Milagai

Mmmm! I love cumin rubbed on a steak. April ← Tamarind! as in Tamarind chutney, AKA imli chutney, a most necessary sweet-tangy-hot dip for samosas, pakoras, etc etc. Cumin spices up just about any savory recipe and it's an important flavor note in Imli Chutney (other ingredients vary, but include tamarind of course, then rock salt, ground up raisins, jaggery or brown sugar if jaggery not available, red chilli powder, maybe a tad of garam masala, water, etc.) Milagai edited to add: argh! Swisskaese just beat me to it, but I still keep my reply as Tamarind: I found a recipe on line for "Spicy Black Beans in Tamarind Sauce" in an Indian recipes forum, so I'll repeat: Tamarind! M

I have to add that when I read that Camembert thingy, I had an AHA moment - my contribution to next week's TG potluck is decided! I'll gussy it up a bit by slicing the cheese horizontally and spreading some kind of filling (something spicy hopefully) yet to be determined on it, then wrapping. I may bake instead of fry, because of the logistics. It may be easier to take a baking tray of already wrapped triangles to the host's house and stick them in the oven rather than frying them.... Great idea Daniel! Thanks Milagai

No, I don't mean obesity, or only obesity. I was thinking of general nutrition overall, though filling up on poor-quality, empty calories must play a role. The link between socioeconomic status and nutrition is firmly established, scientifically speaking, and comprises all sub-issues (micronutrients, obesity, etc.). And I don't get the crack about "health food types" Who do you have in mind? What do they eat? Please dont start the list with "moong beans" or "tofu" because that will spin us right back to the beginning of this whole thread..... I guess I'm asking for a little cultural translation here..... Nowadays, no-one seems to do the hard physical labour of previous generations, so maybe only the better off can afford to carve out time and money to exercise? Milagai

One thing I like in my local kitchen store: knife sharpening! Keeps me going back frequently and I almost always end up buying something.... Milagai

FROM THESE HANDS has got to be one of the coolest posts ever. Thanks Divina Milagai

I don't quite "get it" either, Milagai. *But* there are many people to whom food is not something of major importance in their lives - among the working poor, it may be that the time it takes them just to keep body and soul together, and perhaps trying to get an education in order to move forward, sucks up any energy there may be to find out more about different ways with food. Among the middle-class here (this middle class that is enormous in size), there's something going on with status and foodie-ism that has to do with "lifestyle aspirations" sometimes rather than other things that might have to do with the actual food itself. Does that translate into good things or bad things in the long run? Both, it seems to me. ←

I broadly agree with the stuff about gender and domestic servitude. And that canned boxes of fish spaghetti are great standbys and old friends etc. But I don't get the view that it's an expensive leisure / pleasure to cook fine fresh things. It's a simple skill to learn how to shop cheaply to keep costs down, and to cook quickly and tastily. I grew up without much domestic skills, but acquired them soon enough when I felt I had to - it's really not rocket science to make simple dal and sabzi (insert your cultural equivalent here). And when we see more and more people who don't set foot in the kitchen because they may be intimidated by the notion of cooking (though if they really tried it they'd be surprised); and as a result end up with expensive, bad-tasting, unhealthy, junk, then I *really* don't get that view. My family does have a middle class income, but I'm pretty concerned about keeping costs down, so I 90% buy only produce in season, on sale, etc. I have a huge commute to a demanding job, 2 kids, a husband who's out of the country 1/3 of the time, and I love my leisure time, rare as it is. So I'm shaped by the following priorities: - eat well: it has to taste good AND be reasonably good for you - I don't see these as being mutually incompatible goals - don't spend lots of time making food - don't spend lots of money! and it's not that hard at all. It can be learned as easily as any other skill like vacuuming or replacing a fuse. We have some amount of junk in the house, and it's funny that I try to demonstrate "normalcy" by saying this. I do often use canned and frozen ingredients (e.g. some kinds of canned beans or frozen or pre-sliced veggies, that kind of thing) but rarely processed foods, because they don't meet my priorities of good taste, low price, and un-problematic ingredients. I do keep a few packages of mac'n'cheese, or frozen naans, cans of soup, etc. for emergencies so I'm being any kind of a zealot here. Milagai

It's interesting (to me) how garam masala type spice mixes show up in most of the cuisines on the spice route...... Milagai

So sorry about the red tape Divina; you are being amazingly philosophical. I would have been alternately shrieking and sobbing by now..... Excellent stories about your week however and your enduring culinary contributions..... Wishing you all the best to restore normalcy as soon as possible. How long will it take you to get the correct licence? Milagai

Combine quince with mince and eat with a runcible spoon? When I searched a bit, I found some interesting sounding options including quince mince pie, but since you are less interested in baking, maybe the following will appeal? Gingered Cranberry and Quince sauce: http://www.sff.net/people/nalo/writing/200...-slices-of.html or Moroccan Lamb and Quince Stew: http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=Morocc...20quince%20stew Milagai

I like to make fresh salsa, especially toward the end of summer when tomatoes are abundant, and I like to add fruits (e.g. mango, peach, etc.) to salsa. But now that fall is here, I'm starting to crave Indian pickles; there are too many types to list, sweet, sour, hot, long lasting, short-term etc etc for just about every fruit or veg you can think of. Here's a very short list: http://www.indianfoodforever.com/pickles/index.html But as soon as the weather forecasts 5 days in a row of bright sunny weather, I am planning to make Punjabi style Cauliflower, Carrot and Turnip pickle: http://www.indianfoodforever.com/pickles/c...rot-pickle.html This one has a lot of mustard seed in the spices, so it's very tangy that complements the earthy sweetness of the root vegetables and cauliflowers. Or hmmmm.... here's another one that looks great to try: http://greenjackfruit.blogspot.com/2006/06...vegetables.html This one's more hot.... Milagai

Hi Chufi: it's a great idea and I wish you every success with it. I don't have any practical suggestion to offer, except that what the others said seems great: don't undervalue yourself, tourists and expats would like to do this, have a range of shorter and longer options, make it easy to get paid and make sure you get paid I'd love to read later on what works and does not work for you..... I can't imagine anyone better suited than you for such an undertaking. All best Milagai

I don't think anyone demonized pizza - I just remember someone posting that green beans could never be as good (tasty) as pizza, and I thoroughly disagreed, thinking of all the bad and good pizza I've met and the bad and good green beans.....All depends on the execution..... Thankfully I've never yet had to eat canned spaghetti ..... I hope fate does not send some my way now. Milagai

Many many thanks Hathor! Oh I'll twist all right! I am incapable of following a recipe exactly and always modify. 'tswy I can't bake.... but braise is good... visualising what I will likely do: Re fennel - will replace hen stock with veg stock; ghee instead of butter; and depending on how it smells, perhaps more than a smidgen of cayenne..... Would a small squirt of lemon juice be good or bad (what do you say?) This is going on the Thanksgiving list for sure..... The artichoke may be harder to customize, I might leave it as is (only olive oil or maybe some ghee instead of lard), but will serve along with caramelized onion shreds as topping for pulao etc...? Maybe also for TG.... M To Paul: the previous posters were so poetic and artistic in their food approaches. I alas, am very mundane: 1. What's on sale this week? 2. What have I recently made and how can I ring the changes and keep things seasonal? 3. What all else is needed to "balance" the meal (in terms of texture - wet vs dry, colour - too much brown or too little yellow/red, taste - hot vs milder, nutrition etc.) 4. How hassled am I feeling - do I have the bandwidth to soak and grind dals or am I going to keep it as simple as possible, but above all, it has to taste good...... these are my algorithms..... Milagai

Hathor: opleaseplease share recipes for the frizzled artichoke shreds and braised fennel? I did search on recipegullet and they're not there, unless I searched wrong? thanks in advance Milagai

Suzysushi: I think many Indian kids in early childhood go through a "white foods" phase - again, not all of them do, like kids everywhere, Indian kids vary in their preferences. My daughter who's a vegetable loving little foodie went through a phase of only plain rice or plain chapatis please. Nothing else on it. She got off that phase in a few months. Never liked homemade yogurt even though it's white. Not a huge cheese fan (touch of lactose intolerance?). My son still likes plain ghee-rice or ghee-idlis or plain mac and cheese as his favorites. But the full spectrum of food is there on the table and he eats most of it, and I do expect that his palate will "normalize" in a while..... In his case I have had to work on him. He's not a "natural" veggie lover like his sister. But gentle encouragement + age is beginning to improve his likes and dislikes. Sister I never had to do a thing with. ITTTTTA (lots of "totallys" in that) with what Jujubee said, which means I disagree with Busboy's preposterous blanket statement that green beans can never be as good as pizza. What kind of green bean dish? And what kind of pizza? So many pizzas are yucky awful tasting (some greasy McDominationellos whatever) and some are sublime. Some green bean dishes are disgusting (stewed to mush with sugar? ) and some are to kill and die for. And that's what I keep observing (as Jujubee has) that this "vegetables are inherently inferior and kids won't eat them unless they're lying or wierd" seems a Western myth, and seems to rest on bad Anglo (mainstream America or UK) style stereotypical cooking. And that "bewaquf" original article just reprises that. Any Italian, Thai, or other such parents on this board who can give some evidence on kids in those food ways? I can testify that okra is usually well liked by Indian kids because Indian recipes typically make it crisp and tangy and not an iota of slime anywhere....... so the whole Western "okra=gag" concept makes sense only in the light of lousy recipes. Which means that this whole concept of: bad /no taste = healthy food good taste = unhealthy food and the resulting dichotomy of "if I feed my kids tasty food, then I'm a bad parent and if I want to be a good parent I have to feed them things they inherently cannot like" is a bunch of nonsense that other food cultures don't deal with. It's also true (in my experience) that many kids go through a phase of wanting to rebel or be different from their parents and when newly independent will eat very differently. But with even more age, and in times of stress, will usually revert to the "comfort foods" that they had an emotional connection with from early childhood. I went through that myself, never ate Indian home style cooking for almost a decade, but with advanced age have reverted to my childhood foods again, and actually like and crave them..... Which is why when I'm sick I'll instantly want tomato rasam, while someone else will ony want jook or chicken soup.... So I've "worked" a bit to connect my kids with the kind of food I like and hope somewhere something lasts, even as they grow to appreciate good food and cooking from everywhere...... Milagai (don't mock my moong)

you're joking, but that does seem to be the essence of several countries' national policy. ← and a lot of people's personal policy too.. Milagai

Would that be potassium permanganate? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_permanganate Look way down in the section on "miscellaneous uses", the 5th bulleted point. Milagai

Sarabeth... I like chickpeas..in their original state. So, I am thinking I would enjoy your baked chickpeas! PLEASE share...how do I go about doing this? ← Me too! Also shellfishfiend: pickled daikon dipped in sriracha - sounds heavenly. Did you make the daikon pickle yrslef? Please share recipe? Thanks in advance Milagai

Only if you share the writer's POV that liking veggies and moong dal = cultivated and refined etc. Such likes are very normal and everyday for large numbers of us. Milagai

I am convinced that this kind of attitude has perpetuated the whole "kids don't like vegetables" myth of the Western world. Kids don't like bad cooking, and neither do adults. Kids like things that taste good, and if their adults cook well and act as if vegetables are normal food, then the children will follow along. This kind of line is unmitigated idiocy, just a cheap throwaway: "even fully grown adults don't like mung beans". What garbage - ask anyone who likes Indian food (and *knows* Indian food, and whose knowledge does not begin and end with the CTM from the corner takeaway). Mung beans, whether whole or split, are lovely; dozens of dal recipes are based on moong dal, ranging from simple throw-it-together when you get home from work, or more elaborate serve-it-at-parties fare. Most kids raised by parents who know good Mediterranean, Thai, Indian etc etc etc cooking love vegetables, even those deemed "foul" by the average ignorant "Western" snot. The veggies are not foul, it's bad cooking that's foul...... And ignorant, snobbish writing is worse. What kind of buffoon thinks of vegetables as foul but junk food as tasty? My peeve with bad "Western" junk food is that it does not even taste good - bland, chemicaly, where's the flavor? "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain" (Schiller) Milagai

Now I'm really curious! The menu you described has so many items; how much time did you spend shopping and how much time cooking, and how did you organize to get it all done? Thanks in advance Milagai

Where's your starting point? I'd recommend Kerala, on India's south-west coast. Called the spice coast, this area has been a major stop on the spice trade route since Roman times (pepper, ginger, cloves, cardamom are the main ones - e.g. Tellicheri peppers), along with the famous "apes, ivory, and peacocks" mentioned by whichever Roman writer. And, being on the coast, Kerala seafood is totally iconic. There are several great cookbooks you can look at to get an idea: e.g. Maya Kaimal's book (can't remember the name of the book) and I think Madhur Jaffrey's books have some good sections too. Kerala is also one of the most beautiful places on the planet: lush rainforests and nature parks, cool high-ranges tea and spice plantations, tropical beaches and backwaters, with houseboats, etc etc. In US $ terms it's cheap to stay and get around within Kerala, and all your criteria are met (street food, great seafood, cooking classes etc. etc.). Here is a link for starters (from Google): http://www.kerala-travel-tours.com/kerala_...tural-tour.html Links on the left of that page have pictures. Kerala is also a great Ayurveda holistic health destination (various massages and treatments etc.). Milagai

Every time I read a new blog, I think "things can't get more uniquely interesting then this"; then along comes the next one and tops that! Fascinating stories, great pictures ..... Here's a link to a story from the travel section of today's New York Times that has something on Malaysian food in general and Nyonya/Baba food in particular: http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/trav...&pagewanted=all Thanks again Milagai

In case you needed a very dramatic example, try the following link: http://www.finance.cch.com/sohoApplets/LunchSaver.asp You can plug in what eating lunch out would cost (e.t. $ 6.50) vs. bagging your lunch (e.g. $ 3.00 - a HIGH estimate to me, mine cost much less). If you had eaten out 20 times a month (e.g. every working day), but put that money instead into some form of investment that yielded a 6 % rate of return, in 4 years you could have saved $ 3,793 (you can play with any of the numbers here). Like someone said earlier, I can't fathom not bagging my lunch most days, but still less can I fathom throwing out food regularly...... I just can't afford it (and we're a middle income sort of family, 2 adults, 2 kids). Milagai