Good pastas have become pretty widely available. The hand made pasta at Herbs-and-Spice in Indiranagar is consistently excellent, but I think it’s only available in the restaurant. You’ll have to settle for dried pasta – I’ve found the excellent De Cecco pasta in a number of stores including MK Retail, Food Bazaar at Bangalore Central Mall, and Spencer’s on MG Road. Barilla is very good and even more widely available.

Olive oil is also widely available, but check the label carefully. Make sure you’re getting Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and check to see that it’s first pressing and cold extracted (Extra Virgin usually is) from a reputable source. Avoid things calling themselves “Virgin Olive Oil” or “Pure Olive Oil” and run away from anything calling itself “Pomace Olive Oil.” They are extracted from the same olives as “Extra Virgin” after the good olive oil has been extracted, using heat, pressure, and chemicals. I like Italian and Spanish extra virgin, but I really wish we could get a good fresh local olive oil. Fresh local olive oil with it’s green flavors and fruitiness can’t be beat, and this climate would be perfect for it. Ah well someday.

You can buy jarred or tinned pasta ragu at most of the same places you can buy pasta – but why bother? Unless you’re homesick for some specific brand’s flavor, you can do a lot better with fresh local tomatoes, garlic, and onion. Blanch, peel and seed the tomatoes, sautée chopped garlic and onions in your extra virgin olive oil, toss in the chopped tomatoes and cook until barely soft… much better than anything you can get out of a jar!

Italian cheeses, meats, and spices on the other hand, can be a little harder. While French cheeses can be nearly impossible to find, there are a few sources for decent Italian cheeses. Fiorano in Koramangala is making some fresh cheeses. Mascarpone and some variations of mozzarella that are quite good. Sunny’s carries a fair variety and you can get cheeses from Olive Beach, especially during the Sunday food bazaar. Parmesan and Pecorino Romano are available via the deli counter at the back of Spencer’s on MG Road as is a very small selection of deli meats. Spices like dried oregano, rosemary, and basil are relatively easy to find – try FabIndia (!) or again Spencer’s or MK Retail. MK Retail has a slightly wider variety, but the spices at Fabindia are produced in India and not imported – I prefer local when I can get it. For fresh local italian herbs and spices, some pastas, and olive oil, and a nice selection of organic foods you can also try Namdhari’s Fresh (Koramangala, others, previously reviewed.)

Asian ingredients on the other hand, are a little more problematic. Need some Shao Xing rice wine, rice wine vinegar, light soy, fish sauce, or fermented black beans? Prepare to do a little more searching. You can find bad versions of many popular sauces in the major groceries, but I can’t recommend them. They’re usually over sweet, often don’t have the right flavor, and sometimes contain a brew of scary sounding chemicals. For higher quality versions you can try one of the stores named above, but even there you’ll most likely get the bad popular version instead. MK Retail is an exception, where if you know what to look for you can find some gems hidden in the dross. Recently though I had a real find – there’s a place called simply enough “Super Market” on the ground floor of the 5th Avenue building on Brigade road that carries a wide variety of “foreign” foods and ingredients including a couple good brands of Chinese light and dark soy sauces, the only Shao Xing rice wine or black bean sauce I’ve seen in Bangalore, as well as good rice wine vinegar and oyster sauce. The prices are somewhat high, especially if you know what the same thing sells for where it’s produced, but you can’t get too choosy when sources are so limited. Now if only I could find a local source for Chinese Black Vinegar I’d be truly happy. I know Baba Ling at Nanking can get it because he will serve it with shredded ginger as a condiment with his dumplings, but he says he brings it in himself. (Which is what I’ve had to do as well.)

The biggest problem though with cooking proper Chinese, is the fact that typical household hobs just don’t produce the high heat necessary to generate good “wok hay” – the authentic flavor you get from real wok cooking, sometimes translated as “breath of the wok” or more poetically as “soul of the wok.” To be fair, you can’t really get that heat in a typical home kitchen anywhere in the world, it requires special equipment. Fortunately that kind of commercial style equipment is actually relatively easy to find in Bangalore. I found the burner I ‘m using in Russell Market, but be careful – they sound like a jet engine, they produce a jet of flame three feet high, and they use fuel like a jet fighter taking off. Still, if you want wok cooking it’s worth it.

[Next time - where to find ingredients.]

I know that there are various festivals going on but as far as I knew none of them involved dressing up in peach colored clothes. I asked the local handicrafts store guy what was going on and after offering to show me some great deals, and asking me to come in “for a cup of tea” he explained it was some Christian festival.

I find the timing somewhat suspicious. I was raised in a Christian culture and I know of no big Christian feast day around now, but I do know of three or four Hindu festivals going on, but it was just another of those little mysteries. Rather than compete with the dozens of people walking down my street for an auto, we decided just to walk the mile or so to the restaurant.

On the way, we were surrounded by more celebrants, some dressed in peach, some not, all a river of humanity, just walking along at 8pm on a weekday. After six months here, it felt kind of comforting. We were walking along with our neighbors, here in the city. Some of them stopped for the local chaat wallah, others joined us in crossing the street in a safe and comforting group. Some jumped on to the overstuffed bus that barely slowed to let people on and off.

It was yet another fascinating and serendipitous experience for us, something that I’m sure people who live here take for granted, but that we would never see anywhere else.

[Edited to add]
Apparently this festival was a flag raising at the Basilica in Shivajinagar in honor of Mother Mary’s upcoming (Sep 8) birthday.

Then occasionally comes a rain that feels like what I imagined a “monsoon” was supposed to be like. Like it’s raining right now outside my office. It looks like this.

Those buildings are basically across the street, and that patio now has three inches of standing water and getting deeper. I’m glad I’m indoors.

The justification is that they are ‘not acceptable by society at large’ and ‘school at some point has to take a stand and play the role of a guardian of moral values’ and ‘if the brakes aren’t applied now, 15 years later it may lead to an unhealthy campus environment.’

I find this sort of reasoning baffling and appalling. What sorts of “health” problems do they expect to result from rampant hand holding? It seems obviously that these are nothing more or less than prudish overreaction. The role of schools in a modern pluralistic secular society is not to teach moral values, moral values are properly taught by parents and a family’s chosen moral and spiritual teachers. Public schools have no role promulgating repressive sexual attitudes on their captive population.

Is society really so weak that it can be destroyed by children holding hands in school?

As Hypnos is a bar/club setting the crowd was pretty high-energy, so they started with a heavily rock influenced fusion piece. It reminded me a bit of Jeff Beck’s early solo work. He moved fluidly into other genres including Spanish flamenco/gypsy vaguely reminiscent of Paco De Lucia, Brazilian, classical Spanish, traditional jazz, and blues.

He brought up guest singers for two numbers, which was very popular with the crowd. They peformed well (though I found it incogruous to hear “Ain’t no Sunshine” performed by a woman, the alternation with vocals by the drummer worked very nicely. That drummer can sing!) While the vocalists were nice the real heart of the performance was the obvious pleasure they took in peforming with each other, and the musicality of their performances. The playful collegiality combined with serious musicianship made for a lovely evening.

I am a little unhappy with the venue. I know that jazz is traditionally played in dark smoky clubs, this certainly was both very dark and very smoky! However the sight lines and acoustics were not ideal. The sounds was both loud and bright, with lots of flat hard surfaces to bounce off. My other gripe is that music promotion seems almost non-existent in Bangalore. I scan the papers looking for events, I get on mailing lists for notification of events, and STILL the only way I heard about this was by word of mouth from someone I met last weekend. If I can’t hear about a jazz guitar event at a club that’s practically on my doorstep, how can anyone expect to find out about good music in more obscure venues?

One quick comment about Amit’s performance at Grasshopper. That was his first live solo outing and it had a few rough edges. The venue was more like a small recital hall, and the audience was very attentive and very quiet – unlike a typical club performance. His playing was good, but maybe because of nervousness, the venue, or the audience, it didn’t feel like he really connected with the audience. Solo jazz guitar is a tough gig, especially with an audience hanging on every note. Some of the things that work well in a club setting don’t work so well as a soloist. The sound at Grasshopper was processed more than I would have liked, sometimes with a heavy hand (foot?) on the reverb, other times with gratuitious effects. Solo jazz guitar is about one person’s ability on their instrument. It’s more intimate, subtle, and requires a different kind of listening. The performance was obviously good enough to leave me wanting to hear more, but I think it could have been even better.

That said, the set at Hypnos worked. The band was together, the music was hot, and the crowd loved it. Amit was obviously in his metier, and a fine metier it is. I want more.

Nanking is apparently the latest outpost of a restaurant with branches in Delhi and Mumbai. It bills itself as Chinese, not multi-cuisine, and it lives up to the billing. We started with an appetizer that sounded like it would be something like a spring roll, crispy on the outside and a mixed minced meat filling. We also had been craving pork and so asked to try their spareribs. At this point the host asked “do you like crab?” “Yes we love crab.” He disappeared only to return with a GIGANTIC live crab vigorously waving its claws. (The crab in the photo is smaller, I didn’t manage to take a picture of the one we ate.)

“How about this?” “Um, sure!” “Would you like it steamed?” “Can you make it sauteed in black bean sauce?” “Of course.” “We’d like that then.”

More after the cut.

They took away the giant crab and brought us the starters. The crispy roll was more like a small pork sausage wrapped in a rice noodle and deep fried. Tasty, but not exactly what I’d expected or what I had in mind. The spare ribs were meltingly tender and served with a dark sauce that combined savory notes of dark soy with just enough sweetness. Normally I prefer spareribs to be finished on a grill or under a broiler to bring out browned flavors, but these were delicious nonetheless. We finished them all.

Then came the crab. I had been worried that it was too big for three when they showed it to us, and when they presented it cooked and sauced I was certain of it. Each of the claws was big enough to be an entire meal for one person, and there was twice again as much meat in the body and legs. Debbie took one claw, Martin took the other, and I took a piece of the body.

The flavor of the crab was incredible. Evidently this crab comes from somewhere north of us. Maybe in the Bay of Bengal or maybe the Arabian Sea off the coast near Mumbai? In any case the flesh was delicately tender and very sweet. The black bean sauce I’d asked for was maybe a little too strong for this, but how was I to know such a big beast would have such a subtle flavor? Next time I think just steamed with ginger and scallions would be better. We had a nice long discussion with the host about chinese cuisine and crabs in particular, contrasting this crab to the Dungeness I’m more familiar with.

After we could no longer move, Martin took home the remaining crab and reported that it was almost too much the next day as well. It seemed to me we’d found a winner, but I wanted to be sure, so we decided to try it again last night.

This time the host recognized us, and as we were seated they brought us chopsticks and rice bowls, remembering from last time that we preferred them. In addition they poured tea which was a nice touch, though I’m pretty sure it was a domestic black tea rather than a chinese style tea – still it was a pleasant surprise.

They brought us the menus, but even before we could really look at them he asked us a little hesitantly “Do you like brewed soup?” “Sure.” “We have a brewed pork soup tonight, special.” “That sounds good.” “You like pickle? We have some home style radish pickle.” “Excellent. Yes please.” “Do you like stewed pork?” “Yes of course.” “Would you like to try our pork mai chow?” “Definitely.” “How about fish, we have a very nice fish tonight, bombay duck.” “Um, I’m worried that might be too much food.” “You could take some home.” “Well…” “It’s a special fish, we don’t always have it.” “Oh, alright.”

Now I’m very familiar with this little dance, and as long as I know the restaurant or know the chef or host, this is my normal preferred method of eating. Walk in, sit down, and say “please serve us whatever is good tonight.” Normally the results are good and sometimes they’re amazing, but I didn’t really know this place or the host – still for some reason I trusted him.

The soup arrived, anonymous lumps of meat surrounded by limp stringy looking vegetables in a grayish broth that smelled strongly of sulfur, reminding me a little of old sneakers. Fortunately I’d had experience with some more traditional chinese soups and plunged on in spite of the appearance and smell. The soup was delicious. It was made with pork neck bones that had been simmered over low heat for over seven hours. The pungent aroma was a combination of preserved vegetables and chinese mustard greens, which added just the right bitter notes to balance the salty and savory flavors of the pork. The broth was rich and supple and very satisfying. This is not a subtle soup, not a delicate soup, this is a hearty traditional soup for people who appreciate chinese cuisine. This is definitely not a soup for the timid, picky, or fastidious diner.

With the soup came the home style radish pickle. Very simple, just giant white radish picked in rice vinegar and sugar, but crunchy and flavorful and a good accompaniment to the soft dishes we’d ordered. They also brought a condiment of soy sauce, chopped fresh red chilies, and maybe a tiny bit of black vinegar that I used to flavor the soup and season the pickles – the sauce was fiery hot and I used it with discretion. They weren’t going to coddle us tonight!

Next was the pork stew with mai-chow. This is a Hakka-style chinese recipe consisting of pieces of pork belly (still including the skin) that is stewed with dried vegetables in a flavorful broth. It’s a kind of hot pot. The pork is cooked to the point where the skin is soft and the gelatine has dissolved into the broth, the vegetables look like dried leeks or green onions. The entire dish is aromatic smelling of star anise and other brown spices. After other experiences with dry overcooked pork, this was nirvana.

Finally the “bombay duck.” This is a small silver fish that had the head removed then split, flattened, breaded and quickly fried. The crust was probably panko crumbs, and the fish had been cooked perfectly. The outside was lightly browned and very crispy while the fish itself was moist and delicate, almost buttery in texture. The few bones were tiny and soft, almost unnoticeable. The fish came with a sweet catsup based sauce including diced onions that was mercifully served on the side.

We had steamed rice which unfortunately was the ubiquitous long grain, but served in a clay pot which seemed a little incongruous. That was the only thing I can find to complain about. Finally they brought us a complimentary dessert of vanilla ice cream and fried banana with a hard caramelized shell and sesame. Utterly delicious. I don’t remember how much the crab was (but it wasn’t cheap) however the second meal came to under Rs 800 for the two of us. I think we just found our new favorite chinese restaurant in Bangalore.

When we sat down, we were surprised to see that the menu was entirely Thai, and not just the same tired old thai dishes you find everywhere, but interesting, innovative (and authentic!) dishes we hadn’t seen anywhere else. Evidently Saigon is putting on a three week Thai food festival, and has brought in Chef Chantanee Chuangsuvanich from Bangkok for recipes, advice, teaching, and supervision.

Our impressions after the cut.

We ordered three dishes, plus dessert: Tom kha huabil (coconut milk soup with banana blossom), san jan phad koong (rice noodles with egg and dried shrimp), kaengkua moo gab fak leung (pork and pumpkin in red curry with basil), and khao niew mamuang (mango with sticky rice). The chef included a freebie – spicy minced chicken with basil but I didn’t get the Thai name.

The tom kha was very tasty, nice tartness to balance the creaminess of the coconut milk, pungent lemongrass, and tender coconut blossom shreds. One nice touch was that it wasn’t as sweet as many tom gha’s I’ve had. The only small defect was that the soup had slightly “broken” and lost its emulsification. It’s tricky to heat coconut milk in acidic broth, I know I’ve broken enough lemon sauces, but it did mar anotherwise delightful soup.

The phad was very tasty, delicate flavors, not oversweet, small brown dried shrimp to add the requisite seafood flavor. I’m not usually a big fan of phad dishes, but Debbie loves them and reports that this one was exceptional.

One of the more intriguing dishes on the menu was the pork and pumpkin in red curry. I had high hopes for this dish, as pork is common in Thai cooking but fairly unusual in Bangalore. Sadly the pork was dry, possibly cooked a little too long. The sauce was quite tasty and the pumpkin chunks were fun, as was the inclusion of fresh pineapple for contrast. Done with tender pork this dish would be exceptional.

The chef came out and toured the room, something that I see relatively frequently in the US and Europe, but have never seen before in Bangalore. She talked to people at each table, explaining what she was doing, and giving details about each dish. She had sent a freebie to us, a minced chicken in spicy basil that was fantastic. We talked for a while about Thai food, and the adjustments she had made for India, as well as the fact that she was training the local chefs to be able to continue these dishes after she left!

Finally we ended with the classic mango with sticky rice and coconut milk. So much of this dish depends on the mangos, and we’re fortunate to have excellent mangos right now so the dish was sublime. Sweet sticky rice, rich coconut milk, all contrasted with the fruity sweet/tartness of the mango. Thai food is a lot about balancing sweet, salty, sour, pungent, and hot to acheive a synergy that is greater than the components. Too often I find when dining at Thai restaurants that they have unbalanced the food to cater to local tastes. I was pleased at how nicely Chef Chantanee had balanced classic Thai elements with local taste.

Total cost for two about Rs 800. We will be back, certainly in the next three weeks, but again afterwards. Strongly recommended.

I assume we all know how auto drivers never seem to be able to make change for larger bills. Despite the fact that every fare is paying in 10s and 20s, if you want change for a 100 or even a 50 they never seem to have it. Well this time I was coming home, and the meter fare would have been under 20. When I got in I didn’t say anything and he didn’t start the meter (this is a pretty common occurance for me now days when I know what the fare should be.) We go to my place and I gave him 20 rupees. “30 rupees boss.” “Sorry, all I have is 20 and 100.” So the auto driver accepted 20, since apparently his unwillingness to admit he could make change outweighed his desire to dicker for an additional few rupees.

Second story happened last night. Wanted to go from Infantry Road to Bangalore Central. I’d normally pay 20, sometimes 30, I’m bargaining with the guy and he says “40″ I say “no no, too much, 30″ this goes back and forth for a little while till finally I think he says “30″ and he motions to get in. I get in and say “ok, 30″ he cracks up and I realize that he really said “40″ and motioned to get in and I mis-heard him but he thinks I’m scamming him and thinks it’s funny. Anyway when we get there I give him 30, then dig out a 5 and say “we’ll split the difference.” He laughs with delight and says thanks.

I’m going to have to remember both of those ploys though. I think they’ll come in handy. Do other people have funny “turn the tables” on auto driver stories? I’m sure we all have lots of unhappy auto stories, but what about funny stories with happy endings?

Can someone please explain what I just witnessed?

I haven’t seen this in my neighborhood yet (Shivajinagar) but I’m keeping my eye out. Defnitely something I look forward to trying!