Jan 11, 2006

Falooda Nation

While we're on the theme of crazes that should be taking over the nation, and returning to an old theme of sweets from the past, forget bubble tea: make mine a Falooda. Think about it - Falooda's have all the basic elements to take over the world - saccharine sweet, composed of many fun and colorful elements, ice cream, stringy vermicelli... what's not to love? And I've even had it with Tapioca, if anyone is still a hold-out from the East Asian fave of bubble tea.

Build a good falooda bar. People will follow.

16 comments:

flygirl said...

mmm. falooda, haven't had any since I was ten! great idea dude, and one could go on about great indian fast food chain possibilities too, but could the limitation be in the flavours? the minute you move on from rose, you enter bubble tea/east asian drink territory anyway as i saw last night at dinner in a Vietnamese restaraunt, where my friend had a three bean drink i could have sworn was really falooda :-). Mela Ram Dhaba, anyone?

Rage said...

Yeah - that ABC in Vietnamese cooking is really great... But there's no pista bubble tea, I don't think. :)

I have to hav a falooda, I think. Haven't had one since I was intro'd to it at evil Dimple restaurant in NYC.

flygirl said...

pardon my ignorance but what is ABC?!

pista falooda, wow never heard of that...yum! what other varieties? I just thoguht that passionfruit and mango would be a bit bubble tea-y, while still rather Indian/South Asian.

Hmm. ginger, cardamom..what else?

Rage said...

Sorry - ABC is that Vietnamese desert.. can't remember what it stands for. I think that's the shorthand (but may be an American thing).

I think it was the pista ice cream. Sheesh - I'm no expert - I was on better ground with the lassis (of which I've had a blackberry and a lichee at a restaurant near Washington DC) or even other sweets.

Oh yeah - I wrote about a cardamom lassi here. Go to a desi place, get an interesting thing. Go to a non-desi place, pay a lot of money for something that's just a shadow of what it can be. Like having a low-fat falooda or something.

flygirl said...

Rage, I invented my own cardamom lassis with rosewater before this (I have a cardamom fixation), but coffee? yechh! what kind of depraved soul thought of that? hilarious, disturbing and also rather irritating post. Not only a chai tea latte lassi (snigger), but low fat frappe skinny soy caffe latte lassi images are now floating in my brain.

heck, pista falooda could work, darn it, along iwth orange or kewra water. so we're looking maybe desi version of Wendies only *way* better, maybe more upmarket. Mohan Mela Ram Dhaba.

Rage said...

We could call it Vendies, since many desis don't pronounce the "W" anyway...

flygirl said...

*ROTFLMAO*

There are so many lassi and falooda variations to be flogged, but foisting mint buttermilk or salt lemonade refreshers on the wider populace might be a bit hard. Or, even this - real Chutney Squishy.

Who needs orientalists when we can do it all ourselves?

Rage said...

Oh lord. Though I remember hearing about a chain of dosa places sweeping over India that's headed by North Indians and sports things like "Pizza Dosa." Ugh.

flygirl said...

i've been so moved (entertained) by this thread i'm spreading the lerv...

Rage said...

Wonderful! I'm sure that we can come up with other ideas, too... NYC saw a string of kati roll and other street food venues come (and possibly go) like the Indian Bread Co., the Kati Roll Co., and others, but nothing really exciting and new like McDosa's or anything.

Here's a good story to check out from Little India, about this question: Thinking Outside the Pani Puri.

flygirl said...

great article, thanks rage. also heard about the hot bread kitchens, which spread from india.

you'll be delighted to hear no doubt that the Sepia NYC meet up will be held at Lassi :-)

Rage said...

Yeah, saw that. Clearly no one from there is spending any time here on this site. Maybe I should spend more time writing about M.I.A. :)

It's okay - it's like a breadbox of a space, and it's just not good at all. I'd rather go to a diner, to be honest. At least there, when I order a milkshake off the menu, I'll get what I'm expecting.

Which reminds me... Chicku shakes... *sigh* Now THERE'S a favorite. I used to have a couple of places in New Jersey where I could get them, but I don't think they have fresh Chicku here, so it's nothing like what I had when I visited India...

flygirl said...

ahhh.....what's "chicku?"

Rage said...

Was looking for other posts related to this - but can't find them. Basically, it's a fruit called Sapote elsewhere that is really wonderful in Indian ice cream and shake varieties, and that I have not been able to find in U.S. markets (though perhaps I should be looking in Latin American markets). It's a fave of mine - but it may be a Northwest Indian thing. :)

flygirl said...

no, but it's a northwest name, perhaps :-) i've had white sapote, a floury, sort of vanilla-like fruit i thought. must be hard to get there :-)

we also do the tamarind-like woodapple in drinks.

Rage said...

Yeah - I think it's a Gujarati name, actually. Who knows- feels like there are 15 names for everything anyway. :)

But the woodapple looks really interesting - I don't think that I've seen/we can get that here either.

Okay - time for a new thread. :)