Smokehouse bar and grill

We were not sure if going into the place was a good idea, since nothing much of the inside was visible from outside. However, once we entered we knew it was a special place. The decor was very fresh, quite classy, and sparkling clean. It wasnt a host of expensive items stacked together, but basic ingredients/items placed with lot of though and style. Definite scored high on decor!

The food menu looked very expensive, but then we realized thats only for some special entrees. Most dishes were reasonable priced, given the setup. We order and waited in anticipation. Time went by and we chatted about this and that. Looked like the place is popular with young elite Delhi-ites, a category we dont usually rub shoulders with. The food arrived, and the first thing we noticed was the presentation --- very well done! Then comes the part why we go to a restaurant to begin with .. the taste. The chicken was well cooked and delicious. We both agreed its one of the best places we have visited in Delhi. It was an evening well spent, and were lucky to get some transportation back given it was quite late when we left the place. The place gave me a couple of ideas to try in the cooking front, should be fun.

Rating 4/5 (damage 575 pp.)

(jeera) biscuit

I stumbled upon a few recipes for biscuits, read them and realized it is not that complicated. Since the recipes replaces yeast (as required for bread) by baking powder, chances of failure was low. The preparation time also looked insignificant, order of a few minutes. So decided to try it out. Just to spice up things, added a few cumin (jeera) seeds. Next time should make sure I pre-roast them. The experiment went smoothly, with no surprises, and the biscuits came out nice and crisp. Which makes me hungry, so let me go grab one ...

imf revisited

Went to IMF today. Felt really bad, I think I put on a bit of weight and lost bit of muscle power, at least finger power. Hence the disaster today, or close to that. Next week its nationals, should get back to a regular schedule soon after that. Lets see ...

joy of cooking

I realized that I never write about cooking, though it has been a source , relaxation, and enjoyment for me for years now. I love cooking, and trying to make new things. At some level its looking for an algorithm, given the functions aka spices and other ingredients,. We desire to cook up a concoction that tastes ... delicious. The (sometimes) easier goal is to reverse engineer -- come up with the right mixture and timing to recreate an entree that I have tasted somewhere. Now this taste might be something I have actually tried some place, or have just seen and smelled somwwhere, or in the hardest case just seen a picture and read a description. The second scenario is more interesting, and often fascinating -- mixing up ingredients on the fly to cook up something 'new', guessing the final taste and smell, and off we go. Often this leads to mediocre or bad entrees what are hard to chew down, but sometimes you hit a gem, and that makes up for all the previous failures. Sounds like a general ramble about life.

Yesterday, I tried to make some guava jelly. Its quite mind boggling to imagine the amount of trials and testing it took for whoever came up with the original recipe (I had an idea of what to expect having seen, years back, my mother making jelly ). Definitely not the obvious thing we feel like trying given an overripe fruit. The natural tendency would be to just chuck the fruit. But definitely someone was more adventurous. Quite late into the process, say 15minutes into cooking the real fun happens --- within a very short time the liquid changes consistency, very rapidly. If you have tried it yourself, or seen the process you know what I mean. That type of chemical reaction is so refreshing to witness. Of course in the end you have amazingly fresh jelly to enjoy, while trying to guess what variations one can bring about in the process to get a non-trivial end product. I realize the whole article got very geeky, contrary to what I wanted to put down. Sometimes the end results are hard to predict ;-)

Delhi Half Marathon

(official timings from http://championchipuae.com/results_airtel08.php?search=mitra&si=name&s=Search)

00:47:49

01:01:44

01:57:00

02:07:36

02:01:28

641

459

The respective columns being 7.5km, 10km, 19.3km marks followed by total time, cross finish time (which means i finished in 2hrs 1min 28sec) with a overall position of 641, and 459 in my category whatever that means.


Final timing was 2:07:30 but given when I reached the start point past the holding area, the clock said 5minutes past, so I ran 21.097km in 2:02:30, not bad!

Last week wasn't good for training, since I only ran short loops on Monday and Tuesday, but that was better than nothing. Yesterday, I carbed up -- I think I was eating most of the day, not big serving but servings all the same. For dinner had just pasta without any sauce, and a bit of meat. I probably drank about 6-7 liters of water, might have been more. I was well prepared!

Today I woke up at 5:10am to have a banana, and of course more water. Just before leaving home had a bit of cereals at around 6:30am and some water. I got a ride to the start point (thanks sb), or that was the intention. Soon we realized that there were lots of road blocks for the event, so had to get off a bit early and walk (thanks d for company and support). In effect, reached the start point rather the holding point almost past 7:30am. It took me about 5 minutes of following the dense crowd before making it to the start point. The fun began!

I think I ran the first couple of km quite slow, but got into a nice rhythm soon. From then it was just overtaking people (and being overtaken occasionally) and enjoying the run. Soon it was 4, 8, 10kms .. a few more minutes and turned around after La Meridian -- halfway done.

I do not remember too much exiting things happening after that, the km-markers kept appearing, and I moved on. Overall I think I finished very smoothly running at a steady pace. It felt great!

After the run collected a medal/certificate and some refreshment. Had some food with d, and caught an auto to reach back home. Happy with what I could do, have to wait for a couple of weeks to get the timing certificate.

Enough running around, time to start climbing again.

face to face with BG

http://www.daylife.com/photo/0b5TgQ1h1h7Xq/Microsoft_Corporation

The text: Microsoft founder Bill Gates, right, talks to a student at the launch of Microsoft DreamSpark software in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008. DearmSpark is a free software for the students around the world with access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools.

Interesting to see and understand how media works. I have a feeling that this caption will go to other places along with the AP image :-)

It was an interesting experience. May be I write some notes for myself later on ...

nov 9th .. the big day approaches

I suddenly find myself ill-prepared. I missed one big loop what I wanted to do, and the other factor is the event starts early in the morning. So it will be challenging to get myself nourished before that. I think, saying hydrated might be less of a challenge. Lets see how it goes, I should do at least one loop run today, and one tomorrow -- then rest and eat like a pig :-)

obama wins

now its time for the market to start reacting. it will be great to see how things settle down i expect by end-09 we will start seeing some results. should be good, i am very optimistic, like many others.

Al-Habib

Al-Habib (not the actual name), the tiny shack near the Kharagpur rail station. One of the few times, it took me much more money to reach the place compared to the price of food. A hearty dinner cost me INR 13.5, yes that's a decimal point. I do not how they make it, but definitely one of my favorite places for kebab. Its not the typical old-Delhi kebab of minced meat, its more like chunks of meat suitable spiced. I loved it, not that I expected anything less. It might have been memories (some 10 years old) seeping into the food and obscuring the actual taste. But really, I enjoyed it and that's all it matters.

I went there alone, and was thinking how did we ever got to know the place? Even if I see a place like that today, I will think many times before venturing in. Which is a bit scary thought implying how many such places are there right before us, but still hidden. I think some senior(s) told us about the place a decade back. But following the trace whoever among the iit-kgpites ventured there first time -- big big kudos. If only a similar place was there near iitd but then again whats the point of dreaming. Some things are better if they are far away ...