Travel by stomach - Peru

Peru was fun - cooking Peruvian food, that is. There were two ingredients that came up again and again in the recipes I looked at - aji amarillo and huacatay (black mint). They are available online but I did not have the time (or the patience) to wait for it. I checked a couple of international markets, Whole Foods and a bodega, with no luck. So, I used jarred hot, yellow chillies and jalapenos for the former and a mixture of fresh mint, cilantro and dried basil instead of the huacatay. 

Peruvian rice

This is a very easy recipe that results in  fragrant and flavorful rice, versatile enough to be used as a side dish or even as the star of the meal.

• 1 garlic clove , mashed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups water
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups long-grain white rice (eg. Basmati)

Wash and drain rice.

Saute garlic in oil for a minute or two.

Add water, lemon juice and salt.

Bring to a boil.

Gradually add rice.

Cover and simmer 20 minutes.

Yuquitas Rellenas - Stuffed Yuca Balls 

If you forget for a while that you are eating deep fried starch, wrapped around a piece of cheese, you will realize these balls are heavenly. Crunchy on the outside, starchy and smooth on the inside. And then, you bite into the salty creamy piece of cheese.This recipe is worth the effort.

Yuca is a root vegetable, also known as cassava and manioc root. It can be peeled and boiled just like potatoes. It is readily available in most major grocery stores. These crispy little balls are made by shaping the mashed yuca around a piece of queso fresco, then rolling them in bread crumbs and frying them until golden brown. The result is a crispy shell around a soft starchy filling, with melted cheese in the very middle.

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pounds of yuca root

4 ounces queso fresco, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 egg

2 slices of bread

10 saltine crackers

Vegetable oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Peel the yuca root and cut it into 3 inch long pieces. 

Add the yuca to the boiling water and cook for about 20-30 minutes, until the yuca is very tender and can be easily pierced with a fork. It should be fall apart when poked with the fork. 

Drain the yuca and  remove as many of the woody stems from the center of the root as possible. Pass the yuca through a potato ricer or grate with a box grater to remove any remaining fibrous strings. 

Season the mashed yuca with salt and pepper to taste. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes. 

Place 2 tablespoons of mashed yuca in the palm of one hand. Make a small well in the middle, and place a piece of cheese in the well. Wrap the mashed yuca around the cheese, and roll between your hands to make a round ball. Repeat with the remaining mashed yuca. 

In a deep skillet or wok, heat 2 inches of vegetable oil. Fry the yuca balls in batches until lightly golden. Drain on paper towels. 

Crack 1 egg into a bowl and whisk lightly with a fork. Process the bread with the crackers. 

Roll each ball in the egg and then in the bread/cracker crumbs, until well coated with crumbs. 

Fry the yuca balls a second time, just until they are golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels and serve warm with aji de huacatay.

Aji de huacatay- modified.

Ingredients:

2 hot yellow chile peppers

2 jalapeno peppers

1/4 cup plain peanuts

1 cup of Huacatay  substitute (equal parts mint and cilantro and half  measure dried basil)

Canola oil  

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup queso fresco

2 or 3 crackers (saltines or oyster crackers)

splash vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

  Remove seeds and veins from the peppers.

Heat the skillet on medium high heat. Add the peppers, peanuts, and herbs to the skillet . Toast these ingredients slightly without adding any oil. Add the contents of the skillet to the blender and add evaporated milk, salt, pepper, and cheese.Blend the mixture. The mix will be thin. Add the crackers until you have achieved the desired consistency. Add splash of vinegar and salt according to your taste.

Chupe de camarones

This hearty chowder is flavored with aji amarillo peppers. I used a mixture of jarred yellow peppers and jalapenos

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound raw shrimp (unpeeled)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

Juice of 1 lime

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons minced jarred yellow peppers

1 tablespoon minced jalapeno pepper

2 tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 packet of Goya seasoning

3 cups seafood or chicken stock

3  medium yellow potatoes

1 cups frozen peas

1 cups frozen corn kernels

 6 oz. evaporated milk

1 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a heavy soup pot over medium high heat. Add the shrimp and sauté until pink, about 3-4 minutes. Remove shrimp to a bowl and let cool. 

Add chopped onion, garlic, and chile pepper pastes to the soup pot. Sauté over medium heat until onion is translucent and fragrant. Add tomatoes, cumin, Goya seasoning, and oregano and cook until tomatoes are soft. 

Peel the potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes. Add potatoes to pot with the seafood broth, and simmer until potatoes are very tender, about 15-20 minutes. 

While potatoes are cooking, peel shrimp (reserving several shrimp unpeeled for garnish, if desired). Season shrimp with salt and pepper and toss with the lime juice. Set aside. 

Slice one ear of corn crosswise into 2 inch pieces, and remove kernels from remaining 2 ears. Add corn pieces and corn kernels to pot along with the peas. Simmer for 2-3 minutes more. 

Remove chowder from heat, and stir in evaporated milk and queso fresco cheese. Stir in shrimp with the lime juice and season chowder with salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve chupe in bowls, garnished with shrimp, crumbled queso fresco cheese, and chopped fresh oregano or cilantro.

Aji de gallina

is a delicious Peruvian classic - slightly spicy  and rich from the unusual cream sauce made with ground walnuts. This dish is traditionally served over rice, with boiled yellow potatoes and black olives. This dish uses the aji peppers for the color and slight heat and I wish I had the real peppers. but the combination of hot yellow peppers and jalapenos worked really well.

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds chicken breast

4 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3-4 yellow peppers

2 jalapenos

2 gloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

4 slices white bread

3/4 cup evaporated milk

Preparation:

Cook the yellow potatoes in salted water until tender when pierced with a fork. Let cool, peel, cut into quarters, and set aside. 

Place the bread in a small bowl and pour the evaporated milk over it to soak. Set aside. 

Place the chicken breasts in a pot with the chicken stock, and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until chicken is just barely cooked through. 

Set chicken aside to cool. Strain broth and reserve 2 cups. 

Remove stems and seeds from the peppers. In a blender, process peppers with the vegetable oil until smooth. 

Sauté the garlic and onions with the puréed peppers and oil, until the onions are soft and golden. Remove from heat and let cool.

Shred the cooled chicken into bite-size pieces.

In a blender or food processor, process the evaporated milk and bread mixture with the nuts and parmesean cheese until smooth. Add the cooked onion mixture and process briefly. 

Return onion mixture to pan, and add 1 1/2 cups of the reserved chicken stock. Bring to a low simmer, and stir in the chicken. Heat until warmed through, adding more chicken stock if sauce is too thick. 

Serve warm over rice.

Let's do it one more time, nice and slow.

The excuse that I have come up with now is:  I am a writer. I operate at a level deeper than physical beauty and I need not worry about how I (should) look or how much weight I should lose. Before this, it was: I just had a baby and the baby needs me. I cannot leave her and go to the gym to exercise -it worked for almost three years. The most reliable one, my favorite has been: I work full time, I am too tired during the week and I have so many things to do on the weekend. There is no time for exercise.

I do not have a problem coming up with an excuse to not go to the gym. But that has not stopped me from contributing financially to the $25 billion fitness industry. Whenever I move to a new town, I dutifully visit the local gyms, right after the local library and park district and have, over the years, had the honor of being a fully paid member at most of the nation-wide chains. They promise I will lose all the weight I wish, be the person that I truly am and realize all my dreams if only I keep walking in though their door regularly (3-5 times a week). I believe their claims and my enthusiasm drives me for a few months (or weeks) but eventually, I let the membership elapse and go back into the shell of self-loathing, feeling appalled  about my lack of determination in doing  what I absolutely must so as not to have another depressing shopping trip.

                This time, I vowed it would be different. This time it was not just about losing weight. I was getting older and having seen family members suffer health problems, I decided I would take care of my body while there was still time. I discovered the chicest health club in town, three stories and a gazillion square feet of sleek, well-designed space with amenities to help you take care of your body (and mind). In addition to the workout equipment, they had a spa (the little voice in my head warning me that this is not the real reason I should enroll), two indoor heated pools and an outdoor water park (finally, I can learn how to swim), a health food cafe and best of all, the third floor was dedicated to a state-of-the-art child care center, complete with a jungle gym, computer stations and even a rock climbing wall. This was perfect as I did not have to worry about my child being away from me (separation anxiety was enjoying an extended stay in her little psyche) and it would give her a chance to socialize with children her own age. The facility was very impressive and the dormant enthusiasm woke up and shook away its lethargy. Once again, I signed on the dotted line as I  decided that this time that I will go all the way..

               I arrived for my "free fitness assessment” and after being stared at, pinched and measured all over my body, I was told by a girl in her late twenties who broke the scale probably at 100 lbs, dripping wet that I had the body age of a 46 year old, but the potential to be a 29 year old! My real age didn't seem to matter, but then, it was just a number. She walked me through all the options I had, treadmills and stair-masters to lose weight, lumbering machines that will isolate and tone any muscle in my body, the soothingly lit yoga and Pilate studios and the room where thirty stationary bikes were waiting for eager bottoms to spin away to sculpted good looks. That is when I noticed the people inhabiting this land, the sub-species of humans that has always amazed me, the Regulars - the women (and some men) who used this equipment for joy, with such ease that you would think they were strolling down the path in the prairie. It seemed to me that the people exercising were precisely the ones who did not need to be here. These were bodies with proportions that evolution wanted the human body to have. These were clothes off the display racks into which the bodies had been poured. When they exercised, they even sweat in the right places. Where were the other bodies, those dressed in black sweatpants and comfortable t-shirts, trying hard to complete the first 25 minutes on the elliptical, calling up the last reserves of energy and determination, spiking them with memories of the way they used to be and pushing themselves to finish the workout for the sake of that red dress hanging in the closet, or to stop those knees from creaking as they climbed the stairs? 
              As I started going to the gym frequently, I saw more of them, determined faces willing their bodies to complete one more round, finish one more set and relishing the pain in their muscles as reward for their decision to take care of themselves. Observing the Regulars made me realize that they were not an alien sub-species, but normal people who spent their free time hiking, biking, running and walking and when the weather turned dull and cold, took refuge in this stylish and pristine ecosystem to keep their bodies going. I have joined their ranks, hoping my determination and resolve last long enough to turn this passing fancy into a way of life, to enjoy a   lifetime of benefits of an active lifestyle. It is too early to declare myself a winner but I am on my way. And yes, my daughter has started playing with the neighbors and is having fun, socializing. 

Travel by Stomach - Saudi Arabia

The cuisine of Saudi Arabia concentrates heavily on meat dishes. The meal is centered around the main meat dish with rice and salad as accompaniments. Al-Kabsa is a signature dish in this cuisine, similar to Biryani made in the Indian subcontinent. The meat ( chicken, lamb or beef) is cooked in a flavorful broth which is then used to cook the rice. The spices used here are similar to the garam masala, but this dish does not use any chillies. It is incredibly aromatic and the key is in not letting the aroma (steam) escape during the cooking process.The fragrance of saffron and cardamom infuses the rice. The sauce, Shattah,is not for the faint of heart! It is fiery yet tasteful and lends itself to variation.

Al-Kabsa

¼ cup butter

3 lbs chicken, boneless skinless breast and thigh, cut into med sized pieces

1 large white onion, finely chopped

6 large garlic cloves, minced

½ c tomato puree

2 med tomatoes, finely chopped

3 med carrots, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 cups hot water

1 chicken stock cube

2 ¼ cups basmati rice (Do not rinse or soak)

¼ cups raisins

¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted

2 whole cloves

1 pinch nutmeg

1 pinch ground coriander

1 pinch ground cumin

½ tsp saffron

¼ tsp ground green cardamom

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground allspice

¼ tsp pepper

½ tsp ground dried limes or lemon zest

Melt butter in a large stock pot. Add chicken pieces, onion, garlic and sauté until onion is tender. Stir in tomato puree and simmer over a low heat for 4 minutes.

Add tomatoes, carrots, all the spices, salt and pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add the water and chicken stock cube.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer covered over low heat for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces and set aside. Add the rice, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Add the raisins and continue cooking another 10 minutes till rice is tender.

Place the rice on a large serving dish, topped with the chicken and garnish with the almonds. Serve with a fresh mixed salad with lime vinaigrette. Serve with hot sauce called Shattah.

Shattah.

8 cloves garlic

3 jalapeno peppers

2 green chillies

1 c chopped parsley

1 c chopped cilantro

½ tsp white vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin ground

Tomato paste

1 c water

Blend all ingredients . Add salt to taste.

Travel by Stomach - Greece

One of my favorite cuisines, Greek food is characterized by abundant use of lemon, garlic,butter,olives and cheese. Various vegetables like peppers, eggplant, onions, potatoes are used along with seafood and meat. The ingredients are readily available and the dishes are intensely flavorful, like sunshine on your palate.

Chicken with olives and red peppers – Kotopoulo me elies ke kokines piperies

2 lbs boneless chicken (breast and thigh )

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 cup olives, rough chopped

2 small yellow onions, diced

2 med roma tomatoes diced

2 cups dry red wine

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 sprigs fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

In a dutch oven , heat the oil and add the chicken pieces. Cook for about 10 mins, turning the pieces to brown evenly on all sides. Add the onions, peppers and olives. Cook for about 5 mins, then add the wine. As soon as it comes to a boil, add the tomatoes and just enough water to bring it together. Add the thyme, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 15-20 mins till the chicken is cooked and most of the water has been soaked up. Serve with steaming white rice, topped with butter and a side of tomato sauce and sauteed mushrooms and peas.

Shredded lettuce and carrot salad

1 head red leaf or romaine lettuce shredded

2 carrots, shredded        

Mint – 6-7 leaves, julienned

Vinaigrette : Lemon juice and extravirgin olive oil with salt and pepper.

Pour the dressing at the last minute and toss before serving.

Fish soup with egg and lemon sauce – Psarossoupa avgolemono

1 lb white fish – fresh or frozen –eg: cod cut into big pieces

½ cup olive oil

1 med onion, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

1 rib celery, sliced

2 bay leafs

Salt and pepper to taste.

For the sauce:

2 eggs

Juice of 2 lemons

Clean and wash the fish, cut into bite size pieces. Place 6 cups of water in a stock pot and bring to a boil. Then add the vegetables, bay leaf, olive oil. Cook for 20 mins. Add the fish and simmer for another 15 mins. Then with a slotted spoon take the fish out along with the bayleaves. Strain the broth and return the cooked vegetables to the the broth. Add salt and pepper and warm it up. Add the fish pieces and heat through. Remove the pot from the fire.

Make sauce by beating the eggs and lemon juice.  Add the mixture slowly, 1 tablespoon at a  time to the broth while stirring constantly. The consistency of the broth will thicken as you add more and more of the egg sauce and it goes from clear to a milky white. Garnish with chopped parsley and mint and serve hot.

The instruction for this recipe seemed daunting, but it is easier than it sounds! When adding the sauce to the strained broth, do it very slowly, one tablespoonful at a time. The transformation of the clear liquid to the final milky white soup is phenomenal! The lemony citrus taste is subtle, more of a scent than taste and the overall taste is really creamy. 

Pita

This is an easy recipe to make warm and fresh pita bread at home. The baking time will vary depending on your oven and watch the pita dough as it is cooking in the oven. If it stays in the oven for too long, it will get brittle and you will end up with pita chips instead.

1 package of active dry yeast

½ cup warm water

 3 cups all purpose flour

1 ¼ tsp salt

1 tsp granulated sugar

1 cup luke warm water

Dissolve the yeast in ½ cup warm water. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy. (Your kitchen will soon start smelling heavenly - of fresh bread and beer!)

Combine flour and salt in large bowl.

Make a small depression in the middle of the flour and pour the yeast water in the depression.

Slowly add 1 cup of warm water and stir with wooden spoon till elastic.

Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, the dough is ready.

Coat large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all the dough is coated.

Allow to sit in a warm place for about 3 hours or until doubled in size. Once doubled, roll out in a rope and pinch off 10-12 small pieces. Place balls on floured surface. Let sit covered for 10minutes. Prehat oven to 500 deg F. and make sure rack is at the very bottom of the oven. Be sure to also preheat the baking sheet. Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles, about 5-6 inches across and ½ inch thick.

Bake each circle 2- 3minutes till the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 minutes. Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet. Gently push puff down and store immediately in storage bag.

Travel By Stomach

        The first time I ate a burrito, I finished it for the love of my newly-wed husband, not its taste. It was my first meal in the United States and my husband was excited to share the new cuisines he had discovered.To me,  the dish was a mixture of really bland chicken and rice inside a roti made of flour. It was an abomination! No Indian worth her masala would ever eat a roti and rice in the same bite. They are the yin and yang of the Indian cuisine,to be savored separately, each with its set of specific accompaniments. It wasn't entirely my fault. Till then, I  had not tasted any food other than the vast offering of Indian cuisine and Chinese food, Indian-style!

 

    We have come a long way. Living in this cliched melting pot, we have been able to enjoy food from all over the world. Since then, two new companions, our children, have joined us. Together we have embarked on a project - to cook our way around the world, highlighting one country every week. The countries are selected randomly by our son, who also came up with the title of this project - Travel by Stomach. I have tried to select recipes that are representative of the country's cuisine and can be replicated by the home cook. This is the guidebook of our voyage and we would like to take you with us as we travel, by stomach.

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris. - a painful yet gratifying read.

"No matter what happens, I will keep running/moving on/walking along..." a familiar refrain heard a number of times that shows a resolve to not be overwhelmed by life's challenges. In case of the protagonist Tim in Joshua Ferris's The Unnamed, to keep walking is not a choice. He cannot stop walking and neither can he control when, where and for how long he walks. This strange affliction predictably creates havoc in his personal and professional life. this book is the story of this unnatural life and its challenges.
            It would be easy enough to stop here when reviewing this book and it would describe fairly well what the book is about. But it would not be fair. This book is exquisitely painful to read, in how it forces the reader to think and draw parallels to their life. It is an intense love story which tests the power of love over a lifetime of challenges and asks questions that people don't normally encounter in their daily lives - what do you do when you are not in control of your mind/body? What is it that defines you as a person? Is it your calling, your work, love and relationships in your life? What do you do when you are made to choose between these? Does the body have power over mind or is the other way around? Is there a difference?  The narration of Tim's life deals with such metaphysical and existential themes with the depth of a philosopher's mind, yet Ferris' style and language makes the characters and their problems very contemporary. There is a subtle distinction in the language and style of the text when dealing with the here and now versus when asking, and mostly not answering, questions about the tussle between mind and body. All the requisite components of dialog, description and action blend together in a manner that follows all the rules of Strunk and White. The text is rich in metaphors but is not allegorical because the mind's struggles are as physical and painful as the effects of the elements on Tim's body during his unpredictable and uncontrollable walks. The detailed physical descriptions of the characters and settings and down-to-earth yet insightful dialog bring you right into the lives of the characters and trap you there. No sooner do you get comfortable with the rhythm of the narrative, does the author bring in  hurdles to catch you off guard. The painfully lyrical language and the questions that Tim's life reflects back on oneself, keeps you on your mental toes, entirely without control.

Calling your inner nerd - Imogene's Last Stand Candace Fleming/Nancy Carpenter

She said :
Imogene Tripp is a history buff, who lives in  a very quiet little town in New Hampshire. When she finds out that the old house that serves as the Liddleville Historic Society is to be torn down to make room for a shoelace factory, she goes into panic mode.This delightful book chronicles her efforts to rally the townspeople to protect the historical mansion. With references to several historical events and historical figures, this well- illustrated book appeals to the inner nerd in everyone, boy or girl. Even though the book deals with seemingly adult themes like historical preservation, fighting the establishment and pure capitalism, the author has kept the mood of the story light and playful. The book will take only a few minutes to read but each page can spark conversations enough to last an entire afternoon. A must-read for 1st-2nd graders with an appetite for adventure and history.

He said :
If you like picture books and history, you will like this book. The illustrations are not realistic. I liked that there are a lot of phrases that people used in old times like "Balderdash!".

The night before.

This post is my entry to a witty event - Of Chalks and Chopsticks- by Desi Soccer Mom on her blog. the original idea being from Aqua Using the following photo cue, I have created this post. I am looking forward to reading the other entries. Bravo, DSM!!! Looking forward to knowing you and reading you, more! :)

Photo: From the blog Desi Soccer Mom

It was worse than my scariest nightmare. It was 8 o’clock, the night before the Monday that I was going to start my new job, 6 years after quitting my last one. Dinner was done, but it was all a blur to me. My family had sensed that I was ready to lose my cool and had stayed out of my way the whole evening. Come to think of It, even the baby had eaten her food without too much of a fuss! Now, it was sleep time. Sonny dearest had the beginnings of a tantrum brewing while the baby had decided that she wanted to “read” her favorite Winnie the Pooh story on the Ipad. But after a day of watching movies and doodling, the Ipad was completely out of charge. A frenetic search for the not-so-easy-to-lose white charger ensued only to end with the knowledge that the charger had shredded at its end and was now, useless. This brought forth loud bawls from the baby and I picked her up, trying to calm her down. I had planned the morning and the day to the minutest detail and was determined to execute it accordingly. Having satisfied her with hugs and intense kisses, I put her down and grabbed the grapefruit to make juice for the morning. I hate grapefruit. I hate the way it controls my taste buds with its bitter, sour taste and makes my lips pucker even if I don’t want them to.  But hubby dearest loves it and all the research I was shown about its anti-aging antioxidant content had ensured its place in my fruit basket. The bright golden orb with its rosy blushes was inviting me to squeeze the life out of it. I reached for it and my fingers squished right into the back of the fruit. Unbeknownst to me, this pretty ball had rotten on the back, the side away from my sight and the rot had gotten so far into the fruit that the only logical destination for it was the garbage bin. It landed there with a thud that made hubby dearest cringe! Strike one against my best laid plans for a stress free, back to work morning!  

I thought cleaning out the countertops might help me calm down and as the kids got ready to go to bed, I grabbed the leftover dried up okra from the white plate and laid them to rest next to the grapefruit.  The bag of key limes had appeared out of nowhere. I thought back to the first time I had bought one of these. My favorite chef Ida Gurgen had promised me- via her TV show - that I could make a delicious key lime mousse pie just like her. Foolishly, I had decided to make it the star dessert for a dinner party, the first social event I had planned after resigning from my job. The highlight of the evening was going to be my childhood friend Vidya, who had recently moved to New York with her family. I had planned the dinner for days and felt confident about the menu except for the dessert. I bought four bags of key limes, had juiced and zested them, just as instructed. I then assembled the ingredients in the order that they would go into the bowl. I baked the mixture of graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, sugar and cinnamon at 375 degrees and the crust came out golden and perfect. It was cooling on the wire rack and I felt unbeatable. The custard was the next part. While the unflavored gelatin bloomed in the lukewarm water, I whisked the egg yolks in a small saucepan and slowly added the lime juice, sugar and zest. So far so good! Then I placed the saucepan on a pot of rolling boiling water as my makeshift double boiler and started to whisk. The dessert was doomed from that point on. The egg yolks did change color as mentioned in the recipe but they also were on the brink of getting scrambled. I should have just tossed out that mixture and started fresh, but time was running out and I was feeling unbeatable! I thought I could fix the error. I let the egg mixture cool down and folded in the egg whites and gelatin, poured it into the crust and set it in the refrigerator, to cool. With just a half hour left before the guests would arrive, I took out the piece de resistance and found out that instead of the silky mousse I had been waiting for, I had made a cold, congealed mass of semi-scrambled eggs with a strong sour lime-y flavor. The guests had finished the elaborate 4 course dinner with vanilla and chocolate ice cream!

That dinner had brought me and Vidya closer again, figuratively and literally. Since then, we had reconnected our old friendship and had added new memories, which included children and camping trips and late night museum trips.  Now as I was putting the dishes away, I saw something tucked behind the stockpot in the corner of a cupboard. It was a wooden serving tray, hand carved from walnut wood by the artisans in Kashmir. It was a wedding gift from Vidya. I hadn’t used it in years but could not bring myself to get rid of it or pack it away. Thinking of my wedding day still brought forth an intense reaction, a mix of jitters and excitement. That day had been a chaotic mix of ceremonies, music, people decked in their finery all moving with a purpose. I had felt lost and out of control, as though moving on auto-pilot, following instructions from the priests and my parents. But, looking up a few times at my beaming groom, I had known that I had made the right choice. Looking back, I can imagine what my parents must have felt that day, sending their little princess away from home, first to another family, then to an unknown land across the seas. I found myself tearing up and made a mental note to call my parents the next day. They would be waiting to hear the news of my latest adventure. A sad and tired cry of “Mommy” snapped me out of my reverie. Feeling thankful for little blessings, I turned the light off and walked over to the kids’ bedroom to read tonight’s selection from The Bedtime Stories.

One Amazing Thing - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's best work yet!!

      

       Imagine yourself caught in a raging whirlpool, flailing your arms, trying to save yourself from drowning, but the water rushes over you, engulfing you in its cold embrace and just as you are about to black out, you find yourself on the shore, breathing in lungfuls of sweet, fresh air! That is what Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni does to the reader with her new novel, One Amazing Thing. It is an emotional catharsis for nine strangers facing a slow but ghastly end, brought together by chance and a common destination. Divakaruni is at her best in this book with physical descriptions of the scene of the tragedy so vivid that you feel the rumblings of the ground in your bones just as much as you feel the chill of the rising water and similarly gripping explorations of the characters' emotions. The characters are  developed beautifully as they narrate "one amazing"story that has happened in their lives. The fears each character faces and their resulting actions when faced with a dramatic situation are a mirror to the world in which we live in today. 

 In general, the narrative is crisp and brisk but towards the end, it slows down. The early stories are brilliantly constructed and give a concise yet in depth view into the emotional chaos of the characters. The later ones though, feel rushed. The sense of urgency and the feeling of not having enough time ties in with the timeline of the story but leaves you wanting for more. The author could have spent a little more time and pages on the last 3 characters -who are central to the story though not mentioned so explicitly - to bring a little more detail out of  their lives. The story does not have a sense of closure and I think it is intentional on the part of the author. The characters, who have been lost at one point or the other in their lives, do not reach their destinations. But handled deftly and sensitively by this gifted author, you breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they have found their paths. How they choose to travel is left up to the reader.
      One amazing Thing is an examination of the minds of culturally diverse men and women, which reveals surprisingly similar angst and fears - of rejection, of disappointment, of the search for love - which should help bring us together in this time of strife and hatred. An exciting read that should have been a little longer.

Jungle Drums - Graeme Base

He said : Beautiful words and pictures that go with the story. It is an exciting story that teaches a lesson that if someone is too small or too big, it is not good to make fun of them. You should be happy just the way you are. I would recommend this book.
*****
She said : A gorgeously illustrated book, Jungle Drums uses simple language to convey the story of a plain little Warthog, Ngiri Mdogo. Awash in beautiful alliterative phrases like "stunning stripes", "striking spots" and Swahili terms, Base brings life in the African Savannah right into your home. Issues of vanity and insecurity are addressed in a non-condescending manner that is appealing to the young audience. The message gets through very clearly thanks to the strong narrative and beautiful illustrations. A family favorite, this book is certain to grab the imagination of any young reader brave enough to venture into the jungles of Africa!
*****

He Said, She Said..

We are starting a new series, "He said, She said". By we, I mean, She (that would be me, mommy) and my 6 year old son He.  We both love to read and as school is out, both of us have a lot more time on our hands than usual. In this series, we will be collaborating on reviews of children's books and movies. The books featured here range from picture, board books to chapter books at the early reader level (7-8 year old). The review will be from two voices - those of the young reader and the parent.  We would love to hear your comments and suggestions. I have typed the responses He has provided but have not edited them (for the most part) for grammar or sentence construction.
Let the reading begin!!!

Rating system

*****: Excellent
****  : Good
***    : Ok
**      : Nah
*        : Yuck!

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor, Illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser.
****

He said : I think it is very fictional. Story is well-written but it is silly, also funny. Like, you cannot go into a restaurant fancily without everyone looking at you! They will not give you any food!!
The illustrations go very well. When they write the story on each page, they draw pictures with it. Small kids can just look at the pictures and even if they do not read, they can tell the story.


She said :  A well-illustrated book with a lot of attention to detail (eg: glitter on the front cover as everything is "fancy"). Where an opinionated adult might see the forced princess culture shining through in little Nancy trying hard to be fancy (ultimately in vain), for a child, it is a girl engaging in silly, pretend play and is quite funny. The narrative is fast and the author uses popular culture indications of fancy (like French words and British mannerisms) to appeal to the minds of young readers. The story has a mild suspense building up to a major event which underlines the moral of the story (which I will not elaborate on!). The illustrations demand most of the attention in the book and call for a lot of pauses before turning the pages.
All in all, a fun read, for boys and girls, alike!

I will miss you, Kuki!

Kuki Deshpande is no more. That sounds wrong. Kuki has always been there. For the last 14 years, this crazy white ball of fur has been a memeber of our family, an important one, at that. My mother and I brought him home, wrapped in a red and white blanket, in a wicker basket. I remember the excitement he had caused in our household and the first night, when he slept in our bedroom and whimpered all night. But it didnt take long for him to realize we loved him so much that we would put up with anything he dished out. And boy, did he!. He was not at all a "useful" dog. He barked all the time, but not necessarily at the right time! He didn't fetch or play ball or do any other tricks that children teach their dogs. He owned us more than we owned him. He was the third child of our family. He was a part of wedding ceremonies and birthday parties. He always made it in to the letters I wrote home when I moved to the US. The newborn babies were introduced to him as were the newly weds. When planning trips, Kuki's whereabouts were decided before we booked hotel rooms. He moved with my parents through various towns till they found their home in Pune. My father lived in a different town for the first few years of Kuki's life and I remember he didn't take to Baba all that well, initially. But that changed when we all started living together again. Oh boy! from then on, he was my father's extremely spoilt brat. My father gave him unbridled love without the restraint of discipline and Kuki relished it. Though my mother did not approve of Kuki's food habits and complained about having to clean up after him, she loved him like she did either one of her human children (maybe slightly more). Everybody who knew us knew Kuki, his crazy way of chasing his own tail when he got mad and how he growled when anyone sat near my father. With his passing, another vestige of my childhood has been erased. My brother and I don't have a baby doggie anymore. And from now on, my parents don't have to leave the ceiling fan and light on, when they step out of the house for a trip to the market.

Imagine...

The human species prides itself on its imagination. As far as we know (mostly because we do not communicate with them), no other species has the ability to imagine like we do. We have credited most of our significant achievements on being able to imagine things that would have seemed impossible.

Merriam-Websters defines imagination as the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality.The truth however is that imagination is wholly influenced by what we know of our reality, of what experiences in our lives have informed us about the world we live in, about what is and is not possible. When we imagine, we have a reference beacon very much in the reality. That is why we imagine aliens with a humanoid appearance; with a head and a torso-like structure ending in appendages. When we imagine heaven, it is the most beautiful manifestation of nature we can recreate from what we have seen or heard or read. If you close your eyes right now and imagine the place you most want to be, chances are it will bear striking resemblance to a picture you have seen on TV, on the Internet or in a magazine somewhere. We consume so much information, solicited and otherwise, that it is practically impossible to think of something which does not have a basis in our reality. Our art forms, even though they might involve tremendous imagination on the part of their creators, also reflect a familiar consciousness.

I recently watched the movie, Close encounters of the Third Kind. Even allowing for the 30 years that have passed since this movie was made, what struck me most about it was how we all were (and still are) restricted by our imagination. Extraterrestrial life exists? Sure and it looks almost like us, has attributes like us like music and touch and yes, just like a human facing a strange situation or a stranger, the first reaction is to fight. Whether it is in the design of the next generation vehicles (which will still have wheels and have contact with the ground) or a superbly made movie like Up, we are very much restricted by our imagination.

When a child is young, two or three years old, it begins to comprehend the world around itself. It does not have enough data about the world to imagine events based on "real" facts. That is why a 3 year old can have tea parties with 5 dolls and 2 horses while engaging in pleasant conversation with all of them about the flying dragons. This does not seem impossible to the child's mind. That is real imagination. As the child grows older, we encourage the child to use her imagination in her studies, to think creatively and "out of the box". But when she does that, she is reminded that though it is very creative, the answers to the questions have to be arrived at, using a conventional and hence, effective method that has been favored over the years. In essence, the imagination of that child gets systematically culled as she grows into an adult in our society. By then, the exposure of that child to the "ways of the world" has happened in its entirety and try as any teacher might, that child can only think so much out of the box. There is no escaping the box from then on.

Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” How many of us can separate knowledge from imagination? Aren't we all the prisoners of our knowledge-tinged imagination?

It rained this afternoon.

The clouds had given fair warning. They had been talking to the meteorologists for the last two days telling them how urgently they needed to get rid of the load they were carrying. The experts, in turn, had passed on the word to the lay people to expect severe thunderstorms in the latter part of the day. They were always so accurate. Such accuracy can come only from getting the news at source -hence the clouds had to have spoken to them. All morning long, the clouds gathered around the town. Some gliding on the gentle breeze that blew from the east. The heavy dark ones, full to the brims managed to drag themselves without losing a single drop. It started getting darker and darker as more of them came. Women rushed out to get the clothes from the clotheslines. Some people shut down the windows while others opened the doors and sat at the stoops, waiting. A flock of swallows made a final dash to get out from under the ominous clouds. And then as if on cue, the first drops started to fall. Gently, haltingly - as if testing the lay of the land. And then it stopped. Nothing moved, not even air as everyone waited to see if the rest would follow. And sure enough as if satisfied that the land they were about to fall on was worthy enough, the floodgates opened. A rush of water started to fall from the sky, enveloping everything in almost a fog of water drops and accompanied by the loudest of shhhhsssss, first in a straight line and then with gay abandon. It rained as If there was no tomorrow. It rained as if this was the last gathering of clouds that would ever grace this land. It rained so hard that it stopped people in their tracks and sent them scurrying under the awnings along with the squirrels and the magpies. It rained with a rhythm that could only be played out by master conductor, Mother Nature, herself. It rained with a purpose. It rained this afternoon.