anil

I have seen it been used in breads in Morroco. Do not recall if Turks use it extensively except dips and spreads.

Lord Marcus Sandys - Governor of Bengal. The Greater bengal (now bangladesh) had extensive usage of anchovys as well as tamarind.

The rum tradition in that part of the world is a legacy of the Raj - As they said in the British Navy - Rum,B*m and Gramaphone

This Wednersday we walked over to our neighborhood GSI, not having read that day's Dining section, I was amazed at the crowd -- only to come back home and read the controversy about GSI

I know of some punj's who are fanatical about purity of phirni - No variations - I gather it is used in some occasions to break a fast - No do not know which !!

Could be, My marathi has become very rusty, so probably it implies "besan"

Where can one get this "chana tsapit" ? Is it black gram flour ? That's the only thing I can think of that might be differet from the big blanco variety.

There is a Mongolian BBQ place by Bowery (30 Bowery maybe...) called Daily Chow - Not having a reference point I could not judge how good it was -- Time to go to London

Or the roof-top restaurant atop Rio Othon Palace hotel, which is fairly expensive too. Marriott, the newcomer to the Copacabana scene (two years) want's to start an upscale restaurant too - just waiting for the economy in GIG to stabilize a bit .....

It is my understanding that most of the bohri's are now concentrated not in Gujurat but in Mumbai and its surrounds. Yes, Bohri's share the common language (Gujurati). Some of the influences of Parsi cooking are to be seen in Bohri cooking too (or is it the other way around) namely, the usage of "saak" or "saag" as in Dansak (sp?) Gujurati, both vegetarian hundus, and non-veg muslims - are well known for stuffing their guests with multi-course meals - Should there be even a hint of slim or trim person, it is interpreted as being under-nurishement i.e "sukara-che" In mumbai, in my youth someof our neighbours used to bring us gujurati appetisers commonly grouped as Farsand (sp?) - Many of those are available at Dimple @ 30&Bwy.

Most of my memories of Chaat outings had to do with setting sun over Juhu Beach, or early evenings in Kaliash Colony, or Sunder Nagar. All of these outings involved standing and eating the chaats. Specially "paani puri" or "goll gappe" t invariably ended with having Kulfi in the winter, or Mango or Rose Lassi in the summer. If suvir manages to serve "paani puri" or "goll gappe" one-at-a-time, it will be a major success I forget who: but someone in this thread mentioned 45USD being tad too much for an Indian, which to me is not surprising for folks who may not have seen some high end places

You did better than I could have. Always wonder what suhaga really is.... Maybe someone here ought to know. Thanks for your kind wishes spicegirldc. I will just say that "suhag" has something to do with wedding/marriage - I think the metaphorical interpretations are of NC17 nature

I'm totally stumped. Millet based basics are predominantly in Rajasthan some parts of Gujarat. This might be just a improvisation done to get basic nutrients together.

Suvir, Once again a very fascinating reading.

Given all that is happening in BR, play it safe, go to Marius in Leme, it is a Churrascaria and Rodizio combined. If you know a local friend, they might take you to Leblon area.

It is very difficult to handle lobster without botching it - A common flaw is to douse or supress the flavor f the meat with the sauces or spices. One of the reasons that Maine lobsters in a roadside lobster-shacks work is the simplicity. My experience (one meal) was opposite of yours. The apps. were weak and the entree (tuna) was excellent.

A soup with half the complexity of the one described above, in SIN,HKG or even YVR can set you back approx USD130/head with a minimum of two persons needed for the restaurant to consider such an order. We have had ChuiChow (sp?) redition of Abalone & Chicken Soup, which I must say was very good and quite expensive. The problem is that in NYC (and many other cities in the US --- I'd presume) many non-orientals are unwilling to accept let alone pay top dollars for a complex and delicately prepared oriental dishes {chinese, malay,thai,vietnamese}

This just crossed by my screen Today's Events The fifteenth Annual Deepvali Festival in SouthStreet Seaport -In most years apart from fireworks at night, there are plenty of food stalls serving up various kinds of indian street food.

Are you back ? Would care to update us on it ?

Go for it

No, not really - It is more like gruelly.

In all honesty, I could never get six weeks off - Heck I cannot take more than 10 days at a time. This is the reality we live by. Having said that, we do visit same places many times. LON often, BCN a few times, CDG more than we admit to... The only people who get stretch of time off are faculty - Summer off

Guess what !! I concur - By their standards, I'm way way up there However, some of what they consider as countries are skewed

No it isn't. Just observe a native - It is easy after that. Just like chopsticks, I learnt to observe and then imitate Okay, but how long did it take you before you stopped needing twice as much bread as they did? Never, I'm the native

Expect a better than normal food service from most Asian carriers. Amongst the European carriers AF has a slight edge in F, SR (old Swiss Air) used to have excellent service in F (and we know they are bankrupt and gone, with new Swiss nothing like the old SR). Amongst the US carriers flying trans-atlantic, they have the same catering service LSG (A Luftansa owned sub.) Tell then the price per pax, and they give you a series of options - pick and choose About miles - 160,000 Skymiles to fly AF Concorde, down from 200,000 miles in the past. All good and real skinny on FF miles are best discussed here