I’m writing on this blog after a while. Just been busy with a lot of other work - started a couple other blogs on issues that piqued my interest and attention more so than food :). Endlesswait.com is one of them. It’s about issues faced by legal immigrants to the United States. However, that’s not what I am going to talk about today.

Disha and I are in San Diego now - moved from Las Vegas where we lived since we got married in May 2006. Though we miss our friends in Las Vegas and the proximity to entertainment, I’ve got to tell you - San Diego feels like the next level of civilization! The weather is SO good I don’t know why the entire country doesn’t just move out here. It’s always close to 70F. Doesn’t get much better than that, does it? And the people are nicer too. Well, the best part (and certainly an important consideration in our move) was the FOOD. There are tons of restaurants. Indian restaurants here are dime a dozen. There are four on my street alone! Two from the same guys. And that’s not counting the multitude of specialty vegan/vegetarian and organic food restaurants that seem to have a larger following here than anywhere else that I’ve seen.

The Indian restaurants I’ve been to so far are:

Madras Cafe - The only one in town that specializes in South Indian food. Very reasonable rates. Have a buffet for lunch on Sundays. If you haven’t tried South Indian food, this is the first one I’d try. The decor and the ambience are really non-existent but the food isn’t bad.

Surati Farsan Mart: This one my favorite, by far. I was asked about this at work, and in case you are wondering too, Surat is the name of a town in the state of Gujarat in India, and Farsan means “snack” in hindi. So they are really the Indian Snack Mart. And for a quick indian snack, noone else in town gets even close to how good their stuff is. They also sell the best Indian sweets in town.

Ashoka: Typical Indian restaurant. Offers a buffet every day for lunch. A lot of people had recommended this one to me but I found the restaurant pretty average. Slightly over-rated in my opinion. And a bit gloomy at night.

Annapurna: They offer certain dishes such as Indian Chinese dishes that others don’t. They are pretty neat and very economically priced. It’s like a little Indian canteen. Dosas are their speciality.

Indian Tandoor, Sher-e-Punjab: They are pretty much the same. Same owners, same menu, same discounts and only a couple of miles apart on the same street - Mira Mesa Blvd. So really, you should only have to pick one. They are authentic and the people are very friendly. I’d recommned this for sure.

Punjabi Tandoor: For some reason, this one’s always crowded. They are in a little corner on Activity Rd. - it’s a wonder people even find them. The location is horrible, the place has almost no covered seating, but yet, this place seems to thrive. I found their food to be average. The are perhaps a dollar or two cheaper per entree compared to Indian Tandoor. But if you are looking for good Punjabi food, then I’d recommend Indian Tandoor over this place.

Another one I can’t remember the name of. The next time I go there, I’ll try to note it down.

My wife Disha and I are connoisseurs of Indian food (we are Indians from Mumbai) and have a special liking for modern Indian fastfood such as  Bhel Puri, Sev Puri, Dahi Poori, Frankies (wraps), Wraps, Etc. We were at Dallas for 5 days and almost ate every single meal at an Indian restaurant. Some of the restaurants we visited were the Chaat Cafe, Mayuri, Indya Fusion, Taj Express (well, almost) and multiple times at most of these places.

Our favorite? Mayuri for South Indian food, Chaat Cafe for chaat and appetizers and Indya Fusion for the lunch buffet. It’s amazing that $25-30 can buy a fantastic vegetarian dinner  for two at any of these restaurants. Of course, none of these are vegetarian-only restaurants but have a sizeable vegetarian selection.

We have a lot of stuff to say about these restaurants…stay tuned..

Off late, I haven’t had the time to write on this blog a lot….because…well, I’ve been writing on my other blogs too much…There is always a question about how to blog…should you blog on all your favorite topics all on one blog? Or should you create separate blogs for each content. The pros and cons are obvious. A single combined blog means that your topics may not have anything to do with each other. One day I’d write about immigration and the next day about vegetarian food. Chances are that the audience to these content is quite different as well, at least there is no reason to believe immigrants are vegetarians :). So, you get my point, your blog loses focus, not such a good thing. Afterall, everyone likes their blogs to have a dedicated readership.

If you create a new blog for each area of interest, you end up with too many blogs too soon. And before you know, you never have the time to  blog on some of these issues on some of your blogs. For instance, I write on http://www.simplosys.com/blog and http://www.endlessswait.com already on top of this blog. I already have at least 2-3 other topics that I want to blog about. So, if I had 5 blogs, and on average, I wrote 3 posts/week (not a bad average for someone working a full time job and running a business on the side) and the writing is just a hobby. At that rate, each of my five blogs would get only 2.4 posts per month to them. That’s usually not enough to maintain a steady daily readership.

After reading several expert opinions from pro bloggers and hobby bloggers, as well as my own personal experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is most rewarding to actually pick the topic that you want to blog about the MOST and focus just on that. Focus on that blog as your primary blog. Post to it daily or at least 3-4 times a week. Any less than that, and you lost a steady readership, you won’t have power-readers who visit you daily. You need to build a community around that site, send them newsletters, etc. With your other topics, you could either club them into your second blog and live with the loss of focus or write separate blogs for them that hardly get any traffic (or make money). Your choice, either way, it’s not going to be an ultra popular blog there unless you are posting something REALLY good that tons of people want to talk about…

Your thoughts and comments are welcome..

I think this Law Firm should be taken to the court!

Read their post - Vegan Diet - A Case of Malnutrition

They do make a point that parents that don’t feed their children right should be punishable under the law. BUT there is a major distinction here. Parents who choose a Vegan diet for thier children have every right to do so. The article makes numerous accusations without any evidence whatsoever and they are a law firm! Can you believe that? Well, here’s why I think this law firm is a disgrace:

1. Artilcle says - There have been studies that show that when women avoid animal food their babies are born small with a slow growth process and retarded. 

Says who? What study? I understand that it’s debatable that babies not be given breast milk and fed supplements instead. But I know many many people that grew up Vegans (I grew up vegetarian) and are very healthy and fine. Honestly, how many sick/malnourished vegan children do you know compared to sick/obese meat-eating children? There is no such study - this law firm is blowing up smoke.

2. The article says - Even though it may look nutritious and healthy, following this diet will lead to serious cases of malnutrition. Recently, the parents of a five-year old girl are facing first-degree assault charges for the seriousness of the malnourishment state that their child presents.

OK. First of all,I thought attorneys and politicians were diplomatic. Look at the wording on this sentence. This is ground enough for charging this law firm for false accusations and misuse of their status as the protectors of the law to make false claims. They never say whether the parents were charged. Anyone can get sued, it is a different matter altogether whether they were actuallyheld guilty.

Anyway, I could go on and on. The point is the Veganism is a choice that some people make just like others choose to eat meat. There are pros and cons to both, just like most other things in life. However, for some Veganism is right for them. In my humble opinion, this group of people is the majority of human beings. Caring for animals, conserving on the planet’s resources, following one’s instinct (that torture and killing are bad) apply to most human beings, regardless of what biased shallow law firms say.

I am not sure the audience of this blog is too concerned with immigration issues, but I thought I’d mention it anyway. Imagine if someone were to say that you can’t be a vegetarian or a vegan, it’s against the law! That would freak you out, right? Well, that’s how immigrants to the US feel at times.

There are too many restrictions on what we can and can’t do. For instance, legal immigrants can’t start their own businesses until they get permanent residency, a process that can take 5-15 years. They can’t travel freely internationally, there are restrictions on that. They can’t even get promoted sometimes! For instance, if I came in as a programmer, but later realized that I make a great Engineering Manager, I can’t just take on that job even if someone were to offer it to me. I would have to stay in a “same or similar” job.

I started a new blog site about problems in the current legal immigration process in the United States - http://www.endlesswait.com. Feel free to mention your thoughts or questions on this topic. I feel about it as strongly as I do for a vegetarian lifestyle.

I wrote a recent post about making chai tea and how it can take less than 5 minutes to make gourmet Indian Chai Tea. I have it every day so I know how awesome it is. I honestly think if Americans and Europeans are waiting to figure out how cool this drink it. It’s got only a third of the caffeine that you find in a regular cup of coffee in the US brewed 5-6 minutes. And it’s got milk which is a wholesome food. So, all in all, I really think it’s a great way to reduce caffeine intake while not going all grumpy on Monday mornings

Image courtesy: www.blogger.com

Anyway, this post was about an accompaniment to Chai tea. There are actually many, but I am going to write about them one by one. They deserve the individual attention :).

Khari biscuit is again something you find almost only in the Indian kitchen. It is pronounced “Car - ee”. They are like puffed pastries or croissants really, not very different than that, but crispier. They are typically rectangular in shape, about the size of a small cell phone. You dunk it in freshly prepared tea and bite into it. The crispy, multi-layered texture with the taste of chai tea in it, BOY! I’ve been a fan of it since the day I started drinking tea.

You should be able to find it at any Indian store in the US or Europe. It should be in the crackers isle. Some sites even provide recipes to make this at home - Homemade Khari Recipe. I understand it’s not the easiest thing to make at home. I would stick to the one from the store unless you like to take on some real exotic cooking challenges.

Almost noone other than Indian people would have heard about this extremely delicious dish - Rajasthani Dal Bhati. It is not one of those things that you find in Indian restaurant. I’ve never seen it served at any Indian restaurant in the US or India or even in most restaurants in India itself. But man, are these restaurants missing out on something awesome!

Image courtesy of Surf India

It is popular the central and western parts of India - in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The people there treat this as their ’staple’ everyday dish. The dish’s speciality is its simplicity and appropriateness for daily meals.

If you are still trying to figure out how to say it, it is pronounced “DAAL BHAATI”. The D is said more like “th” in “the”. I hope that makes sense.

It appears like some mixed ground lentils made into a paste and then rolled into a ball, then lightly friend to form something like a ‘falafel’ or ‘cutlet’. It is served dunked in a boul of spinach soup and traditional Indian pickle. Sometimes the ball is mashed inside this boul as well.

I have no clue how its made. I just had it last night at a friend’s place and can’t stop thinking about it.

I found these posts that provide a recipe.

1. Rajasthani Dal Bhati Recipe
2. Dal Bhati Recipe 2

I am not sure how good it is because I haven’t tried it. But if you want to taste what real homemeade western-Indian food tastes like, go for this one!

They call it the land of innovation. Where every market is saturated with competition. All products that can be made are already there. Well, I am telling you that’s not true. I’ve lived in the US for the last 5 years. And from day 1 when I landed at Cincinnatti airport and went scurrying to find some vegetarian food, I have wondered time and again why there isn’t a nice vegetarian burger widely available in the US? Not just the US, in fact, it is almost everywhere else in the world, except the metro cities in India. I have looked for them at airports in Franfurt, at Singapore, Paris, Abu Dhabi, Bharain, Kuwait and a few more. Nothing. Nada. No sign of the elusive veggie burger.

Now you might be thinking that you’ve seen veggie burgers at the grocery store and at other burger places, so WTH am I blabbering about!? Well, you are right that those are available. But compared to the good ones that I’ve had, they are just so bad that I don’t even count them in.

Veggie burgers can have a Soy base, Gluten base, Rice four base, and the best of them all, a potato curry base. I have not seen a single place in the US that sells the potato-based veggie burger. McDonald’s in India sells them and they are amazing. My mouth waters at the mere thought of those juicy spicy veggie burgers with the fresh warm bun, molten cheese, crispy lettuce and a hint of mayo. Why don’t they make it here? I am almost sure the Americans will love it too. So, that one’s still a mystery to me.

Even the soy ones like the ones at Burger King are usually pretty bad. Instead of the meat-based cheeseburger, they just replace that with an old stale under-cooked burger piece. For Soy burgers, sprouts go really well with it and I’ve seen that in a couple of places including The Habit Burger Grill in the Los Angeles area (Ventura, Encino and a few others) and the Veneetian Resort and Casino at Las Vegas. So the next time you visit LA or Vegas, try them out, they are a delight. Image Courtesy of RosevilleRestaurants.net.

So here’s my requrest/plea/challenge to all the burger fanatics out there - make a veggie burger in the US and I think you will be surprised how much demand there is for it. If you do make a million with this idea, make sure you post a comment here and let me know

Chai tea is to Indians what a cup of black coffee with cream and sugar is to the rest of the world. For the coffee drinkers, it is important to get good coffee AND get it quick. At 6 AM in the morning, when you wake up from sleep and walk towards the kitchen you don’t want to have to use log tables to figure out the coffee formula. Hey, that’s exactly how I feel about tea. Now, I’ve probably had 50+ kinds of teas and at least 10+ kinds of Indian chai teas, ranging from really simple to complex ones that could take a good 30 minutes to make just one cup of tea.

Well, my favorite is the simple one. I love that regardless of where I am in the world, I can make my own little cup of Indian chai tea in less than 5 minutes. Yup, no kidding, less than 5 minutes, I’ve timed it - takes between 4-6 minutes.

So, without further ado, here’s the recipe for THE simplest chai tea in the world.

Ingredients:

1. Chai Tea powder (My favorite is one called Vagh-Bakri Chai that you can get at any Indian stores. Tata Tetley will do it too. Of course the long-leaf expensive Sikkim tea is the best, but I am going for the rather low-end everyday tea for this recipe).
2. Whole Milk (NOT skimmed milk and NOT 2% reduced fat milk. It only needs a little and that’s when it tastes good. If you can’t handle whole milk, I have a tip for you at the end of this reciped).

Sugar

Preparation:

For 1 cup tea,

1. Take half a cup of water in a regular pan.
2. Add 1 teaspoon tea leaves/powder to it and heat on a medium flame.
3. Add half a cup of milk to the mix and keep on the medium flame for 2-3 minutes to let the milk blend well with the tea.
4. Strain the tea leaves using a strainer. Add sugar to taste (usually 1 teaspoon) and serve hot.

THAT’S IT.

Extras - Now, for those of you looking for a little more, here are some ideas.

1. Add peeled, mashed garlic ginger to the water before adding the tea. There you go, you got Ginger Chai Tea now.
2. Add green cardamom or even better black cardamom to make your Cardadmom Chai Tea.
3. OR just buy Indian Chai Masala from the store and add half a teaspoon to the mix for Masala Chai tea.
4. Add clove or cinnamon for a spicy Indian tea.
5. Here’s the tip for those of you that don’t like whole milk. Just add only half a teaspoon of tea leaves instead of 1 teaspoon and then add 1 cup water instead of half. Now have the tea without any milk, and you have Vegan Chai Tea.

Not bad for 5 minutes, eh?

This is not the fancy Dal Makhani that you might have had at the Indian Restauranta. Not the oily Dal Fry either. Just the simple Dal recipe that a lot of Indian people actually eat on a daily basis. It is simple to make, not too spicy, easy to eat (babies to bed-ridden old people can have it), and best of all, just tasty. Like with anything else, simple is usually the best.

Try it and let us know how you like it.

Ingredients

1. Toor Dal: 1 cup
2. Onions: 1 medium sized
3. Tomatoes: 2 medium sized
4. Garlic: 2-3 cloves
5. Green chillie: 2
6. Fresh coriander leaves: Few sprigs
7. Red chillies whole: 2-3 (optional)
8. Mustard seeds: half tea spoon
9. Cumin seeds: half tea spoon
10. Oil: 2-3 table spoons
11. Asafoetida-a pinch
12. Salt: to taste
13. Lime juice: 1 tbsp (optional)
14. Curry leaves (optional)

Preparation:

1. Wash the dal and cook the dal well with 4 cups of water in a cooker.
2. Once cooked, mash it nicely. You can add water if it is too thick.
3. Peal and finely chop the onions. Wash and finely chop the tomatoes. Peal,wash and crush the garlic. Remove stems and chop  green chillies and coriander leaves and curry leaves. Remove stems and break red chillies into 2 each.
4. Heat oil in a pan .Add mustard seeds to it. Once the seeds crackle add the cumin seeds and whole red chillies and a pinch of asafetida.
5. Add green chillies and the onions. Once the onions turn golden brown, add the tomatoes and fry it till the oil from the tomatoes separate.
6. Add the cooked dal to the tomatoes mixture, add salt and bring it to a boil.
7. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves
8. Lastly add lime juice and its ready!!

A very subtle variation of this recipe can make you tasty Dal Soup as well. Just mash the Dal finer, use some additional water, leave out the coriander leaves and that’s it, you have Dal soup instead.