Chepa Mach, Shidol, Ngaari in the DC Metropolitan Area !!

I by nature am not a very helpful person. However there comes a time when one is armed with such invaluable knowledge that one has to pass it on. As the spiderman movies have so wisely opined -- "With great power comes great responsibility."

So ladies and gentlemen, here is the momentous news. After two months of frenzied and single-minded research, I have been able to, in my DC Metropolitan Area apartment, create a full bodied, volcanic, sweat-inducing shidol-chutney, completely from locally procured resources. A significant portion of my scant readership is now raising the Questioning Eyebrow and saying "Eh ? Shidol what ?". So I proceed to do some light-shedding. To the faithful, Shidol is also known as Hidol, Ngaari, Sepa Maach and Tungtap among other hallowed names. The faithless however prefer to term it as that-fermented-fish-from-stinky-hell. This treatise is for the faithful.

Any true aficionado of the Shidol-Chutney realises that there are two essential ingredients which make the soul of the chutney. The first being the awe-inspiring and volcanic Naga Morich or a pepper/chilly of equal potential. The second of course, is the Shidol itself. Once armed with these two, the rest is personal artistry. Here is how one may go about procuring them:
How To Get the Shidol:


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The location depicted above houses a row of Bangladeshi stores. Some of them do stock frozen Shidol. Ask for Sepa Maach or Shidol. They are not as fragrant as the ones one is wont to have, but they do serve very very well.
How to get the Naga Morich:
Sadly, the Naga Morich is not be found around here. One however has a more-than-passable substitute. One can drop into any supermarket and pick up a bunch of one of the Scotch Bonnet peppers. The Habanero variety is the best of the lot. After some experimentation, I have arrived at the conclusion that about two of these peppers amount to one small Naga Morich. These peppers however are not as fragrant as the Indian counterparts. So, one could contemplate adding a slice of a red bell pepper for the fragrance. So in review, if you crush two habanero peppers with a slice of red bell pepper, you get one Naga Morich.

I shall not explain the method for actually making the chutney because the ingredients and proportions in ones chutney are deeply personal nobody can tell one how to do it. One just knows.

UPDATE : On the Bhoot Jolokia / Naga Morich. If possible, use this one in the chutney

Profound Words

"A child who has not travelled says that his mother is the best cook."

The Puri-Sabji of Bangalore

When it has to be told, it has to be told. I have been witholding it long enough, but I can no longer do so. Ladies and gentlemen, the puri-sabji in Bangalore is not the Happy Combination. It is not the Right Stuff.

Back in my wild, younger days when I was in Gurgaon (about a four months back), after a hot and dusty week out in the open, roping in a herd of inexplicable deadlocks and taming a bunch of difficult memory leaks, I would go to Om Sweets in Sector 14, kick back and unwind over a plate of puri-sabji. That plate of puri-sabji, single handedly would restore the deep scars left behind by unindented code, non-recursive locks and team meetings. In short, it rejuvenated.

The Bangalorean Puri-Sabji in sharp contradistinction, depresses me. It leaves me glassy eyed, silent and markedly unfulfilled. There is a very distinct and profound flaw in the Bangalorean Puri-Sabji -- It Lacks Zing (as Dr. M.D. so correctly points out). This singular lack of zing saddens one. It leaves the poor spirit wanting more. I am a lost soul trudging the weary desert without the Manna raining from heaven.

Tags: Bangalore, food, Culture