odzer's blog

I am sad today I have just used my last can of cheap tuna. Finding fish in North India is like looking for gold in a salt mine. However as all good things must come to an end so did my stock of tuna. When I am abroad again or if someone is coming to India I am sure to refresh myself with canned fish. Of course you can buy canned tuna in India as well but for quite a hefty price. Anyway I ended up turning the can of tuna in to a sandwich tonight as a late night snack. I also made some Indian tea to flush it down with. I used lettuce, tomatoes, Bhutanese mustard (the best mustard your can buy here!) and mayonnaise. The bread I chose for this sandwich was multi-grain loaf.

It turned out to be quite nice and actually I have enough stuff left to do yet another one. I have also purchased some pita bread to do some pita bread wraps. These days its nice and sunny here and the temperature is moderate so salads and sandwiches are nice for light meals. It’s also the perfect weather to indulge in not so hot foods. I think that this year the spring will be upon us earlier than usual. I am not really looking forward to the summers but then those have their own joys.

Image courtesy : Wikipedia

Monsieur Poirot the Belgian detective with the egg shaped head, fabulous moustaches and an impeccable taste, which included always wearing an upturned collar, a bow tie and patent leather shoes had also the finest taste in cuisine. His love for his food caused him to slightly over indulge at times. However Poirot was a man who always took care of his stomach. As we have all read through Agatha Christie’s works we have always laughed at his peculiarities. However I feel that Poirot got a lot of things right when it comes to food. Of course I am not advocating any diet, personally I eat almost everything but what I am saying is that a lot of things that Poirot liked actually have turned out to be good for your health according to the fabulous scientists of our modern world. So let us have a closer look at some of Hercule’s tips for good health:

Tisané: Undoubtedly Poirot’s favourite drink, Tisané is nothing but herb tea. There are many herbal teas with great health benefits, Camomile lessens the pains of cramps, induces a pleasant sleep and calms down the nerves. Peppermint tea is great for digestion especially after a filling meal. Then there is Hibiscus tea, which is great for bringing down the blood pressure.

Crème de Cassis: Black currants the basic ingredients of this sickeningly sweet concoction are known to have anti-oxidant properties, which can counter the effect of aging and wear and tear inside the body. Poirot was known to guzzle down glasses of this stuff.

Crème de Menthe: The drink of the homosexual. Well at least that is what it is known, as is also a favourite of Poirot. Perhaps Poirot was not gay but he certainly was not running after women either. Anyway Crème de menthe has the same digestive properties that peppermint tea does. It’s a great digestive aid and Poirot was of course always worried about his estomac.

Chocolate: Poirot had a love for Belgian chocolate and also drinking hot chocolate. Right from the first book that Christie wrote you can observe Poirot drinking this stuff by the gallon. This is something that I have begun to do as well although I stick to drinking almost unsweetened Cocoa. Research has shown that chocolate has antioxidant properties that are significant. In fact chocolate may be better than even red wine.

So what does Poirot think about food? It seems that food for Poirot had a central place in life. As he himself says his little grey cells need nourishment! In fact his one complaint about the English was their atrocious food habits. As he himself says in the Yellow Iris “Cuisine, Hastings? The English, they do not have the cuisine, they have only the food. Like the meat, overcooked. The vegetables, too soft. The cheese, inedible. And the day the English create their own wine is the day I return home to Belgium!”  He also had an opinion about Indian food apparently; the following funny conversation takes place in Cornish Mystery in the televised series:

“Poirot: “Look to your diet, what did you eat last night?”
Hastings: “Do not tell me! You went to that Indian restaurant, you keep telling me about n’est pas?”
Hastings: ” The orient has much to teach us Poirot.”
Poirot: “You have been warned Hastings, Do you know what is the most heavily taxed import in Belgium? Rice! The government in my country is determined to stamp it out.”
Hastings: “I was brought up on rice. Rice pudding…..”
Poirot: ” How are you feeling Hastings?”
Hastings: “Well….”

In the same story Poirot has another gem of advice for the public, “Ha, the pancreas is nothing, of the digestive organs the liver is the key, look after the liver and life will take care of itself”. When Christie created Poirot she produced one of the most insufferable and egocentric characters that I have ever come across but somehow or the other you cannot help loving the man. He is to say the detective magnifique! So listen to Papa Poirot and have a great health. After all the man did die at the ripe age of 130!

*On a serious note. I wrote this post purely as fun although I like some of the food I have mentioned I am not making any health claims. Although most of these things will not kill you I am sure you will exercise caution since diet, food and allergies etc are all very private and individual aspects.

Video courtesy : Youtube

These days I am addicted to this song and it keeps playing in my head. Its like those times when you get a tune in your head and you can never get it out. Oh and the only place where I can sing safely is in the shower so I often take my musical talents to the bathroom.

So It has finally happened……..

Please click for bigger size.

These images were taken in the final moments of the Bush Administration and the first moments of the Obama Administration.

Last evening I made Karee raisu or Japanese curry and rice for dinner. This is a curious dish because it was imported by the Japanese navy from the British who in turn borrowed it from the Indians. I like eating Japanese curry because it gives me a sort of a comfort food type feeling in winter. It is warm and earthy because usually it contains carrots and potatoes. You add any type of meat you like, usually it is beef but it can also be chicken or pork. I made mine with chicken. This time I also added some peas which are also quite earthy. So basically Japanese curry is either available in your regular curry powder type way or you can buy it in pre-made roux packets. I like the roux technique. It involves basically buying your favourite roux from the market then frying up the vegetables and the meat, adding some water and dissolving the prescribed quantity of the roux in to the pot. Your curry is ready.

For the dinner last night I also wanted to have a small salad, so I made a very simple one with iceberg lettuce tomatoes and Japanese sesame seed dressing. Some people may like their curry thick and to be honest if you just let the curry be it does get thicker on its own but I was hungry so I could not be bothered. I enjoyed my hot Karee raisu with a cold beer but I guess it would go down well with a glass of Iced tea as well. So even though I can be accused of selling coal to new castle by importing curry from Japan it gives me a good feeling. As an Indian visitor to Japan last year my friend’s parents were planning to feed me this every day but thankfully he warned them that I can eat ‘anything’ and I escaped Karee raisu for each meal for 5 days or so! The Japanese tend to think that Indians eat a lot of curry. In fact while I was there they had a TV programme in which some Japanese people with a TV crew would raid homes in Delhi during Dinner time to see what Indians were eating. The hosts at the end of the programme then went around with a plate of karee raisu and made some Indians taste it. The look on the faces of the people who found themselves hosting a Japanese TV crew for dinner and eating the Japanese curry was priceless. I enjoyed watching the show while on the dinner table in small town Japan. He he he.

After looking through the garden I had this extreme need to use the toilet but I could not find one in the garden anywhere so I went to this area and to my surprise I found a Bonsai garden titled “National Bonsai Park”. The miniature trees in the park were well done and they also had a Japanese sand garden. The only disappointment was that both these gardens were extremely unkempt. The sand garden which is supposed to be clean was full of fallen leaves and other debris. The bonsai’s were shaped properly but they were put in just ordinary pots thus destroying most of their beauty. I joked with my friend that the only reason the bonsai garden had a wheelchair access was because Japanese people must faint when they see this garden and have to be taken out on a wheelchair.

So after making some enquiries about where the toilet was which happens to be just outside the exit we made our way out but not before we met a peacock roaming around happily. I must say that the toilet outside the Lodhi Gardens is one of the best I have seen among public toilets in India. They even had an aquarium inside. I wonder why they can not just build more nice things like that and maintain them too. Just next doors is the Lodhi Garden Restaurant. An open air quite posh mostly used by expats type place. We had our lunch there and I could even eat a steak, something that is quite forbidden in Chandigarh owing to the ban on beef. I throughly enjoyed a variation after almost an year. I kept wondering if I should hang around so many white people though considering the risk of being shot these days. Oh well a good meal is worth being shot. The food there was quite alright and I must say not that expensive either. The service was good. My only complaint is that they need to have more variety in non alcoholic drinks. I am not the kind of man who usually drinks in the afternoon in an alien city.

At the beginning of this month I had the chance to travel to Delhi on a really nice foggy and cold morning. So I gathered my courage took myself out of the layers of blankets at 4 am and caught the 6:50 Am train to Delhi. The friend that I was meeting there decided to take me to the Lodhi gardens for a shpotzir. Now even though I have been out and about Delhi a couple of times I have never been to this particular garden.

I must say that I was not very impressed by the way it is kept but the buildings in the garden are very nice. Time has taken a heavy toll on these tombs and structures but I can imagine that because they have been standing here since the 15th Century. The gardens themselves were created by the British administration in India in 1936. It was personally landscaped by Lady Willingdon the wife of the Governor-General of India.I found many types of trees and plants in the garden but one of my main complaints is that the garden like most gardens in India is so spread out and full of grass that it does not focus much on individual plants. I also find the lack of proper signs on the plants quite distressing. If one is not a skilled botanist it is almost impossible to make out which plants are what.

As I mentioned there are some historical buildings of interest in the garden. Most of them pretain to the Lodhi and the Sayyid dynasties that ruled North-India a long time ago. One of the buildings there is called the Bada Gumbad or literally the Big Dome while the other is called the Sheesh Gumbad or the Mirror Dome. A lot of graves are unknown in these complexes and there is also a mosque. What struck me was the brilliant colours that must have covered these buildings at one point of time and also the construction of the structures themselves. You can see a mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture though I may not be completely right in this respect. A lot of windows and doors to me appear like they came right out of a Hindu temple where as the rest of the building seems rather Islamic.

I found many families and some school groups enjoying the garden and one person even playing golf in this garden. Delhi’s municipal corporation is far more lax with gardens than ours is. Apparently you can even walk your dog in the garden and as I described also play sport! We can not even play a friendly game of football in our neighbourhood park here! Chandigarh seems to be fast running out of places to play neighbourhood sports. Anyway I guess Delhi needs to keep the dogs out of the parks and we need to allow some small parks to be used as playgrounds. I hope you enjoy the pictures a lot of them are hazy, well due to the HAZE!

Today is Lohri a popular festival in Punjab. It is a festival that is sort of like the Guy Fawkes night in the UK. People make bonfires eat peanuts, pop corn and other sweet snacks. One of the particular favourite sweets for me on this festival is ‘ ਗਜਕ‘ or Gajak. It is sort of like a crispy treat loaded with peanuts and raw indian brown sugar called Jaggery. There are also varients made with normal white sugar and sesame seeds.

A grand Lohri is celebrated if there is a newly wedded couple in a house and many people are invited or if a male child is born in the house. Today I was invited to one of my friend’s home who lives in Mohali a city famous for its cricket stadium. He had a lot of  guests over and had already made the bonfire. We sat around the fire for a while and as is the tradition we put some stuff in to the bonfire. Usual tradition is to toss in a handful of black sesame seeds and say the phrase ” ਇਸਵਰ ਅਾ ਦਲਿਦੱਰ ਜਾ” which translates roughly in to “The Devil go away and god come this way”. It is said that Lohri is celebrated in the honour of a bandit called Dulla Bhatti who ran around during the time of Emperor Akbar. He was a muslim but saved many hindu women from whiteslavery.

So at the party they also had a tandoor and I witnessed first hand a guy making Paneer Tikka. Paneer is a kind of soft Indian cheese made quite simply by curdling fresh milk. I sat around the guy and saw he worked and had a couple of vodka’s to keep the cold away. I am sure Dulla Bhatti would have approved! After the cocktails and the snacks the women sat around and played the dhol. A drum like instrument. They also sang some folk songs. Some of them sang rather well especially my friend’s mother in law. We had dinner afterwards and then I came home. Over all it was a nice pleasant day and it was not so cold either so we enjoyed immensely.  I have taken some photos but I had no camera on me so these are all mobile phone photos.

Photo Courtesy : Inder Randhawa

Now on the subject of the new year celebrations. I had a few guests over. Priyank asked  that I put some pictures of some of the food from that night. However we did not take many of the food. Most of the photos that night were not even taken by me. So most of the photos are therefore just of the party. Thankfully none of us seem to have woken up with terrible hangovers. Some of my friends also drank some whiskey while most of us stuck to beer and champagne.

We decided to sit in the verandah and since it was nice, cozy and only 2ºC outside the drinks came in handy. We took many silly photos that night and two of the photos were of our shoes. It seems that most of the boys ended up wearing white sneakers except one. He was a bit sullen so we took one of his boots as well! Oh and there was of course the presence of a token female at the party as well. Well I will be honest its always fun to balance out the genders if possible. If the girls are in a minority they are more likely to sulk! No one wants sulky girls now, do we? The funny part is everyone chipped in and helped cook the meal. Although the actual cooking was mostly done by the men. Apparently my friends girl friend can not cook! So he had to do her work. Oh well! Who cares.As long as my guests feed me I am always happy.

The most difficult part of any meal for me is preparing the vegetables because they need all the washing, chopping and the cutting. I was happy that one of my friends who is rather good at such things was there that night. We also had in our party 2 vegetarians. Now I have nothing against vegetarians but the menu always needs a bit of a twist whenever there is more than one vegetarian in any party. I will be honest I do not know many recipes that are suitable for vegetarians. Although if I cook Indian food than I know many but the theme that night was a mix of various cusines that we have all came to enjoy in the past year. I would like to thank bikerbaba for helping me come up with the menu.

I have received the garland blog award. The year has not even started and here I am being awarded and all. Thank you Kanagu. Well like I mentioned before when he had awarded me with the butterfly award. Awards are always great to get. So here I am all in humble acceptance.I am going to keep this award and cherish it. So I am not passing it along to anyone at this time. The reason is that I have already just given a round earlier and I would like to read some more blogs before I pass it along.