parsi/parsee

[balmagowry]

This stuff (roughly "food history") is like, well, like laddoos to a small hungry child to me.

...

But I wonder if any of the remarkably avid food/culture people here are familiar with the small but heated flap that is raging since photos of this twelfth-century temple carving were unveiled?

...

The question is - is that maize in the carving's hand? If it is, obviously we need to completely rethink our accounts of global dispersals of various New World/Old World foods. We're not there yet, and the evidence points to this not being maize, but the questions raised haven't been answered satisfactorily yet.

Wow - I didn't know about it, and I feel as you do about "this stuff." Thank you for posting it!

Hmmmmm.... It sure looks like maize. Though perhaps to the modern eye it would be more convincing if it were accompanied by the characteristic husk and silk. Then again, that's probably just the modern sensibility talking; in a formal setting like that it probably does make more sense to have it all clean and perfect.

How utterly enthralling.

[mongo_jones]

mongo - i'm confused as to why you are taking umbrage i guess, to this particular restaurants spelling?

tryska, again if you go back and read all my posts in this thread you'll see that i say quite explicitly that i am not offended by this restaurant's spelling of this name but was intrigued by what it might or might not signify. that question has been answered for me at this point and my curiosity is satisfied.

i'm re-reading "midnight's children" right now and i noticed rushdie spelled it "parsee" as well. he also spelled shivaji "sivaji"; if these things are related it seems like the spelling, in addition to everything else, is located in a particular time (rushdie left bombay in the early 60s).

a curious aspect of the "parsee/parsi" thing in general is that a number of people who spell it parsi nonetheless spell their own names as "bhagwanjee" etc. in bengal anglicization took the forms of bandhopadhyays and mukhopadhyays and chattopadhyays becoming banerjees, mukherjees and chatterjees (though the fourth high family the gangopadhyays became gangulys); i'm not sure when the spelling changed for some to banerji and mukherji (never seen a chatterji) or if it did consistently or in connection to some nationalist narrative. the hyper-anglicised banerjees and mukherjees of course turned in bonerjees and mukherjeas. regardless of how they spelled it, however, most of them were usually equally fanatical about traditional bengali cuisine. it is always interesting to think about which aspects of oneself is opened up to "westernization" and which kept "traditional". of course this too is a dynamic affair.

[Vikram]

Vikram,

1) I've a relative coming out here from Bombay a couple of weeks from now. Where can I get her to pick up both of these Dalal cookbooks? She lives in "thee suburbs", is the best bet to call Danai or Lotus and order them?

Also, since cookbooks have been raised, are there any other must-have food books that you can recommend from the Bombay bookshops right now? I have a bunch of the Penguins (including the Parsi one) and several others, but if you could rustle up a top-5/top-10 I'd be most grateful.

2) I'm also a fan of Kipling, and particularly the near-peerless 'Kim'. Actually, I'm very interested in all the accounts of the 'Great Game' (which includes that book). I wonder if you have read Hopkirk's 'Quest for Kim'. The author - whose several fine books on the 'Great Game' are also recommended - does a wonderful job of tracking the real-life events (and characters) that went into Kipling's books. If you haven't, I highly recommend it.

Lotus is in general the (much) better bookshop, but Danai probably has a better collection of cookbooks. Not very sure what I could recommend though. Indian publishers are churning out cookbooks by the kitchenload (Tarla Dalal is almost scary in her industrial approach to cookbook writing, closely followed by Nota Mehta and Sanjeev Kapoor), but frankly very few of these are interesting. They're mostly just collections of recipes (often the same recipes!) with no attempt at talking about their antecedents or the ingredients involved or anything like that.

In fact I'd go out on a limb and say that serious insightful writing on Indian food pretty much begins and ends with Chitrita Banerji (and this forum, of course!) although recent efforts like the Outlook essays and a few academic writers like Arjun Appadurai are very welcome. Banerji's "Life and Food In Bengal" seems to be out of print which is really sad, but her more recent collection of short essays The Hour of the Goddess is available - I saw a bunch as Strand just yesterday.

Madhur Jaffrey, of course, also writes well on food as part of her cookbooks and her recent one on the food of the diaspora is must reading. You'll be able to get it abroad and its rather heavy, so perhaps you should spare your relative this one. Monisha Bharadway's The Indian Pantry is excellent, the one book that really looks at Indian ingredients, and very well worth having.

Then there are the classics - Jiggs Kalra's Prashad, Camelia Punjabi's curry book, Madhur Jaffrey's Taste of India and her first one, forget the name, which is more Delhi focused. You say you have the Penguin books - I'd certainly put some of these like Bilqis Latif's book on Andhra and Hyderabadi cooking in that, Bhicoo Maneckshaw's Parsi book, Patricia Brown's Anglo Indian book and for sheer curiosity Hoihnu Henzel's book on the cooking of the north-east. There are two good Raj books - Jennifer Brennan's Curries & Bugles and, forget author's name, The Raj At Table. (But why isn't anyone reprinting Colonel Kenney-Herbert's Culinary Jottings from Madras?)

Regional cooking books are usually worth picking up especially the old ones like Samaithu Par (Tamil) and Rasachandrika (Saraswat). On this forum in the past I've mentioned Mrs.Mathew's Flavours of the Spice Coast (Malayali, particularly Christian), Ummi Abdullah's (Malayali Muslim), Katy Dalal's (Parsi), a book on East Indian food from the local East Indian women's association. A very engaging little book I picked up recently is Vimla and Deb Mukerji's book on Indian street foods. If you're interested in it, the best book by far to talk about Indian food from a health and nutrition angle is Ruth Davidar's Indian Food Sense.

These are what occur to me off-hand, will post more if I think of them. If your relative gets in touch with me, I can help her get the books. I live in the suburbs (Bandra) too, just PM and I'll send you my number,

Vikram

[Vikram]

I wonder if you have read Hopkirk's 'Quest for Kim'.

Sorry, forgot to answer this. Yes, I've read it and was rather disappointed. I'm a big fan of Hopkirk's - his central Asian books are real page turners particularly The Great Game and Foreign Devils On The Silk Road, but I was really hoping for a lot from the Kim book, and perhaps that's why I felt he didn't quite deliver.

[bague25]

Vikram

Where can one find the East Indian cookbook? I've been hunting for years and have not found it (not found the EI women's Association either).

PS: just to bribe you I'll send you as many vanilla beans as you wish if I can lay my hands on this book

[Vikram]

Where can one find the East Indian cookbook? I've been hunting for years and have not found it (not found the EI women's Association either).

The mother of one of my colleagues was part of the team that put the book together and she had a whole bunch of copies at home and I begged one off her. PM me your address and I'll try and get another copy and mail it to you,

Vikram

[bhelpuri]

Thank you, Vikram.

I didn't know that Penguin had a book on Hyderabadi food, and several of the other books you mention are also new to me. I'll see what can be gathered up, and check back with you if there are any problems.

[mongo_jones]

Thank you, Vikram.

I didn't know that Penguin had a book on Hyderabadi food, and several of the other books you mention are also new to me. I'll see what can be gathered up, and check back with you if there are any problems.

bhelpuri,

based on the ones i've read i'd strongly recommend the penguin series. i think skchai would concur.

mongo

[bhelpuri]

i'd strongly recommend the penguin series

Oh, I'm already sold.

Love the Parsi one, have several times re-read (but not cooked from) the Anglo-Indian one, and have approved of (but given away, twice) the Goan one. Passed on the N-E volume, but am rethinking.

The Hyderabad one is atop the list for my indulgent (but unsuspecting) NY-bound relative.