Blog Etiquette and Eating in NYC

The title of my post might have you baffled, there is no correlation between the phrases before and after "and" except of course for me both has to do with food.

I have been blogging for some time now with considerable gaps in between.In my blogging life many of the people on the right sidebar, on my archaic blogroll has fallen off the blogosphere. I still have them there,I don't update that list, it is a list of all those bloggers I had encountered early on. There is a special connection with them, no I don't know their e-mail ids or anything about them except what they cared to put on their blog but I still have them like old friends. The new ones with whom I have forged a connection are on my Reader, as I get to know more I slowly add them there.

And though I try to keep my virtual space separate from the real one, for me the same basic rules apply for both. If a friend in my real life would have been hurt I will stand up for her. If I meet people who don't mind their P's and Q's I would gently try to remind them (come on I am a Mom, that is my job).


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Blog Etiquette 101 for the un-initiated. Readers are welcome to add on to this.

1. You do not plagiarize. You do not lift pictures or posts in entirety without asking. You can do excerpts with acknowledgment but sorry not the whole thing

2. You do not leave rude comments or make snide remarks regarding a blogger's posts. You can disagree, you have your full right to do so but then you do it politely

3. Everyone has a right to their opinion. Just like you have so does the blogger you are bashing. When your post is a rant/bash against another blogger's posts, do so openly and politely. Give a link to the post you are venting against, clearly voice your opinions and state why you disagree/agree. This will prevent readers from leaving snide comments and generally enjoying a controversy.

4. If your rant is not triggered by another blogger's posts and it is your own original copyrighted rant do not encourage comments which seem to suggest otherwise. That means, do not say " Thanks for understanding" and such nonsense when a reader comments "Yeah how can someone make Bitter gourd with brinjal, ridiculous"

5. Even if a blog post makes you mad, do not use bad language that might hurt the blogger's sentiment while blogging or commenting. You see only a slice of a blogger's life on the web, you have no clue as to what might have made her write/think that way. If you are still angry, take a deep breath and practice Bhujanga asana.

6. You have full freedom to bash anyone from your personal life on your blog. If they read you, god bless you my child.

Though we live in suburbia, close to NYC, we hardly go there. Both D and me being city phobic we stay away from the Big Bad Apple unless it is absolutely necessary that the city be blessed with our presence. The past weekend found us there roaming the galleries of Met and sampling some great NYC street food prepared by the city's sidewalk chefs

Biryani Cart, winner of the Vendy Award has an awesome menu. It was hard to decide what not to eat with the kind of food they had there. If you are in the area do check out this cart on 46th and 6th. And can you believe how cheap it is, the box of biryani came at $5.50 and so did the other one and the quantity is a little over sufficient for a hungry adult. Ok I ate one whole box, so what !!! There is no place where you can sit and enjoy your meal though, you can pack your lunch from here and have a nice picnic at Central Park instead.

We finally settled for some delicious Chicken Biryani and...

... a Lamb on Rice. This is an Afghani dish but at this particular cart the dish is more spicier and tasted much better than what I have had before.

Do you see that proud Vendy Award winner cert ?

Rickshaws in front of the Met. A greener, cleaner Calcutta ?

We then had Kati Rolls after just 3 hours of this at the Kati Roll Company. We shared two unda chicken rolls and unda shammi kebab rolls. They were delicious and too filling. I liked the Egg Chicken Rolls better than the Shammi Kebab one. My woe of missing out on Calcutta style Rolls were assuaged by 95%.

Jeet Thayil of India in New York says that "If you have to ask what a Kati Roll is, you haven't lived." So true. But back home it is more popularly known as The Egg Roll except of course at Hot Kati on Park Street(Kolkata) whose rolls are famous as Hot Kati Rolls. I hope the Hot Kati guy knows how his naming is the food lingo in the streets of a busy city across the globe.



Important !!!

Oh, and I forgot to ask something very important. I need some help from my readers here in the US. If any of you have used the following colors for your home, please,please leave me a comment with your e-mail id. I want pictures of homes painted with any of these -- Benjamin Moore Suntan Yellow, BM Lemon Sorbet, BM August Morning, BM Patina, BM Apple Crisp and BM Asbury sand. Please, this is Urgent, search for the right color is keeping me away from the blog so please help if you can.

Bitter Better Uchche

I have always talked about how Bengalis love bitterness, not in life but definitely in their food. A traditional Bengali lunch will almost always begin with some bitter preparation of Bitter Gourd or bitter tender Neem leaves. This is in sync with Ayurveda, with the concept of cleansing your palate before you delve into more complex and rich food.

Of all the bitter foods that we Bengalis are subjected to since childhood, I would say Bitter Gourd or Uchche is the meekest. After years of being subjected to chirotar jal ( chirota, a plant whose leaves were soaked in water to make a bitter concoction), first thing in the morning on weekends you do start appreciating uchche. Even thinking of chirotar ras gives me the shudders and makes me glad that I grew up and have enough liberty to declare a chirota free house.

And then there was Kalmegh, the nightmare. See the name, KalMegh loosely translates to Dark Cloud. How could something that sounded so ominous be pleasant ? As a child if my nature at any times turned from sunny to irate or my tantrums over exceeded the usual quota my Ma attributed the behavior to worms in my tummy rather than behavioral dysfunction(??). Backed with my Dida's support she treated me to kalmegh er bori (crushed leaves of the dreaded kalmegh shaped into pellets) or kalmegh er ros(juice of kalmegh leaves) which were supposed to be potent enough to get rid of worms. Actually she even got a bottle of Kalmegh extract for S which of course I did not dare to use on the unsuspecting child

Truth be told these herbs/medicinal plants did work wonders for the system and my Ma went through a lot of effort to prepare such concoctions. If only I drank them religiously instead of pouring them on the Tulsi in our balcony, I would have flourished today instead of the "still growing strong" Tulsi

Though I have got over those bitter plants, bitter gourd or uchche is a staple on the menu at my home almost every other week. D loves it(yewww !!) and S eats it dipping it in a bowl of yogurt.

Uchche bhaate or Bitter gourd boiled/steamed and then mashed with potatoes, drizzled with mustard oil and salt is the most common thing on the menu. Though we don't add the potatoes any more and serve it just with little mustard oil and salt

Uchche Bhaja or Fried bittergourd is another simple preparation where you chop the bitter gourd in thin slices, smear them with little turmeric and salt and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. You then fry them in smoking mustard oil(any other white oil works) till they are crisp. I usually shallow fry and so mine are not as crispy as my Mom's

Next is the Uchche Begun which is a dry preparation of Bitter Gourd and soft velvety eggplants. Cooked with minimum spices, the eggplant complements the bitter gourd beautifully and yet does not undermine it. When had with steaming rice it is a beautiful starter preparing your palate for better things to come

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Uchche Begun/ Bitter Gourd and tender eggplants

Prep: Wash and chop two medium sized bitter gourd to small pieces. Wash and chop two medium sized Japanese eggplants, the long slender ones, in small cubes

Start Cooking:

Heat Oil(preferably Mustard Oil but others work fine) in a Kadhai/Frying pan

Fry the eggplants with 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder till they are soft and lightly browned. Do NOT deep fry as in begun bhaja

Remove and keep aside

Temper the oil with 1/2 tsp of Kalonji/Nigella seeds and 5-6 slit hot Indian Green Chillies

Add the bitter gourd, sprinkle a little turmeric and saute till they are soft. Usually I cover and stir in between with a sprinkle of water to hasten the process and not to make the bitter gourd crunchy

Once they are soft, add the eggplants

Add salt, mix all nicely together and cook till both the veggies are done

The end result is a bitter medley of eggplant and bitter gourd. Standard way of eating is mixed with white rice



Other dishes with bitter gourd:

Uchche Posto Jhuri


Shukto

Mator Dal ar Begun Bhaja

The Earth's population will surge to EIGHT BILLION by 2025. With increase in population comes an increased demand of food. When this surging population consumes more food that it is able to produce, food prices skyrocket as it did last year.

While we balked at the rice price last year we also gradually became accustomed to it. It is not the same for all people though, higher food prices push more people towards poverty. A's nanny says in Bangladesh food prices are so high that it is hard for the middle class to feed themselves unless one member of the family works in the western world and thus earns high wages.

To meet rising food demand, intellectuals say we need another Green Revolution, the kind that doubled the grain production in Asia especially India during the 60s and 70s. Really ? Aren't theHigh-yield grain varieties, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and the works that worked wonders at the time showing there wrath now. Why do you think villages in Punjab, our one time 'bread basket' are suffering the wraths of cancer today ?

A Greener Revolution may work better says an UN Panel. Duh ? Sustainable farming methods such as composting, crop rotation and interplanting with legumes has been proved to better soil quality, increase yield and reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers.

An interesting low cost project in norther Malawi in Africa, SFHC (Soil, Food and Healthy Comunities project) distributes legume seeds, recipes and technical advice for growing crops like peanut, pigeon peas and soy bean which enrich the soil by fixing nitrogen while enriching the diet as well. Farmers there say, that by crop rotation they have increased yield and cut down fertilizer usage by half.

The projects hogging the limelight however are those by the big shot foundations which focus on bringing Green Revolution to Africa with subsidized farming programs, fertilizers and hybrid seeds. (Source: NatGeo)

Which model will prevail will depend on the powers pushing them. But whatever it is, the surging masses needs to be fed and if that can be achieved with a lower ecological impact planet earth will have few more years of survival.



I love my legumes, a bowl or two of Dal a day keeps me happy. While my favorite is the Red Masoor Dal I rotate my legumes to take advantage of all. Mator Dal or Split peas are the dried peeled and split seeds of Pisum sativum. They come in yellow and green varieties. They have been mechanically split so that they will cook faster.

They are very different from the Indian Toor Dal or Chana Dal though they look similar

Though this dal is relatively common in Bengal, my Ma seldom made it except for in a Tak Dal and consequently I never did. A friend introduced this to me. And it is she from whom I got both the recipes. These are the two ways I have made Mator dal(Split peas) one with veggies the other without. For indexing purposes they are two separete posts.

Check out Sabji Diye Mator Dal or Mator dal with Veggies. Both these dishes go to MLLA # 12 hosted by Annarasa and initiated by none other than Susan

This lovely earthy Mator Dal was what I packed for lunch with some Begun Bhaja and a roasted grape tomato garlic salad. I always love having a bowl of Dal rather than a thick soup. Completely satisfying for both the soul and the tummy. The roasted tomato salad and the eggplants gave the Dal the color and pizzaz that it was missing being earthy and all

The Begun Bhaja or Fried Eggplant is a very simple Bengali delicacy. I see a lot of recipes where the Begun Bhaja is prepared with lots of spices but the ones I have had in my home or other Bengali homes and eventually make are always the simple ones with absolutely no spice other than turmeric. They do soak up some oil so I fry the slender japanese eggplants chopped in mini rounds to have smaller portions of begun bhaja, the oven baked ones are no where near in taste.

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Matar Dal/Split Peas

Wash and cook 1 & 1/4 cup of Yellow Split Peas in the pressure cooker with a little turmeric. You can cook in a pot too, it will take longer time though

In a deep bottomed pan heat 3 tsp Oil + 1/2 tsp Ghee

Temper with 1 tsp of Whole Cumin Seeds/Jeera, 3 cloves of garlic minced

When the spices splutter add half of a chopped red onion and 4-5 slit green chillies

Fry till the onion turns a nice pink and is softened

Add the cooked Dal and mix well

Add salt and desired amount of water. I think I added about 1-2 cups of water. Let the dal come to a boil

Just before taking off the heat add a little ghee and 1/2 tsp of Garam Masala powder


We enjoyed this simple Dal with some Begun Bhaja and a roasted salad.

Begun Bhaja

Chop a good quality eggplant in thick rounds or cut vertically

Wash well, pat dry and smear with little turmeric and salt. Set aside for 10-15 minutes

Heat Mustard Oil to smoking.

Slide the eggplant slices gently into the hot oil and fry till golden. Take out with a slotted spoon and drain on a kitchen towel

To make the roasted salad, in a decent sized aluminum foil throw together 12-15 grape tomatoes, quarter red onion chopped, 3-4 cloves of garlic, olive oil in fair amount and sea-salt. Close the foil to make a pouch. Bake in oven at 375F till the tomato skins are wrinkled up and garlic is soft

For lunch we had just the Dal with this salad and mini begun bhaja



Trivia: The yellow Split peas is the legume used to make Pease Porridge as in the popular children's rhyme "Pease Porridge Hot"