too many things going on

The blog has been quiet of late. That is because I am caught up in a few other things, trying to make good use of the last days of the year. I have been reading again, which resulted in me getting lost in the world of Murakami. Also there has been a few interesting posts to follow: I have been specially impressed by some of the editorial/commentaries that appeared on Hindustan Times about the on going 'conflict' with our neighboring country. It's really impressive how mature have been our response to the events. I hope we have hold on to our sanctity and not give in to the (easy option) craze of war hysteria.

a lazy saturday afternoon

It felt strange wondering around in the alleys of khari baoli on a saturday afternoon, with the market bustling with activity. After the fun and chaos, decided i needed to just relax --- with the sun shining, and a book to finish, the lawn looked really inviting. Managed to finish the book, and also saw a squirrel chasing a mayna -- very amusing indeed.

what was i up to?

The recent events in Mumbai left in too depressed to get back to normal life. Also there's more to do these days since it is that time of the year. Managed to get back to IMF today. May be should try to write a bit more, to keep myself sane.

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 ;-)