Happy Deepavali

Wishing one and all a very happy Deepavali!!

It has been a busy few weeks with a lot of travel thrown in. The good news is that between all the hectic work, went back to the Yoga room. The hand has healed nicely.

Deepavali was made fun thanks to some last minute Target shopping for clothes, some yummy treats made by MIL yesterday and today (including some Deepavali Marundhu) and a short 30 minute celebration today with family in backyard with fireworks.

We also had two nice parties over the weekend where the kids had fun with fireworks and rangoli!

Some pictures..

Cannot believe another year has rolled by!

Yet again, a wonderful Deepavali to all..

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Texture is everything..

That is not some worm stuff.. it is really delicious "Omapudi" that just "melts in your mouth".. magnified to see detail that you don't normally care about.. but there is something to that texture that makes Omapudi what is really is..

anyways, digressing as usual..

Wishing everyone a Happy and prosperous Deepavali, Diwali, Deeparaya.

May knowledge light up your life!

While the rest of you go back to your firecrackers, new clothes, sweets and savories, I have a few close encounters of the third kind to do with the boondhis, ribbon pakodas and mysorepak..

Happy Deepavali everyone...

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Aalo Rose

The recipe for the previous post, in pictures.

The final result:

First the Rose Aalo:

Microwave for 2 minutes, then drain the hot turmeric/Salt water out.

Bake at 350C for 20 minutes.

Make sure you use a paper towel and soak up the extra oil before serving.

Now something to do with the carved out pieces of potato. Make them into a quick Bhajji that can go along with the roti's.

Unfortunately, the bhajji was all gone before it could be served with the roti's.

Now, this would not be possible except for a commitment to San that the kitchen will be handed over to her in the same condition as before the cooking started!

Gents, please wash all dishes and wipe off stove, countertop etc. if you plan to do this experiment!

A Warning: While the Roses looked pretty inviting and were tasty, the core of the rose was way too hot, while the outside surface had cooled. So do NOT bite into the rose or you will burn your tongue! You may have to wait a little for it to cool down.

Julie and Julia was a good movie. It has inspired me to go back and do something in the kitchen.

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Et cetera, or should we say Eggcetera?

On our recent trip to Seattle we did more than go to

Snoqualmie Falls
Boeing Future of Flight
Olympic National Park
and watch "The curious case of Brads Buttocks".. sorry for the slip, "Benjamin Button"

We also managed to go spend a few hours at a place called Northbend inspite of bad roads and snow, eat at Mayuri Chat, Mayuri Restaurant, InChin's Indian Chinese fusion restaurant, breakfast at Eggcetera, visit the local Indian temple on Jan 1st and and and and and...

Yeah, we were busy!

Just to close out the Seattle trip posts

1. Mayuri Chat served me a spoilt samosa which was refried (probably a previous batch?) Thoroughly disappointed!

2. Mayuri restaurant served us really great food. Food that compares to some of the local desi restaurants in the Bay area.

3. Inchin's was amazing. I knew there was a good chance of an allergy attack that too on New Year's eve but took my chances and went there anyways with the rest of the gang. Their Seczchuan fried rice was amazing. (Did get an attack later that night and paid the price for tasting something that either had peanuts or sesame seeds on it and was a spoilsport at the card games that night..) Truly amazing food and fantastic service!

4. BIL decided to take us to Egg's cetera in Seattle instead of a long drive to Mother's Bistro in Portland (yes, on the last two Seattle trips we have driven to Mother's Bistro in Portland to have brunch. It is that good!) But this time we decided to try Egg's cetera, a place with a look and feel that is similar to Mother's and the Brunch was great. The Pecan waffle was mouth watering, and we conclude

Mithun: Amitabh :: Egg's Cetera: Mothers

Leaving you with two pictures that defined the rest of the trip...

Inchin's on New Years eve

The Northbend mall a day after we landed in Seattle. The backdrop was so unique for an outlet mall.

We have already begun the process of leaving the trip behind in our memories and are back to the work, school routine!

The posts on life's "little" quirks will begin soon enough...

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Indignation - the rightful kind..

Well, these days there is rightful and wrongful indignation. This is a documented case of the "rightful" type!

Went to this South Indian food place and asked for the usual Rava Dosa. Got it in 3 minutes, which is a surprise, considering it usually takes at least 10 minutes to 15 minutes from order time.

Got a dosa that had a lot of Rava in it. But the batter was definitely the regular dosa batter!

Now, if you are not picky about a dosa and would consider anything round and crispy brought to you with a cup of sambar and chutney as fair game, stop reading this post. You may not be amused.

On the other hand, if you know enough about Dosa's to answer a quiz question "What is the difference betwen a Rava dosa and Plain dosa?" with anything more than "The Rava dosa has rava in it!", read on.

If you consider yourself to be the Sankara Saastri of Dosa's, this post will definitely increase your heart rate, pulse rate, stomach acid secretion rate, etc. etc. You already know that the basic ingredients in the plain dosa batter are rice, urad dal and fenugreek (vendayam) seeds while the Rava dosa is made from rice flour and rava (cream of wheat) with some green chillies, ginger, cashews, black pepper thrown in as added attractions (the additional ingredients vary widely!)

There is also the issue of fermentation. While the plain dosa batter gets its taste from leaving the batter overnight to rise (yeast action), the rava dosa batter is almost whipped up instantly with some buttermilk to help with integration!

So, if you get a rava dosa, you should not expect it to taste like a plain dosa. In other words, you should not detect the urad dal or yeast.

Now you can always tell me "so what? think you ordered a sada dosa and they put rava in it by mistake.. just eat it!". Which brings us to the "rightful" part. The average bay area restaurant charges 5 bucks for a dosa and 7 bucks for a rava dosa. The 1.5x price is usually due to the complexity and time consuming nature of the rava dosa manufacturing process, compared to the plain dosa. In effect, it is a custom order!

Now, if you throw a cup of rava in plain batter and give it to me in 3 minutes and charge me extra for it, I might ask you to put "kalpooram" in your hand and do deepa aaradhanai!!!

ps. I was at one time moderately allergic to urad dal. Which is why the choice was always a rava dosa! Not anymore..

pps. Not naming restaurant yet, because the owner is going to spot check the cook and let me know if this was really happening!

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