Cookin again

In fact, middle eastern cuisine is the source of 2 of my “secret” salt cutting habits!

1) I make lebanese garlic spread and use it as a mayo substitute on sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, etc.

2) I mix plain greek yogurt 50/50 with mayonnaise when making things like chicken/tuna/egg salads and certain pasta salads. The tangy yogurt has 1/10th of mayo’s salt, but the mix retains the expected color and texture.

Yeah we have Greek yogurt in the fridge.

I made Russian style blinis and used Greek yoghurt on them instead of sour creme.

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In the fridge atm.

Cut the booze from a 6 pack a week to 500 MLS or so.
 
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While true I am getting my middle eastern food from sources as close to authentic as you’re going to find in the USA.

Apparently if you make authentic Chinese using American ingredients it's even better.

In China food safety is bad and they can't get strictly authentic ingredients themselves in a lot of places. The ingredients can have god knows what in it.

I used to work for Chinese market garden as a kid. Got to take home fresh bok choy, brussel sprouts, cabbage etc right out of the garden.

We would also deliver same day to the local supermarket. They had the commercial crops and patches for themselves.
 

Apparently if you make authentic Chinese using American ingredients it's even better.

In China food safety is bad and they can't get strictly authentic ingredients themselves in a lot of places. The ingredients can have god knows what in it.

I used to work for Chinese market garden as a kid. Got to take home fresh bok choy, brussel sprouts, cabbage etc right out of the garden.

We would also deliver same day to the local supermarket. They had the commercial crops and patches for themselves.
I’ve heard much the same.

There was a restaurant near where I lived in the mid-1980s owned & operated by a chef who used to cook for high-ranking Party members. That’s the story he & his family repeated. And that place was ALWAYS full of Ex-pats.
 

While true I am getting my middle eastern food from sources as close to authentic as you’re going to find in the USA.

Broadly, if you're cooking yourself, with recipes written by what I guess I'll call natives to the cuisine in question, you're probably getting something I'd call pretty close to authentic. There may be ingredients you'll have trouble finding, and the techniques may trip you up some, but being in control of your own food has its advantages, IMO. For my own cooking, I grab stuff from wherever, but I don't claim anything I make is authentically, e.g., Indian.
 

Broadly, if you're cooking yourself, with recipes written by what I guess I'll call natives to the cuisine in question, you're probably getting something I'd call pretty close to authentic. There may be ingredients you'll have trouble finding, and the techniques may trip you up some, but being in control of your own food has its advantages, IMO. For my own cooking, I grab stuff from wherever, but I don't claim anything I make is authentically, e.g., Indian.

Alot of Indian dishes are authentic, just not the popular ones like Tikka Masala and in not sure about butter chicken.

If you get in good with some chefs sometimes they make it like they do at home or share their family meal from out back.

I got to try some Jordanian dishes that way and authentic Turkish pizza and kebab. I gave some local Chinese some blue cod as I don't like fish and scored some if their home food.

My local Indian place has said he can do requests as well if you give him a few days notice. There's this Indian style burger I want to try. He can do it but it's not on the menu.
 

Alot of Indian dishes are authentic, just not the popular ones like Tikka Masala and in not sure about butter chicken.

If you get in good with some chefs sometimes they make it like they do at home or share their family meal from out back.

I got to try some Jordanian dishes that way, authentic Turkish pizza and kebab that way.

My local Indian place has said he can do requests as well if you give him a few days notice. There's this Indian style burger I want to try. He can do it but it's not on the menu.

Yeah. I live in a place where I can get lots of cuisines, done authentically. I haven't made friends with any of the local chefs, but it does seem like a way to get to The Good Stuff.
 

Yeah. I live in a place where I can get lots of cuisines, done authentically. I haven't made friends with any of the local chefs, but it does seem like a way to get to The Good Stuff.

It's not always good, it is different.

Alit of it's just really basic stuff. Take a group of friends bin on a quiet night. Go have coffee with the Jordanians at 2pm take chocolate. If you aquire something off the farm our out of the ocean share etc.
 

Personally, I love fusion.

There’s a take-out pizzeria near where I currently live that is owned by Indians. Besides the usual hot sandwiches & pizzas you’d expect, they also have a small offering of “Indianized” pizzas. Tikka, paneer and so forth. Pretty tasty.

We also have two indian/mexican fast food joints, offering fusion street tacos- your choice on tortillas or Naan.

...and we’ve used leftover Chicken biriyani as the “rice” paired with my own creole turnip greens. (Delicious!)

We used to have a brilliant Tex-mex/Chinese place, with a full menu for each cuisine. So you could have your hot & sour soup paired with a chimichanga. The owner passed, however, and her family decided not to keep the place operational.

There was a chef from New Orleans whose family were Vietnam War refugees. His take on Vietnamese/Creole fusion was sooooo good. Some of the stuff was blindingly obvious, like combining asian fried rice with creole dirty rice. But he sold his restaurant to someone who wasn’t as talented. It’s something else now.
 

Personally, I love fusion.

There’s a take-out pizzeria near where I currently live that is owned by Indians. Besides the usual hot sandwiches & pizzas you’d expect, they also have a small offering of “Indianized” pizzas. Tikka, paneer and so forth. Pretty tasty.

We also have two indian/mexican fast food joints, offering fusion street tacos- your choice on tortillas or Naan.

...and we’ve used leftover Chicken biriyani as the “rice” paired with my own creole turnip greens. (Delicious!)

We used to have a brilliant Tex-mex/Chinese place, with a full menu for each cuisine. So you could have your hot & sour soup paired with a chimichanga. The owner passed, however, and her family decided not to keep the place operational.

There was a chef from New Orleans whose family were Vietnam War refugees. His take on Vietnamese/Creole fusion was sooooo good. Some of the stuff was blindingly obvious, like combining asian fried rice with creole dirty rice. But he sold his restaurant to someone who wasn’t as talented. It’s something else now.

A local pizza joint was sold to Turks who turned it into a kebab place.

They inherited the pizza ovens and make halal pizza with it. They were still doing the pizzas up to 4 years ago.


Looks like they still do pizza.

 

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