Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Indian Food Fair (Photos!)


Jason Perlow

Recommended Posts

JHlurie and I went to check out the Indian Food Fair at the Sadhu Vaswani Indian Cultural Center in Closter today. Terrific food all around.

Sadhu Vaswani Center

494 Durie Avenue

Closter, New Jersey

201-768-7857

gallery_2_0_5039.jpg

gallery_2_0_27086.jpg

Some Indo-Chinese food to start off

gallery_2_0_56080.jpg

Chowpatty Chaat

gallery_2_0_51227.jpg

The Dhosa Man

gallery_2_0_32072.jpg

Dhosa Filling

gallery_2_0_50658.jpg

Dhosa

gallery_2_0_15334.jpg

Vedai

gallery_2_0_29422.jpg

Vedai with soup and coconut chutney

gallery_2_0_12758.jpg

gallery_2_0_6022.jpg

Samosas

gallery_2_0_20925.jpg

The Hindu God Ganesh bringing good luck

gallery_2_0_30341.jpg

gallery_2_0_18972.jpg

gallery_2_0_70730.jpg

Pickles for sale

gallery_2_0_59016.jpg

gallery_2_0_3284.jpg

Kulfi Dessert -- Indian ice cream with rosewater and glass noodles and crushed ice

gallery_2_0_51106.jpg

gallery_2_0_7405.jpg

gallery_2_0_16568.jpg

gallery_2_0_40109.jpg

Falafel, Indian Style

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for sharing the pictures - NJ has such a thriving Indian community - there are few other places in this country that you can get authentic Indian "street foods" in one place like that you've shown above.

By the way, this is one of my favorite snacks:

gallery_2_0_16568.jpg

Its called Pani Puri - Pani means water - in this case, a seasoned water, and puri is the puff pastry shown. You fill it up with boiled potatoes, chick peas, and "chaat masala" which is a seasoning, then fill up the liquid (pani) into each puri and eat very carefully and quickly.

Thanks again

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really enjoyed all the photos, Jason. Just one comment on the masala dosa: At the places I've gotten them in New York and New Jersey, they described the sauces as vegetable sambhar and coconut sambhar, so what you're calling soup is what they were calling vegetable sambhar. I'm not sure if there's a traditional way of eating the dosa with the sambhar, but I tend to put the coconut sambhar on semi-evenly first and then dump the vegetable sambhar on the dosa. Sometimes, a generous soul has offered to give me additional sambhar.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Dhosa guy referrred to it as soup though, and it came with a spoon, and I ate it as soup, however. The coconut stuff was more of a dip.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

Link to comment
Share on other sites

coconut stuff jason is the coconut chutney

yes used as a dip with a lot of south indian entrees (dosa, vada, idli...)

the soup can also be used as a *dunk* for the vada/idli/dosa or had as a soup.

btw, nice pics... I am tempted to have some food now and its midnight CST!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like these smaller "food/culture" festivals - I wish I had known about it I'd have been there... (I LOVE :wub: INDIAN food! :wub: ) I know they have one soonish in Nanuet NY usually in the mall's parking lot on Rt 59 across the lot from Sears closer to middletown? ? road. If anyone knows of any upcoming middle-eastern or indian food festivals - smallish size (because I am mobility impaired) please PLEASE let me know, I like sitting, enjoying the music and munching (and shopping too!) Thanks a BIG big bunch.

On a side note: (I know there is a huge diwali one in the somerset area because my co-worker is involved in central jersey with it each year.... It's just way too big to go to for me.)

Stacey C-Anonymouze@aol.com

*Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads!-G. B. SHAW

JUST say NO... to CENSORSHIP*!

Also member of LinkedIn, Erexchange and DonRockwell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like these smaller "food/culture" festivals - I wish I had known about it I'd have been there...

Jason--

You're obviously hearing/reading about these festivals (i.e. the Brazilian one in the Ironbound); any reason you can't either post them on the calendar in advance or start a thread before you go to the events? Seems like many of us only hear about them after the fact, when you post the pics and torture us!

Curlz

"I'm not eating it...my tongue is just looking at it!" --My then-3.5 year-old niece, who was NOT eating a piece of gum

"Wow--this is a fancy restaurant! They keep bringing us more water and we didn't even ask for it!" --My 5.75 year-old niece, about Bread Bar

"He's jumped the flounder, as you might say."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like these smaller "food/culture" festivals - I wish I had known about it I'd have been there...

Jason--

You're obviously hearing/reading about these festivals (i.e. the Brazilian one in the Ironbound); any reason you can't either post them on the calendar in advance or start a thread before you go to the events? Seems like many of us only hear about them after the fact, when you post the pics and torture us!

Curlz

The answer is that I'm typically seeing them on road signs or being told about them the day or so before, and I usually don't have time to get them into the Calendar. But I'll ty to be more proactive about it. If anyone knows about these things far enough in advance I can get them into the calendar.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for sharing the pictures - NJ has such a thriving Indian community - there are few other places in this country that you can get authentic Indian "street foods" in one place like that you've shown above.

By the way, this is one of my favorite snacks:

gallery_2_0_16568.jpg

Its called Pani Puri - Pani means water - in this case, a seasoned water, and puri is the puff pastry shown.  You fill it up with boiled potatoes, chick peas, and "chaat masala" which is a seasoning, then fill up the liquid (pani) into each puri and eat very carefully and quickly.

Thanks again

Doggone it! I meant to go this year but it totally slipped my mind. Last year when I got the Pani Puri there wasn't much of a line and I was fortunate enough to have them served one at a time in all of their crispy/liquidy glory. This is a great food fair and one definitely worth planning towards for next year. I'll just go bonk my head against the wall now...

aka Michael

Chi mangia bene, vive bene!

"...And bring us the finest food you've got, stuffed with the second finest."

"Excellent, sir. Lobster stuffed with tacos."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doggone it! I meant to go this year but it totally slipped my mind. Last year when I got the Pani Puri there wasn't much of a line and I was fortunate enough to have them served one at a time in all of their crispy/liquidy glory. This is a great food fair and one definitely worth planning towards for next year. I'll just go bonk my head against the wall now...

One at a time is how they do it at the stalls in India - or at least any Pani Puri stall i ever went to. (ok all of them were on the beach, but still)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

they described the sauces as vegetable sambhar and coconut sambhar, so what you're calling soup is what they were calling vegetable sambhar. I'm not sure if there's a traditional way of eating the dosa with the sambhar, but I tend to put the coconut sambhar on semi-evenly first and then dump the vegetable sambhar on the dosa. Sometimes, a generous soul has offered to give me additional sambhar.

The vegetable sambhar and the soup in this instance are the same thing, just a different expression, the traditional way of eating sambhar would be to break apart a piece of dosai and dip it in the sambhar before eating that morsel, the morsel would also have some filling in it, also the bites you crave extra flavor it is also very acceptable to lift the bowl of sambhar (the Katori) and sip out of it or you can also use a spoon ( a more polite or "sophisticated" gesture when eating out). Also, back in India at traditional joints in Souther India it would almost be impolite not to offer additional sambhar if needed. Most restaurant atleast offer one refill, if not it is totally acceptable to reorder just the sambhar, the charge is usally minimal. The coconut sambhar would be the coconut chutney or Pachadi (a south Indian word for chutney or pickle). However "coconut sambhar" doesnt make sense, shredded coconut is almost always used as an ingredient in Sambhar though.

"Burgundy makes you think of silly things, Bordeaux

makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them." Brillat-Savarin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for sharing the pictures - NJ has such a thriving Indian community - there are few other places in this country that you can get authentic Indian "street foods" in one place like that you've shown above.

By the way, this is one of my favorite snacks:

gallery_2_0_16568.jpg

Its called Pani Puri - Pani means water - in this case, a seasoned water, and puri is the puff pastry shown.  You fill it up with boiled potatoes, chick peas, and "chaat masala" which is a seasoning, then fill up the liquid (pani) into each puri and eat very carefully and quickly.

Thanks again

The masala used in pani puri is pani puri masala, which is different then the chaat masala, it is made with similar ingredients but different composition besides panipuri masala has extra hint of coriander powder and sometimes powdered dried mint in it too.

"Burgundy makes you think of silly things, Bordeaux

makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them." Brillat-Savarin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One at a time is how they do it at the stalls in India - or at least any Pani Puri stall i ever went to.  (ok all of them were on the beach, but still)

tryska,

there are multiple ways to do that.

the best is something like a kaitenzushi

you basically prepay or order a set (say 10). the person the would break the top of the puri, fill the filling (recipes vary) and then add sweet chutney(optional) and then dip it in a big vat of the spiced water

by far the best method to have

there are some where they would actually give you the ingredients on a platter and you basically make it yourself

there are some that would make the 5=10 you order and then put it in a plate for you and then ladel in the spiced water.

please note depending on where you eat the color and taste of the water can vary a lot. this is because right from bengal to maharashtra and gujrat - they have adopted various recipes with dry and wet ingredients in pani puri / poochkas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 10 months later...

Bump!

Does anybody have any information about when the Food Fair is scheduled for this year? I'd hate to miss it again and their website doesn't have it posted. Thanks.

aka Michael

Chi mangia bene, vive bene!

"...And bring us the finest food you've got, stuffed with the second finest."

"Excellent, sir. Lobster stuffed with tacos."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for bringing this up. I'll call Sadhu Vaswani and find out.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent- I'll mark my calendar. Thanks, Jason.

aka Michael

Chi mangia bene, vive bene!

"...And bring us the finest food you've got, stuffed with the second finest."

"Excellent, sir. Lobster stuffed with tacos."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where it was last year, at the Sadhu Vaswani Center in Closter.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Anybody else go yesterday? We had a great time- the food was excellent, as always, and the people there are sooo nice. And you just couldn't have asked for a better day weather-wise.

My favorite thing this time around was the channa masala (chick peas) with an incredible flat bread that resembled naan, only it was fried. Some friends came with me so we got to try almost everything, and that is definitely the way to do it. Allright...I'll admit to not giving the Tex Mex table a second look, but that's not what I came for dammit. Just great stuff all around- puris, dosas, samosas, etc., etc.

aka Michael

Chi mangia bene, vive bene!

"...And bring us the finest food you've got, stuffed with the second finest."

"Excellent, sir. Lobster stuffed with tacos."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...