SAJAforum

ADS: Padma Lakshmi's sexy burger commercial

Not to over-analyze or anything, but after seeing this ad for Hardee's, then watching Paris Hilton's ad for Carl Jr's, I'm thinking that while Padma Lakshmi is easily more attractive, Paris Hilton is actually the superior actress.

FOOD: A most unusual Thanksgiving metaphor

Jim Romenesko's media blog on Poynter.org is a must-read because he covers all the important developments in the our industry. On occasion, he also finds little gems in otherwise routine stories - and those gems are worth the visit. Case in point: this is how he summarized Regina Schrambling's piece about food writers and thanksgiving.

Why food writers secretly hate Thanksgiving
Slate
They have to knock themselves out to come up with a gimmick -- fast turkey, slow turkey, brined turkey, unbrined turkey -- when the meal essentially has to stay the same, says Regina Schrambling. "It's like redrawing the Kama Sutra when readers really only care about the missionary position."

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FOOD: Paying $204 for samosas

Imagine paying $204 for four samosas. Insanity, you say. Would never do it, you insist.
But a Dutch couple visiting India paid the amount for the spicy snack at a cattle fair in Sonepur, Bihar.

From the BBC:

    They paid the sum to a hawker at the famous cattle fair in Sonepur after a "heated argument".

    The price worked out at $51 per samosa. They normally cost about two rupees 50 paise, about five US cents.

    The tourists then sought help from police who forced the salesman to return 9,990 rupees ($203.87).

According to the story, the hawker who sold the samosas told the tourists that they were specially made of special Indian herbs and had aphrodisiac qualities. A police complaint has been filed against the shopkeeper, but he has apparently fled.

Post your comments.

RESTAURANT: Chicago's Vermilion comes to NYC

In a city full of terrific, high-end Indian restaurants - Devi, Tabla, Tamarind, among others - the first hint many New Yorkers had that yet another high-end eatery was coming to their town was when this note, accompanied by the e-mail invitation below (click to magnify), landed in in-boxes:

Vermilion in Chicago is the best Indian restaurant I've eaten in anywhere in America; in fact it's one of the best restaurants of any kind in the US, and it has the awards to prove it. At Vermilion (in NYC) opens at 46th and Lexington on November 17th and it would be great if you could come and see for yourself what I'm talking about. Full disclosure: I'm an investor in the restaurant, which may be the first time I've ever put my money where my mouth is...! Anyway, I hope to see you there. E-invitation below.

Salman

The "Salman" is writer Sir Salman Rushdie and it meant the opening promised to have its share of desi celebrities and it did, as the photos below by "India Abroad" chief photographer Paresh Gandhi testify.

DESI NY: Roundup of recent South Asian stories

Because most of the SAJAforum bloggers are based in and around NYC, we end up relying too much on the New York Times and end up talking too much about events taking places in NYC.

Hey, non-NYers: Please help us change all this by sending us guest posts or becoming a member of our team (write to our editor, WNYC's Arun Venugopal, arunvenu[at]gmail.com).

Meanwhile, here are some recent NYC stories we haven't noted yet.

In Tense Times, Sikhs in Queens Find Respite in a Communal Meal - NYTimes.com via kwout

NYT: Joseph Huff-Hannon wrote about how Sikhs in Queens are worrying about prejudice:

From the red-tiled kitchen to the vast dining area, conversations in Punjabi ricocheted from gossip about families to subjects like forthcoming trips to India and the large number of foreclosures in this working-class neighborhood of tidy homes in southern central Queens.

In recent months, though, conversations at the temple have focused increasingly on prejudice against the city’s estimated 50,000 Sikhs, largely because the dastaar, the signature bolt of cloth that Sikh men and some women wrap around their hair, suggests to some people that the wearers are Islamic radicals.

Elephant-shaped Ganesh growth cured my ills, Queens man says via kwout

FOOD: V.V. Ganeshananthan's Sri Lanka-spotting in Paris

That's a photo of a Sri Lankan restaurant in Paris taken by author and SAJA VP V.V. Ganeshananthan. From her post on Sepia Mutiny about naan fromage and more:

La Chapelle is the name of the train station nearest to this area. It’s somewhat connected to Gare du Nord, the hub for northbound travel out of Paris. The busy neighborhood is crammed full of stores: sari shops, restaurants, bookstores, translation services… Most businesses I saw were Tamil-speaking, with Tamil signs, and walking down the street, I heard snatches of Tamil with a distinctly Sri Lankan lilt. There’s a sizable Sri Lankan Tamil population in France. (Wikipedia says 100,000, most in Paris, and refers to the area as a “Little Jaffna.) I heard more Sri Lankan Tamil when we ate in neighborhood restaurants. (We also ate at one Indian restaurant that was not in the La Chapelle area.) What did I eat? Well, the clear winner for novelty was my taste of naan fromage. My bite revealed it to be the gooey equivalent of Indien-French grilled cheese.

Read the rest of the post here. This got me thinking about Sri Lankan restaurants in New York City. Lakruwana and Tabrobane used to be two nice places in Manhattan, but both closed, leaving Manhattan sans Lankan restaurants. Sigiri, opened in the last couple of years, has filled the gap nicely, I hear. This article on AsiaFood.com lists the places to really find Lankan food in NYC: Staten Island.

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• Webcast and info about V.V. Ganeshananthan's "Love Marriage"
• SAJA's new VP, V.V. Ganeshananthan

Post your comments below.

FOOD: Looking for South Asian, Muslim and Arabic recipes

One of the fun things we get to do at SAJA and SAJAforum is hear about some interesting projects. Here's one from long-time SAJA member Ramin Ganeshram:

Ramin Ganeshram, a food writer in the New York area working with Molly O'Neill, formerly of the New York Times, is looking for South Asian, Muslim and Arabic recipes for a a book called "One Big Table," authored by O’Neill. Ramin is managing editor of the project.

"One Big Table" is highly anticipated and will tell the story of our nation’s history, future, and culture through its time at table and in the kitchen. The book is a celebration of the “glorious amateur” and she has spent the decade traveling the country collecting recipes from every byway and corner.

They are looking to interview people about their most beloved recipes and the interview would be distilled to a 100-word head note to go with the recipe. Interviewees would be absolutely credited and their stories told.

More on Molly O'Neill:  O'Neill spent 10 years at the New York Times, has  four James Beard Awards,  numerous cookbooks including the famous New York Cookbook and American Food Writing, a James Beard nominee this year. She was also the host of PBS Great Food and is a professionally trained chef

More on Ramin Ganeshram: Ganeshram is an award winning journalist of IndoCaribbean-Iranian descent. She wrote for the New York Times for 8 years, New York Newsday for 8 years, and many other magazines and papers as a freelancer. I have 7 SPJ awards and am also a professionally trained chef and cookbook author and Columbia J-School grad.

We are looking for any and all cuisines using any foods. The book covers, soups, appetizers, poultry, fish, meat, dessert, breads, vegetables and grains. We do have a short list of must-haves for Indian foods but otherwise want anything wonderful that we hear about! We’d like a nationwide spread versus a concentration on the coasts as well.
A special PS: If anyone has any contacts into the Punjabi Mexican community of Yuba City, California, please let us know!!

Please write to USAEATS[at]yahoo.com with a short description of yourself, your
dish (where did you learn it etc.) and why you cook.

Short List for Indian Dishes:

A chickpea dish
A spinach dish
Tikka masala
Two or three classic veg dishes
Samosas
Pakoras
A shrimp dish
Naan
Paraha
Kheer
Barfi
Ladoo

Please feel free to post your comments below.

FOOD: One curry could bust your daily limit, UK magazine finds

Did you know that in order to burn the calories from an Indian food, you need to exercise for 271 minutes? And that's only for men. Women need to exercise 335 minutes to burn the same amount of calories.

In an investigation done by UK's Which? magazine, Indian takeway curry has scored worst on saturated fat - compared to pizza or Chinese takeout meal. The Indian meal had 23.2 grams (0.82 ounce) of saturated fat, 3.2 grams (0.11 ounce) more than what a woman should eat in a day. Overall, Indian food contained 1338 calories. Chinese food contained 1436 calories and a thin crust pepperoni pizza contained 929 calories.

Also, according to the report, one Chinese takeout meal had 19 teapoons (3.39 ounces) of sugar per portion, three times more compared to an Indian meal.

The magazine tested chicken tikka masala, pilau rice and a plain naan, which according to the magazine is one of the most popular meals in the UK.

This is the original link to the report (currently not working because they are redesigning their website).

Takeway meal

On average, the takeaways had more calories a portion than the supermarket versions, but less salt (especially the naan and pilau rice).

Naan bread contained more calories, weight for weight, than chicken tikka masala.

Pilau rice had a similar number of calories weight for weight as the chicken tikka masala.

You might think bread and rice are healthier than the masala, but the problem is how they’re cooked. Pilau rice is fried and naan has a thick layer of butter on it. Half the takeaway meals had more saturated fat per Which? portion (pictured above) than a woman should eat in a day.

Supermarket meal

None of these stood out as significantly healthier or less healthy than the others.

For example, Asda’s meal had the most saturated fat and sugar.

Waitrose’s pilau rice contained more than five time the fat of the Tesco version (which had the least), and M&S's chicken tikka masala had more salt than other supermarket versions.

Also, here are Which?'s tips on eating healthy Indian takeouts:

Avoid deep-fried dishes, such as battered food, prawn toast, samosas and spring rolls.

Choose tandoori, steamed and stir-fried dishes.

Go for curries with tomato and onion-based sauces, such as jalfrezi, instead of creamy sauces, such as kormas.

Choose boiled or steamed rice over pilau or egg-fried rice.

Choose a chapatti instead of naan bread. Include side dishes of vegetables and/or dhal (lentils).

Go easy on the free extras, such as prawn crackers, poppadoms and sauces.

Anyone know how this compares to Indian meals in the US? Please post your thoughts below.

FOOD & DRINK: Al Jazeera on Brick Lane

Last week, Al Jazeera's "Street Food" show had a profile on Brick Lane, aka Banglatown, a long street in east London which has a big Bangladeshi community. This is the same street which became a subject for Monika Ali's novel and then a Sony Classics film starring Tannistha Chatterjee. Read SAJAForum post on the movie.

The information piece on YouTube reads:

Brick Lane, in the East End of the English capital, is a microcosm of the country's shifting ethnic patterns. Once the home of traditional fare, it is now the heartland of the city's Bangladeshi community. What are the future repercussions?

Watch the video below.

Part I

Part II

What did you think? Please post your thoughts below.

PHILANTHROPY: NYT on Mumbai's "hunger cafes"

Anand Giridharadas of the New York Times writes about an unusual kind of philanthropy in Mumbai. From "In a Restaurant Row, Drive-Through Charity":

The world is filled with eating houses of every kind, from hamburger joints to three-star restaurants. There are places you drive through and places where you sit down. But the world may be unfamiliar with a Mumbai variation on the theme: the hunger cafe.

It takes a city like Mumbai, formerly Bombay, frenetic, transactional and compassionate, to erect eateries for the malnourished. They are not soup kitchens, for denizens of this city have little time to serve other people food. In a city that never stops selling stocks and shooting movies, they prefer drive-by benevolence.

The hunger cafes have stood for decades on a stretch of road in the Mahim neighborhood. Mumbai’s broken, drifting men squat in neat rows in front of each establishment, waiting patiently. Vats full of food simmer behind the doors. What separates them from the food is the 25-cent-per-plate cost — a gulf harder to bridge than one might assume. But every so often, a car pulls up and makes a donation, and the men dine.

Read the full story and post your comments below.