Womp

One of the things I hate about small cities is their take on Chinese food! Like for real, Beef and Broccoli doesn't count! I always visit Chinatown whenever we go anywhere and we always end up having some of the best chinese food possible. In New York we found Korea town and boy! It was hell of a wait but absolutely worth it. Small little place, buzzing with food and noise and minor accidents. Someone got confused and brought me something to do with an egg in a bowl which I hadn't ordered and the waiter said, oh well, on the house. See me grinning?

Boston too had one of the best China Town areas. There was this cafe called The Gourmet Dumpling House next to Eldo's cakes! There must have been approx ten tables and many a time I coulnt find anyone to go with me and I was craving their beef and peppers and fish stew and so I would arrive alone and be seated at a table of four with random folks. Once a guy started talking to me and upon asking what I was doing proceeded to tell me his life story punctuated frequently with: I have lived THE LIFE. And he insisted I try his dumpling soup.

So in Bloomington I hate the chinese food with much passion and I refuse to go. So the other day we were hungry and so we ended up going to this Korean place. Korean places are definitely better and usually home run so delicious food. And we found that this place had many of my favorite dishes. Grilled whole fish with soy bean paste soup which usually uses Mackarel but the lady said they use Yellow Croaker. I wasn't sure what it was, but A seemed willing to try and we ordered two other dishes that were so extremely flavorful and the chicken in it breaking off the bone with just a tiny nudge!
The Yellow Croaker as it turned out was fabulous.

5STARS for Cafe Dami.

Look at what I was up to

Bake Away

I never attempt baking because well, the one time I tried, that too with a cake mix it was a disaster. But then now I understand that baking is simply a function of correct amounts and ounces and cups.

I have a love for banana bread without nuts and ever since Abigail gave me her wonderful recipe, I have been wanting to try it. Except I don't have a stand mixer. So I whisked with faith till my arm could drop and die and baked the hell out of it. A who arrived home in the evening opened the door and went--ahhahaha :) and then said some blasphemy: This is how a house should smell, not like fish fry!!!  But seeing my face, he proceeded to try and correct it!!

Anyway. Look.

Food Pictures Time

Hi everyone,

Its been so long since I posted food pictures! Okay here we go.

Food and Feminism

Sometimes Anoop annoys me by saying how he married me for the food! A small itsy bitsy part of me is glad but mostly I just get irritated. Now that we are in LDR, and he is busy as hell and when he texts saying he had chore-payar and tuna for dinner, I feel really bad. I keep thinking this right here is the time he probably needs me the most. To not come home to an empty house and eat sad food although canned tuna isn't so bad but you know what I mean.
and then I think the whole- he-survived-till-27? without you and your food argument and I am consoled but only a little.

I love being thoughtful, I love remembering things and surprising people but I also know how a large part of that is just so I can feel good about it myself. but being with A is the first time, I have worried so much about another person without thinking whats in it for me.

A large part of my let-me-take-care of everything, EVERYTHING in the kitchen-mostly! probably comes from Amma and Ammama. Ammama esp ran a large house where people dropped in all the time without any warning. Achachan would bring home people for lunch and by the time she fed all those people, she would have to lay out all the pots and pans again. Amma says, Ammama genuinely enjoyed this, this being the soul of everything and feeling good about getting things done. Amma again wouldn't grudge food to anyone. She hated it when I took my anger out and punishing her by not eating- which btw in my books is the worst punishment I can inflict because its fucking torture and if I say no, then it probably meant I am really upset.

I love cooking and esp for people. When praised I feel good but also a little cringey. I will probably never stop doubting about the quality of the meal even if it tastes heavenly to me. I worry incessantly if people are liking it, which is kind of sad, because then I don't enjoy the evening or the the conversation. I am slowly unlearning this habit.

My stop moping post

Resolution before I stop moping. As of today I am going to try and write with as less grammatical and punctuation errors as possible. Yes Mam. That is how you write Mam? Right? Aye! Hopeless, already.

Ok so as a start to the end of moping we shall talk about Vishu because its just two days away.

What is Vishu you ask?

"Vishu (Malayalam:വിഷു) is a new year festival celebrated in the state of Kerala, India. It is similar to the New Year festivals observed elsewhere in India like Baisakhi (Punjab), Bihu (Assam), Naba Barsha(Bengal), Bisu (Tulu Nadu region in Karnataka), (Vishuva Sankranti) in Orissa Puthandu (Tamil Nadu) and Ugadi in(Andhra Pradesh)"


So my childhood Vishu's were always in my dad's ancestral house.Every single one of them. The Grandmother I dislike would come around five in the morning and wake us up by wiping our eyes with little cold water. A practice I wasn't too fond of. And then we would go down the rickety stairs and somehow make it to the pooja room where "Kanni" would be kept. 


You want to see a kanni picture? Yes,I will oblige.

Its beautiful. Let me tell you. The previous day, Lakshmi chechi, our help of over forty years, would have made tons of unni appam. so soft, melt in mouth kind and then everyone who is older than you gives you "kaineetam" which is basically money. We judge the Uncles and aunties based on the monies they gave us.

My dad after I told him this became obsessed with giving the highest amount. GOD. To all other kids ie except me and my sister. I still annoy him with that piece of information. He laughs but I know he aint too amused. ;/


After that you are not allowed to go back to sleep which posed some problems for someone like me. and then they would say things like " Just this "ONE" day cant you not sleep" which in my rebellious stupid years made me want to even more. Yes, very pathetic. 


For lunch initially till I think my 8th std we used to have sadya. The works. About 6 to 7 curries and pickles and 2 payasams and all in the banana leaf and all of us kids would sit in the long verandha and wait to be served. and the adults in the dining room. but somehow over the years sadya lost its glamour and Lakshmi chechi, somehow, I am still not sure how convinced the grandmother to switch to, wait for it, Ney chor (ghee rice) and Mutton curry. 


Talk about happiness. Happiness that crawled across my face making me drool while waiting to do mutton samplers. :p


Snoop's mum and I used to have long chats when I was in cochin. After lunch types before we nodded off. So one day very happily I informed her what my vishu sadya was in thalssery. Haha. The look on her face was priceless. She came back quick though. :) 


My mum says its cos we used to see the evil grand mother 's face for kanni every year that we never made it big for a long time. I am very tempted to believe her because you know the year we stopped going there and doing our own vishu at home ( with my dad sulking of course) was a very prosperous year. 


And though I had tons of fun with cousins and the crowd those years I do think it was quite unfair that amma never got to do vishu her way for a long time.I mean I am quite pysched about making my own kanni this year with my husband of one year. I think of it as a very cosy small family affair. and obviously we shall continue the Mutton- Ghee rice tradition. Because you know good things should be passed on.  

Because thats why we love Sunday's

First there is obviously the fish curry meals. In this case, Fish fry meals. I found some yumm pomfret which has been quite a hunt, let me tell you in an oriental store. And some mackerel. So I made some fish fry and Kootan and Beans-Carrot thoran for lunch with Papadam of course.

Afterwards we watched this movie which though I have seen many-many times over still makes me go gulp in throat and did you know your jaw hurts if you are trying not to cry?

Yeah it does.

Because you know food. Me. Existence

There are quite a few pictures so, scroll down.

Boi's own invention which we called, Kibala. Its Potatoes, Bacon,Sausages and Cheese

Fish Moily:

A part of Boi's bday dinner

Boi's awesomeness called Biriyani, chicken

Boi's Roast chicken. With Bacon, for my Benefit

My Paripuvada- chai time. In memory of grandmom days and happy days

When its just me for lunch, Spinach Erissery and Pickle and one fried egg:

Noodles with pork and stir fried Broccoli and Capscicum:

and the last was fish in coconut sauce with cumin rice.

Ps; we do eat veggies, i just dont put them up here.
Yes, you are welcome to come stay with me. :)

chow time

so since nothing except cooking will set me in a happy mood right now, here goes

Fish cakes and mashed potatoes:

Chilli chicken:

chicago part two and three

So i am back in Bloomington, where it still refuses to snow,oddly enough. So the rest of the three days,yes. I am being terribly lazy but i know i should write with my exceptionaly forgetful memory this is the best way to remember. Day two was thanksgiving which we spend sleeping late and then heading to the complementary breakfast thing, where i was having a joey moment- thinking, here is where i win my money back though the boi's wise-owl words " you know its previously charged to the room right?" failed to create much of an impact. so i am looking forward to the eggs and bacon and i all see is fruit (uhm) and donuts ( kinda uhmm) and weak coffee and a crowd for that!
ps: to make up for that unhappy look today boi surprised me at home with his bacony-surprise breakfast! This is why i married boi. Well, this and other things.

There wasnt much to do since everyone shuts shop on thanksgiving day so we went off to see a movie by again brilliantly losing our way to a place just five minutes away, i am telling you we were jinxed on this trip. The wind wasnt kind at all, it literally blew me around! Really, i feel like no one will believe me if i dont re iterate this. obviously it dint lift me off, but barely so. Anyway so we saw Love and other drugs. The hall was quite empty- some seven odd people. Boi liked that set up very much! So i have decided to take him to a week day show in Muscat where we can have a hall to pretty much just us.
Movie was actually pretty good. He is terribly hot and i can just look at him much,much,muchly! Just in case you wanted proof:

She was good too. Her character had all these moments i liked much. For eg: she says i dont want anything more than a fling and then proceeds NOT TO give off any contradicting signals! Then another eg: The guy is staring at her and she says "what?", He says " Nothing" (UGH, how many times will they do all this!) and instead of bugging him asking a zillion "what what whaaaa's?" she just shuts up and waits. See, very good way of getting them to say whatever it is!

Anyway it ended with all the classic moves, the chase-girl-to airport except it was bus to canada( har har!) and then the proclaiming of ever lasting love till eternity and some other similar tear jerking moments. After which we considered watching social network too, but hunger prevailed and we went in search of food. The place we stayed at had tons of eateries but tons of closed eateries and we drove around pretty much empty streets marveling at the joy of empty streets!
finally we found this grill place that turned out to be very good and again we were the only people around. and another chinese couple. The food was soo good or i was really hungry,one of those and lately i have come to realise that margaritas get me a quicker high than good old rum and coke. My body must be craving new things, cos the apple cider margarita went straight up and i was soon happy and buzzing ( ha.)
Here are some pics:

And a yummy dessert! some cookie thing with whipped cream and ice cream. I take bad photos. can you see boi's sekskie abs? :o
Boi's uncle is a jazz buff and used to live in chicago, he told us off this place, kingston mines where music goes on till 4 in the morning and is apparently totally worth the money! so we went there and it was pretty awesome. They had this lady playing along with a couple of other bands and man, she was good! She had me smiling and moving throughout and god, can she sing. The other guy- Magic Slim, played some oldies- Mustang Sally and Let me love you and some more.  They also had all these fun posters from old days: Like when Big Mama Thornton performed in 1954 and the tickets were priced at around 2$ along with this funny sign:

We left around one and again lost our way. This is just for anyone who is interested in counting how many times this particular activity happened.

Day three was Black friday and clearly we are not people who brave the windy city and camp besides stores from five in the morning, so we went to a couple of places and got some stuff. AND i saw the maximum number of indians since i got here at all these stores. It was raining Gujarati ladies and bengali women and their men trailing behind looking not too happy and all these kids!
I heard max hindi since i got here in J.C penney. I dont know why i was so surprised. Anyway boi got a leather jacket and does he look hot! I wouldnt trade him for Gyllenhall kinda hot! (cheesy moment) but moving on, we went back to the malayalee restaurant in the hopes of eating that elusive mutton biriyani since we were super hungry and optimistic about polishing it off but no such luck. But we got some chicken chops and tapioca with beef again and went home and gulped it down with some fruity!
At night we went off to downtown and we went to signature room on the 95th floor at John Hancock center from where the view is brilliant and i had the best pina colada ever, i know i am gushing about it but oh it was the best! and here are my amateur attempts at photography:

After which we went to some Irish pub for some dinner and had not too great food. boi his favorite: Fish and chips and me this Beef and stew which wasnt too great. The next day we went to this temple an hours drive away but totally worth, very well maintained and clean and with an awesome idli-vada-dosa canteen kinda place downstairs. Big points for chicago just for this.

After which we drove Lake Shore drive where all the wind originates from, my eyes watered with the force of it but it was ok soon enough. We saw a Disney store and got A's nephew this adorable Mickey mouse sweater, he needs to know Mickey!
We walked around Michigan Avenue and finally went to The Grand Lux Cafe for lunch where they made us wait for 30mins, i dont mind waiting but i have terrible anxiety issues and so i kept asking whether A had a problem and he kept asking me and finally we decided to wait. They gave us this thing that would beep when our turn came, dont know what its called but i found it very cool!
Lunch was decent enough, a trip is always about food for me and kinda about food for A. But i dont know i guess we were tired and dint look thoroughly enough, so we shared a chicken parmesan which was not too bad:

A trip inevitably means tons of time together. Which inevitably means tons of arguments and heated debates which honestly i quite like. For eg, at night Michigan Avenue was covered in christmasy lights, the whole street which i thought was such a huge uncalled for waste of electricity, the money which could perhaps be used for something else more constructive. Boi always cautions me against such one track thinking, he says its not something you can compare. Like give this up for that kinda situation. I get that part, i even get that it might be good for tourism part, but my point was all these stores are anyway sitting here and people will come and buy things, lights or no lights.
Again. At the temple, they were doing pooja for the shiva lingam with milk. Good quality, tasty gallons of milk being poured away on a stone. I am all for praying but this, this seems attrocious when tons of kids cant even taste milk. I had these daydream on my way back of how if i lived in chicago i would hold a meeting and call all those indians and kinda point out this colossal waste and ask them to start a small fund where people who are dying to waste milk can instead leave that money and we could send that amount that every month back home for some kid to study or for those farmers in Tamil Nadu killing off their parents because they cant afford another mouth. Boi warns me, i know. I cant help it.

The trip was much fun and much needed but i cant wait for the trips when we have jobs, when i can have all kindsa fancy food. Of course my motto is live to eat. You must have got that.

Chicago part 1

so i never write about the places i go to, i plan it in my head, add some funnies and think of how the few people who read this can have some laughs on my behalf, yeah am generous like that. Anyhow, boi and i have come to chicago for thanksgiving break, wednesday to saturday. so i am going to do this in three parts over three days because am lazy and boi's laptop doesnt agree with me.

Yesterday, we, wait, its really windy here and super cold, and i am in slight anticipation of my first snow. but i am glad i came prepared for the cold, i have been walking around in my colorful (read cool) socks which boi doesnt much appreciate esp for public viewing but i have way too many of them and plus i louw them, wth.
yesterday we got here about afternoon, had a brilliant afternoon losing our way to the hotel.
socks:

 I showed boi one Hyatt and told him how important my loo issues are and how we should just check in there as opposed to the one we had booked. Pee issues always makes me lose my mind. We finally found the place, i found ie, i usually say am bad with directions, its easier this way cos i am under no pressure then and i can just sit back and point out faults :/ though with boi i dont do this as much as i like to as i do with my dad.

with dad he takes it terribly personal and makes sure that i understand how losing one's way is "good" cos we find all kinds of other ways to get to the point and see places. uhm. see how that can be a problem?

Boi on the other hand looks very distressed and so i emerged from my settled-into-seat-on-cushion hiatus and   found us home.

After which we headed off to this korean place Bois's friend had recommended. It was a pretty cool place and we had the pork barbecue on the table with some sticky rice and curry. It was all very yumm, i definitely prefer korean food any day over chinese or even north indian. Not kerala though :/

Food:

we wanted to go to the cheesecake factory afterwhich but got lazy and headed back home. I had some horrible cramps showing up so we took a small nap and got ready and headed out around 5ish in the evening. Boi made detailed plans how to get to this kerala restaurant we had found online and the Malayalee store for some stash to take back home.

 At this particular traffic circle we were to take the second exit, i dont know what we were thinking or how we managed but we lost our way three times. We went around and around and finally asked at a gas station who said that the first road we took was right! So much for the directions. Plus here is a masterpiece: boi cant see much in the dark (this ideally requires a whole post devoted to it) but basically he lost his glasses and hasnt bothered buying new one's and its thus a brilliant show at night driving around me yelling this road, this way etc. I hate driving in the rain plus i am on a international license thing till december 1st week so best i dont get us caught.

we finally found the restaurant and to our happiness it had some good stuff left, we picked the kappa (tapioca) and beef fry. Though i make it at home its still kinda exciting to eat it outside,they also had mutton biriyani but we are sensible folks who knew that we would never finish that whole carton, it was seriously huge, not to mention expensive.

There was king fish curry too and my mind was pulling in all directions but boi finally picked it out and we were paying when the uncle-old-man person asked me if i wanted cutlets, i am very excited now and say yes, yes please! Boi says old-man-uncle looked at both our faces and decided that she is the one likely to be spending his money. :/

cutlets were yumm which we polished off in the car, boi asked if i liked eating in the car,i mumbled sure! what was wrong, cutlets,car, even rain outside,perfect. Boi said he needed atmosphere. To make up i gave him some more of mine!

Boi had found this hookah place he wanted to check out, quite close to schaumburg, so we could just pop in and hooka-fy and head home, eat our dinner and watch a movie. He said, if i find it even least bit sleazy we wouldnt stay,which is odd cos i dont care much even if its slightly sidey,i guess he meant he wouldnt stay, :) but it turned out to be a pretty decent place with this guy,owner, who was quite friendly with all his jokes, we had some strawberry hookah and some apple juice and persian tea for boi. Since we are both newly quit smokers, about two years now, i stopped counting a while back which is apparently a good sign, so hookah is all we got.

But i am not a huge fan of  it, i feel nothing much not the hit that comes from a ciggy and i dont care much for the flavors. Boi dint feel too good towards the end and we left early, thought of stopping for some Margarita's but it was raining quite heavily so we finally got home. Had the relatively yumm dinner, we both agree mine is better.ha.

That was day 1.