Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with Indian

The Anti-Bollywood.

jak68 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:07:44 -0800

Indian Movies Filter: Hive mind, put your Indian Movie caps on -- What NON-singing/dancing Indian movies would you recommend? I'm looking for movies from India or by Indian directors that do NOT have singing/dancing as a major focus. The occasional song is okay, but I'm looking for non-bollywood, non-typical fare.

Already on the list:
-Anything by Satyajit Ray
-Anything by Guru Dutt

Who else is there? Who am I missing in terms of directors? (Or alternately, in terms of specific movies)?

Thanks!

Indian restaurant-style basmati rice?

jjsonp — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:33:56 -0800

How to make Indian restaurant-style (white) basmati rice? I have googled this and found several recipes for 'Indian-style' basmati. However none seems to yield 'restaurant style'.

Every Indian restaurant I've been to in the US has similar rice: mostly white, with a lot of grains dyed half-red. How is this achieved?

I've tried adding saffron, which is a very red spice...but it turns all the grains yellow. I've followed several recipes exactly, and all turn out tasty...but none looks/tastes like what I get in an India restaurant.

Thanks!

Help me learn more of the Dine

azpenguin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:28:00 -0800

I'm wanting to learn more about the Navajo Nation. Any recommendations for good resources? I've always been fascinated by the Navajo Nation. I cross it a few times a year on my way to see Family in the Four Corners area. The land is massive, open, empty, and beautiful. The people have always been friendly when I've come across them. I've just always been interested by what I've seen. And reading Tony Hillerman's books, set in places that I recognize, has only made me more curious.

So recently I decided to make an effort to learn more. I read The Navajo Nation by Peter Iverson, and I'm almost done with The Book Of The Navajo by Raymond Friday Locke. I'm also party way through The Navajo by James Downs. I've picked up Navajo Trader by Gladwell Richardson for some more perspective. Thing is, the more I learn, the more I want to learn. Iverson's book is a great read on Navajo government, but it only goes to 1980, and a lot has happened since then. All the books cover subject that there is obviously a great deal more to learn about.

Any recommendations on books, websites, whatever? Thanks!

Recommendations for restaurant on Devon Avenue in Chicago?

kdern — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:13:35 -0800

Recommendations for restaurant on Devon Avenue in Chicago? Going for Indian food on Devon Avenue in Chicago on July 4. Any recommendations on which restaurant to try? Buffet would be ideal as we are bringing a few Indian food newbies with us.

Thanks for the recommendations.

Which is the meatiest Indian cookbook?

vorfeed — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:19:06 -0800

Lamb and chicken, pork and beef... which is the meatiest Indian cookbook? I love to cook Indian food, but the Indian cookbooks I have feature lots of foods I can't eat (namely, starchy stuff like beans/legumes and rice). I know it's tough, because many Indians are vegetarian, but can you recommend an Indian cookbook with plenty of meat dishes? Individual recipes are fine, too, but I'm mainly looking for something I can flip through when I feel like cooking. The more meat recipes, the better, but I'd like something with lots of authenticity and flavor, too!

I have Madhur Jaffrey's "Indian Cooking" and "Quick & Easy Indian Cooking", along with Shahnaz Mehta's "Good Cooking from India". Between them, I've got enough ideas for the next five years of veggies, but the meat dishes take up only a few pages in each. I'm sick of rogan josh, vindaloo, korma, and saag murgh, please help!

Come on Indian MeFites, spill the lentils, divulge your most tasty family recipes.

ageispolis — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:19:02 -0800

To the Indian MeFites - and the non-indian chefs as well - what are your favorite family Indian recipes and what are some tricks in the preparation to give the food that authentic Indian taste. You know, rich, delicious, mouth-watering, and savoury to the point that eating becomes a spiritual experiece in itself. Perhaps I should have worded this question after I ate, but now that I'm returning to the Western diet after a few months of pure Indian goodness I already begin to feel the withdrawal symptoms taking hold, "Where's the spice in these potatoes? This bread needs some buttery sauce! Why is this food so depressingly bland and dry?!" I've already promised myself I'd start practicing and preparing my own Indian food, and with a large Sikh population nearby I have access to an Indian market specializing in ingredients from the Punjabi region, which is good because I do love my dal makhani. But I'd appreciate learning of recipes that run in the family as well as some tricks to the art of Indian cooking. For example, what's a good method of emulating a tandoor?

Any online resources are also much appreciated. Time to go eat lunch.

Wendigo myth in the Northwest

Artw — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:36:03 -0800

Is the Wendigo purely a Northeast American (and Canadian) myth? If so is there a Northwest equivalent?

Wtf is a pompadon?

ZaneJ. — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:33:09 -0800

What's a pompadon? My girlfriend and I have been watching a lot of Red Dwarf and Lister eats a lot of Indian inspired foods. One thing he mentions on a regular basis are 'pompadons'. Since he speaks Liverpudian, it can be hard to actually tell the spelling of the food item. Anyone have a clue what the hell he's referring to? I'm thinking something along the lines of pot stickers, but I don't know. M'lady thinks biscuit.

As a side note, I have discovered that vindaloo is delicious. Thanks television show character!

Pakistani restaurant music

mulligan — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:37:02 -0800

I often eat at a couple of few different pakistani restaurant and have noticed they both play pretty much the same songs in the restaurant. Rather than ask the restaurant staff, I'm asking metafilter: Is there a common list of songs popularly played at these establishments? What are the songs that would be in such a list?

Me And Bobby Eat Ghee (freedom's just another word for 'nothing left to eat')

spoobnooble — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:25:33 -0800

Would anyone in their right mind eat vegetable ghee, or any kind of ghee, straight from the can? Good day. A while back I posted a question looking for info regarding a minor point in a novel I'm writing. I thank everyone for their input.

So here's another (weirder) question:

In the second half of the novel the narrator (the punk rocker), now in his twenties, has married a Canadian woman of Indian descent -- her family moved to Toronto when she was three. While she is pretty westernised, her diet includes a lot of Indian staples like rice and curry. She tries to introduce her husband to some of the foods her family eats, and he ends up snacking on a certain traditional food that seems natural to him (a white guy who tends to eat mostly fast foods), but in a manner that ends up mortifying his wife and amusing his Indian in-laws.

I had it in my head several years ago that he would develop a taste for eating vegetable ghee straight from the can. The only basing I have for this idea is a commercial I saw several years ago on one of the local multi-ethnic channels in Toronto which included some shots of happy Indian men and women eating what looked like white chunks of vegetable. Upon further inspection, it seems that ghee is a kind of butter made either from dairy or vegetable products.

Not knowing the taste of ghee, I am hesitant to claim that the narrator would start eating ghee 'out of the can' (or jar, as the case seems to be). Then again, when I was a kid I loved eating peanut butter by the spoonful, and some people have told me in no uncertain terms that eating straight peanut butter was disgusting, at least to them.

So is it possible that a westerner who doesn't know better would eat ghee in this manner? Or is there another Indian foodstuff I can substitute? Either way the wife has to be dismayed and/or horrified by her husband's actions, even if he's not doing himself any real harm in eating the food in a non-normal way.

(P.S. As of this writing I still do not have a publisher for this novel. It is possible that I may end up going to Lulu.com to print out copies once it's done. I'm still hoping to publish this thing properly -- four chapters to go! -- but otherwise don't go overboard thinking that you're helping out the next Norman Mailer or Margaret Atwood or whatever. But thanks in advance nonetheless!)

Where to rent "Devdas"?

amtho — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:11:58 -0800

Where in Durham or Chapel Hill, North Carolina, can I rent a copy of "Devdas" on DVD? I already checked the VisArt in Chapel Hill and they don't have it. An Indian food store?

I want to make barfi!

bookish — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:21:37 -0800

I'd like to try making barfi, but I've never done it before, and the recipe I have calls for khoya, which I can't get around here. Anybody have a tried-and-true barfi recipe, a good substitute for khoya, or any tips? I was planning on making plain or pistachio flavored, but I'm open to other possibilities.

oddly tragic voting radio story

amtho — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:07:02 -0800

NPR-story-with-little-to-go-on-filter: Several years ago, I heard a radio story involving a tribal election in which one candidate was represented as being for re-investing funds in the tribe, while another was for direct payments to tribe members. An tribe member, interviewed, said he'd vote for the latter, although even he didn't think it was best for the tribe or for him in the long term -- because he wanted the cash. I think the interviewee said he's probably spend the money on alcohol or something like that. The funds were, I think, from a casino. The story may have been about how casinos do or don't benefit tribes, or it could have been about that particular tribe's election.

It struck me deeply how this sort of decision-making is so deeply ingrained in us that it's really, really difficult to get past it. The reporter may have been leading him a little, but the interviewee just ended up almost baldly stating that he was going to vote in a way that even he didn't think made sense. It was a weird moment.

This bit was toward the end of the article, I think.

Does anyone else remember this? I'm not sure how to search for it.

What are some good, quick boxed international lunches?

nitsuj — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:58:04 -0800

I really love these easy-to-prepare, not-too-expensive A Taste of Thai/India/China meals for lunch. What else would I like? My local grocery stores don't stock very many things like this, but with Amazon Groceries, I figure I can get pretty much anything shipped to my door.

The Asian stuff is great, so any other brands/styles/flavor recommendations are welcomed. I'd also be interested some other international flavors, like Mexican, Spanish, Canadian, et. al.

Emphasis on easiness to prepare and quality of ingrediants.

Present for Indian wedding anniversary?

zaphod — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:08:47 -0800

I'm invited to an Indian friend's 5 year wedding anniversary party (both he and his wife are Indian). What would be a suitable, perhaps traditional, yet inexpensive present to bring? This is a work colleague's anniversary, himself and his wife are very westernised (or at least he is to use his words). Is it traditional to bring a gift to such an event (either American or Indian)? Is there something traditionally Indian, that I could get in Boston, that would be a good yet inexpensive present, that they might be happy & surprised to receive from a Irish lad living in Boston?

Or should I bring a present at all?

balti in houston?

ncc1701d — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:18:41 -0800

i'm trying to find some balti in houston, texas. i went to a balti house in birmingham, england a few years ago and loved the stuff. google, citysearch, and yelp are all failing me. thanks for any suggestions.

Translate?

revbrian — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:38:05 -0800

Please help me translate this wonderful american indian song into english... You can hear it at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_EVVXp0_4&feature=PlayList&p=6BFCAF837C81AE1A&index=12

I have several versions of it, but can you tell me what they are talking about!?

Help me sell my gold

mr. remy — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 10:54:42 -0800

I found a 1910 Indian head ten dollar gold coin in my childhood piggy bank. It looks like this. I have seen it listed online for different values between $400 and $1700. I am broke and (regretfully) feel like I need to convert it into cash. How do I do this quickly, fairly, and for maximum profit?

Indian music video with couple dancing across beach/caked mud?

theiconoclast31 — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:51:44 -0800

Indian Music Video: "It's like this woman and her daughter running across a beach wearing some flowing red thing [sari?] and then theres a part of it where she's chasing her daughter through like a really big empty desert-place." ..but it's not sand [in the desert], it's like caked mud or something. The daughter is really young, and the video is just them two. There's a portion of it where she's running through shallow water and the camera is using a wide angle lens so the skyline is really warped.

My friend tells me it's relatively new (last 5-7 years?).

This was for a film class, so maybe it exemplifies some aspect of Indian culture? Not sure. I realize this could be pretty vague, would appreciate any hints.

Vintage Indian bike vector graphic needed

AnyGuelmann — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:35:18 -0800

Looking for vector graphics of 40's or 50's Indian bikes I need a vector drawing of an Indian motorcycle from the 40's or 50's. It doesn't necessarily need to be an Indian, as long as it looks somewhat like this. I do need it to be in profile, though. Not much detail needed, even a silhouette may be ok.

Free is always best, but I am willing to pay a few bucks if it's the graphic I need.

Looking for obscure songs from a college radio show

madmamasmith — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:48:25 -0800

I am looking for a couple of obscure songs from an old mixed tape I recorded off of KOOP radio in Austin texas about 12 years ago.... The first is a Romanian song ( I believe a wedding song) It sounds very pretty, upbeat, Gypsy-ish. The second is an awesome track of a man listing off names of destinations like "Bermuda, the Caymen Islands" (sounds like an old vintage recording) on top of cool music, the last is an Indian song (sitar) and I do not know how to elaborate other to say I believe his last name was Shankar (not Ravi). It was an upbeat song where the chorus is repeated (sounds like it would be "get up , get up" in English)....please let me know if any of these sound familiar or you can recomend things that sound similar.THANKS!

How do I make chapati (Indian bread) correctly?

janetplanet — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:29:21 -0800

What can I do to stop my home-made chapati from falling apart when I try to flatten it for cooking? I recently visited India and fell in love with Indian food, especially the delicious and fresh chapati!

I've found several chapati recipes on the Internet and have been trying to make it following these recipies, but every time I try to flatten the chapati for cooking it falls apart!

I've tried varying the amount of flour, water and oil but always have the same result. Can anyone pleae tell me what I am doing wrong? thanks!

Omiya (Kama Sutra) - Who Sings It?

Liosliath — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:39:47 -0800

Who's the singer in "Omiya" on the Kama Sutra soundtrack? And if I like (love!) that song, what other similar music might you recommend? I've looked everywhere to find out who's actually singing, because I'd like to hear more of their stuff. The closest I came was here, and I'm guessing it's a vocalist listed in the credits, but which one?

If anyone could elaborate on the style/lyrics/region of the song, that would be great too.

Did Indian accent descend from Welsh tutelage?

IndigoJones — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:30:00 -0800

I heard once that the Indian accent for spoken English is a legacy of Welsh missionaries/teachers in the subcontinent. Granted, the cadences are similar, but on the whole the story sounds a little far fetched to me. Can anyone out there confirm or deny the truth of it, preferably with footnotes? Many thanks.

Indian cooking staples in NYC?

gwint — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:18:40 -0800

Best place in New York City to buy Indian staples like ghee and garam masala? I'm happy to travel anywhere in the five boroughs (Jackson Heights, etc.) but a friendly staff that could help out a beginner is a definite plus.