anil

It is not the Old town, but close. Ask for the 5th or 6th floor facing the street.

Acclimatisation ? I have gone the opposite direction - I was atuned and used to a moderate level of chilli-peppers in my youth (nothing like what is consumed in South India), now I can barely manage paani-puris when I'm in .IN I have seen folks in NYC, who have infinite capacity to consume really hot peppers

OK, OK, I guess I've been swamped with other stuff, so I have not been able to write about my IST trip Anyday Now, Anyday ....... BTW, only 3% of .TR is in Europe, their Capital, Ankara is in Asia --- But their soul wants to be European

Why is it silly ? I do not t hink they are scented. I used it twice yesterday, on both segments, and in past many segments - none had a scent - Not that other airlines do not relfain from artificial scents. BTW, many airlines offer these towels in all classes on the international-segments.

Eight years already !!!! Wow Congrats-times-eight then !!

I have found that Kobe beef that was served in the US to be much different than what I had in JP. Much has to do with how it is cooked and its accompaniments. One particular instance - Thin slice by thin slice of the beef served on the plate, slice at a time; with a mug of cold sake, and a thimble of hot one on the side - and to imagine, decades later I can still recall the image of the hostesses who were serving us - two gaigins, four japanese OTH, in a NYC restaurant that shall remain nameless, the plate was just SHOVED under your nose and we had to use knife and fork by ourselves. Did neither me nor the Kobe beef any good .................. ................... What preference of mine are you talking about ? Beef or Argentine women ? or both ?

50 gallons for 30 people ??? I don't drink 1 gallon of beer, you think I'll drink that amount of lassi ?

I'm always in search of new tapas places in the city. I'll try any once, some even twice - In trying to recover from a miscued reservation (not at a tapas place ), we headed south - Way south from our turf , and ventured into Oliva. For our first taste of the place, I'd say this place holds promise - Try the calamari. There are other fairly nice tapas, but I'll visit again later to see if we were lucky in our tapas

Onion Bhaji (especially the Bengali version called Piyazi) is one of my favorite snack dishes. One rarely finds a restaurant that makes it correctly. Those cricket ball sized bhajis are wrong. No idea where they came up with these. Sheer laziness I guess. ....... I think Piyazhi -is not really onion bhaji. Just like Ghoogni is not Chole in Chole-bhature. Having said that, I'm unable to draw a distinction clearly It's like saying I have to taste it to say if it is a cigar.

What clubs were you refering to ? In Mumbai, clubs rather than resturants have/had better food. A tradition going back to the colonial times. IN NYC, when I was based in mid-town, we'd go sometime to Princeton Club or Harvard Club where food was not that great.

I did not recall the use of color for asthetic purposes. Whatever color was, it was due to addition of spices or other herbs.

No, not really -

Excellent collection under one URL (a.k.a roof )

Toby: Vindaloo, the Goan version that is; would not really have Mustard Oil as the cooking medium. More like coconut oil, or saffola oil.

The Bagdadi-Jewish community in Calcutta is different culinary wise than those from Mumbai. Having eaten in homes of folks from both communities, I have to admit that the culinary delight is extra-ordinary. The community in calcutta has been influenced by Bengalis' in their adaption of techniques from Bengal, while the community in Mumbai show influences of the Konkan region. There used to be some good Bagdadi restaurants in Calcutta (or Kolkatta) which I vaguely remember about .

Mustard Oil, is indeed made of mustard seeds. It is the dominant cooking medium in bengali households, just like coconut oil is in Coastal South-Western India.

Terrible

What ???

Jodi - They came with the cruises. Frankly the Government wanted it - Why ? The cruise-type tourists are a bit different than say back-packers. In an attempt to make the cruise types stay a few days, the industry insured that cuisines that they would want are available - In an era, before your time, Barbados was known to the commenwealth by one name -- Sir Gary Sobers. Guess where my first trip in the islands was ?? You guess it - timed to catch at least a day at the Kensington Oval for a test match. There were no f****g cruiseships, and you ate what the locals ate - Oh I had such a rum time. That era is now gone for ever.

We don't lump all west Indians into Jamaicans. Only in the matters of cricket mon Actually, anyone who has read and admired Austin Clarke,,will probably also know that he wrote a food book, memoir rolled into one called "Pigtails 'n Breadfruit" More on Austin http://www.nwpassages.com/bios/clarke.asp

The chonk is the style; the concoction is called "Tardka" or "tarka" In many nort-indian cooking a tardka-masala is considered a must in atleast one dish at dinner, vegetarian or otherwise.

I had never heard of Curry powder till I left India Then the first exposure to this term was in the US. The person wanted to cook me some indian-style lamb-chops. After dinner, I had my frst look at, I think, McCormick's "Indian Curry Powder." There is in-fact curry powder, that is used extensively in Japan. To get what they (in Japan) mean by this - Try ordering Curry Chicken Rice in Sapporo on 49th between 6th & 7th, or a broth at Meinchenko-Tai . You'll also find some wet curry paste in Trinidad - To get a sense of what it tastes and enjoying it - Try it during the West Indian-American Day Carnival Brooklyn Eastern Parkway bet Utica Ave and Grand Army Plaza held around Labor Day I recently had an opportunity to take a look at Spice Bazzar in Istanbul, where they had what they called Indian Spices - Essentially sackful of some-one's mix of a "Garam Masala" I think I mentioned somewhere in the past -- "Nearly every indian household has their mix of spices, ground in batchs called Garam Masala - and each varies from household-to-household."

It is actually an ITV production - Cooking with Kurma - Do not confuse this with the British ITV, This is Iskcon Television. Essentially these are Videos made by Iskcon for Hare Krishna movement Here is a link http://www.itvproductions.net/index.html

While I may in principle agree to the basic truth, I do think it is necessary to care because it is there and it is different -- Ocra & rice with beef Why anthing else ?

As my friend has been saying all along -- Who cares about RTR when we have RVR