BBhasin

Episure, Are you still eating?? I am going to keep bringing this thread up until you post those pictures. Bhasin

Chai I believe is from the chinese word char simply meaning tea. Wow, you threw a very interesting spin on this discussion. I do not by any means doubt what you say I am simply curious of your reference or sourse. Did you personally live through that time? When I was growing up tea was always milk and water boiled toghether with tea leaves. The tea was ( for punjabis at least who wanted a strong caffine and tanin rush) usually brooke bond yellow label. In later years we started mixing it with the green label. Sugar was always pre added. The water and milk ratio was interesting. For usual family consumption I would think it was about 1/4th milk. But if you had important visitors the quantity of milk went up with the ultimate honoured guest getting ALL milk chai. Cardamon or fennel seeds were added sometimes. Munakka, ginger cloves etc were also used. however as these were considered ' HOT' as per aurveda their use was more prevalent for medicinal purposes( colds, congestion etc) or in the colder winter months. Masalla Chaii or tea made with spice blends ( powdered or whole) I think was a later thing though I cannot put a year to it. Incidently what about Kashmiri tea or Kahwa with unfired green tea, slivered almonds saffron etc usually no milk though. Do you think that would qualify for masalla tea. And what do folks think of flavor infused teas like mango tea?? My ex boss was from Jammu and tells me of this 'horrible tea'. You take milk and add this certain kind of tea and boil it and boil it for a long time and it turns kind of red or pink and then you add lots of old fashioned malai ( would that be clotted cream?) and you enjoyed it with some rustic old bread. Oh he described it with such passionate relish but just the thought of it made me want to puke. Anyone from J&K here?

Now these Baluchi's guys definetley seem to be doing the right things and have the makings of a chain as Epiure describes it. Off the thread question, JennyUptown, what were your favorite selections at Baluchi's? Maybe we can can direct you to some places in your neighborhood.

Bombay Palaces are in Washington DC, NYC, Houston, Frisco, Montreal, Toronto, London, New Delhi, Mexico, Malaysia, Newzealand etc. Someone told me they are in Moscow, Budapest, and a few other countries too. Their website did not list all those locations so maybe others are using their name without their knowing it, which happens a lot in cae of Indian restaurants. Regarding the prepackaged stuff I think you are right Episure, the only exception I can think of are American vegetarians who for variety ( due to limited veg offerings elsewhere) might pick up the stuff and get addicted.

Also money may have a lot to do with it. with the same amount of money you can do an American, Italian or Mexican place. Or get a decent franchise with a lower failure rate like Quizznos just to name one.

Bombay Palace is the only one I can think of on a Global basis. I am sure we shall see more in future but in the US, with the current shortage of kitchen personel and current immigraion/labor laws, unless we can train locally available manpower the likelyhood seems dim. We are seeing much more of pre-packaged, ready to eat Indian meals on supermarket shelves and I guess will have to depend on them to popularise the cuisine.

Costco at Pentagon City this week has a roadshow selling Vollarth comercial kitchen utensils. Nice and heavy bottoms, even cooking, non-stick inside AND out and gauranteed for 25 years. $ 400 for the set which included some bonus. I thought it was a good deal.

Sorry Prasad I have not been around lately. I would love to help with your next class though. What was the exact menu for your class on the 25th and how long did it last. What did you charge. I have always wanted to do a cooking class but never seem to get around to it. To figure out how to do it I tried to quizz my guests and that confused me even more. I wanted to do a menu and go into some of the techniques ( whatever best you can in a couple of hours) some people were OK with that but there were a majority of them who only wanted to learn certain dishes ' teach me how to make chicken tikka masalla or a vindaloo' and thats it. Until one patron showed me the light. She told me that 'you should do what you want to do, chalk-out what you want to present and those who like the sound of it will attend'. I even took a class with Julie Sahni at Sur la Table to kind of learn the ropes. Lets put together a menu here that we can prepare in 2-3 hours and get some feedback from the folks who lurk in these forums. When is your next cooking class?

MONGO!!

Wear loose fitting comfortable clothes as you will most likely have to sit on the floor for the duration of the ceremony. Grab a place next to a pillar or wall to lean against as sometimes the event can be painfully long. Make sure your socks don't have holes as you will have to take off your shoes. Simlpy watch what is happening around you, make a new friend who will guide you. Nothing to worry about, just go and have fun. I would be curious to learn of your impression of the wedding. Bhasin

Thank you Vikram for sharing a wonderful article. I hope you and Episure have a great meal, just think of me for a moment, salivating here on my keyboard, while you are gorging yourself. Episure, MAKE SURE you take that camera with you and capture for us not only the various foods but the crowds and the atmosphere there as well. bhasin

I read somewhere that when the british had leftover roast chicken they would 'curry it ' to change the taste to break the monotoney (sp?) of serving the same dish twice and add apples to it to ' bulk' it up so it would go around another time. Take butter in a pan, add chopped garlic, saute a minute, add flour and make a white roux, add curry powder, saute a minute, add peeled diced green apples and raisins, add chicken stock and cook till pples are al dente,add pieces of leftover chicken, warm through. That's it. Tried it once it wasn't too bad. I shall now try to remember the source and when I do shall post it here . Bhasin

On Diwali day we hindus are vegetarian, and so glad that beer and scotch are vegetarian. Bhasin

It's America and most people call us Americans. But you can call us what you like, we will still love you and tolerate your tantrums because you are knowlegeable and a fairly good writer. The only problem is that you know it too! Just kidding, BTW we get your point. Happy Diwali Bhasin

This is going to make you grind your teeth, Episure. I just made some beef 65 using your chicken 65 reciepe and this punjabi bhunooed it and bhunooed it AND bhunooed it. Man, was it good! Would you call it the difference between traditional and contemporary? or a stupid person who just won't listen? Anyway, Happy Diwali.

Here we go Sir, Off course a very authentic Gajjar Halwa you would need a LOT of milk add a little amount of grated carrots and boil it down to dry, add some desi ghee, bhunoo, add sugar, ground cardamon nuts raisins etc and bhunoo some more. Here is the version we use. either cut down the recipe or just divide it into portions and freeze for later or give as gifts to friends. Take one gallon of whole milk add 5lbs of grated or ground carrots boil and reduce to dry add one cup ( less if you like) of desi ghee or larified butter fry/cook or bhunoo for a while add sugar to taste and cook some more, the color will change take one 3lb tub of whole milk riccotta cheese in a microwaveable dish microwave 30 minutes, stirring at 10 minute intervals transfer to non stick pot, add tablespoon of oil or ghee and cook, stirring all the time, to reduce to khoya consistancy. add this khoya to the carrots alongwith ground cardamom and golden fried cashews and raisins. Mix well and cook a bit more. The halwa will rival some of the best you will get in Delhi. AND keep you warm & happy in Colorado or Delhi

I would refer to Dr Atkins New Carbohydrate Gram Counter and try and match or perhaps tweak Indian reciepes to my carb allowance. I think you can sucessfully practice low carb with meaty Indian cuisine, Vegetarians would have a tough time though and need to be very creative. As, as per most high protien low carb diets, you have to calculate your individual protien requirements and max carb levels, I do not think you can have a general ' one size fit all' approach. Bhasin

First, Thank you Vikram for a wonderful read. Question: How frequently do you write in the Indian Media? Do you have an idea of how large your readership is? Not the readership of your newpaper but people who are interested in YOUR articles.Do they write back to you with comments observations feedback etc. I am curious as your writings are well researched and kind of deep and serious stuff and not the superflous ' backwas' written to appeal to the kittyclub housewife. Now on the topic of my mother's cookbook. I do not remember her having any. But she does have a notebook ( with lots of loose papers in it) in which she has jotted down reciepes of dishes she liked. These were shared by friends whose perperations she enjoyed. I think every one in her group had their collection. One thing I do remember most all had a reciepe for a version of pound cake, mayonnaise and russian salad besides ( if you were punjabi) some south Indian dishes. Bhasin

I thought it was pepper water.

I think, as Monica suggested in the DC forum, we all need to visit you & check out your 'istyle' , it seems very interesting. I think a fall saturday afternoon would be good to enjoy all your wine paired 'hing & salt' creations. we'll bring a designated driver. Monica, are you listenting. Mel check out the images at the end of Indique thread on the DC forums. Bhasin

Mel, I was told this story maybe 15 years ago by this elderly couple so I presume they were talking way way back. Do you remember there being a big burly tall Sardar doorman greeting all guests. BTW I was scanning through this Veeraswamy cookbook ( it was real old) and the reciepes seemed kind of strange. I was searching for a mullgtwany soup reciepe but this guy had so many versions and would not mention the name of the dal he wanted me to use, just saying lentils, left me totally confused. Bhasin

contemporary as I understands it, means mordern or current. Threfore contemporary Indian cuisine to me would mean what people are doing in India in terms of perhaps using slightly different cooking techniques from the tradional that we have been familiar, eg. dispensing with the bhunoo technique as Episure in Bombay does but the results are still good, perhaps dispensing with certain ingredients in favor of newer ones eg. no more desi ghee and oil floating on top, or perhaps incorporation of new world veggies and other stuff like brocolli as pointed out by Vikram, or maybe fusion of with some other cuisines that has become so strong that it might be termed contemporary Indian. There also may be certain 'yesteryear' things that may be the rage today, last year everywhere I went in India, Fig Ice Cream was on all the menus. That is my perception. What may or may not be allowed. I don't think you have any choice. You simply pick up what is happening in India TODAYand present it to your patrons. If you make changes it will no longer be contemporary Indian but YOUR take on contemporary Indian. I also think that we might be mixing up contemporary and fusion a bit. Cheers all Bhasin

Hey!! Cut out this PM business, I ( and i'm sure a lot of others) would be interested too. Bhasin

Yesterday I bought a small pouch of Deep Foods' Dry Garlic Chutney. It is hot and garlicky and kind of dry and crumbly in texture. I would like to try this on my own. Anyone out there care to share a reciepe?

I'd love to try this out. But, even though I live in Old Town, I hate driving over that way. Is it worth it? I like Anette's, though I cannot call myself an expert on BBQ, sometimes the meat in the pulled pork sandwich iskind of too wet as someone mentioned earlier. But I like their sides, specially the buttery roast potatoes and the okra with tomato. I guess its all a matter of individual taste, I was telling Anette about a rib sandwich I enjoyed at Rocklands and she felt that the Flavors at Rocklands were too strong. But both are popular and have strong followings. Incidently Mike, you may not have to drive too far from Old Town. Rocklands were one of the food vendors at 'Art On the Avenue' on Mount Vernon Avenue and it is my understanding they may be setting up shop on Duke Street at Quaker Lane.