Friday, August 19, 2005 at 7:45PM A new equation : Beautiful = daughter + bumble bee balloon
She got a bumble bee ballon at our company picnic..
She wasnt feeling great, but the bee helped cheer her up big time !!
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 at 11:20PM For those of you who are aware of my swimming ordeal, this will be an interesting footnote !
Had called India this weekend. Spoke to my brother for a long time and among other things he asked me how my swimming was going. I told him that everything except the side breathing is okay.. He seemed very knowledgeable about the whole swimming thing. So I dug deeper and what I found shocked me !
Shocker 1 : Apparently the dude knows how to swim !!
Shocker 2 : He learnt swimming 5 years ago !!
Shocker 3 : He went to swimming classes when he was working in Bangalore, at the YMCA
Shocker 4 : He went for a lesson every alternate day for two full months.
Shocker 5 : He even had lessons on CPR, rescuing fellow swimmers etc..
Shocker 6 : He kept this a secret for this long !!!
I asked him why he would keep these a secret and his response ... No shocks here..
Mom told me "you should not mention a word about your swimming to your brother. My only eldest son ?!? should not be encouraged by his brothers exploits and try something. He is in a far away land where I cannot see him even if I feel like it. What if something happens to him in America ?"
aaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhhh !!!!
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 at 11:14PM Komala Vilas (KV to the fans!) is at the south west corner of Henderson and El Camino (diagonally opposite to the Bhavikas complex). If there is one place we frequent as often or more than Bhavikas it is KV.
Parking is not a problem, what with the pizza hut in the complex closing down. KV has been around for 4-5 years, if I remember right. In its early days, we were more infrequent visitors because we seriously found that the staff couldnt handle the crowd.
There has been a recent management change at KV, with Dharmaraj Sir taking charge (Mail Bag fame). Now we are addicted to the place. I took my time to write the review for KV because once we go there, we keep going there.
Wait time : 2 minutes (find a table yourself)
Food wait time from order : 10-15 minutes (depending on what you order)
Check time : 3 minutes (Visa Mastercard - Minimum is $16 for charge, else Cash)
Average price per person : $9
Rating "Grandma, where are you ?".
Service : Excellent
Items sampled : Rava Dosa, Poori Sabzi, Sambar rice, curd rice, chips, masala dosa, vadai, Coffee
Just like I mentioned, we have gone to KV twice this week already.
For those of you who are used to visiting Komala Vilas, one of the first thing that Dharmaraj Sir has changed is the coffee.. It is now his patented coffee (for which he is famous throughout the bay area) instead of the darker, stronger variety before. Don't miss it. It cures depression, headache, family problems, kid problems, just to name a few..
You should not miss the lunch thali during the week. You get unlimited rice with sambar, rasam, curd, pickle, ghee and sweet porridge for dessert ! The best part is, Komala Vilas sets the standard for HOSPITALITY !!. The guys serve you rice and the gravy just like mom serves you at home ! Amazing, considering it is hispanic guys speaking fluent Tamizh (I kid you not !). And the food is out of the world.
The evening menu is more of the individual item orders. Their sabzi is superb (try it with poori) and the Rava Dosai is excellent (a little pricey though at 7$).
Today we were very late and were really hungry. Any other restaurant would have seated us and made us wait for our order. KV does it differently. We were specifically asked which items were being ordered by the pregnant woman, then were told that those items are the ones which have maximum delay time, and were recommended some immediately available items in the meantime!
I have always admired Mr. Dharmaraj's way of doing things. His taking over KV is a blessing for hungry people craving good eats!. If my mother-in-law feels nostalgic for home cooked food, guess where she is going ?
Sunday, August 14, 2005 at 10:26PM One of the senior guys at my company was getting rid of his splash tub. Guess his kids outgrew it! We were glad to get it for free..
Original plan was to inaugurate the tub this week with the little one, her cousin and other buddies.. but we werent feeling upbeat earlier in the day and ended up sleeping off the whole afternoon.
But my daughter remembered the plan and insisted on the inauguration ! Even though it was almost sunset time, we filled half the tub with water and let her splash around for half an hour.
The formal inauguration of this mini pool will be next sunday.. you can definitely expect to see more pictures next week.
Sliding down :
Testing the water:
More testing :
Sunday, August 14, 2005 at 7:20PM Was feeling bored saturday evening. Did not feel like going out to eat. . the queen and princess bee's werent busy either. So decided to go back to my nostalgic days.
Decided to make the sundar special Rava Dosai at home..
Came out nice and crispy.. just like paper..
For those who might by interested in the recipe :
Oil in a vessel
Low heat
add cumin, mustard seeds, red chili pieces (3 long dry red chillies in small pieces)
once the mustard starts to splatter, add asafoedita (hing) and curry leaves
Turn off the stove and immediately add rava (1 cup) mix in vessel
add rice flour (1 cup) and continue mixing (the whole thing is still dry at this stage)
Add a quarter glass of buttermilk to this and mix.
Then add two spoons of coke (diet coke) preferably the part with the fizz. (the credit for this idea goes to my buddy Durgaprasad - he came up with this concept of adding coke to get accelerated yeast in Charlottsville, Virginia in 1994. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for us, he did not patent this scheme! I used to add Fleishmans yeast in hot water, to do this part)
Add two glasses of water, required salt and mix thoroughly.
Wait for 15 minutes, heat the tava and start making the dosa..
Of course, you will have to do your own optimization with the salt and chili to get it just right for your taste.
Mine got a yummy from the little one.
I am back, baby !! (in the kitchen , that is).
