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Sounds delicious, except I dont think I have ever tried them. I know you mentioned "proportions as per taste and mood", but could you at lease provide the rough proportions for me please? especially the proportion of sabudana, peanuts and mashed potato? Since I have never had them before, I dont even know what the final result would look like? Please?

I am certainly no expert, but biriyani is quite different from pulao: * a "pulao" is made by first lightly frying the rice in ghee so that each individual rice kernel is coated, and then steaming the rice with other ingredients, usually things like nuts or raisins. It can have a slightly sweet taste, not very spicy at all. * A "biriyani", on the other hand, does not involve frying the rice first. Also crucial to the biriyani is the fact that meat and rice are "layered" on top of each other. A biriyani is usually made with meat, typically goat meat, although there are so called "vegetable" biriyanis as well. Also, in Hyderabad in India, the biriyani is made by cooking the whole thing (meat and rice) in a tightly sealed pan, sealed with dough -- its a form of the so called "dum" method. A biriyani is also usually quite spicy. In some ways, fried-rice is more similar to pulao than biriyani is to pulao. I am sure the experts in this forum would probably be much better than me in pointing out the differences.

Juanito, Thanks for your reply. What about the following places, do you think they are child friendly (for lunch)? : The Brown Pelican Cafe Del Sol Aja Restaurant Are they any good?

Don't know about "curry", but we Bengalis make a sour dal with green mango slices in the dal. Its called "tok dal" ("tok" pronounced as "tawk", literally means sour :>)

Looking at this thread and the thread here and here, looks like here are the recommendations for Santa Barbara: La Super Rica Taqueria Via Vai Sage & Onion Olio e Limone Downey's Wine Cask Bouchon Citronelle We will be in Santa Barbara visiting for a few days, and we will have a one-year old baby with us. Which of these restaurants are child-friendly? (the kid is not going to eat, but the kid will have to be tolerated by other patrons, so a real noisy place is somewhat child-friendly. An upscale place is a no-no). It seems to me the last four in the list are probably not child-friendly at all, is that correct? Any other suggestions for a place with good food and lots of noise so we can take our "talkative" kid there? Thanks!

Rummate has said everything. Making kashundi at home is very rare these days, everyone seems to buy theirs. So do I, when I visit Kolkata. It may sound like Dijon Mustard, but tastes a bit different, probably because of the sour mangoes and the chiles. In addition to an accompaniment for "chops" and "cutlets" (these are _not_ what you think. These are bengali terms for batter fried meat or veggies etc), kashundi also goes well with shak bhaja (stir fried greens) -- see the thread on Shak/Shaak/saag.

Thank you all for the suggestions, keep them coming!

Yes, if you translate literally, "Kalo" = "black" and "Jeere"="cumin". But, strangely, Kalojeere is not black cumin, but is Kalonji aka Nigella Seeds (also called Onion Seeds). Use of black cumin is not prevalent in traditional Bengali cooking... http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...=0entry527832

This is similar to the "Aloo-Sheddho" which is a classic Bengali comfort food, at least it is, for me. Boil potato Peel potato Mash potato Mix generous amount of *good* quality mustard oil Salt to taste Chopped onions (red onion variety please) Chopped green chile Mix by hand. Form into small balls. Have with watery dal and rice. To be eaten with your hands. This is not a dish which is designed to be eaten using fork and spoon.

Wow, that's expensive. Have you tried buying bell peppers from the farmers' market? Or even from an "Asian" grocery store?

We make a simple "Kalo-Jeere Aloor Torkari" (Potatoes with Nigella Seeds) to be had with loochis (which is the Bengali version of pooris and made from AP flour, not atta) or porothas. Heat oil or ghee or a mixture of both Add a very little bit of Kalo-jeere (aka Kalonji, Nigella seeds) Add some diced potatoes. Add salt to taste. Stir around for a while. Add some slit green chiles. Set heat to low, cover and cook for 5-6 minutes until potatoes are done. That's it. No other spices, etc. Made right, this is very very good.

The jackfruit you eat raw is a ripe jackfruit. The jackfruit you make a layered rice dish with is the green jackfruit. Which is actually more like a vegetable than like a fruit. You can make biriyani (is this what you are refering to when you say "layered" rice dish?) with the green jackfruit -- I think Suvir had earlier posted a recipe in this forum, but I am not sure -- you can probably search for it. Regarding the original topic about indian cooking with fruits -- Bengalis make chutneys with various fruits. Unlike in other parts of india, this chutney is a made from cooking dwon fruits, or some times using cooked down dried fruits, and this chutney is eaten as a separate course on its own, not as an accompaniment.

Tell me about it. This is the same con my mom used to try to pull when we were kids...to try to get us to eat more veggies I didnt, at that time, but now I actually do like green jackfruit! (called "enchor" in Bengali).

Thanks to all who've replied. When I said cheap, I meant cheap I don't think Greens and Ana Mandara fall into the cheap category... but thanks anyway. They are both good, though.

I second the recommendations for Bistro Jeanty and Bistro Don Giovanni. Both are excellent for lunch as well.

Need a recommendation for a good cheap lunch place near Fort Mason... Any ideas? Bonus points if place is kid-friendly.

I Kolkata/Calcutta, you typically find two types of "shon papri" (that's how the Bengalis pronounce it). There's the one kind which is kinda hard and has a sticky feel to it. There's the other kind which is extremely flaky and fragile. Not sticky at all, but made up of "fiber" like things. These "fibers" melt in your mouth as soon as you put them in. This latter type is my favorite. Unfortunately, how a son-papdi is made is a complete mystery to me.

Sorry to reply so late. Somehow missed this thread. I picked this book up in my last visit to Kolkata. Quite a nice book actually, reading it brought back tons of memories, and lots of saliva :>

mongo_jones is right, the two most well-known broad categories are "ghoti" (west bengal/calcutta) and "bangal" (bangladesh/east bengal/dhaka). Then there is also the Bengali Hindu and Bengali Muslim cuisines. "Rezala" (both Chicken and Mutton) is one of the more well-known dishes of Bengali Muslim cuisine. Inside of Bengali Hindu cuisine, there is also the "Baishnab" (followers of Vishnu) cuisine, which is generrally speaking vegetarian. The Bengali Hindu widows tradtionally have another category of cuisine -- vegetarian, no onion, no garlic etc. You can categorise it by subregions as well, like always. And as usual, there never is a hard line of demarcation between these various cuisines.

City-dwelling middle class Bengalis are not likely to eat snails. It's mostly prevalent in the Rural areas. For instance, my brother-in-law's sister's (!) family (from Midnapore) -- they eat snails. I have no idea if this habit is more prevalent in certain specific areas of Bengal or not. You'd be surprised ...

People in Bengal (Bangladesh & Eastern part of India) also eat snails. (snails are called "geri" (with a nasal "g" ) or "shaamook" in Bengali). I won't be surprised at all if folks from other parts of India also do the same.

OK, I finally got this book. Haven't read the book completely yet, but won't stop me from offering an opinion about the book. I agree that the book does "paint" a picture of the whole context of Bengali food. But I was unimpressed by the book as far as the recipes go. It is not a cookbook at all in my opinion. It is more of a "Introduction to Bengali Culture with Emphasis on Food" sort of a book. I still think as far as just cooking goes, the "Bangla Ranna: The Bengal Cookbook" is a better cookbook. The recipes are more clear, the directions are more precise. Edit: Correct name of the book helps. For Mongo: see the first post in this topic.

I hope so. A few years back, (before Siegel's time), my wife and myself had a dinner at Masa's. We had the chef's tasting menu. The food was pretty lack-lustre. To top it all, when we left both of us were still hungry. Normally I don't notice these things, but the decor at that place was pretty sad too. Stuffy, dark and really depressing. I hope things have improved since then.

I wish everyone was as lucky to get fresh fish as you are. Like BBhasin has pointed out before, at most places you can buy seafood here in the USA, fish labeled "fresh" is actually frozen and then thawed. So you are better off buying frozen anyway, unless you plan to cook the fish within a short time. There are exceptions to this rule of course. If you live near the coast, then you will have access to some fresh fish. You certainly won't have access to fresh Indian fish. As I understand, Prawns and Shellfish are notorious for their perishabilty, so if you live just a few hours away from the coast, you are better off buying frozen shell fish. Some chinese grocery stores here in California have these huge tanks full of water, and you can buy fish from there. Usually the choice is very limited though. For instance I only see Tilapia, sometimes catfish. And sometimes I do buy these. The only thing I always buy live is Blue Crabs. When I get them. From chinese stores. The other thing about frozen Indian fish that you get here -- often times I find that the fish (for instance Hilsa) quality is very good. Often times it is better than your average Hilsa that you will find in a Kolkata market!

Edward, my wife makes Palong Shaak with potatoes in the way which is very very similar to yours. Not sure if you can call it a "ghanto" though...