Milagai

pertinent question: why do grocery stores etc routinely trim off the stem of the corn on the cob, when the stem can be used as a handle and then you don't need a whole extra set of sharp pointy doodads to eat c-on-c? milagai

love your blog varmint! we also spend our sat mornings at the carrboro farmers market; kids like the play area, esp 3 yo ds. my 8 yo dd dutifully tastes and votes in the tomato variety contest each year. how does the carrboro farmers mkt compare with raleigh's? how come y'awl make the drive all the way here? we too love this part of the country. milagai (a chapel hill neighbor)

With Cajun, as with most cuisines, it's not really an either/or proposition. "Omit" is not a word one often hears when discussing the legendary cuisine of bayou country. ← OK: thanks for the spicy fried okra suggestion; i'm off to google a recipe. Any other suggestions? What would a veg Cajun meal look like? Thanks again Milagai

no need to apologize for your food preferences. my questions were to clarify what is typical cajun cuisine, and what is typical vegan cuisine. i have 0 experience of cajun cuisine; and i eat a lot of veg*an cuisine, and the latter to me is totally yummy, tasty, spicy, fulfilling etc etc. perhaps i may find the former (=cajun) to be so too, if i can get some. can you recommend any good veg*an cajun dishes? or does cajun cuisine focus on the creepy crawlies and omit stuff that grows in/on the ground ? and rinsewind, any time you are in my neck of the woods you are welcome for dinner milagai

Thanks: that was very vivid. But my impression of both French and Cuban food is : BLAND! I hope Brasilian food adds some much needed spice :) Also: similar descriptions could be applied to vegan food: bright, sparkling, fresh, savory, etc etc. I thought vegan was not a regional style, but a lack of animal ingredients. One can have Vegan Cajun food no? And why can vegan food not be tasty? (I guess that's what your remark implied?) Thanks for your patience with my questions Milagai

really? is it that good? (i'm serious, please educate me?) milagai

i cook a lot of south indian dishes that call for fenugreek seeds and would not be the same without them. there is definitely a fine art to including them without the bitter taste. roast them and grind finely (spice mill), so that the powder disperses. that way you get a very pleasant and subtle aroma but no bitterness. tarka with them, then after you add the tarka to the dish, simmer for ~ 10 minutes. this somehow takes away the bitterness, but adds the subtle aroma i mentioned (e.g. in mashiya, for e.g. which would be nowhere without the fenugreek). try one or other of these techniques next time you use fenugreek and see? maybe the aroma will come through without the bitterness? milagai

i was responding to previous posts that quoted bourdain and his example of a vietnamese village and said it would be absurd to ask them to give up a chicken (life or death) and ask them to go forage for organic nuts and beans. bourdain's view hardly represents the idea of a vegan diet either which is not about starving yourself, but about getting full nourishment without animal products. perfectly possible. so what was the point of *that* in the whole conversation? people are free to talk about whatever point strikes them, whether it strikes you or not. and by the way, vegan does not mean "no meat ever". vegetarian = no meat (including fish, etc.) vegan = no animal products that is, no meat etc but also no dairy products, honey, etc etc. milagai

thanks so much for the kefir essay. i'm a recent convert to this product since i've always LOVED salty indian lassi (buttermilk, blended till bubbly with rock salt, toasted cumin powder, crushed ice, maybe hing, pinched curry leaves and green chillies if wanted). kefir also makes a great foundation for persian doogh (sp?) which is similar to lassi, only with just a little dried mint instead of the other stuff (maybe a tad of salt). enjoying yr blog so much, milagai

I haven't read this book, but I think the guy's missing a few points. There is a strong economic and environmental reason for eating much more veg food and much less meat: it takes many more lbs of grain and many gallons of water to produce 1 lb of meat 1 lb of meat feeds much fewer people than 1 lb of dal + grain. You cannot sustain a world population of 6+ b people on a meat centered diet. I read in the media about acres of Amazon rainforest being cut down to grow soybeans not because the whole world is suddenly eating tofu, but to create "cheap" cattle feed. It's one thing to have an occasional meat item, but highly physically unhealthy and ecologically wasteful to have a huge meat item every day, every meal, in the center of your plate. My weekly grocery bills do reflect that: it would cost much more if I started buying meat, esp if organic and free range. And my family doesn't need to take supplements: we all get regular physical check ups and are shown to be very healthy. I've been lucky to grow up in a largely veg culture so I know how to cook a tasty balanced meal.... We do dairy products and eggs occasionally so we are not vegan, but would be called "lacto ovo veg" I guess. Re the Vietnam family and chicken vs organic nuts&berries: that's a very false comparison. I highly doubt if any rational person is going to ask a peasant family to do that: that may be the approach to veg*ism adopted by richer countries with a Whole Foods in every suburb to "forage" in. This statement seems to be setting up a crazy situation just to knock it down. I have been led to believe that a typical Vietnamese (or other S E Asian )diet may be an occasional chicken amidst rice, or noodles, broth, and lots of vegs. Someone with a Korean background had posted on the Indian food board a while back that a generation or two ago in Korea, that's what the meals looked like. Meat was occasional, not an every meal or every day thing. With increasing affluence, people are eating more meat. The data really show around the world that people's diseases nowadays are being caused by EXCESS nutrition and not malnutrition (generally speaking, please don't flame me for not including various famine situations here). There are several recent studies published in research journals with reliable data and cross-national comparisons showing this point. milagai

can't be butter; so probably extra ghee. also some degree of fermentation in the batter? you can add any spices you like: red pepper, black peppercorns; curry leaves, etc.

Oh that dish sounds vile. ←

then there are the "chausa" (sucking) mango varieties in india: you don't peel or anything. bite a hole in the top, massage the mango until the flesh liquefies, and suck out through the top..... milagai

there's a twist on the traditional south indian kosumalli where you can add shredded cabbage to the grated carrots (instead of or in addition to grated cucumber). then season with tarka of mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves, red chillies, urad dal and add salt, lemon juice, cilantro. addictive! milagai

well, to respond to the original question, here (in north carolina) our average weekly grocery bill is ~ 100$. family of 4 (2 are kids) and we're dairy (and rarely egg) eating vegetarians. the expensive items are: milk fruit i try and buy only in-season veggies to get the best prices and they're not too expensive. the beans/dals/tofu are not expensive and a little goes a long way. e.g. 1 kg of chicken may form one skimpy meal for a family of 4; but 1 kg of dal will feed us all for a week very well; and costs way less in the first place. so other than for the fruit, i think a veg*an diet may be cheaper. and i shop in a regular chain grocery store; only occasionally go to whole foods; get my spices and dals from the indian store. the super-cheap meat may be cheap but no idea what garbage is in it. whereas with dal or beans, what you see is what you get (other than i have no idea if they are GMO or Monsanto-profiting- from-starving-third-world-farmers etc.) milagai

mine are almost the same; rice dal (my version is cheating, because i mean cooked dal with all the spices, onions, tomatoes, etc.) yogurt. i could (dare i say it, sigh....) even trade chocolate if desperate enough for a great dal-rice-dahi meal...... milagai

i agree with everything you said, esp the bit about why eat only some parts and throw the others away...... but, re the quote above, it's already been done: Babe (pigs) Chicken Run (chickens) and Animal House (the whole barnyard). Lots of kids around here really didn't know where their mcnuggets came from before these movies, and some have stopped eating meat, leaving their families to shop the stranger side of the supermarket - the beans, tofu, veggie side milagai

sounds like green eggs and ham without the happy ending. i would not could not (eat this) in a box i would not could not with a fox. i would not could not in the rain i would not could not in a train. not in a car, not in a tree not in a busy, sam let me be! i do not like green eggs and ham i do not like them sam i am milagai

another possibility: undercooking onions results in a harsh bitter taste. definitely take the time to slowly bhuno the onions till almost caramelized. makes a world of difference. any desi dish calling for onion gravy needs this step. next, you may have under-toasted some of the spices. they should not burn but should be aromatic. also, they need to be ground finer. maybe you got bitter specks of fenugreek because of this. did the dish taste better next day after having a chance to sit? also, why parsley to garnish? coriander (aka cilantro) is the way to go.... milagai

amen! in general, the whole idea of separate "kids menus" in restaurants that consist of eeky items one's dog would turn up its nose at! its these things that give little kids an undeserved rap for being picky and then by the time they're older, they indeed do become picky. who would not develop a lifetime distrust of food after being served this garbage!!! milagai

how to boil rice according to the dish (loose and fluffy, or sticky) how to throw together a simple meal, quick, that most people will like (simple pasta and salad; sabzi + dal + rice; good sandwich + accomps; simple stir fry + rice; whatever) with minimal processed and maximum fresh ingredients. how to make yogurt at home. milagai

great notion: i'll recall this to add even more to my enjoyment of indian-chinese cuisine (drool)! milagai

my dd's 2nd grade class was taken to the local grocery store for a field trip last week, and lo and behold! there is a lady whose job it is to hold every single egg coming into the store (and there are HUGE truckloads of them coming in) to the light and destroy those with blood spots visible. this is a general large chain grocery store, not catering to any one ethnic market in particular.... milagai

hi! there is a decent-ish (can't compare with DC but still OK) ethiopian place in durham called blue nile. contact the triangle vegetarian society (google for their web site) for more info on restaurants. tallulah's in chapel hill is reputedly good, i haven't been there yet. don't waste your time on penang, they have almost nothing. there are lots of other indian restaurants aside from udupi (e.g. tower, suchi's, india palace etc etc). pao lim in durham has great veggie options in asian fusion and indian-chinese, though people say the quality has fallen off recently. there are also some places on 9th street in durham... hth milagai (fellow triangle resident and CA transplant)

only the kind that grows on plants / trees so seaweed etc = fine fish / shellfish / shrimp / etc = not fine. the logic is : if it's an animal (of any kind, vertebrate or not; mammal or not;) then it's not vegetarian, despite the confusion created by those who go around saying "i'm a vegetarian, i eat fish". similar to those who think chicken = vegetarian. or those who say "just pick it out"; or those who "forget" that meat / fish / chicken stock is dead animal juice, and thus renders a dish non-vegetarian even though all other ingredients may be of plant origin. creates major confusion in restaurants, and for well meaning hosts, etc. so, if someone wants to eat fish: enjoy in good health! but don't say you are vegetarian. why would you want to say that anyway? is it some kind of status symbol? hth (was not meant to be a rant, really, sorry if it came off that way) milagai