Festival of Lights - Light Stove, Camera On, Action!

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I am noticing that these days a lot of google ads about self defense and spyware software are appearing on my blog, when I have never talked about anything apart from stabbing myself and I havent even mentioned about watching online dvd rip movies! Google ads has strange ways. Spooky more like it. It seems to be putting away in memory what all I do in virtual and real world!
Now that I got it out of my system (I have a pretty big fear of the spook), I can tell you about celebrating Diwali this year. You know how Diwali is all about spending someone else's money on flashy clothes, flashier crackers and flabbygetter sweets? Well this year was the same for me....except homespun money got replaced with greenbacks and all the crackers we heard was one hour of daam-doom-das-pus on GTalk. And I PREPARED the sin food for all 3 days. They turned out lip-smacking, if I may say so myself (and given that T doesnt blog so often I have to!). The preparation of sweets was all about excelling minimalistically. I did not have access to ghee, nuts (hyuck hyuck)..no really and all the dramatic spices we use back at home like kesar, cardamom blah blah, because of self imposed cost cutting. I have to blow my own trumpet again and tell you all what a fine job I did! Like an answer to my prayers, some of us Indian friends decided to throw a party to ourselves. Instead of burdening one hapless housewife we all decided to pitch and make it a potluck produce. Now I had the chance to show my cooking skills to "other" people, people who were not obliged or bullied into telling me what I make is good, ha ha ha! At the end of the day, after the gobble-click-lol-athon I stood vindicated that I am a budding good cook. Nobody is going to stand between me and my stove muhahahahaha. T....MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Peace!

My food blog gets a new URL

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For reasons of global understanding

(I had to explain to many people what Bendekayi = Lady's finger and Karimb = curry meant, that doesnt say a lot about clarity)

I have changed the url of my food blog to http://thebravecook.blogspot.com/
I request you to update all your favourite links and blogrolls to this new url (Yeah right, like I have that many visitors)
But Pleeeeze do update your links gang!

Murder I saw

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This makes more sense in my food blog but it is so not vegetarian that I have to put it here!
I learnt how to kill a lobster.
Lobster is supposed to be eaten while it is still fresh and what better way to eat the freshest than kill it yourself minutes before you eat it? Yuck! Anyways.
You bring a live lobster home and stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. Like 10 minutes. This puts the lobster into a deep sleep. A sleep so deep that they wont protest to what you do next. You get the lobster out of the freezer and stick right into a pot of boiling water. It dies (hold your breath) in 30 secs. Cruel cruel cruel.
Enjoy your meal people (who eat it).

Sapad

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Its a bit of an irony

I swear on the mulligatawny,

in a cold country like this

they dont really miss

the warmth of hot broth

going down one's throat

to give a little insulation

from the biting cold.

'ts for hot breakfast that I crave

when I step out of my roomy cave

all I want to have is a dosa roast

what I get is a buttered toast.

When I look for hot soup

all I get is a lukewarm dupe

Zweibel, Tomate and Kartoffel*

you get plate loads of these if

you ask for vegetable.

One of the best you get is Flammkuchen

which is pizza with crust nicely flattened.

I miss my cup of hot Red Label tea the most

'coz here its umpteen flavours of which they boast.

Amidst Strawberry, Lemon, Orange and Earl Grey

Even Assam tea does not hold its sway.

Its usually had here without any milk

They have no clue about chai or its ilk.

But what I love most here is the Yoghurt

in many flavours and choice you can assert.

My all time favourite is the Erdbeere*

thinking of which, I should get my today's share.

Am glad I am coming home tomorrow, this time during

to chatambsadhu, morasadhu and bendekayi karimb!

*zweibel=onion, tomate=tomato, kartoffel=potato, Erdbeere=strawberry

Hungry at 12

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Does it happen to you often?
.
.
.
At midnight?
I find myself with a tremendous appetite around midnight most nights when am awake. If I don’t retort to the hints then my stomach takes it pretty personally and starts gnarling so loud that it can wake up our next door neighbor whose house is approximately 6 ft from my room wall!

I know the distance accurately because in Bangalore land is very precious (because it is scarce what with all builders taking over and because of its price). People would build on every square millimeter of land if not for some rules laid down by the corporation to prevent houses zig zagging into each others' compounds. There needs to be a gap of 3 ft from the compound wall between neighboring plots to the wall of the actual house itself. And this is all a Bangalorean worth his land is willing to sacrifice. In fact I was joking with our builder that I plan to make a temporary shack in the car parking area and give it for rent. There will be takers for sure.
Yeah all this banter has nothing to do with the subject of this post. But what you are reading here is my mind. When I get hungry I try and concentrate on all kinds of things including Bangalore Corporation rules in order to divert the mind! Whoever heard of snacking at that bizarre time. And that too after a full fledged dinner. Honestly what I crave for at such times are sweets. I dunno why but I develop a real sweet tooth around 12 AM :)

I remember this bus journey a few years ago. My dad was shifting to Bangalore (and we were with him to help) and his colleagues had come to bid him farewell. And as courtesy would demand it they also gave us a box of sweets. Now, the box was conveniently planted in a bag which was kept under my seat on the bus. At that time I was supposedly this pale travel sick little thing. At around midnight while watching Gumnaam (it was a video coach and the driver was obviously still in the 60s thingy) I became ravenous. Only after I neatly tucked in 10 Balushaai
(a 2 inch dia circular very sticky ghee layered sweeeet sweet)

in less than half hour and only then did I feel contentment! You could well imagine my parents’ surprise the next morning when they opened the book to find nothing in it.
And of course I am writing this with a growling stomach for company. Its 1 AM what do you think!

Should I go for that

peda in the fridge or should I not is the question!!

Eating habits of Namma Bengalooru

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What is it with Bengalooru navaru and eating? At any given point in time at least 1/4 of the population are eating out I think. I have listed down all the different variations available in terms of concepts and not just on the menu.

Sagar - where masala dosa meets udupi style gobi manchurian. Changed the landscape of Bangalore. Road sense is made better with these landmarks.
Café – what has been adopted from the French is the “eat out” style. Sorry, no seats available. Fast preparation and consumption of food is the norm.
Juice center - Under upgradation. Exotic fruits are becoming the USP.
Lassi bar – After meal filler place. Kulfis and milk shakes are added attractions
Dessert bar - extra cheese, extra cream, extra sin food
Coffee bar – its all about attitude dude…nothing to do with coffee
Tea bar – exotic pale versions of my favourite brew are served here. Get me Amma’s strong Red Label + Tetley combo anytime!
Lounge bar - thot one goes there for a snooze, but then pictures of afghani ambience complete with hookahs has put a dent to my happiness
Bar and Restaurant – most deals are struck here over whisky soda and pakoda
Restaurant – phamily place. papa orders, mama looks smug and kids cant contain their excitement at being asked their choice
Chinese restaurant – where revolutionary dishes are served which were never heard of in China
Pubs – dimly lit place where madira drinkers don’t want others to notice them and dance floor hoggers get to jive without worrying about the audience
Chaat gaadi – the pollution and dust mixed with the masalas give an added taste to the bhel puris and masala puris which are gobbled in quick succession
Military hotels - aam non veggie junta style, egg trays are not kept discrete and sometimes nor are the meat pieces
Dance bars - ?

Think of anymore? Feel free to pass on the gyaan.