anil

Excellent report. But a day late and a ..... I just spent my discressionary dollars or I'd have headed down there in January BTW here is a Site for the Region Oh ! Well !!!

Still there taking care of the UWSiders

Wewere in PRG during the NATO summit. I agree that restaurant scene has changed over the years, but a lot still is to be desired. Basic Czech cuisine and palate is influenced by polish,german,hungarian cuisines. We did enjoy a meal in a Kosher Morrocan restaurant in Praha 1.

Sounds vaguely familiar before or after '70 ?

I suspect that as with Chinese eating Chinese food in China, they would likely just call it "food." I suspect that it is not Mumbai or Delhi or Kolkatta, but rather If a Punj ate at someone's house, and that person was bengali, and they cooked traditional dinner - He'd say "I had bengali food", or "punjabi khana" or "konkani meal" etc etc.

Why do you say that Anil? I had a great, GREAT meal at Khyber and also a wonderful meal at Indigo. Indigo was also very beautiful. The golden fresh marigolds in the indigo tiled water bath were sensational to the eyes, the food was exciting.. and certainly a big step forward... Have you gone to Indigo? No, I've not been to Indigo - About upscale-restaurants - In my youth, the prolifiration of non-indian restaurants was not there and if there were it was spread-out. The first time I went back, 14 years later ( I was in Banvaas so to speak) the city as flooded with cheap {Thai,Chinese,Pizza....} A few decent restaurants had added chinese to their menu - Horror show was our Gymhana had gotten into the scene..... Now I do an annual visit, whereby I get to hav at least few meals outside of {people's homes,old clubs/Gymkhana} I'll update my state of Mumbai and Dilli around the Presidents Day holidays when I normally take time off work; But first we'll see what's new in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo

All good points, yet not quite correct - The thing that ties Italy together is religion and language. While in India there are multiple languages, many religions, there is a underlying cultural commonality that brings together diverse elements of day-to-day life - Which are also manifest in the regional cuisines

You mean macher-jhole ?

Hotel Restaurants While most 5 star hotels in IST have a few ecelctic restaurants - The one we know of is where we stayed the past two trips - Panaroma on top of The Marmara Hotel - Marmara is probably the highest hotel in IST, given that Taksim Sq is on top of a hill. While the view is great at night, and nightly entertainment OK, Turkish food is surprisingly good if one sticks to fish. Mezes are as usual the high point. On the main lobby level is the Brasserie where the daily complimentary breakfast is served; and dinner is mostly international, which translates as italian, greek, and a bit of french thrown in. On the street level is the Cafe - open late, this is where we made our last stop of the day for an appertif and assortment of turkish desserts - kadayif or asure; my favourite - Asure is pudding with different kinds of nuts. Spice Bazaar & Eminonu Spice bazaar and the surrounding outdoor areas are fascinating place to snack on - from pistachio candies, locum (Turkish delight) to stuffed mussels. Or have a spice tea. Turkish coffee is not for the faint-hearted In the adjoining streets, steet-vendors and B&M shops, sell everything from knock-off jeans,CDs,porn to viagra - You name-it-theyhave-it, akin to night market in Kowloon. Inside the spice bazaar, apart from spices, one can get both Iranian and Russian caviar at prices unheard of in EU & the US. The Grand Bazaar This is the mega souk of all souks. Literally thousands of shops of all kind. What is interesting are the small restaurants that dish out basic fare for shopkeepers and customers alike at very reasonable prices. You will not go hungry for under 2USD. The most expensive being bottled beer for a buck. Outside the Bazaar, fresh juice stands, kebabcis as well as lachmun places are abound, all meals under 3USD. The kitchen in the Tokapi Palace At its peak, the Ottoman Empire had enormous wealth and Istanbul was the trading center. Needless to say, one should visit the grandest of all kitchen museum in Topkapi Palace - On display are the china and sliverware from the world over - The royal kitchen had over 200 cooks whipping up three meals a day for the Sultan & his wazirs and the vast harem

It is very easy to rack up the bill in a good Chinese restaurant -- I have had some really expensive dishes in HKG - their preparation was elaborate and flavors multilayered.

Maya ??

I agree 100 % - They have such dedication to what they do, it is commendable. Patience in explaining in simple terms, some quite intricate and complex preparations..... Good work both of you'll

Surprisingly, Sucre and Commerc 24 are getting similar press in Nov/Dec edition of National Geographic Traveller also... courtsey Adria too

Just around the time I was leaving the 'desh' for 'videsh' some dufus; had thrown out CocaCola and Thumbs Up was to be the answer -- When I returned a decade and plus later Coke was back I do remember Limca as truely unique, and unavailable either in BOS, or NYC

Outside of UK; and mostly LON, I've never heard of, or mention of Balti cooking. The closest recollection of folks cooking in baltis or similar utensils that big are probably in open-air langars (not near a gurdwara) or feasting lunches during Durga Pujas in West Bengal. The utensils served in BLCH aren't what I consider baltis. Here s an image I scrounged off the web Ancient Balti If Balti had derived from baltistan, I'm sure many of my older relatives (who were refugees) would mention it - Delhi (the refugee colonies) and Mumbai (its post partition folks) would have incorporated it into some form or the other in restaurants and/or daily cooking experience. I remain un-impressed by Brick Lane, in London - did go there once, lookng for beetlenut leaf (paan) experience

Between Tonyfinch's comment; Suvir's experiences, I decided to keep my impressions to myself. On a friend's insistence, I did drag a few others along -- I apologised later to every body for the poor service, and arrogant attitude when pointing out the under-cooked pieces of meat..... Hey !! They can survive without the few measly bucks from us I agree the BL curry houses in London are for outsiders and folks unfamiliar with indian food.

Istiklal Cadd. This is a street that runs from Taksim Sq. as a mostly pedestrian street - where youngsters hang-out before hours, after hours -- all the hours; full of music stores, clubs and ofcourse restaurants - Mostly Kebabsi, and Buffe's type of places. The small restaurants off the side streets offer great value when you order the meze and maybe one main dish. Off this Cadd. is a covered fish-market mixed up with a few small restaurants that serve fish. While 95% of Turkiie is moslem, I found no letup in the restaurants around the city during ramazan - Maybe some restaurants were closed - Nearly all places had special 'iftar' specialities. As you wander down Istiklal, watching the beautiful young people going in and out of music stores, some of which blaring hip-hop indian music-via-London-DJ-scene, you begin to notice the power of youth in determining kinds of eateries on this street - al reasnable and good value. Also youll notice women sitting by the window-side using rolling-pins to roll dough -This is the making of gozleme, very much like stufed parathas -actually it is just aout anykind of stuffings onto the dough which is then folded an baked on a reverse-tava (convex tava) this dish goes great with ayran - yogourt drink - just like a lassi. Do not give up on the opportunity to visit one of these places and sample the gozlemes. You'll find some places kebabcis which are very simlar to Manhattan salad-bars where you pay by the weight or dish and sit in a table upstairs or in the back - These places have very inticing displays of food meant to tempt Then there is the Cicek Pasaji - Off the cad. a covered souk adjunct to the fish maket - This is a group of restaurants with tables out on the covered souk Cicek Pasaji Any time of the day you can snack on street food from stalls or Buffes -the most popular being Lahmacum Turkish thin pizza, or Iskender Kebabs. Breakfast Most hotels include breakfast - Ours is no different - Overlooking the square we had lazy breakfast which consists of the normal assortments of juices,cheeses,variety of olives, breads, meats&eggs and honey in the hive. Fish Restaurants in the islands We took a boat trip (two mils each way, 12cents approx) to an island where there are los of wooden houses from another era - still in use, but mostly as summer homes of second-tier wealhy folks. These islands have excellent fish restaurants - so calld because thy have a display of fresh catch of the day - atleast a few different kind - The fish is grilled,steamed,baked,fried anyway you want it - Quite inexpensive. Of!Course served with assortments of mezes. Drinking Turkslve thir drink - hence there was problem getting beer at any restaurant,bufe,kebabci etc. A favourite drink to try once is raki, with water ofcourse because it is strong - Raki is like the greek ouzo. When you wander around the grand(Covered ) bazzar, shoping, any a mall knoo-corner places will serve you apple-tea another turkey speciality. ..... more later .......

It is pretty clear not many of us travel to Rotterdam for dinner

I'm surprised that this thread doesn't die -- Just like the terrible new Bond flick Mumbai, for better-or-worse - On the upscale restaurant-scene seems to be going down......

Chinese in Mumbai: Of late (past few years) my trips to IN follow my trips to SIN/HKG and vice-versa, so I am reluctant to waste the little precious time eating in places that I have no desire. I miss Parsi food, so I load up on that - I go upto Crawford Market for my Bheja fry and briyani .... I have scouts making list of new places of repute so that when I come, we go and splurge.....

When we visit places (cities) that have a rich culinary tradition, we tend to mx it up with one or two highend places and lots of local holein-the-wall but excellent eateries -- be it Paris, HongKong,Buenos Aires,London and ofCourse Istanbul. I shall write about some of those snippets when I have some downtime

Monica: When I left for "vilaate", I called it Bombay - There was a song "Bom Bom Bom, Bombay meri hai....", In mumbai, check/ask around - I'll probably make my pilgrimage in 'Feb 03. Good food in Mumbai tends to be in clubs/Gymkhanas - Juhu/CCI/BreachCandy/..... But then this is my humble opinion. In my younger days, at Juhu Beach, there were only three portable Bhel-puri-walas... And I can go on an on about us being the only other punjs in Juhu apart from DevAnand --

In Kolkatta, the Chinese community used to have street food very similar to Hakka noodles and in the same manner one finds in SIN. Much of the Chinese Indians made dishes that had affinity for kind-of-garam masala in their fried rice etc. On the other hand, outside of Kolkatta, Indian Chinese food is put together with too much of oil and not much regards to balance between the various ingredients. In my youth, there were very few Chinese restaurants in Mumbai or Delhi for that matter - Now, every restaurant in Mumbai has a whole slew of "chinese" dishes in the menu - Something I care not to even describe. On my last trip I was told that the finer chinese restaurant in Mumbai were in Holiday Inn, Juhu Beach & Regents Hotel, Bandra - The one in Juhu was marginally OK, it is kind of a Juhu & JVPD filmy type hangout.

The Customs directive is here For standard stuff, 400 is enough

Jhal Muri - It is indeed different from Bhel Puri - It has no fried "sev" to begin with - Jhal Moori, has few basic ingredients - puffed rice,mustard oil,chopped onions,diced unripe green mangos, salt, red peppers and spice-mix which has black-rock-salt as one of the ingredients - more like chaat-masala but not quite.... Hope this clarifies.