Asian food accompaniment

Never seen a lamb curry in an Indian restaurant, Tom? *wink wink*

Interesting discovery, but I'm not sure it's enough to get me to invest in any Riunite! :P

Mark Lipton

Arggh! I forgot about Indian, but that's *not* the Asian I was referring to - and I'm pretty sure you knew that, Mark. I meant the Chinese sort of Asian. You're just yanking my chain. ;^)

Hah! Won't cost you much to try it, will it? Can you spare ~$5?

Tom S

One of the few exceptions was/is chow mein, which in true Cantonese cooking can be an exceptional dish. In fact, several of my friends from Hong Kong/Kowloon used to judge Cantonese restaurants in SF on the basis of the quality of their chow mein.

What is native, Bill? Sheep are indigenous to the Caucasus Mountains and were almost certainly domesticated in the region of present-day Georgia, Chechnya, Armenia or Azerbaijan. But most domesticated species spread through Eurasia several millenia ago. Photos that I've seen from Mongolia show plenty of sheep, so N. China ought to have a few too, I'd think.

My Indian students steadfastly deny that the Spanish or Portuguese brought the chili pepper to the Indian subcontinent, but it's nonetheless true. Genetic analysis has shown that the chili pepper originated in the Peruvian Andes (along with the potato) and was first domesticated there. It spread through trade throughout Mesoamerica, making its way as far north as the SW US, but was unknown outside of the New World until the Columbus encountered it in the Caribbean.

To bring this nearly back on topic, I'll mention that, starting in 1992, my wife and I threw an annual Chili Pepper festival to celebrate the

500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage and the subsequent "discovery" of the chili pepper. Sad to say, we served only beer, though, having yet to learn of the ability of certain white wines to pair with some chili-laden foods.

Mark Lipton

I had thought that chow mein was in the same category as chop suey being among the first dishes created in San Francisco to feed Americans.

Columbus was very successful at bringing the spices from the West Indies as was his charter. I have tended to celebrate his success in the past myself. I was very much into Chinese cooking in the 70s and had a lot of Chinese friends that offered up lots of proofs that they chili peppers long before Columbus and I countered with the fact that the parrentage of the pepper was well established.

In addition to the Wine and Chile Fiesta there is/was a restaurant in Salt Lake City called Santa Fe that prepared every dish with chili. The dishes were from around the world; Chinese, Indian, Southwest, Mexican, North Africa, etc.

Perzackly why I mentioned that tidbit, Bill! ;-)

"Against ignorance the gods themselves strive in vain"

Yup, been to the Wine & Chile Fiesta: great time. I got Rick Bayless to autograph my program at the Big Event (already owned his cookbooks)

Mark Lipton