tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post2403930633175603717..comments2012-01-31T11:15:10.943-07:00Manisha Pandithttps://profiles.google.com/109439220446024348061noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-64271304858307893482012-01-31T11:15:10.943-07:002012-01-31T11:15:10.943-07:00Hi, I stumbled upon your blog while looking for Indian food blogs and what a great post you have here. I can so associate with your pet peeves...I am tired of explaining that East India as such does not exist, it is just India and we are just Indians....I did not know about East Indians....good to know a new thing about my country...<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />SuchiSuchihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12372234531071887531noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-11137678754184361312012-01-23T04:34:45.195-07:002012-01-23T04:34:45.195-07:00I worked for years on a Native American reservation. There is lots of picky-ness over what each person seems to want to call themselves. Because there&#39;s a large &quot;Indian&quot;<br />population here, to prevent misunderstanding sometimes I refer to someone as &quot;India-Indian&quot; or East &quot;Indian&quot;, but it&#39;s east as opposed to west, not &quot;EAST INDIA&quot;-an. And while I&#39;m sure people take offense at being called &quot;Asian&quot; (I usually avoid the term because I&#39;ve had my head bitten off for it!) sometimes that&#39;s as close as a person can get to specifying someone&#39;s guessed origin. No offense is intended. It&#39;s like a kid on the reservation talking about the &quot;blonde&quot; girl...200 native kids, all brunette, but I knew which one they meant! ;0)Ondreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236155358817355815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-25556789460238180932012-01-15T05:28:08.013-07:002012-01-15T05:28:08.013-07:00I didn&#39;t know you would want bottle masala since you were headed back to Bombay! You&#39;ve tasted it though, haven&#39;t you?Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06002754872631420601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-50007968701916469632012-01-13T21:29:35.038-07:002012-01-13T21:29:35.038-07:00Love this Manisha. Though I grew uo with dahl as you describe it in recent years I make on almosy a weekly basis more liquidy version and have it as a soup:). I love th epiece of history about the East Indian community in India. &amp; Yay for Maharashtra, both my parents as you might know are frm ther. The dahl here is a complete different version from how I &amp; my mom make it but there are numerous versions:). Beautiful!Shuliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11637278501455738531noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-30002590076184138392012-01-12T22:33:55.381-07:002012-01-12T22:33:55.381-07:00<b>Anita</b><i>, when I have the time, yes! I don&#39;t have maids, remember? And I therefore have to eat frozen food.</i> ;-)<br /><br /><i>So glad you found the bottle masala before I did. Very unhappy that you did not share it with me. Hmmph!</i><br /><br /><b>John</b><i>, HNY to you, too! I have a long list of pet peeves! You have been forewarned! The less said about the Indian team, the better.</i><br /><br /><b>BM</b><i>, the year is going really well. I&#39;m sorry the East Indians stole your thunder but India is a complicated place, no? That&#39;s the biggest part of its charm!</i><br /><br /><b>Ananda</b><i>, thank you! The soup is very filling and I can see it being a one pot meal on weekdays. If you try it, let me know what you think!</i><br /><br /><b>Helene</b><i>, I&#39;m not sure how you made the leap and brought Goans into the picture! All Christians in India are not Goans, just as all Goans are not Christians. <br /><br />East Indians are a Christian community from Maharashtra. Click through to the links in my post and you can read about their cultural history. Or since you are in India, you could buy Michael&#39;s cookbook from FlipKart and read his essays, which I think are very informative.<br /><br />Additionally, all Indians in India are free to live where they wish regardless of their religion or community. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian thing *has* to stop. Apart from stripping India of its wealth, this is what the colonizers did to us: divided us and it still persists more than sixty years after independence. I&#39;m sorry but I do not agree with you that this was good for India. Please do not spread more parochialism or incite <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communalism#Indian_subcontinent" rel="nofollow">communalism</a> this way.</i><br /><br /><b>Sunshine</b><i>, it&#39;s definitely used in the midwest and by NPR. Can you imagine that? NPR! Mmmmm! Bacon!</i>Manisha Pandithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397829480472038159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-68670117187337961872012-01-12T21:49:11.626-07:002012-01-12T21:49:11.626-07:00I had no clue we are called east Indians! This post is amazing and I hope they got the message. <br />As for this daal. Yummy with bacon .. :)Sunshine And Smilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11634784728241459787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-45987393254049952142012-01-12T05:56:00.182-07:002012-01-12T05:56:00.182-07:00Helene, I am not sure if I understand you correctly. Is Goa getting messed up because it is inhabited by non-Christian Indians? India is a free country that does not differentiate on faith and people of all faiths are free to live anywhere they chose. Similarly, Goan Christians are free to live in Bombay, Pune, Delhi or wherever they chose. Before the Portuguese and the Arabs arrived, there were people (later called Hindus) living in &#39;Goa&#39;, and not all of adopted Christianity.<br /><br />Are you saying we should instead allow &#39;aliens&#39;, such as yourself, to &quot;take over the place&quot;; or colonise us? If you read a little you might discover that the colonisers gained more than the colonised did!<br /><br />We would have fumbled along just fine without the help. Why Goa is better off than a lot of places in India is more complicated than the fact that it was a colony - which all of India was. I don&#39;t appreciate the scorn you seem to have for non-Goan Indians.Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06002754872631420601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-83011599740860401882012-01-12T04:35:33.826-07:002012-01-12T04:35:33.826-07:00I am sorry but I dont think so Goans would want to be called east indians. Right now the hindu and moslem community is taking over goa, I would say even they r messing it up. Most of the christians in bombay and pune are goans anyway. Colonization was not good and often horrible, I agree, but because india was a colony it is better developed. That anybody can see &gt;&gt;&gt; example goa.Helene Dsouzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03057062918520263294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-74511763263831158232012-01-09T17:29:25.893-07:002012-01-09T17:29:25.893-07:00Honestly i&#39;m tried of explaining people around about dal, next time i&#39;m ask i will fwd them your page ;) Enjoyed reading the whole history, rarely it is! and fwd about the book to my Indian friend who married a Portuguese, and dal looks wonderful and bacon i will think about it!Ananda Rajashekarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664695307228244370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-81824234298136718672012-01-07T22:59:44.468-07:002012-01-07T22:59:44.468-07:00Happy New year Manisha. Now that it has all got sorted out I am sure the year is going to be happy :)<br /><br />And here I thought maybe, just maybe I was an East Indian, never sure where you belong. Huh!Bong Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407918137263251235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-43778555629481918272012-01-05T21:20:03.456-07:002012-01-05T21:20:03.456-07:00dear Manisha, Happy New Year ! hope you don&#39;t have to expose any more &quot; pet peeves &quot; ! we are currently hosting the INDIAN CRICKET TEAM here in Australia ! the 2nd Test is underway in Sydney. Tendulkar has just got out, having again failed to get his Hundreth Test Century ! India are &quot;on the ropes &quot; , batting to save the Test . Australia are 1 up in the 4 match series. i sympathise with your East Indian problem ( never heard such an expression in Australia ), but think you might have a permanent problem in modern America. cheersjohn k.Tas.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04693612354214803895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-69981970608655953642012-01-05T05:16:25.924-07:002012-01-05T05:16:25.924-07:00Soak the dal?! :shock: Have you started mollycoddling your dals finally?<br /><br />I was very confused about this East Indian business here till you enlightened me a few years ago. I do love their versatile bottle masala and if there&#39;s a recipe in that book - I&#39;m buying it!<br /><br />Great summary at the end; should make it crystal clear to any brains still foggy.Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06002754872631420601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-48515910918276242812012-01-04T18:01:28.026-07:002012-01-04T18:01:28.026-07:00<b>novicehousewife</b><i>, thanks for reading my rant! This dal, though, is a soup!</i> ;-)<br /><br /><b>Gay</b><i>, that is so exciting! I hope everything falls into place and you have a memorable trip! Don&#39;t forget to come back and share your experiences with me!</i><br /><br /><b>Averie</b><i>, that was a fun two days! And I enjoyed our chat! Hugs to you!</i>Manisha Pandithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397829480472038159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-34600669726330437482012-01-04T12:13:34.978-07:002012-01-04T12:13:34.978-07:00saw this on FG. congrats!<br /><br />I think of you often and our time at the food &amp; light workshop. Happy 2012!Averie (Love Veggies and Yoga)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16647528150210772859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-12803385522858575642012-01-03T17:28:22.082-07:002012-01-03T17:28:22.082-07:00Manisha, the Fiji Hindi Script is Devanagari. Yes, you must visit us one day. Meanwhile as you probably know already, there are many ex Fiji people living in Canada. I have a girlfriend there, who is organising aa trip to India for a gorup of us in November this year hopefully. My first trip, but my son has been there before. Really exciting, and I can&#39;t wait for the sights and food.Gayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15913982051288297865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-1299842498964764982012-01-03T17:23:28.688-07:002012-01-03T17:23:28.688-07:00Enjoyed reading the post. I know sometimes these terms are really frustrating. Its nice to see it being pointed out! The &quot;soup&quot; looks great!thenovicehousewifehttp://thenovicehousewife.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-37277513590262783562012-01-03T14:33:32.510-07:002012-01-03T14:33:32.510-07:00<b>HNY, everyone!</b><br /><br /><b>Gabi</b><i>, does anyone correct them or do the Indonesians just accept it as that is the way of the Dutch?</i><br /><br /><b>Sig</b><i>, you are the trendsetter! Did you know whether they used it to refer to you as a person from India or if they thought you were a real East Indian from Bombay?</i><br /><br /><b>The knife</b><i>, totally! I actually had that piece of information in there but deleted it as it made my head swim!</i><br /><br /><b>Barbara</b><i>, thanks and the Indian team isn&#39;t doing very well, is it?!</i><br /><br /><b>notyet101</b><i>, it is! Make it with chana dal or matar ki dal.</i><br /><br /><b>Miri</b><i>, I&#39;m going to make some bottle masala soon. Guava cheese is a huge treat! I&#39;ve been wondering if I can start with guava juice and cook it down. One of these days...</i><br /><br /><b>Indu</b><i>, definitely a soup even though it uses dal as a base ;-)</i><br /><br /><b>Niv</b><i>, I first encountered it in about 2006 or so. I brought it up with Monica about her article on NPR but she said she has no control over the title as that is written by an editor. I would have asked for it to be changed.</i><br /><br /><b>DesertNails</b><i>, thank you for that piece of information! I&#39;m glad it&#39;s not as widely used as it once used to be! I was told a very convoluted story in 2006 that I would prefer to forget but it led to the discovery that yes, Indians are called East Indians. What is worse is that Indians call themselves East Indians because &quot;that&#39;s how it is in the US.&quot; In the past, I have seen copies of US newspaper articles dating back to the 1960s which referred to people from India as East Indians.</i><br /><br /><b>Mistress</b><i>, ha ha! If you have any children, they will be called Mestizos (of mixed blood), according to Michael&#39;s book. <br /><br />Is there a similar soup in Portuguese cuisine?</i><br /><br /><b>Leslie</b><i>, thank you! Make the soup!</i><br /><br /><b>Finla</b><i>, hopefully it is on the decline! I&#39;ll bet you were surprised when you showed up and got rendang instead of makhani!</i> ;-)<br /><br /><b>Gay</b><i>, it was the reverse in Kenya. An Asian was someone from India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka. There were Kenyan Asians and then there were Indian expats. People from SE Asia were known by their nationality. <br /><br />Oh and you live in such a beautiful place! I want to visit Fiji! One of my neighbors assumed that I would know Fiji Indian cuisine because I was Indian. I had to explain that, at the most, I would be able to spot similarities if presented with a recipe but that was it. <br /><br />As you know, Hindi is a phonetic language and any words we write in English are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration" rel="nofollow">transliterated</a> and only approximate as most of the sounds do not exist in the English language. To add to the confusion, I make many mistakes while transliterating. Dh implies an aspirated sound (ध) whereas D is used more for द, the sound that dal (as we say it in Hindi) begins with. But that&#39;s Indian Hindi and not Fiji Hindi. What do you use to write Fiji Hindi? Devanagari, English alphabet or your own script?<br /><br />Also, South Indians generally write it as Dhal when they transliterate. Some folks write it as dahl. It doesn&#39;t matter, as long as it&#39;s delicious and brings people together at the same table, I say! Now, if only I could adopt the same attitude about the term East Indian for Indians...</i> ;-DManisha Pandithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397829480472038159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-65335092261895825892012-01-03T12:31:26.901-07:002012-01-03T12:31:26.901-07:00I love the recipes and love the information Manisha. Very interesting. I have the same problem with people and their mis-inforaation - like calling Asians in general, anyone from Korea, China and anywhere other than Japan or India, which they seem to have figured out. I usually ask them which country they are talking about in Asia, as Asia is very broad. They cannot answer that one.<br />We have Fiji Hindi here in Fiji, which is a mixture of Indian languages from when the ships first arrived in Fiji from India. They couldn&#39;t understand each other&#39;s language, so developed Fiji Hindi. My father was brought up in India, and spoke India Hindi fluently. When he arrived here, they didn&#39;t know what he was talking about so had to re-learn Fiji Hindi. Also we spell Dal - Dhal here. Love your recipes.Gayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15913982051288297865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-34246402466606023842012-01-03T10:19:10.185-07:002012-01-03T10:19:10.185-07:00I saw the pic in flickr and as you wrote there i wanted to know what you were ranting aobut :-) Loved reading the post,I didn&#39; tknow that we Indians were called East Indians in US. I agree with cybergabi, about holland, i remeber my MIL saying when i first came here hat she had been to a Indian restaurant for dinning and then it is later i found out it was inoneasian food.Happy Cook / Finlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122357811540919609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-87398033603788256902012-01-03T10:15:54.805-07:002012-01-03T10:15:54.805-07:00I have always called people from India <i>Indians</i>. I call the other people <i>Native Americans</i>, at least now. I want this soup.Leslie F. Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05996168855030440765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-69517233676550868082012-01-03T09:34:22.956-07:002012-01-03T09:34:22.956-07:00Very interesting post for me as an Indian woman married to a Portuguese man!The Mistress of Spiceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03089286821254085719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-46110757380169546822012-01-03T09:08:18.198-07:002012-01-03T09:08:18.198-07:00I live in Arizona, USA, and have never heard of the term East Indians. I am glad to learn the history behind it. We do have many bands of native peoples here which are called Indians by white people in Phoenix. And to refer to another kind of Indians we say &quot;Indians from India&quot; because the majority of Indians here are native peoples. I like learning things on your blog. And making your wonderful recipes! Happy New Year!DesertNails8http://www.blogger.com/profile/02931363327562674214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-63927397302299246222012-01-03T05:59:01.047-07:002012-01-03T05:59:01.047-07:00BEAUTIFUL piece... Loved the part about the pet Peeves. (something that must be on many minds, but never got articulated with such clarity!). Great way to get inspired for 2012!!Niv Manihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10361075006673274990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-32673077237261933882012-01-03T04:41:20.885-07:002012-01-03T04:41:20.885-07:00Very interesting bit of history there. And the soup (or was it soup) looks amazing!<br /><br />Indu @ indugetscooking.blogspot.comInduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736647660276545024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156654.post-6316089485839584712012-01-03T03:09:15.516-07:002012-01-03T03:09:15.516-07:00I never knew of this nomenclature for Indians.....sigh....<br /><br />and yes, bottle masala is fabulous. I was a PG for 4 years with an East Indian matriarch and she used to regularly buy the bottle masala and guava jelly - yummMirihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13676408925598600874noreply@blogger.com