That's too bad Bill. Once again we are lucky I suppose. I like to judge a restaurant by the clientele and the the staff. We are in good hands here. And... there are always 'those' dishes that don't appear on the menu. Chances are, if you can pronounce it correctly, they are pleased as punch to make it for you.
That's interesting, I thought the Brits preferred cooks from Goa because they did not have religious problems with pork and beef. I know from friends that came from Mumbai that the meat thing gets carried away to the point that we Westerners can't quite comprehend. The smell of beef cooking in his father's condo would raise major chaos almost a riot.
Speaking of cooking smells, I remember the first time I cooked Octopus. To this day I remember thinking, my gawd, that smells absolutely delicious.
And then I ate it.
It's like when a woman gets a gift that says '2 carats inside' and opens it to find a couple orange vegetables.
That's when I started appreciating squid.
Speaking of which, who else left the cartilage in there the first time?
And then I ate it.
It's like when a woman gets a gift that says '2 carats inside' and opens it to find a couple orange vegetables.
That's when I started appreciating squid.
Speaking of which, who else left the cartilage in there the first time?
But how many of them actually cook 'British food' and is there even such a thing anymore?And on the flip side, there are actually some awesome (gasp) British cooks.
I'd have to go into London to get that. Why bother when I can get authentic Rajesthani cooking at home !
Never heard that* and never seen pork on a menu in a restaurant purporting to be 'indian'. Beef is trickier as they never clearly define 'meat' in a lot of places. I think its lamb, but hard to tell.
I wish you could get authentic Mauritian food here. I do like Cajun inspired stuff.
*OK research suggests that restaurants with Goan chefs advertise as Goan cuisine. Not one within 50 miles of me so no idea what that means.
Goa was a Portuguese colony and it is good to remind ourselves that some "authentic" cuisine simply descends from the days of no refrigeration in a warm climate country. They packed pork, peppers, and garlic in barrels for shipment. I don't think this process is duplicated anywhere so we have no experience in true replication of the experience very often, though there are places in Asia where you can get pork fermented at room temperature for days or in Africa where camel meat is fermented by being buried in the sand. Serious challenging food.
Quite true, totally forgot.
Tamil is a cuisine style. Tamil Nadu is Andhra's bottom neighbour state, 1 in 3 in Andhra is a Tamil, eats as a Tamil.
A few more distinctive regions popped up when I read your posts. Someone could/should write a book on the plurality of India cuisine.
In NL it's still Madras, sounds much nicer.
(I prefer to think in Antillean Guilders instead of Euros, the Netherlands Antillean Florin aka NAF has about the same exchange rate to the Euro as the Dutch Guilder/Florijn had. After 18 Euro years, 1 practice year and 17 official ones, I'm still not comfortable with the currency.
My neck trauma resulted in collateral damage to my brain that made my IQ score in a neuro-psychological evaluation I had a few months ago drop in the order of 35-40 points.
Leaves me sufficient digits to be able to buy a bus ticket, I hope, yet to test it.
(had to renew my drivers license, Murphy's law all over. Filled out the online health declaration forms of the Dutch DMV before the NPO report was completed. Fill in high blood pressure on those forms, and it's medical evaluation time for extra $$$ and time delay. Had to get by without a valid drivers license for over a month)
Fortunately arrived in time to drive an 8 months old German shepherd to A'dam airport for a 1PM KLM flight to Curaçao, arrival 5PM local time.
During day time hour I see good enough, after sundown I turn night blind
Leaves me sufficient digits to be able to buy a bus ticket, I hope, yet to test it.
(had to renew my drivers license, Murphy's law all over. Filled out the online health declaration forms of the Dutch DMV before the NPO report was completed. Fill in high blood pressure on those forms, and it's medical evaluation time for extra $$$ and time delay. Had to get by without a valid drivers license for over a month)
Fortunately arrived in time to drive an 8 months old German shepherd to A'dam airport for a 1PM KLM flight to Curaçao, arrival 5PM local time.
During day time hour I see good enough, after sundown I turn night blind
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Noice! Here I thought BiWi $ was exotic. When I was in NL pre-Euro I was completely befuddled by the currency. Did "guilder" and "florin" mean the same thing? I remember looking at the price of weed in an Amsterdam coffee shop and wondering whether G meant guilders for some unknown amount, or grams for some unknown price.
Now I was there as part of a large trade delegation, and the first night a group of about 50 people went to the hotel bar (the Doelen Crest near the Muntoren if that means anything). As Canadians we were accustomed to tip in bars, and a one guilder coin, which at the time was worth about 75 Canadian cents, was about the same physical size as a Candian quarter (25 cents), so many in that group were tipping the bartender, who was already getting a 15% gratuity, as though guilders were quarters, so he was making out like a bandit. I strolled in as the big group was leaving, and the bartender was feeling pretty giddy about the tips, so he filled my glass with Scotch and said "On the house!"
Ever try toor dal (aka tuvar dal)? They look like yellow split peas but a bit smaller, and have a very different flavor. Texture-wise the go mushy fast, and are supposed to. They are the base for sambar,ca ubiquitous south Indian veg stew, with lots of spice and tamarind. You can find "sambar podi" (powder), which contains a lot of coriander seed, black pepper, chili, sometimes asafoetida, and oddly chana dal toasted and ground.
In the late middle ages, the Italian solid gold florin (fiorino) was the single international exchange/transaction currency in Europe.
The Dutch Guilder was copied from the Italian florin, powerful individuals and even cities had their Guilder by own design made.
Each had a different value (in pennies aka stuivers) due to varying size/weight and gold quality.
Between the half of the 14th and the 17 century, dozens of different Guilders came out in The Netherlands*, which included Belgium back then.
(* my personal favorite is the United States of Netherland from 1790)
In the 17th century, a gold coin with a value of 28 stuivers was a Goldguilder.
A silver one of the same 28 penny worth was a florin.
Both were also called a 28, and despite being made of silver, the florin was also named a Goldguilder.
At the end of the 18th century came the standard silver Guilder that lasted till the introduction of the Euro, see image.
The coins carry a G (Gl. in the beginning) for Guilder, Guilder amounts were written as f or fl., for exchange rates as NLG, for foreign folks in weed shops as G.
So 25 Guilders could be written as f25, fl.25 , 25NLG, 25G, and some would say 25 florijn. (florijn was just as official a currency name as the Guilder)
Same same in the Dutch Antillean islands, Curaçao has the Guilder, which they either write as Naf (florijn) or ANG (Guilder), Aruba has the Aruban Florin, which they write as Afl (florin) or AWG (Guilder).
Confusing ? Nàààààh
Amusing is St. Maarten/Martin, USD on the Dutch side, Euros in the French part.
(I'm Dutch, I live in The Netherlands, but I'm not from Holland. I do reside in the province South Holland, but North Holland is the province I totally despise. I was born in the province North Brabant, but South Brabant is a province which is now called Flemish Brabant in Belgium )
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aka pigeon peas. Yes, I like to experiment with all the dals when I steer away from meat for a change. We have a market just down the street that sells packaged and bulk. I often try a small amount of the bulk the first time, then load up if I enjoy.