Milagai

Yes, it typically is goat, but that is harder to get in the US. ← but not impossible, given the general proliferation of indian/pakistani/bangladeshi; middle eastern; caribbean stores etc. i am sure egulleters would enjoy rising to the challenge of getting their goat... i believe there is a big taste difference? even factoring in all the spices etc. milagai

shouldn't all this be about goat rather than lamb? milagai

Oops. You're correct. Can you tell I'm out of practice? ← i almost pointed out the same thing, but many others had already done so. also: i know this is a hindu thing (for the same reasons), and perhaps maybe also a jewish thing too? can anyone give me the facts on the latter? is this also the practice anywhere else in asia? e.g. SE or E asia? milagai

i prefer savory pancakes; sweet ones are ummm too sweet..... among my favorite are the corn pancakes with roasted red pepper sauce as served in the cafe de la paz in berkeley CA. is it still around? fantastic food and inexpensive! it was just a block from our apt.... i miss urban life... milagai

why don't you freeze the extra chapatis? they freeze and reheat beautifully.... i always find it too laborious to make only 1 or 2 chapatis so sorry i have no recipe for small quantity.... milagai

what great ideas, esp for sweeter dishes... inspiring. until now my humble best (other than guac) had been to put slices into sandwiches or chunks into salsa or puree along with other ingredients to really raise gazpacho one more level of sublime.... milagai

these are so mouthwatering! you take great food pictures. i desperatately wanted to claw that dosai off my screen...... i can't seem to find a drooly emoticon, which is a sad omssion for this site thugh there's a " barfi" one and julli is a totally new thing for me. are the owners of this shop bangladeshi by any chance? is this a bangladeshi item? eastern part of subcontinent much has much more of a milk products subculture, especially sweets. bangla sweets are legendary especially seemingly endless variations on the chena theme. and do you have any indian background? if not, you are one of the (apparently) few non-desis who really enjoys indian sweets! most who have not grown up with them find them not that appealing, even if they like indian food overall....

i am also certain that it;s paan, and lassi, and some kind of burfi type dessert? love the pictures of your kitchen, but am little puzzled by the title of the thread: have you already remodelled your kitchen (it looks wondrous) or are you planning to? if the latter, why? it looks perfect as is.... milagai

also try indian / pakistani markets where you'll regularly get goat meat. also recipes from these regions. milagai

among other newer eateries, there's one in indira nagar on 100 ft road (that's the name of the road) which is devoted to chettinad cuisine. VERY spicy. they should definitely sample indian chinese cuisine in bangalore. i'm lucky enough that in my off beat neck of the us woods we have an indian chinese place! i gained sig weight there last weekend...... i'm sure episure will have great suggestions for bangalore... milagai

There's deep-fried southern US style: sliced, coated in breading, and deepfried. pretty good. also indian style: slit, stuffed with a spice mixture, dipped in a chickpea-rice-flour-buttermilk batter and deep fried. heavenly! has to be eaten straight out of the pan though. you can also do some kinds of fish this way. milagai

lucky you! i've always had bad experiences with pillsbury parathas, (often blackened)! i like the deep parathas better.... my favorite heat and eat are the chapatis and parathas made by our local chapati lady! great institution if you can find one in your area... milagai

family loves pakoras ( i use a batter of 2/3 chickpea flour = besan; and 1/3 rice flour for crispness). but i make it rarely because adults are watching their weight and though i supposedly make it for the kids, we can't keep our paws off them. same story with pooris and parathas. kids also love papads, and though you can make them in the mw or toast them over the gas flame, i fry them as traditional, again for the kids. these i make ~ once a week. milagai

of course yes! what's not to love about this divine pod? most indian kids love this veggie, including mine. to echo several previous posters, people who hate okra or think its slimy have never had indian recipes, and / or they just can't cook! give it another shot folks, with a GOOD indian recipe, and use fresh, never frozen okra. milagai

n the south, like geetha said, khoa is used, aka tharattipaal, which is the highly evaporated milk. paneer is not widely used in the south. khoa doesn't (to my knowledge) have different meanings in different places in india..... milagai

my family: we're vegetarians but i was raised non-veg and then "recovered" and went back to veg after marrying a die-hard vegetarian. my family tradition in s. india is vegetarian, but my parents (both scientists) raising us in the 60's fell victim to the prevailing wisdom at the time that meat = healthier and more nutritious. but being non veg in india is very different from being so in the us. there, we ate meat about 1-2 times a month, max once a week (due to expense and logistics). then, meat was not the central hunk on a plate, but one of many small side dishes. very different. my husband, a corn-fed midwesterner, read "diet for a small planet" and decided to go veg. since i do the family cooking and we want to raise our kids with one consistent message, i went veg too. since i was raised being very familiar with tasty veg dishes and knowing how to balance meals, it was not at all hard. husband travels extensively internationally in line of work (developing countries: africa and asia) and it's mostly been easy for him to find veg food everywhere. africa is full of decent indian restaurants, e.g. he does go against the stereotype of meat-devouring rich westerner, so he has to get past the raised eyebrows, but then good food is produced.... our kids can choose whatever they want when they are grown and do their own cooking and grocery shopping. if their idea of teenage rebellion is to sneak down a cheeseburger then i think i'm getting off lightly....... milagai

I'm also eagerly awaiting a lesson on pronouncing "chai," but I can help with "prix fixe." It's "pree FEEKS" And if you want to get it absolutely right, the "r" is pronounced at the back of the palate as if you are about to expectorate -- but make that throat-scraping sound subtle and don't overdo it, or it'll be like high-school French class all over again! ← huh? is it that obscure? chai = ch like in church and ai like aye aye sir. milagai (rhymes with chai)

I thought chopsticks were not traditional to Thai cuisine / dining? That's why they're not routinely offered in Thai restaurants....? Am I misinformed? Milagai

why not? do tell!!

my wedding (~ 11 years ago now) was small by indian standards: only about 300 people since no-one from my husband's family could make the trip from the US. (that's right, he is not indian in this birth, but given his enjoyment of indian food of all kinds, must surely have been indian in a previous life). for them we had a second ceremony and a second feast in the us. but the indian feast(s) consisted of breakfast and lunch since our actual wedding ceremony was in the morning. our typical tamilian wedding ceremony was vegetarian, eaten off banana leaves (yes, with your hands though stainless steel spoons are provided for the westernized), and people eat sitting in rows with the serving staff running up and down the lines ladling the food out of stainless steel buckets: here's a link with a typical menu selection from an old egullet india board discussion: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=47694 but my actual feast had fewer items: breakfast: south indian coffee "by the yard" idlis sambar vadais uppuma yogurt lunch: servings of rice (rice + different dish = 1 course) so this was multi course I guess. rice + drumstick sambar rice + rasam rice + spiced buttermilk rice + yogurt (with pomegranate seeds in the bangalore style). side dishes: green beans + coconut curry plantain curry carrot + cucumber kosumali (salad) mixed veg koottu dollops of ghee as needed on the rice, yummy pickle dab of salt and sugar on the side small slice of banana and sugar appalams (papad / pappadum) dessert: rice kheer gulab jamuns we didn't get much breakfast because we were stuck on the dais with varios ceremonies going on. someone smuggled us a couple of bananas. but my mother, bless her eternally, saw to it that we were smuggled out and given a good lunch. you bet i remember it. even though the menu is almost identical to almost every other tamilian wedding i've attended, the food is so sublime and the caterer was first rate so it stood out. we repeated the feasting when my sister got married ~ 3 years ago, and though busy again made sure we all stuffed ourselves, thuogh this time around i had to make sure my kids were fed :) i'm looking forward to the next round of family weddings this summer. it will be in cleveland, ohio and i hope the local caterers can match the standard i'm used to (said snobbishly) milagai

hola susruta: some thoughts: 1. i love veggies and fruits, so even thinking about meeting the new guidelines was not painful for me. in general, my family eats a fairly good amount and variety of fruits and veggies. it's this 9 a day thing that's baffling, especially now when i suddenly need to control calories as well :) i am not even trying to meet the exercise guidelines. i exercise a little bit, but nowhere near the recommendations. 2. another thing: if we actually adhere to all the guidelines for diet, exercise, sleep, work, socializing, etc etc etc that are put out they all add up to more than 24 hours a day (one of my colleauges actually calculated it) :) 3. when tropical fruits are in season my fruit intake does go up. 4. here's a link to an interesting article in today's new york times. you need to register (free) i think if you have not done so already to read it, and i am not sure how to post the whole thing here (too lengthy), so just take a look at it. it's the moaning - groaning of a man who lived by the typical USA diet trying to meet the dietary requirements. he is in basically great health in terms of weight, BP, cholesterol etc. but interestingly he said that the new dietary guidelines would require a whole cultural shift for the average american, as most do not eat so many veges normally. he said people of asian origin would find it much easier.... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/weekinre...d=all&position= milagai

Milagai, It's better to feast on these zero calorie X rated pics than visit a mithai shop. I still remember your lamentations on Mangoes, wait another 4 months. jee haan Episure! I am trying to base my diet on Birbal ki Khichdi!! here is a link for those unfamiliar with the stories of the greatest Mughal Emperor Akbar and his court philosopher / wise man / jester Birbal: http://www.geocities.com/shishusansar/birbal/birbal41.htm Milagai

hey susruta: great topic and one i've been thinking about for a while. i generally agree with you. i've been trying even to get the 5 a day recommendation before they changed it to 9 a day! and it's hit or miss depending on whether the sabzi made that day is aloo or what.: even though the basic menu for the family is the same every day, my husband eats a LOT of fruit so he can easily meet the requirements. my kids eat less, since they have smaller appetites overall; i am hit or miss depending..... a typical day: breakfast: toast, coffee (milk for kids). husband eats fruit, neither kids nor i have appetite for it. snack: kids typically get fruit or veg in school. sometimes i take some fruit to office (i'd say 3/5 of the time). lunch: usually about 2 servings of veg here (for me) less for husband, maybe 1; and kids get ~ 2 but smaller quantity. snack: kids get something in school, again ~ 1 serving. i sometimes pack fruit or salad for a snack (again 3/5 days). dinner: repeat of lunch. but its kind of hard for me to reach even 5, let alone 9! my parents do better in india since they are both fruitaholics.... milagai ps: re your screen name: are you a physician?

you guys are KILLING me with those lovely lovely pictures. a cross between food porn and food torture..... here i am on a strict diet! i was the kind of person who could eat anything and stay thin, so i never developed self-control re food. suddenly last year i porked out. even if i LOOKED at food i gained weight. had to buy all new pants as could not fit into old wardrobe. went to doctor and they said: "madam, you have crossed XX years, what do you expect? metabolism will slow down and you need to adjust accordingly". haaaii.... milagai

The two food environments i'm familiar with: US and India: beans and soy chunks are much cheaper than meat and stretch much further: e.g. cans of beans such as kidney beans or red beans or black eyed peas in the US often run 2 for 1$; and when cooked up, feed my family of 4 for about 2-3 meals. Can't beat that with a stick, even when you factor in the onions, tomatoes, spices etc that the recipes call for. Luckily I know how to cook these very tastily and my family loves them so I don't have any negative attitude to deal with :) But in the UK are beans etc as cheap / cheaper than meat? If yes, how about using them to substitute / supplement more expensive meals? Milagai