bong

Yes, I got my wife a tortilla press a few years back. Unfortunately, it does not work as well as she thought it would -- the dough sticks to the damn thing when you press it. Apparently, you are supposed to place a sheet of plastic in between the dough and the metal -- but even that doesn't seem to work.

Here in the "South Bay"/"Silicon Valley" part of San Francisco Bay Area, Pasand, in Santa Clara used to be the only South Indian restaurant for a long time. I never really liked the food there, although many people I know like it. Then came Komala Vilas, in Sunnyvale, almost next door to Pasand. Lalitha mentioned this one earlier in her post. Right in Komala Vilas's backyard there came up a branch of Udupi Palace, in Sunnyvale. They have another branch in Fremont, on the other side of the Bay. Udupi palace used to be very good when it first opened, about 2-3 years back. Sadly, they have gone downhill since then, but they are still OK. We also have Saravana Bhavan in Mountain View, and last, but not the least, Dasaprakash in Santa Clara. Of these, Dasaprakash is probably my favorite.

That's the claim, yes.I am surprised nobody here has used any of these gadgets.

When you are making tea _without_ spices, you should pay more attention to the quality of the tea. When you are making tea with lots of spices, especially, aromatic ones like cardamom and clove, you can afford to use lower quality tea, even tea bags (gasp!). In fact, like Vikram says, when making tea with spices ("masala chai"), you are probably better off using a lower quality tea. I like my (black tea) tea without any spices (with just milk and sugar), so I dont really like anything but Darjeeling... Speaking of Darjeeling tea, I recently discovered an online source for Makaibari tea in the USA ... check out http://www.silvertipstea.com/home.html . Its quite expensive, but I recently tried their Second Flush tea, and it was divine. Well worth it. Of course, if you are in Kolkata, you can go to any decent tea shop and buy similar quality tea for a much less price.

Do you guys have any experience using these "Roti Maker"s? So far, using Google, I have found a "Revel" brand Roti Maker and a "ChefMaster" branc Chappathi maker. Any experience using these or any others? Here's the Revel Roti Maker, Model #360: Here's the Chefmaster Chappathi Maker, Model CM01:

"Khasi"

Never been to Dhaka (other than on a brief stop-over), so can't help you here, sorry. Dont miss anything prepared with "Illish Maach" (Hilsa fish), there is a great rivalry among people in west bengal (where I am from) and people in Bangladesh about whose Illish tastes better... I will concede that on this point the Bangladeshis are right and Illish from Padma river in general tastes better.... Unfortunately, by the time you go, the Hilsa season would be over. Try to see if you can eat at someone's home -- chances are, it will be a far better experience than eating at a restaurant. And, of course, dont forget to post a report when you are back! Hope you have a great trip, both culinarily and otherwise.

Yup same thing happens in Bengal, although I havent heard the term "Neera" before. I always thought it was called "taler rosh" (literally, palm juice). And, easyguru is right, it had to be consumed early in the morning or else it would ferment and become "tadi". In Kolkata, when I was growing up, there would be street vendors going through the street in front of our house, early in the morning, shouting "taler rosh". Perhaps this taler rosh is where Tal Mishree is made from...

Pray tell more about this, I am very curious. And welcome to the forum....

From a recent San Francisco Chronicle: Purslane: To some a weed, to others a delicacy

From our pantry:

We used to call it "plastic" chutney, because it was paper thin and transparent!

"Tal" = "palm" as in palm tree "Mishree" = crystalized sugar, by default it means crystalized cane sugar "Tal Mishree" = crystalized sugar made from palm. As to how the sugar is made, I have no idea. V. Gautam will most certainly know. I actually have some of this stuff right now at home -- brought it back from my last visit to kolkata. When we were kids, we would be made to drink a cold syrup of this stuff (sugar slowly dissolved in cold water, left overnight). Supposed to be "good for your stomach". Sometimes "ishabgol" (which is like metamucil) would be added to this syrup. You can also use this stuff wherever you would use sugar -- it has a distinct taste.

Great minds think alike :> In fact this is the very thing I have tried, i.e. I mix Non-fat milk powder to my whole milk when I want to make thick and creamy yogurt. However, it does not seem to make any difference to the success rate of my mishti doi. Adding caramel seems to somehow affect the setting of the yogurt. I think I going to be spending the next few days trying to experiment with this again...

I do eat oysters, but have never had it grilled. Either raw or deep fried (with batter), but never grilled or "tandoori-grilled". Interesting recipe though, may be I should give it a shot.

Gautam, welcome back to the forum. We certainly missed you. I got myself two bottles full of nolen gur from Kolkata from my last trip. Unfortunately, its almost finished now:> I had it for breakfast yesterday with some blueberry pancakes... I have tried making mishti doi the "traditional way" at home. I heat some milk till its almost boiling, then cool it down to lukewarm. In the meanwhile, I prepare some cramel, then slowly mix the caramel to the warm milk. When the milk cools to lukewarm (110 degree fahrenheit), I add some starter culture of yogurt and leave the whole thing to set in my oven (with the pilot light turned on). About 50% of the time I get a pretty good mishti doi, but the other times, the yogurt doesn't set. Any ideas on how to make this more easy to do? When I set normal yogurt (no caramel added), I get 100% success rate. Edit: typos

Cafe Silan, a kurdish restaurant used to be good. I say "used to be", because I haven't visited it in the last year or so, so I dont know if it has gone downhill since. Some one else in this thread posted a link to my review of Restaurant Marche. I am hesitant to recommend it, because in the one visit that I had there recently, the experience was mixed.

You get lump charcoal in India. You get a kind of hand-made charcoal briquettes as well (wet coal powder, form lumps with hand, dry them). Never seen anything pre-laced with kerosene.

I have tried this, with some amount of success. The trick is to get your oven to go at the hottest setting. Preheat oven for one hour, use the broiler if you have to, etc. etc. Your kitchen will be full of smoke by the time you are done with the chicjen, but the result will be pretty good. Depending on the size of the chicken, it takes me about 20-40 mins for the chicken to cook. Obviously, I get a better result if I use my charcoal grill (with lump charcoal).

I am now completely confused. Amla is "Aamloki" is Bengali, which I *thought* was the same thing as Phyllantus Acidus: http://www.tropilab.com/phyllantus-acidus.html Isn't Nellikai the same thing? Isn't gooseberry the same thing?

eGullet's very own Shneier has a Restaurant Guide for San Jose, a really excellent piece of work. Here are some of my own random suggestions, DEFINITELY not a complete list: Money no object: Manresa Retaurant, Los Gatos. For really "upscale" dining experience in the South Bay area, this is your only choice I think. Expensive: * Bradly Ogden's Parcel 104 in Santa Clara. This is inside the Marriott Hotel. Can sometimes be really good, though a bit expensive for its worth. * Turmerik, Sunnyvale. Indian * Amber India, Mountain View Moderate: * DishDash , Sunnyvale. "Mediterranean Cuisine". * Mayflower, Milpitas. Chinese. Dimsums are pretty good. * Dasaprakash, Santa Clara. Under-appreciated, but really good South Indian food. Try the "Masala Dosa" (as mongo_jones says, Crepes are nothing but "French Dosas" :>), or the South Indian Thali. Cheap Cheap Cheap: * Vietnamese Sandwiches ("Banh Mi" ) at Lee's Sandwiches, 2-3 branches in San Jose * Chez Sovan, two branches, Cambodian * Shahnawaz, Milpitas -- Try the goat meat biriyani if available. Or other tandoori meats. * Plenty of strip malls with Vietnamese restaurants. Some of them are real good. * Take out kebabs from Rose Market, Mountain View. * Taqueria Los Charros, Mountain View. Tacos pretty good. So are the Quesadillas. * Dont forget the In-n-Out Burgers. Multiple locations.

From San Francisco Chronicle, Masa's Siegel will be putting on the Ritz "...Siegel will take over the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco on July 6. His last day at Masa's is June 30...."

If I might venture a guess, this may have to do with the difference in the variety of eggplants that you two are using? Perhaps one variety is high in moisture and the other is not? I haven't tried the recipe yet, but that won't stop me from venturing an opinion...

The only time I have been there was many years back, before it was "reopened" a few years back. At that time, the meal was quite unmemorable -- the only thing I remember about that meal was everything was way, way too salty. I haven't been back after the management change ... would be glad to hear about the restaurant from others.

RECIPE, PLEASE?