http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/interview-joe-bastianich-06-26-2011

Cream of wheat is pretty good for you actually: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/breakfast-cereals/1640/2

Did you click on the link? 85% carbs! Cream of Wheat is the very last thing that diabetes-prone Indians should be eating. It is wheat minus the fiber. A typically “white” American meal would offset those carbs with a source of animal protein. But upma doesn’t provide that. http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/apr/19inter1.htm

Personally, I really can’t stand the “desi food is bad” scares, it is ridiculous and almost always ill thought out.

If you look at the health of the Indians you know – particularly the vegetarians among them – and then you look at their starch on starch on starch (with some fat thrown in) diets … well there’s a reason they’re all falling apart by their 40s (my age). And the tragedy is – it’s not necessary.

Yes, I’m sure you could construct a theoretically healthy Indian meal. But no Indian I know eats (an Indian diet) like that. And Cream of Wheat is not even an Indian ingredient – it’s just a worse version of the original.

I have made Upma with quinoa, both the regular and red varieties. It turned out pretty well, considering quinoa is considered health food. (Since some are talking carbs here.) Some other health conscious people make it with a combination of whole grain bulgur wheat and steel cut oats, and the “cream of wheat” but you can experiment with any grains. My next experiment will be with buckwheat/kasha, but I have a feeling it might end up with a stronger flavor.

It’s interesting that some Desi’s haven’t tried south indian food! Being born and raised in the US, I never had north indian food until I was 15 years old (but I did try chapathis. I grew up with traditional American & Americanized Mexican & Americanized Chinese foods outside the house and a rice based traditional south Indian vegetarian diet at home ). The first northern dishes I had were the usual mattar paneer & naan from an Indian restaurant. It was love at first bite. But then the love affair soured after a few years because all you get in most indian restaurants are naans, pooris, paneer dishes , samosas, and chole. The typical Indian restaurant menus get boring after awhile. And,the majority of the dishes all come from one region of Punjab and are usually swimming in grease, oil, salt and over spiced. Even some south indian restaurants are falling into the trap of drowning food in oil. I think drowning foods in oil might make it last longer, like a preservative, but it ends up disgusting. You hardly see traditional stuff like dal baati, or rajma in Indian restaurants.

For those who want to try real south indian food, find a traditional south indian and ask for a dinner invitation. Especially on the days they make dosai, rava idli, akki roti, pesarattu, avalakki, pongal, a good rasam, gojjus,etc. Some Hindu temples sell tamarind rice (puliyogare) and lemon rice as fund raisers, but it is usually cold, mass produced and doesn’t taste as good as home made. But it’s acceptable if you can zap it in a microwave.

I personally love upma wrapped up in pessaratu (moong dal type dosai). That is due to my inner andhra.

Cream of wheat is pretty good for you actually:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/breakfast-cereals/1640/2

Suji/Semolina isn’t all that bad either:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5731/2

Per calorie, both these foods are extremely good, and an important source of iron in the desi diet. If I remember right, both cream of wheat and semolina are the endosperm of wheat grains (soft and durum varieties respectively), the difference just lies in the type of wheat.

Sorry to be rude, but if you eat too many calories, the fault isn’t the food’s. It is yours. Personally, I really can’t stand the “desi food is bad” scares, it is ridiculous and almost always ill thought out.

re: the food looks nice. my mom makes something similar looking, but with mustard oil, not seeds, of course!

The original suji-based dish is probably no health food either, but it’s not as bad for you.

I hope Pavani didn’t mind the minor hijacking of the thread. But in response to John Jacobi’s comment, oh, it doesn’t matter what the context is. Anyone with such a cartoonish accent is a snob.And she didn’t even go to a top college and she has been cited on other blogs as looking down on SUNY as an educational option. I think we need a sepiamutiny blog item on something I noticed among desis “I am very educated” as an excuse for bad behvior.