I just moved to Roosevelt Island recently, and am definitely looking into heading out to Subzi Mandi, on the recommendation of my mother, who swears by them. She’s been furious at the ridiculous prices I’ve been paying in Manhattan at Kalustyan’s (or however you spell that bloody store). Will definitely look forward to sharing my experiences there.

I stand corrected, it is indeed “kaai-karigal”. In the spirit of being pedantic, I thought Tanglish was a mixture of Tamil and English, as in colloquial Tamil spoken with loaned English words, rather than romanized Tamil as you suggested.

When you’re out with me, Suhail, not that long.

No, I’m not Indian. I’m Bangladeshi, but JUST recently living in Jackson Hts- totally different from where I grew up (AZ) and lived before (IN & MI).

—EMMA

sorry Michael, look for the character ‘ja’ and ‘pha’ in this Devnagiri script page. There are dotted versions of both charcaters, which are pronounced as ‘za’ and ‘fa’ (z & f respectively, in english). You can learn more about such characters and their sounds from this tutorial. (click on extras and look for dotted consonants. It’s a flash, so can’t link directly).

Fuerza said : “Hello-pino”, “Hallopeeno”

haha! how long before it becomes a “Hello-Latino”

Southie-Dadi, not to nitpick, but I guess that should read “Kaai-karigal”. Guess that’s the right way to tpy it in TaNglish (Tamil + English, i.e. Tamil written in English). Some people call subzi/jee as “kari-gaai” too.

guffaw and titter Sacré bleu, you Americans, so quaint.

Sincerely, Exotic European.

(yes yes I know Britain doesn’t count as exotic nor European proper)

I think people started saying that to glamourize the store. It started off as a joke. Tar-jzhay sounds european and exotic, instead of what it really is : Not European and not exotic.

Ha! The pee-ja is hilarious. How about ‘pashta’ and ‘sapringrolls’?

I love the family parties where the Aunties make pee-ja and jee-ti for the kids.