INDIAN FOOD!

no lamb or beef

I thought this was a Buzzcocks parody for a minute.

Just like everything else has.

Chicken Vindaloo

Aloo Samosa

Tikka Nan

I CAN EAT FOR DAYS

I want my lassi served to me by Ayesha Dharkar while I recline on the back of a passive elephant in the forest.

also, samosas.

some author in India presented this analysis in a book a few years ago and had a Hindu fatwa taken against him.

I'm just glad the BJP lost that last election.

Menu:
keema naan
plain naan
basmati rice
paneer and peas
cobra beer
my mum's samosas

(Taking sides: saag paneer with the runny cheesiness vs with hardish cubes. Also taking sides: saag paneer vs palak paneer.)

what's palak? saag is spinach right

My favorite Indian stuff is "chaat" (street food of Bombay and Delhi), the two basic building blocks of which are crispy dough of some kind and chutney. It's essentially a big mixed salad that can be both sweet and spicy, with yogurt, or veg, or a crazy mix of things. Some places that specialize in chaat will have maybe 20 different varieties to choose from.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/kenjuggle/brain.jpg

north indian style rules. especially chick peas and puri.

and mango kulfi.

insanity

Seconded. And get some mixed pakora to kick start your tongue (though pakora, I think, may fall into the "only available in Scotland" category of "Indian").

Saag paneer=lushest

I want mine served to me by Lindsay Lohan in a suite at Chateau Marmont.

xpost

Bhel and panni poori
Muttar panir
Paper dosa
Paneer dosa
Veg karahi

The dosas came with sambal and amazing coconut chutney. I had poori bread and there were also chapatis. It was incredible. This place used to be a shithole, mind, but they've had improvements and a renovation.

Isn't that what it actually is?

Chana Sag EXTRA SPICY
Keema Naan (stuffed with ground lamb and spices [YESSS!!!])
Basmati Rice
Mint chutney
Onion chutney

Actually, maybe after this is done I will post it to ipso fatso.

i still haven't had a corn dog, to date. (even though i bought one)

xposts You've never had a corndog!? I'm ashamed of this, as a South Knoxvillian who had you as a guest. FedEx on the way.

yeah that's because the one i BOUGHT was GIVEN away as a GIFT to someone who didn't even EAT IT. :(

Biran mass shatkora (fish dish)
Some spinach/bean combo snarfed by Kate

Alas no batera tandoori - dem's QUAILS.

Yeah, that was lame of him. Apparently he "doesn't like corndogs anymore".

how about tell him that Apparently, WHATEV'

indian kormadog sounds a lot like a samosa... jalfrazi

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/kenjuggle/brain.jpg

He wants me to add that he "had one on the way up here [Knoxville]".

WHATEV'

I'm taking my mom and dad out for indian food for the first time. Like me, dad will eat anything. But mom can't eat anything that is spicy or peppery in the SLIGHTEST! Not even a hint of a kick. What is the most boring, tame, unspicy, unexotic thing I should tell her to order...

Korma or passanda. Both creamy and mild.

Tikka masala is also pretty tame, but is basically an anglo asian invention as I understand it, which you might not be able to find outside of the UK.

we got tikka masala here too fyi

best bet might just be asking your waiter what they recommend but common menu items:
any tika masala is a pretty safe bet
butter chicken (makhani) is a+++ although less common in usa indian places than in toronto in my experience
saag paneer is a good choice
other paneer dishes tend to be pretty mild

fwiw, this meal was a total fucking disaster

From your first post, sounds like you could kinda see it coming.

I'm taking my mom and dad out for indian food for the first time. Like me, dad will eat anything. But mom can't eat anything that is spicy or peppery in the SLIGHTEST! Not even a hint of a kick. What is the most boring, tame, unspicy, unexotic thing I should tell her to order...

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Saturday, December 27, 2008 12:02 PM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha so then, your taste in music on the other hand ...

hypothetically a great zing for maybe someone who isn't me. but A for effort.

fwiw, this meal was a total fucking disaster

― chattanooga choom choom (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 28 December 2008 05:53 (1 hour ago)

what happened?

mom decided she hated it before actually trying anything. wouldn't try the papadum even though dad explained to her that it was like a frito, wouldn't try the mango lassi or the raiti because she wasn't in the mood for anything yogurty. To her credit, she DID try the pakora and samosa but said they tasted like cardboard.

when it came time to order her main course, she settled on the tandoori shrimp. the menu said "cooked in a clay pot with yogurt and mild spices." Since she was so serious about proving her point that she wouldn't like this, she demanded that she she know what each of the spices were--something she had never done, and certainly wouldn't do if we went out for BBQ or chicken or whatever. The waiter explained it was a "homemade spices" and she made him get another waiter to explain what they actually were (coriander, some other stuff). She made a face and asked if they could just cook the shrimp with no spices, which they did. So basically they served her some shrimp. She ordered dessert, which was ice cream with almolds, pistachios, rosewater and cardamom. She made me get out my iPhone and look up what cardamom was on wikipedia before she ordered it.

Then I took her to see Slumdog Millionaire at a small-run theater and she grumbled about the theater and asked v. loudly "Is this over soon?"

I mean, i really really really think its pathetic and sad to be the indie poseur dude who comes back from the BIG CITY and is like "You suburban squares eat processed Olive Garden swill and shop at big box retailers and watch big budget movies in your nerf-covered world, maaaan, waaah" So I tried to approach it from the angle of "You picked the last movie and the last restaurant, so it's my turn. I think you might enjoy some stuff that you haven't been exposed to. We have to drive 45 minutes out of town just to watch an indie movie or eat indian food, so it'll be a fun adventure. Why don't we try this and maybe you'll like it." She wasn't having it.

fwiw, Dad loved the food and LOVED the movie :D

If you are going to play petulant kiddie to yr folks, you have to man up and take the consequences, Whiney.

No, I know. There IS precedent in letting each other pick the movies though, and she made me sit through Jurassic Park III once.

Next time, let mom "drive". Soon enough, she'll be begging you to.

Her suggested plan for the night: Valkrye and Ruby Tuesday. Should have sucked it up.

Next time it WILL be her turn to pick the movie, so I'm sure I'll get stuck with 4 Fast 4 Furious and a night of Carraba's Italian Grill

Is that so bad? I mean, the whole point of visiting the folks is to please them, innit? It's over soon enough.

Point taken. But, again, my dad had a good time.

man that sucks dude -- i actually had a sorta similar exp this holiday w/ my dad + his new gf over indian food, but luckily she was also concerned w/ not offending me so she tried the indian food anyway. shes from nyc tho so not really a ruby tues + jurassic park lady, just not familiar w/ indian food

i dont really know why i shared that boring anecdote

your mom sounds like a total pill

obviously get her a phall, duh

could have predicted the result tbh

That would also be my mom, although in the future all you have to say about movies you're trying to get her to agree to is 'it might win an Oscar'. My mom is still convinced that Indian food is bad from a case of food poisoning she got in the '60s in NYC and refuses to eat anything with 'curry' in it.

although in the future all you have to say about movies you're trying to get her to agree to is 'it might win an Oscar'

That doesn't work. She always assumes that if there's no actors she's heard of in it, then it's not a good movie.

My mom did like the nan bread, even though she kept calling it "pizza bread" hahaha

Yeah I can see that; my mom's delay/deny tactic is 'oh, I'll wait for the DVD'.

Chicken tandoori is a good bet for parents who are unsure of Indian food, too. I would just bring some home, call it barbecued chicken and take it from there.

chicken saag is my favorite meal in the world this week

like i think there are narcotics in it

love crab curry at Park Slope place

if i plan my life right, my last meal will be chana masala, aloo gobi, and some dosas with tamarind chutney. and iced tea.

i guess that's more like planning my death right

who the fuck cares what you call it just pass me the masala

Whiney's story upthread reminds me of this:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_grandmother_tries_indian_food

ppl in LA, Rajadhani in that little India area near Cerritos has some fucking crazy Gujurathi food. Pretty much as good as most of the shit you get in India.

cuet indian girl at work brought me in some Vegetable Biriyani. so good!

what do I get tonight:
gosht pasanda...tender pieces of lamb cooked in rich cashew nut gravy with cream, butter, and dry fruits...
OR...
boti kabab masala...selected pieces of young lamb delicately spiced and barbecued in our tandoor and then cooked in chef's special sauce??????

special sauce >>> dry fruits

I am too juvenile to ever order any food with anything described remotely like "special sauce"

love love love boti masala kebab, totally go get that

yeah the dry fruits is making me hesitate, but i'm assuming they're broken down and become part of the sauce? not just like here's some lamb and sauce with prunes studded throughout.

sometimes you can find sultanas and such in curry sauces over here.

dried fruits don't break down in sauces - yr looking at something that's gonna have raisins/cherries in it imho

ok then boti it is. i was thinking it'd be akin to raisins breaking down in a mole.

A pasanda from a British takeaway will have sultanas in whole, yeah. Nothing bigger though. Over here the dish is usually pretty korma-like, if that helps.

(Do Americans call golden raisins "sultanas"? That's what I mean, anyhow.)

no, far as i know we just call them golden raisins. was picturing something kormaish, will try it some other time.

Aloo Parantha : 4.00

Garlic Naan : 3.00

Saffron Special Murg Tikka Masala : 13.95

Boti Kabab Masala : 13.95

Steamed Basmati Rice : 3.95

What's the rationale for Indian places charging for rice (some Indian places don't, but NO Chinese or Thai places do). I mean it's good fuckin rice and they give you a bunch (too much, really) but c'mon, $4?

mottor paneer was superb this evening mmm nom etc.

You know, I've noticed the rice thing, too, and I think it's bullshit. Serving your customers rice is the price of doing business, imo. It costs pennies, in the quantities you'll be purchasing, and it causes so much ill will NOT to include it, that why are we even discussing this??

if i plan my life right, my last meal will be chana masala, aloo gobi, and some dosas with tamarind chutney. and iced tea.

― u don't have 2 be a shart, baby, 2 be in my jort (m bison),

^^

i had tj's indian food for dinner last night. paneer tikka masala w/ spinach rice, and a piece of garlic naan. pretty fucking great, but even bad indian food tastes good enough for me.

those cheap-ass places on 6th street in the east village? LOVE.

yes! spice cove was my jam

brigitte, i have some local recommendations for you!

http://www.salomiindian.com/
http://www.bollywoodcafela.com/
http://www.greatindiacafe-ca.com/

they all deliver!

those cheap-ass places on 6th street in the east village? LOVE.

― the mu-ney su-zvuki (get bent), Friday, February 11, 2011 7:49 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

<3

india sweet house near little ethiopia and rajdhani in that little india near cerritos are pretty much the best places for your money in and around la I would say

HAD A V V DELICIOUS MASALA DOSA TONIGHT

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum

ooh thanks for the recs GB! salomi is really good but i wish they were a bit cheaper. lal mirch on ventura is good too!

re: rice, surely if they didn't charge you for it they would just increase the price of the main dishes? i'm guessing its all factored into their budget somehow.

You get charged for rice with every kind of food here!

Indian restaurants in Britain ALWAYS charge for rice (your choice is usually between plain basmati and a couple of pilau iterations). I'd imagine the decision to charge for rice in US Indian restaurants - if something recent - might have to do with booming prices for same in 'the markets' because Laurel is right and in most Asian restaurants, whether Chinese, Thai or Indian ,rice is given for free.

Or maybe some of these Indian restaurants have been opened by restauranteurs who've moved from the UK?

after years and years of mainly eating north indian I think I've decided I much prefer south indian (dosas, etc).

is it a "thing" for Indians to like and frequent Thai restaurants a lot? i get the feeling that indians to thai is like americans to mexican, but maybe it's just particular to the places i frequent.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2011/02/venn_food_diagram_indian_food.php

i like everything i've tried/heard of on the "indian" side of the diagram.

I want to eat everything on that diagram.

Just back from Dimple Bombay Talk in Iselin NJ. Why do I have to go that far to eat Pani Puri that doesn't taste stale or weird?

Punjabi #2 FTW

oh man, i totally know the place you're talking about, dan. it's good and cheap

my recommendation with indian food (especially as i live in boston, which is a wasteland for good indian food)--make it yourself. i can send recipes, or suggest good cookbooks

i can send recipes, or suggest good cookbooks

I'm fond of this one, particularly for dal and a couple meat recipes (tandoori chicken, etc). Have a few others I never use tho. what do you recommend geeta

'Classic Indian Cooking' by Julie Sahni is the best one I've tried (I've tried a lot of Indian cookbooks) - it's like the food I grew up with.

If you can find the book Savoring India by Julie Sahni--that one is great. It's out of print. Some of the same recipes but big, glossy, full-color photos, good layout ('Classic Indian Cooking' is all text, black and white)

Madhur Jaffrey's first book, 'An Invitation to Indian Cooking' - I have a first edition, from the 1970s - that one is good too

I also learned a lot by watching my grandmother, an incredible cook who never looked at a recipe in her life (she doesn't know how to read very well--she never went to school.) Indian cooking is a lot like Indian classical music--mostly an oral tradition. All of her recipes are in her head; at first I found this frustrating, but after watching her for years, I realized that all her off-the-cuff measurements were incredibly consistent. So I worked out a lot of her recipes, and wrote them down. And then, the more I tried my hand at it, the more I started to develop the same kind of intuition. Part of it is understanding how the spices work with each other, and in what proportion.

I make the korma out of Classic Indian Cooking about once a week. Sahni's Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking is also great.

yes, i have that one too! lots of love for julie sahni

this thread totally inspired me to make indian food tonight

I do have a Madhur Jaffrey one, can't remember the title offhand. it's sort of my second go-to indian cookbook after the vaswani one

recently bought "Quick and Easy Indian Cooking" by Madhur Jaffrey, have made 2 recipes so far, both pretty tasty (have "royal chicken cooked in yogurt" leftovers in the lunchroom fridge still). have you looked at that book, geeta? it seems to be the case that once you have a well-stocked spice rack, Indian cooking is a lot less intimidating. something titled "classic indian cooking" still does intimidate though...with all of the common spices at hand, should it?

geeta: a WASTELAND? Really?

I mean I know there are a ton of average places but what do you think of (for example) Shalimar in Central, or India Pavillion in Union?

a well-stocked spice rack, Indian cooking is a lot less intimidating

so fucking true. so glad I have a local indian grocer that gets things like sambar powder and garam masala

shit I have a Jaffrey cookbook, I should start using it again

i can never find some ingredients in anything less than industrial size. like i prob have enough black mustard seeds to last through the next Ice Age.

an indian restaurant recently opened up near me called... "Indian Restaurant". It's supposed to be pretty good. Hoping I will like it, b/c for a city of its size there ain't much in the way of super-delicious south asian eats here

seems to be the case that once you have a well-stocked spice rack, Indian cooking is a lot less intimidating.

This is totally it. Another book I recommend is Vij's Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine, from the restaurant in Vancouver. His basic chicken curry is amazing and easy and the kind of dish I make a double batch of and eat off of all week.

one of my older cookery books -- thought it might be Elizabeth David's spices salt and aromatics in the english kitchen, but if it is i can't find the passage -- has a list of addresses of specialist london outlets from which to mail-order all the best indian spices

dunno if I posted this already but Dakshin is the best indian cookbook I've used so far, its south indian

http://www.amazon.com/Dakshin-Vegetarian-Cuisine-South-India/dp/9625935274

everything is pretty straightforward and there are actual measurements and shit

Great book, but I find the actual measurements sometimes reflect different strengths or preparations than would be commonly available: many of the recipes call for a lemon-sized piece of tamarind pulp, which makes me suspect lemons are much smaller in India. Also, calling for like 6 red chilies would fucking kill you, the ones you get at any indian grocery i've been to. must be a milder kind.

some of the recipes from this book turned out inedible when i followed them exactly, but it is still an invaluable reference.

This is another good one:
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Curries-India-Camellia-Panjabi/dp/1904920357

Great book, but I find the actual measurements sometimes reflect different strengths or preparations than would be commonly available: many of the recipes call for a lemon-sized piece of tamarind pulp, which makes me suspect lemons are much smaller in India. Also, calling for like 6 red chilies would fucking kill you, the ones you get at any indian grocery i've been to. must be a milder kind.

some of the recipes from this book turned out inedible when i followed them exactly, but it is still an invaluable reference.

― fields of salmon, Wednesday, August 31, 2011 5:20 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

tbf I totally forgot to mention that in every recipe you have to cut down on all the chilies by about 80%

but yeah my first few dishes from Dakshin were completely inedible because I followed the recipes to a t and when I got the hang of it they got p amazing

See I thought it was just me for all these years. I'm very happy now. There is also an el-cheapo coil bound generic "Indian cooking" book you can buy as a remaindered book practically everywhere. The thing is worthless and nobody wants it, but it somehow it was written by somebody who really knew their stuff. It is a dead-on book and everything is super accurate, but not over complicated with references to things you'll never be able to buy. Buried there, in the stack of remaindered Indian cookery books, you will find this one, and you will know what I mean.

Fuck this shit, I'm getting Indian food delivered.

Malai kofta, garlic naan, veg pakora, and samosas.

And that's how I roll it.

it has been three years since i've had indian food.

three years.

THREE YEARS.

#$%#@$%#$%@$!

i will freeze some korma and mail it to you!

omg me too

i cant find anywhere here that makes good lamb korma its killing me

indian food is easy to make and a lot cheaper to cook at home than to buy at a restaurant, especially if you're not using meat. there is no reason to go three years without eating indian food; that's just criminal.

INDIAN FOOD!

SAAG/PALAK PANEER

i made muttar paneer last night. it was okay.

I've learned to cook dishes at home, not as good as restaurant food, but better than frozen Indian dinners. Only drawback is that I can't make samosas or naan!

Fuck this shit, I'm getting Indian food delivered.

Malai kofta, garlic naan, veg pakora, and samosas.

And that's how I roll it.

― ███★★★███ (PappaWheelie V), Wednesday, November 2, 2011 7:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Add gobi Manchurian (dry) and that's exactly what we got a couple nights ago.

There is NO reason to go more than one week without Indian food.

there is no reason to go three years without eating indian food; that's just criminal.

I was going to say!

There is NO reason to go more than one week without Indian food.

I've lasted longer. More than one week without Mexican food = RED ALERT.

Can you get anything like Patak curry paste easily in the US? You just add tomatoes and whatever you want to curry (veg, meat, etc) and get a decent result in twenty minutes.

Yeah, there're several brands of that type stuff at the Whole Foods/Trader Joe's type stows.

I like the Maesri curry pastes in the small cans.

Patak's Lime Pickle is the shit.

Only drawback is that I can't make samosas or naan!

? why not? neither of these is particularly difficult.

Trader Joe's has great frozen indian breads for some reason - parathas and garlic naan both surprisingly tasty

Can you get anything like Patak curry paste easily in the US?

you can totally get this stuff in the US

not from Safeway, but anywhere where there's an Indian community, this stuff is available.

any good recipe sites/books?

there's some cookbooks ref'd upthread

Madhur Jafferey's Indian Cookery is quite good.

what's up with the packaging on these papadums
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6670278241_b1ba843619.jpg

The papadums of nightmares.

that child's mouth totally gives me the willies

yikes

they are tasty papadums though, i'll say that

random clip-art papadums

what is the best kind of papadum? i like the cumin flavor but maybe there are others that are better?

Just polished off some delish leftover homemade dal with tofu.

have never liked popadoms, but will eat naans until i explode. and don't get me started on paratha...

I made a random curry out of what I had to use up, last night. Had it for lunch again today for a double dose of ginger and garlic! Begone, foul cold and sinus congestion!

now i need a samoza for back pain

hey ilxers!
please consider eating at my friend roger feely's first pop-up dinner in chicago. the theme is Bombay Streets: come get yr pani puri at Dodo Chicago (right across from moto and that achatz dude's places) btw this dodo place is where roger and i teach bread classes for sour flour chicago

omg i'm gonna git so goddamn many suggest bans for this post cuz dudes think it's spam but yo just tryin ta hip my peeps namean? . . .

asdghhkjl;jop
psefrgt5gtergijoergrhgetrhe

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ couldn't have put it better myself.

Reprise of Duke Ellington's Kitten on the keys?

meow

chaat

I made some Moong Dal for supper tonight. I played a bit fast and loose with the recipe, but somehow it still turned out very delicious. This is probably crazy talk, but I felt like adding some egg to it might have improved it.

what are some good chutney types to try? I can easily get lots of bottled ones in my neighborhood, imports from India and Sri Lanka, but I don't know where to start. ideas?

Brinjal is the all-time classic imo

mango coconut for a sweet one!

Kuchela is worth trying, at least once, if you can get it.

I eat huge amounts of lime pickle with peanut butter.

Do they do pickles? I had a killer chilli and garlic pickle recently.

Kerelan style coconut chutney with loads of curry leaf.

Yes, they have pickles too! But I don't know which ones to get, so your advices are very helpful!

what does Joey Corona prefer?

passed this place the other day and had to doff my cap

"Naan Staap"

On pickles... I had a really great tamarind pickle once. Green, in a jar and v salty. Can't remember the name or find it again (am in uk). Any suggestions?

Could be Priya green tamarind.

xp When Bend it Like Beckham was in theaters, I saw a movie theater in Seattle with the title on one side of its marquee and "Naan Stop Football" on the other.

Could be Priya green tamarind.

That could be it! Amazon reviewer says "too salty", sounds good to me! Thanks.

what do i get for delivery
no lamb or beef

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 bookmarkflaglink

vegetarianism in the service of Hindu supremacy: https://t.co/rDxEDw6az8

— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) March 17, 2023