My dear friend Laksh and her husband K were visiting us last weekend and folks who read her blog would know that it was K’s bday last week. As it is more than 5 years since I met them in person, I decided to do something special when they were here, which coincided well with his b’day. I have been wanting to bake this cake from Indira, ever since I laid my eyes on it. What can be a better time to bake this cake than this?
First of all, let me apologize to all my readers (if I have any left still), for the long absence. It was totally not planned. What started as a forced 3-week break, as my server decided to crash right when I was in India (will you believe when I say that I was intending on updating my blog from India? Well, you should, that was the plan!), extended into a month and a half break due to, as I said earlier, my server crash, recovering from a hectic but short trip, busy work schedule… You will hear all that but not the actual reason - plain old laziness.
Finally, I decided today was as auspicious as any to break the silence and re-enter the blog world and am doing so with couple of tags. Raaga tagged me a while back to know about 6 quirks of me and that is going to be a tall order. Lets see:
Read more…
Future of food is a documentary that delves into the mass production of food that has given rise to patented, genetically engineered crops. These companies, in their quest for high yields, have killed zillions of varieties of indigenous crops. I first go to know about the loss of bio-diversity when I watched this news item on a seed bank in Norway; did you know that till the mid-1800s there were over 3000 varieties of apples and now all that are left are a few hundred varieties?
This documentary raises some very pertinent questions, especially on how the crops (and seeds) are managed. Typically, farmers save a few good quality seeds from their harvest to use for the next season. Now, there are big corporations like Monsanto entering the foray and enticing the farmers with higher yields by using their seeds. After the harvest, the farmers cannot re-use the seeds as the plants are genetically modified such that the seeds do not give raise to saplings. This makes the farmers dependent on these big corporations for seeds every year and this eventually kills locally grown crops. Farmers are realizing (and understanding) the ill-effects of using these seeds now which has led to them modifying their approach.
Lekhni tagged me (why me, I say) to reveal 10 secrets about me. Well, if they are secrets, aren’t they supposed to remain, err, secret??? No says Lekhni and dares me to come clean.
a) I can be obssessive-compulsive at times (similar to Monk) - as in if I touch my forehead with right hand, would do it with my left hand too, so on and so forth. Thank God, not always!
b) I tend to be extremely superstitious, especially during exam time - I remember my lucky pen was a green Hero pen (anyone remembers those?) and wrote all my X and XII grade exams using that pen, except for Chemisty. Incidentally, I scored maximum in Chemistry - so much for luck and superstition 
c) This one is not really a secret, atleast not anymore - I have never tasted coffee in my life. Yes, yes, it is weird especially since I am from Madras, synonymous for filter kaapi and The Hindu. But no sir, not me.
d) Left to myself, I would sleep all day. I had (rather, still do) this poster, gifted by a few friends, that proudly claims “Sleeping is my favorite sport” and it is so true.
e) One trip that I definitely want to do in my lifetime is Kailash - Lake Manasarovar yatra.
Five down - Five to go…
f) I would rather travel to see nature than cities. I realized this when I went to Utah and Nevada and liked canyons better than the strip
g) I love to engage in a discussion and argue (sometimes just for the sake of arguing :-P) - some of my best friends are folks with whom I first argued. Guess that is my weird way to bond!
h) My dream job as a kid was to become an IAS officer. I worked @ the Customs Department in Madras for a few months and figured that I am not cut out to work for the Government - bureaucracy is not my cup of tea.
i) I buy only books that I think I will read a second time, otherwise I don’t consider them worth-buying; so I usually don’t buy fictions.
j) Although I am a foodie @ heart and experiment with my cooking and palette, my favorite / soul food is thayir saadam - mor milagai (curd rice - dry-roasted chillies).
Finally! There you go - ten down. Now I dare Mitr, The Taste Tinkerer, Spillay, Priya and Nandita to reveal their secrets.
May be due to the use of similar spices or an abundance of coconut and peanut in the food - whatever it be, most Indians especially South Indians really like Thai Food. I have made Pad Thai at home and when I saw this recipe, I knew I had a perfect recipe for a peanut sauce. Thanks Susan. This sauce is perfect with tofu and veggies on brown rice for dinner or as a side to tofu for hors d’ oeuvres.
Just when I was going through, what I thought was a blogger’s block, Rads of tunneling thru’ tagged me and also threw in a challenge. I am not sure if I beat her in the turnover rate but this is my personal best - responding to a tag within a few hours (as opposed to a few days). It was not just the challenge that spurred me on but also because this tag involved books - encouraging folks to pick a book that they might have forgotten and try to make them read the book.
The rules:
Pick up the nearest book.
Open to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you
Pictures from our hike in Ulistac Natural Area. Given that it is pretty close to Alviso Marina Park, we saw different varieties of birds and also some wildflowers.
