cattle in Argentina do have a different flavor. Also in many a parrilas you'd find a whole carcass hanging over a charcoal pit, from which prime cuts can be had for about USD6 (based on my '01/03 exchange rates) On my last trip, the locals; called portenos; took me to some real great restaurants (all argentine restaurants serve excellent steaks)