196 replies to this topic

[AaronS]

american chinese restaurants are at a different stage in development than american indian restaurants are. it used to be a lot harder to find regionally distinct chinese food, especially outside new york. I guess I don't know why that is, but it does make me think it might get better.

[splinky]

I don't like to write about Tulsi because we get comped an incredible amount of food whenever we go, but the kitchen is really in great form right now. In particular, one dish we had the other night - Goan style seafood curry - was a delicious combination of barely cooked bay scallops, shrimps and fish that were all well above the quality you usually get in Indian restaurants.

darn it, could have had lunch there today but i never remember until too late that hemant's in midtown now.

[Daisy]

I am 'working' two days next week, and by working I mean sitting around the office all day bitching with my colleagues, awaiting the odd phone call from one of the big guns playing in Palm Beach wanting us to do some last minute trade or transfer. This type of work day definitely encompasses a lunch with alcohol, and we're a block and a half from Tulsi. Hmmmmm.........

[Orik]

maybe you can explain this to me Ori--why is it that regional styles of Chinese cooking are all exceptionally distinct to me, immediately recognizable, and clearly available at discrete restaurants across the country, whereas I have a much more difficult time identifying regional differences in Indian cooking (and different regional styles seem much much more difficult to find)

a few disorganized thoughts:

- Why do you care? I mean, can you recognize regional differences in Japanese cuisine? You don't really care, right? Then why is it so important in Indian cuisine? What do you think will be the benefit of having Indian restaurants specializing in the cuisine of one region?

- A decade and a half ago it was far more difficult to find this diversity of Chinese cuisine except maybe in some places around LA. There was the odd Sichuanese here and the random Shanghai style place there, but as a rule of thumb if you picked up a Chinese menu it would be Cantonese + Chinese American + Superbly pathetic versions of a few Sichuanese dishes. Not to mention the Chinese-Jewish dishes.

- In part this is related to the development of restaurant cuisine in China and especially in the Chinese interior.

- It's very easy to tell Cantonese from Sichuanese and Hunanese - texture and protein cookery technique vs spice, fermentation and oil. I don't know if you'd be able to tell Sichuan from Hunan or guess if a specific dish is from one of those or from Shanghai. Maybe it's not so easy with many Indian regional cuisines (except the vegan bits, and the coconut bits)

- Because there hasn't been as much interest in Indian regional cooking (Again, I have no idea if that's good or bad), many high end Indian restaurants believe their menus should include selections from the entire subcontinent. I don't know if this is good or bad as these dishes for the most part are all strongly spiced and there doesn't seem to be some huge clash in serving them together. I don't really know how high-end restaurants are in India but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that they also serve a broad selection with a focus on meat and seafood (to justify their high-endedness)

- Maybe you're not trying very hard - you can find southern vegetarian, chinese indian, and generic indian restaurant food on one corner of Lexington Ave. None of them are that good, but that's not the point.

eta: totally unrelated, but check out Collapse VII. I just got it and haven't looked at it yet but it seems like it should at least have some interesting reading.

[irnscrabblechf52]

maybe you can explain this to me Ori--why is it that regional styles of Chinese cooking are all exceptionally distinct to me, immediately recognizable, and clearly available at discrete restaurants across the country, whereas I have a much more difficult time identifying regional differences in Indian cooking (and different regional styles seem much much more difficult to find)

eta: totally unrelated, but check out Collapse VII. I just got it and haven't looked at it yet but it seems like it should at least have some interesting reading.

conceptual art?

[Lex]

Collapse VII

About this Volume

Is it possible to maintain that cookery has a philosophical pertinence without merely appending philosophy to our burgeoning gastroculture? How might the everyday sense of the culinary be expanded into a culinary materialism wherein synthesis, experimentation, and operations of mixing and blending take precedence over analysis, subtraction and axiomatisation?

Drawing on resources ranging from anthropology to chemistry, from hermetic alchemy to contemporary mathematics, Collapse VII: Culinary Materialism undertakes a trans-modal experiment in culinary thinking, excavating the cultural, industrial, physiological, chemical and even cosmic grounds of cookery, and proposing new models of culinary thought for the future.

Dense and chewy. I feel really full after reading that.

[Wilfrid]

And Sri Lankan. That's different too.

ETA: Just had a thought. Is it something to do with immigration patterns? In the UK, "Indian cooking" has generally meant Bangladeshi cooking, because those are the people who came and opened restaurants.

I have no idea if it's been the same in the States.

[Suzanne F]

Probably, yes. Same with Chinese food.

[Orik]

Right, Sri Lankan, known for crepes with funny names, available (poorly) right here on 6th Street & 1st Ave where epileptics are not welcome.

Don't forget Spicy Mina, a cuisine of patience and intrigue that seems to be available nowhere and everywhere. Eponymous Bangladeshi.

[Wilfrid]

Sigiri is not great. I ate some of the "crepes" at a launch party for Rice and Curry, and wished Skiz, the author, had been able to prepare his own food.

[Daisy]

Spicy Mina, a cuisine of patience and intrigue

[Lex]

Mina was nuts and so was Leff. They were made for each other.

[TaliesinNYC]

Mina was nuts and so was Leff. They were made for each other.

the likes of which will not come again.

*sniff*

[Lex]

Mina was nuts and so was Leff. They were made for each other.

the likes of which will not come again.

*sniff*

Leff holds all the patents on Crazy.

[StephanieL]

Right, Sri Lankan, known for crepes with funny names, available (poorly) right here on 6th Street & 1st Ave where epileptics are not welcome.

Don't forget Spicy Mina, a cuisine of patience and intrigue that seems to be available nowhere and everywhere. Eponymous Bangladeshi.

Spicy Mina has been gone for some time.

Has anyone been to Banana Leaf, the Sri Lankan place on West 28th, or any of the restaurants on Staten Island near St. George?