Heat and time also cause chemical changes, CC. In particular, a change away from the original taste.

I find that things heated up (not just curries) just don't have the same fresh taste, although the 'depth' (or complexity) may well have changed. I can honestly say that personally I have never had a curry which tastes as good as or better than the original when reheated the next day. It tastes OK, yes. But it tastes different.

At best, the spices might be more pronounced - and I wonder if that's what people are latching on to? But I find the garlic and fresh coriander tastes are less and there is usually a bitterness that wasn't there before (or is it a missing sweetness? I don't know).

This happens with curries from my favourite restaurants and with those I cook myself.

The other thing to consider is that since the curries we are all apparently looking for are cooked fresh, is the subject of reheating them the next day connected with finding the secret or not?

Speaking from my own personal experience, I have never had a curry which tasted as good as or better than the original the next day. I find that they lose moisture, and when you heat them up (the rice especially) goes all damp because of the water being driven out of it (if you microwave) or bone dry (if you use the oven). This applies to ones from what I class as 'good' curry houses as well as those from run-of-the-mill ones.

Again, it again begs the question: are we all looking for and comparing the same things?

Quote from: Cory Ander on October 15, 2006, 03:35 PMBut CP, it's Bangladeshi BIR curries (with "the taste") that I wish to emulate! 

Precisely!

The best curries/best curry house I have ever had/used was made/run by a Bangladeshi who, unfortunately, retired and took his secret with him.

However, I for one am not going to try and confuse the issue by trying to suggest that every perfect curry everywhere in the world has to be identical to the ones made by that guy, nor that he or she should be of a particular nationality/race.

Perhaps part of the problem of not being able to emulate proper restaurant curries is that the matter is repeatedly confounded by people forcefully claiming this or that is the answer (or a definite part of it)... they can't ALL be. And I suspect most probably aren't.

I don't even think we're all aiming for the same thing!

One thing is clear: one person's 'perfect' curry is almost certainly different to the next person's.

AHEM!

Quote from: Chilli Prawn on October 01, 2006, 03:31 PM
I have started this topic as means to keep the subject matter focused rather than buried ad hoc in other topics/recipes. 

Another garlic one.

When you get a bulb where the cloves and the skin are fused together (don't you just hate that?), just give them 5-10 seconds in the microwave (not enough to cook them or affect the taste).

Experiment with your own microwave, but when you get the time right the skin just falls off when you top and tail the cloves.

And:

http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=search&txt=indian+food&w=1

(This is a good site, but a bit slow)

If you're putting a site together can I suggest you use this text editor instead of just notepad? It's free.

http://syn.sourceforge.net/

In any case, unless you have something specific in mind that you're not revealing you don't need photos in just GIF format for your website. JPG will be fine (and infinitely better) for photos.

Some places for photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naokomc/73927331/ (better check that one - not sure if they'd be copyright-free or free to use)

http://www.freeimages.co.uk/ (some food on there)

http://www.morguefile.com/

http://yotophoto.com/images/indian+food/1 (quite a few Indian ones here)

http://www.freephotosbank.com/search.php?q=indian+food&imageField.x=14&imageField.y=13 (some relevant ones here)

And there are lots more.

Where terms of use aren't given, make sure you check it's OK with the owner first. They'll more than likely be OK about it (unless they're professional pix that are not royalty-free).

And it's owned by Wal-mart, so that takes it back to the Americas.

Incidentally, I think the products in question are literally take-aways, so they are just about as 'regional' as BIRs and don't go overseas very well

I reallly don't believe this! Do you all deliberately look for the wrong end of the stick, or is it just basic instinct?  :

Graeme, when I said 'if you're paying them' I meant as in the admin paying for server space - nothing to do with donations, for Heaven's sake! Look at the context:

QuoteAnd the host should have a current backup (somewhat better than two weeks) if you're paying them.

Not a lot of verbal clutter there.

I tell you as a fact: if you (as an admin) are paying them (the hosts) money to look after your website and they don't tell you they are migrating (as Stew seemed to imply at one stage), resulting in down time and data loss, with no backups available, then there is a serious, serious problem  :

BTW, you have a very romantic notion of who gets a drink from a donation

And Darth, I get your drift

I wish you'd stop keep implying (inadvertently, I suspect) that those who haven't made a donation have no right to comment, CC. Or that they should 'chill'. There are several shareware programs floating in the ethers that have my name in them because I've donated, even though I didn't have to. But the donation (stress: donation - not membership fee) is a separate issue.

Anyone who participates in a free, open forum has the right to comment.

Keep losing data is not good - donation or not (probably worse if you have donated and your data go missing). It's hardly going to encourage further donations, is it?

My 'donation' so far (the recipes I posted) have gone missing. Todd clearly feels a bit miffed. Darth did (and was somewhat more direct about it). At the moment, what incentive is there to re-donate?

And I'm trying to be constructive. Just saying 'ah well', and it happening all over again isn't.