The Da Vinci Cook | Sepia Mutiny

What might have happened if Columbus got it right…

This next post is going to be difficult for people to believe. It was difficult for me. The very fact that I am writing this post may put my life in danger. Many things that I do for our readers puts me in danger though, so that is okay. Somewhere in the heart of Oregon lies a secret society restaurant. Witness:

Anyone who is familiar with secret societies such as the Freemasons, Priory of Scion, Knights Templar or has read Dan Brown’s book The DaVinci Code will be familiar with the concept of sub rosa. What goes on here, stays here.

The Sub Rosa restaurant began in a cottage on our property that was once the caretakers quarters for a 90 acre orchard here in Dundee. It remains primarily a workshop for Talisman Stoneworks, a stone carving studio though we do whip up some tasty meals from time to time.
During the day when the workshop is humming, you can drop in from noon on for a bowl of spicy soup; an onion tart; some tasty dessert; a beer or a stiff shot of grappa. Dust flies. Music pulses. Food smells waft into the air creating a exotic blend of workshop meets hole-in-the wall cafe meets underground radio station and WiFi hotspot.
At night – well, the ‘restaurant’ is rarely open. This is an invitation only gig. If you know us or know someone who knows us – you’re in. Otherwise you just get to read about us on this web site.

p>I just got the shivers. It is actually kind of sadistic what these people do. They prepare virtual menus that will bring tears to your eyes, and perhaps affect your nether regions with the skills of the Merovingian. Your tongue is not allowed to taste however:

You can download recipes and music and order a t-shirt but that’s about it. We’re more a state-of-mind than an actual place to eat.

Then why, dear God why, did they send the following menu/recipes into my inbox? This is beyond even my considerable culinary skills.

Thanksgiving Dinner:
Appetizer: Curried Nuts
Greens: Gujarat Green Beans
Starch: Horseradish Mashed Potatoes
Curried Yams with coconut milk
Turkey: Cumin and Coriander spice rub
Condiments: Cranberry Chutney
Cucumber Raita
Stuffing: With raisins, cinnamon, almonds, celery and of course, bread
Dessert: Chiffon Pumpkin Pie with crystallized ginger galore
Garam Masala – Classic Indian spice mixture

They even included a suggested music list for both before and during dinner to help people get into the mood of eating:

Prep Music:
Ashwin Batish – Bombay Boogie
Ashwin Batish – New Delhi Vice
Habib Kahn – Indian Blues
State of Bengal – Walking On
Bally Sagoo – Funky Indian Dub
Yerida Gunginalli – The Drink That Has Gone Up
Zakir Hussain and the Rhythem Experience – Rap-anagatum
Dinner Music:
Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt – Meeting By The River [needs volume]
Talvin Singh – Light
Ustad Sultan Khan – Rag Bhupali
Habib Kahn – Triangle
Habib Kahn – Raindrops
Thievery Corporation – Lebanese Blonde

This all left me with a vision in my head. What if Columbus really had landed in India, and the first Thanksgiving later took place there?

If anyone tries out these recipes next week, SM would appreciate a report on the aftermath (provided the results are G-rated). If anyone actually makes it to Dundee, good luck and may your desires be fulfilled.

16 thoughts on “The Da Vinci Cook”

I’m not sure about the other desi households out there, but in our house thanksgiving dinner is a desification of the American dinner. Then turkey with the curry, the Stove Top with god knows what spices my mom felt it need to make it tasty. It was after us kids persistantly needed to fit in with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, that my mom slowly changed how the dinner was made. I have distinct memories of being a kid and insisting the cranberry sauce out of a can be cut in slice.

And now there is a secret society promoting recipes that are the desification of thanksgiving dinner. huh. my mother would be so..uh, proud??

Ohh that all looks so wonderful. I am planning to try some on them… and will let you know how it goes!

I am not of Indian in any sort of way but fell in love with the cuisine and culture while in London.

Your website is great reading.

Thanks.

i must be an idiot. i dont get the restaurant. is it a real thing? or just a joke? what’s the deal? can someone explain it to me?

about my Indian-American Thanksgiving…i protest it. I used to love it–10 families getting together for a potluck Thanksgiving complete with mishmash dishes: including Curry Turkey [for the kids and the 1 nonveg family], homemade soup, homemade salsa, Greek Spinach pies, mutter paneer, poodis, dal, pasta, gourmet salads, etc.

But now i hate it b/c the families all hate each other now but try to pretend they still like each other, so what ends up happening is that for 5 hours i have to sit and watch parents uncomfortably interact with one another.

it sucks. i’m contemplating not going back to the D for turkey day this year. blech.

we all get together (cousins/aunts/uncles) back in cali… we’re all veggie, so it’s a pot luck of indian food.. pooris, sabji, etc… rice, raita, all that stuff..but the sweet dish..good old cool whip and pumpkin pie…from marie callenders…hehe… yeah, the typical guju thanksgiving…

all mixed up? you from DTW? i was born in DTW.. we must, we must, we must (hang out..)..hehe.

A2/DTW in the hizzowse!

we have a big dinner with all the traditional stuff plus desi goodies. I bake the real big bird but make a faux one for myself and the other vegetarians. I take spicy, biryani style rice and mold it on a platter in a turkey shape. I fit phyllo dough around it and baste with soy sauce and ketchup.

It looks like the real thing!

Horseradish mashed potatoes…

How hard is it to say wasabi?

I thought wasabi was not necessarily the same thing as horse radish?

The Thanksgiving dinner idea seems a little, well, exotic — in a tongue in cheek way. Some of the ingredients are generic desi, while others (in my mind) are just generically Asianizing the traditional turkey dinner.

Like, horseradish mashed potatoes? That sounds like Idaho via Tokyo. Saheli, I think wasabi is actually based more on mustard than horseradish, hence the acute pungency. Then they’ve got garam masala as a separate item on the menu — strange, it’s not a condiment people, it’s actually something you could rub on the turkey alongside the cumin and coriander — that would be one tasty bird.

My mom’s turkey dinners had similarish items, like the cranberry chutney — yum. Instead of turkey though, which we thought was too dry, she’d make a mind-blowing broiled leg of lamb with a variety of Indian spices.

And oh, the musical selection is interestingly eclectic. Nice that they have the mp3s.. time to download!

Saheli, you’re right. While wasabi is called “japanese horseradish”, it’s not a botanically accurate nickname.

It’s not even ten am and this article has me starving. I am about to attack my lunch!

I Prefer Ragda Patties!

Ahhhh, clearly some people ‘get’ the ruse of a ‘virtual’ restaurant. Sub Rosa is an HTML excercise that got out of control. The wine cellar is our own, the recipes are what we serve to friends and family, the music is what we listen to. My wife is the ‘celebrity chef’. So yes, this is just a fantasy. Reservations are hard to come by

This Indian Thanksgiving dinner is an ode to what might have transpired if Christopher Columbus had made it to India instead of The Americas.

The Horseradish Mashed Potatoes idea I got from a Mahder Jaffrey cookbook. Horseradish is not wasabi. In the grocery stores here there are jars of prepared horseradish that you would use.

We change out the vegies each year. Last year it was a pumpkin soup. This year it is green beans.

Here are some of our favorite recipes and music to cook by.

Thanks for dropping by Sub Rosa.

Yeah… I was in excited to try this stuff with Thanksgiving leftovers, then I saw that many of the recipes were from Bon Appetit and Gourmet. Booooring. But that’s me. Carry on.

You know what? I take that back. I turned up my nose all too quickly. I took a closer look at their website ~ Sub Rosa is anything but boring.I want to be there. Can’t get those curried nuts out of my mind. Naughty Curry, my masala-blog, will be exploring…

We still get a lot of traffic to our Desi styled American Thanksgiving dinner. If you have any other great suggestions on how to make this meal more authentic, we’d love to hear from you, including other suggestions to substitute for the potatoe dish or the green beans or some side dish you love.

We had to pull the Indian music off the web site out of respect for the artists (one who wrote). But we still feature “mash ups” on the web site, which are blended songs. A capella from one song and the music from another, all layered on top of one another.

While the restaurant is virtual, we also run a distillery that is totally in the real world. We make a vodka that is flavored with toasted cumin, coriander, ginger, black peppercorns, red chili pepper, orange peel and saffron. Alas, it is only available in a few states in the USA, but anyone who reads the Sepiamutiny blog would enjoy it.

taz on November 13, 2005 at 6:06 pm said:

I’m not sure about the other desi households out there, but in our house thanksgiving dinner is a desification of the American dinner. Then turkey with the curry, the Stove Top with god knows what spices my mom felt it need to make it tasty. It was after us kids persistantly needed to fit in with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, that my mom slowly changed how the dinner was made. I have distinct memories of being a kid and insisting the cranberry sauce out of a can be cut in slice.

And now there is a secret society promoting recipes that are the desification of thanksgiving dinner. huh. my mother would be so..uh, proud??
Elizabeth on November 13, 2005 at 7:20 pm said:

Ohh that all looks so wonderful. I am planning to try some on them… and will let you know how it goes!

I am not of Indian in any sort of way but fell in love with the cuisine and culture while in London.

Your website is great reading.

Thanks.
All Mixed Up on November 13, 2005 at 7:37 pm said:

i must be an idiot. i dont get the restaurant. is it a real thing? or just a joke? what’s the deal? can someone explain it to me?

about my Indian-American Thanksgiving…i protest it. I used to love it–10 families getting together for a potluck Thanksgiving complete with mishmash dishes: including Curry Turkey [for the kids and the 1 nonveg family], homemade soup, homemade salsa, Greek Spinach pies, mutter paneer, poodis, dal, pasta, gourmet salads, etc.

But now i hate it b/c the families all hate each other now but try to pretend they still like each other, so what ends up happening is that for 5 hours i have to sit and watch parents uncomfortably interact with one another.

it sucks. i’m contemplating not going back to the D for turkey day this year. blech.
chick pea on November 13, 2005 at 8:59 pm said:

we all get together (cousins/aunts/uncles) back in cali… we’re all veggie, so it’s a pot luck of indian food.. pooris, sabji, etc… rice, raita, all that stuff..but the sweet dish..good old cool whip and pumpkin pie…from marie callenders…hehe… yeah, the typical guju thanksgiving…

all mixed up? you from DTW? i was born in DTW.. we must, we must, we must (hang out..)..hehe.
DesiDancer on November 13, 2005 at 9:25 pm said:

A2/DTW in the hizzowse!
ninetypoundelbow on November 13, 2005 at 11:03 pm said:

we have a big dinner with all the traditional stuff plus desi goodies. I bake the real big bird but make a faux one for myself and the other vegetarians. I take spicy, biryani style rice and mold it on a platter in a turkey shape. I fit phyllo dough around it and baste with soy sauce and ketchup.

It looks like the real thing!
A More Original Name on November 13, 2005 at 11:31 pm said:

Horseradish mashed potatoes…

How hard is it to say wasabi?
Saheli on November 14, 2005 at 4:43 am said:

I thought wasabi was not necessarily the same thing as horse radish?
timepass on November 14, 2005 at 9:20 am said:

The Thanksgiving dinner idea seems a little, well, exotic — in a tongue in cheek way. Some of the ingredients are generic desi, while others (in my mind) are just generically Asianizing the traditional turkey dinner.

Like, horseradish mashed potatoes? That sounds like Idaho via Tokyo. Saheli, I think wasabi is actually based more on mustard than horseradish, hence the acute pungency. Then they’ve got garam masala as a separate item on the menu — strange, it’s not a condiment people, it’s actually something you could rub on the turkey alongside the cumin and coriander — that would be one tasty bird.

My mom’s turkey dinners had similarish items, like the cranberry chutney — yum. Instead of turkey though, which we thought was too dry, she’d make a mind-blowing broiled leg of lamb with a variety of Indian spices.

And oh, the musical selection is interestingly eclectic. Nice that they have the mp3s.. time to download!
DesiDancer on November 14, 2005 at 9:20 am said:

Saheli, you’re right. While wasabi is called “japanese horseradish”, it’s not a botanically accurate nickname.
Msichana on November 14, 2005 at 9:55 am said:

It’s not even ten am and this article has me starving. I am about to attack my lunch!
Avi Solomon on November 14, 2005 at 11:00 am said:

I Prefer Ragda Patties!
Mike Sherwood on November 14, 2005 at 1:00 pm said:

Ahhhh, clearly some people ‘get’ the ruse of a ‘virtual’ restaurant. Sub Rosa is an HTML excercise that got out of control. The wine cellar is our own, the recipes are what we serve to friends and family, the music is what we listen to. My wife is the ‘celebrity chef’. So yes, this is just a fantasy. Reservations are hard to come by

This Indian Thanksgiving dinner is an ode to what might have transpired if Christopher Columbus had made it to India instead of The Americas.

The Horseradish Mashed Potatoes idea I got from a Mahder Jaffrey cookbook. Horseradish is not wasabi. In the grocery stores here there are jars of prepared horseradish that you would use.

We change out the vegies each year. Last year it was a pumpkin soup. This year it is green beans.

Here are some of our favorite recipes and music to cook by.

Thanks for dropping by Sub Rosa.
courtney on November 21, 2005 at 8:54 pm said:

Yeah… I was in excited to try this stuff with Thanksgiving leftovers, then I saw that many of the recipes were from Bon Appetit and Gourmet. Booooring. But that’s me. Carry on.
courtney on December 12, 2005 at 5:26 pm said:

You know what? I take that back. I turned up my nose all too quickly. I took a closer look at their website ~ Sub Rosa is anything but boring.I want to be there. Can’t get those curried nuts out of my mind. Naughty Curry, my masala-blog, will be exploring…
Mike Sherwood on February 7, 2010 at 10:23 am said:

We still get a lot of traffic to our Desi styled American Thanksgiving dinner. If you have any other great suggestions on how to make this meal more authentic, we’d love to hear from you, including other suggestions to substitute for the potatoe dish or the green beans or some side dish you love.

We had to pull the Indian music off the web site out of respect for the artists (one who wrote). But we still feature “mash ups” on the web site, which are blended songs. A capella from one song and the music from another, all layered on top of one another.

While the restaurant is virtual, we also run a distillery that is totally in the real world. We make a vodka that is flavored with toasted cumin, coriander, ginger, black peppercorns, red chili pepper, orange peel and saffron. Alas, it is only available in a few states in the USA, but anyone who reads the Sepiamutiny blog would enjoy it.