Wow. 2009 is here and I haven't posted. Let's see what we missed.
A trip to Toronto and Montreal. A fantastic meal at Nota Bene for Red K's birthday. Another fantastic meal at Red K's house for Christmas. Another fantastic meal at Chez L’Épicier. New Years in Montreal.
And back to mercury-freezing temperatures in Madison.
On the positive side, there is going to be an India trip from Jan 30 to Feb 15. Awesome!
Movies seen have been Slumdog Millionaire (Don't miss!) and Gran Torino (80 year old Dirty Harry rocks!)
Books read have been The White Tiger (Booker winner. 2 days flat. Needs to be moviefied.)
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wow that's a long long time between posts.
Well, I figure I should start this one slow and easy. With topics that are in my comfort zone like books.
I'm currently reading Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley. And Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts. I'm on chapter one of both books so I'm not sure I can comment with any authority. Genome is written in Matt Ridley's usual easy to understand and yet gripping style (See The Red Queen.) Shantaram is an interesting beast. The descriptions of Mumbai are familiar and nostalgic (especially when he reaches Colaba. I lived there for quite a while,) but his prose is slightly flowery so the book might start to feel heavy in my hands soon. (It is a heavy book. 994 pages!) Interesting both books also have subtitles. I've never quite understood subtitling. Must be a publisher driven trend.
In vacation news, I've been traveling all over the place. Let's write about the involuntary vacations first. A trip to Menominee that involved some driving, some bad driver/dongle issues and an almost-bought pasty from Schloegels. This was followed by two consecutive trips to Philadelphia. Both involved 12 hour work days and mysterious driver problems. (Stupid multicore processors and stupider driver developers who can't handle multi-threaded programming.)
The voluntary vacations were many but all restricted to Wisconsin. There was a trip to Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton. This involved time spent at the Mt. Olympus water park, a drive-in theater, sushi and four missed exits on the way back home! (Four!) And a week or so later, Lake Delton disappeared. No kidding!
This was followed by a camping trip to Kohler-Andrae State Park. The water at Lake Michigan is freezing! But the dunes cord-walk was awesome and so were some of the pictures I was able to take of a red-winged blackbird.
After that was a nice long trip to Door County. This probably needs a post by itself. It was very eventful and involved trips to Potawatomi State Park, Peninsula State Park, Washington Island (where the wheat for Capital Island Wheat is grown!) Cana Island Light and Whitefish Dunes State Park. (The water at Whitefish Dunes wasn't that cold!) Lot's of pictures of gulls and terns.
Finally, there was some impromptu camping this weekend too at Governer Dodge State Park. We were pretty underprepared for this one as we weren't expecting to actually get a spot. So underprepared that we didn't even carry a flashlight! Of course, smart as we were we ended up purchasing a hand-crank lantern from Walgreens instead. It was ridiculous the amount of cranking we had to do for a small amount of light. Overall, apart from a spider-bite sustained by Red K it was fun. (At least we think it was a spider-bite. If she starts sticking to walls we will know for sure.) We also stopped by at the House on the Rock and the Frank Lloyd Wright visitor center but didn't take the tours (of the House and Taliesin) as they were prohibitively expensive. (Thanks to Red K for being my fellow traveler and navigator.)
Well, I figure I should start this one slow and easy. With topics that are in my comfort zone like books.
I'm currently reading Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley. And Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts. I'm on chapter one of both books so I'm not sure I can comment with any authority. Genome is written in Matt Ridley's usual easy to understand and yet gripping style (See The Red Queen.) Shantaram is an interesting beast. The descriptions of Mumbai are familiar and nostalgic (especially when he reaches Colaba. I lived there for quite a while,) but his prose is slightly flowery so the book might start to feel heavy in my hands soon. (It is a heavy book. 994 pages!) Interesting both books also have subtitles. I've never quite understood subtitling. Must be a publisher driven trend.
In vacation news, I've been traveling all over the place. Let's write about the involuntary vacations first. A trip to Menominee that involved some driving, some bad driver/dongle issues and an almost-bought pasty from Schloegels. This was followed by two consecutive trips to Philadelphia. Both involved 12 hour work days and mysterious driver problems. (Stupid multicore processors and stupider driver developers who can't handle multi-threaded programming.)
The voluntary vacations were many but all restricted to Wisconsin. There was a trip to Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton. This involved time spent at the Mt. Olympus water park, a drive-in theater, sushi and four missed exits on the way back home! (Four!) And a week or so later, Lake Delton disappeared. No kidding!
This was followed by a camping trip to Kohler-Andrae State Park. The water at Lake Michigan is freezing! But the dunes cord-walk was awesome and so were some of the pictures I was able to take of a red-winged blackbird.
After that was a nice long trip to Door County. This probably needs a post by itself. It was very eventful and involved trips to Potawatomi State Park, Peninsula State Park, Washington Island (where the wheat for Capital Island Wheat is grown!) Cana Island Light and Whitefish Dunes State Park. (The water at Whitefish Dunes wasn't that cold!) Lot's of pictures of gulls and terns.
Finally, there was some impromptu camping this weekend too at Governer Dodge State Park. We were pretty underprepared for this one as we weren't expecting to actually get a spot. So underprepared that we didn't even carry a flashlight! Of course, smart as we were we ended up purchasing a hand-crank lantern from Walgreens instead. It was ridiculous the amount of cranking we had to do for a small amount of light. Overall, apart from a spider-bite sustained by Red K it was fun. (At least we think it was a spider-bite. If she starts sticking to walls we will know for sure.) We also stopped by at the House on the Rock and the Frank Lloyd Wright visitor center but didn't take the tours (of the House and Taliesin) as they were prohibitively expensive. (Thanks to Red K for being my fellow traveler and navigator.)
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
State fair, state fair, O how I love thee!
Thy caramel apples and pink cotton candy!
Thy puff-daddy-on-a-stick and fried alligator meat!
Thy chickens and cows and giant sleeping pigs!
No seriously, that State Fair had some good food. And Ms. Non Sequitur and I ate a bit too much of it. Meeting Wendell and Big R was fun. Hope they visit Madison soon!
Yesterday was spent at Kitkat's place. Kitkat made meat-balls and fried eggplant, her hubby M made chicken curry and rice, Ms. Non Sequitur made Turkish salad, I made fried shrimp and little Ijjac made happy fun time! We watched Van Helsing. It was surprisingly TP. (TP == time pass. For my Indian-English challenged readers, it means decent.)
Later in the day, Ms. Non Sequitur and I hung out with teacher Q and arty R at State Street Brats and The Vintage. Gin and tonics FTW!
And of course, classes started today at UW-Madison. I wish I could take a class or two.
Thy caramel apples and pink cotton candy!
Thy puff-daddy-on-a-stick and fried alligator meat!
Thy chickens and cows and giant sleeping pigs!
No seriously, that State Fair had some good food. And Ms. Non Sequitur and I ate a bit too much of it. Meeting Wendell and Big R was fun. Hope they visit Madison soon!
Yesterday was spent at Kitkat's place. Kitkat made meat-balls and fried eggplant, her hubby M made chicken curry and rice, Ms. Non Sequitur made Turkish salad, I made fried shrimp and little Ijjac made happy fun time! We watched Van Helsing. It was surprisingly TP. (TP == time pass. For my Indian-English challenged readers, it means decent.)
Later in the day, Ms. Non Sequitur and I hung out with teacher Q and arty R at State Street Brats and The Vintage. Gin and tonics FTW!
And of course, classes started today at UW-Madison. I wish I could take a class or two.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Summer is almost over. It was a good summer. Lots of sunny days and lots of parties. Fall is next and hopefully will bring with it some exercise.
We had the first game of the Fall Ultimate league and we won! Go team Magneto! (I have to think of X-Men-ny shout-outs for the team. Mutant Liberation! Down with humans!)
This evening, I drive off to Minneapolis with Ms. Non-Sequitur to meet Wendell and her hubby. And to go to the Minnesota State Fair. Cotton candy, caramel apples and corn dogs. Maybe I'll buy a cow.
And right now I'm almost falling into a food coma. I just returned after having a super meal at the Shish Cafe. You gotta go!
We had the first game of the Fall Ultimate league and we won! Go team Magneto! (I have to think of X-Men-ny shout-outs for the team. Mutant Liberation! Down with humans!)
This evening, I drive off to Minneapolis with Ms. Non-Sequitur to meet Wendell and her hubby. And to go to the Minnesota State Fair. Cotton candy, caramel apples and corn dogs. Maybe I'll buy a cow.
And right now I'm almost falling into a food coma. I just returned after having a super meal at the Shish Cafe. You gotta go!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Oh widdle bloggy-woggy have I been neglecting you? It's because I've been sleep-deprived and drunk.
After I got back from Amsterdam, that week was spent recovering from jet-lag. This activity involves struggling to wake up, having many, many cups of coffee all day, and then struggling to fall asleep at night. It's a lot of fun.
Just when I thought I had succeeded in bringing my biorhythms in sync with the other residents of Madison, a week was up and Commodore's Cup had begun.
Commodore's Cup is the Hoofer Sailing Club's annual competition. It's a week long event, with about a dozen teams competing against each other. The competitions include sailing, windsurfing, and non-sailing stuff like flip-cup and a talent competition. My team was the Redneck Yacht Club. It involved dressing up like a redneck all week. Wifebeaters, gas-station hats, everything! Mid-week was toga night so I found old sheets and slung 'em around me and hey voila, I'm a Roman. And then a bunch of us in togas decided we had to go to a bar, so we walk all the way to the Plaza in the middle of State Street in our togas. Did I mention that there was free beer every day during Commodore's Cup?
At the end of the week was the Commodore's Ball. A formal affair that began with a pre-party at a friend's house. The night progressed to ballroom dancing, (my taking Ballroom 101 in Summer 2003 helped a little bit!) This was followed by the usual going to bars in tuxedos and gowns. We Hoofer members aren't afraid of attention.
The week after Commodore's Cup I traveled to Charleston, WV again for the same customer. They seem to have cleaned up their act though 'cause I didn't see cigarettes next to candy in the vending machines again. Instead I saw Kashi snack bars! I was flying back on Thursday. Of course the city of Detroit loves me, so my flight into Madison got canceled and I spent the night in Detroit.
Friday it was back to the Terrace for a Hoofer's social and playing the game of Wait-I-remember-your-name-just-give-me-a-second. Saturday was the Simpson's movie with nerd-or-geek J, JJs going-away party and dinner with Wendell and Domestic Nemesis at the Maharaja! It was fun to meet Wendell and talk about capybaras.
After I got back from Amsterdam, that week was spent recovering from jet-lag. This activity involves struggling to wake up, having many, many cups of coffee all day, and then struggling to fall asleep at night. It's a lot of fun.
Just when I thought I had succeeded in bringing my biorhythms in sync with the other residents of Madison, a week was up and Commodore's Cup had begun.
Commodore's Cup is the Hoofer Sailing Club's annual competition. It's a week long event, with about a dozen teams competing against each other. The competitions include sailing, windsurfing, and non-sailing stuff like flip-cup and a talent competition. My team was the Redneck Yacht Club. It involved dressing up like a redneck all week. Wifebeaters, gas-station hats, everything! Mid-week was toga night so I found old sheets and slung 'em around me and hey voila, I'm a Roman. And then a bunch of us in togas decided we had to go to a bar, so we walk all the way to the Plaza in the middle of State Street in our togas. Did I mention that there was free beer every day during Commodore's Cup?
At the end of the week was the Commodore's Ball. A formal affair that began with a pre-party at a friend's house. The night progressed to ballroom dancing, (my taking Ballroom 101 in Summer 2003 helped a little bit!) This was followed by the usual going to bars in tuxedos and gowns. We Hoofer members aren't afraid of attention.
The week after Commodore's Cup I traveled to Charleston, WV again for the same customer. They seem to have cleaned up their act though 'cause I didn't see cigarettes next to candy in the vending machines again. Instead I saw Kashi snack bars! I was flying back on Thursday. Of course the city of Detroit loves me, so my flight into Madison got canceled and I spent the night in Detroit.
Friday it was back to the Terrace for a Hoofer's social and playing the game of Wait-I-remember-your-name-just-give-me-a-second. Saturday was the Simpson's movie with nerd-or-geek J, JJs going-away party and dinner with Wendell and Domestic Nemesis at the Maharaja! It was fun to meet Wendell and talk about capybaras.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
This update is late.
This should have been posted maybe two or three days ago. Right after my incredible trip to Amsterdam, London and Brussels. Here's what happened...
Day 0: D and D's wedding. This was on the Monona lake front and was beautiful. Excellent food, an open bar and great company. (Ms. Non Sequitur and her super cool sisters and their ultra cool friends.) The happy couple exchanged vows at sunset. Pics on Ms. Non Sequitur's blog.
Day 1: Amsterdam. I was picked up at Schiphol airport by Cali A, Jersey R and Mumbai S. We headed straight to the Flying Pig Uptown and settled in. If you ever go to Amsterdam, I would recommend living at the Uptown Flying Pig hostel. Clean rooms and incredibly fun people to hang out with and a bar that stayed open all night! Of course, I had to catch a 4am bus to London so couldn't party as much.
Day 2: London. Cute T picked my sorry, sleep-deprived ass up from the airport. (Travel tip: If you wanna fly from Amsterdam to London use VLM airlines.) I had had two hours of sleep the previous night and spent the whole day wandering around in London like a zombie with T who was extremely eager to show me everything. Tower Bridge, London Tower, St. Pauls, Millenium Bridge, Covent Gardens etc. Then I took the London underground and traveled to my aunt's place at the edge of town. How I stayed awake in the train I have no idea. But it was worth it because my aunt had made delicious Indian food. And to finish off the night we went to an authentic English pub called the Old Cherry Tree which was really old (built sometime in 1700s) and served some great beer. Sleep.
Day 3: Woke at 11! Wow! Hadn't slept in like this since, well, since a couple weeks ago. Anyway, my aunt made some authentic English breakfast for me: sausages, bacon, grilled mushrooms and tomatoes and eggs over easy. Delicious! Then a quick train ride back got me back to downtown and it was more site seeing with T. T's mom had stayed over the previous night due to the crazy bomb scare and in the evening her sister A came down from Oxford. Delicious Indian food for me two nights in a row! The night ended with a late excursion to Westminster to see The Big Ben.
Day 4: An early morning flight got me back to Amsterdam. But not before I forgot my jacket at T's place. Ah, well, I get another excuse to go visit her! Within half an hour of reaching Amsterdam my friends decide that we're going to Brussels that day. This was not such a good idea: the train ride was a whopping 4 hours long! Damn! We got to spend only 4 hours in Brussels. We took a bus tour and learned all about Brussels' past. Over and over again. After that we sampled some authentic Belgian beer and tarts. Another 4 hours on the train. Spent mostly sleeping.
Day 5: We went to Zaanse Schans. Windmills, cheese-making, Albert Heijn coffee museum, bakery museum, Toy museum, etc. etc. So many museums, so little time. At the cheese shop we sampled some excellent cheese such as aged gouda, aged goat cheese etc. etc. In the evening, we decided to relent and finally visit on of the 500 or so Argentinian steak houses in Amsterdam. (Why so many? I have no idea!) Great food and free shots of jenever and grappa in the end. Then we went for a pub crawl. 5 or 6 pubs, free drinks at each one, and shots along the way. Yours truly reached the hotel at 6 or so!
Day 6: This was supposed to be when we went to Dusseldorf. But when S called at 9:30am my roommates were in a sorry state from Day 5. So like the brave little soldier that I am, I got ready and joined S. We didn't go to Germany but instead roamed around in Amsterdam. Dam Square, Madame Tussauds, etc. etc. (Who knew there was a Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam? I didn't.) At around 2pm or so my friends finally woke up. So I decided to have a nap instead. Later at 4 we went back to Leidseplein, and danced in strange sounding discs like Sugar Water etc. We decided to have a quiet night and came back at a relatively early hour. 3am.
Day 7: Airport. Flight. Finished reading The Selfish Gene. Watched Garden State. (Natalie Portman is muy cute.) Spent almost 6 hours hanging out at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Finally got back to Madison and was driven home by Kitkat.
Day 8: Work as usual.
I miss you Amsterdam. And London. And even you Brussels.
(The next trip will be to a beach though. No matter what!)
This should have been posted maybe two or three days ago. Right after my incredible trip to Amsterdam, London and Brussels. Here's what happened...
Day 0: D and D's wedding. This was on the Monona lake front and was beautiful. Excellent food, an open bar and great company. (Ms. Non Sequitur and her super cool sisters and their ultra cool friends.) The happy couple exchanged vows at sunset. Pics on Ms. Non Sequitur's blog.
Day 1: Amsterdam. I was picked up at Schiphol airport by Cali A, Jersey R and Mumbai S. We headed straight to the Flying Pig Uptown and settled in. If you ever go to Amsterdam, I would recommend living at the Uptown Flying Pig hostel. Clean rooms and incredibly fun people to hang out with and a bar that stayed open all night! Of course, I had to catch a 4am bus to London so couldn't party as much.
Day 2: London. Cute T picked my sorry, sleep-deprived ass up from the airport. (Travel tip: If you wanna fly from Amsterdam to London use VLM airlines.) I had had two hours of sleep the previous night and spent the whole day wandering around in London like a zombie with T who was extremely eager to show me everything. Tower Bridge, London Tower, St. Pauls, Millenium Bridge, Covent Gardens etc. Then I took the London underground and traveled to my aunt's place at the edge of town. How I stayed awake in the train I have no idea. But it was worth it because my aunt had made delicious Indian food. And to finish off the night we went to an authentic English pub called the Old Cherry Tree which was really old (built sometime in 1700s) and served some great beer. Sleep.
Day 3: Woke at 11! Wow! Hadn't slept in like this since, well, since a couple weeks ago. Anyway, my aunt made some authentic English breakfast for me: sausages, bacon, grilled mushrooms and tomatoes and eggs over easy. Delicious! Then a quick train ride back got me back to downtown and it was more site seeing with T. T's mom had stayed over the previous night due to the crazy bomb scare and in the evening her sister A came down from Oxford. Delicious Indian food for me two nights in a row! The night ended with a late excursion to Westminster to see The Big Ben.
Day 4: An early morning flight got me back to Amsterdam. But not before I forgot my jacket at T's place. Ah, well, I get another excuse to go visit her! Within half an hour of reaching Amsterdam my friends decide that we're going to Brussels that day. This was not such a good idea: the train ride was a whopping 4 hours long! Damn! We got to spend only 4 hours in Brussels. We took a bus tour and learned all about Brussels' past. Over and over again. After that we sampled some authentic Belgian beer and tarts. Another 4 hours on the train. Spent mostly sleeping.
Day 5: We went to Zaanse Schans. Windmills, cheese-making, Albert Heijn coffee museum, bakery museum, Toy museum, etc. etc. So many museums, so little time. At the cheese shop we sampled some excellent cheese such as aged gouda, aged goat cheese etc. etc. In the evening, we decided to relent and finally visit on of the 500 or so Argentinian steak houses in Amsterdam. (Why so many? I have no idea!) Great food and free shots of jenever and grappa in the end. Then we went for a pub crawl. 5 or 6 pubs, free drinks at each one, and shots along the way. Yours truly reached the hotel at 6 or so!
Day 6: This was supposed to be when we went to Dusseldorf. But when S called at 9:30am my roommates were in a sorry state from Day 5. So like the brave little soldier that I am, I got ready and joined S. We didn't go to Germany but instead roamed around in Amsterdam. Dam Square, Madame Tussauds, etc. etc. (Who knew there was a Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam? I didn't.) At around 2pm or so my friends finally woke up. So I decided to have a nap instead. Later at 4 we went back to Leidseplein, and danced in strange sounding discs like Sugar Water etc. We decided to have a quiet night and came back at a relatively early hour. 3am.
Day 7: Airport. Flight. Finished reading The Selfish Gene. Watched Garden State. (Natalie Portman is muy cute.) Spent almost 6 hours hanging out at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Finally got back to Madison and was driven home by Kitkat.
Day 8: Work as usual.
I miss you Amsterdam. And London. And even you Brussels.
(The next trip will be to a beach though. No matter what!)
Friday, June 29, 2007
Update time.
What is Hob currently reading?
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. This has been the most gripping non-fiction book I have read in a while. Recommended reading by everybody!
What is Hob currently doing?
Playing around with Ubuntu 7.04 on Microsoft VirtualPC 2007. Oh, the irony!
What is Hob excited about?
Cousin Q's friend's D is getting married on Saturday and Hob's gonna go!
What is Hob really super-excited about?
Flying out to Amsterdam on Sunday! And spending two days in London with T and aunt S! And the rest of the time in Amsterdam! Amsterdam! Lalalalalalalalala! Amsterdam!
Phir milenge, break ke baad!
What is Hob currently reading?
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. This has been the most gripping non-fiction book I have read in a while. Recommended reading by everybody!
What is Hob currently doing?
Playing around with Ubuntu 7.04 on Microsoft VirtualPC 2007. Oh, the irony!
What is Hob excited about?
Cousin Q's friend's D is getting married on Saturday and Hob's gonna go!
What is Hob really super-excited about?
Flying out to Amsterdam on Sunday! And spending two days in London with T and aunt S! And the rest of the time in Amsterdam! Amsterdam! Lalalalalalalalala! Amsterdam!
Phir milenge, break ke baad!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
India update 4
16 - 18 Feb 2007
Let's begin with some more general vegetarian goodness. I was in the mood for spicy stuffed bell peppers (capsicum to Indian folk) and my mom indulged me! Along the way I also learned how to make them. I was planning pictures at each step but the battery on my camera gave way and needed to be recharged. Well here they are anyway , along with matki chi usal - a dry curry of moth bean sprouts, ambat varan - a sour garlicky daal, bharleli kashmiri mirchi - bell peppers stuffed with spiced chick pea flour, shrikhand - a yogurt based dessert and karela - fried bitter gourd.
What happened next was a puja (Satyanarayan puja) at our house. Of course this meant the mandatory fast before the puja - fast of course, being a relative term as you can have your fill of sabudana khichadi!
And after the puja was over there was a veritable feast served in the traditional banana leaf shaped dish (Ideally you serve in a real banana leaf but it's hard to find large clean ones these days!) Traveling clockwise in that plate we see salt, lemon, cucumber roasted peanut salad, green coconut chutney, yogurt, puran - sweetened boiled chickpea mash, fresh cashew curry - these aren't your run-off-the-mill roasted cashews, these are fresh from the fruit, soft and creamy and utterly delicious, and tragically unavailable anywhere in the US, lightly sauteed fresh okra, rice with varan dal, chapaties, and masala dudh - milk flavored with saffron, almonds, pistachios etc. etc.
I'm thinking of having another puja before I leave, just for the food...
Anyway, after that on Sunday, I had my buddies over for lunch and there was more great food. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the food, but I can list what was on the menu - chicken curry, dry chick pea curry, jain style potato curry, faras bean curry, an assortment of chutneys and pickles, and for dessert dudhi halva - a halva made of dudhi, an Indian gourd, shira - a halva made of semolina and ice cream!
Later that evening I went for the Roger Waters concert at the MMRDA grounds in the Bandra-Kurla complex. I didn't have any great expectations from this thing so was blown away by how good it was! The lights, the sounds, Dark Side of The Moon! He finished with Comfortably Numb! I'll post some pics later when my friend has a chance to get them off his camera phone.
We ended the night with roomali roti - a soft-as-velvet flat bread that's made by tossing it into the air (roomal is the Hindi word for a silk handkerchief), bheja fry - fried brains, chicken bhuna - roasted chicken curry and seekh kababs at Bademiya's at Colaba! Eating on the street, off the hood of your car that's been propped up by a Coke bottle (sorry Thums Up bottle) has it's own unique charm that cannot be reproduced anywhere else!
16 - 18 Feb 2007
Let's begin with some more general vegetarian goodness. I was in the mood for spicy stuffed bell peppers (capsicum to Indian folk) and my mom indulged me! Along the way I also learned how to make them. I was planning pictures at each step but the battery on my camera gave way and needed to be recharged. Well here they are anyway , along with matki chi usal - a dry curry of moth bean sprouts, ambat varan - a sour garlicky daal, bharleli kashmiri mirchi - bell peppers stuffed with spiced chick pea flour, shrikhand - a yogurt based dessert and karela - fried bitter gourd.
What happened next was a puja (Satyanarayan puja) at our house. Of course this meant the mandatory fast before the puja - fast of course, being a relative term as you can have your fill of sabudana khichadi!
And after the puja was over there was a veritable feast served in the traditional banana leaf shaped dish (Ideally you serve in a real banana leaf but it's hard to find large clean ones these days!) Traveling clockwise in that plate we see salt, lemon, cucumber roasted peanut salad, green coconut chutney, yogurt, puran - sweetened boiled chickpea mash, fresh cashew curry - these aren't your run-off-the-mill roasted cashews, these are fresh from the fruit, soft and creamy and utterly delicious, and tragically unavailable anywhere in the US, lightly sauteed fresh okra, rice with varan dal, chapaties, and masala dudh - milk flavored with saffron, almonds, pistachios etc. etc.
I'm thinking of having another puja before I leave, just for the food...
Anyway, after that on Sunday, I had my buddies over for lunch and there was more great food. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the food, but I can list what was on the menu - chicken curry, dry chick pea curry, jain style potato curry, faras bean curry, an assortment of chutneys and pickles, and for dessert dudhi halva - a halva made of dudhi, an Indian gourd, shira - a halva made of semolina and ice cream!
Later that evening I went for the Roger Waters concert at the MMRDA grounds in the Bandra-Kurla complex. I didn't have any great expectations from this thing so was blown away by how good it was! The lights, the sounds, Dark Side of The Moon! He finished with Comfortably Numb! I'll post some pics later when my friend has a chance to get them off his camera phone.
We ended the night with roomali roti - a soft-as-velvet flat bread that's made by tossing it into the air (roomal is the Hindi word for a silk handkerchief), bheja fry - fried brains, chicken bhuna - roasted chicken curry and seekh kababs at Bademiya's at Colaba! Eating on the street, off the hood of your car that's been propped up by a Coke bottle (sorry Thums Up bottle) has it's own unique charm that cannot be reproduced anywhere else!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
So this is going to be a giant mash-up, I'm going to try and use the EXIF information on the pictures to try and figure out what was ravenously pounced upon when... Forget it, let's forget dates, let's just say that I ate this between...
12 Feb - 15 Feb 2007
First up, some unpleasantness. The dreaded potato stir-fry. This bhaji is my mortal nemesis but dad and bro love it, so it gets made anyway. Needless to say I took a picture of it the kadhai, but it never got on my plate. (That's a lie, I did eat some with rice. It tastes nice but it's generally too dry for my palate. I like juicier things!)
Here's a random picture of a street vendor taken from my terrace. Look at the fresh vegetables that we'll never buy! (You don't buy from the vendor in front of your house unless you're lazy. Like a good little Indian you go to the market and bargain with all the vendors there...) The black stuff in the basket on the right is grapes. And there's tea (I think) in the aluminum container.
Here's our carrom board. My dad's a champ but I beat him sometimes...
Here's something I like! It's curried scrambled eggs with green peppers (or capsicums as we call them here!) Along with are some fresh fulka chapaties!
Next up, liver curry! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! This contains all kinds of offal like liver, heart, kidneys! Very incredibly tasty! And it's being served with jwarichi bhakri - a special flat bread that's exclusive to my state. Nutty, salty, with a texture that's unlike any you've ever had! My mouth exploded when I had this!
And now for something which is exclusive I think only to my village, possibly only to my extended family! The Maharashtrian version of breakfast cereal - chaha-pohe! Chaha is tea and pohe is flattened cooked rice! Dunk pohe into a saucerful of hot tea and scoop up spoonful after delicious spoonful. Caffeine and vitamins in the same dish!!
My mom asked me what she should make for dinner.
I said "Sabudana vada!"
"What? That's just a snack!"
"Not if I have a dozen or two!!!"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, last night I had two dozen hot off the frying pan sabudana vadas with green chutney and Maggi sauce!
And to the uninitiated, sabudana is well explained in Wikipedia, vada simply means fritter. Sabudana, potatoes, peanuts and chillies! I am going to make this when I get back to Madison!
And finally to finish off on a sweet note, here's pictures of two of my favorite desserts - on the left, malai sandwiches (Imagine two flattened rasgullas with sweet heavy cream in the middle!) and on the right, halvasan (I'll need to research more and find out exactly what this contains, suffice is to say that it's delicious!)
12 Feb - 15 Feb 2007
First up, some unpleasantness. The dreaded potato stir-fry. This bhaji is my mortal nemesis but dad and bro love it, so it gets made anyway. Needless to say I took a picture of it the kadhai, but it never got on my plate. (That's a lie, I did eat some with rice. It tastes nice but it's generally too dry for my palate. I like juicier things!)
Here's a random picture of a street vendor taken from my terrace. Look at the fresh vegetables that we'll never buy! (You don't buy from the vendor in front of your house unless you're lazy. Like a good little Indian you go to the market and bargain with all the vendors there...) The black stuff in the basket on the right is grapes. And there's tea (I think) in the aluminum container.
Here's our carrom board. My dad's a champ but I beat him sometimes...
Here's something I like! It's curried scrambled eggs with green peppers (or capsicums as we call them here!) Along with are some fresh fulka chapaties!
Next up, liver curry! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! This contains all kinds of offal like liver, heart, kidneys! Very incredibly tasty! And it's being served with jwarichi bhakri - a special flat bread that's exclusive to my state. Nutty, salty, with a texture that's unlike any you've ever had! My mouth exploded when I had this!
And now for something which is exclusive I think only to my village, possibly only to my extended family! The Maharashtrian version of breakfast cereal - chaha-pohe! Chaha is tea and pohe is flattened cooked rice! Dunk pohe into a saucerful of hot tea and scoop up spoonful after delicious spoonful. Caffeine and vitamins in the same dish!!
My mom asked me what she should make for dinner.
I said "Sabudana vada!"
"What? That's just a snack!"
"Not if I have a dozen or two!!!"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, last night I had two dozen hot off the frying pan sabudana vadas with green chutney and Maggi sauce!
And to the uninitiated, sabudana is well explained in Wikipedia, vada simply means fritter. Sabudana, potatoes, peanuts and chillies! I am going to make this when I get back to Madison!
And finally to finish off on a sweet note, here's pictures of two of my favorite desserts - on the left, malai sandwiches (Imagine two flattened rasgullas with sweet heavy cream in the middle!) and on the right, halvasan (I'll need to research more and find out exactly what this contains, suffice is to say that it's delicious!)
Saturday, February 10, 2007
India update day 2 - 11 Feb 2007
I slept for almost 12 hours. That was probably the last of the jet-lag!
After waking and playing zombie for about 10 minutes, the smell of hot dosas drew me to the kitchen. My maid Sujata was making dosas. I pigged out and had 5! And 2 idlis! All accompanied by the special green chutney that accompanies dosas.
And it's just 11 am. I'll update this again at the end of the day. I smell a feast coming on! I'm off to watch the India - Sri Lanka one day match!
And here we are at the end of the day! I had mutton curry for lunch. Delicious! And mutton curry, bheja fry (fried brains) and gaboli for dinner. Followed by rasgullas for dessert! I'm in culinary heaven right now.
And as an added bonus, here's pics of some Narayandas laddus that my mom made.
I slept for almost 12 hours. That was probably the last of the jet-lag!
After waking and playing zombie for about 10 minutes, the smell of hot dosas drew me to the kitchen. My maid Sujata was making dosas. I pigged out and had 5! And 2 idlis! All accompanied by the special green chutney that accompanies dosas.
And it's just 11 am. I'll update this again at the end of the day. I smell a feast coming on! I'm off to watch the India - Sri Lanka one day match!
And here we are at the end of the day! I had mutton curry for lunch. Delicious! And mutton curry, bheja fry (fried brains) and gaboli for dinner. Followed by rasgullas for dessert! I'm in culinary heaven right now.
And as an added bonus, here's pics of some Narayandas laddus that my mom made.
India update day 1 - 10 Feb 2007
I got home 1:30 am on the 10th and ate kheema-pau after getting home. Kheema is minced goat meat which is usually curried. Pau is simply bread. Here's a pic!
As I hadn't slept at all on the Amsterdam-Mumbai leg (I watched Little Miss Sunshine - awesome!! and Walk The Line - also awesome! and one episode of the Office - always great,) I beat the jet-lag pretty well and got a couple hours sleep in.
Waking up, I had more kheema-pau. Then my mom pop's the surprise on me! She had frozen Alphonso mangoes and Mahabaleshwar strawberries since summer! Whoa! Here's pics of the mangoes and strawberries thawing out. As you can see they lost firmness in the freeze-thaw process, so we decided to convert them to aamras (mango juice) and strawberry milkshake instead.
For lunch we had palak paneer (green spinach curry with cottage cheese) and valacha birda (curried brown bean sprouts) with fulka chapatis fresh of the griddle!! (In my gluttonfest I forgot to take pics.)
Yum yum!
As soon as my jet-lag leaves me, I'll step out. Update for day 2 is next!
I got home 1:30 am on the 10th and ate kheema-pau after getting home. Kheema is minced goat meat which is usually curried. Pau is simply bread. Here's a pic!
As I hadn't slept at all on the Amsterdam-Mumbai leg (I watched Little Miss Sunshine - awesome!! and Walk The Line - also awesome! and one episode of the Office - always great,) I beat the jet-lag pretty well and got a couple hours sleep in.
Waking up, I had more kheema-pau. Then my mom pop's the surprise on me! She had frozen Alphonso mangoes and Mahabaleshwar strawberries since summer! Whoa! Here's pics of the mangoes and strawberries thawing out. As you can see they lost firmness in the freeze-thaw process, so we decided to convert them to aamras (mango juice) and strawberry milkshake instead.
For lunch we had palak paneer (green spinach curry with cottage cheese) and valacha birda (curried brown bean sprouts) with fulka chapatis fresh of the griddle!! (In my gluttonfest I forgot to take pics.)
Yum yum!
As soon as my jet-lag leaves me, I'll step out. Update for day 2 is next!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
It's time for the annual adventure! This Thursday, I fly to the Greatest City in the World - Mumbai!
Here's hoping I can meet up with all the readers and lurkers and hanger's on of this blog. So please email me (address in the top-right corner,) and I'll send you my contact info (and also reveal my secret identity to those who don't know it yet!!!)
Here's hoping I can meet up with all the readers and lurkers and hanger's on of this blog. So please email me (address in the top-right corner,) and I'll send you my contact info (and also reveal my secret identity to those who don't know it yet!!!)
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