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whippy

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Everything posted by whippy

  1. hey, don't take offense, i've read your posts with great admiration for your thoughtfulness, dedication and palate. it's just that my one meal at navarre really provoked that sarcastic tone. i'm absolutely baffled that the joint is busy. i don't think people who eat there are stupid, but i do think that at least Some of them are buying into a sort of meta-culinary food style driven fashionableness. nothing we ate was flavorful or succulent. the pumpkin tasted mostly of well-used grease (maybe it was just over heated). i think the reason this dish is popular isn't because of its good flavor, texture or technique, but because it's 'minimalistic.' that's what i was trying to get at, underneath my avalanche of sarcasm. the food is minimalistic, and that style is what is really being sold--in place of good cooking. and i really mean, in place of good cooking. the cabbage was tepid and flavorless, the frico didn't add to it . the pate was tasty, i do admit, but i really found it rather silly and sort of pretentious served with a single gherkin. minimalistic food can be great if it has any flavor. based on my experience, i think: the food at navarre is without flavor. it's underwhelming, despite looking so sophisticated. whippy
  2. just to sort of give a quick compact view, a list of the mostly non toxic food items mentioned so far: bugs, brains, slugs, salmon, okra, milk, orange-flavored items, beets, spicy hot food, cockroaches, testicles, maggoty cheese, snake (dead or alive), balut, black eyed peas, parsnips, spiders, livers, kidneys, rats, overcooked crucifers, internal organs in general, oatmeal, stinky cheeses, eyeballs, little debbie snack cakes, foaminess, miracle whip, sauerkraut, dogs, blue food, chitlins, 3 bean salad, tripe, buttered popcorn jelly beans, anything with cinnamon, calves' livers, tarantulas, eggs, sea urchin, lizards, durian, roquefort, fennel, cherries, non deveined shrimp, cats, oilyness, raw tuna, fermented seal oil, ritually captured air dried shark, fish marinated in fermented fish, smoked haddock, sheepshead, dill, olives, green bean casserole, watermelon, rabbit, taco bell, peas, raw tomatoes, horses, fermented fish, bananas, peanut butter.
  3. did i miss it? has nobody mentioned chaba thai's romaine leaves with canned tuna? miang pla tu, i want to say. it can be a bit spotty, but we order it everytime specifically "medium" and if it's been made well, it's the best thing on their menu. who cares if it's not authentic? or maybe it is authentic, and i just didn't have a thai home cook available. it will start good natured fights over the last piece. have you had their miang kum (i want to say) with the betel leaves instead of baby spinach? amazing. WAY better than other joints. have to stick up for lemongrass. love the apple in the salad rolls. reasoned and delicious. need to get my butt to khun pics, but somehow that gate, that house, that garden....i know it's there, i can just never find it.
  4. for me, this is a restaurant based on intimidation. customers are served food so absurd they don't know what to make of it, and then conclude that because they can't understand it, "it must be good." i hope people will learn to trust their instincts more, because navarre is a farce. the pumpkin fritters? really! hot bland goop. i'd rather eat popcorn. the country pate? garnished thoughtfully with a gherkin, we ate it by the spoonful until it was gone. we looked at the gherkin admiringly. the pate tasted great, but the gherkin really stole the show. but wait! there was tepid cabbage! my god, you've never eaten tepid cabbage like this. it had a "cheese curl" on it! i can't tell you how the juxtaposition of that cheese curl forever changed my impression of tepid cabbage. i'll never again think of tepid cabbage the same way. ate more than that, but for the life of me can't remember what. maybe bread and butter. anyway, we left and headed straight to noble rot, where we enjoyed a delicious "meal." on this one i'm in complete agreement with nick (extra msg). for the record, i'm a fan of both genoa and square peg, two places that seem(ed) to get less respect.
  5. monisha bharadwaj, in her "indian spice kitchen" identifies mango ginger with the english "zedoary." she writes its main use is as "a pickle which must be eaten quickly." which is the way i usually eat anyway, so i may be game for this. unfortunately, i've never seen the pungent rhizome in my whereabouts. malvi doshi suggests a simple condiment: equal parts of fresh peeled turmeric and mango ginger cut into matchsticks, then tossed with lemon and salt. sounds good to me! however, other sources claim fresh turmeric isn't popular with the "indian palate". i don't remember eating it.
  6. yay for today's internet connected world! we all get to geek out with full bellies, on whether or not you'd eat something even if you were starving. but since this is a site which reaches people from all around the world, (i mean unless they don't have internet access), i want to know if anybody here has ever actually ever been starving? like, seriously. have you ever been starving? what was "off the table" in those desparate moments of yours? i can't see myself murdering another viably live human being for food, but of course i've never endured genocide, nearby war or all encompassing persecution. i think if i was starving to death i would make my pets, the loves of my life, as comfortable as possible and then suck the meat off their bones. god forbid that such a thing should come to pass, but well, i've read a bit about the history of the human race. and these things do come to pass. what wouldn't i eat? i think like most people, when push comes to shove, the real answer is: nothing.
  7. where i work (which isn't a buffet) ANYTIME a plate of food comes back untouched we have a simple policy. with great concern and tact, and if we're feeling very proud of a certain dish with a bit of hurt feeling, we simply ask: was everything okay? it communicates our concern, and more importantly gives us feedback, which any smart restaurant should be regarding. sometimes people will simply say their eyes were bigger than their stomach, and sometimes people will tell us it was too salty for them. but the servers all know to ask about any unfinished food. and the servers all know to let managers know what a "finicky eater" has to report. over the long run, this creates less and less unfinished food. i think this sort of approach is a better business model in the long run than scolding customers because it creates good chances for repeat business while fine tuning our food to the customer's liking and also hopefully making the customer aware of their own sloth. see no reason why a buffet can't do that. sadly the atkins diet has, in the space of a year, doubled the amount of wasted food we see. starches are routinely and regulary thrown away without warning by clients who simply didn't speak up in the first place. vanity! ultimately, in my experience a weekday lunch is often the time when most food is wasted. why? because people wearing suits have come to my restaurant for what's most important on the table: not the food, but their own business. it's a shame. by the way, there's a restaurant nearby which composts all unfinished food. maybe somewhat better than simply throwing it in the can.
  8. i own a couple a books in this genre, and mark bittman's is actually my least favorite. i think both madeleine kamman's 'the new making of a cook' and ann wilan's 'la varenne pratique' are better, but people like different cookbooks for different reasons, and these books are heavier on the technical aspects than is 'htce.' that said, shout out to torakris: the recipe for Tembleque is elegant, delicious, excellent. i slather in between layers of my coconut cake, it's sublime.
  9. mongo, somehow i should have known you'd be the first to provide the link to tulleeho. i love that site. my personal favorite drink is a.f. under vodka, though you couldn't make me drink it. cheers, your friend whippy
  10. miligai, viji's (her book is called samayal--the pleasures of south indian vegetarian cooking) recipes for paruppu usilis call for broad beans/avarai or capsicum. her recipes vary from yours in that she uses only toor dal, only soaks the dal for 15 minutes, then steams the ground dal for 20 minutes in a rice cooker and crumbles the result. haven't done it yet, so i'll have to see which way works better for me. i think i might prefer the way you used mixed dals. normally i'm a champion of using as much fat in a recipe as possible, but i bet the microwave approach wouldn't actually damage things too much. i read recipes for several thorens online and from my collection of cookbooks, and used that as the basis for the recipe. i don't own monica's books (yet), but i think she includes a recipe for a green bean thoren in her second book. whippy
  11. congratualations miligai! i totally enjoyed cooking your recipe. it was a technique i hadn't used before, so thank you for teaching me something new. the flavor was wonderful. i have a couple of other paruppu usili recipes in a book i own by viji varadarajan, and your entry has put those recipes on my "hot list" of things to cook.
  12. mongo, are we doomed to fight forever, across the stars and over time? i don't want to. i'm a firm believer, but not supporter of the idea, that "with the exception of the major metros and the college towns" even chinese and mexican is considered "exotic." we're talking about rural americans. i'm related to some of them, and it's not pretty. my idea of hotness definitely doesn't mean becoming "almost regular american food." regular american food is often fairly tepid. regular american -chinese and -mexican food in particular is gross. what could be more boring? my idea of hotness sees restaurants which offer a VERY well executed cuisine, at a higher price range, with good service, some creativity, and great setting. indian restaurants in america haven't yet done this. i want them to. mongo, if you are ever in portland, let me know. i can't deal with this. i want to have lunch with you. whippy
  13. that's sort of clearer. i'm glad you find this amusing, because it's actually very distressing to me. the subtext here frankly makes me feel, again, like a big jerk. let me say this, i'm very comfortable with the notion that i'm a better cook than 95% of americans. i don't think that's being egoistic, i think that's because i'm a "professional cook," i've put my chops in, and sweated my life away in the kitchen. i've become better than 95% of americans by constantly educating myself on how food is cooked, and by learning more about food than most americans will ever begin to know. part of that learning process, and that passion for cooking, is in the details. i don't think of myself as trying to cook absolutely properly, holistically, or authentically. why would i enter the asparagus contest if so? (something this thread has made me regret from head to toe.) why would i make indian "caesar salads" and try to produce a reasoned approach to indian fusion cuisine in america? no, i think i'm really just trying to cook the best possible food i can. i believe that knowing there are two different flavored ghees helps me to do that. i don't know why knowing more about ghee would hamper any cook, anywhere. where on earth did i ever say indian home cooks don't know how to cook indian food properly? i would never say such a thing, ever. i imagine that in my quixotic quest to cook indian food at a high level of proficiency, i will learn TONS of things that 95% of indian home cooks don't know. to me, that sounds like great fun. however, you are right, i am trying to cook as authentically as i can, also. (please, not the word holistic, please.) it's definitely one of the things chefs try to do when working with a cuisine foreign to them. messes are made, otherwise. there's lots of fumbling involved in this learning process, lots of experimenting. i don't know how it could be otherwise. if i was ever, as a restaurateur, to serve a plate of dum aloo across the street from an indian restaurant, what would happen to me? i'd be a distinct disadvantage, that's what. that's what drives me to try to cook, let me say this humbly, better than my indian counterparts. am i being too competitive here? is there a restaurant in america that can stand not to be too competitive? (note that i don't serve indian food at my place.) when i travelled in india with my college group, one of the things my professor kept repeating to us was basically this: learn as much about everything as you possibly can, don't specialize too much. i think he was trying to teach us that our wee little brains could might have flickers of insight if we were very broadly interested in learning history, economics, religion, language, etc. it was an idea which stuck with me, that you can't learn "too much." it's why i want to know about all that context. i think i might be able to handle the repertoire of the kitchen of some kinds of indian homes fairly ably. i'd ultimately, at the end of this journey in like a couple decades, like to do better than that. i'd like to know everything i can know about indian cooking. which is far from knowing everything about indian cooking. well, that was all over the place, but it's the best i can come up with. if these are the words of a cultural vampire, just tell me they are and i'll go goof around in private. i'm pouring myself a whiskey now.
  14. for food to get really hot in the u.s., there has to be a celeberity chef. culinary innovation that takes root here always starts with the chefs, and their ability to manipulate the media. i'm not saying this is a good thing, but i think it's the way it is. julia child and alice waters are the classic heavy hitters in this regard, and "ethnic" foods that are big have faces represented regularly in the magazines and on t.v. : morimoto, batali, yan, etc. raji in memphis, before she passed away, was raising the visibility of indian chefs, and madhur jaffrey has made some inroads, but her lack of association with a restaurant hurts her. floyd cardoz isn't on the radar at all. the media is really focused on ny and la, too. so, celeberity chef, with a fancy restaurant in one of the big cities. 15 years after that, Akbar's Grill in a suburb near you.
  15. thanks, bhelpuri! maybe as my skills improve, i'll throw in an indian soup here and there as a gentle start. i'll go read over the "hot" thread and see if there's more i can add there. mongo, first i'm really relieved you're not mad at me. i was very worried you saw me as sort of a big jerk. secondly, and this might sound flip, but i'm sincere: i have no idea what that quote means. i've been staring and staring at it, and can't make my head eat it. but it's okay. as long as i haven't really pissed anybody off, i think we've gone far enough with this one. however! i'm hoping this might crystallize everything we've been discussing, and bring it back closer to topic: what about an Indian Encyclopedia of Food? no recipes, just basic information of techniques, equipment, ingredients, regional styles etc. etc. etc. i enjoy my "food lovers companion" immensely, and also often consult "the oxford companion to food" by alan davidson. there are some books along these lines already, but nothing massive.
  16. mongo, it's upsetting to me to have created such a brouhaha with you! i agree with all you've written, and respect where you're coming from. but i think you may have mischaracterized what i was trying to say? by "mastery" (which as i posted i put in quote marks to qualify the word as somewhat absurd) i meant a complex, and lifelong process for anyone engaging practically any subject. i was thinking of the life of julia child, her tv work, her kitchen now in the smithsonian, her numerous cookbooks, her dedication and her passion for french cuisine. she literally changed the way america eats. i personally never expect to cook at her level. but her incredible energy was a gift to us. julia explained a "then exotic" cuisine to us, and made us better for it. her breakthrough cookbook, as i'm sure you know, was titled "mastering the art of french cuisine." maybe for you julia's work was a bad thing. i can appreciate that, it laid the foundation for a lot of grotesque fetishizing in the hyper-fashionable american culinary scene. i never "assumed" the "average indian" (whatever that is) has a knowledge of indian food "hard coded into their system." what i wrote was: "as an indian, you've got the link between indian culture/cuisine inextricably built in." as an american, i've got the link between american culture/cuisine inextricably built in. for instance, i know without thinking about it, that hot dogs are served at baseball games. isn't there a lot you know about indian cultures/cuisines without thinking about it? i absolutely did not mean that indians were some kind of special species, and i regret not making my meaning more clear. i live in portland, oregon. there's a lot of bad indian food being served here. i cook it so that i can enjoy it. i've been a chef for 15 years, and a restaurant owner for 8 years. (i never serve indian food at my restaurant.) 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. i'm not a "romantic" person "looking for exotic fluff." i'm an ardent student of a multifaceted set of cuisines from a big country with a long history: i didn't grow up eating the food, but i love it, and am seriously dedicated to being a good student. i'm sorry that there's a tradition of american dummies dreamily not engaging their counterparts in india. i hope you will believe me when i say, that's not me, that's not what i want. i view this forum as an invaluable resource in teaching me about the food of india. i'm not a daffy, blissed out moron looking for (culinary) enlightenment in a dream, either. i dearly hope i remain welcome here, and especially after this blunder with you mongo, i dearly hope i remain welcomed by you.
  17. i agree, naked from all context, parathas are quite yummy! i mean, we all started, in one way or another, enjoying parathas without 'knowing' anything about them. so yes, we can enjoy food from almost anywhere without knowing a thing about it. but i think our enjoyment of it is definitely enhanced by knowledge, as there is plainly an intellectual component to eating. does knowing a lot about thanksgiving enhance a person's pleasure of oyster stuffed turkey? does knowing about baseball make you want a hot dog? all that context also informs how we cook food. back in all those ghee threads, somebody wrote that hindu veneration of the cow may have influenced its stature in the indian kitchen, as opposed to buffalo ghee. reflecting on this idea informs my perception of cow ghee (does that knowledge even change the way it tastes???) and how i will use it when i'm cooking, or maybe even if i will use it at all. as an indian, you've got the link between indian culture/cuisine inextricably built in. i have to learn it all the hard way. "indian food as a second language." it's not easy, as you know, there is a LOT to learn. luckily, i enjoy the heck out of it. and luckily, there are some great teachers out there. let's face it, it's really easy to cook foreign foods badly; and if we're going to be any good at all at it, let alone "master" foreign cooking, we have to go at it from every angle. the history, lore and economy of a cuisine is to a recipe as a plate is to food: a frame. anyhow! my local indian grocer is about to procure some fresh green jackfruit! happy day. i owe all of your who wrote on the jackfruit thread great thanks! your context filled banter about both green and stinky jackfruits has made me Giddy with excitement. i've located 3 possible recipes and i cannot wait to cook. call me a geek.
  18. no, mongo, no! it's the contextual gloss in the recipes that make them so good! we non indians need LOTS of contextual gloss if we are ever going to start doing justice to indian cuisine.
  19. if i were your mom i would seriously ask myself this question: why aren't there any breakfast spots around her? has nobody honestly ever noticed this? is the only reason there aren't any--other entrepeneurs' blindness? i think it's easy to have that aha! sort of feeling at first, and convince yourself that there is an unexploited market. but step back from that and try to be as rational as possible. picture a breakfast spot there owned by somebody else, maybe one serving only so-so food; is it successful? i'd also advise her to be honest with herself up front. spend sometime recognizing her weaknesses, and be ready to deal with them. not to be discouraging, but the dream of running a joint can turn very sour indeed without A LOT of thinking. i've experienced both success and failure as a restaurateur. since the success of a joint can so often be totally random, you can't rule out the downside.
  20. hey, i found it for sale online at www.alibris.com. (but not from amazon or powells). it was written by vimla and deb kumar mukerji.
  21. staggeringly rude is calling me a "waitron". think about it. it's interesting that there's such an adversarial stance that underlies this thread. in my little "three ring binder" cafe we like our customers and our customers like us. maybe it's a matter of class. i'm glad i don't have to work in an environment where the superficial text of a question holds more sway than the care with which it is said. peace out. whippy.
  22. vikram, can't find where you reccomended this book. can you post the authors' names?
  23. i love ghee, but i sure love coconut oil too! coconut spiced asparagus
  24. coconut spiced asparagus this is a simple recipe for monica's indian style asparagus contest. when i first made this recipe i blended my coconut paste to an ultra-smooth paste; big mistake. the coconut should be coarsely pureed to add textural contrast to the tender asparagus. it goes quickly, so have everything ready before you cook. chop 2 cups asparagus into 1/4 inch rounds (snap off woody stems first) prepare a coconut paste of: half a cup of finely shredded coconut half a sprig of curry leaves 4 small cloves of garlic 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp red pepper powder (or to taste) just enough water to make everything blend next to your kadhai/wok, have on hand: water, salt, brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, dry red chilis, curry leaves, coconut oil. method: heat coconut oil (i use over a tablespoon, but then i'm decadent that way)until very hot but not smoking. splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, covering pan if necessary and when almost done popping, add 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp urad dal and 4 whole dry red chilis. when the dal is colored, add another 1/2 sprig curry leaves, let them fry a bit and add the asparagus, a little water and salt to taste. toss this around for just maybe 15 seconds, then add your coconut paste. cook until the asparagus has reached its desired tenderness, adding water and stirring as needed. for me, this is around three minutes. i like all the water cooked off, and the asparagus just cooked through, but there's no reason not to cook it longer. adjust salt if needed. that's it. serve as part of a thali. Keywords: Side ( RG987 )
  25. coconut spiced asparagus this is a simple recipe for monica's indian style asparagus contest. when i first made this recipe i blended my coconut paste to an ultra-smooth paste; big mistake. the coconut should be coarsely pureed to add textural contrast to the tender asparagus. it goes quickly, so have everything ready before you cook. chop 2 cups asparagus into 1/4 inch rounds (snap off woody stems first) prepare a coconut paste of: half a cup of finely shredded coconut half a sprig of curry leaves 4 small cloves of garlic 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp red pepper powder (or to taste) just enough water to make everything blend next to your kadhai/wok, have on hand: water, salt, brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, dry red chilis, curry leaves, coconut oil. method: heat coconut oil (i use over a tablespoon, but then i'm decadent that way)until very hot but not smoking. splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, covering pan if necessary and when almost done popping, add 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp urad dal and 4 whole dry red chilis. when the dal is colored, add another 1/2 sprig curry leaves, let them fry a bit and add the asparagus, a little water and salt to taste. toss this around for just maybe 15 seconds, then add your coconut paste. cook until the asparagus has reached its desired tenderness, adding water and stirring as needed. for me, this is around three minutes. i like all the water cooked off, and the asparagus just cooked through, but there's no reason not to cook it longer. adjust salt if needed. that's it. serve as part of a thali. Keywords: Side ( RG987 )
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