Today, I believe Savannah College of Art and Design did something that had the potential of being HUGE! They had an open forum for students, faculty and staff to ask questions directly in front(or in the online presense) of President Paula Wallace. I was at work in Montgomery Hall cage and my friend Vijay Prabhakar who works at SCAD in Keys Hall reminded me that this was going on. And I decided to participate. I am copy pasting my question and answers I got.
Yash Gupta: The SCAD site is very information heavy, but still does not provide me with an idea of what other students are creating and doing. I would love for scad to provide a forum/gallery where students can put up their work and interact with peers. I am sure this is something that would also appeal to prospective students. What are your views about such an offering?
Paula Wallace: I am encouraging each chair to present lively, relevant information on each department's Web site. I believe recent past projects, guest speakers, awards, and facilities should be highlighted. We are very proud of our esteemed faculty, alumni, and students. I would like to see each department's Web site more effectively communicate its life and essence.
This, to me was a very unsatisfying answer. I really suggested something more open. Even if they were to come down to a level where each professor was displaying their students' works on a section of the SCAD website, it would mean more student works get exposure.
Then Jason Parker responded with the following:
Hi Yash, I'm SCAD's social media manager. We have a number of program-specific groups and pages on Facebook where students are encouraged to interact with each other. You can find a comprehensive list on SCAD's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/scad.edu under the ''Connect'' tab.
I feel this doesn't get us anywhere either. There are already better forums like conceptart.org and deviantart and blogger blogs where people can display their work. But the problem is exposure. When put under an umbrella of SCAD, the students are bound to get more focussed traffic and response and appreciation. I have a facebook fan page of my work that only has 17 fans at the moment.
Anyways, the fun didn't stop there. More after the jump break.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Friday, May 07, 2010
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The hardest part is saying goodbye
This post has pieces paragraphs moments from different periods in time. It is not supposed to be linear. Think of it as a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Siddhant is headed back to Mumbai. Even asked me if I wanted him to bring me something back from India.
"Can't think of anything"
Soumitra is also flying back to Bangalore for the break. His arrangements were pretty last minute and his itinerary is very fucked up! Flying from Savannah to New York, 6 hours between the next flight. He has to catch the next flight from NewArk New Jersey. After he lands in Delhi, he has to wait another six hours for his flight to Bangalore. As much as I mock him for this, I would kill to be on the same journey as him.
I'm flying to Columbus Ohio today and then going to Mansfield. Where I will spend the rest of my winter break. With naniji, nanaji, Mamaji and Mausiji—among family. I should be looking forward to the good food, leisure and other comforts of being in a home versus a dorm. But my mind is preoccupied with something.
I called up Naniji first thing in the morning today to let her know the timing of my flight and ask her what I should pack. I wanted to make sure I was only taking what was necessary. I was also intending to be able to bring back as many of my books as possible.
Somewhere in the conversation I must have dropped that my friends are going back to India.
Soumitra is also flying to Bangalore.
Naniji sounded sympathetic when she said "Since all your friends are going So you must be feeling like going too, right?"
Should I lie and pretend to still be as detached and emotionless as I was a month ago; or should I suck it up and admit that saying "NO!" to mom was a mistake?
*Inhale* "Yeah, a little bit." *exhale*
"Don't worry, you can go in the summer. Mausi is coming for thanksgiving. And you'll have fun here."
She always knows the right thing to say.
His arrangements were pretty last minute
"Yeah I know. I'm not too worried. Neil is also going to be there. I will have things to do."
I have only felt this way when I was last flying from India to Canada. I couldn't even eat any of the awesome sushi at Sushi-Go at Heathrow terminal. I let Soumitra and Shekinah go find something to eat for themselves while I sit down on a random bench. They can't make up their minds so they come back and sit down with me. We hang out, crack some jokes. I'm not going to see these guys for about another month. I feel the longer I am with them at the airport the harder saying goodbye will be. So I tell them "I better start going through the security."
But Shekinah won't let me. She wants me to "Say something profound before you leave." I can never come up with anything when put on the spot like this. But I did come up with something. Now, the more i think about it, the less sense it makes. I was thinking about how I can call someone up once these guys left. And I was thinking that I can't tell anyone I was thinking that.
Sitting at the airport all alone, waiting for my flight to take off, I am trying to put these feelings into words. But I fail. So I pop my sketchbook out and start sketching the image of a figure—myself a few minutes ago in time—the past me, sitting alone in a row of seats, looking at the ceiling… at nothing in particular, just at the general nothingness… the plain white color and the abstract geometric pattern that the architecture makes when looked at from this angle. Before I knew it, I was deeply engrossed in my storyboard. Drawing the face as a simple geometric form with no features except tears streaming down from what are supposed to be eyes.
I would kill to be on the same journey as him.
The weariness and hunger put me to sleep in the flight. I woke up in time for the refreshments. And not long after, the flight landed in Columbus. Getting off the plane was surprisingly quick as I wasn't trapped in the back of the plane. Naniji had gotten my earlier messages and was almost at the airport. Getting my checked bag at the carousel took forever. But as soon as I stepped outside, and felt the not-as-cold-as-i-expected wind in my face and saw Naniji, all was well in the world again. I forgot about all my butterflies and was craving for some food, finally! And Naniji was—as all good nanijis are—ready; with delicious food for me right there in the back seat of the car.
And stupid Soumitra will be flying all that way for something I'm getting right here. The feeling of finally being home.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sometimes, even the greatest need help.
This morning, Lalu was feeling really hungry, so he decided to make scrambled eggs for himself. The packet of bread wasn't closed off properly, so some of the slices got a little dry. He swallowed the breakfast with lots of water. His hunger seemed satisfied, and he was ready to go on his way.
Upon reaching deccan, he longed for a bite of the delicious dabeli from the corner 'thela'(stall on the roadside). But his stomach wasn't feeling very good. It felt like it was gonna make him throw up anytime now. So he decided to go take care of the business he was actually here for. Getting the information he needed didn't take too long. And when the craving still didn't go away, he decided to go for the dabeli. It was dabelicious.
His stomach wasn't getting any better. He wondered if it was the heat. At CCD he had a cafe frappe while discussing his plans with his friend. Lalu was really uneasy, but tried to keep his composure. He asked for some water, hoping it would help stop his sickness..."Does my face look all green?"
They left CCD, they had some work to do. On the way, they stopped at a restaurant to get some refreshments. Lalu didn't want to take any risks so he didn't have anything. However, he was thirsty just a short while later. But they were almost done, and he could head home now. Cool, comfortable, home.
After he was feeling less likely to barf, he had an apple to quench his hunger. But it was not a substitute for proper meals. And he got extremely hungry around 8 pm. Just then, dad and uncle came home, ready to take Lalu with them for dinner. When he explained his situation to his uncle, he gave him half a 'perinom' a med that's supposed to counteract nausea. And an antacid for good precautionary measures.
Lalu did take pride in the fact that he had been here for a week, and hadn't gotten seriously sick. So turning to allopathy was not something he would be happy about. But once the meds did their miracle, He was able to eat a hearty dinner. And all happy and proud, he returned home, feeling triumphant. He had finally conquered food; or his stomach, whichever you prefer.
Upon reaching deccan, he longed for a bite of the delicious dabeli from the corner 'thela'(stall on the roadside). But his stomach wasn't feeling very good. It felt like it was gonna make him throw up anytime now. So he decided to go take care of the business he was actually here for. Getting the information he needed didn't take too long. And when the craving still didn't go away, he decided to go for the dabeli. It was dabelicious.
His stomach wasn't getting any better. He wondered if it was the heat. At CCD he had a cafe frappe while discussing his plans with his friend. Lalu was really uneasy, but tried to keep his composure. He asked for some water, hoping it would help stop his sickness..."Does my face look all green?"
They left CCD, they had some work to do. On the way, they stopped at a restaurant to get some refreshments. Lalu didn't want to take any risks so he didn't have anything. However, he was thirsty just a short while later. But they were almost done, and he could head home now. Cool, comfortable, home.
After he was feeling less likely to barf, he had an apple to quench his hunger. But it was not a substitute for proper meals. And he got extremely hungry around 8 pm. Just then, dad and uncle came home, ready to take Lalu with them for dinner. When he explained his situation to his uncle, he gave him half a 'perinom' a med that's supposed to counteract nausea. And an antacid for good precautionary measures.
Lalu did take pride in the fact that he had been here for a week, and hadn't gotten seriously sick. So turning to allopathy was not something he would be happy about. But once the meds did their miracle, He was able to eat a hearty dinner. And all happy and proud, he returned home, feeling triumphant. He had finally conquered food; or his stomach, whichever you prefer.
Friday, March 28, 2008
What a paratha is..
For dinner today, I decided to have some onion parathas that I had bought from the indian store, the last time I went shopping. Jon and his girlfriend stephanie were also cooking dinner for themselves. I put a pan on one of the burners(is it called a burner even if there is no 'fire'?) As I proceeded to remove the paratha from the pack and put it on the pan, Stephanie asked what that was. This was definitely not the first time I was asked about the 'weird indian food' that I often eat. But some foods are more difficult to explain than others.
For example, when I had to explain to oliver what pani puri is. Taruna was with me, and though she was doing a better job of elaborating the details involved in preparing and eating pani puri, Oliver was still clueless. Dal, which you'd think is simple to explain, is actually not. Because canadians rarely know about pulses. And, if you're like me, you go on to explain that this particular type of dal is 'toor dal', which complicates matters further. But paratha should be simple, right? its bread after all...
And that's what I said, "its a type of bread." But looking at stephanie's confused face, I proceeded to elaborate. I shouldn't have. "Its basically wheat flour stuffed with onions.." And she says, "looks unhealthy!" I was stumped. Jon just goes "she speaks her mind." (or something to that effect.. I was too out of it to remember!" I didn't want to get into an argument with them. Thought it would make an interesting topic for my blog. I still kept going, in my head, "well, what is YOUR bread made of? Some high tech synthetic polymer compound?"
Jon started talking about mandeep. says he has some bread with everything stuffed in between. I hadn't seen mandeep eat in a while, basically because he's always in his room all the damn time. I assumed he was talking about stuffed naan. But frankly, there are so many kinds of flatbreads that I wouldn't know. You should check out the wikipedia page for paratha. Meanwhile, my paratha was done, so I opened my jar of 'achaar' and put some on my plate. And steph goes, "Mango Pickle?" Great! so you can read the label. "Can I smell it?" I didn't mind, I let her.
And all this while, I had my earphones on, and I was listening to music so I couldn't hear all the 'ridiculous' things they might have said. But after I was done with the parathas, the crisp flakes of the 'slightly' burnt paratha made me crave some papad. I figured this would stir up some more questions. But jon just stared at me blankly. Steph noticed that too, and they joked about it. I guess steph thought she had enough 'indian food 101' for tonight. LOL. So the explanation that I had thought up in my head was of no use anymore. hehe.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Pet peves and sheridan lockdown
I finally ended up going shopping and I bought a whole lot of food! I am like an ant storing food for the winter. Only I, am storing food for the portfolio time. I don't want to have to go shopping in the coming weeks. While I was at the grocery store, I had decided I was going to make chole today! I bought all the ingredients that I didn't have, and I was pretty excited for it. I think this is the first time I've made chole all by myself.
At the Indian grocery store, the lady at the checkout asked me about the incident at sheridan today. I didn't have much to say, because all I knew was from many different sources, and I didn't know which one was 100 percent true. She asked me if he was a white guy... which I thought was kinda awful... racist. But I don't really care who it was. All I care is about finding out that they did all this for nothing. Even since I first heard they spotted someone with a gun, I had been thinking it must have been a paintball gun or a fake/toy gun. The email that I got from sheridan college president said, and I quote 'cameras recorded video of a person carrying an object that appeared sufficiently suspicious' It could even have been a tripod stand someone suggested. Blah!
Back home, jon was also cooking dinner for him and his GF. And it was a really nice and busy atmosphere. I kinda enjoyed it. Add to that the fact that vironica did a lot of the dishes... thank you vironica. I had gotten 6 bottles of crush, and jon asked me if he could have a GLASS of it. And I said, ok. But he drank one whole bottle. Plus, he was being very grumpy about me putting it in the fridge to cool. Yeah, with stephanie's bottle of water too! I realized there wasn't enough room in the fridge for all the juices and milk, and asked her to finish the bottle of water and/or throw it away. And jon said, "there's room in there!" I just said, "fine, you put it in there." But then stephanie started taking to him about it, and saying that its ok, but jon still insisted that the OLD OLD bottle of water be put back in the fridge. Wtf dude!
Thankfully, my chickpeas turned out pretty good and I had a nice meal. I put in all the ingredients and spices by my estimate. So I wouldn't be able to reproduce the exact same taste again. Regardless, I have enough for a couple more times... Maybe I'll take some to the workshop tomorrow. Yeah.. that'll be really sweet! Too bad oliver isn't going to be there. He's going to the ROM. What luck eh? Almost every time I make some food, and want to share it with him, things just don't work out. Atleast he's still giving me a ride to toronto.
Gotta head back to work now. Have a good one.
At the Indian grocery store, the lady at the checkout asked me about the incident at sheridan today. I didn't have much to say, because all I knew was from many different sources, and I didn't know which one was 100 percent true. She asked me if he was a white guy... which I thought was kinda awful... racist. But I don't really care who it was. All I care is about finding out that they did all this for nothing. Even since I first heard they spotted someone with a gun, I had been thinking it must have been a paintball gun or a fake/toy gun. The email that I got from sheridan college president said, and I quote 'cameras recorded video of a person carrying an object that appeared sufficiently suspicious' It could even have been a tripod stand someone suggested. Blah!
Back home, jon was also cooking dinner for him and his GF. And it was a really nice and busy atmosphere. I kinda enjoyed it. Add to that the fact that vironica did a lot of the dishes... thank you vironica. I had gotten 6 bottles of crush, and jon asked me if he could have a GLASS of it. And I said, ok. But he drank one whole bottle. Plus, he was being very grumpy about me putting it in the fridge to cool. Yeah, with stephanie's bottle of water too! I realized there wasn't enough room in the fridge for all the juices and milk, and asked her to finish the bottle of water and/or throw it away. And jon said, "there's room in there!" I just said, "fine, you put it in there." But then stephanie started taking to him about it, and saying that its ok, but jon still insisted that the OLD OLD bottle of water be put back in the fridge. Wtf dude!
Thankfully, my chickpeas turned out pretty good and I had a nice meal. I put in all the ingredients and spices by my estimate. So I wouldn't be able to reproduce the exact same taste again. Regardless, I have enough for a couple more times... Maybe I'll take some to the workshop tomorrow. Yeah.. that'll be really sweet! Too bad oliver isn't going to be there. He's going to the ROM. What luck eh? Almost every time I make some food, and want to share it with him, things just don't work out. Atleast he's still giving me a ride to toronto.
Gotta head back to work now. Have a good one.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Wonderful Family Christmas dinner!
I know its not christmas yet, but today, just happens to be the day we got together for a nice christmas dinner with the Pagel family. (We here includes me, JP and his GF stephanie.) The other two had plans. Yesterday, when we were watching superbad, Sandeep even asked me if I wanted to come. But I said that tomorrow is this big thing that vironica's been preparing for all week long. And I can't disappoint her. I know she's made the indian vegetarian food specially for those two vegetarian guys. I hoped he'd consider this and cancel his plans but he didn't. When I woke up this morning, both were already gone!
Fuck that! I know I am gonna have a really amazing time with Philip and Brian and Nathan. Ladies, ladies, don't be upset. I do like you, but its just that being guys, we have more in common. Yeah, like porn, cars, gadgets, you know... Vironica had been talking about it... "this 'thing' that philip got from the states, its so cool! You can watch movies on it, listen to songs, surf the internet... and you can turn it sideways, it changes to side view! Oh my god!" And I had a feeling its the iPhone and I'd have loved to see it, but I wasn't gonna explicitly ask him for it.. But when Brian started showing his HTC windows mobile phone, we got talking about the iphone, and Philip said Julia has it. I was SO excited, I was finally gonna get to hold and use the iPhone!
And I have to say, I'm not very impressed! This obviously was a hacked iphone, as it was running on rogers network in Canada. The installer.app was also loaded. And I noticed that it was pretty slow. And not very responsive. I'd go into the installer.app and it would show me that its loading... I got around to playing tap tap revolution and also tried installing mobichat for trying to chat... but nothing! I watched youtube videos, that was pretty fun. But the speaker wasn't nearly loud enough. Its also pretty thick. I liked how slim the ipod touch was... I wish they could make the phone slimmer too! Also, the battery was dying, so everytime I went from standby to the home screen, it showed me a warning that I had to dismiss! That got kinda irritating. The camera, as expected, wasn't nearly as good. All I got were blurred photos. But I was using it indoors in a not very well lit room so I could give it a break on that. But really, not very impressed.
The dinner was WONDERFUL! Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, potatoes, pepper, mushrooms, onions, ah! I LOVED IT! I am STILL so stuffed! I was the last one to finish the dinner and the dessert! Cheesecake! First time I had a cheesecake, and it was delicious! Oh! And there are a lot of leftovers for later! Then everyone started exchanging presents. I was taking a LOT of pictures of everyone! They were so happy giving and getting all those presents! It was beautiful moment. Then I ran upstairs and got my greeting cards. Mumchu even gave me a little greeting card and a small gift. Vironica had a gift for me too! This day was just perfect! I wouldn't have anything differently!
I think I should just end it now. Its a beautiful memory. I don't want to go on and on and make it riddled with silly little details that hardly matter... like brian making philip watch the 2girls1cup video....LOL. But, before I publish this, I just want to type out that I have now realized how stupid i was to post the last 'rant' of a blog post. I got carried away. I have gotten everything I needed from my parents and I just needed to distract myself from the camera topic and I think today was just the thing!
Merry christmas everyone!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
I want a CAMERA!!!
I am so stuffed! I just finished my delicious lunch of chapatti, dal, rajmah and aam ka achaar. Vironica made the rajmah and dal for us today-with my help ofcourse. Hehe. I don't mean to brag, but I didn't even need to look up a recipe for dal and It turned out awesome! But rajmah, even though it didn't look right in the beginning, it turned out awesome! except for the slight overdose of cinnamon. After all this, you'd think food should be all that is on my mind. But its not! I can't get the thought of a new digital SLR camera out of my head!
I shouldn't have stopped at futureshop's camera counter and looked at that Canon 400D! That's what caused this whole thing in the first place! Today I asked parents if I could buy one from ebay (or other websites like henrys ) a second hand camera for about 499 CND. I checked amazon USA and they have new one for 519 USD! Right now, I believe buying a camera in USD will be cheaper for me. But they said no. Making all kinds of stupid excuses and reasons. But I don't get it! I didn't even ask for a gift on my birthday! I wish I could at least get a little gift for christmas!
Ah!! who am I kidding. I am not gonna get them to say yes! I could just look at stores and see if I can pay them in installments. Maybe I could just buy one and return it within 30 days just to kinda tease my desire. That's something I can't do if I buy it at boxing day. Exchange or return it. Boxing day sales are usually final sales. Well... Lets see.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Just not my day today
I just wish I didn't wake up. At all! This day has been a disaster since the moment I opened my eyes. I probably woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something. First, my throat was so dry that I had to walk downstairs to the kitchen at 6 am to go fetch a glass of water. When I got back, I was feeling uneasy to sleep, but I knew I wanted to get back to sleeping. So I decided to spend some time looking at photos on flickr...GAH! Its best I don't relive that.
I was talking to suju later, to apologize, and I remembered that I had to go to the college for the information session about the New years montreal trip planned by Breakaway tours. I quickly hung up and went upstairs to check my ical and found out that this was at 5 pm. I had quite a bit of time. So I decided to finish my chores. I cleaned the bathroom (how those guys manage to get it so dirty is beyond me!) And cleaned myself-showered; then had some rice and aloo chole for lunch. Funny thing, JP was there, and he asked me,
"this the same thing vironica made yesterday?"
"yeah."
"its good stuff eh?"
"Its not that great."
"no?"
"its not made the proper way."
"well, its good to have a change sometime... you wouldn't eat the same kind of pasta every time."
God! I hope he was joking! One, I don't have chole every day, and two, its not the same thing as pasta! But if I have to, I'd say "its more like one type of pasta done wrong". Instead of pureeing the onions and garlic and ginger etc together and adding it, I saw her add onions to the oil first, with no jeera or rye, then chopping up garlic and ginger and adding them. is led to white specs of garlic and ginger in the sabzi, which looked very unappetizing. Besides, the flavors weren't infused as well as they should have.
I'm sorry, I can't help the nitpicking. You must remember that I am a fussy eater. I am really thankful to vironica for the food tho. Because I had almost no food left because I haven't been grocery shopping in I don't know how long. I finished my bread and milk more than a week ago. And have been asking her to take me shopping, but she's been too busy with taking care of tera and maya.
But today she finally asked me if I wanted to go shopping and we did go. But didn't end up shopping for food. We were out for about 3 hours! What the hell did we do you may ask? Well, first, we were supposed to drop off JP to work. But he got a call from his girlfriend, who was whining so loud on the cellphone, I could hear her from the back seat! She forgot her laptop's charger/power adapter at vironica's place. She was really upset because she had to study for an exam and her notes were on the computer. So Vironica decided to take the cable to stephanie. We drove back home, picked up the cable, dropped JP, then proceeded to stephanie's house, which was in I don't know which corner of the world, it took us forever to get there! No, wait, we stopped on the way at Brian's... no philip's .... I don't know... clinic because vironica wanted to give him some orange juice. But he wasn't there. Then we proceeded to stephanie's house, WOW, SHE HAS A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE. BEAUTIFUL AND HUGE!
After that, we were driving back, I think towards no frills... But vironica changed the plans again. She was like, wait, this is closer... then we can also do this... or something. So Now, staples was on the way. So we decided to return my printer first, and then proceed with the grocery shopping. I went in with my printer, returned that to them, got my money back, and waited for Vironica. She didn't show up, so I thought she'd still be out in the car like the other time. I went outside and stood there, looking for the car, hoping that she'd spot me. But nothing! My feet and hands were getting really cold! Even thought I kept walking in and out of the store, and put my hands in my pocket! Now I was beginning to thank the fact that I decided not to pick up the other printer and walk out of the store with that in my hands. Finally, she shows up, she calls out for me, and I walk towards her, I can't wait to get back home now!
In the car, I take off my shoes, and try warming up my feet. I tell her I want to just get back to home now. She says "you need food, you have nothing!" Yeah right, NOW you realize that!! I would have even given in and gone to the superstore, but we kept getting these signs that today is not a good day to be driving. The traffic was just awful. We almost had an accident atleast 3 times. And had a couple other bad calls. She had said the following atleast 5 times "around this time of the year, everyone drives like crazy!" So be it. I don't want to die or cripple myself. I don't even want to take a chance with a small cut in my fingers. This is a really important time for me.
My portfolio requirements were emailed to me today. Nothing has changed really. So I will get to work tomorrow.... that is, IF I don't die of malnutrition... "what? me, die of malnutrition? IMPOSSIBLE!" .....GRRRRRR..... wait... *looks around* what's that sound... oh! its just my stomach grumbling.
I was talking to suju later, to apologize, and I remembered that I had to go to the college for the information session about the New years montreal trip planned by Breakaway tours. I quickly hung up and went upstairs to check my ical and found out that this was at 5 pm. I had quite a bit of time. So I decided to finish my chores. I cleaned the bathroom (how those guys manage to get it so dirty is beyond me!) And cleaned myself-showered; then had some rice and aloo chole for lunch. Funny thing, JP was there, and he asked me,
"this the same thing vironica made yesterday?"
"yeah."
"its good stuff eh?"
"Its not that great."
"no?"
"its not made the proper way."
"well, its good to have a change sometime... you wouldn't eat the same kind of pasta every time."
God! I hope he was joking! One, I don't have chole every day, and two, its not the same thing as pasta! But if I have to, I'd say "its more like one type of pasta done wrong". Instead of pureeing the onions and garlic and ginger etc together and adding it, I saw her add onions to the oil first, with no jeera or rye, then chopping up garlic and ginger and adding them. is led to white specs of garlic and ginger in the sabzi, which looked very unappetizing. Besides, the flavors weren't infused as well as they should have.
I'm sorry, I can't help the nitpicking. You must remember that I am a fussy eater. I am really thankful to vironica for the food tho. Because I had almost no food left because I haven't been grocery shopping in I don't know how long. I finished my bread and milk more than a week ago. And have been asking her to take me shopping, but she's been too busy with taking care of tera and maya.
But today she finally asked me if I wanted to go shopping and we did go. But didn't end up shopping for food. We were out for about 3 hours! What the hell did we do you may ask? Well, first, we were supposed to drop off JP to work. But he got a call from his girlfriend, who was whining so loud on the cellphone, I could hear her from the back seat! She forgot her laptop's charger/power adapter at vironica's place. She was really upset because she had to study for an exam and her notes were on the computer. So Vironica decided to take the cable to stephanie. We drove back home, picked up the cable, dropped JP, then proceeded to stephanie's house, which was in I don't know which corner of the world, it took us forever to get there! No, wait, we stopped on the way at Brian's... no philip's .... I don't know... clinic because vironica wanted to give him some orange juice. But he wasn't there. Then we proceeded to stephanie's house, WOW, SHE HAS A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE. BEAUTIFUL AND HUGE!
After that, we were driving back, I think towards no frills... But vironica changed the plans again. She was like, wait, this is closer... then we can also do this... or something. So Now, staples was on the way. So we decided to return my printer first, and then proceed with the grocery shopping. I went in with my printer, returned that to them, got my money back, and waited for Vironica. She didn't show up, so I thought she'd still be out in the car like the other time. I went outside and stood there, looking for the car, hoping that she'd spot me. But nothing! My feet and hands were getting really cold! Even thought I kept walking in and out of the store, and put my hands in my pocket! Now I was beginning to thank the fact that I decided not to pick up the other printer and walk out of the store with that in my hands. Finally, she shows up, she calls out for me, and I walk towards her, I can't wait to get back home now!
In the car, I take off my shoes, and try warming up my feet. I tell her I want to just get back to home now. She says "you need food, you have nothing!" Yeah right, NOW you realize that!! I would have even given in and gone to the superstore, but we kept getting these signs that today is not a good day to be driving. The traffic was just awful. We almost had an accident atleast 3 times. And had a couple other bad calls. She had said the following atleast 5 times "around this time of the year, everyone drives like crazy!" So be it. I don't want to die or cripple myself. I don't even want to take a chance with a small cut in my fingers. This is a really important time for me.
My portfolio requirements were emailed to me today. Nothing has changed really. So I will get to work tomorrow.... that is, IF I don't die of malnutrition... "what? me, die of malnutrition? IMPOSSIBLE!" .....GRRRRRR..... wait... *looks around* what's that sound... oh! its just my stomach grumbling.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Aloo Pyaaz ki sabzi
I decided to make aloo pyaaz ki sabzi for dinner last night. I had bought a couple potatoes and onions a couple days ago, and I figure I should finish them before they go bad. (Hate it when that happens and I have to throw away food!) I remembered from my last experience that potatoes will take a really long time to get tender on the pan, so I must boil them first. Or else the onion will end up getting burnt in the pan while the potatoes are still raw-ish.
I had still to figure out a perfect combination for boiling potatoes in the microwave. But last night, I just got perfect potatoes with the doneness set to about half way through. I was kind of over zealous I figure and so I put the oil in the frying pan and started heating it immediately, not realizing that the potatoes might take a while. I don't know how that affected things, but I've heard keeping on re-heating oil is not good. Or maybe that was re-boiling or letting it boil for too long. Regardless, I'm still alive and healthy, so I should just get over it. LOL. But when the potatoes were done boiling, I heated the oil up and put in the mustard seeds and cumin.
I probably should have taken a wok or kadhai-like vessel, because the damn mustard seeds popped all over the stove top. Leaving a big mess for me to clean up! God! Then I put in the onions before my potatoes were ready to be thrown in, and by the time I peeled and diced and put in the boiled potatoes, they were kind of burnt. But still, the end result was decent. I think I might just start making that more often. Whoa! I had a really awesome dinner last night.
And when I have good dinner, I usually get very happy, over excited and do something foolish. Like giving away all the rest of it to sandeep! He absolutely loved it, despite there being no chilli powder in it. And that made me pretty happy for a while. But now I'm thinking I don't have any other good stuff to cook anymore! LOL. I guess I'll just get burger king or go hungry tonight. hehe. later days!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
OMG OMG OMG! its almost as if mom made it.
Yes, it tasted almost as if mom had made it, except for the fact that I made it. LOL. It's been about 11 months since I last had it. The day I was leaving for mumbai, my mom made it for me in pune. But arjun bhaiya and aniruddh bhaiya were hellbent on making me eat that filthy green shit. Boy was I pissed! But I had some okra nonetheless, and I guess I had been savoring that flavor ever since.
Now I guess I had had about enough of eating all the other crap that I get here, and wanted to make my favourite 'sabzi' again. So I bought some okra when we went to the Indian store a day before diwali. And tonight I was gonna cook it! Home-style! Oh! I was just so hungry, still very determined to cut the damn okra into the thin slices that's required for frying it and making it crisp. My hands were shaking, and the gooey-slippery fluid from okra wasn't helping anything. Mandeep came down, and saw me cutting it... I don't know what was going on in his head when he saw me like that. But inside mine, there were wonderful, delicious fried okra slices dancing around to 'tum bin jiya udaas sajna' (Okay, just for the hindi music challenged I'll translate...Without you I'm sad sweetheart(honey or something else, doesn't really matter))
The trick to this recipe is, like my favourite food blog author said, "to keep the flame high throughout and stir like your life depended on it." I poured out oil in a cast iron pan that was in the house, but turns out it was too wide and would require a lot of oil to kind of submerge the okra in it... So I transferred it to a less wide frying pan. Still, it was more like shallow frying it. I am not gonna give out the complete recipe, want to keep it like a family secret. LOL. Just kidding. I'm just too lazy to type it all out.
Once it was done, I tasted it, and was so excited, I had to tell the world! However, I wasn't ready to skip my meal and go blog about it. So I just called up sujata, talked to her about it, gave some to nick to taste, and went to have my dinner. There was paratha and aloo paratha to go with it. And with a wholesome amount of butter on it, it was as close as I could get to a home dinner. Mom would smother her chapattis with amul butter - My Fav! But I wasn't getting mom's chappatis here. That's something only she can make right.
But I am definitely looking forward to making okra again sometime soon. I might invite oliver and tanny for dinner too! lets see now. Till then...
Now I guess I had had about enough of eating all the other crap that I get here, and wanted to make my favourite 'sabzi' again. So I bought some okra when we went to the Indian store a day before diwali. And tonight I was gonna cook it! Home-style! Oh! I was just so hungry, still very determined to cut the damn okra into the thin slices that's required for frying it and making it crisp. My hands were shaking, and the gooey-slippery fluid from okra wasn't helping anything. Mandeep came down, and saw me cutting it... I don't know what was going on in his head when he saw me like that. But inside mine, there were wonderful, delicious fried okra slices dancing around to 'tum bin jiya udaas sajna' (Okay, just for the hindi music challenged I'll translate...Without you I'm sad sweetheart(honey or something else, doesn't really matter))
The trick to this recipe is, like my favourite food blog author said, "to keep the flame high throughout and stir like your life depended on it." I poured out oil in a cast iron pan that was in the house, but turns out it was too wide and would require a lot of oil to kind of submerge the okra in it... So I transferred it to a less wide frying pan. Still, it was more like shallow frying it. I am not gonna give out the complete recipe, want to keep it like a family secret. LOL. Just kidding. I'm just too lazy to type it all out.
Once it was done, I tasted it, and was so excited, I had to tell the world! However, I wasn't ready to skip my meal and go blog about it. So I just called up sujata, talked to her about it, gave some to nick to taste, and went to have my dinner. There was paratha and aloo paratha to go with it. And with a wholesome amount of butter on it, it was as close as I could get to a home dinner. Mom would smother her chapattis with amul butter - My Fav! But I wasn't getting mom's chappatis here. That's something only she can make right.
But I am definitely looking forward to making okra again sometime soon. I might invite oliver and tanny for dinner too! lets see now. Till then...
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Happy diwali
Hi! I know diwali is still to come, tomorrow's dhanteras. But this post starts with the email naniji sent me wishing me "all the happiness and prosperous new year and diwali." She ALSO, asked me to not eat any meat in the next 5 days. I have had similar situations before too. In pune, taiji would tell us to not eat any chicken or eggs on particular days or particular times of the year. And even though arjun bhaiya kinda objected, we almost never ate any meat during those days. (note 'almost never'... I don't remember now, maybe we actually did go ahead and eat meat or eggs just because we had to be the 'rebels')
So, no meat for 5 days here in canada... gonna be kinda difficult. Because whenever I get hungry in the college, I run to the caf and get a burger, or to the cage and get a slice of pizza. I am really gonna have to control my hunger now, or I could just prepare some food at home and take it along with me. I am even gonna have to give away the sliced deli meat I have for sandwiches... because I think it might go bad in the next 5 days. So I am totally welcoming suggestions for a vegetarian menu and recipes of the food I'd eat for the next 5 days.
One thing's for sure tho, I want to make chole! I've had chickpeas for while now, and I say I will get the recipe from my mom because I want to make it exactly like she made it, but its always so annoying talking to her when she goes blabbering on about the rest of the universe that has nothing to do with me! Topics that I have always hated hearing about. Like the 'Brindal' family. For those who don't know, that's what we called my dad's youngest brother's family. Anyways, I hope I can find a recipe somewhere online. Probably quickindiancooking.com has one. I will have to dig into the archives.
Oh, and now I have more material! thanks to that annoying little kid nick. hehe. I offered him my chicken like I said I would, and he asks
"since when do you celebrate indian festivals?"
"Ever since I was born."
"So what about eating beef?"
"I thought we were talking about celebrating festivals. Eating beef is not a festival"
"No, but why can't you eat chicken?"
"Because of religion."
"I thought you weren't religious. So why do you celebrate festivals?"
"Because they're fun!"
"Not eating meat is fun?"
(Oh this guy is beginning to get to be a pain in the butt! Plus, I have to watch heroes!)
"No, eating meat is not part of the fun. We don't feast on dead turkeys or eggs. And someone asked me not to eat meat. so I won't. end of discussion."
And I got back to watching another awesome episode of heroes!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
happy halloween
Happy halloween everyone! Yeah! Its kushal's birthday again! If you don't know what halloween is, lemme explain. Many years ago, on 31st october, a demon child named tonu a.k.a. kushal was born. And the people were so terrified of him, that to this day, people dress up in scary costumes to in remembrance of that unholy day. That's halloween in a nutshell.
So, I got myself a nice costume last night. Its a mask that bleeds and just a black robe like the one from the villain of scream or scary movie. I was first thinking I'd go dressed as some indian god, nick suggested ganesh. He said he even had a elephant trunk and ears...but not here today; Back at his home in london. So that was scrapped. I figured I'd like to go as avatar ang. The last airbender. But his costume would be little complex. Plus, this one was a really nice deal. Now I'm planning to wear that and go trick or treating tonight. I hope I get lots and lots of candy! Then I won't have to buy groceries for another week!
Actually, I did buy groceries last night, and I had a proper breakfast after a really long time! cereal and milk. Yum. And for lunch, I had chicken curry and rice that sandeep's uncle made. it was amazing! even while I was outside decorating the front of the house for halloween, I could smell it and I was getting hungrier by the second! Well, now that I'm satisfied, I feel like taking a nap before I go trick or treating!
Sunday, October 07, 2007
what is "cooking"?
Last night, I tried making the kind of fried rice that my mom made for me. I even had a picture of it somewhere in my archives, I'll see if I can dig it up. I could remember the key ingredients turmeric powder and onions because, one : I called them onion rice, and two: because they were yellow. LOL. She also put in curry leaves,coriander, green chillies, sometimes sugar to counteract the hot flavor,(I really liked the sugar in it). So I figured that since I had most of the ingredients, (I didn't have curry leaves and coriander.) I might try and make it. The best part? No one was home to witness the potential horrible screw up.
So, I started out with oil in a pan and I realized I also need mustard seeds to put in the oil. My mom put that in with the cumin till they sizzled...as far as I can remember.... would be great if I could talk to her right now, but it was probably too early in the morning there. Then the onions, the spices, rice...everything went in, and the smell was making me salivate. I got a spoon and tasted it. Well, I was too scared of overdoing the spices so I put in too little. I added more salt for taste, we used a lot of salt in our home. I hadn't even put in green chillies because I figured I didn't want to make it too spicy. "I'm gonna put in red chilli powder anyways!", I thought. But like I said... my estimates with the spices weren't right. So I wanted to make it again. I'd do better next time.
So tonight, I figured I'd give it a go. There was still some rice left over from 'I dunno when' in the fridge. I chopped up half an onion, a reasonably big one too; one green chilli pepper, and brought out my spices. I heated up the oil, put in the cumin, let it start sizzling, put in the onions and green chilies, spices (bigger quantity this time!) and then the rice. The turmeric, onions and green chillies were really giving off a powerful aroma. I knew this is already going to be better than last time. I tasted it, and it was a little too hot for me, so I put in sugar to make it a little milder. But this was a fine sugar... I liked it when I could feel sugar granules in my mouth. Anyways, I ate it with some sambar sandeep offered me. Really good dinner!
yep! Found the image! This is the real deal. the one my mom made. not my stupid 'improvised' one.
Now for the main topic. While I was cleaning dishes, I was pondering over what sandeep had asked me while I was making my dinner.
"you were cooking in India or you learned over here in canada?" (Trust me, I' still making him sound better. He needs a LOT of practice with his spoken english. LOL)
"hmm...I've seen people cook all my life..."
"Even I've seen my mom cook before but I can't do it."
I wanted to say 'so you've never really observed someone when they're cooking you've just stared blank.' but I was trying to me more polite so I said,
"Well, I'm a very visual learner. I grasp things that I see very fast."
"I guess that's why you're in animation..."
Although I do agree about the animation part, I was thinking 'what really classifies as cooking? I could have said 'yes I've cooked in India before' if only I knew which of these the general public accepts as 'cooking'. Does cutting a vegetable for a food preparation count as 'cooking'? If someone only put the ingredients in a pot or vessel, is that cooking? How about lighting the stove, putting your pan on the flame? Or maybe stirring the soup or something. Making a dough or a batter?
What I think is that ALL of these come under cooking. And I've done these things in my house ever since I was little! I would cut Okra when mom's preparing my favourite dish, I would even (try to) chop onions even though it was the most dreaded task ever! I'd boiled potatoes, peeled them, mashed them...I've helped make dough for cake, wait, how's batter and dough different? I looked up batter in OS X dictionary and it doesn't mention batter as a noun. WTF? Ok, getting back on track, I've kneaded 'aata' and even tried making chapatis. I've even put all the ingredients into the 'kadhai'/wok myself and stirred it and everything. So basically, I've BEEN COOKING all my life....Just in parts.... with long breaks in between... hehe.
But the cool thing now is that I am in-charge of the whole process, from start to finish. And I am starting to realize more and more what spices affect the food in what way, and what I missed out on, or what I needed more of. Earlier, even though I could tell it doesn't taste right, I couldn't say what was missing. Like when mom asks is everything allright, I could just say yes or no. And those few times when I said no, I couldn't tell what was missing. "just needs more 'spices'." or "more salt." Now I feel like I've graduated, I've grown up, my taste buds have finally developed. I'm loving it.
So, I started out with oil in a pan and I realized I also need mustard seeds to put in the oil. My mom put that in with the cumin till they sizzled...as far as I can remember.... would be great if I could talk to her right now, but it was probably too early in the morning there. Then the onions, the spices, rice...everything went in, and the smell was making me salivate. I got a spoon and tasted it. Well, I was too scared of overdoing the spices so I put in too little. I added more salt for taste, we used a lot of salt in our home. I hadn't even put in green chillies because I figured I didn't want to make it too spicy. "I'm gonna put in red chilli powder anyways!", I thought. But like I said... my estimates with the spices weren't right. So I wanted to make it again. I'd do better next time.
So tonight, I figured I'd give it a go. There was still some rice left over from 'I dunno when' in the fridge. I chopped up half an onion, a reasonably big one too; one green chilli pepper, and brought out my spices. I heated up the oil, put in the cumin, let it start sizzling, put in the onions and green chilies, spices (bigger quantity this time!) and then the rice. The turmeric, onions and green chillies were really giving off a powerful aroma. I knew this is already going to be better than last time. I tasted it, and it was a little too hot for me, so I put in sugar to make it a little milder. But this was a fine sugar... I liked it when I could feel sugar granules in my mouth. Anyways, I ate it with some sambar sandeep offered me. Really good dinner!
yep! Found the image! This is the real deal. the one my mom made. not my stupid 'improvised' one.
Now for the main topic. While I was cleaning dishes, I was pondering over what sandeep had asked me while I was making my dinner.
"you were cooking in India or you learned over here in canada?" (Trust me, I' still making him sound better. He needs a LOT of practice with his spoken english. LOL)
"hmm...I've seen people cook all my life..."
"Even I've seen my mom cook before but I can't do it."
I wanted to say 'so you've never really observed someone when they're cooking you've just stared blank.' but I was trying to me more polite so I said,
"Well, I'm a very visual learner. I grasp things that I see very fast."
"I guess that's why you're in animation..."
Although I do agree about the animation part, I was thinking 'what really classifies as cooking? I could have said 'yes I've cooked in India before' if only I knew which of these the general public accepts as 'cooking'. Does cutting a vegetable for a food preparation count as 'cooking'? If someone only put the ingredients in a pot or vessel, is that cooking? How about lighting the stove, putting your pan on the flame? Or maybe stirring the soup or something. Making a dough or a batter?
What I think is that ALL of these come under cooking. And I've done these things in my house ever since I was little! I would cut Okra when mom's preparing my favourite dish, I would even (try to) chop onions even though it was the most dreaded task ever! I'd boiled potatoes, peeled them, mashed them...I've helped make dough for cake, wait, how's batter and dough different? I looked up batter in OS X dictionary and it doesn't mention batter as a noun. WTF? Ok, getting back on track, I've kneaded 'aata' and even tried making chapatis. I've even put all the ingredients into the 'kadhai'/wok myself and stirred it and everything. So basically, I've BEEN COOKING all my life....Just in parts.... with long breaks in between... hehe.
But the cool thing now is that I am in-charge of the whole process, from start to finish. And I am starting to realize more and more what spices affect the food in what way, and what I missed out on, or what I needed more of. Earlier, even though I could tell it doesn't taste right, I couldn't say what was missing. Like when mom asks is everything allright, I could just say yes or no. And those few times when I said no, I couldn't tell what was missing. "just needs more 'spices'." or "more salt." Now I feel like I've graduated, I've grown up, my taste buds have finally developed. I'm loving it.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Do Not Eat!
Thursday,...(I guess) I finally gave in and bought two books from the sale at the 'animation and illustration road show' at the connection. One is 50 fantasy vehicles to draw and paint by Keith Thompson, and the other one is called 'Start your engines' by Scott Robertson. I have idolized him ever since I saw his dvds on drawing cars and aeroplanes and hovercrafts. I saw his book there on day one, and immediately fell in love with it! But when I brought those home, and saw that the same books were much cheaper on chapters.ca, I started feeling really dumb. Even ripped off. So I decided to try and return that book which I could buy from chapters, and I ended up getting David Coleman's autographed book "The art of animal character design" I did have to pay the difference, because this was an autographed book and more expensive, but its totally worth it!
Friday was my life drawing and digital media lab classes, and for the first time since this sem, I felt really satisfied with what I came up with in the life drawing class. You see, the thing is, Kerry kim is an illustration teacher. He expects us to do drawings with shading whereas for animation, what is more important is that I understand the structure and have good line quality. I just get frustrated trying to battle with the way we're supposed to draw at the workshop, and seeing everybody around me make pretty shaded drawings. But that day, I guess I was just really focussed or in-tune for some reason. I guess being successful at all those exercises we did earlier gave me some confidence. I can't wait to see what mark I get on that. The digital media lab was boring as usual. I know most of the things they are teaching there. So I got to help some other students out. And I hope people know how much I love helping others out!
Yesterday was really eventful...even though I didn't end up spending the whole night in toronto at Nuit Blanche, I was actually happy that I got all the rest that I did. The whole day at the workshop, we had mike because vince and gerard both were out at some event. I showed him my character designs and it was nice to have his input too. The idea that mike had, gave a totally new direction to the character design. I showed them to many people, but different people find diferent ones more appealing and that is making it even more difficult to decide on one character design for my portfolio. I'm just thinking I should get around to making rotation sheets for all the designs and then just close my eyes and pick one. Nah, too much work! :P LOL
And finally, tonight, I ended up making chicken curry! I didn't have a tomato, so I used tomato puree, and I also kinda burnt it, because my ingredients weren't ready. Those included, chicken that had gone bad, and yoghurt that had mould inside its container wall. But I didn't see the mould until I had poured the thing in, and I didn't realize the chicken was gone bad until I actually tasted it. Then basically, I had to throw the whole thing out. But before I did that, I was watching back to back episodes of CSI and I had to put up a note warning people, "Do Not Eat" next to the pot....just in case someone decided to come into the kitchen and taste what I was cooking. And I believe I also managed to stink up the kitchen in the mean time. I didn't even end up cleaning it. But There's a lesson to be learnt here. Something that I have come to realize earlier on several different occasions too.
I must not get too much food, or get food that I won't be cooking/finishing up anytime soon, because even stuff in the fridge goes bad! Yeah, it sucks! I've had mould in the yoghurt, tomato puree, garlic, bread(obviously) But I am really gonna make this stop now! When I go shopping, I'll first make a menu of the food I'm gonna prepare and consume in the next 7 days and get only that! Yeah right! (sarcasm) I wish I could just live off of snacks. they never go bad. Why can't they make everything like Lays chips? That I can keep them in my cupboard or under my bed and forget about it until I want to eat it? 'Super long lasting chicken' is that too much to ask for?
Friday was my life drawing and digital media lab classes, and for the first time since this sem, I felt really satisfied with what I came up with in the life drawing class. You see, the thing is, Kerry kim is an illustration teacher. He expects us to do drawings with shading whereas for animation, what is more important is that I understand the structure and have good line quality. I just get frustrated trying to battle with the way we're supposed to draw at the workshop, and seeing everybody around me make pretty shaded drawings. But that day, I guess I was just really focussed or in-tune for some reason. I guess being successful at all those exercises we did earlier gave me some confidence. I can't wait to see what mark I get on that. The digital media lab was boring as usual. I know most of the things they are teaching there. So I got to help some other students out. And I hope people know how much I love helping others out!
Yesterday was really eventful...even though I didn't end up spending the whole night in toronto at Nuit Blanche, I was actually happy that I got all the rest that I did. The whole day at the workshop, we had mike because vince and gerard both were out at some event. I showed him my character designs and it was nice to have his input too. The idea that mike had, gave a totally new direction to the character design. I showed them to many people, but different people find diferent ones more appealing and that is making it even more difficult to decide on one character design for my portfolio. I'm just thinking I should get around to making rotation sheets for all the designs and then just close my eyes and pick one. Nah, too much work! :P LOL
And finally, tonight, I ended up making chicken curry! I didn't have a tomato, so I used tomato puree, and I also kinda burnt it, because my ingredients weren't ready. Those included, chicken that had gone bad, and yoghurt that had mould inside its container wall. But I didn't see the mould until I had poured the thing in, and I didn't realize the chicken was gone bad until I actually tasted it. Then basically, I had to throw the whole thing out. But before I did that, I was watching back to back episodes of CSI and I had to put up a note warning people, "Do Not Eat" next to the pot....just in case someone decided to come into the kitchen and taste what I was cooking. And I believe I also managed to stink up the kitchen in the mean time. I didn't even end up cleaning it. But There's a lesson to be learnt here. Something that I have come to realize earlier on several different occasions too.
I must not get too much food, or get food that I won't be cooking/finishing up anytime soon, because even stuff in the fridge goes bad! Yeah, it sucks! I've had mould in the yoghurt, tomato puree, garlic, bread(obviously) But I am really gonna make this stop now! When I go shopping, I'll first make a menu of the food I'm gonna prepare and consume in the next 7 days and get only that! Yeah right! (sarcasm) I wish I could just live off of snacks. they never go bad. Why can't they make everything like Lays chips? That I can keep them in my cupboard or under my bed and forget about it until I want to eat it? 'Super long lasting chicken' is that too much to ask for?
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Note to self
Whoa! This morning my alarm rang at almost 8 and woke me up, but I figured I could sleep in, so I went back to dreamland. And that's where one of the weirdest things happened! I was in a HUGE building, running around, trying to find some good clothes to wear. In the beginning, it was like a shopping complex. Then later, it turned into maybe a bhavan, or a huge house. All my family was there, and were preparing for a wedding(I guess because only wedding ceremonies are so elaborate!) Perhaps that's why I was trying to find a good kurta to wear... From one window, I could see the whole town! Brightly lit up, looking like the most beautiful thing I've ever seen before. Even better than the city lights I saw from my flight when I came to canada. I think it was more like a patio or verandah... I was sitting down, with my feet dangling off the ledge. I felt like we were in an aeroplane, flying. Then something happened, and the whole town's lights went off. and there was a burst or wave of wind that shook all the trees in its path as it blew towards me! It was turning into a nightmare I figured...
The rest is as crazy as crazy can get. Maybe science fiction or fantasy... I dunno. But I don't want to relive that. So I'll move ahead to when I actually got around to doing something productive - Breakfast! I decided to make an omlet (or is it spelled omelet?). I was more confident about it today, than the last time I made an omlet - which was quite a while ago - because now, I was very comfortable breaking an egg, and I knew what I was gonna put in the omlet, and I knew it was gonna taste amazing.... a little too amazing. Because I chopped up one whole chilli pepper for only two eggs. I also chopped up about 1/5th of an onion, and if I knew I had tomatoes, I'd have added that too.
And as I was watching diggnation while eating it between two whole grain breads, (the kind that has all those granules in it...) I ate one unusually large piece of green chilly with the bite. And after about 4 glasses of ice cold water, I left a note to self - "cut the damn chilli into smaller pieces next time!) That was something so HOT, nick would have loved it!
The rest is as crazy as crazy can get. Maybe science fiction or fantasy... I dunno. But I don't want to relive that. So I'll move ahead to when I actually got around to doing something productive - Breakfast! I decided to make an omlet (or is it spelled omelet?). I was more confident about it today, than the last time I made an omlet - which was quite a while ago - because now, I was very comfortable breaking an egg, and I knew what I was gonna put in the omlet, and I knew it was gonna taste amazing.... a little too amazing. Because I chopped up one whole chilli pepper for only two eggs. I also chopped up about 1/5th of an onion, and if I knew I had tomatoes, I'd have added that too.
And as I was watching diggnation while eating it between two whole grain breads, (the kind that has all those granules in it...) I ate one unusually large piece of green chilly with the bite. And after about 4 glasses of ice cold water, I left a note to self - "cut the damn chilli into smaller pieces next time!) That was something so HOT, nick would have loved it!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Time management problems
And I finally left the college, and started walking back home. Oh, the moon was just beautiful. really big and orange! The temperature was just right. Not too cold, not too hot. And I wasn't even wearing a sweater or jacket. I did have a really heavy backpack, but that didn't bother me too much. I could keep staring at the beautiful view for ever! But I had to get back and get some sleep too.
The next day, I got up early, I felt pretty well rested and ready to have a wonderfully productive day. Well, we did everything except typography in the typography class... I was talking to mark and jeremy and making jokes and discussing stand up comedians and stuff... It was amazing....amazingly fun for mike mccarthy's class...LOL. Anyways, I've added them to my facebook as of now, and I think we'll get along well. Jeremy is really philosophical, and also interested in meditation and martial arts. His interests remind me of arjun bhaiya. Mark actually asked me "who's the coolest guy in class?" and answered "me who else?" hehe... he's cool tho. Looking forward to spending more time with those guys. But first, FOOD.
I had gotten really hungry by the end of the class. I didn't have a very good breakfast. I ended up burning my bacon, but I still had two eggs and a banana. I guess all the heavy lifting just made me hungry. So I walk back home, and eat some samosas that vironica had bought for me. Then I had to go shopping because I wanted to make some mint chutney before the corriander goes completely useless. I hate it when that happens. Last week was really bad for me that way. A lot of my food got fungus on it and I had to throw away a whole loaf of bread. So we went shopping. But all of a sudden, I was soooo sleepy, that I could hardly stand on my own. I wonder what came over me, but I was just ready to call off the shopping and just crawl into my bed.
But we went ahead with the shopping anyways, and ended up with everything BUT the ingredients for the chutney! DAMN! The mint there was really expensive and they didn't have the right kind of chillies! So I decided to let vironica get some mint for me and then I'll make some chutney. So now there's only one thing left to do - go to sleep! (and complete the self portrait, and the photo retouching and the portfolio drawings!) Guess I'd better start managing my time better!
The next day, I got up early, I felt pretty well rested and ready to have a wonderfully productive day. Well, we did everything except typography in the typography class... I was talking to mark and jeremy and making jokes and discussing stand up comedians and stuff... It was amazing....amazingly fun for mike mccarthy's class...LOL. Anyways, I've added them to my facebook as of now, and I think we'll get along well. Jeremy is really philosophical, and also interested in meditation and martial arts. His interests remind me of arjun bhaiya. Mark actually asked me "who's the coolest guy in class?" and answered "me who else?" hehe... he's cool tho. Looking forward to spending more time with those guys. But first, FOOD.
I had gotten really hungry by the end of the class. I didn't have a very good breakfast. I ended up burning my bacon, but I still had two eggs and a banana. I guess all the heavy lifting just made me hungry. So I walk back home, and eat some samosas that vironica had bought for me. Then I had to go shopping because I wanted to make some mint chutney before the corriander goes completely useless. I hate it when that happens. Last week was really bad for me that way. A lot of my food got fungus on it and I had to throw away a whole loaf of bread. So we went shopping. But all of a sudden, I was soooo sleepy, that I could hardly stand on my own. I wonder what came over me, but I was just ready to call off the shopping and just crawl into my bed.
But we went ahead with the shopping anyways, and ended up with everything BUT the ingredients for the chutney! DAMN! The mint there was really expensive and they didn't have the right kind of chillies! So I decided to let vironica get some mint for me and then I'll make some chutney. So now there's only one thing left to do - go to sleep! (and complete the self portrait, and the photo retouching and the portfolio drawings!) Guess I'd better start managing my time better!
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
My Timelapse video
Remember Oliver from my post about caterpillars and butterflies? Well, if not, go and read it, there's a lil mention of him there, I also revealed the fact that he loves Indian food. Yeah, so he's a really awesome fun guy and I'm really glad we're friends. And he had been up to organizing lil fun events ever since the orientation! He said that he would make waffles at his room in res, and invited everybody for kind of a get together, but that plan had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances (how's drunk guys on the floor sound?) His roommate was having a party and people were getting hammered big time! And since we hadn't gotten an affirmative answer from a lot of guests, it was canceled (thanks spell checker, stupid me keeps typing cancelled over and over again!) for good!
So the next day, on the 2nd September, I felt I could invite ppl over for an Indian meal. I hadn't really thought the whole thing through, but because oliver was SO excited by the idea, we decided to invite people for dinner and see how many were ready. In the mean time, I realized I had better not screw this up or else I'd be in a really funny situation tonight when everyone's puking on the horrible food! I asked oliver what I should make, but he didn't give me anything specific, so I decided to read through the recipes on Quick Indian cooking blog and see what was the easiest, to make and I had most of the ingredients for. I picked paneer butter masala, because I would only need to buy coriander powder and kasoori methi. Then I called my mom on skype and asked if she could give me something else that was a really easy recipe and some pointers and help on this particular one.
One of my specific questions was whether she knew what exactly is Greek yogurt and how can I not screw up my recipe while using regular yogurt from the store. I had googled Greek yogurt, and found a page that explained how greek yogurt is a thicker and creamier yogurt as compared to regular yogurt, and that recipes that call for greek yogurt will fail miserably if u use regular yogurt. I had also read the comments on Mallika's blog post about straining the regular yogurt in a cheese cloth, and suggestion of whipping it up nicely, but this particular page had really scared me. So my mom started explaining how I could make good yogurt from scratch, and I had to stop and tell her I don't have that kind of time! After we put that aside, I asked her what her recipe was, and she went on and on about how she makes it. And I now start to admire and appreciate, for the first time, the time and effort she puts into these preparations. I write down the most of it, but I decide I want to mix and match the recipes and do what's convenient for me.
We (or rather she) also talked about making jeera rice, umm... that's Rice with Cumin seeds for you guys who don't speak Hindi. Even though I wasn't really sure I also wanted to make rice for tonight, it would really depend on the number of people that show up. We had serious issues here, because her method was for cooking in a pressure cooker, and I didn't have one, and couldn't really see how this was going to apply to the 'steamer' I had. So she said, you can just make the rice first, then throw it in a frying pan with some oil and cumin seeds. That sounds like something I can do! And I also wanted to ask her about making wadas, because I have some wada mix and sambar mix. I want to have that for breakfast some day. And what she told me was really helpful but that's for another day!
Oliver told me only rob was the one who's gonna come tonight and that he'd go pick him up right now and be at my place soon, which meant I had to get ready! So, right when I was in the middle of getting directions to the grocery store and writing down the method I'd use to cook paneer butter masala, Oliver showed up, so I just grabbed the print-out from Google maps and ran. Unfortunately, pooja grocers was closed! I didn't even have the name or directions of the other Indian grocery store that was around that place. I asked the lady who worked at subway about it, but she didn't know. I remembered that there was Organic Garden next to the Indian store, so I asked her about that. She pointed us in a direction, but it wasn't really clear. But I remembered that I had read kerr street on the forum where I found out about it, and on Google maps. So I asked oliver to just drive back down, till we see kerr street again. And as soon as we saw the big O sign of organic garden, we knew we WERE gonna have Indian food tonight!
After I got back, I first heated up the oven to reheat the samosas that we got, and after we were done munching on the samosas, I started cooking which can be seen in this timelapse video that I made.
Did I mention I'd never done this before? Not the timelapse, I have made a bunch of them, but I had never cooked any Indian food from scratch, all by myself before. Well, technically, I didn't do it all by myself, I had oliver helping out, but this time, I was not the one BEING supervised. I was the head chef! Everything was under my command. And the pressure was intense.
But thankfully both of them liked the food. Infact, even I thought it was pretty good! Vironica came home and even she tasted it, she liked it a lot too! I felt like it was all worth it. I hope I can say the same about this blog post, I noticed its gotten really long, and I haven't even touched the part AFTER the dinner which was just as great! Maybe some other time!
So the next day, on the 2nd September, I felt I could invite ppl over for an Indian meal. I hadn't really thought the whole thing through, but because oliver was SO excited by the idea, we decided to invite people for dinner and see how many were ready. In the mean time, I realized I had better not screw this up or else I'd be in a really funny situation tonight when everyone's puking on the horrible food! I asked oliver what I should make, but he didn't give me anything specific, so I decided to read through the recipes on Quick Indian cooking blog and see what was the easiest, to make and I had most of the ingredients for. I picked paneer butter masala, because I would only need to buy coriander powder and kasoori methi. Then I called my mom on skype and asked if she could give me something else that was a really easy recipe and some pointers and help on this particular one.
One of my specific questions was whether she knew what exactly is Greek yogurt and how can I not screw up my recipe while using regular yogurt from the store. I had googled Greek yogurt, and found a page that explained how greek yogurt is a thicker and creamier yogurt as compared to regular yogurt, and that recipes that call for greek yogurt will fail miserably if u use regular yogurt. I had also read the comments on Mallika's blog post about straining the regular yogurt in a cheese cloth, and suggestion of whipping it up nicely, but this particular page had really scared me. So my mom started explaining how I could make good yogurt from scratch, and I had to stop and tell her I don't have that kind of time! After we put that aside, I asked her what her recipe was, and she went on and on about how she makes it. And I now start to admire and appreciate, for the first time, the time and effort she puts into these preparations. I write down the most of it, but I decide I want to mix and match the recipes and do what's convenient for me.
We (or rather she) also talked about making jeera rice, umm... that's Rice with Cumin seeds for you guys who don't speak Hindi. Even though I wasn't really sure I also wanted to make rice for tonight, it would really depend on the number of people that show up. We had serious issues here, because her method was for cooking in a pressure cooker, and I didn't have one, and couldn't really see how this was going to apply to the 'steamer' I had. So she said, you can just make the rice first, then throw it in a frying pan with some oil and cumin seeds. That sounds like something I can do! And I also wanted to ask her about making wadas, because I have some wada mix and sambar mix. I want to have that for breakfast some day. And what she told me was really helpful but that's for another day!
Oliver told me only rob was the one who's gonna come tonight and that he'd go pick him up right now and be at my place soon, which meant I had to get ready! So, right when I was in the middle of getting directions to the grocery store and writing down the method I'd use to cook paneer butter masala, Oliver showed up, so I just grabbed the print-out from Google maps and ran. Unfortunately, pooja grocers was closed! I didn't even have the name or directions of the other Indian grocery store that was around that place. I asked the lady who worked at subway about it, but she didn't know. I remembered that there was Organic Garden next to the Indian store, so I asked her about that. She pointed us in a direction, but it wasn't really clear. But I remembered that I had read kerr street on the forum where I found out about it, and on Google maps. So I asked oliver to just drive back down, till we see kerr street again. And as soon as we saw the big O sign of organic garden, we knew we WERE gonna have Indian food tonight!
After I got back, I first heated up the oven to reheat the samosas that we got, and after we were done munching on the samosas, I started cooking which can be seen in this timelapse video that I made.
Did I mention I'd never done this before? Not the timelapse, I have made a bunch of them, but I had never cooked any Indian food from scratch, all by myself before. Well, technically, I didn't do it all by myself, I had oliver helping out, but this time, I was not the one BEING supervised. I was the head chef! Everything was under my command. And the pressure was intense.
But thankfully both of them liked the food. Infact, even I thought it was pretty good! Vironica came home and even she tasted it, she liked it a lot too! I felt like it was all worth it. I hope I can say the same about this blog post, I noticed its gotten really long, and I haven't even touched the part AFTER the dinner which was just as great! Maybe some other time!
Yeah, Big happy birthday to my sister Divya! She turned 18 today!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Delayed post
Yeah, so after going through almost all the entries on Mallika's blog in google reader, I decided to leave a comment on one of her posts the discussion on which intrigued me. And she was kind enough to click on my url, and visit my lil blog. She even left a comment, but her blogger profile doesn't have link to her blog which is quickindiancooking.com and I couldn't hyperlink it while I was posting using safari, so I decided to wait, and compose it in firefox when I can. So now that I'm done with my assignment that was due for tomorrow, I have the time to finish what I started.
Yesterday, I had made some mint chutney. I am not sure whether I mentioned this last time, but I remembered the ingredients as I had seen mom make it when I was back in India so I thought I would just wing it, but at the last moment, I happened to talk to mom on skype, so I just made sure whether my mom put onions in it or not. And that's how I saved it from being screwed up. This time was even better. little spicier, less minty and I had more of it in quantity too. I guess that was because of good quality cilantro. Last time I shopped at the ghetto store 'no frills' and by the time I got around to making it, a lot of coriander had gone bad. This time, I had bought it from the real Canadian superstore, and it was still fresh and smelled really good.
Then I decided to make bhurji for lunch. I guess most of you will notice that I didn't use any garam masala. But that's okay, I really wanted the kind that I used to eat in Pune, with just salt and pepper. I added some oil in a pan, cooked tomatoes and onions for a while, and then added the egg yolk into it. Sprinkled generous amount of salt and pepper(yeah, I love salt!) and minutes later, I was eating bhurji with bread and aam ka achaar. (Thanks mallika for the tip). Awesome! A perfect Meal. Definitely satisfied my hungry stomach and longing taste buds. I was really happy with what I just did. Then today, I get to my computer and read the comment from mallika, and I feel more determined to try and COOK food for myself. I also talked to vironica in the evening, and told her what I cooked, and she as always, took interest in it, and I felt really good.
Yesterday, I had made some mint chutney. I am not sure whether I mentioned this last time, but I remembered the ingredients as I had seen mom make it when I was back in India so I thought I would just wing it, but at the last moment, I happened to talk to mom on skype, so I just made sure whether my mom put onions in it or not. And that's how I saved it from being screwed up. This time was even better. little spicier, less minty and I had more of it in quantity too. I guess that was because of good quality cilantro. Last time I shopped at the ghetto store 'no frills' and by the time I got around to making it, a lot of coriander had gone bad. This time, I had bought it from the real Canadian superstore, and it was still fresh and smelled really good.
Then I decided to make bhurji for lunch. I guess most of you will notice that I didn't use any garam masala. But that's okay, I really wanted the kind that I used to eat in Pune, with just salt and pepper. I added some oil in a pan, cooked tomatoes and onions for a while, and then added the egg yolk into it. Sprinkled generous amount of salt and pepper(yeah, I love salt!) and minutes later, I was eating bhurji with bread and aam ka achaar. (Thanks mallika for the tip). Awesome! A perfect Meal. Definitely satisfied my hungry stomach and longing taste buds. I was really happy with what I just did. Then today, I get to my computer and read the comment from mallika, and I feel more determined to try and COOK food for myself. I also talked to vironica in the evening, and told her what I cooked, and she as always, took interest in it, and I felt really good.
Friday, August 10, 2007
I am so friggin hungry! and its 12:30 am !
What am I doing up so late? well, now, trying to put my growling stomach to sleep! You see, I just somehow wandered off into the territory of Indian food blogs. YEAH, I KNOW! I was just looking up chillies and peppers and jalapeños... I just wanted to know if there's a basic distinction between the not hot at all 'bell pepper'/capsicum and the long slim 'mirch' we had in India, and the mexican variety, which is unusually thick, the 'hal-ah-pen-yo' But the next thing I know, I had read through atleast 20 recipies, subscribed to a bunch of blog feeds and now I am really REALLY hungry.
I have a bag of chips to my left here, but its empty. I don't want to walk downstairs at this time, because the noise from the wooden flooring will wake everyone up! Specially with my 'enthusiastic' stride. I just tend to run down the stairs...LOL. Its just like I can't stand being there.. or maybe I just 'slip away'... Ahem, so I was saying, I did have dinner, and I was eating some chips while watching knocked up, and still, all that delicious food made me hungry. I don't even have anything downstairs that I feel like eating right now.
In the afternoon today, I made papad churmur and roasted bread in a pan with butter. Oh god! It really did feel amazing! I can't remember how long it had been since I ate that, I mean, it wasn't even on the list of 'the food I want to eat before I leave for canada'. Oh I really expect you to know what churmur is... if you're still scratching your head over what I meant, drop me a line or ping me and I'll be happy to send u an explanation, photo, recipe whatever. Okay, 'food I want to eat before I leave for canada' list had Okra on the top! I just love deep fried Okra that my mom makes. But something happened that day when mom made the deep fried okra for me in pune, and I am pretty sure it hurt my mom more than it upset me. Arjun and aniruddh bhaiya wanted me to eat some other garbage because its supposed to be more 'healthy' for me, and I kinda ended up filling myself up on it(because they wouldn't let up already) and I didn't eat a lot of okra....Now I better wrap up before I cry..
I have a bag of chips to my left here, but its empty. I don't want to walk downstairs at this time, because the noise from the wooden flooring will wake everyone up! Specially with my 'enthusiastic' stride. I just tend to run down the stairs...LOL. Its just like I can't stand being there.. or maybe I just 'slip away'... Ahem, so I was saying, I did have dinner, and I was eating some chips while watching knocked up, and still, all that delicious food made me hungry. I don't even have anything downstairs that I feel like eating right now.
In the afternoon today, I made papad churmur and roasted bread in a pan with butter. Oh god! It really did feel amazing! I can't remember how long it had been since I ate that, I mean, it wasn't even on the list of 'the food I want to eat before I leave for canada'. Oh I really expect you to know what churmur is... if you're still scratching your head over what I meant, drop me a line or ping me and I'll be happy to send u an explanation, photo, recipe whatever. Okay, 'food I want to eat before I leave for canada' list had Okra on the top! I just love deep fried Okra that my mom makes. But something happened that day when mom made the deep fried okra for me in pune, and I am pretty sure it hurt my mom more than it upset me. Arjun and aniruddh bhaiya wanted me to eat some other garbage because its supposed to be more 'healthy' for me, and I kinda ended up filling myself up on it(because they wouldn't let up already) and I didn't eat a lot of okra....Now I better wrap up before I cry..
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