Assam Super Red Dust(SRD)

Yes; they're on a little side street nearby - directions on the web. "Storefront" is really a small office and display area; one can wander in back to see luscious piles and crates of tea being received and baggeed, and shop for occasion "use by" bargains on pre-bagged foreign products. Nice people and pretty good tea; just not a huge variety. (And I like an EBT with considerably more kick.)

-DM

----- Original Message ----- From: "Debbie Deutsch" Newsgroups: rec.food.drink.tea Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 12:11 PM Subject: Re: Assam Super Red Dust(SRD)

"Dog Ma 1" wrote in news:e5LBb.429764$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

Thank you!!!

It was open stage night in rec.food.drink.tea, when David M. Harris stepped up to the microphone and muttered:

Right. There you go. That would be astonishing.

[ chuckle ]

My hometown things are the real deal, just like Debbie describes below. Turn tooth-chipping hard by the next day.

--crymad

I'm going to have to make my own one of these days so my children will know what a real bagel tastes like.

Karen, brewing some rooibos chai

Also in Washington D.C. and Arlington,VA(Manhattan bagles), also had very good kind in London. The best one I have ever had was-in a brunch place somewhere near Central park(NY). By the way, I have a question- so bagles came to US by Jews community? Or would like to know, the origin of bagles.

Ripon (From Bangladesh)

Strange.. why is that. All kinds of bread are available here from french to bagles. Bangladesh is a fast growing economy that means many foreign investors live here. When a foreign company come, with the company there local food chain also follow. We have many different foods here from Japanese(East) to American(West). The city is very multicultural. The people who opened the bagles shop, actually is a french frenchise. Here we even have big super market like American Giant or Fresh-field. All sorts of foreign food are there from frozen to fresh Australian vegatables and fruits. From world famous Pizza Hut to Swiss famous ice cream shop Move-in-pick.

Derek and DMH Starbucks is opening next year. So this year be astonised but next year- please don't LOL.

Ripon (From Bangladesh)

Karen wrote in news:3ZNBb.9985$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net:

I have a recipe. Let me know if you need it.

Debbie

snipped-for-privacy@dhaka.net (Ripon) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Ripon,

Just as everyday Americans don't go shopping at the Bangladeshi (and Indian and Pakastani) groceries here, I didn't expect that Bangladeshi's would do significant amount of shopping at foreign groceries either. Even the most cosmopolitain people usually stick to what they grew up with for everyday food, at least in my experience. Foreign food is a nice exception, but not staple fare. At least that's the case among people who I know.

Debbie

| Also in Washington D.C. and Arlington,VA(Manhattan bagles), also had | very good kind in London. The best one I have ever had was-in a brunch | place somewhere near Central park(NY). By the way, I have a question- | so bagles came to US by Jews community? Or would like to know, the | origin of bagles.

Origin - legend has it they were created as in Austria by a Jewish baker as a way to thank a ruler from Poland (who had helped protect the Austrians from an invasion). They moved from Poland into Russia and then somehow got proliferated around the world. Best served with a schmear.

That depends on what you would call foreign. Most Americans are not from Mexico or Texas, but many of them eat Taco Bell. Pizza, foccacia, pasta, and other Italian-based foods aren't really foreign in the US anymore. In the

70s bagels were still foreign to most Americans- they aren't now. Sushi (usually of the cooked variety) can be found in many places around the US- most people no longer think of it as 'bait'. What this means is that some people did have to pick up food in ethnic groceries, or eat in ethnic restaurants, and they would have to do it as more than an exception for certain foods to catch on. Once there are enough people who like a food to the point of some version being sold in a regular supermarket (even just regionally) it's on its way to acceptance among larger numbers of the population.

Part of this, I think, has to do with how many people in urban areas live next to immigrant enclaves. I eat a lot more Japanese food (to the point where eel has become a staple on my menu, and I almost always have soba noodles in my freezer) because there is a burgeoning Japanese neighborhood near me, with at least 3 markets within walking distance. I see lots (and I don't mean that as an exaggeration) of non-Asians shopping in these stores, because the produce and meats are very fresh, and come in portions suited for students (I live near NYU in Manhattan). The Japanese restaurants in my area also have an admixture of non-Asian and Asian college students, as well as older people of many ethnicities; most of the older people are locals who are used to eating various ethnic cuisines, since New York's East Village is filled with places that serve good, hearty home-style dishes from various parts of the world, and living in that section of Manhattan is popular with bohemians of various stripes as well as perpetual students like me, all of us tending to live on the cheap.

Just as many students who passed through NYU and Columbia, as well as other local colleges returned to their native states with a taste for real bagels, cream cheese, knishes, and other cheap foods that were culturally and financially accessible when they were young, many students in my area are now developing a taste for okonomiyaki, soba, real ramen soup (not just the packaged kind), and yakitori that they will probably have for the rest of their lives. These will be the people most likely to flock to Japanese restaurants when they get back home, and to start combing 'Oriental' groceries in the areas in which they settle. The students who live out in Flushing, Queens (home of one of the US's larger Korean populations) will probably develop a taste for bibimbop and kimchee. I won't be shocked if ten years from now, ex-students who once lived up near Columbia aren't still looking for tacos that taste like the ones they found in NYC's growing Mexican community, or if they start making Cuban sandwiches at home (the Dominicans make some of the best). Pad Thai is becoming so ubiquitous in NY that it's turning up on Burmese, Korean and Chinese delivery menus in my area - I would not be surprised if the dish became an American staple within

20 years, rather like fried rice, because it has great potential for adaptability, and isn't as daunting as Night Market Noodles or curry dishes.

After all- one of the reasons spaghetti and pizza became popular outside of the Little Italys around the US is because the foods were cheap and non-challenging enough for hungry students and locals to wash down with cheap beer on a semi-regular basis. Many of America's most popular 'semi-ethnic' cuisines- the foods that end up on mall menus and at chain restaurants- are recreations of cheap foods found near colleges and poor neighborhoods around the country that spread out among the general population. This may explain in part why some dishes pass into the American (and world ) lexicon of regular food while others do not. From what I've seen the foreign dishes that tend to become popular are easily adaptable to whatever ingredients are on hand, can often be made at home without too much fuss (or can be easily bought from someone else), and have enough recognisable ingredients that the dish doesn't scare people away. Once my relatives understood that pizza was 'really' just bread and cheese with stewed tomatoes, they were willing to eat it. I suspect the same thing happened when average Americans saw tacos as cheeseburgers in a different form, or as Sloppy Joes with a different kind of bread; menudo, on the other hand, would be a much tougher sell for most folks, because most Americans don't eat animal stomachs and the cleaning process and food texture make it too daunting.

DM,

Both Upton Tea (uptontea.com) and SpecialTeas (specialteas.com) have good selections.

Regards, Dean