Milagai

great idea! i must try this next ghee making session (about every 4 weeks). until now i had just made fried rice with the residue (also yummy) but parathas are a must. milagai

there are alslo many sweet pickles (meetha achar) types. one brand and variety i really like is patak's brinjal (eggplant) relish (its a hot and sweet eggplant pickle that is divine! other brands have tried to make one but just do not compare. milagai

sometimes baking soda can be added to the batter, or rice flour for extra lightness or crunch, but i'm not sure.... maybe others know what restaurants typically do. different from home cooking... milagai

whoa! must be kidding! the seeds have a pronounced bitterish medicinal flavor. the leaves are also a little bitterish, but in recipes i really don't think you can substitute one for another. fenugreek seeds are used in many south indian dishes, the leaves are less widely used, but they are used. typically you temper with them, or grind them with other things (e.g. coconut) into various tasty pastes... milagai

1. re eating gol gappas / pani puris / puchkas (calcutta-speak) it's VITAL to adopt the correct stance: straddle legged and leaning fwd at the waist, then pop the whole thing in your mouth at once. this is to prevent the water inside from running down your chin and ruining your clothes. it will run down your chin anyway (that's part of the fun of street food) but it won't get on your clothes... that's why it's important to get it all into your mouth at one shot. imagine the consequences of biting into a fragile water-filled balloon..... 2. monica - your son is gorgeous! haai! nazar na lage! (avert the evil eye) milagai

thinking way way way ahead here..... when your son grows up and gets married, it's going to be REALLY hard for any dil to compete with your cooking! OTOH maybe she will be clever and leave all the cooking to you...... milagai ps: my family loves okra too. i can't think of anyone who likes indian food who does not like okra....

hi monica! loving your blog! this has to be some record for the rate of replies, speed and numbers.... am hanging on to every word and picture. do tell more about how your henna party went. also would love to know more about how you make decisions on what dishes to serve? do you go for traditional dishes, or fusion? do you do home style cooking or restaurant style popular items? etc. i also have two monkeys, age 7 and 3. the 3 YO attends a crunchy granola montessori preschool where we pack their lunches but are not allowed to send anything junky, so he gets meal + fruit only. he doesn't yet know the universe can be different though at home he has a HUGE taste for junk food (mommy, we NEEEEED donuts! let's go get them at the grocery store!) my 7 yo is blessed with naturally healthy tastes and actually likes my cooking - i am in mommy heaven right now (she: what's for dinner? me: dal, and pulao, and cauliflower sabzi and yogurt she: yayy! and skips to table, i kid you not! i was fairly open mouthed with astonishment; though she's always been this way: the only preschooler i knew who took asparagus spears for lunch, and who insisted on adding artichokes to the weekly grocery cart....) for lunch they get whatever i can pack in their insulated thermoses that's easy to eat: fried rice, or dal and rice, or pasta type things. snacks: fruit mostly, though also nuts/raisins and now the 7 yo is demanding and getting a small piece of chocolate every day. YTHN? small pleasures for scrawny kids milagai

if you are trying to save fat, then how would sub-bing one kind of fat for another help? or are you trying to cut back on animal fat for cholesterol reasons? ghee does add a distinctive flavor, but any other flavor won't be inferior, only different.... milagai

the coming of afghans, persians, etc way predated the mughal dynasty; the mughal dynasty was the last of a long string of middle eastern / west asian / islamic rules; (i think it began with muhammad of ghazni ~ 1000 ad) so they all must have brought their love of dry fruits etc with them; it's just called mughlai cuisine because the mughals were the latest and maybe longest.... milagai

sundal (sauteed chickpea snack, south indian) quick pasta tacos (with veggie filling it is very quick and easy) milagai

i'm a happy triangle resident, and generally agree with several strands of the previous discussion that there are several good places here, but not large numbers.... i like: pao lim in durham GREAT fusion pan-asian food, and serves some of my favorite indo-chinese dishes (yes, this is a legit food genre). it's not high end, not a chain, but not a mom and pop hole in the wall either. pretty nice mid range place.... the better indian restaurants tend to be towards cary / raleigh. none in chapel hill (some real clunkers) and 1-2 in durham.... then there are penang, tallulah's, cafe parvaneh, and other pretty neat places in chapel hill.. milagai

Thats a good one! And I just realized my mistake.....eyelash or eyelid is palak, not palaak... Can anyone think of any more words(especially related to food) where pronouncing just the vowel wrong gives a totally different meaning...like paalak and palak? E ←

sometimes yes and sometimes no. there is no hard and fast consistent rule for writing hindi sounds in english. makkhan = butter = pronounced muck-hun. makhana = lotus seed (i think) pronounced muck-haa-naa makhani = buttery = pronounced maakhunee the use of the letter "a" in english to cover several vowels in hindi causes this confusion, you need to be familiar with hindi to read the english words correctly. and it's important to pronounce correctly otherwise you can change the whole meaning..... milagai (pronounced mill-ug-aaye = hot chili pepper. NOT milaa-gaai = met a cow)

excellent linguistic deductions touregsand! here are approx translations for the other terms, best strategy, take an indian friend with you or read up a cookbook (these are mostly south indian delicacies so try chandra padmanabhan's "dakshin" for a quick starter; others are punjabi staples). Aloo Tikki (not tikko): potato patties Aloo Bonda: potatos in a fried chickpea batter coating Aloo chole: potatoes with chickpeas, spicy Bhatura: fried bread, sort of half-leavened with yeast i think, to eat with above Dosa: cross between crepe and pancake, made of fermented rice/lentil batter. crisp and yummy. Vada: lentil batter made into a donut shaped fried thingy. also super yum Upma: cream of wheat style thing, mild, with vegs in it Onion Uttapam: uttappam is a fatter spongier pancake thingy Tikki Chana: chana = chole so see above, also for tikki, so this dish is potato patty + spiced chickpea Kachori Chana: kachori is another fried stuffed snack + chole Chana Puri: chana = chole, see above, puri = fried puffy bread, yum Chana Bhatura: both terms decoded above. all delicious in the right hands. milagai

wow! we do this all the time, and didn't even realize it was an issue. especially when we go out in a group, there is always way too much food if we order 1 entree per person. we typically order n-1 or n-2 depending on how many we are and what we know about portion sizes in the restaurant. we figured that as customers we know how much we want to eat, and it's the management's job to adjust the economics. we've always tipped well, and we've never had problems with service. i don't think i've ever been to a fancy french restaurant but our favorites include local good restaurants, e.g. a fantastic pan-asian place (not a chain) for e.g. who knew.... milagai

i LOVE the idea of a small walk-to-school group in charge of an adult. do the adults rotate this duty? i wish we could replicate this model in our neighborhood! we do live (unlike most of suburban US) in a walk-to-school area.... milagai

while i agree with all the philosophical objections to chain restaurants, i love pf chang's ....... i've eaten in lots of wonderful mom and pop chinese restaurants and lots of awful ones too. and if you are lucky enough to have a woodland's anywhere near you run don't walk (south indian dosai chain) milagai

Tamil Nadu: around Jan end: Pongal (harvest festival) celebrate by making pongal (sweet and savory versions) and other goodies. Other festivals also have specific dishes associated with them: e.g. sundal at Navaratri Cheedai for Krishna Janmashtami etc. Kalandha saadams for Tamil new year (next week) etc. The list is very long, and varies by religion, region, and caste.... Recent issue of India Abroad had a great article with Easter recipes from Kerala. Ammini: any insights / articles on this? Milagai

6 year old roast ??!! how do you even do that? been in the freezer for 6 years? or roasted for 6 years? or.... a roasted a 6 year old (insert name of beast here)? milagai

i guess i have the worst habit. my favorite place to eat is snug in bed, i assume a "dead sea otter" pose, semi-reclined, with my (large) food bowl propped on my chest. head up on 2 pillows. tv may or may not be on, but my current book is always open. i've perfected the art of eating this way without spilling anything. family hates it. i'm lobbying for a recliner in the dining room so i can join them, and eat roman emperor style. i hate sitting at a dining table, feet dangling off chairs (no, i'm not really height challenged) i always want my feet up (you can take the girl out of the village but not the village out of the girl). i like floor-living. even in living rooms sooner or later i put my feet up x legged. same in my office. same in office meetings..... i also teach my classes this way: x legged on table when not pacing up and down..... milagai

my two guesses: 1. blue potatoes sliced and fried 2. red or purple cabbage sliced.... milagai

ps: i often call my kids "bumblimaas" a tamil (via pondicherry) take on the french "pamplemousse" (some kind of grapefruit?) this is a popular semi-affectionate cuss word in tamil. milagai

a typical tamil word for beloved child is "sakkarai-katti" = sugar lump milagai

another possibility is the godju category of dishes from southern india: okra or onion/tomato or eggplant are the typical ones. it ends up with spices + tamarind + jaggery into a yummy hot-sweet-sour dish. milagai

heh heh! when i have absolutely nothing else to nosh on i like salsa stirred into yogurt.... milagai