Pointless burbling about indian food and non-indian books.

[letterblade]

Mum decided to try out the rada dosai mix we had lying about, so she left me to fry up dosai while she made a very mild (mild is key with me, as I have no spice tolerance) and dahl-laden sambar and reheated some of her favorite green-bean concoction. And home-fried greasy doughy dosai...so good. Not as good as real dosai. But good. I ate way too many. *pats stomach happily*

Have blown most of my Borders gift card on Sandman: Endless Nights, Foucault's Pendulum, and an adorable little Everyman pocket hardcover of Eliot's poetry. (Have been meaning to get my own copy of "The Waste Land" for ages now.)

That is pointlessly all.

Actually, a PS with a question: anybody know some good resources, books or online, on feudal Japan, the history of the samurai, etc.? Because I know some of you (deralte?) seem to be rather knowledgeable about that general area of history. And I've been sprouting a random interest. (Well, not too random. They had swords.)

Comments

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

*drools*

*comes to live at your house*

[deralte.livejournal.com]

*raids her links*:)

Ancient Japan (http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANCJAPAN/CONTENTS.HTM) - a nice overview of, oh, everything. Good place to start.

A Darker history of Japan (http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/leiber/50/bds1.htm) - an in depth look at Japanese secret (mostly militant societies).

Bookwise, the only thing that comes to mind (there's very few good, comprehensive books...) is Conrad Totman's books, either Japan Before Perry: A Short History or Early Modern Japan. Anything by G. B. Sansom is usually a good read too.

You might want to decide which era you want to focus on too. The samurai have a thousand year history after all:) My favourite time period is the Tokugawa era (1650s-1850s) followed by the Sengoku era (warring states period right before the Tokugawa era). Samurai worked differently and had different powers during different time periods. For instance, it was only in the Tokugawa era that swords became the symbol of the samurai (it was previously a mismatch dominated often by the long bow...). If you just want to get an idea of the culture of certain periods, you might want to check out anime/manga like Rurouni Kenshin or Blade of the Immortal (Kenshin for instance has tons of cameos by historical characters despite not being historical in and of itself) or any of Akira Kurosawa's films set in the time period.

Let me know if you want anything more:)

[wired-lizard.livejournal.com]

Ooooooooo. Thank you! *plans to go through websites once she's settled in for FWT*

And I will. :)

[weemallard.livejournal.com]

Indian cookery is never pointless!

(I have never had dosai ... is it hard to make?)

[wired-lizard.livejournal.com]

I was working from a mix, so it wasn't hard at all. Just mixed it up with water, sloshed it in a pan, and waited a few minues. Dosai are a south Indian thing, these big, savory crepes, crispy around the edges and with lots of little holes, very fast food. Made with lentil flour, I think, at least partially, although I could be wrong there. Generally they come with all sorts of different fillings folded up inside them; culinary coward that I am, I prefer mine plain. (If you ever find a good south Indian restaurant, go to it. I don't have a comprehensive knowledge of Indian food, certainly, but they have a lot of different and very interesting (and sometimes very spicy) stuff.)