bhelpuri
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Posts posted by bhelpuri
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Oh, it's a legitimate question and was phrased in an extremely civilized manner.
But it is a sore spot, nonetheless.
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you hurt me by using the word odor in conjunction with cooking Indian
Yes, it's a sore spot with Indians, and we tend to bristle at the suggestion that the smell of our food is not attractive, or worse. It's the first step down the ugly stereotype lane, followed by "why do the women wear dots on their head" and ends up with "why do you smell so weird."
In fact, were this not a comradely, genteel-type, site, the correct and approved answer to Perlow's question would be - "fuck you, asshole", or maybe "and what about your mama?"
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an image of gleeful grizzly bears smearing themselves with whale fat comes to mind
Forget about getting rid of the smells of Indian food, how do I get this image out of my head?!
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I wasn't implying that the Goan food was comprised of only a few dishes, but that the restaurant Goa, on 6th St., only has a few Goan dishes in spite of its name.
Oh, I see.
Of course 'Tabla' isn't regular daily fare, didn't mean to imply that it was. Neither are Cardoz's rabbit pan rolls (or whatever) anything particularly recognizeably Goan, it's just that he references Goa a lot mainly due to his abiding (and well publicized) love for his mother's Bombay-Goan cooking.
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Bhel: You should try Dhaaba and Dragonel, for sure
I just looked at their menus on-line, at hackensacknow.com, and will try to do so at the next convenient time.
Dragonel sounds quite interesting and a couple of cuts above the Indian-Chinese places in the subcontinental ghettos I referenced earlier. The people who run these two restaurants appear to be Calcuttans, and thus from the city that is kind of the epicenter for Indian Chinese food. Yes, this place sounds promising.
Dhaaba's menu is mostly the same old same old, the Anglo-Bangla-Punjabi fare that everyone is familiar with. But those kathi rolls sound pretty good, and there are a couple of other Calcutta items that are described in quite an appealing manner.
Thanks for the tip(s).
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've decided to assemble a list of Indian restaurants that are somewhere near my area (Rutherford)
These are probably at the further limit of the distance you're willing to go.
However, the only real 'Little India' neighborhoods in New Jersey are on Newark Avenue in Jersey City and in a three-four block area in Edison.
In these concentrations, you will find the unalloyed real stuff - crowded restaurants and grocery stores catering near-exclusively to recent Indian migrants. In each of the two areas, there are particular places to recommend because there is some significant overlap in what's on offer. But in both you will be able to find a couple of very decent dosa joints - selling some of vegetarian food of South India, at least one snacky Bombay/Gujerati restaurant - offering up spicy/tangy/crunchy/sweet street foods like sev batata puri and pav bhaji. Also, two or three good restaurants serving the usual mostly-Punjabi menu that passes for "Indian food" everywhere in the West, and at least one Indian-Chinese restaurant.
I've not tried all the restaurants mentioned in this thread - I have tried some - but I have yet to find an upscale NJ Indian restaurant that's particularly worth mentioning, or can be recommended over these Indian ghetto (and downmarket) establishments.
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La Isla is good.
But i wonder if some of you - who are fans - have ever tried La Conguita, a hop over just off Grove Street in Jersey City. Similar menu (though expanded), much more homey and neighborhood-y, even cheaper.
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1) There is a very decent Tibetan restaurant - Tibetan Kitchen - on 3rd Avenue and 31st (or so ).
Unlike the other couple of restaurants purportedly serving Tibetan food, this one doesn't heavily Indianize the food or lean towards the regular Chinese takeaway. It's the kind of food Tibetans eat at home.
2) Goan food is comprised of significantly more than "a few dishes". However, the one or two items that have become famous (in bastardized Brit versions) can be found in any number of Indian restaurants from the most expensive to the lowest 6th street dive.
There is no Goan restaurant in NYC, nor a restaurant for the overall Konkan region. This is a notable gap, since Konkan food is fantastic - and Bombay makes its name as a restaurant city in large part because of restaurants serving this fish-centered fare. It's only a matter of time, I think.
Anyway, Floyd Cardoz is Goan, and his 'Tabla' often has Goan-home-cooking-sounding things on the menu. Of course, they're very far from the hearty originals, but that's probably the restaurant where Goa is mentioned and referred to most often in NYC.
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speaking of the rushdies: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/00120...~in~Hindu~style
Yep, that Salman has all the luck, have you seen a photo of the bodacious Ms. Lakshmi?
I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a copy of her unbelievably banal cookbook, not for the take-instant-noodles-add-frozen-vegatables recipes, not for the extremely pedestrian girl-in-Paris stories, but for the fantastically titillating photos of Padma - in a negligee at the market, in a halter top choosing artichokes, etc. I mean, this is real gastro-porn.
I mentioned these Tam-Brahm couples in another thread, I happened to show the males the cookbook when they visited. An indication of the way they rec'd these photos of the (equally Tam-Brahm) curvy Padma Lakshmi is that they slinked away into the bedroom, closed the door, flipped through it and returned it with guilty looks on their faces.
This is a cookbook!!
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I'll cook everything tomorrow and report back.
Excellent, sleepydragon, look forward to your accounts.
I should tellyou, by the way, that I've been extolling the virtues of this Rushdie book on various Internet sites for at least 8 years (not foodie ones like this, granted) and you are the first person who has gone out and tracked it down. I feel certain that your efforts will not go unrewarded.
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they are a group of well travelled indians taking a holiday. The property they are visiting has asked me to help put the menus together. The multi cuisine aspect because the groups that generally require vegetarian menus are also the ones that are sticklers for Indian food or Jain food, in this case they are okay with other cuisines (no chinese) as long as it is vegetarian.
The "no chinese" stipulation should be read as a warning, probably an indication that the menu should be Indian by default.
We recently had a dinner for two vegetarian Tam-Brahm couples, not just well-travelled but settled in the US for over a decade. I figured we'd make Italian rather than desi.
It was a disaster. They were game, and tried to put a good face on it but it was tough to do so.
Turns out that they were unfamiliar with (and very turned off by) sun-dried tomatoes - one of the main ingredients of the pasta. And all four of them were suspicious of and resistant to mushrooms - the main ingredient of the appetizer. And that's after ten years plus of living in the US.
Thus, my instinct is to recommend that you stick to Indian or heavily Indianized dishes, unless this group tells you in advance - we eat mushrooms, we like pasta, we don't need rice every day, etc.
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can't make my head eat it
You've been hanging out with Indians a lot, whippy, or (avert your eyes, Mongo) perhaps you were an Indian in a past life...
That's a common metaphor in India, especially in Hinglish. As in, 'don't eat my head, yaar'.
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It's clear enough (and to be truthful, was the first time around).
Sometimes a pakora is just a pakora.
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in the search for relevant context we have to be careful not to over-inflate the local cultural currency of every kind of information. and especially we have to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that x, y or z have to be "known" in order for a cuisine to be authentic--especially since if we aren't careful about the identity of x, y and z we might render many local practitioners of that cuisine inauthentic!
secondly, and this might sound flip, but i'm sincere: i have no idea what that quote means.Heh.
Something is happening here, but you don't know what it i-i-is, do you Mistuh Jones?
(sorry, couldn't resist)
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Whippy,
Two cents.
On another thread, the (valid) question is being asked - 'Is Indian food finally hot'.
In my opinion, the only way it is going to become truly 'hot' and appreciated globally like Italian or French or Japanese or Chinese food - is if the elements of the many regional cuisines are looked at afresh.
What hope there is in Indian food "making it", in my opinion, lies in the hands of interested and diligent chefs like you - people who are not irrevokably married to tradition and custom. People who can freely work within the Indian palette without baggage or hang-ups, and with skills honed in other culinary contexts.
i take food seriously, it's my job. i am motivated to know everything i can about indian food out of love. all the nuances that i gather from many different resources help create a better dish in my experience.May your number proliferate and multiply !!
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Mom still instructs the maid- " Kanda acchi tarah fry karna
That's classic, and the most maddening of all cooking instructions when you're trying to capture something you've eaten in the past with only verbal instructions to go by. Fry "nicely", bhuno "nicely", it's always irritating.
In Konkani, there is a phrase roughly transcribed 'illeshe'. This means "a bit", but in practice I've learned it could be anything from a pinch to a cupful.
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Hmm, interesting diversion.
1) Sleepy_Dragon, I'm thrilled you got the Rushdie book and are pleased with it. As I mentioned earlier, it used to be favorite reading long before I started to attempt the recipes.
Since then, in working my way up and down the repertoire, I have never failed to get really good results. This isn't a cobbled-together "greatest hits of India" mish-mash cookbook, but a thoughtful collection of dishes that the author has clearly cooked umpteen times and knows instinctively. My first dish from the book was the kheema with tomatoes, please do post about your own experience (and inevitable successes) with cooking from this book.
2) Sameen Rushdie is quite famously (if, that is, you're a Rushdie obsessive) Salman's sister. For one thing, she and her brother successfully sued the Indian government a few years ago to get back a mountain "villa" in Solan, in Himachal Pradesh. For another, she mentions that she was raised mostly in Karachi, but born and spent some early years in Bombay. That's the Rushdie 'backstory', he went to Cathedral school in Bombay for some years and then went to Rugby in England - it's at this point that his parents and three sisters migrated to Pakistan (I think Sameen is the one of his three sisters closest in age to him).
3) I'm not a fan, instantly, of the term 'contextual gloss'. It does a disservice to the role of food in culture and society, and negates the historical context in which many foods have been developed. I'm with Sleepy Dragon in this (and whippy), though it should be noted that Dr. Jones has modulated his comments quite carefully.
So, it's obvious (and I do agree) that "what it is insiders already/automatically know is not always as extensive as we think it is". This particularly true and stark in the diaspora, and when we seek to re-create away from the home country, but it's also rapidly becoming the case in modern India's cities. So, there is a need for texts which teach us not only how to make the food in a tasty manner, but what the roots of the food are, what the implications of the choices of ingredients are, even what the logic is in pairing one ingredient with another or in eating a particular food in a particular season, and so on.
"Contextual gloss"? I say "bring it on".
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Of course, politically, I have a few problems with all of this, but self-interest, job and income security seem to take precedence over political views these days.
Haven't they always?
But, in any case, "politically", what are the problems you have with "all of this"?
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Pyewacket,
1) Congratulations, you're going to one of the greatest, richest, most unique cities in the world. Particularly as an expat, particularly at this period in time, you will be poised to take advantage of something quite remarkable.
2) It's also a maddening, unbelievably crowded, polluted city. Where you live should be somewhat predicated by where your husband works. Give us some details (the area his office will be) and we'll be better set to advise on residential localities. If at all possible, living in South Bombay is advisable.
3) Your son has been going to American school for a few years already. Unless he's really game to be being challenged, you should send him to one of the two Yank expat schools in Mumbai. Eight year olds in the other good schools in India are already a few years into a very demanding curricular program including far more advanced math, science (and national languages) than is usual in the USA. Still, depending on where you're going to be staying, there may be suitable local options.
4) I've found the India volume in the 'Culture Shock' series to be quite useful in setting expats up with some of the info they will need to adjust to India.
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We've been getting tons of really good okra in the Indian stores, and often make it in a recipe almost identical to Monica's.
Except, instead of deep-frying the slices, we season them with salt, turmeric and chili powder and then shallow fry with sliced onions for two/three minutes.
Then the okra and onions are laid out in a single layer on paper towels (to soak up the excess oil) and put into a 400 degree over for another fifteen minutes. This crisps them up the way the dish is supposed to be, but you don't have the deep-fried greasiness.
Sprinkle with chaat masala and mango powder.
One of my absolute favorite dishes, and I can relate to making it to cheer oneself up. It's comfort food in our house too.
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Dodol and bebinca are both sweets that came to India (Goa, to be precise) in the early part of the Portuguese era. They're both made - in quite widely varying versions - across the whole swathe of former Portuguese Asian possessions. I'm totally unfamiliar with Timorense food, but it would be interesting to see if these two items made it that far.
Another milk-less Luso-Indian sweet is doce de grao, or simply 'gram sweet'. It's likely this was one of the first hybridized recipes that came from this particular cultural contact, since it very much resembles European marzipans and fudges, but is - by necessity - made from local ingredients. It's just chana dal, tons of coconut, sugar and ghee, and a hell of a lot of elbow power to transform the mixture into appropriate smoothness.
Here's a picture of some (cooling, unsliced) I made this Christmas (it's a seasonal treat).
It's my computer desktop background!
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the best bhutta is in delhi and punjab
Don't be absurd.
Delhi and Punjab? I mean, where are the seaside esplanades? Huh?
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My own favorite, irreplaceable, Indian street food is 'bhutta'. Tough Indian maize, roasted over glowing charcoal and then slathered with lime/chilipowder/salt.
It's a particular pleasure that i've never been able to replicate anywhere. Part of it is the atmosphere, the best 'bhutta' is eaten on the waterfront, on the long walkways of Marine Drive or along Bandra's Bandstand or Carter Road or at many places in Cuffe Parade.
But the biggest reason is that the maize is different, much harder and more robust. A few weeks ago, I had my first Bombay 'bhutta' after a couple of years. Offered the choice "naram ya kadak" (soft or hard), I felt a bit wimpy but went for the 'naram'. Good move, it was 20 times harder than any of the American sweet corn my teeth have gotten used to. I mean, really really hard.
Ate many more 'bhutta' this trip, never dared to go for the 'kadak'.
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Same magazine, another article on street food. This one is by a familiar name.
Have you ever been consumed with a passion for pani-puris abroad? Suddenly felt you could really kill for a dosa? Or had feelings that only an assignation with a bhel puri could assuage? Well, here’s a tip, don’t go looking in any of the Taj Mahals or Jewel of Indias or Delhi Durbars that can easily be found in most cities across the world. All you’ll find inside them will be the vindaloos, madras curries, chicken tikka masalas, baltis and all the other peculiarities of that bastardized blend of North Indian food prepared by Bangladeshi cooks which is what passes as Indian cuisine in most parts of the world.
What you want at this junction is neither that, nor whatever counts as home cooking for you. What your tastebuds are yearning for is that basic, essential, deeply satisfying type of food that is rarely made at home, but instead is sold from handcarts, makeshift counters, ramshackle shelters or even just from tins and baskets on street sides across India. And here’s how to find it: check the yellow pages or just walk around until you find a restaurant, the smaller and simpler the better, which has Bombay in its name. Not the politically correct Mumbai, but the original name in combinations like Little Bombay, Bombay House or Bombay Bites. And while its not a given, the chances are that these establishments will serve the pani puri, bhel, dosas, dhoklas or other types of snacky, street food of your yearnings. In the arbitrary way that international usage ascribes meanings, Bombay it seems has become a synonym for Indian street food.
Indian Restaurants in Egypt
in India: Dining
Posted
The Oberoi group has at least two hotels in Egypt (perhaps three).
They will be sure to have Indian restaurants in them.