Suvir Saran

And at least one has very recently made a trip to an Indian restaurant. Maybe not to eat.. but to get some curry leaves... I am sure that member could shed some light into this matter for sure.. maybe some fun and positive gossip too.

How true.. and how very sad.

Are there many Indian restaurants in Israel? How popular are they? How long have there been Indian restaurants in Israel? I know for a fact that many Israeli and Indian software companies work with each other to service the same clients in the US and other Western nations. Each of these countries has a niche the other has not fully exploited and so they are happy sharing these clients. There is great travel between their employees and also many Indians working in the US, for software companies are traveling to Israel. Has any of this helped in changing the face of Indian restaurants in Israel? What kind of dishes are commonly found in these restaurants? Has Indian food made any impact at all in the life of the Israeli restaurant eating crowd? Are most, many or all of these restaurants Kosher? Is that a necessity?

You are a very naughty man to tease those with a sweet tooth like mine with such news soooo very late in the day.. What am I to do now? Where can I get that peanut brittle fix sated? I crave the peantu brittle my mother would make for us each week in the Indian winter... It was the most amazing brittle I have ever eaten... With your endorsement, I think I can well imagine this one would take me back to that memory.. and taste.. I shall order some tonight.... Thanks for the link... And thanks to your friend that introduced y'all to these goodies.

In a world where a thousand children die tonight from hunger and starvation, we have the luxury of spending our time *here* participating in a community of essentially likeminded people from all over the world and enjoying ourselves immensely. You are right, Stefany. We are really, really lucky. In very many ways. And to continue the analogy -- In a world where there are lonely people that will go to sleep tonight having not exchanged a single conversational word with another human soul today, not only are we lucky enough to be able to spend our time here, but I for one, have made some very good friends on eGullet as well. And besides all that, I saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding today - so I'm in a really happy and grateful mood tonight. The stars at night are big and bright.... oh well, you know the rest. I loved that movie. I am glad you saw it. And yes you are soooo very right.... Ed said it best when he said it should take no more than 2 minutes to worry about canned vs. dry beans... it hardly matters, the difference between them. We are lucky to have them. When I sleep later, your thought will make me even more thankful. And think of how lucky I truly am. Thanks for putting it all in such clear perspective. And also, yes, we are all lucky to have eGullet and the coterie of like minded friends we have found. We are a family and this thread attests to just that. Who else would worry about such trivial differences but a happy family. And I learn each day, something important and amazing at eGullet. Tonight, it is about my having great friends and food to eat.

Beautifully said Jinmyo. Thanks for that offering of words that say so much and so clearly and in such limited words. Amazing!

Surroundings 224 West 79th Street New York, NY (212) 580- 8982 They will use their national partners to the advantage of their customers. It is well worth the long distance call to use them instead of most other florists and basket makers. While traveling around the country, I use them and with great confidence. They always do better than I have expected. And having seen their usual very high standard, I have always been looking out for great stuff.

Also look for Surroundings Florist. They are based in NYC.. and if you tell them about the person they are shipping too, they will ensure the gift is everything that person would like. H&D is great for looks and ease etc... but the products, fruit and other edibles are far from top notch. Sad, but true. I hope you like Alex's.

Me neither, Jinmyo. Where should we be shopping instead? I guess sugar would be no fun for you.. but you know how I love sugar.. maybe I can drink the canned jus. Nah... I would not... But I do enjoy using canned beans ever so often when I am in a grind. And I find them perfectly fine.

The canned ones are smoother in texture. Dried ones that are cooked to a similar softness are drier in their center and so sandy almost, as Nina succinctly pointed out earlier on. But it is what you do after this point that makes their difference totally fuzzy and disappear. And a good chef knows what to do and how and can fool even the most seasoned of all tasters into not being able to tell after this point. And that is where dry and canned become interchangeable. When I make salads, I can hardly ever use canned chickpeas for I want them just that consistency where they are gritty. I, in fact, use dried ones for most all my cooking, but I also realize I can fool anyone with any arrogance and ego, into not being able to tell me the difference between the two after they have been cooked in a sauce beyond this one point. It would do you good to cook dried chickpeas and taste the difference. Maybe you are not like me, and you will not even want this difference. But if you do like that drier gritty taste, you will want to cook the chickpeas from dry ones. Maybe you will be inspired to cook them from dry all the time. But at least you would have made the taste test. I use dry beans for most of my cooking for I have the luxury of time, and I also have many reliable pressure cookers that can help me make the most of BAD quality American Supermarket and other store bought beans when they are old and stubborn. Nothing worse than bad store bought beans that are old. They are MUCH worse than canned ones. And it is that which you will find for the most part. Unless you are lucky to live in NYC and have great stores near you. There are other cities where you find great assortment, but it is great retail traffic for dry beans that makes them better. But there are times, when I am cooking in other parts of this great country, when I can find only old and dry beans (and you cannot tell this just by looking at a bean), and at these times, I find it easy to rely on canned beans for a greater end result. And in these times and cities, I thank America for giving us canned beans. They all of a sudden become very appealing. And after I play with them, I have friends who cannot tell any difference. And if I do not tell them, they write me thank you notes for going through all the effort of preparing beans from scratch. Thank God, for grandmas and good recipes. And of course, America for canned beans that can be more reliable in their freshness than its dried goods.

DStone, You were the first to risk your reputation as a serious eGulleteer by taking the side of the canned beans. I must commend you for taking that risk. Also, I am sorry for not acknowledging you in that earlier post where I mentioned our ever so wonderful Jinmyo and not you. I hope you did not feel like chopped liver. But if you did, I can tell you, I am one big fan of chopped liver and chopped onions on toast. It is one of the greatest dishes in my book. But again, you were very bold to support canned beans.. and I did not forget that.

Yes there is a great difference at this stage Varmint. I want to add this before those ANTI-Suvir for being so Anti-American and refined for supporting canned beans, totally go nuts. This is the only stage where one can easily make out their difference.

Suvir -- no, I only tested the 3 I mentioned. If I'd made the Tarte Tatin, I would have had to eat it! And I'm not very fond of sweet things (except you and my husband [He Who Only Eats] ) But there are some apples which do hold up quite well -- maybe not for all that long time, but then the way he does it is to keep adding more apple pieces to the pan as the earlier ones shrink. So not all of them get cooked the full amount of time. I like Julias recipe for the very even cooking of all apples. They get cooked on the stove top for 25 minutes. And the ones first added to the pan retain their shape, and look so very beautiful as the top (face) of the tart at the end. With his recipe, I wonder if it gets too mushy.. I will have to test it and post. Maybe one of our celebrated pastry chefs can add on this even beforehand.

o.k. So now you've explained why you like canned beans over dried. But why do I prefer them? Oy. (Hey, I bet that if Coop kept reading, he's learned something else today.) I am waiting for Chopped Liver to tell me why they like beans.

My sister does the same with Maa Kee Daal. (red beans made Indian style) And that is her medicine for most tired minds. Maa Kee Daal with chaawal (rice), sirke waalee pyaaz (pickled red onions) and some karaaree bhindi (crispy fried okra). If she were to make it for me today, I would skip my medicine for sure.

Genes of those not eating red meats do seem to support the Methuselah logic. No wonder the beans of Bandhavgarh were so famous... A largely vegetarian people, they kept good health and lived long. Toast to Methuselah!

Priscilla, the only thing I would do here, is to trust you and your taste buds. The rest is nothing more than legend and personal biases and affectations. Go with what you are comfortable with, for that will give you most pleasure in the end. Following another and their logic could bring you similar happiness, but that is no given. I would trust you first.. me and the gang, way after.

So they must have been, what, 200 years old at that point? In their 90s. Remember the Brits were not able to conquer all of India from their first entry into India. Many territories never had any British rule. Some were plundered as late as the 1930s and 1940s. History keeps track of such things better than our minds. And legend and lore and memories, play an interesting game with history. The same type of game slow cookers and pressure cookers play with food. Need I say more?

Why apologize? We got Butter Chicken as late as 1950's maybe. And that is a great dish. Life moves on. Drama remains drama. We should take from it only those things that make a real difference. There will always be fluff and fluffier ways of making more fluff. The key is not to get lost in the fluff. Know when we can swim over it, and only taking in as little of that water as we can whilst still swimming safely.

And a favorite of many of the rich too. And an affectation that some work hard to preserve.

I miss those days when I would eat beans that had been cooked all night, only on the very spent (almost not hot) flames of what was left from cooking at night in the Tandoor in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh. Will I live to see them again? What is happening to the jungles of Bandhavgarh? The moonlight would add just enough heat for the coal to remain hot all night, and the fanning every couple of hours would keep the coal from getting totally cold. And in the morning, when we would wake up, the beans had cooked, plump and fat, without any trace of bursting, and the un-glazed (terracotta pots, baked so that they can take heat without needing a glaze. Glazed pots were for those city slickers that had lost their soul after being raped and bought over by the firangees, the British invaders in the case of India) pots in which the beans had been cooked all night, nicely and slowly and romantically in the forests of Bandhavagarh, had allowed only the very filtered flavor of the coal to come into the pot and leave the beans with every so slight a flavor of the cooking that no barbecue sauce I have ever found has been able to bring me that same magic. When can I get those beans again? Dry or canned... can someone create those nights in Bandhavgarh. Do I really want those beans again? How can they be a part of my life when I live so differently. Does it even matter? And then I remember those stories shared by the elders of Bandhavgarh of the same beans made in their own youth and that of their parents. The coal had its own pure and sacred flavor the farmers said. A flavor that was raped by the British. The elders that had lived through the British Raj, spoke to me just before their death of the coal that India had before being raped by the British being so very different. The blood that Mother India had been bathed in had changed the flavor or coal, and I was told these beans I ate could never ever taste the same. The Sahibs (white men from England that has enslaved Indians) and their sweat and dirty ways had left a stench in the Indian landscape, an energy that could not be conducive to the same cooking... and Alas, me and the generations to come would never know what real rajmah cooked over coal (Pre-British), and made from beans (harvested from farms not polluted by the blood of innocent Indians killed by the British) tasted like.

Maybe a Beau more? Since Tad has gotten to be tiresome. Haven't you heard? a HUSBAND more, now. smart cookie, you.

Well my preferred brands are dried beans I grew up eating that were farmed in the great rich soil of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Soil rich in minerals that were given to the water (of the river, Ganga) that came from the Himalayas (worlds youngest mountains, and so very rich in alluvial goodies) and onto the Indian plains. But unfortunately I have to make do with the trash we get here. But I seem to be surviving. I take what I can find easily... I make great fuss over certain things. And beans are not one of those.

I am glad you have the convenience of doing that. I do too. And glad you have the arrogance that comes with being snobbish of such great luck.. I do too. We are very similar. Maybe that is why we each love food. We share so much in common. But my grandma, cannot afford such luxuries and snooty-ness. Theirs (grandparents and their friends) are lives that are eternally grateful for living without need to be hospital bound and dependent on another. They have life against them (human mortality, fragile bones, failing memory etc...), their lives do not give them the luxury of forgetting things and doing other tasks... forgetting anything for too long, as my grandma says, means forgetting forever... and she has friends (Caucasian elders, if that matters) who like her are elderly and have had fires and such happen due to usage of an oven or slow cooker or have hurt themselves trying to use pressure cookers they so readily used once. These are realities of life as well. Unfortunately. Many elders in our country and others have great problem maintaining any sense of semblance around their lives as older citizens. We can grant great attitude to ourselves in thinking their foods are not the same for they are not cooked as we would hope for, but while that can be true for food made in their hospices with little if any care for taste, I wish I could agree with you and give grandmas food such mediocrity. Her beans and stews (with beans), and she cooks many Mexican dishes, having lived in San Francisco, are better than most I make following recipes. Her cornbread, made by her just by tasting that made by another, is better even than my own which I make after great research. And my cornbread is one of the best even I have ever eaten and know will ever eat. But certain people are great cooks and their hands have magic and their brains an undying brilliance that can make the most of any situation life presents them. While you have been cooking 30 years, grandma has been cooking 63. And first 45 with dried beans only. Maybe she has failing memory and poor taste buds in old age, but fans of her food (friends and family, cooks or non cooks, white, black, yellow or brown or green, of any race) seem to find no way of telling which of her bean dish is made with fresh and which with dry. She tricked us first.. and from her I understood how life can be our best teacher. And it is sad to expect generalizations. Yes dry beans can be GREAT. And in fact I only use them for most of my cooking. IN fact sometimes I have to fight to use them instead of canned. But I also understand clearly that most of this is drama. There are dishes I am not savvy enough to prepare like grandma without losing a great deal in using canned beans, but there are those dishes, which I was lucky enough to see grandma prepare, and in those dishes, I find no variance. So, I find little if any need to defend one of these beans over the other. But if I have to defend ease over drama, I would go with ease. And if I have to defend attitude over humility, I take the latter. And if I have to choose between wisdom of grandmas over that of arrogant cooks such as myself, I do have some sensibilities still left in myself, and I choose grandmas wisdom and experience over mine and those of others like me. I am a fool I guess, but I am happy being a fool like that.

How funny we had the same thing happen in my families house. We served the guests and helped in all ways.. and it was our way of being helpful and also being a part of our parents lives. I am so glad we could do that. And I encourage all my friends to do the same with their kids. It is great education, one schools and books will never be able to impart. Nina, would it be too much to ask for some names and descriptions of dishes that were served at traditional Shabbes meals? It would be fascinating to learn more. I hope you do not find it too personal. If you do, please ignore this.