INDIAN FOOD!

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