Monty200

Pure speculation - perhaps most of the Indians who come here are fairly well educated professionals, and so prefer to focus on their professions - physicians, engineers, educators, lawyers etc.

Deliad, Actually, the University of Wisconsin-Stout does have some food technology, food and nutrition and packaging courses, and if I am not mistaken has recently done some very work in the area - however, no Indian focus. let me know if you are interested in more info. Prema

Deliad, I realize that I am not directly answering your question, but there seems to be a trend here in the US too, especially on the coasts towards innovative packaging. I was also pleasantly surprised to find a Pathak's cooked Basmati rice pouch at a Walmart a couple of weeks ago, here in the Midwest!!! One could basically tear open the pouch, & microwave it directly for about 2 minutes & voila, perfectly cooked & seasoned Basmati rice. I believe that Trader Joe's, Deep & even Heinz (Ethnic Gourmet brand) are other companies that are into packaging Indian food. I must check out tiffinbites.com, it sure sounds delightful! Prema Monteiro

Good Morning All, Prema Monteiro here. Monica, thank you for postings my responses for me, when I was unable to do so directly yesterday. Episure wrote: " just wish that a wider sampling would have been done. Hopefully someone will sit up and recognize your pioneering efforts which in turn may lead to futher detailed studies." Ideally, both Dr Josiam & I would really like to be able to survey several population bases, which would enable us to identify/compare differences as well as similarities. Unfortunately, it comes down to availability of resources or lack of. Thank you though for recognizing our pioneering efforts. For my part, having travelled to some European countries such as the UK, France, Amsterdam, Italy & Germany to name a few, their capital cities, & a few small towns; Australia and New Zealand; Canada and several small and large cities in the US, I definitely see the obvious similarities and differences in the issues - all of which would make the studies all the more interesting. E.g. in London, as in New York, one has a wide choice of low-high priced restaurants, restaurants specializing one particular regional cuisine, as alluded to in other posts, as well as 'Indian-based' nouvelle, or fusion types of offerings, and so on.

Tryska I like your postings. Although of Indian origin, where most seem to think that Basmati is THE ultimate rice, I too like a more 'absorbent' rice, as I have found that it absorbs the flavor of a curry, sambhar etc really nicely. This, even w/Thai, Indonesian & Japanese curry, all of which I thoroughly enjoy. Prema