BBhasin

Made it once long long ago. I think you brown some besan in ghee or oil like you were making a roux then fold in hot sugar syrup of a certain consistancy. you then set this in a tray and cut it into squares. To flake it you lift it in when its semi set and ' twist' it. But I could be way off.

We discussed ' Chocolate Samosas ' on this board sometime ago. I am not sure if the restaurant was in the UK or New York. I am still awaiting some kind soul to slip me the recipe.

numerous prize winning Chilli recipes here in the US have chocolate as secret ( not any more) ingredient. I dont recall all the details but this celebrated chef would pulverize a mint and sprinkle it atop his signature dish just as it left the kitchen. It melted/dissolved by the time the dish reached the patron and created a sensational opening taste. So keep sipping that country liquor Episure, it gives you good ideas. And coffee Episure was the secret ingredient in my neighbor's Barbeque sauce. Take nother sip of that inspiring country liquor now. Country liquor is no laughing matter!!

Interesting, Bharathan, so this is what you have been doing with your time. Thank you for the suggestions for Indian restaurants, all very true. Q. Did you quiz the owners/employees of the restaurants you used for your data collection about their perception of the two major patron groups. If you did, I would be interested in your findings. Q. You are right, in spite of its popularity. Indian cuisine does not make the top ten most popular ethenic cuisines in the US. What, besides your recomendations for Indian restaurants, do Indian Restaurants need to focus on to get to that level. Q. On this bussiness of Nouville/Fusion Indian cuisine. In your opinion does it help the cuisine by making it more popular( give the customer what he wants) or does it erode its authenticity. Q. 'that Indian restaurant is very good because I see so many Indians there' is a statement I hear from American (as described in your study) patrons many times. I personally am not in agreement with concluding this based on just this one factor. What do you think. Ethnic Differences in customer perceptions and influences in your paper left me kind of confused. I will have to read that part a few times to digest it but would be very interested in the views of the regular members of this forum. bhasin

Wonderful Monica, a few suggestions if I may. Can you guys go beyond standard restaurant offerings of Samosas, Chat Papri, Bhel Puri, Pani Puri, Dosas, Aloo Tikki, Aloo/fruit Chat, chole etc. Also the green mango juice, if it is amras you are refering to, we tried at the Indiqe get together and generally it was not liked, perhaps due to the minerally taste ans the aroma of the rock salt. I look forward to the event. Sign me up for two.

How did I miss this one! I have already started fasting to create room. Ready whenever you are.

'fresh frozen' and 'thawed for your convienience' in small print on the label is something that you can see very often on previously frozen fish in the stores. The problem is that it is usually in the refrigerator along with fresh fish packs, pretending to be fresh.

Episure, The American stores are flooded with shrimp from India, frozen of course. Restaurant Depot, a wholesale puveyor to the industry carries tiger prawns from India. I do not know about fish but the Indian stores ( specially those catering to Bangladeshis) carry a lot of frozen fish from that region perhaps the variety is not available here. There is however plenty of fresh fish available here. All I know is the good old pomfret which I can not find here( there is a smaller version called butter fish) but I can pick up a frozen one at the Indian store. bhasin

Saag is greens, can be spinach, mustard, collard, kale etc. Palak is more specific, being spinach. Palak paneer and saag paneer are the same thing i.e spinach with Indian Cottage cheese. When you say saag paneer it is presumed that it is spinach. I have not come accross mustard greens with cottage cheese though.

No. But my wife does.In my book it how can it be sweet without sugar. I simply have a mental block and will not use it. Splenda however produces very good results for my wife. I also agree with easy guru about figuring it out.

What were the two spice blends and which was "just ok"? The much touted Balti Spice mix did not score. The Vindaloo blend though produced very good results.

Do you get their Rt 66 with your cigarette?

I like the sour dough pizzas at Schlotskys on Conn Ave. Particularly their chicken Pesto and the Thai Chicken Pizza. They have pretty good sandwiches too.

from a few bucks to a lot of moolah

I will mail that postcaed, competetion is good. However, I after reading about them in the food section, I got two spice blends, one was good the other just ok, so in my book their score is currently 50%.

In the washington DC area there is the Taj Mahal which touts itself as the oldest restaurant in the area, though I don't know since when. There also I believe used to be a Gaylord restaurant which closed down. This is a really interesting question. We can perhaps send a link of this thread to INDIA ABROAD and they can assign a reporter to research it. Should make a great article.

You are so damm right something should be done about it. In the US mangoes come from Mexico peeled fresh garlic comes from China Onions come from Canada and mexico Frozen diced magoes from the philipines lamb from Australia & Newzealand Shrimp from half a dozen counties including India to name just a few items Why can't we get mangoes from India?? PS. Did anyone mention that the Mango was the most eaten fruit in the world.

monica, most books that have a lot of good pictures usually give credit to to the photographer somewhere in the book. While the brown, green and yellow blobs are to some extent true there are numerous books that have captured Indian food quite favourably. 50 great curries is one and then there are books like Wazwan, Traditional Kashmiri Cuisine, by Roli Books where they have utilized imaginative serving dishes and backgrounds to actually make these blobs look pretty good. bhasin

OH the Boss Man on the defensive! Just teasing Jason, don't take anything too seriously or personally. You were kinder than my wife, she walks in " what are you cooking? It stinks!! At least open the windows." ( that was my first and only experimentation with Bombay Duck, dried fish for those not in the know) take care bhasin

Now, after ALL this discussion....... another view People walk into our little Indian place and exclaim " oooh it smells wonderfull! " and we who work there smell nothing, as we are there day in and day out. Then we go away for a while, vacation or whatever, and when we return it hits us and we realise what those patrons were talking about. I guess we get so wraped up in those aromas that we stop noticing or perhaps the association for us is work and we just block it out.

Aside from having a seperate kitchen away from the living quarters or cooking outside ( both of which incidently used to be fairly common in India of yester years) its a good idea , if you are going to cook a lot of indian, to have as little fabric around, as fabric tends to absorb the smells. So non carpeted floors, no drapes on the windows and a non fabric upholstry on the furniture. My wife lights a candle in the kitchen and its her strong belief that its keeps the smell low. I personally think all it does is release carcenogen carbons in the air, I suggest to her to get a shaggy dog instead whose coat would absorb trhe smell and let it out into the yard for a while once she is done cooking. ( the last part is a joke) All that warfing aromas bit. I qiute like it when someone is cooking and the wonderful aromas greet me when I walk in as a prelude to the treats ahead but once done I want it gone and not keep lingering the next couple of days, just a tease, with nothing in store. And Jason, you hurt me by using the word odor in conjunction with cooking Indian,( and Episure & Mongo, you should have picked this up) the words are aroma, bouquet and the like

Stand in line my friend and bring something to entertain yourself as its a long line. bhasin, if my current racket doesn't work out can i apply? i must admit up front that i don't know how to make chicken tikka masala--deal-breaker? :-) Mongo, I beg you to join me. With a face like yours and your linguistic skills you dont need to cook, just throw some pans around and shake some spoons. I will be a millionaire. bhasin

Please Please DONT. Describe it as 'an Indian hot dog' but dont call it that. Its wrong education. Many are the times that customers ( non Indians) come to my restaurant and want Chicken Akbar or Bombay or something else we cannot figure out. When we ask him to describe it, turns our its simply chicken curry or butter chicken or something simple that some restauraunt he patronised re-christened. Tamoto soup is tomato soup the world over so lets call a Kathi a kathi and leave it at that

Stand in line my friend and bring something to entertain yourself as its a long line.

I loved the Dokhla of this guy in Karol Bagh. So the last time I was in India I went looking for it but the shop no longer existed. Someone directed me to another which 'specialised' in dokhla, where I was confronted with chutney dhokla 'sandwiches', tri colored dokhla, and dokhla made from different ingredients but the basic dokhla with the green chillies and corriander leaves that I was craving, was nowhere to be seen. What happened?? Also I have always wondered about this ENO fruit-salt bussiness in making dokhla. How did this get mixed up in Indian cuisine? Can someone enlighten me please?? Vikram perhaps.