Sue Darlow
Feb 4 2005, 06:40 PM
Hello
folkesLook what I spotted in my Italian supermarket today - "Delhi Curry, Instant Noodles Indian Style"
Includes noodles, dried vegetables and a sauce. The sauce's ingredients include - vegetable oils, soya sauce, sugar, cumin, flavour enhancer, curry, salt, powder chilli, thickening agent and spices.
Made in China.
Italy is not really too familiar with real Indian food yet, but the Chinese version has already hit the supermarket shelves!
Sue
Rumali Roti
Feb 4 2005, 09:49 PM
Only recently noticed the fine print on my Vicco Vajardanti toothpaste (that I always brush my teeth vigorusly to while humming a highly energetic rendition of the radio jingle) advertising it is a VEGAN toothpaste. Makes you wonder what's in Colgate and Crest.
Sue Darlow
Feb 5 2005, 02:16 AM
Hmmmm.... I ate the noodles today. I can't say I was transported back to the dusty environs of Lajpatnagar... but I did dip my finger in the sauce to taste it before mixing it with the noodles and it was rather nice - reminded me a little of a sauce that the Thais use, with soya sauce, garlic, chilli and sugar - anyone know the name of this sauce and got a recipe?
Sue
gingerly
Feb 5 2005, 02:27 AM
arnab
Feb 5 2005, 02:35 AM
didn't/doesn't maggi noodles come in a flavor called "masala"? and i'm sure many other indianized flavors have been developed over the years.
Sue Darlow
Feb 5 2005, 03:25 AM
| QUOTE (arnab @ Feb 5 2005, 02:35 AM) |
| didn't/doesn't maggi noodles come in a flavor called "masala"? and i'm sure many other indianized flavors have been developed over the years. |
I suppose I was just amused that Indian food - "Curry" - is sold here as flavoured noodles, that's all.
Sort of like as if Italian food were to 'arrive' in China as pizza flavoured popcorn or something. Bear in mind that a supermarket like the one I bought this at has a VERY limited selection of anything considered the remotest bit foreign. Even this has come about only in the last few years.
Sue
Sue Darlow
Feb 13 2005, 11:19 PM
I picked up this book on my last trip to India -
The photo is printed upside down, among other things...
It is dedicated to "my daughter Proteeti, whose favourite dinner consists of dal- chawal and potato chips."
I fancied a book that had lots of interesting variations on the basic dal-chawal meal, but was unprepared for the eclectic variety of dishes on offer, from "Moong dal with paneer and oranges" to "Upside down meat loaf", from "Polynesian boats" to "Peruvian mutton soup", as well as a recipe for misal which lists 45 ingredients.
It also has a recipe for "instant biryani".
I haven't tried out any recipes yet, but it sounds like it could be either a treasure chest or a complete disaster. What's the betting?
Sue
gingerly
Feb 14 2005, 03:43 AM
anil
Feb 14 2005, 11:31 AM
At the local neighbourhood supermarket, Lots of packaged foods including Potato Chips a.k.a Gol-Gappe flavored. I did not have my camera to capture som of the new-new stuff- Like Italian Pasta indian style and many types of chaat masala from M.H.D
More later [as I get used to 3-1/2 meals a day and 12 hours of procrastination
]
(Today we'll attempt a visit to a mega HaldiRam in NH8 Highway near Gurgaon)
ravum
Feb 14 2005, 06:03 PM
| QUOTE (Sue Darlow @ Feb 13 2005, 11:19 PM) |
I haven't tried out any recipes yet, but it sounds like it could be either a treasure chest or a complete disaster.What's the betting?
|
I have this book and picked it up for pretty much the same reasons.The author is a Bengali,so most of the Bong recipes are good.The others are iffy.The simple ones are usually okay but stay clear of the 45 ingredient ones.
I am not too fond of cooking with fruits,so was hoping to find some recipes that might make me change my mind.Didnt happen.
doffles
Feb 14 2005, 07:09 PM
if you want to give fusion cooking a shot , try these -
- puliyodarai pasta
- chana masala couscous
[ i have, and they were unmitigated disasters .. culinary progress is predicated on such improvisations ! ]
Rushina
Feb 15 2005, 09:59 AM
I have moved the fruit curry portions of this thread into a thread all on their own.
Rushina
gingerly
Feb 18 2005, 05:31 AM
gingerly
Feb 22 2005, 09:29 AM
gingerly
Mar 4 2005, 12:48 PM
| QUOTE (Sue Darlow @ Feb 4 2005, 06:40 PM) |
Hello folkes
Look what I spotted in my Italian supermarket today - "Delhi Curry, Instant Noodles Indian Style"
Includes noodles, dried vegetables and a sauce. The sauce's ingredients include - vegetable oils, soya sauce, sugar, cumin, flavour enhancer, curry, salt, powder chilli, thickening agent and spices.
Made in China.
Italy is not really too familiar with real Indian food yet, but the Chinese version has already hit the supermarket shelves!
Sue |
| QUOTE |
| Branded 'Sunfeast Pasta Treat,' the ready to cook instant pasta with sauce maker would initially be sold in the city and extended to other urban centres in the country after a couple of weeks. |
| QUOTE |
The launch marked ITC's foray into the ready to cook instant snacks category.
While the masala flavour will cost Rs 12 a packet of 83 gm, the other flavours - tomato and cheese, sour cream onion and cheese - were priced at Rs 15 each. Against this, an Italian product would cost Rs 85, an ITC official said.
Naware said the tastebuds of young urbanites were changing and they were looking for something new in the food variety. Pasta had been gaining ground in the urban centres and the entry would be a pioneering one. -
|
gingerly
Mar 7 2005, 08:56 AM
gingerly
Apr 17 2005, 12:15 PM
| QUOTE |
| At Kaleva, we have sworn to keep India healthy, fit and fine. For this we have an extensive range of ghee or non pasteurized butter sweets. No celebration in India is complete without these sweets. And if you taste one, we are sure you would be back for more. Being health conscious we take special care to use highly unsaturated ghee and easily digestible raw materials. But we would recommend you to at least try our Sohan Halwa, for once, which is made of special desi ghee fit for consumption by heart patients too |
Swati
Apr 17 2005, 02:06 PM
This kind of hokum apart, Kaleva is a fantastic place! It's my favourite sweet shop in Delhi, and their karigar (artisans) are great with both sweet and savoury stuff. I'm not a fan of Sohan Halwa, and haven't tasted their version, but they make amazing moong daal halwa and gajar halwa during winters. All year round you can get excellent kaju burfi, ghiya (bottle gourd) burfee and rasmalai.
The savoury section is so great, I defy anyone to find a better plate of dahi pakori in Delhi than the one served in Kaleva.
The family that operates the place are Rajasthani baniyas who settled in Old Delhi almost a century ago. Hence they have some Rajasthani staples like Raj Kachori on the menu as well.
What I like best about Kaleva is that despite their immense popularity, they have resisted the urge to replicate the Haldiram, Bikanerwala and Aggarwals business model and start branches all over the place. I don't know how long this would last though, it's quite tempting to expand and cash in on a formidable reputation. For those travelling to Delhi, I would strongly urge a Kaleva visit.
gingerly
May 5 2005, 01:22 AM
ratanjyotroot,root bark and some colour extracted in oil-the actual colour is more beetroot pink.the smell will be familiar to anyone who's been to a buddhist monastery.
gingerly
Nov 18 2005, 01:03 AM
all that talk of special k reminds me-check out the
battle creek museumleila hospital?savita soup cubes?no wonder he was excommunicated
gingerly
Apr 12 2006, 12:26 AM
| QUOTE |
The Mahatma has been many things to many people. But when an Australian company portrayed him as a cook to sell beef curry, his great-grandson decided things had gone too far.
Tushar Gandhi today requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the matter with the Australian government and stop the New South Wales-based Handi Ghandi Pvt Ltd from abusing the Mahatma’s memory. |
| QUOTE |
Tushar Gandhi would have had no problems as long as the Mahatma sold the company’s samosas, vegetable curries, parathas, naans, chutneys, salads and biryanis. It was the Beef Madras, beef vindaloo, lamb rogan josh, Bombay Fish and butter chicken that got his goat.
“I have nothing against non-vegetarian food,” the relative said, “but using Bapu’s image to sell meat curry is too much. I probably would not have raised the issue if the company had promoted vegetarianism and health food.” |
Mrinalini
Apr 12 2006, 12:34 AM
don't these goras have any homegrown folks/symbols to promote their wares. i mean, everything from shoes to toilet seat covers to beer depends on 'inspiration' for names from the east.
RedPepper
Apr 16 2006, 07:24 AM
Anyone remember maggie noodles used to come in 'Capsicum' flavor? I used to love it, but they stopped making it loooooooong time ago.
arnab
Apr 16 2006, 09:13 AM
capsika was the name of the flavour, i think. in the beginning there were only 3 or 4 flavours, right? i know masala was another one. anyone remember the others? i remember how excited we were when maggi instant noodles hit the market in india--in fact, i don't think any food product since then has ever excited me so much. this excitement is probably incomprehensible to anyone who didn't grow up in pre-liberalization india.
Sue Darlow
Apr 16 2006, 01:33 PM
Arnab
I remember way back in the early to mid seventies, buying Maggie stock cubes singly (they were displayed in a glass jar) from the local bhania and enjoying hot "soup" in a cup...
RedPepper
Apr 17 2006, 08:04 PM
Oh! Was it capsika? I don't remember exactly. I only remember that I loved it a lot and I was so sad when my dad couldn't find it in the shops. I even forgot how it tasted.
Sue Darlow
May 13 2006, 08:56 PM
So, I was in the local Bangladeshi shop the other day and the guy running it asked if I had any children, and when I replied that I had a young daughter, he immediately went over and picked up a packet of masala muri to give me "for your daughter". How sweet, a very common S Asian gesture.
Anyway, I notice that lots of produce from Bangladesh, especially frozen fish and suchlike, has the legend on it - FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. How very reassuring!
But when I turned this particular packet over to look at the ingredients, I was startled to find an even more alarming assurance -
Shahpar, can you throw any light on this kind of labelling?
hibiscus
May 13 2006, 09:10 PM
I'd surmise that what it means is, urea-free fertiliser was used.
gingerly
May 14 2006, 02:14 AM
the'fit for human consumption'labelling may have something to do with mustard oil.though why it would be on frozen fish i don't know.dried fish has problems with insects during the curing stages so it would make sense to label that.
gingerly
Sep 25 2006, 09:00 PM
milagai
Sep 26 2006, 05:25 PM
QUOTE(arnab @ Apr 16 2006, 09:13 AM)
capsika was the name of the flavour, i think. in the beginning there were only 3 or 4 flavours, right? i know masala was another one. anyone remember the others? i remember how excited we were when maggi instant noodles hit the market in india--in fact, i don't think any food product since then has ever excited me so much. this excitement is probably incomprehensible to anyone who didn't grow up in pre-liberalization india.
Arnab - I'm feeling truly ancient....
The flavors I remember were: chicken, capsika and lasanya - the latter
being apparently a pun on lasagna and lahsun (garlic), as the noodles
were garlic flavored......
Milagai
Sue Darlow
Nov 4 2006, 08:38 PM
I was amazed to come across this today, I had no idea olives were used (or grown?) in Bangladesh, which is where this pickle was manufactured. Can anyone throw light on this?
shahpar
Nov 4 2006, 08:54 PM
they sell pran in italy? cool! i'm so proud!
not only are olives grown in bangladesh, we have various types of olive pickles and bhartas. some are khatta, some are meetha! we make them at home with gur and mustard oil. my dadi used to make the best olive pickle evvvver, obviously.
forgot to mention earlier: its called jolpai in bangla and they are a bit like the green olives you get in europe.
-shahpar
Sue Darlow
Nov 4 2006, 10:45 PM
Yup, I bought this today in a Bangladeshi shop here in Italy.
I am intrigued, are the olives grown indigenous Asian cousins of the European ones, or are they Mediterranean imports? Do they have a long history of being grown in Bangladesh? Also, I imagine they are also grown in other parts of East India? Are they ever just preserved in salt or brine, like in Europe?
When I taste it, I will report back.
loislane
Nov 5 2006, 12:32 AM
Sue, see
here for some discussion.
Sue Darlow
Nov 5 2006, 01:19 AM
QUOTE(loislane @ Nov 4 2006, 10:02 PM)
Sue, see
here for some discussion.
Oh, I missed the bulk of that discussion while I was traveling in India last year, although I appear to have posted in an unrelated way about olives when I got back!
So, to sum up, there is something similar to an olive, but not actually an olive, that is called jalpai ("Indian Olive") that grows in Eastern India and Bangladesh?
I will eat some tomorrow for sure and tell you if what are in the pickles are olives.
shahpar
Nov 5 2006, 01:24 AM
it is not something similar to olives that is grown in bangladesh, jolpais are olives.
details.-shahpar
shahpar
Nov 5 2006, 01:32 AM
QUOTE(Sue Darlow @ May 13 2006, 03:26 PM)
But when I turned this particular packet over to look at the ingredients, I was startled to find an even more alarming assurance -
Shahpar, can you throw any light on this kind of labelling?
i had missed this earlier.
sometimes urea fertiliser is used to whiten muri while frying.-shahpar
anil
Nov 5 2006, 02:01 AM
QUOTE(shahpar @ Nov 4 2006, 05:54 PM)
it is not something similar to olives that is grown in bangladesh, jolpais are olives.
details.-shahpar
According to your link -
QUOTE
The olive that is found in Bangladesh is a different plant, Elaeocarpus floribundus, commonly known as Indian olive or jalpai, cultivated widely as sour fruit. It is a much branched deciduous tree and bears oblong green one-seeded fleshy fruits (3 ´ 2 cm). The ripe fruit is edible or used as pickle. Unlike true olive no such oil is present in Indian olive. The flowering and fruiting time is December. Although largely a homestead plant, it also occurs wild in the forests of Chittagong and Sylhet regions. [Mostafa Kamal Pasha]
shahpar
Nov 5 2006, 02:28 AM
so true olive is the one that has oil. off with the heads of all bongs who have been calling the oil-free-jolpai, "olives".
shahpar
Sue Darlow
Nov 5 2006, 04:02 AM
Oh my, this is all getting more and more confusing. According to Wikipedia -
Elaeocarpus is a genus of tropical and subtropical evergreen trees and shrubs, of which
Elaeocarpus floribundus is a species.
The Olive (Olea europaea) is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, of which
Olea cuspidata * (Iran to China) is a subspecies.
Tomorrow I will report whether this fruit in the pickle
tastes like an olive!
* You will have to scroll down and click on the relevant link.
Wildflower
Nov 5 2006, 04:14 AM
How did I miss this whole discussion and the previous iteration? BTW, the potential confusion is recognized right in the botanical name -- Elaeocarpus is from the greek for olive fruit.
The "Thai olives" you see in pickle form in various Asian store are also in the Elaeocarpus family. Not true olives.
And just to make things more interesting, the rudraksha tree (Elaeocarpus ganitra) is in the same family.
Sue Darlow
Nov 5 2006, 02:57 PM
OK, so I opened the jar and fished out the top fruit, which for an olive was pretty large, about four centimeters long (some olive varieties can be this big, but most olive varieties are much smaller) -
I then ate it up. It was certainly olive-y, but it was also covered in quite a strong masala taste, so difficult to judge conclusively. The flesh was pretty squishy, though even olives can get squishy with certain marinades/treatments.
Here is the washed stone -
And here is is next to the stone of a regular, medium sized black olive that I happened to have in my house -
Sue Darlow
Nov 25 2006, 02:54 AM
I guess this is supposed to help all those mothers who find it hard to get their kids to eat five helpings of fruit and veg a day - Fruit and Vegetable Low Fat Yogurts!
Voilà -
Shown here is mango and pumpkin flavour. We could taste the mango, and something else a little weird. My daughter loves pumpkin, but she didn't like it in this yogurt!
Others in the range include apple and spinach, strawberry and tomato, blueberry and carrot, and pineapple and fennel.
Sue Darlow
Nov 27 2006, 03:02 AM
While we could taste "something a little weird" in the mango and pumpkin flavoured yogurt, the apple and spinach one was just plain weird all round! Sort of like eating a furry textured apple - bleah!
gingerly
Nov 30 2006, 10:50 AM
strange stuff. i wonder how they stop the spinach from turning the yogurt green.
notsogifted
Nov 30 2006, 11:13 AM
QUOTE(gingerly @ Nov 29 2006, 11:20 PM)
strange stuff. i wonder how they stop the spinach from turning the yogurt green.
looks green, doesn't it? unless some other furry stuff got in...
gingerly
Nov 30 2006, 11:27 AM
true, but such a pale shade. wonder how much spinach there is in that serving.
ViShVa
Dec 11 2006, 08:10 PM
QUOTE(gingerly @ May 4 2005, 07:52 PM)
ratanjyotroot,root bark and some colour extracted in oil-the actual colour is more beetroot pink.the smell will be familiar to anyone who's been to a buddhist monastery.
Hmm, Sue's post
Here led me to
This (http://www.curryslim.com/products.htm) QUOTE
The use of 100% natural edible red colour Ratan Jot in any form i.e. root, herb, spice, powder, liquidised or presentation in commercial food is copyright and IP International of Manvinder Deol T/A Curryslim by Tiny Deol. Ratan Jot ; classed as a herb/root/spice has been used by Tiny Deol for nearly 26 years.
All commercial use of Ratan Jot in food is prohibited world wide under Tiny Deol copyright and IP right.
...
Please note that use of Beetroot (fresh, cooked, puree, juice and powder) as a reddish edible food colour is also Intellectual Property right of Tiny Deol. Apart from salads, none of the commercial prepared foods can use beetroot in the above form for the purposes of colour, flavour, texture, nutrient and garnish without contractual licence with Tiny Deol.
Hmm - I wonder about the validity of such a beetroot patent! Is ratan jot a trademark? puzzled...
Edited - correct links
anzu
Dec 11 2006, 11:34 PM
Out of curiousity I just did a patent search in the U.S. Patent Office database to see if there are any patents using beets as food coloring - also searched for Curryslim, Tiny Deol, ratan jot/jyot, etc. Suprise suprise, zero hits on the latter. And though patents using beets as food coloring do appear, this is always in conjuction with some other innovation.
In fact, in one of the patents where beetroot is being used as a food coloring, I came across the following
QUOTE
Among the food colorants that are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as permanently listed and exempt from certification is a red colorant of dehydrated beets (beet powder).
So Curryslim is claiming intellectual property rights for something which has USFDA approval and is in common use. Hmmm
To acquire a patent, you are meant to demonstrate novelty, inventiveness, and industrial applicability. Although sometimes the process goes awry (didn't someone in the US patent neem, and then the patent get contested?), I definitely fail to see novelty, etc. in this case.
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