Tony that pizza looks really good.
I had four rib eyes marinading for a day, put them in a cold smoke for about 4 hours. Gave one to a neighbour, ate one raw for dinner and will have one for breakfast cooked in the panini press.
I had four rib eyes marinading for a day, put them in a cold smoke for about 4 hours. Gave one to a neighbour, ate one raw for dinner and will have one for breakfast cooked in the panini press.
Thanks Call, I was pretty pleased with hoe it turned out! 🙂
The breakfast ribeye sounds good. I'm not sure about the raw cold smoked one 🙂
Tony.
The breakfast ribeye sounds good. I'm not sure about the raw cold smoked one 🙂
Tony.
Outside of India. India might have had a culture of private cooks for the wealthy but there are a few restaurants dating from just after 1900.
It's not even the oldest Indian restaurant in UK! longest running under the same name maybe. But Pukka Indian food to me beats anything in a restaurant into a cocked hat.
Of course 'Curry' is a UK invention.
Of course 'Curry' is a UK invention.
Bill, curry is a style of cooking involving a sauce, it is independent of spicing. I'm not sure what the UK had to do with curry other than give that funny yellow spice bag a name maybe?
Or did I miss the humour? 🙂
Or did I miss the humour? 🙂
This is a tough one to step in. The prevailing sentiment is that the "curry" concept originated with food made to the taste of British colonialists and was taken back to the UK. When I was in India every dish had a unique blend of spices and ingredients but I would be hard pressed to explain most them to others as something other than the ingredients in a complex sauce.
I suppose if I called lamb vindaloo in Mumbai a VERY hot lamb curry it would start a fight.
I suppose if I called lamb vindaloo in Mumbai a VERY hot lamb curry it would start a fight.
There is no word 'curry' in Hindi. The nearest sounding word is a gram flour soup. So as far as I am concerned it's an invention of the British East India company.
FWIW, our wedding reception almost 50 years ago was catered by "India House" -- the one on E 34th St east of 3rd Ave in NYC -- not the one on Hanover Square. The two least expensive restaurants with really great fare, in NYC at that time, were "India House" and "Cedars of Lebanon" -- so oft-frequented by this undergrad.
It was great being a "foodie" with little $ in NYC at that time.
It was great being a "foodie" with little $ in NYC at that time.
The cuisine of South India (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala) and Sri Lanka often includes a preliminary step of frying whole spices in oil before adding onions etc. Those spices include things like hing (asafoetida), black or brown mustard seeds, and curry leaves. I would go so far as to say that curry leaves are one of the defining characteristics of southern Indian food. Our local Indian grocery always has frozen curry leaves, and fresh ones on Fridays (as well as dried ones which are not very good).
You may argue about the etemology of the English word "curry" or even the words "curry" or "cari" in Deccan languages, but there is no question that curry leaves are a crucial ingredient in the foods of South India.
You may argue about the etemology of the English word "curry" or even the words "curry" or "cari" in Deccan languages, but there is no question that curry leaves are a crucial ingredient in the foods of South India.
Big cities with ethnically diverse communities are wonderful. Every tiny town in Canada has a pizza joint and a Chinese restaurant, but they usually aren't good nor cheap. But big cities have cheap Pho and Chinese and Indian and Hungarian and whatever ethnic group last showed up there.
My last time in NYC we had great dhosas at a place on the upper west side, like Amsterdam and 80th or so, can't remember the name. Around here lately the middle eastern places have become the goto for great cheap food. There have been middle eastern communities here for a lng time, but the recent influx of Syrian refugees have breathed new life into our dining opportunities.
A lot of people in India don't speak Hindi. For many it is not even a third language, which is why English is still the lingua franca of south asia. When I was teaching some young people in Bengaluru, they were from Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. They spoke Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, etc, and English. Of course I had no way of knowing whether they spoke Hindi as well.
I've always had a fascination with polyglots, there are a few on youtube. One learned conversational Hindi in 24 hr.
That's Kadhi leaves. You can understand why that was Romanised to 'curry' as English doesn't have a rolled 'd' sound (wife tested this on me this morning) and so I hear 'curri'. But it's only used for the leaves
Not just the south. My wife cooks mainly Rajasthani and Gujurati food as does exactly the same and Hing goes in almost everything. Kadhi leaves are used a lot.
Won't argue about the leaves, but what has that to do with the thick sauces serves in restaurants? Which was my point. 'Curry' means something in UK (and possibly elsewhere) that has little to do with authentic Indian food.
So find me another Indian dialect where 'curry' means 'gravy'. The refusal of Indians to accept the edict of Hindi as the national language and stick with English a lot of the time always warms my heart. Even my wife (brought up in Yorkshire) speaks 3 Indian dialects.
We had Pav Bhaji at the weekend. This raised an eyebrow when I first had it as has white bread rolls in it. Turns out the Portugese introduced those to Mumbai back in the 1500s so of course they worked out how to incorporate them into street food.
One day I'll find time to properly research when a lot of the things considered staples actually made it into Indian cuisine (okra, potato, tomato, chilli, cauliflower etc) rather than just been cooked for the invaders.
In other news I'm not sure what to think about this The salmon you buy in the future may be farmed on land - BBC News . People like Salmon. To meet demand you need to farm it. But keeping the fish in quite such a 'sterile' environment can't be good for taste.
Not that I eat it anymore, but Sockeye in Seattle at the right time of year was rather good. At a mixed table of about 10 locals, Brits and Finns everyone ordered the Salmon!
Not that I eat it anymore, but Sockeye in Seattle at the right time of year was rather good. At a mixed table of about 10 locals, Brits and Finns everyone ordered the Salmon!
The oldest 'Indian' restaurant in the UK,not sure about that but it has to be said that most 'Indians' are run by Pakistanis.
Long before the UK industrialists decided against reinvesting profits into the latest technologies they brought in cheap labour from Pakistan and India, that was around 1963.
In 1958 literally in the next street to where we lived in Hove, Sussex an 'Indian' restaurant opened, run by a Pakistani, Mohammed. This was a completely new experience for virtually everyone who wasn't an old India hand from empire days.
Now I've always had a very good appetite but I was never able to eat more than a half portion there and what good food it was. My families favourite was a Persian dish a Danzak, mild but very tasty. Over the years it gradually went down hill. The last time I was back on the Island my friend took me to an Indian in Wareham Dorset and it was up to the standard of that first in 1958 but that was 13 years ago, who knows now.
But at the beginning my mother said that she knew nothing about cooking rice, especially Basmati so Mohammed came round and showed her how and I took note and still cook it that way now. I've tried many different types of rice but always come back to Basmati. I cook it in batches of 1 kilo and freeze portions - refreshing is how most restaurants do it. I cannot stand the stodgy lumpy rice that the Chinese and Japanese do it, not for me.
The 'curries' that you find in Indian restaurants in the UK are completely unknown in India, anywhere in India. I remember getting an email on this site from an Indian guy who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas, when I mentioned the curries that I liked he had never heard of a single one. We were in Toulouse one day and by chance found ourselves in a little side street in the centre which had 4 'Indian' restaurants. We chose one and it was run by Indians not Pakistanis but I can definitely make far better curries than any of them. If any Indians want to change country if they are good Indian cooks they can have a successful business for sure.
My days of having a few beers or other stuff and having a chicken Pal are long over, my rear end simply couldn't handle it now.
Chillies now there's a subject and a half. Incredible but my favourite is one I found in the marche here in Carmaux from the French Antilles, hot but not masochistic and sweet the opposite of the sour Thai type. Easy to grow, 2 plants should be enough for the most ardent chilli lover.
Long before the UK industrialists decided against reinvesting profits into the latest technologies they brought in cheap labour from Pakistan and India, that was around 1963.
In 1958 literally in the next street to where we lived in Hove, Sussex an 'Indian' restaurant opened, run by a Pakistani, Mohammed. This was a completely new experience for virtually everyone who wasn't an old India hand from empire days.
Now I've always had a very good appetite but I was never able to eat more than a half portion there and what good food it was. My families favourite was a Persian dish a Danzak, mild but very tasty. Over the years it gradually went down hill. The last time I was back on the Island my friend took me to an Indian in Wareham Dorset and it was up to the standard of that first in 1958 but that was 13 years ago, who knows now.
But at the beginning my mother said that she knew nothing about cooking rice, especially Basmati so Mohammed came round and showed her how and I took note and still cook it that way now. I've tried many different types of rice but always come back to Basmati. I cook it in batches of 1 kilo and freeze portions - refreshing is how most restaurants do it. I cannot stand the stodgy lumpy rice that the Chinese and Japanese do it, not for me.
The 'curries' that you find in Indian restaurants in the UK are completely unknown in India, anywhere in India. I remember getting an email on this site from an Indian guy who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas, when I mentioned the curries that I liked he had never heard of a single one. We were in Toulouse one day and by chance found ourselves in a little side street in the centre which had 4 'Indian' restaurants. We chose one and it was run by Indians not Pakistanis but I can definitely make far better curries than any of them. If any Indians want to change country if they are good Indian cooks they can have a successful business for sure.
My days of having a few beers or other stuff and having a chicken Pal are long over, my rear end simply couldn't handle it now.
Chillies now there's a subject and a half. Incredible but my favourite is one I found in the marche here in Carmaux from the French Antilles, hot but not masochistic and sweet the opposite of the sour Thai type. Easy to grow, 2 plants should be enough for the most ardent chilli lover.
Actually most are staffed by Bangladeshis. The history of brick lane in london is central to this (and still a good place to eat out). Your case in Hove may be an anomaly. Or he was Sylheti Muslim.
Note that until the 90s a majority white people in UK assumed a brown skin meant 'Pakistani'. Our education system failed many generations.
Yes Bill, our local 'Indian' is Bangladeshi. I have always been a customer since it's opening in 1977 and it's always a pleasure to see the the owner and his staff🙂
My favourite rice (Basmati) recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey's series and book from the 80's.
And the hot Indian curries contain chillies.... introduced by the Portuguese
Sadly, not just our education, our 'class' system doesn't do us any favours😡
One of my sisters works in a large insurance marketplace in London, her experience of some of the managment's career paths via very certain University colleges is quite interesting.....
