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Venkat's Profile

Website: http://www.natarajaspices.com

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Favorite foods: Indian/(dosa/rice/pickles), Sushi

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The Ten Most Recent Comments By Venkat

From Required Eating

Photo of the Day: Rice Field

Great pic. Rice is a mystery to me. I have been a lifelong life-eater (typical for South Indians) but two things I can never find the answer to.

First, rice always tends to bloat me and certain types of rice are almost like sleeping pills. I have to sleep right after consuming it.

Second, cooking it has never been easy. I finally settled on a pressure cooker method that works, but this is after many many many false starts.

From Required Eating

Teriyaki: Seattle's Signature Dish

I'm not sold on the article. I can see how/why there were places in Seattle in the early 1900s, but the later post 1980s growth is not really notable - if anything I would chalk it up to suburban expansion.

As far as great food in Seattle traditionally I can think of two: sushi and thai. Now it's branching out into more European, Indian, and other cuisines.

But for the size of the city, the quality of sushi, thai (and close by) foods cannot be beat.

From Talk

Canned tuna creation

My favorite is to doctor is up with cilantro, rock salt, green chillies, and dijon (sometimes skip this). This makes a normal tuna sandwich much more palatable :)

From Required Eating

The Best Bowl of Noodles in the World

LOL. When I first saw the title, I thought there was a chance that Wagamama may be on this list....

From Talk

Question of the Day: You have 6 lemons. What to make? GO!

From Talk

Don't Miss Food between SF and Seattle?

Quilcene is a great spot with cheap food - I recall eating some crab and oysters at this roadside shack that were marvelous. I'm not sure if it's in between SF and Seattle though....

From Required Eating

Imports and Food Safety

I happened to see somewhere - and this is slightly off topic - that someone proposed legislation that allows USDA regulations to preempt state and local with respect to engineered food. There's some concern (not sure whether it's founded) as to whether this will extend to other regulated products.

link here.

Take with a grain of salt, obviously.

Responses to Comments by Venkat

From Required Eating

A Lesson for Omnivores: Vegetarian Myths, Debunked

What a great article. Thanks so much for posting this. I've been a vegetarian for most of my adult life. The aggressive distain of some meat-eaters frustrates and saddens me, but no more so than the presumption of moral superiority of some vegetarians. I'm with you, fascfoo.

From Required Eating

A Lesson for Omnivores: Vegetarian Myths, Debunked

As many know, it's not that meat doesn't taste good, it's that it's FLESH. Some people are not into eating FLESH, considering it a revolting practice. Human flesh is supposedly divine when it's roasted up, why aren't we eating that? It's just exactly the same thing. Tastebuds are very easily entertained by flavor - all junk food being a case in point. And how then, can vegetarians not judge meat-eaters? Respect and unconditional love over-rides judgement among the educated.

From Required Eating

A Lesson for Omnivores: Vegetarian Myths, Debunked

As Wunami's comment clearly illustrates, yes, this topic is still VERY relevant.

I'm an omnivore (tried the veggie thing for awhile - it didn't work out), and there are an unbelievable amount of meat eaters out there who think that the mere existence of vegetarianism as some sort personal affront to their way of life. It's annoying as all hell. There are meat-eaters who are fine with vegetarians and vice versa. The more middle ground there is, the more we can get rid of the assholes on the extreme ends of both groups.

From Required Eating

A Lesson for Omnivores: Vegetarian Myths, Debunked

sloppy, unfortunately the *sshole comments are not abnormal. This is actually a very civilized discussion here with a lot of respect.

And Gordon Ramsey is well known for his disdain of vegetarians (as is Bourdain) and has taken great pleasure in tricking vegetarians into consuming animal products. What I don't get is he donates money for the domestic abuse as his mother was battered but doesn't understand how disrespectful, controlling, deceptive and abusive his own actions are.

But GR is hardly the only one. There's tales all over the net of meat eaters taking glee over having put one over on vegetarians. And then there are the ones who write into advice columns for help on how to turn their girlfriends to meat and ideas on how to sneak meat in so she'll find out how much she really does like it.

Other advice column questions regard how selfish brides are who would even consider not serving meat for their guests and the evil vegan bosses who will be throwing an office party that won't have meat in the spread which can possibly be anything but a nightmare and are they still obligated to go...?

Heck, there was even the Miss Manners question from the couple who were so upset to find out via the church gossip the couple whose company they so enjoyed a few weeks prior were ::whisper, whisper:: VEGANS! Which meant they'd been tricked into eating vegan cake and they don't like soy!

From Required Eating

A Lesson for Omnivores: Vegetarian Myths, Debunked

I don't eat beef, lamb or pork but I do eat chicken, turkey and fish. I have my own reasons for my eating choices and I never expect anyone to understand them nor do I ever judge anyone else for eating those animals. My immediate family took some time to "get it" but when I visit they always have a chicken or fish option which I appreciate. I am also appreciative when others make an effort to do the same but I would never expect anyone to go out of their way and am happy to eat sides when the main course doesn't appeal. What I'm trying to say is that no matter what anyone chooses to eat, a mutual respect is always the best way to go.

From Required Eating

A Lesson for Omnivores: Vegetarian Myths, Debunked

Excellent article and, as someone who has never eaten meat, I agree with pretty much everything in it except that I don't know bacon tastes good, only that it smells good. I love the closing paragraph too. Classic.

Hopefully the couple of *sshole comments that were made on this thread were in jest. If not, they go a long way in proving his point (if wunami is serious he/she must be absolutely insufferable as I can only imagine the other ways that selfishness and spite could manifest itself).

From Required Eating

A Lesson for Omnivores: Vegetarian Myths, Debunked

Touché! I guess I never realized that people waste so much time caring about what other people eat. I still think Clarke is a little on the bitter side, though. It seems as though he's generalizing non-vegetarians but I suppose he's trying to make a point.

From Required Eating

A Lesson for Omnivores: Vegetarian Myths, Debunked

I've been vegetarian since I was 2. I got violently ill and ended up in the hospital with dehydration 3 times. The first time, my parents thought they had undercooked something and gave me food poisoning. After the third time, they told me I didn't have to eat anything I didn't want to. I haven't purposefully had meat since then. I'm not vegan...I would die without butter and cheese. When my husband and I were dating, he and one of my friends slipped a small piece of chicken into something I was eating when I was out of the room. I immedietely got sick. Yeah, I still married him. I hate that people willfully try to sneak meat into my food. I respect your decison to eat meat. It shouldn't be that hard for you to respect my decision not to.

From Talk

Don't Miss Food between SF and Seattle?

Last June I took a drive up highway one from Ca. I stopped at the Surf Shack in Port Orford Oregon. I had the BEST ribs I have ever had there. Cool layed back spot!

From Required Eating

Teriyaki: Seattle's Signature Dish

Adam, I grew up in Portland and ate scads of bento in high school. When I moved to Seattle I was surprised that it didn't exist here in the same form. I mean, basically all that's different between "bento" and "teriyaki" is the stick and the box, but still, major culture shock.