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New Right curious, Sahib . .
I have been exploring Indian cooking fairly intesively (goes well with outsourcing) for the last few weeks - working from three old non-illustrated cookbooks from the '60s and early '70s.

Meanwhile, I've been buying some ethnic and specialty cookbooks at auction on eBay. One came yesterday, A Taste of Kashmir (Geeta Samtani 1995, London), so I sat down to eat a salad and leafted through parts of it looking at the pretty pictures and reading a lot of the blurbs.

Reading some of the blurbs in the vegetable section I started getting deja vu all over again - gosh these blurbs seemed familiar. Picked a well identified recipe and looked it up in the other books. That and several other recipes I looked at were not 100% identical, nor were the blurbs 100% identical, but they sure were damned close to Indian Cookery (Mrs. Balbir Singh, 1973, New York).

Well, they always have had a rather casual attitude twords intellectual property over there, haven't they.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
New Funny thought
I love taking Indian food in - it's outsourcing it that raises issues.

The only time in life I ever ate until I was so stuffed I couldn't move was in a Tandoor joint in London. This was the best food I ever put in my mouth. It was unbelieveably delicious.
-drl
New Indian cuisine is three . .
. . of the great cuisines of the world, plus down in the lower left there's a mix of the three with Persian, Portuguese, English and others. All very interesting.

I have been told, "Indian cooking smothers everything with so many strong spices you can't tell what it is and it all tastes the same". This is way far from the truth, but of couse, there will be bad Indian cooking just like there's bad cooking everywhere else, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a lot of bad Indian cooking is done in restaurants over here.

Other eths suffer too - Thai cooking is a joke around here with hundreds of restaurants serving the exact same menu of not very inspiring or authentic dishes prepared exactly the same, and of course your average "Mexican" restaurant doesn't serve anything remotely like the food served in Mexico.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
New Re: Indian cuisine is three . .
It wasn't just the great flavor - the lamb was cooked in the most scrumptuous way possible - it was not dry, it was not greasy, it was light and almost fluffy (if you can imagine fluffy meat). This was all associated with fantastic side dishes (wish I could remember some of them). It was heaven. I have yet to find an equivalent Indian restaurant here, even in cities that should have them (Chicago say).

There are many of these places in London - the competition must be fierce.
-drl
New If you liked that....
...go to Birmingham, specifically Ladypool Road. Every other business is a Balti restaurant.

I recommend Saleem's Balti House. Take your own drink. Don't be put off by the fluorescent lighting or the glass-topped tables. Just enjoy the best Balti you've ever had.

I went there when I was onsite at a PCO; the duty inspector had 25 years on the force and knew every decent curry house in Brum :)


Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
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New Balti must be a Brit thing.
None of the cookbooks I have that are written by real Indians mentions it. The only mention I've found (three recipes) is in a book published in London 1998 that carefully omits any information whatever about authorship. Credits are given in the back only for a bunch of photographers and for a "home economist" (that one has an Indian name at least).
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
Expand Edited by Andrew Grygus March 28, 2004, 12:57:48 PM EST
New Note:
The word "Wog" is staggeringly offensive over here.


Peter
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New OK, I'll edit it out.
Over here, if it's considered at all, it's considered just a quaint relic of the British Empire.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
Expand Edited by Andrew Grygus March 28, 2004, 01:02:26 PM EST
New Thanks.


Peter
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New Yup, did some checking.
Balti is definitely British.

Many claim the cooking style originated in Baltistan, but people familiar with Baltistan say no - most of the people there are vegetarians and balti is quite meat oriented - and the spicing is wrong.

Others report that balti is a Hindi word for bucket, so it might have been some Indian's joke about feeding the British out of buckets. In India the karahi (similar to a wok but more bowl shaped) is not brought to the table.

[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
New Originated in Brumistan.
More info:

[link|http://www.jdbg20436.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/balti/balti.html|http://www.jdbg20436.../balti/balti.html]

But he seems to think that Baltistan is the origin:

[link|http://www.jdbg20436.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/balti/balti.html|http://www.jdbg20436.../balti/balti.html]

I still go with the theory that the style is named after the cooking pot.


Peter
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New Now, I always knew there were a lot of Balti houses, but...
[link|http://www.thebaltiguide.com/listing/|http://www.thebaltiguide.com/listing/]

!


Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
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New I would tend to agree with you on both . .
. . the "Stan" of origin and that it is named after the vessel it is cooked and served in.

This is not to imply that it is in any way "not authentic", just that its authenticity is Birmingham. The curry cuisine of England is well known to be evolving rapidly away from it's Indian and Pakistani roots to become its own thing.

There is no "authentic" cuisine in India anyway. Cooking there makes liberal, in fact essential use of chilis, bell peppers (capsicum), tomatoes, potatoes and beans brought from Central America, tamerind from Africa and other ingredients from China and Persia.

Particularly in the southwest, Indian cuisine has been transformed by Persia, Portugal (Goa/vindaloo) and England, in the northwest by the Moguls (Muslims), and in the northeast many dishes are of Chinese origin.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
New Indian food is a lot like the french
having to deal with well rotted meat spicing becomes an art,
thanx,
bill
In Bush\ufffds America, fighting terrorism abroad is used as a pretext for vanquishing civil liberties at home. David Podvin
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
New But meat came relatively late - with the Moguls.
The spicing was already well developed for vegetables and dried beans, peas and lentils. It was vegetarian spicing that was adapted to meat in many cases.

In India, I think it was the huge number of spices and ready availability that did the trick, and in France the prestige of the high expense (you could always have salted or pickled your meat to preserve it on the cheap - or tossed it in a sauce pot and stewed it forever as in Italy).
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
New french cooking came because of meat shortages due
to the continental blockade, and Paris having a large population without a timely distribution system after the first republic. Meat in paris was a gamey affair and the sauces etc were geared to hide the fact that the grub was well beyond its prime. In the case of India you are correct, but it also was a good way to kill the flavor of tired chicken and beef.
thanx,
bill
In Bush\ufffds America, fighting terrorism abroad is used as a pretext for vanquishing civil liberties at home. David Podvin
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
New Book Recommendation
[link|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0563370777/qid=1080198479/sr=8-11/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i11_xgl14/103-9362401-4837436?v=glance&s=books&n=507846|http://www.amazon.co...&s=books&n=507846]


Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
     Right curious, Sahib . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (16)
         Funny thought - (deSitter) - (11)
             Indian cuisine is three . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (10)
                 Re: Indian cuisine is three . . - (deSitter) - (9)
                     If you liked that.... - (pwhysall) - (8)
                         Balti must be a Brit thing. - (Andrew Grygus) - (7)
                             Note: - (pwhysall) - (2)
                                 OK, I'll edit it out. - (Andrew Grygus) - (1)
                                     Thanks. -NT - (pwhysall)
                             Yup, did some checking. - (Andrew Grygus) - (3)
                                 Originated in Brumistan. - (pwhysall) - (2)
                                     Now, I always knew there were a lot of Balti houses, but... - (pwhysall)
                                     I would tend to agree with you on both . . - (Andrew Grygus)
         Indian food is a lot like the french - (boxley) - (2)
             But meat came relatively late - with the Moguls. - (Andrew Grygus) - (1)
                 french cooking came because of meat shortages due - (boxley)
         Book Recommendation - (pwhysall)

Hatten ar din, hatten ar din. Hatten ar din, hatt baby!
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