skchai

This post is getting pretty fun. Thanks to everyone for the colorful suvey of the guk/tang world! My favorites: Seolleongtang (current official romanization, I believe) - like jschyun said, it's great on a cold day. And because it's so bland, it's good for breakfast when (at least for me), something hotter would make me queasy. It's basically a white-boiled bone beef broth with a few slices of yangji-meori (round steak?), along with usually a few bean thread noodles and green onions. It's always served unsalted, and you add some rock salt at the the table to your liking. That's it. Gomtang - another white-boiled beef broth, but this time with yang (tripe) thrown in, a little cheongjang (light soy sauce), and no noodles. Another bland dish, good for breakfast. Ugeojitang - this is made with dried-up radish stems (ugeoji) which have a nice chewy texture even when cooked. Although in Seoul you get a little unsettled watching people drying it out on the side of narrow roads where cars are constantly farting exhaust on them. But you put that out of your mind when you enter a restaurant. Again, a nice and simple soup. In Hawaii, it's hard to get good ugeojitang, presumably because the "authentic" drying technique is not really available. So you end of getting some kind of modified kimchi-guk with a few ugeoji thrown in. Boshintang / Sacheoltang / Mongmongtang, i.e. Dog Soup. O.K., I've never tried it, but it's I guess it has attained talismanic status in the guk/ tang category. As is often the case, this occured in part as a result of the efforts by PETA, Brigitte Bardot and others to have it banned. Being challenged in such a way, it now becomes an essential part of what it means to be true Korean (male). I think I posted briefly on another thread: it is not clear what is the difference between kuk and tang nomenclaturally. O.K. kuk is usually thin and tang usually thick, but there's all kinds of exceptions. Got to wake the kids and go to work so I'll edit this later . . .

My speculation on this having the "oil start separating" is not really an end in and of itself but a rule of thumb for knowing when the gravy has been sufficiently reduced to serve. Most Northern Indian meat dishes are cooked in a fairly large amount of liquid, and (fortunately) do not use flour thickeners. Hence any body to the gravy has to be provided by vegetable / nut / yogurts, but also by reduction which not only thickens but intensifies the flavor. When oil is incorporated into a relatively large amount of liquid, it tends to remain in suspension, but when the amount reduces the oil globules are more likely to consolidate. Hence, consolidation can be seen as a sign that most of the water content has evaporated and the sauce is ready to serve. It is presumably for this reason that we are told to wait until separation, not because we are thought to enjoy pools of oil on top of our food. Indeed, the separation also provides an opportunity to skim off the roghan and save it for another purpose. Of course, I could have no idea about what I'm talking about.

BTW, here is a link to the English version of the article. And to the original french version. Both out of AFP.

What's wrong with Spam?! Them's fightin' words.

Wenzhou is known as one of the four classic cuisines of Zhejiang Province. The others are Hangzhou, Shaoxing, and Ningbo. Hangzhou is the most famous. On the web, I did manage to find this short snippet: Beyond that, I know almost nothing. Anyone here able to clarify?

Thanks to all of you for your time and information! Getting back to Suvir's comment about Dum Pukht in North India - for this they traditionally do pile coals on top of the pot, which in turn is sitting on more coals. Wonder therefore whether this is an indigenous invention (plausible) or another Arab / Persian adaptation (equally plausible). Suvir, do you know of the etymology for Dum Pukht (I know you are above punning)?

Aah, that reminds me of another U.K. celebrity chef. Camilla Panjabi, founder of Bombay Brasserie.

Thanks, Howler and Vikram, for this wonderful thread. Hope this doesn't spook anyone out, but it makes me feel as if Busybee is alive and well. . . .

That would perhaps be "clouds ear" or white tree ear fungi. I think.

Paula Wolfert occasionally posts to Egullet. Perhaps (if she sees this) she would be kind enough to quench our great thirst for knowledge.

In India, there are a lot. Roughly this order of prominence: Tarla Dalal She is by far the best-selling cookbook author of all time for Indian food, though she is nearly unknown in the U.S. and Europe. All of her cookbooks are vegetarian. She has a special expertise in Gujarati dishes, but can cook from all the different regions. Perhaps the main reason for her lack of prominence outside of India is that she writes practical recipe books, devoid of cultural context, presumably for those who are familiar with all that context already. She is not a particularly stylish writer, but she does provide a very wide range of ideas for cooking. Sanjeev Kapoor India's first TV celebrity chef. His Khana Khazana was considered a breakthrough show in bringing cooking shows into the entertainment mainstream. A quite competent cook, and I guess good looking, but he doesn't seem to be all that charismatic otherwise. Even copies Sam Choy's "OK" sign. Does mostly North Indian stuff. J. Inder Singh "Jiggs" Kalra Kalra is less a chef than a food entrepreneur, one who, perhaps more than anyone, has been responsible for the boom in self-consciously creative cuisine in India. He is the advisor to numerous high-end restaurants, a prolific magazine columnist, frequent TV guest, and the author of two best-selling books. The first was Prashad: Cooking with Indian Masters (Allied, 1986), which was way ahead of its time in promoting Indian Chefs as artistes and heroes. The second is (with longtime collaborator Pushpent Pant) is Daawat (Allied, 2001), based upon his popular TV series, also a collaboration with Pant. Kalra's lack of celebrity in the West is somewhat of a puzzle. Unlike the other two, he really flourishes as a promoter of Indian cuisine in the context of Indian culture. He is also a very colorful writer with a fondness for cricket metaphors and incongruous sexual references (not that those two are mutually exclusive). Perhaps he's not really interested in being successful in the U.S. or U.K., since he does quite well throughout not only India but also much of the rest of Asia. He and Pant triggered quite a scandal when they turned their annual Awadh Food Festival into a celebration of Indian food as an aphrodisiac. You can find various writings of his on the web, most notably his monthly columns in Singapore's New Asia Cuisine and Wine Scene magazine. I'm sure our community members from India can add others to this list. Madhur Jaffrey would definitely qualify as a celebrity chef in Britain on the impetus of her television shows, and comes pretty close to it in the U.S. as well. Who is a celebrity chef in the U.S.? Suvir Saran!

Nothing wrong with that. Maybe you should give in to the fusion force and pour in some nice Ligurian olive oil and serve it on top of trenette. You could call it Sambal Ikan Rossetti Pongi. . .

Pongi, Still not sure. . . Ikan Bilis are eaten in much of Java as well, where they are called Ikan Teri. They can be eaten fresh as well as dried, though dried is more common, presumably due to keeping qualities. Have looked around for a recipe that explicitly uses fresh Ikan Bilis / Teri but haven't been able to find one. If you have fresh Rossetti, it seems a waste to dry it out just to simulate the original dish. However, given that the preparation is fairly simple you could presumably adapt the one for dried Ikan Bilis to fit fresh fish. Just tone down the chili, garlic, and shallot so they don't overpower the flavor, adding the tomato and and moderate amount of ginger. Also, it seems to make sense to cook the onions before adding the fish to the fish doesn't get overcooked or smashed up by the stirring. "Bombay Onion" is just the common bulb onion. In Java, candlenuts (kemiri) might be added to the pounded ingredients. You could substitute macadamia nuts or even hazelnuts if you'd like. Belacan is another matter. It is tiny shrimp, salted and dried, then pulverized, and is called Terasi on Java. It can stink, and is usually stir-fried before being incorporated into a dish. Only thing I can think of remotely similar might be salted anchovies, but the taste would be very different nonetheless. Sri Owen claims terasi smells like Marmite! Anyway, don't feel bad about not including it!

From the way it's prepared, tanjia seems more like a relative of tagine (a casserole - named after its cooking vessel) than of tannur / tandoor. Wolfert doesn't say specifically if there's a relationship between the two (p. 240), but elsewhere she mentiones a fish dish called tagra that is a version of fish tagine (p. 176). The Arabic tannur and Hindi / Urdu tandoor are definitely cognate terms, along with the Turkish / Central Asian tandir. Not sure who originated it, though American Heritage Dictionary claims it originates from the Akkadian tinuru, oven. Presumably Oxford Unabridged would have a more detailed etymology. Seems like there are quite a few arguments about who was the true inventor of the tandoor, though perhaps not quite as raucous as arguments about who invented the pilaf / pilau / pulao.

Thanks for the Article Link. Here's the website for the Yokohama Curry Museum. And for good measure, the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum site. And for Yokohama Chinatown. Hope you appreciate living there, Kristin!

I believe she posted here a while ago. In fact, I believe "ALL OF THEM? " have posted here.

The wonders of online communities - I live in a timezone (HNL) where the show won't air for another couple hours. Checked into egullet and now am saved from even the most primitive temptation to tune in tonight. That doesn't mean I'm not hooked. A couple questions: (1) How did they (in the show) rationalize having enough money to comp the employees a trip to the Hamptons when supposedly they didn't even have the money to give them their regular paychecks? (2) I thought today's episode was supposed to feature more BOH (one reason to tune in), but from the synopses so far it doesn't seem so. Were the chefs even in this episode? (3) Is the second season on NBC actually supposed to be about Rocco the RESTAURANT? Or about ROCCO himself, e.g. walking across hot lava in Krakatoa or making out with a dozen eligible bachelorettes?

While wandering aimlessly for another thread I came across a pretty detailed history of Japanese Curry from the House Foods site. Here it is Sorry don't have time to translate. . .

Just catching onto this interesting topic after returning from out of town. As a number have mentioned, there are very few cookbooks out there specifically on diaspora cooking. However, often you can find substantial sections on diaspora cookery in cookbooks or websites about the regions in which the diaspora have settled. Here's a short list including some "typical" Indian-influenced dishes from each region. Some are not so much associated with the diaspora cooking as with native adaptations of Indian dishes. However, it is often difficult to distinguish, since the same cuisine often serves dual purpose. Anyway. . . Britain: Tikka Masala, Balti Cooking E.P. Veerasawmy, Indian Cookery. UK: Arco Publishers, 1955 [1936]. Pat Chapman's Balti Bible. UK: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Sabiha Khokhar, A Taste of Baltistan (sic - should be "Taste of Birmingham"). UK: Merehurst, 1995. Japan: Kare Rice, Katsu Kare, Kare Udon Uh, not aware of any in English, even though curry is considered one of Japan and Korea's most popular fast foods. You can find packets of curry "roux" on sale in any East Asian market; very few people prepare from scratch or even from curry powder. BON, if you are reading this, are you aware of any English-language cookbook with recipes for Japanese curry? Anyway, you might want to check out the site for Yokohama Curry Museum And the big curry roux manufacturer House Foods Anglo-Indian: Mulligatawny, Country Captain (many of these were popularized in Britain and the American Southeast) Patricia Brown, Anglo-Indian Food and Customs. India: Penguin, 1998. Minakshie Das Gupta et al., The Calcutta Cookbook. India: Penguin, 1995. Singapore/Malaysia: Fish Head Curry, Roti Canai, Murtabak Devagi Sanmugam, Born to Eat. Singapore: Golden Key Publishers, 1997. Carol Selva Rajah, Makan Lah!. Australia: Harper Collins, 1996. Cyber Kuali Thailand: Gaeng Kari, Gaeng Masaman Any reasonably comprehensive Thai cookbook should have these recipes. West Indies: Curried Kid (Jamaica), Dhalpuri Roti (Trinidad), Phulouri Balls (Trinidad) Pamela Lalbachan, The Complete Caribbean Cookbook. U.K.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1994. Roti Shops of the World(!) Fiji: Lovo Pork in Roti, Dhal Soup Sam Choy's Polynesian Kitchen. U.S: Hyperion, 2002. Friends of Fiji Cookbook. In addition, here is a small but useful site on the Indian Diaspora by Vinay Lal of UCLA. Actually was just in Atlanta - Haveli's was right next to my hotel - but wasn't able to try it. Tryska - could you give us a rundown on Atlanta Indian food on a new topic when you have time?

Mudbug, sorry to take so long to respond. I've been out of town and just got back - wasn't checking my email. You're right, I messed up the species name - it's Convolvulus Mauritanicus, not "Maruticum". Aka Convolvulus Sabatius ssp. Mauritanicus Not sure how I came up with that - probably scribbled it off the tag. Anyway, I guess it must originate in Mauritania?

Thanks a lot! That's a lot of "ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ"s! Regarding the kids, seriously, it might just work. They would probably be pretty motivated to pinch the leaves off so that they can get to the "good" part - i.e. the "toy" stem. The reason for my strange interest in the Ipomoea / Convolvulus distinction is that I once had a traumatic experience with planting ornamental Ground Morning Glory (Convoluvus Maruticum). The rabbits (we lived in Tucson then) kept eating it down to the nub. I thought that convolvulus was supposed to be the inedible genus in the family! Seriously, I considered eating it myself since it seemed much more easily chewable than ong choi.

Thanks (twice) again Bhasin! (1) For the correction regarding the marinade. . . I just can't seem to get the story right! It may also give a hint into why Moti Mahal's original version of butter chicken is so prized - cream and concentrated (spiced) chicken essence sounds like an almost sinfully delicious base for a gravy! Perhaps one of these days I'll have a chance to visit Delhi and dine there myself. . . (2) For the Daryaganj advice on the search string. Helped me to luck into to the mouthshut.com site, which seems to be a huge resource for user-supplied restaurant reviews. Wish they carried some pictures, though. . .

Somehow the links in my prev post are not being rendered properly. Perhaps it is because Invision PB seems to be choking on them for some reason I'm not sure. Maybe it doesn't like asp links? You may have to cut and paste.

Some links to busybee reviews. Is this the Thackers Club you are talking about? It is on First Marine Street, according to the review: Thackers:The best of Surti Gujarati food - in Class I comfort. Here is the link to busybee's take on Purohit's: Purohit's : Blessed are Purohit's thalis While I'm at it (don't I have a lot of time on my hands!) here's his review of Panchavati Gaurav: Panchavati Gaurav: The khatti-meethi Gujarati-Marwari thali restaurant Finally fixed the links so they work; I guess you can't put a return immediately after the closing bracket of the "url" start tag?

Yes please. Thanks! Also, would it be too inquisitive to ask whether your father has/had some connection to Moti Mahal, e.g. via the mysterious bawarchi? Please ignore this part of the query if you don't wish to answer!