Milagai

In India too, where food is traditionally eaten with hands, it's recently become a sign of high status and modernity to eat only with silverware. You see truly wierd sights like people attacking dosais and sambar with knife and fork. Each group snobs on the other (eating with hands, bumpkins, vs. eating with silverware, culturally disconnected ignoramuses who do not understand true sophistication, etc.) Milagai

Let me add a good cross cultural story. Deal maker, not deal breaker. DH and I have been happily married for (omygawd, how long?) 12 years now, and food compatibility has been really important, never mind that I grew up in India and he (different ethnicity from me) in Chicago. I don't have to compete with the memory of his mother's cooking because she apparently (rest her otherwise sainted bones) was a lousy cook. But I knew negotiating the cross cultural issues would be important, especially for my family, and it seemed food would be a good place to start. Happily he is the most adventurous eater, but I didn't know that then. He now works in international health, but grew up all his life in the same zip code, unlike my family who moved all over and so we do all kinds of food.... So, his first trip to India before we got married, meet my family, my mom devising evil tests to throw this interloper off balance. Family road trip to rural Karnataka, my father's ancestral village, and then to the gorgeous Karnataka coast. In the village: food traditional style: sit down on kitchen floor and eat rasam and rice, with all accompaniments, off banana leaf. Do this with right hand only (DH is lefthanded), neatly and no mess. Bus the leaves out back and hand-deliver to waiting cow. (All very novel for me too, I am a city girl). Dh happily chows everything and does everything and has never looked back since. Travels widely, and can find a good meal almost anywhere. He turned our family veg, but because we enjoy all other foods and ingredients, we eat splendidly. Finding a good veg meal is sometimes difficult depending on where you're traveling, but luckily some form of Indian restaurant exists almost everywhere in Africa and can be a last resort. My extended in law group is another story altogether. Can't tell the difference between asparagus and artichokes and dislike both! Won't eat tomatoes (won't even try the delicious little cherry Sungold tomatoes grown in the back yard, just picked, still warm from the sun)! Are militantly meat-eating, i.e. think a meal is incomplete without some form of beast, and very closed minded about other cultures' foods. Think anything soy (other than soy sauce poured in a river on Chinese takeout) is food worse than death. I could go on and on! Lucky for me the DH apple fell very very far from his family tree! Reading some of y'awl's horror stories I realize I was very lucky in this regard. Food incompatibility would be a big deal breaker for me because it's your everyday life. Our food style apparently is: spicy, cross-cultural, anything plant-based goes; we don't shudder when others eat meat, and don't want to be shuddered at when we really really enjoy tofu! And I met several wierdos before DH including someone who went to France and boasted that he ate only at McD's; people picky about spices or flavors and balked at gazpacho or felafel or Ethiopian restaurants; a grad student whose idea of a date was to take me to his married friend's house to "crash" their meal and then grumbled at the Italian restaurant we went instead; a high and mighty maharaja (in his own head) who strongly signaled displeasure and distaste when I requested him to carry a few plates from the kitchen to the dining table; but those are shading from food tastes to manners..... Milagai

I wish the headlines of these articles would stop using the word "curry"! The body of the article is clear that the specific ingredient in question is turmeric, that's a perfectly good word, why not use that? Turmeric has been a folk remedy in South Asia for centuries .... The scientific question I have had for a while is that I've read the claims that the incidence / prevalence of Alzheimer's etc (and now they say prostate cancer) in India is low. How do they know? I'm a researcher myself, and I know that the surveillance coverage is very poor in developing regions, particularly in rural areas (where most people live). The second difficulty is that India is not yet far enough along the "epidemiological transition" (where the disease profile and cause of death profile in a society moves from infectious diseases to degenerative diseases as you see in more industrialized societies today). So more people are dying earlier, of infectious diseases, and are not surviving enough to be awarded the consolation prize of conditions like cancer or AZ. So saying that such diseases are rare in India is missing an important point..... This is not really a food related question I guess..... If someone knows they could answer me off line.... Milagai

coconut is not a ubiquitous ingredient in indian dishes ... coastal cuisines use it; interior it's less common. cream, yogurt, butter, nut (almond or cashew especially) pastes, etc are used very often to get that richness.... milagai

Adam: you're really adventurous. The food looks good, photogenic or no. Okra, sigh.... Waiting for summer... Thacker, Spink and Co is an ancient (OK, only ~ 125 years old) Calcutta - based publishing house, which has had some truly excellent titles. If people find copies, untouched by white ants (termites) or damp or any other, they're worth getting and reading. So glad they are being archived on line. Milagai

Tbe brown color comes when the tamarind (tamr-e-hind = dates of India) is ripe. This is typically what's sold in stores and used in recipes etc, in India Unripe has (in India) limited uses: small boys and girls throw stones at the trees, bring them down, crack them open, dunk in salt and red chili powder and feast, despite dire threats from parents and teachers.... There are several beliefs connected with unripe tamarind, no doubt aimed at discouring the kids' depredations, but kids don't seem to care... Milagai

you're right, in that basically any recipe that treats sweet potatoes as savory and thus includes spices, works out MUCH better than those which treat them as sweets and bury them under toxic amounts of sugary ingredients. i continue to be baffled by the latter approach. another great sweet potato recipe is africa-inspired: peel, slice into fingers, saute in butter (just a little or use XVOO), with ginger, cayenne, salt, lemon juice, honey, raisins, until glazed and done. won't really work for arbis..... milagai

In addition to all that Anzu said, I've also had great results steaming arbi. They are a pain to peel raw, but if you persevere, then slice, then steam, it works out very well. Milagai

I wonder if the post above refers to a version of tamarind chutney, which is great, especially paired with green (mint+cilantro) chutney, as topping for chaats etc and dip for the samosa/pakora genre of eats..... you can get tamarind chutney and green chutney in indian stores. don't confuse tamarind chutney (which is tamarind ground up with raisins, water, sugar, salt, red chili powder etc etc) with tamarind pulp or tamarind paste referred above. milagai

OK: assuming you mean yam = colocasia (sounds like it from your description and distinguishing it from red skinned sweet potatoes). Indian food has a ton of recipes for yam, which is called "arbi" in Hindi. It's really great. Here are a couple of links: http://www.bawarchi.com/contribution/contrib4742.html http://www.indianfoodforever.com/microwave...kedar-arbi.html Many many more, but this is just for starters. Almost no oil, no cream or butter, etc. Lots of spices.... Milagai

leftovers from dinner rock! best solution for the sandwich blahs (shudder). to save money I always pack my lunch, and it's either leftovers, or i make a family "tiffin" for all to pack for lunch (pulao, fried rice, lasagna, etc.) supplement with fruit, a drink, etc. those bento boxes looked great. i love the indian tiffin dabbas, but being of metal they cant me MWed. milagai

Kerala style "ishtew" (=stew?) Can be chicken or vegetarian. Has vegetables and is basically coconut milk based with a lot of spices boiled in it (whole cinnamon, cardamom, coarsely crushed black peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves, ginger and green chillies, shallot slices and curry leaves, you can google for a specific recipe if you like). Should use up at least 3-4 cans for 1 large bowl. Milagai

I don't know if this is mentioned upthread, but adding avocado to gazpacho is great. Gives a lovely creamy "backtaste" somewhere that you really can't put your finger on.... Milagai

I don't know what pomfret is called in the Western hemisphere, but back in my meater days I loved this fish. Tandoori pomfret - excellent! Milagai

scrambled eggs with cheese or other additions? soups? pureed dals (all the taste, none of the chewing). milagai

If she liked risotto, then a simple rice pulao 1. measure and rinse rice (preferably basmati and keep ready. 2. measure sufficient water (2 water to 1 rice if basmati, different for others) and keep ready. 3. heat ghee in a pot, saute spices (e.g. cuminseeds, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaf, peppercorn, - these will float to the top after cooking and can be picked out and discarded. they are not meant to be eaten. despite the long list, the finished dish is very mild and fragrant). 4. add the rice, fry for a few minutes. 5. add ~ 1 cup of frozed mixed veggies. 6. add the water, salt, bring to a boil, then lower and cover and cook till done. pick out and discard the spices (use a small spoon). serve hot with sides. This dish can be gussied up as needed (tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, whatever else) or down (leave out the veggies). You can garnish with crisp caramelized onion shreds. very easy, spectacular, and widely enjoyed. milagai

edible camphor (whether you call it kapoor or karpoor or kalpooram, regional variations exist of the basic sanskrit word karpoora) does exist. I got mine from India, so I don't know where to get it in the US, if your local grocery store does not carry it.... Maybe someone coming from India can get you some? Milagai

presumably you've tried your local indian stores? milagai

you're so right! I just deep fried my thumb last week while frying papads for the kids.... try hopping around the kitchen on one foot while swearing *silently* because your 4 YO is at the phase where he unerringly picks up on all the wicked words and repeats them in school. Of course, the good words I say get ignored... Milagai

OP: did you make this dinner? What did you cook and how did it turn out? curious.... Milagai

Whereas I grew up in California but believe there is nothing like idli sambar & masala dosa to make me feel better if I'm having a crummy day! That was the special at one of our local restaurants when I was a kid. My best friend & I could almost always scrape together the $4 between us to share an order. Those poor waiters - we literally paid them in stacks of pennies sometimes (but never failed to tip!) When mom was paying I'd get lamb saag & pooris but while I still love those, they don't elicit the same primal response as sambar & a dosa ← When I'm feeling crummy I also immediately revert to my rasam and rice roots. I love french fries more for when I am craving the salt-and-grease kick, which is not related to physical crumminess, more a mood thing.. I too adore the whole idli sambar genre of course but then I was raised on it and the emotion - food link is strong. Interesting that you took to it too..... Milagai

french fries! adore them! (i grew up in pre-liberalized-economy, pre-mcd-kfc, india) milagai

If you eat that early, don't you get hungry later? Milagai

I don't know if ginger counts as a herb, but dried ginger (sonth in Indian cooking) has different taste and uses than fresh ginger. But dried cilantro is totally useless.... Milagai

Charcoal derived from bone? Huh? ←