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The article presents an account of a trip through the tea plantations of the Darjeeling region of India in the Himalayan foothills. The region produces the world's most expensive teas. Several of the regions 87 tea estates are described and a variety of teas are sampled and evaluated. The tea estate owners and managers are seen as men of considerable ego.

This article discusses the shortage of lentils, especially those from India, in the Little India section in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City. The Indian government has stopped exporting lentils in an effort to stabilize its price. Some New York suppliers have stockpiled lentils and are selling at raised prices. Increased demand during the Hindu holiday season, including Diwali, has driven up prices and some are worried about a shortage.

Discusses the way that many people in India are eating outside the home in restaurants, in contrast to earlier generations. Increase in the amount of money spent on meals outside the home; Assertion that people work more and have less time to cook dinner; How many foreign products are now available to consumers in India.

SINCE 2000, diners have come to know Prasad Chirnomula as the chef and owner of the innovative Thali Indian restaurants in New Canaan, Ridgefield and New Haven, as well as two casual, vegetarian eateries, called Thali Too, in New Haven and Westport. Last year, he turned his considerable energies to Mexican cuisine. The result is Oaxaca Kitchen, in New Haven. Here, Mr. Chirnomula interprets traditional Mexican cuisine through the bright contemporary lens that characterizes the food at his other restaurants. Some of his dishes work better than others, but given the chef's creativity and the excellent service, the experience is well worth the adventure. Mr. Chirnomula's skill for refinement was evident one recent evening in a ceviche Veracruz of poached shrimp and lump crabmeat, flavored with chopped bell pepper, onion and lime juice. Served in a stemmed glass, this excellent appetizer was finished with a spoonful of roasted tomato salsa with avocado and a scoop of mango sorbet. The icy sorbet brightened and chilled the seafood while adding just enough sweetness to round out the acidity of the lime. A red pepper sorbet was also used to good effect on a pureed gazpacho, heightening the fresh flavor of the soup. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ON Sunday, Julie Ji got up early at her home in Richmond Hill, Queens, to make cook-up rice. The day began bright and quiet as she washed black-eyed peas and sliced mackerel for the dish, with no hint of the wild party to come. By 1 p.m., the huge pot was simmering away, and 125th Street had erupted with music and color, as thousands of people streamed by her house celebrating Phagwah, the Hindu holiday (called Holi in India) that greets spring's arrival. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Rangpur lime, said to have originated in the Indian subcontinent, has nothing to do with limes. It's bright orange, about the size of a clementine and a cross between a lemon and mandarin, making it easily peeled and segmented. The juice is extremely sour, like a lemon's, but with a deeply floral, honeysuckle aroma. The leaves are scented like kaffir lime and can be used in cooking. A commercial crop, from California, will be available until spring. There are about seven limes to a pound, and you get around 2 1/2 tablespoons of juice from each. Mix the juice with mustard to glaze pork. Try it in your Key lime pie recipe. Or make a cocktail with the juice of one Rangpur lime, 3 ounces anejo tequila and 2 ounces of Grand Marnier, shaken with ice and served on the rocks, enough for two drinks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

74-06 37th Road (74th-75th Streets), Jackson Heights, Queens, (718) 565-5155. The grand culinary heritage of Hyderabad, in central India, seems a daring muse for this humble Jackson Heights storefront. Ten seats are tucked close, yet conversation rarely extends from one bare table to another. Almost everything on the plastic trays -- plate, napkin, utensils, water cup -- is disposable. The rest, by and large, is delicious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW DELHI -- Nestle, the maker of Kit Kat bars and Maggi noodles, is focusing on masala. Nestle said Wednesday that it would open a research and development center in India, where it would use local ingredients and spices, as well as low-cost Indian research and engineering, to make products for India as well as other countries. The center will be built in Manesar, a town south of Delhi, and should be open in 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ghost pepper, a name for the bhut jolokia grown mainly in northeast India, is so powerful that the Indian military announced earlier this year that it was going to ''weaponize'' the peppers for hand grenades. Jay Sheldon, a Brooklyn sculptor, sells not only small dried ghost peppers, crushed flakes and finely ground powder, but also little watermelon-flavored candies -- black with green stripes -- made with the pepper. They are spicy and sour, and no hotter than most ginger candies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Organic cotton: a sensible concept. Cotton candy: frivolous, but delicious. But organic cotton candy - these three words are not natural bedfellows. Nonetheless, the adventurous spirit of the Indian sweet tooth knows no bounds. Now, thanks to a new organic farmers' market in Mumbai (Nilgiri Garden, Bandra Hindu Association, Linking Road, Bandra West), you can get a natural sugar rush - imagine eating a nimbus cloud that passed over a molasses factory - alongside local, pesticide-free food. Getting fresh produce in Mumbai has never been a problem; the market often comes to you, via a street cart vendor. But finding organic fruits and vegetables is not as easy. The farmers' market, apparently the first all-organic market in the city, hopes to change that. Kavita Mukhi, founder of Conscious Food (consciousfood.com), is the brains behind the operation, which will run every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ''The goal is to get the whole community, particularly younger generations, thinking about a different way to live,'' Ms. Mukhi said. ''It's not about being a fanatic, but helping the earth.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Newark Avenue in the area of Jersey City known as Little India is crowded with confectioners' shops, small groceries and clothing stores selling colorful saris. Here Paratha Junction, a sleek storefront restaurant that opened in May, is already popular for its classic yet modern take on the dense flatbread called paratha. ''People can have parathas here any and every way,'' said Satinder Sharma, who opened the restaurant, which seats 40, along with Ajit Bains. They also own another, larger Paratha Junction in Franklin Park as well as two Brick Lane Curry House restaurants in Manhattan. There are various curry dishes on the menu here, too, but the focus is on bread. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THERE is something important about the question of what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers, the aftereffects not only of bounty and abundance but also -- let's face it -- of overdoing it. We've got all this stuff, what are we going to do with it now? Sandwiches may be delightful, but those happen Thursday night. By Friday, you may have had enough of traditional American food and may be craving something on the opposite end of the spectrum, something with a bit of spice. Something, perhaps, with curry powder and coconut milk: a turkey curry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IN India dhabas are truck stops, roadside joints famous for their vibrant meals (and convenient cots for napping them off). The food at Dhaba is just as lively, but the flavors are surprisingly complex and subtle, and the dining room has less in common with a tin-roofed shack in India than with a lounge of a boutique hotel. This is the eighth restaurant for the owner, Shiva Natarajan, and his third in Manhattan. At Dhaba, he created a menu with more than 125 items, not including the lunch specials. The cuisine tilts toward India's north, with a handful of southern dishes and British-style curries to round it out. If you look lost, the waiters will gently direct you toward conventional favorites like kebabs and chicken masala. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

SUVIR SARAN has a palate that seems to be made of asbestos. A few years ago, while visiting friends in Old Goa, India, he ate a fiery shrimp curry with a pinkish-red sauce flavored and inflamed with curry leaves, black pepper, dried chilies, cayenne and tomatoes, and then soothed with coconut milk. Mr. Saran said he cannot get enough of the curry, appreciating it not just for its flavor, but for its versatility. He has toned it down for the menu at Devi, the restaurant at 8 East 18th Street that he owns with Hemant Mathur; they share the cooking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Describes the cooking of dishes with onions and yogurt in India.

Presents the recipe "Chicken Biriyani" in New Delhi, India.

Discusses cookery using curry. Details on an Indian cuisine using curry; Recipe for Curried Cauliflower and Chicken.

Recounts author's memories of the laborious cooking techniques employed by her mother in India, in comparison to the short-cut methods used for cooking in the United States. Recipes from the Indian kitchen. INSETS: Lamb curry.;Chickpea curry..

Elaborates on Shiso, (Perilla frutescens), a herb which is a native of India and China and used mostly in Burmese, Indian, Chinese, Japanese cooking and has a distinctive flavor. Few recipes involving Shiso; Steamed shrimp with Shiso vinaigrette; Basmati rice with Shiso; More; Comments of some chefs on Shiso.