Whining about Wine

My wine is progressing nicely, the color looks good, the aroma is ok , the taste seems fine.

Wait a minute …………. There is something seriously wrong with the previous sentence !!

What is wrong is the sad fact that I have no means to judge whether my wine is turning out well or not :-((( I don’t know what it should taste or smell like, all i have is a rough idea of what it should look like. Unfortunately that knowledge is quite useless as the color is naturally acquired when you make wine with red grapes. Yeah, I do sip a bit of wine around Christmas, but once a year is not enough for you to remember the taste !!

Looks like I will have to unleash a bottle of it on my usual Guinea pig :-) [ a.k.a North Indian cooking consultant / Punjabi bride ] What is definitely on the positive side for me is that my Guinea pig has absolutely no clue what it is supposed to taste like either :-)) I am sure my US based consultant could have easily polished off a bottle or two and given me some expert tips as well. But alas, that is not an option for me right now :-((

It definitely looks as if Whining is more of my specialty, not Wining !!

Eyes of steel

As usual , I was driving around aimlessly through Bangalore streets in my trusty WagonR. Lots of thoughts swirling through my mind, when somehow this image drifted in from my memory.

It was from a world cup football match that I saw some years back. The close-up image of Francesco Totti’s eyes as he lined up to take a last minute penalty kick in a world cup match against Australia. See from 00:40 on in the video below

 
How do you describe this look ? Steely determination ? Ruthlessness ? Aggression ? I don’t know. The moment I saw the look ( I am sure a lot of others felt the same too ), I just knew that he was going to score.

The image has somehow lingered on in my mind ever since. Today was the day when I finally Googled and saw the images and videos once more :-))

Yawnnnn …..

Shiva Sena is threatening to disrupt yet another movie, Muthalik threatens to disrupt Valentine’s day again and one more weekend looms for me with nothing to do ….

What else is new ?

Nothing much. I have been on almost full time PV cabs duty, must have covered 300+ kms over the past week to all parts of Bangalore.  Malleshwaram, KR market, BIAL , Forum value mall : you name it.

Also finally managed to kick start my home wine experiment, will know the results in 21 days or so :-) Hopefully it will come out ok.

Been feeling a bit low also of late. Though some people may suggest that I might as well add that to the “what else is new ?” list.

Paulo Coelho on Friendship

Found this lovely little story on Paulo Coelho’s blog

Once upon a time there was a poor but very brave man called Ali. He worked for Ammar, a rich old merchant.

One winter’s night Ammar said: “nobody can spend a night like this on top of the mountain without a blanket or food. But you need money, and if you can manage to do that you will receive a great reward. If you don’t, you will work for thirty days without pay”.

Ali answered: “tomorrow I shall do this test”.

But when he left the shop, he saw that a really icy wind was blowing and became scared, so he decided to ask his best friend, Aydi, if it was crazy of him to accept that bet.

After reflecting a while, Aydi answered: “I shall help you. Tomorrow, when you are at the top of the mountain, look ahead. I will be on the top of the mountain next to yours, where I will spend the whole night with a bonfire lit for you. You look at the fire and think about our friendship – that will keep you warm. You will manage, and later on I shall ask you something in return.”

Ali won the test, got the money, and went to his friend’s house: “You told me you wanted some payment.”

Aydi answered: ”Yes, but it isn’t money. Promise that if at any time a cold wind passes through my life, you will light the fire of friendship for me.”

Finally mastered

Puttu-Cherupayar curry has long been in my list of items that I wanted to master. Casual readers of my blog might remember that I had not exactly covered myself in glory during my fist attempt

Every subsequent try, I was somewhere within the ball park. Either the flavor of the curry would go missing. Or the Puttu would either be in complete powder form or a sticky gluey mass.

After numerous trial and errors and consultations with domain experts, I can finally declare a Level-1 mastery on this topic !!

Puttu , I have realized is almost all about the water content in the flour. Too much and you have a lumpy solid mass, too less and it crumbles off to powder. Steaming time is also an important factor, but this is relatively easier to gauge. 
Cherupayar curry flavor comes almost exclusively from the ground coconut-cumin seed paste. Plus the seasoning with curry leaves, mustard and red chilies helps a lot !!

See the mouth watering samples below. This time I loved the taste myself :-)

Chinese new year and me

In case you felt bad after reading my previous post, I have to tell you that I get this feeling that 2010 is definitely going to be my year.

“Unpredictable, rebellious, colorful, powerful, passionate, daring, impulsive, vigorous, stimulating, sincere, affectionate, humanitarian, generous. Can be restless, reckless, impatient, quick-tempered, obstinate, selfish, aggressive, unpredictable.”

Did not get it ?

2010 is the year of the Tiger according to Chinese Zodiac. Most definitely my year :-)

A heart breaking good bye

My daughter is settled nicely in the back seat of the car with my wife. They have come to see me off at the bus station. My suitcase is in the backseat of the car.

I don’t want to leave, I desperately want to stay, however I cannot show too much emotion as it upsets everyone else. I walk over to the private bus operator’s office , collect my ticket and slowly walk back to my car. It is time for me to leave again.

I open the back door to take out my suitcase. Two tiny hands clamp on the suitcase in defiance. “I will not let you take this suitcase”, my little one says playfully. She knows I have to leave, but in her eyes I see the small ray of hope that maybe Daddy can stay back for one more day. Maybe just for this time ………

I have to disappoint her yet again

I pull out my suitcase, say my bye bye and walk back towards my bus. As the car recedes off into the distance, I see my daughter and wife waving me farewell.

My daughter is at an age where she understands. She does not throw tantrums, she knows that I am going to be back in couple of weeks time. Yet I see the sorrow in her eyes, I know she is going to miss me. I also know that she is probably crying in the car now.

What in the world could be worth all this , I wonder ..

A few more months and I shall live again !!

Black forest cake and a Teetotaler

I was getting bored of my cake variations. “Change” was the cry from within and indeed from my guinea pigs in office !!

Black forest cake appealed to me greatly. Now, I am not a big fan of black forest, but the technical challenges were daunting. You have to make multiple layers of cake, create the icing and the ingredients are different. What is a Master Chef’s life without a few challenges ?

The initial challenge was the recipe. After 30 mins of intense googling, I found a couple of recipes that seemed manageable. However an obstacle of gigantic proportion loomed. All recipes required the use of Rum. I am strict non-alcoholic - a statement that is quite often met with stares and shouts of disbelief. “What ? YOU don’t drink ????”. As James Herriot might say, its a rum ’un :-) I must add I am not averse to an occasional glass of wine [ occasional = once or twice per year ], but that is where I stop.

Now how and where do I buy Rum from? Again some research showed me that there a liquor chain called Madhuloka which has presence in almost all the malls across Bangalore. The nearest one I could find was in Cosmos mall. So off I went in search of Rum.

The shop itself looked impressive and there was a decent crowd inside. Of course, I did not want to ask for Rum and have the salesman laugh at me. Because I don’t even know if it can be found in shops like these. Or else if Rum is colloquial term and if the liquor buffs call it something else. I don’t even know its color for God’s sake !!

So I did what I hoped a confident alcoholic would do. I walked around the aisles, inspecting a few bottles, looking as if I have been around a million times. Alas, no sigh of Rum. I found Vodka, Wine, Whiskey and Beer but no Rum. A second round of inspection followed. This time much slower, as if I am intensely debating what to buy. And success !! I found the light green colored Bacardi bottles in one corner. I picked the smallest one, I think it was around 250 ml

Smoothly proceeded to checkout counter, with mild beads of perspiration on my fore-head. My first ever purchase of alcohol !! And I am over thirty !! Is that good or bad ? Who knows :-)

“Just the one bottle , sir ? “ The man behind the counter asks. Oh boy, I must be looking like a raging alcoholic after all :-((
“New year resolution, buddy”, I am tempted to answer back. Instead, I take my bottle of Rum and quietly slip away. [PS : Quarter liter is not enough ?? how much do normal people drink ? One liter ? I am totally stumped ]

The cake itself was a rather painful affair, with a lot of work, the end result is shown below

Now the critics may say it looks as if some one ate cherries with milk and threw up on top of my cake. But with no icing tools at my disposal, this is the best I could do :-)

Stay tuned for more experimentations, this time hopefully with no alcohol involved !!

The dot does not matter !!

Everyday I learn something new from the Internet. The latest being that the dots in your gmail ID simply does not matter. I was getting a lot of emails that was addressed to a Gmail ID similar to mine, but with a missing dot [ . ]. I was convinced that there was some error with Gmail.

Excerpt from the above article says

Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours. In short:

• homerjsimpson@gmail.com = hom.er.j.sim.ps.on@gmail.com
• homerjsimpson@gmail.com = HOMERJSIMPSON@gmail.com
• homerjsimpson@gmail.com = Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com

All these addresses belong to the same person. You can see this if you try to sign in with your username, but adding or removing a dot from it. You'll still go to your account

This was definitely news for me !!

Rava dosa

In case you were wondering, The Master Chef is still pretty active in the kitchen.

The most recent grand success [ just a couple of hours old] being Rava Dosa. Just finished eating 5 of those :-). This time I followed an online recipe that I found from YouTube

Ended up using a bit too much of green chilly, actually this lot of green chillies I have is a bit hotter than normal. Whole mouth feels as if it is on fire, even after a few liters of water and plenty of sugar !!

What I love about this is that there is no fermentation time. Mix the batter and you are ready to go !!

Had some good success with a Black Forest cake too, more on that later …..

Happy 2010

Hoping that the new year brings you lots of joy, peace and the company of loved ones. It is most definitely going to be a land mark year for me, the one in which I will be re-united with my family !!

Speaking of New year and resolutions, you can add one more category of people to my hate list : The New Year resolution folks.

It is sad enough that they overcrowd the gyms and cause hardship to regular gym goers. Now, today I got out from office at 6.15 and found that the roads were jam packed. No doubt with hundreds of resolution addicts who would have sworn to leave office by 6 come what may this year.

I guess this may be one resolution that has a faster death than the gym one !! Two days of this mess and I hope some sense returns :-)

Had a lovely vacation at home. Though I was at home for 10 days, it felt more like 1 !!

My daughter insisted on coming with me everywhere, even to my hair cut saloon !! :-) It was really nice to spend so much time with them, you realize the value of all this only when deprived of it.

And then there are days …

Days in which I continue to question my existence. Yesterday and today have been such days.

Better ones to follow soon, I am sure. Right now tough to see from where ……

Metaphorical nonsense

Writing badly can be elevated to an art as is demonstrated at How to write badly well

Read this example :

“Seeing the lie of the land and bracing for impact, I stepped up to the plate and prepared to eat my words. In the hollow blankness of the auditorium, my creaking cough thundered like a volcano going off, a single pistol-shot in the echoing cavern of expectation before me.

’So,’ I said, my throat as dry as my wit, which was as sharp as my tone, ‘we seem to have reached a fork in the garden path you’ve been leading me up like a lamb to the slaughter. A turning point of no return, you might say.’

I knew that this would hardly be a ground-breaking barnstormer of a speech, but so far, it was going down like the stock value of a lead balloon manufacturer. The silence that followed was as long as a freight train, as deep as a philosophy textbook and as uncomfortable as this analogy”

Good one

Seen on the rear glass of a Reva car “Emission Impossible”

Who says creativity is dying ? :-)

Different version of beards

Keep watching this space for different versions of my beard

Update on December 4th, Friday

“Zappa” Pradeep

Here is Pradeep “Van Dyke”
 

Followed by a Pradeep “Fu Manchu” [with a vertical moustache variation]

What is next now ? Stay tuned :-)