food vocabulary

theveil, even if you find the list, it will be, at best, a rough guide. indian dishes are subjective to the taste and skill of the chef. the same dish made by 2 different chefs could taste completely different. the same dish could be called by different names due to the difference in languages. good luck!

What are some very common food names of things that are eaten on a regular basis? Restaurants make the usual palak paneer (yum!) and others but are they the common foods or are they specially made in restaurants?

Food items eaten at home depends on the community.
example
among bengalis
1. rice
2. dal
3. machcher jhol(fish curry - many, many varieties)
4. Torkari - alur dom, patoler dolma, fulkopir torkari, bandhakopir torkari etc etc.....

You will find almost none of this in any multicuisine restaurant in India. you will find some of this in speciality bengali restaurants.

Among the items available in restaurants the following are often cooked at home

1. dal
2. palak panir
3. alu palak
4. rajma
5. chicken curry

1. Arhar Dal
2. Moong Dhuli Dal
3. Moong Chhilka Dal
4. Moong Sabut Dal
5. Urad Dhuli Dal
6. Urad Chhilka Dal
7. Urad Sabut Dal
8. Kali Masoor Dal
9. Lal Masoor Dal
10.Chana Dal


Phew....I guess I have not yet covered all forms of Dal yet . And all the above listed are just different lentils. The way of cooking can different and creatinga bigger list.

In South India drumsticks = okra (easy, I think, if you're British, but not familiar to an American. An American would think, "Oh, fried chicken!")

err...incorrect.

drumsticks=moringa

okra=ladiesfingers

And I'm a bit confused about what you were trying to say. The error is completely mine as I can't seem to parse it correctly.

Moringa... I get it now. A nickname in English for the moringa tree is "drumstick tree."

My Telugu cook once told me it was okra. Having never seen okra before, I believed him. He also said "drumstick" was a British term. He was an old guy, and used to bar-tend for the British at the Secunderabad Cantonment, back in the day.

Glad we got that cleared up.

DD Chicken legs are also known as drumsticks. Knowing Americans they have to deep fry it.

Just for the record, drumstick is a tree legume, and is cooked. it has a toughish outer skin, and is ribbed. you squeeze the insides out, and it sort of tastes like green beans, coz it's a legume. You can substitute Bhindi(okra,lady finger) or green beans
Bhindi(okra), is called gumbo in Louisiana, hence the name of the famous dish with this main ingredient.
But okra is often fried first in Indian coking, so the mucilaginous quality is lessened.
We can get drumstick in Sydney in Australia, but it costs a bomb.
I use runner beans instead.
And drumstick in hindi is Sahjan, I think.

Anyone?!

that's a yam, the ones looking like elephant turd. And the ones next to it is a tuber(huh, huh ) and i...i...cant remember the name now.



mom, mom....where are you?

*she's not going to come to my computer to see this photo. oh, bother.

Maybe the one next to the yam is galangal?

That's a yam?! Whoa. And thank you DD for calling it that, I thought I was the only one with an infantile sense of humour.

What is its name (both of their names) in Indian? Any Indian will do, Hindi preferred. I did get told an Indian name for the...uh...elephant's business, and it wasn't "yam", and now I've forgotten it.

http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en...G=Search&meta=

A glance at the urls will show the names in Tamil and pics

Wow, Karuna! That looks like the Jabba the Hut of the tuber kingdom.

-C