A bag of...
Indian treat!!! Yippeeeee!!
This will look familiar to or remind many of my (not very many) LJ visitors of home and/or of the wonderful two weeks or so spent together in New Delhi and Patna back in April 2006.
Found this along with a variety of similar Indian snacks in an Asian grocer's - fancy that, an 'Asian' shop in Japan! :D - didn't know which one to go for but the one solely comprising chana dahl didn't look too exciting even though I love chana and other kinds of dahl in general. There was also Bombay Mix which I also fancied, but ALL IN ONE sounded like you couldn't go wrong with it, so grabbed it and straight to the till I went, without forgetting to make sure manning it was that nice chap I often say hello to instead of other stern-faced shop assistants.
Interestingly, the shop is one of the three greengrocers/supermarkets on the same street, apparently all run by one Japanese family: one being a regular greengrocer's, another a cash-and-carry, then this last one simply having 'ASIA' on the sign outside and selling a much smaller selection of fruit and veg than the other two. The guy I speak to is one of the several non-Japanese working in 'ASIA', where they sell the sorts of stuff you'd expect to find in Chinese or Asian (Indian) supermarkets in the UK, plus an even wider variety from other countries. I spoke to him first after buying jars of black mustard seeds, turmeric and, wait for it...CURRY PATTA!! - my long sought-after item ever since tasting that unforgettably gorgeous aloo dish Sthira made for me back in our Leeds days. Never did I dream I'd ever be able to buy curry leaves in Japan, after hearing Sthira say she couldn't find any in Asian shops in Leeds. And the price was nice, too, a big 50g jar only costing about 300 yen (about £1.50 or $3US).
The aloo dish - and my experimentation
I tried to recreate Sthira's version from memory and managed to make a passably close thing. While cooking the dish and eating it I realised how really distinctive the flavour of curry leaves was when fried, and wanted to know other recipes to use it in. So for the first time I spoke to this guy (took a bit of courage for he too didn't look too approachable until I said I wanted to cook with those Indian spices co could he tell me, and what about his home dishes?), told about the 'aloo + above-mentioned three spices' dish, and asked how else I could use them. I also found out then that he and some other staff in the shop were from Bangladesh, and my mentioning having Indian friends and having enjoyed a Bangladeshi curry a friend had cooked years ago made him smile :-) He told me I could use curry leaves (+ mustard seeds) for frying most veg, so I decided my first humble trial would be aloo + baigan with the same spices. It turned out good for me, and on a later occasion I made it for a party at work, and everybody liked it! I'd love to try more Indian dishes. Aaahh...glorious Indian cuisine!
This will look familiar to or remind many of my (not very many) LJ visitors of home and/or of the wonderful two weeks or so spent together in New Delhi and Patna back in April 2006.
Found this along with a variety of similar Indian snacks in an Asian grocer's - fancy that, an 'Asian' shop in Japan! :D - didn't know which one to go for but the one solely comprising chana dahl didn't look too exciting even though I love chana and other kinds of dahl in general. There was also Bombay Mix which I also fancied, but ALL IN ONE sounded like you couldn't go wrong with it, so grabbed it and straight to the till I went, without forgetting to make sure manning it was that nice chap I often say hello to instead of other stern-faced shop assistants.
Interestingly, the shop is one of the three greengrocers/supermarkets on the same street, apparently all run by one Japanese family: one being a regular greengrocer's, another a cash-and-carry, then this last one simply having 'ASIA' on the sign outside and selling a much smaller selection of fruit and veg than the other two. The guy I speak to is one of the several non-Japanese working in 'ASIA', where they sell the sorts of stuff you'd expect to find in Chinese or Asian (Indian) supermarkets in the UK, plus an even wider variety from other countries. I spoke to him first after buying jars of black mustard seeds, turmeric and, wait for it...CURRY PATTA!! - my long sought-after item ever since tasting that unforgettably gorgeous aloo dish Sthira made for me back in our Leeds days. Never did I dream I'd ever be able to buy curry leaves in Japan, after hearing Sthira say she couldn't find any in Asian shops in Leeds. And the price was nice, too, a big 50g jar only costing about 300 yen (about £1.50 or $3US).
The aloo dish - and my experimentation
I tried to recreate Sthira's version from memory and managed to make a passably close thing. While cooking the dish and eating it I realised how really distinctive the flavour of curry leaves was when fried, and wanted to know other recipes to use it in. So for the first time I spoke to this guy (took a bit of courage for he too didn't look too approachable until I said I wanted to cook with those Indian spices co could he tell me, and what about his home dishes?), told about the 'aloo + above-mentioned three spices' dish, and asked how else I could use them. I also found out then that he and some other staff in the shop were from Bangladesh, and my mentioning having Indian friends and having enjoyed a Bangladeshi curry a friend had cooked years ago made him smile :-) He told me I could use curry leaves (+ mustard seeds) for frying most veg, so I decided my first humble trial would be aloo + baigan with the same spices. It turned out good for me, and on a later occasion I made it for a party at work, and everybody liked it! I'd love to try more Indian dishes. Aaahh...glorious Indian cuisine!