Gymnastics &Tea making!

beach

There is nothing called ‘Indian Food’ in India. The types of food within different parts of India are as much different as say between ‘Indian’ and ‘European’ foods.

Broadly wheat is dominated in the Northern food and in South its rice. North food is a bit dry and the south it may spill out of your plate. Eating the liquidly food with bare fingers (the game rules allows you to use a maximum of five fingers!) from a planton leaf without making a mess out of it is an art by itself.

But one interesting thing I’ve noticed in India is that people have developed a taste for 'fusion' of different Indian foods. At a local restaurant in Bombay I can have the Punjabi butter Nan and South Indian Chicken curry! Folks…it goes really well together. Again let me say there is nothing called ‘south Indian’ food! Don’t chase me out if I dare to say within the states itself the recipes vary from districts to districts! Those who have fine taste buds and experienced various local foods know what I am talking about.

Each of the South & North Indian states has its own fanfare of food variety.

Let it be the
The fiery Thandoori from Punjab(no its not a coal piece, its chicken deep-fried on fire!),
the sweetie sweetie Gujarati (make no doubt about it , even the drinking water is sweet )
the hot Andhra (I mean HOT. Keep away from children!),
the fishy Bengali (yes you guessed it!),
the steamy breakfast from Tamilnadu (spongy spongy Idly. Oops. IDDLY)
the inflammably hot Chettinad (don’t dare even to go close if you are not a HOT fan of it)
the Mughlai Hydrabadi ( spicy spicy Biriyani. You can run a steam engine with it!)
the multicolored keralan ( Don’t leave your hold on the tail of the JUMBO Prawn till you finish him!)
……
…….

the list can go on and on in India

Why to talk too much about the food. The national drink tea (the ‘coffee south’ please excuse me) is differently prepared at different states. In Calcutta tea is poured from kettle into a baked mud cup (so nice its disposable. Indian style of eco management!).The kettle is then kept back on a charcoal stove to keep it hot.

In Tamilnadu it is served in a tiny steel earless cup. The hot tea is filled till the brim and where do I hold on the hot steel cup??

Hyderabad cannot make even tea with out the spices. I’ve been told that up to 15 ingredients are added to the tea. How simply a simple tea can be made complex!.

In Kerala tea making takes the form of gymnastics! Tea is ‘thrown’ from one cup to other at a distance well above a meter apart, both are in the two hands of the ‘tea artist’ .May be this is to foam tea like bear (?). But the taste of the ‘tea foam’ is nice. Don’t forget to lick your upper lip clean after the tea.

concoran

Since I have roamed a lot of Karnataka state, let me tell how different districts eat different food.
North Karnataka (Bijapur + gulbarga + Raichur) eat something like roti (called Rotti) made not from wheat but from Jawar.
North Karnataka (Belgaum district) Mostly Rice, but also roti made from wheat.
South Karnataka (Bangalore and adjoining) Eat a lot of rice, dosa and Idli.
South Interior karnataka (Hasan, Chikmagalur districts) eat balls made from Raagie along with curry, and some rice.
West Karnataka (Mangalore, Udupi) eat mostly Fish, and some other stuff but have a lots of coconut oil in it.
Coorg District eats meat (primarily Pork).
It would be difficult to call Karnataka a homogenous state

Colin

In Gujurat you are served tea in a cup with a saucer. You pour the tea into the saucer and blow it cool then drink it from the saucer. I would probably get a smack from Mum if I did this at home but in Bhuj it is perfectly correct, even the office types drink their tea in this manner.

beach

What is the difference between "Vegetarian " and "100% Vegetarian " ??

edit note - photo re-sized to fit page.

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volga_volga

continuing about TEA... I love chai and the especially loved it from the street vendors in Paharganj in Delhi.

A question: should I decide to try to make chai on my own, equipped with a kettle and hot water and milk, can I buy tea bags/spice sets somewhere in Delhi for making DIY chai? Or should I bring Starbucks Chai tea bags with me? :-))

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Tomi

It is extremely easy to make chai, and you don't need any chai bags nor any spice bags.

You need to know what kind of spice you like in chai, as there are many different combinations used in different places even in the same town. I personally love saffron-fresh ginger (ginger root)-cardamom, and dislike any hints of cinnamon or cloves in tea. It was rare to find saffron used in chai anywhere ($$$), but the cardamom-ginger combination was common both in the North and the South.

I've never found the richest of Indian milks (buffalo) in the West, but you could perhaps reduce the milk a bit as for making kulfi, or use all milk and no water, and that approximates it.

Then you just boil the tea and the spices, not too long. Experiment until you get something you like. Try different teas and spices. A lot of good chai is made from fairly mediocre tea leaves if you had them alone.

No dried spice mixtures will ever come close to fresh ginger root.

Edited to add an anecdote: the monk who was in charge at the beautiful multicolor Jain temple (Bhandasar) in old Bikaner offered us tea after our visit. He then reached in his pocket for a little envelope filled with (real) saffron, picked out a few strands with tweezers, put them in a piece of old newspaper and gave them to the boy to go get tea, with serious figer-waving instructions. Back came 3 cups of saffron-flavored chai, with gingerroot and cardamom as well, and I was hooked forever.

sgeneris

Tomi, your saffron story is interesting. I am getting itchy to try that at home now. I do wonder, as subtle as saffron is, if there is a trick to make it standout against ginger/cardamom (mmm) in a tea.

Tomi

Sunil, saffron is not that subtle, I guarantee you, it'll cut through. Remember it is used in those strong tasting paellas and tajines.

You can take a mortar and grind the saffron threads to a powder. Then rinse the mortar with water or tea to get every last microgram of flavor and aroma. Preferably use a ceramic mortar instead of a wooden one.

You have to use real saffron, the real aromatic stuff taken from virgin crocuses in a full moon, or however it is they gather it in Kashmir, Iran, Spain, or the Abruzzo. What many Caribbeans, North-Africans, Turks, and Indians call saffron is just a worthless, flavorless coloring made from annato or some other junk.

In the US you can buy real Spanish (Alicante) saffron in bulk (by the once, cheaper than ) from Atlantic Spice in Truro, MA. They have an Internet site if you can't get to the Cape. It's too cooooooold there now

bijapuri

my fave premix in USA is Nirav. Mix in fresh ginger and darjeeling tea, and maybe a fresh Cardamon pod, and voila!

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volga_volga

I love the way this discussion is turning!! (I am walking around and chanting like the chai vendors on the Indian trains: "chai-chai, chai-chai, chai-chaiiiiiiii")

Saffron is really an interesting option - I can't even imagine how it taste like in chai. I normally boil cardamon, cinnamon, cloves (sorry!) and FRESH ginger in water for 10 min, then add milk, bring to boil and brew tea leaves in the liquid (Ceylon as the strongest one - which one they use in India? Indian?) for 2 min or so. A recipe from the internet.

I also tried all commercially sold chai in London and found Starbucks not too bad - they add black pepper that gives it a kick (I advise to try the pepper).

Now comes a challenge: making chai using only electric kettle and cups/spoons - I am staying in a hotel that provides tea making facilities but no stove/cooker... hence the question about tea bags as a (poor) shortcut for chai.

NonIndianResident

The tea used in street tea or any strong milk tea in India is the cheap "dust" tea, eg Red Label. I think it's called CTC tea? Upper class Indians would scorn it but it's the good stuff, rich and thick. I have found it in Indian groceries in US.

Here's how: Use less water since you'll add a lot of milk; boil water and tea for at least three minutes; and add whatever spices you like (try various ones mentioned above by others) at some point in there. Then add the milk and sugar and bring back to the boil while stirring (this prevents boiling over, which only happens after milk is added).

If you're making tea in the west, don't use low-fat milk, use only whole milk (or even add a little cream to that thin, tasteless, industrial milk from high-producing cows, that prevails in the west)

Food shops in India that carry all those little spice boxes also have one called Tea-mas (ie masala for tea) but I don't like it. Too much cloves: Ackk!

volga_volga

On my search for tea spices in Delhi I found this one:

Gokul Herbal Tea
Saffron Rich
Pure Ayervedic Refreshing Drink. Free from caffeine and tea leaves.

Benefits: Highly effective in cold and cough. Removes Acidity & Constipation, good in Diabetes, Toning to the Heart, Daily Vitalizer, Relieving Bodily Stress and Depression. (wow!!!)

Ingredients: Dry Ginger, Pepper, Green Cardamon, Cinnamon, Cloves, Piparamul (what is it??) and Saffron.

beach

The best Tea I ever had was at Hyderabad. It was at a joint called 'sapna' or something sound similar to that?
It was called 'Masala Tea'

volga_volga

the best tea I have ever had was from a simple chai place (just the chai vendor with the open fire and his equipment and a small bench to sit down) on the square opposite the hostel where I stayed on my first day on my first trip to India. It was the best because it was my first indian tea. Somewhere in Parhan Ganj in Delhi.

unfortunately I don't remember how to find that place... may be it is better to keep it a memory? to avoid disappointment, five thousand gallons of other chais later

I still don't understand why some spiced teas are called masala tea (served mainly in restaurants) and there is this chai (sold mainly on the street) which can be similarly spiced

hash666

meera the secret to good chai is not buffalo milk but a good chai master from kerala...