Basbousa

Last saturday, I had this craving for dessert and I wasn't sure what I wanted.. I knew that I didn't want ice cream. First we decided to go to L.A.Burdicks, but, it was closed. So, we ended up going to Algiers Cafe in Harvard Square. There I had this wonderful sweet semolina cake called Basbousa.. Oh it was just heavenly, with the honey and syrup. Very very sweet, but, amazing. I think I have found my new sweet cravings place in the square. Prithwish and Will had coffee and I think they both liked it..

AL wins the MLB All Star Game

After the nerve racking 9th inning the American League won the 2007 MLB All Star Game yesterday (5-4). This is the 10th year in row that AL has won the game. This is definitely good news for the RedSox if they do make it to the world series, cos they get the homefield advantage.

And Ichiro with his inside the park home run rightfully deserved the MVP award. This was the first All Star Game with an inside the park home run.

Six Red Sox All-Stars -- David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Mike Lowell, Josh Beckett, Hideki Okajima, and Jonathan Papelbon -- helped the American League defeat the National League, 5-4, Tuesday in San Francisco.
(Getty Images Photo)


Boston Red Sox had 6 players this year (David Ortiz - 1B, Manny Ramirez - LF, Mike Lowell - 3B, Josh Beckett - Pitcher, Jonathan Papelbon - Pitcher, Hideki Okajima - Pitcher). Everyone except Okajima got a chance to play.

Key Moments for me in the game..

1. Manny ofcourse had a moment of "Manny being Manny", when started fanning Ichiro who was trying to catch his breath after his homerum.

2. Out 9 starters in the AL team, 6 were of the Latin Origin (Yeah, I'm not going to get int whether they were Hispanic or Latin Americans or Latinos), 1 (Derek Jeter) was half African American, 1 (Ichiro Suzuki) was Asian, and 1 was what I call "White Boy". So, who is the minority here? I'm not trying to start up a debate or anything. This is just sports and its just an observation from my end..

3. David Ortiz getting to first because of the error

4. Beckett and 2 scoreless innings and then being the winning pitcher due to Ichiro's home run.

5. The shot of all the players leaning against the fence (is that the right term?) in the dugout watching the game. It makes them look like kids having fun.

Ramirez looks over the shoulders of Michael Young of the Texas Rangers, and Torii Hunter of the Minnesota Twins, during Tuesday's All-Star game.
(AP Photo)

6. The fly ball out which ended the game.

7. Seeing people in canoes and kayaks outside the stadium waiting for a ball to fly out the stadium

And now, its back to the regular season.. Here is to hoping and praying that the RedSox keep winning.

Sev Batata Puri (SBP) - A reason to go to the gym

There are some foods, whose mere thought makes my mouth water. Sev Batata Puri (SBP)
is one of those things. Even now, as, I write this blog, I'm thinking of the awesome taste of this dish. Yesterday evening as I was thinking about what to have for dinner, I remembered that a couple weeks ago, I had bought some puris from New Apna Bazar, an indian store in Waltham,MA. So, I decided that I was going use them for dinner. So, now, all I could think about was dinner. While making a mental checklist of things I had in the house for the dish, I realized that I didn't have any chutneys or sev, which meant another trip to the grocery store.. As I was driving to the grocery store, I realized that SBP has almost no nutritional value and could be considered almost as junk food. Once I started thinking of SBP as junk food, I felt guilty about not going going to the gym for the longest time. So, I made yet another detour to the gym before I could savor the taste of SBP. After a nice work out, I drove to a bangladeshi store hoping to find the chutneys and sev. Alas, they only had the coriander chutney, but no sev, and no date chutney. At this point I was starting to lose hope, but, I finally found another indian grocery store *sorta* close to my home which had the date chutney and sev. I finally got home, boiled the potatoes, chopped the onions and cilantro and made my SBP.. And, it was YUMMY!!!! Definitely worth the trip to the gym and 2 grocery stores. Following is the recipe..

Ingredients (All of these should be available at most Indian Grocery Stores)

Puris for Bhel
Thin Sev
Red Onion
Potato
Corriander Chutney
Date and Tamarind Chutney
Lime and Cilantro
Salt to taste

1. Boil the potato till it is soft and you can peel it easily with your fingers. Once the potato is done, chop it into small cubes.

2. While the potato is boiling, chop the onion into very small cubes. Also coarsely chop the cilantro.

3. Now, make sure that the consitency of your chutneys is a little runnier than Ketchup.

4. Arrange about 8 or so puris in dish

5. Layer the chopped onion and potato on top of the puris

6. Sprinkle some salt on it for taste

7. Next layer it with the corriander and date chutneys

8. Top it off with some Sev

9. Garnish it with Cilantro and lime juice

10. Sit back, relax and enjoy this awesome dish



Steps 1 - 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Stay Tuned

I know I haven't blogged for a while now.. I need to write about my Puerto Rico trip and my CA trip.. Both of which were lots and lots of fun. I'm just waiting to collect all the pictures so, I can post a nice visual blog. Please stay tuned.

Meanwhile, the Red-Sox need to start winning again. Ortiz and Manny need to start getting their bats clicking.

What is up with this weather? Its 65 degrees in July!!!! I need it to be around 80, so, I can enjoy a day at the beach.

I'm starting to think about getting a new car. So, what kind of car should I get? I've heard that Mazdas are good. How about Subarus? I definitely want something with a *nice* engine. What about SUVs? Decisions .. Decisions .. Decisions ..

Panki (Rice Flour Pancake)

Yesterday evening, as I wrapping up work and thinking about what to have for dinner, I had this sudden craving for Panki. Panki as my mom makes it is this savory rice flour pancake with lots of pepper. So, I promptly called my mom and got the recipe, got home and tried making it. It was actually pretty yummy!! Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:
1 Cup Rice Flour
1 Cup Yogurt
2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Pepper
2 Tsp Ground Cummin
1/4 Tsp Turmeric
1/4 Cup Water
3 Tsp Oil



Method:

1. Mix all the Ingredients well till you form a batter slightly thicker than regular pancake batter

2. Heat a non stick pan over medium high heat. I usually add 1/4 tsp of oil to this just to make sure that the pancake doesn't stick to the pan

3. Spoon about 1/4 of the mixture onto the pan and spread it evenly

4. Place a lid on the pan and cook covered over medium high heat for around 3-5 minutes till the bottom is golden brown

5. Flip it over, cover it and cook it for another 1-2 minutes

6. Voila, its done!! Plate it on the side that was cooked first, serve hot.

You can serve this with Cilantro chutney. I like to eat it plain.

Weekend Update

This was the first weekend in a long time that I didn't even have to THINK about work..

Friday - Watched a tamil movie Nayakan.. Was good, people say its the Indian equivalent of Godfather, Kamal Hassan's acting is amazing as usual. A recent movie that you could compare it to is Sanjay Datt's Vaastav

Saturday - Went to the mall looking for inspiration to buy something, but, everything out is all brown and I'm tired of owning brown clothes..

Sunday - Went on a bike ride with Arun and Martina
down the Minutemen Bike path. A 23 mile round-trip path.. Was fun, but made me realize that I'm horribly out of shape.. Came back, had some grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches with desi chai. Spent the rest of the day lazing on the couch and doing MDCs (Mundane Domestic Chores), eg. grocery shopping, laundry..

All in all, a nice relaxing weekend

Tolerance

Today as I was walking to Harvard Square from home, listening to my i-pod (the one that raja gave me as my graduation gift last year), I realized that I was singing along quite loudly. Now, everyone knows that I can't carry a tune. So, when I realized that I was being loud, I looked around quite embarrased, hoping that no one had seen me, thankfully I didn't recognize anyone in my vicinity .. whew ..

But, see, I felt like I should not have had to look around and should have been OK singing as loudly as I wanted, and so what if it sounded horrible.. Atleast I was having fun.

I feel like these days we're paying too much attention to how other people feel about us. I know I am to blame a little bit about this too.. I'm at time quite intolerant to people around me. We expect people to behave in a particular manner when they are out in public. Who made all these rules? I don't think I was disturbing the peace of the neighborhood with my singing. Yeah, I might have disturbed a few individuals, but, Isn't that OK?

I think I'm going to change myself and be more tolerant of people. So what if we have people that talk to themselves. Maybe they don't have anyone else to talk to. Hmm.. Thats yet another blogging topic.

For now, my new motto for the week is going to be "Tolerance"