Re: Re: Good GF Indian Food?

[Guest guest]

My mother has gotten sick from store bought papadams (she is very

sensitive). In one of the restaurants I go to, they told me that they

do deep fry them.I found some GF (labelled) papadams in Whole Foods

and I have eaten those at home several times without any problems. I

just pop them in the microwave for a bit...

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 6:45 PM, seamaiden399 <seamaiden399@...> wrote:

> Papadam are also often seasoned with asafoetida/hing seasoning, which

> is often made with wheat flour.

> -

>

>

> In fact, most of them

>> have steered me away from the papadam, too, which normally would

> only be made

>> of gram (chick pea) flour and maybe rice flour. But some restaurant

> managers

>> have told me either that (1) the papadam is made outside the

> restaurant, so

>> they can't guarantee it wasn't cross contaminated or (2) the gram

> flour they use

>> is sometimes mixed with a little wheat (or at least they think it

> might be).

>>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Shiva's is a fantastic Indian restaurant and they're located in Mountain View I think (maybe Palo Alto). I've only eaten there once but I was pretty blown away. I'm Indian and even the best restaurants just don't measure up to home cooking usually. I talked with one of the workers there quite a bit and according to him all the food is fresh, nothing is ever stored and reheated (kind of hard to believe given the prep time for Indian foods, but it did taste that way). If you ask the right questions there you should have no problem avoiding gluten. I want to mention also that although most Indian foods don't traditionally have any wheat or gluten in them, many restaurants add spice mixes to their dishes. These often have gluten or preservatives, etc. I don't believe they do this at Shiva's but as mentioned earlier you should always ask.

, what is asafoetida/hing? I've never heard of it, and I always assumed if the papadums weren't contaminated in the deep fryer they were ok.NarenOn Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 10:55 PM, Luther <l@...> wrote:

My mother has gotten sick from store bought papadams (she is very

sensitive). In one of the restaurants I go to, they told me that they

do deep fry them.I found some GF (labelled) papadams in Whole Foods

and I have eaten those at home several times without any problems. I

just pop them in the microwave for a bit...

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 6:45 PM, seamaiden399 <seamaiden399@...> wrote:

> Papadam are also often seasoned with asafoetida/hing seasoning, which

> is often made with wheat flour.

> -

>

>

> In fact, most of them

>> have steered me away from the papadam, too, which normally would

> only be made

>> of gram (chick pea) flour and maybe rice flour. But some restaurant

> managers

>> have told me either that (1) the papadam is made outside the

> restaurant, so

>> they can't guarantee it wasn't cross contaminated or (2) the gram

> flour they use

>> is sometimes mixed with a little wheat (or at least they think it

> might be).

>>

>

>

[Guest guest]

,I read some of the wikipedia entry on asafoetida and here's an experpt listing many ingredients but none which I would expect to contain gluten...Today, the most commonly available form is compounded asafoetida, a fine powder containing 30% asafoetida resin, along with rice flour and gum arabic... Typical asafoetida contains about 40-64% resin, 25% endogeneous gum,

10-17% volatile oil, and 1.5-10% ash. The resin portion is known to

contain asareninotannols 'A' and 'B', ferulic acid, umbelliferone and

four unidentified compounds...Perhaps it has gluten only if wheat flour is used instead of rice

flour? Or is gluten sometimes found in an " unidentified compound " I

wonder?Thanks,NarenOn Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 1:47 PM, seamaiden399 <seamaiden399@...> wrote:

Thanks for the recommendation- I've been to Shiva's once long ago and

I was fine after eating there, so maybe I'll give it another try. I

agree that homemade Indian food is the best.

Here's the wikipedia entry on Asafoetida:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asafoetida

I use it occasionally (there is a Whole Foods variety made with rice

and another brand from London) but it's definitely an acquired taste.

There are some GF papads like Sharods (not quite sure about the name,

but they are packaged in England for export) but a lot of the ones

I've found in Indian markets contain asafoetida and they never break

down the components... Luckily most of the pre-packaged Indian meals

tend not to contain it, but it pops up in unexpected places, like

pre-made chutney or homemade bean dishes.

-

> , what is asafoetida/hing? I've never heard of it, and I always

> assumed if the papadums weren't contaminated in the deep fryer they

were ok.

>

> Naren

>