My Roman Holiday

Hello!

The other day, I was cleaning out a cupboard in my room and I found a travel journal from a trip to Rome in 2002 when I was 11 years old. I remember being quite enthralled by the trip on a whole - the exciting history, architecture and art. But my travelogue dictates otherwise; I seem to have been more excited by all the new food we ate. I have listed out in detail everything we ordered at each restaurant. I was quite amused at my focus on the food so I've have typed out what I wrote. 

key- [additional notes]

My Roman Holiday

Thursday 21.02.'02

7:30 am - Plane was delayed 'cause of high winds in Rome - 1 hr. Take off about 9:00
Breakfast - Roll and cheese, plain roll, yogurt, sweet roll with almonds, jam and butter, orange juice and hot drink.
Flight was 2 hours.
Lunch - Special mushroom fettuccine, Ravioli, Onion Pizza, Veg Penne (first we got meat by accident)
Walked passed Colosseum, Santa Maria (Moses statue). Ate dessert whilst it was raining.
Supper - 2 pomodoro, 1 carciofi and aubergine fettuccine, 1 agliata coushette [sp. courgette] fettuccine (white)
Bed early (Hotel Aphrodite) 

Friday 22.02.'02

8:30 am - Woke up and had showers. Got coupons for Breakfast - sweet rolls and orange juice.
Bus to Vatican, St.Peters Square.
Lunch - 4 penette pomodoro, dessert and drinks, rolls and cheese.
Museum was closed. Climbed 346 steps (halfway was by lift). Sun down in the square.
Supper - Starters - fish my mistake, then changed to veg [I remember that we ordered fried zucchini flowers which came with anchovies], 1 ravioli (Rohit), 1 penne pomodoro with aubergines (TLC), Pizza with mushrooms (Mum), Pizza with aubergines (Dad)
Bus home.
Good night.

Saturday 23.02.'02

Breakfast - same
Pantheon, Trevi Fountain
Lunch - (small quaint rest.) 2 Risottos, pieces of pizza- roast potatoes and courshete [sp. courgette] 
Went to some Basilicas and looked at some of the Forum.
ICE CREAM for dessert.
Temple of Jupiter - disappointment.
Michele Angelo's Square.
Supper - PIZZARITO PASTARITO!! folded veg pizza (D), 1 farfelle white mushroom (M), 1 spirelli garlic pomodoro (T), 1 spinach ravioli (R) [I deciphered the drawings of the pasta to name them here] Big helpings.
[insert signature]
Played UNO

Sunday 24.02.'02

Woke up. 
Breakfast - Roll and juice.
Got a bus to the Colosseum. Got a piece of it (second floor corridor)
Then followed the map through the Palatine. I got a piece of it (Oval fountain wall near the dining room)
Lunch - Pizzas. R-Magherita, T-Aubergine (Melanzane), D-Funghi, M-Veg
Walked through part of the Forum.
Dessert - R-Lemon Cake, M-Caramel Cream and Pannacotta, D-Pannacotta, T- Choc mousse and Pannacotta.
No Supper.
Good Night.
Played UNO

Monday 25.02.'02

Checked out, kept luggage there, had breakfast.
Went to Vatican Museum. Saw [Creation of Adam] and spiral staircase.
Lunch - (Piazza Navona) M- Cream Gnocchi, D-Melanzane pizza, T&R- Spaghetti Pomodoro, M&T- Funghi Pizza
Collect Luggage
Train to Airport
Sky bridge. Gate 28 changed to 20.
No veg supper.
A.Kirra picked us.
Back Home.

I looked through the photo album from that trip, but my Mum seems to have only taken pictures of monuments and paintings and none of the food. Here's the coolest one from the set - the spiral staircase of the Vatican Museum.

For December

Season's Greetings!

My favourite month of the year was as perfect as could be this year- from Christmas music programmes at church, carol singing through the nights, a campfire party with orphan kids, family time and lots and lots of cooking and baking.

I've put together a compilation of my favourite Christmas music of this year. It's undoubtedly my favourite music genre. There was so many good songs this year, so I decided to choose the best and make my first playlist on 8tracks.

Listen here

Days in Delhi

Continuation from Part 1 - Dimapur

I have visited Delhi on several trips in the past. Having seen most of the usual tourist sights, I was definitely keen to see more of the city. I was lucky enough to have two friends who lived in the city and in close proximity to my office and with whom I got to see more of the city.

We reached Delhi late. We spent the 3 hour transit time in the airport (and even parts of the flight) working on the final presentation. We were blessed to be part of a service at a church the next morning. The music worship session was so uplifting as was the rest of the service. It was such a warm and inviting congregation. We presented an overview of the project to the team and the church members who wanted to listen. We followed it with a more detailed discussion later. Thankfully it was received positively.



I got to visit Hauz Khas village on the first two evenings. To me it seemed like Delhi's version of the Galle Fort in Sri Lanka - historical architecture plus the quaint alleyways of fashion boutiques, tea cafes and vintage art galleries and all that hipster vibe!

The Hauz Khas monuments consist of many different 13th century structures- mosques, tombs and pavilions all built around a lake. We didn't get to spend much time exploring and we had to weave in and out of dozens of canoodling couples to get a few pictures.

Walking through the narrow streets (definitely no setback rules at all here!) it's so tempting to peek into every store. If I lived here, I would spend many evenings wandering in and out of them. This kind of window shopping is actually fun. So much variety of art in so many forms from hand painted clothes to leather suitcases, wooden chests to psychedelic coasters, retro movie posters and bonsai plants. Loved the random strange graffiti all over the place and was pleased that I found a funky stationary store to buy a bright orange notebook. 

We stopped at the famous Elma's bakery for cake. The cafe was spread over three levels with a narrow atrium connecting them. I love cafe's like this one - quirky decor, soft jazz music, extensive menus and good cake with lots of cream!

We had the team debriefing session and the had our final dinner at a Hyderabadi restaurant. I won't forget the facial expressions of everyone as they tried my jal jeera drink for the first time. It was like those videos that people make of giving lime to babies!

It was quite sad when our team started becoming smaller, but we had new fun people at the office to bond with. I really enjoyed the work setting - starting the day with music and prayer, continuing to work on the project by putting together what we had already worked on and drawing up the designs, a fun lunch break when the little kids dropped by and board games over dinner. It really felt like a big office family. 

I've been looking forward to food in Delhi so much. Having been in Sri Lanka the past year, I had to satisfy all the cravings for north Indian food in these two trips. I relished all the yummy meals from the tiffins at work to the chaat, fried momos, kulfi and jelebi, aam panna, the paneer in various forms, the dhal makhani and kadhi pakoda, the channa bhatura and everything else too. 



We went to Old Delhi one morning. The Jama Masjid was beautiful despite having to hop around barefoot on the burning hot ground. We walked down the bustling Chandni Chowk with so many "tour guides" stalking us (was bound to happen with the non-Indians in the group) towards the Spice Market at Khari Baoli. Countless wholesale stores with piles of dried fruit, nuts,  and sacks full of dried chilli, pepper, corriander seeds. We were all in tears, coughing and sneezing. Struggled to see and breathe, but it was quite an experience with the smells and colours and all our sinus' were completely cleared out by the end of it. 

Days in Dimapur

The highlight of this year was undoubtedly the week I spent working with an awesome team on a project in Dimapur, Nagaland and the two weeks of work that followed in Delhi.

In my research of architecture NGOs I came across one that definitely interested me. I decided that I would definitely plan to work with them sometime in my future. I found myself on their website many times while at work in Sri Lanka, but was never really sure how and when it would work out. One day, after much thought and prayer, I wrote to them asking to be part of a project, despite being a project for which I would have to cut short my stay in Sri Lanka by two weeks. 

It all worked out perfectly. In a few weeks, plans were all sorted and all tickets booked. I packed up, left Sri Lanka, reached home, unpacked, packed again and was off to Nagaland. I met the team in the departure lounge in Kolkata. Such a diverse group of people. We had traveled from a variety of countries- Canada, America, Germany, South Africa and Sri Lanka. We had different qualifications and different levels of experience, but were all there for one goal- to volunteer our time and abilities to design the Acts campus.

Nagaland was the furtherest East I have ever been. Despite being mostly a hilly state, our project site was in Dimapur which was a flat area at the foothills. I knew little about the Naga people and had mostly heard that they ate everything that moved- from dogs to frogs to beetles. I was a bit unsure how I would find vegetarian food. 

We were hosted by a lovely couple who took care of us for the week in their beautiful house. It was quite the opposite of the simple accommodation I expected. We were treated to multiple course meals (which included tasting the Raja mirchi- the world's hottest chilli!), a large air conditioned office for our work space and a swimming pool for afternoon chill time! 

We visited the site of the project early that week. 70 acres of agriculture land banking the Chathe River with the ranges of hills in the distant. We had to drive through the river to access the site. We planned out the site, dividing the land up into the various zones for the institute.

Working on this project was such an enriching experience. I have never been part of an architectural project that was Christ-centred. We shared personal testimonies and we spent a lot of time in worship and prayer for the project. We discussed design strategies over mealtimes and in the pool and spent late hours rendering site plans over mint green tea.

One of the mornings, we visited the village close to our site. It was really nice spending time with the local families. It was a small community and we joined them for a worship in the strangest, most interesting church building designs I have ever seen. A strangely proportioned aluminium and paper mache dove. Nagaland is a predominantly Christian state (90%) and it was nice to see the area dotted with churches.

A Slice of Decadence

Gino D'Acampo describes his 'La Bella Caprese' recipe as 

"... the best chocolate cake EVER."

I made this cake a long time ago. The rich ingredients of dark chocolate and almond flour would probably classify it as a occasion cake for when we had guest over, but I made it in the middle of the week for no special reason other than to satisfy a craving for decadence. 

The cake is made up of just 5 ingredients and a very basic method. Melt 250g of dark chocolate (I used Bellarom 70% dark) and 100g of butter in a double boiler.

Lime and Chocolate Pie

The lack of an oven and a fancily stocked up kitchen like the one back home in Bangalore is not enough to keep me away from making dessert. I spend a lot of time reading up recipes online; ones that don't require any baking or special ingredients.

This week's recipe research proved successful with some great examples of no-bake lemon pie. As I usually do, I read up a bunch of different versions and then mix and match them when I make it.

For the base, I decided to add a chocolate kick to the pie and used chocolate biscuits to make the cookie base. Powder 100g of chocolate biscuits. (Put the biscuits in a bag and beat the life out of them with a rolling pin) I melted 100g of butter in a pan and then added the biscuit powder to it along with 2 tbsp of sugar (if you are using biscuits that have icing between them, you probably won't need to add as much butter). Once properly combined, put into the pie dish and pat down firmly. Place the dish into the freezer for about twenty minutes. I weighted down the base by placing a heavy glass bowl over it, so that it sets hard.

Melt 100g of baking chocolate along with 1 tbsp of milk and 1tbsp of butter in a double boiler. Pour the melted mixture over the biscuit base and then put the pie dish into the fridge while you make the lemon filling. The melted chocolate will not only add to the flavour and texture but will also seep into the base and keep it from being crumbly when you slice it later.

For the lemon curd filling, squeeze out about 12 limes (the equivalent of 3/4 cup). I wish I had lemons; their flavour is so much nicer. Whisk in 4 tbsp of cornstarch into the lime juice and the zest from 2 limes. Whisk really well so that there are no lumps. Then add 1 full egg and 2 egg yolks to it and continue to whisk. Pour the mixture into a pan and keep the flame as low as possible. Add 150g of butter and keep whisking. It gets lumpy very fast as the eggs begin to cook and the cornstarch starts to thicken the lime juice. 

Right about here, I made quite a crazy mistake. I wanted to add sugar to the mixture and instead of pouring from the sugar bottle, I poured out milk powder. Panic in the kitchen! None of the recipes I read had milk in the lemon curd, because citrus curdles milk. But I was unable to remove all the milk powder and had to mix it in. I guess because it was milk powder and not real milk, it didn't curdle. So, if you have milk powder, add in about 2 tbsp. Then add in about 3/4 cup of sugar (you can alter this depending on how sweet you want it). I used brown sugar, but white is perfectly good too. The finer the sugar the faster it will melt. 

Once the mixture is a smooth, remove from heat. I then transferred it to a bowl to continue whisking. It has to be really really smooth, so whisk away furiously. Don't take too long because it will continue to set. Add a little water if you need to.

Pour the mixture over the pie base and use a knife to level out the top. And back into the fridge it goes. It won't take more than a couple hours, but I left it in there overnight.

When you are ready to eat it, whip 100ml of cream (or more). Spoon it over the pie, grate chocolate over the top and slice it up. 

I've never been too much of a fan of lemon pie. But I think with the chocolate base, it was quite delightful.

Mmmm.

Southern Escapades (Part 1)

This trip falls into the category of random, unplanned trips that I've done. We only finally decided to go on Friday evening by which time it was too late to call and inquire about accommodation.

We made a long list of accommodation options spanning three of the little towns on the southern coast for the following morning and another list of things we could do and we were packed and on the road early Saturday. A fully charged iPod, sunglasses, beachwear, Google maps and the trusty Lonely Planet book and we were pretty much set.

Although the Colombo-Galle highway took us away from the scenic coastal drive, the long stretches of smooth, empty highway brought us to Galle in perfect time for a good breakfast in the fort.

I visited Galle last year on my holiday to the country. Galle Fort is a 17th century Dutch fort a bit off the coast, surrounded on three sides by water. The fortified walls contain a little network of cobbled stone streets with cafe's, hotels, little stores, a lighthouse and as we discovered that morning, some interesting graffiti too. I will finish an exclusive Galle Fort post soon.

After walking into a few cafe's to read their amusing signs and menus and their not-so-amusing prices, we finally decided to eat at the tiny Cafe Punto. Our table at the front overlooking the narrow cobbled stone streets was quite a lovely breakfast setting.

Once back on the road with content stomachs, we drove further down to Jungle Beach. As the name suggests, the only way to get to the beach was by walking through a jungle patch which I managed to get through in a skirt. Despite not being that easily accessible, there were still quite a few people there. 

From there we walked up to the Japanese Peace Pagoda. Peace Pagodas are Buddhist stupas built as shrines for peace in places hit by some sort of calamity. It was started by the Japanese monk, Nichidatsu Fujii who put them up all over the world. This one was built as a memorial for the victims of the Tsunami in 2004. 

The blinding white of the shrine against the blue of the ocean was so serene. The view from each tier was beautiful; the jungles, the beaches and Galle Fort in the distance.

We were lucky to find available accommodation with much less hassle than anticipated. But locating the place wasn't as easy. The narrow town roads often disappeared off the map and sometimes Google would place us in the ocean. 

TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet became our helpful companions not just for accommodation, but for all the places we ate at. We ate in Mirissa's highest rated restaurant- No.1 Dewmini Roti Shop. We sat at one of 4 tables in the front garden of a family home. The kitchen opened out onto their front patio. We were waited on by the wife and the grandfather. It was obvious where all the publicity came from with the genuine hospitality and the tasty home cooked savoury and sweet rotis. 

What we did next was what I was least excited about. From the many times I've seen snakes in my grandparent's garden to the one year we lived in snake infested Kerala, I've not been very fond of snakes. 

Here in Mirissa, an Ayurvedic doctor carries on what his grandfather and father did and has a collection of local snakes in his home to harvest venom for the various medicines he uses.

Although a bit excited that I would get a picture with a snake around my neck, the fear quickly overrode that. The hissing of the cobras brought goosebumps which became shivers when he placed the muscular 2m python on my shoulders. I could feel the muscles tighten and in my head I could imagine that mouth opening to swallow me up. 

I was slightly better with the other snakes that weren't around my neck. The green vine snake in particular was quite striking. We wore the common trinket as a bracelet and also held the Sri Lankan flying snake and the Forsten's cat snake.

I stayed far away from the venomous ones- the cobras (even the hissing 2 week old one), the vipers, kraits and the scary looking scorpions and tarantulas.

All said and done, it was an interesting experience. Learnt a lot and can proudly say that I've come a long way from the panic-stricken seven year old in Kerala. Would I carry a snake around my neck again? Probably not. 

Day 1 ended with a short wade on the dark Weligama beach admiring the brightly starry sky.

(Click to read Part 2)

Kehel Muwa

This new country has made me quite adventurous when it comes to new cooking.

I've seen plenty of unusual vegetables in India, but have never even wanted to try cooking them. But somehow the vegetable aisle in Sri Lankan supermarkets has tempted me enough to experiment.

The first week I made dhal with Snake Gourd, the following week made a curry with Thai Eggplant and yesterday stopped at the stores on my way home and picked up some Kehel Muwa- Banana Flower. Definitely the most interesting of the lot. I've never eaten it, let alone cooked with it. But I'd seen a recipe on a friend's blog- Love Food Eat and was convinced that I couldn't possible go wrong if I followed that.

Read the recipe HERE. The recipe was quite straightforward (and her pictures are really good!), but I had to alter it because of lack of ingredients.

My changes:

Had to omit the urad dhal unfortunately. I think it would have really added a lot to flavour and texture if I had it. I substituted dried chili for fresh ones. Quite a difference in taste too. I also added some turmeric and a bit of garam masala. Needed a bit more flavour. Contrary to what she said, this banana flower was not bitter. So, I omitted the jaggery too.

Some more pointers about cooking with it: 

1. Make sure you remove all the tough outer petals. It is not tender at all.

2. The flower loses it's colour really fast and becomes a weird grey, so cut and put into water really fast.

3. It can be a bit sticky and fibrous. So wash well in cold water.

4. I didn't like the little stringy bits, so I boiled it for a bit longer and cooked it more. Probably killed the freshness, but I think it kind of depends on the flower and on preference.

It turned out a lot nicer than I expected. Was tasty and went well with the red rice and potato and coconut gravy for lunch. Leftovers with bread was also tasty.

Next on my list of experiments is Jackfruit. :)

Cottages, Mud Slides and Cinnamon Tea

Within just a week of being in Sri Lanka and after only four days of work, I already had a trip planned. 

The cousins and I set off early Friday morning by bus to Nuwara Eliya, a quaint little town up in hills. After having to wait two hours for the bus and after six long hours on the bus, we were about 1800m above MSL and 10 degrees cooler.

We got off the bus as close as we could to our accommodation, but still ended up walking about 2km uphill to the Green Forest Hotel. We really couldn't have asked for a better location. We were right at the top of the road, on the edge where the tea plantations met the Piduruthalagala forest reserve. 

Our hotel design, like most of Nuwara Eliya, is representative of British colonial architecture. I especially loved the wooden floorboards and staircases. On the landing just outside our room was a little 18th century chippendale table and chairs by the large French windows overlooking the tea plantations. Perfect breakfast setting.

We walked into town soon after, mostly driven by pangs of hunger and had quite a grand lunch of iddiyapams and jack-fruit curry at Sri Ambals. The curry, sambhar and chutneys came in steel pails. Definitely enough to satisfy. 

The afternoon and evening came with a lot more walking. Gregory lake is a beautifully serene lake nestled in the middle of the hills, forests and tea estates. The well kept gardens and walkways, the picnic benches by the food stalls and the bridges and docks (and a gate) provided plenty of crazy photo settings. 

We had read about this place that makes all things strawberry- Adma Agro. We walked over two kilometers around the lake while the sun was setting and the clouds around us brought the visibility to a minimum to get there. But the strawberry pancakes we had with chocolate sauce and fresh whipped cream was totally worth it. 

Bread Baking at Lavonne

My Mum is probably the best bread baker in Bangalore, and yet all my life I've never learnt from her. We eat homemade bread every breakfast. Many Friday afternoons, she bakes cinnamon rolls, coconut rolls, vegetable stuffed buns and plaits, and pizzas and foccacia. The list goes on. But, after watching and eating all this, I still had my first bread making class from someone else. 

Lavonne Institute of Baking Science invited food bloggers for a special workshop on bread making. It ended up just being Swapna, my Mum and I for the class. Chef Avin, along with some help from his students taught us a variety of things. 

We started off with the soft breads-Rolls, Zoph and Foccacia. The Zoph has an interesting history. In ancient Switzerland, the widowed wives used to cut off their plaited hair to place beside their deceased husband. Later the plaited bread (zoph) was kept instead of cutting off their hair. 

We were given the required ingredients and after mixing together began the tiresome kneading process. No bread machine or Kenwood Chef to do that for us. It seemed like ages and slightly discouraging having the chef inspect every few minutes and saying, 'No, not soft enough!' Great workout for those upper arms. After what seemed like years, the dough reached it's perfect state of elasticity and was ready to shape. We rolled out one batch into 30g balls and then rolled out into 15cm lengths before twisting together to form little knots. The zoph and rolls were finished off with an egg wash and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Plenty of olive oil was mixed into the foccacia dough and then was generously topped with sun dried tomato paste, fried onions, garlic and herbs and some black olives.

They were all left to rise before being sent away to bake in the oven. Soon the smells of baking bread wafted into the room. And not long after, we got to sample fresh and extremely soft bread (the kneading paid off).