patrickamory

Huh. Wow. I'd never thought of this. It's like tipping sushi chefs. I've heard it's normal, but I'm always afraid of offending them by doing so.

The mapo doufu at Chengdu Heaven is to die for. (I wasn't so crazy about the dan dan noodles.) And then you can sample the other amazing places in Golden Mall, such as Xi'an Famous Foods. Love Szechuan Gourmet on 39th when it's on - but it's always waxed and waned, I assume with changeovers of chefs. (The guy who owns it is Cantonese, not Sichuanese, according to a colleague of my mother's from Sichuan. Doesn't mean he can't own a great Sichuan restaurant of course.)

Wow, looks amazing. What did you make with them? I tried brined green peppercorns for the first time last night in a jungle curry - well rinsed they were actually excellent. Can't imagine how great the fresh ones are though. Edit: just found a place that sells piper nigrum plants via mail order. I may try to grow one this summer. It seems like it's not necessarily easy to get them to produce peppercorns however.

Really? 15-25 minutes for stone-ground grits? I mean, I like some chew. That's not a problem. What am I doing wrong?

Dejah - you got fresh green peppercorns? So jealous! I used dried ones as per the recipe... but really want the fresh ones both for this and for David Thompson's curry of boneless pork shin with fresh green peppercorns, which really has me stumped at the moment (I just bought a jar of pickled brined ones, but I just know that no matter what I do it won't be right for the dish).

Pork rinds were supermarket. Bird chiles were all green - I definitely agree there's a difference. I use a mixture in my prik namm pla (which accompanied this - I use quite a bit of lime juice).

Thanks so much Jenni - headed to Amazon right now (and elsewhere if I can't find them there).

Hollandaise sauce? It's a pretty great version too.

I made a seur rong hai that somehow turned out celestial. I've made this dish a few times before but never nailed it quite like tonight. I used 25 bird chiles in the Cracking The Coconut recipe - and somehow the result was not quite like anything I've tasted before - sweet, salty, hot, for sure, but with the earthy sharp undertone of the cracked green peppercorns and an overwhelming umami mouth-blossom that was just over the top. This photo is of a version I made a month or two ago - the coriander garnish was properly (coarsely) chopped and mixed with crushed pork rinds for this version. It was so good i somehow didn't have time to take a photo before it was all gone. (edit - ah, here's a better picture:)

Thanks Jenni. I've just realized that you've answered some questions from the Regional Indian thread over here. Below is a photo of a spinach pachadi I made from the Kaimal book, right after adding the tadka and before serving.

Jenni, any recommendations for regional Indian cookbooks would be really useful. I have "Curried Favors" by Maya Kaimal, which includes a lot of Keralan (Keralite? Malayali? not sure of the correct adjective) recipes. But I've been wondering how authentic it is even compared to Jaffrey, since for example it recommends tamarind as a souring agent in fish curries whereas Jaffrey actually tells you to go out and find kodampuli. I also have Camille Panjabi's book, which ranges all over India, but haven't actually cooked from it. My go-to's remain Madhur Jaffrey and Julie Sahni, probably like many of us. I owned Yamuna Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine for a while, but never enjoyed anything I made from it. Any other suggestions greatly appreciated!

Tadka! That was the word I was looking for. Thank you! Wikipedia has it listed under chaunk.

The Korean BBQ places near me in Manhattan are open 24-7.

It's the Radiohead model.

Jenni - incredible post! Worth archiving. Blown away by the breadth of your knowledge, thank you so much. To anyone interested in an introduction to Indian regional cuisine, I'd recommend searching out Madhur Jaffrey's 'A Taste Of India,' which has been out of print for some time. It surveys Indian cuisine by region, explains ingredients, traditions and culture, and is beautifully illustrated. It doesn't contain a ton of recipes, but all of the ones I've tried - bar none -have turned out well, and they are extremely varied. (Just read the recipe thoroughly in advance, and beware the dreaded "Jaffrey surprise" of a complex sub-recipe on a different page referenced halfway through.)

All fish - not just shellfish. Freshness if paramount. (Dried, salted etc. fishes obviously excluded.) Agreed that dried mint has special uses in Middle Eastern food - for example stuffed grape leave, and ghormeh sabzi.

I agree, there's something weird about nuggets. I think Jamie Oliver had a TV show about this for kids in the South or something - some truly disgusting footage. I have no idea what relation his demonstration has to McDonald's claim that their nuggets are now all "white meat" - whatever that means. I admit I'm still happy to scarf 10 of them down on occasion, dowsed in sweet'n'sour or BBQ sauce. I always feel slightly disgusted afterwards.

I love Marmite. But disregard my taste for it, which many find odd - my boyfriend and others loved a chili I made where it was a secret ingredient. The recipe was, more or less, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's chili on Serious Eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/01/how-to-make-the-best-chili-ever-recipe-super-bowl.html Intellectually I prefer a purer chili - the sort that John Thorne describes in the "Bowl of Texas Red' chapter in Serious Eats. The three ingredients - dried chiles, beef, and fat. But Kenji's chili was absolutely killer. I recommend giving it a try.

Thanks andiesenji. I'm going to try your method when I get my next Anson Mills shipment.

vivin - no, I haven't been to Pure Thai! So please discount any absolutism in my post. It looks to me like Pure Thai is more about Thai street food - fast-cooked wok fare, correct? Wondee Siam I is more restaurant style - salads, curries. I really had an awful meal at Wondee Siam II - so mediocre it makes me worry that changes have happened at the original since I was last there (about 6 months ago). They seem to be opening up other branches across the city, never a good sign.

I have read that thread - all 29 pages of it - three times through! And learned so much.

Man, that cabbage soup looks good. Below is one of my favorite Julie Sahni recipes... fragrant yogurt-braised chicken (dahi murghi). It's tough to photograph well but man is it delicious. It gains complexity from the freshly roasted and ground spices in the garam masala - impossible to replicate in a photo, but "fragrant" describes it well. Served with Persian style rice (with tahdig crust) and a selection of pickles and chutneys.

Funny, I just mentioned this in another post. I think all the Hell's Kitchen Thai places are inconsistent, but the original, smaller Wondee Siam is the best - by far. No reservations, and BYOB, so may not suit your party. Order off the small Thai special table menu. We had some spectacular dishes on one visit - insist that you want the unusual stuff, Thai spicy, etc. This place was originally recommended to me by friends from Thailand. Their sister restaurant is nothing special - bog-standard Thai cuisine you could find in any mall unfortunately If only we had a Jitlada or a Renu Nakorn in NYC! (And no, Lotus of Siam NYC ain't it.)

I guess I've become a regular at Locanda Vini e Olii. I've always loved this place, but our meal last Friday was absolutely killer. Greeted with a handshake, given a free plate of goat testa that was delicious. Standouts besides the usual (charcuterie platter, sardines in saor and cheeses) included a perfect tagliatelle ragu of pork and beef with orange zest, the guitar strings in saffron with sardines, and an excellent salad... but then the rare bistecca fiorentina and the long-cooked berkshire pork were off the hook. Great wine suggestions too (bringing us down on price on one).

Now that sounds like breakfast to me. Did you make the jungle curry and prik nam pla? Yup! David Thompson on the jungle curry... a little improvisation was needed because I didn't have grachai, otherwise it was straightforward. Yard beans, yellow squash and chicken. It's the recipe with the two pastes (you fry a separate jungle curry paste and a garlic-chile paste).