Help needed maid-cooked dishes

Black Dal,
Yellow lentils,
Mixed Vegetable,
Paranthas for breakfast or lunch
Aloo Gobi ( potato cauliflower)
Kidney Beans
Chicken Curry

Firstly Nick is an Englishman.
Secondly Madrasi is an objectionable racist term and I request you to desist from its usage.
Thirdly, Nick has pointed out your English is below average. As a native speaker he should know.

Ooh ... those are strong words.

That name for Chennai has colonial overtones but i haven't come across the connotation you speak of. Perhaps warn the good fellows running that engineering school in guindy?

If you haven't fired her already, some of the dishes that she might know (excluding the names in post number 16) are as follows:

a) Okra / Bhindi
b) mix bhaji (ask her for bhaji that goes with paav)
c) Kadhi

These should satisfy your other requirements of low oil food as well (though some of the problems you've attributed above are language related and unlikely to be solved by just naming a dish)

"Madrasi" by adoption --- but, yes, I'm aware of the fact that it is not a popular designation, so I wouldn't use it personally. Not everyone knows that. I learnt that ...here on Indiamike! It's more intra-Indian than racist, isn't it? The Northern/Hollywood view of the funny bumbling, vesti-wearing comic figure? Discriminatory and annoying, none the less and
rather ignoring the fact that this state of non-funny, non-bumbling, non-comic figures has provided a good quota of the world's scientists and intellectuals.

But ... I do not believe that Matka intended to offend, any more than I did, so let's keep the nudges friendly

The English was not so much bad as ambiguous, but English can be, and a lot of English humour relies on that. Understood verbs is always a grey area, but, Golghar, whereas hyphenation can often restore meaning, I wouldn't use it in this case.

Back to indisa... what did your maid/cook claim when you interviewed her?

Madrasi is definitely intra-indian and was a very hot word during the creation of the state of Andhra Pradesh. (Later NT Ramarao's is said to have given a slogan - Call me a Chaprasi* but don't call me a Madrasi) - but that had to do with Telugu pride (and I'm getting seriously off topic now)

(*=office peon)

Anyways, Selar's post stated 'madras' so I got off on a tangent.

Besides, I really thought matka was being his usual funny self.

Back to the recipe section now....

The term madrasi used by a person from Delhi once caused a full scale strike lasting a week by about 200 odd employees in a business in the city of Bangalore. The manager was sent back to Delhi on the next flight for his own safety. It is deemed that offensive in the Southern States. It is a derogatory term used by the inhabitants of Delhi to belittle and denigrate the people of the Southern states.

Like redneck?

Padmini didn't have any objection to calling herself a "madrasi chhokri".

No, I don't think I do.









Ahhh... the wonderful ambiguity of English

Similar, but in the sense that only the "redneck" type of people would use the term at all, more like "nigger".

In the days of Padmini it probably didn't have such a bad connotation, I think it became more serious with the imposition of Hindi as an official language.

It has racist connotations, because of the myth that North Indians consider themselves of Aryan extraction, South Indians consider themselves Dravidians. Whether this is true or not is debatable, however, the Aryans supposedly were the invaders and the Dravidians the dispossessed. Political parties such as DMK were formed on this basis.

I have no idea if Matka is Indian or not, if he/she isn't Indian, his use of the term would not be considered so serious, but it wouldn't do any favours to Matka to continue using it.

As you see from my rather acidic first post in this thread, 10,000 kilometres away, it raised the hackles of another "adopted" Chennaite.

Really ??? Not according to Anna a.k.a C.N. Annadurai, who split from EVR to form DMK for reasons other than you claim.....

Do you have a non-google/wiki; substantive biography or historical reference for this ?

No response yet? Must've fired the cook. If not, here's another suggest.

I used to visit my classmates in govt flats way back when, and sometimes, parents would tag along with children. One time, I noticed some aunties not just exchanging recipes, but bringing along their cooking servants (all men) to learn hands-on from the host's cook, or maybe to assist in some of the larger parties.

So maybe, if you like some of your neighbours' cooks' handiwork, you could borrow him or her for an evening and set up a masterclass with your maid. Or, if you can so impose, send her over for a few classes! How's it working out with the neighbours, by the way? Anyone invited you over for dinner yet?

I just remembered that in the 1960s when I was a student at Delhi University some of my fellow students had graduated from schools run by the Madrasi Education Association. I just googled it and this is what I found.
The name seems to have been changed in 1972. That whole phase from the language riots of 1965 to Annadurai's death in 1969 had passed by then. The DMK (still unsplit) under Mr. Karunanidhi (He's that ancient!) had become an ally of Mrs. Gandhi's (then recently split) Congress and so entered the mainstream of Indian politics.

And to get back to the topic - I had parsnip fried in ghee and flavoured with kasuri methi for lunch.

err, Madrasi may be a term used by some ill informed people, and objectionable- even racist, I dunno- but the use of 'Madras' is hardly racist. Or is it?

Bleeding Madras!!

I will Double and raise