Cooking Mama!

Cooking is the latest craze at all ages. The kids and I watch Master Chef without fail, and absolutely love it. S is always on the cooking mama game cooking non stop. My little courtship with baking had to be temporarily stopped due to weight loss mission no 10( end of the year approaching) .

The past week I have been getting calls from my mum, in excited tones about how she has tried out a new recipe. If this was a one off thing, i would have just shrugged it off. This has become an every day ritual so much that I had to politely decline. Mum is not a person who can be discouraged, she sends it in a little box and insists that I try it.

Day one : a birds nest Kind of thing filled with veges and cottage cheese, I saw S (the eight year old) have a look of pure shock in his face and kept looking at me. With mum supervising that we eat it up, we were trapped.

Day two : She had filled up an ice cream cone with some wierd concotion and sent it, S screams in delight "Aachi has made a vampire torch for halloween".

Day three : Dad calls " yr mums serving up some crap all the time, I cant eat the food at home"

I thought I would gently tell mum that she should stop this new recipe trying.

Mum : I know it is natural that you feel jealous that your mum is a cooking start. I might even star in the Indian cooking competition.

I had no idea what to say to that statement and thought silence is the best remedy. A woman scorned about her cooking is not an easy one to deal with.
She had found bits of masterpieces that she had cooked thrown behind the plants in the garden, and screamed that she will not send me food anymore. I think we are on safe zone temporarily.

High Tea!

After a godawful week, ladybugs suggestion of High Tea was the best thing I had heard. I was excited to meet her and another friend who was down on vacation. So off we went to Galle face hotel High Tea.

For me the word high tea somehow conjures up the image of the mad hatters tea party in Alice in wonderland. I walked into the veranda and for a minute I was confused with what was happening. There was rows and rows of food.

Pastries, savouries, sandwiches and what not. There was a whole load of vegetarian food too. I didn't have the tea but had ice coffee and we stuffed ourselves and laughed so much maybe a bit loudly.

The veranda and the ambiance is really great. Walked out into the rains. argh it was pouring!

Delightful Experience!

This is one of the many names of the Strawberry place near the lake. The other name being No Vacancy. The chocolate coated strawberry and the Strawberry and cream was so delicious Yumm. I had quite a bit. Oh how I wish I could have some more now. So here goes some amateur pics of the trip.

Discovering THE Ice Coffee!

So there it is my discovery which is not in posh cinnamon grand coffee stop (the coffee tastes too fat, i am serious), not at over priced coffee bean ( telling you something wrong with the milk), barista (have u noticed how its empty most of the time) or the ones aunties make (which has too much milk, vanilla, icecream and less alcohol)

The best one in the whole of colombo would be at green cabin. It tastes heavenly and its addictive. So little D and I seem to have consumed vast amounts of said ice coffee at green cabin.

any other suggestions on my discovery?

Sweets, savouries and what nots..

Its Deepavali this Saturday. My cousins, in laws and all the women relatives call me to check how i am. Not that i am ill or that they miss me. Its a usual scene where they check what delight i have tried cooking up. Give them a standard answer of nothing. They express understanding that i have work, no maid and normal routine of life. Ya right, although they are murmuring some understanding noises i can feel the sense of what a failure not making sweets.

All of them have started frying up murukus and the works since yesterday. What nonsense is this they should not be frying up a storm since its not healthy.Called up mum in India to ask what she is doing. She sounded a bit dazed and strange. knowing mum she is probably stocking up from the ready made sweet shops to bring it here and palm it off as homemade. I have a theory it could be genetic that i am not bothering too much about cooking deepavali delights.

Last night Dh mentions that his mum has started making deepavali sweets n savouries. So are u just making keasari (rulang sweet) for the prayers and he smiles. (maybe i am reading between the lines). anyways i got all annoyed that he assumes i am not making anything or maybe the fact that mil has started making stuff and i am not even doing nothing.

Suddenly felt all righteous and like i would fail the all Indian test of deepavali celebration or whatever. I have decided to make almond barfi and pakodas. Maybe the added fact of the kids saying, oh we dont make anything my mum buys it from this aunt who makes it, could have been another hit to my pride.

After browsing the net i have found the said recipes. Hope i don't burn the vessels too much...

Oh yes i have never made the barfi nor the pakoda. But nothing like trying :)

(argh i still have to order the sweets to be sent to relatives, nope i am not sending the stuff i am going to make, its only for my house purposes)

St. Jude at Gampaha

I went to St. Jude church at Gampaha today. Had a vow to print some novenas and give lunch for some poor. It was long over due and one of those days when i really wanted to get away from it all. So went along with a friend who needed some mind clearing. After a load of mix ups about what to do about the lunch involving asking my parents cook to make lunch then realising the poor need some good food and not the crap she dishes out. Thought i will buy some on the way. So we stop half way at kadawatha to buy lunch. the smell of food was a bit too much in the car for the rest of the journey. We saw this Soya place which sells all this soya pastry and ice cream, we decided to stop there on our way back. Even on the way to a religious place the stomach is always having its own agenda.

Get to the church. I have to say there are miracles which do happen when u visit here. DH kept asking why i was going off so far today but at moments of real messes involving work and life going to this church has given an extra energy to face things. I have seen miracles happen too. So we went in prayed a bit lit candles. I felt at peace and that things are going to be positively charged. The church is so peaceful and huge gardens which are nicely maintained. actually there are two churches. Am not sure about the history. Felt a bit lost in memory of coming there for feasts so many years ago.

Came out there were no people to give the food. The driver wanted to bring it back to colombo to give to some people here. i was adamant that due to vow we have to give in gampaha. Outside the church there are some accharu ladies who sell some really great veralu acharu, pineapple , woodapple accharu and manioc with sambol. went out and managed to give away all the lunch and buy a whole load of the achharu and stuff our faces. When i was a kid and mum used to take me to this place i use to go only for eating the achharu. i thought we were going all the way for that.

get back to soya place to have soya icecream. Looking at the pastries friend asks whats a mofin. Oh yes the soya mofin. had to explain to her thats the village muffin and had her laughing.
The mofin is in fact a roti shaped like a triangle (or square shape gone kind of wrong or mofin shape) nothing to do with the blueberry muffin.

Jack Tree!

This is the new Thai Restaurant in town. Its down Park Road opposite Cargills. Jack Tree happens to be Mango Trees Sister ( i am sure thats not botanically possible but its a venture by the same people). The prices are like Mango Tree. The Ambience is great.

The food is ok. Then again I am sure they will make a big improvement in days to come. The Red Curry, Pad thai noodles and Rice was very good. The other dishes were ok. I guess any new restaurant will have its starting troubles. I am vegetarian so I wont be doing any justice by commenting about the food in general. I am sure the Non Veg Dishes should be really great...

Try it out as a new treat!

Whats with park road is it the new restaurant street?

Hash Deli! #

This new Heavenly Chocolate paradise is down Duplication Road. There are a bunch of small shops after stone and string. There is something called the gadget shop and another restaurant in between these lines of shops is this heavenly deli which give the best chocolate cake in town.

There is the Hash Cake (not the drugged variety), Chocolate fudge cake, mint cake and oreo cake. Its called Hash deli, small place, reasonably priced and friendly staff. The stuff finishes real quick. Try it out all chocoholics !

Changing History!

Shopping at Arpico with mum, woman keeps smiling at me. Smile back (since i am polite)

Woman rushes over : u are the girl who use to steal my chicken sandwiches

me (WTF is she on about)

Woman : Remember in bridgets nursery....

(bloody hell i dont remember stealing sandwiches and i'd rather not be reminded since i have kids.... ARGHHHH)

Mum rushes over from the VIM counter : She was in Bridgets i remember .. and u ate chicken, u have sinned (ok mum should u not be telling me off for stealing someones food since u did not give me proper food but u are more concerned about eating meat)

woman : this is my number we have to catch up

Me ( dont think so).... fake smile ( i have also turned into one of those). Hear a whole load of crap upto union place about eating chicken. Oh if u were wondering what thats about we are vegetarian, its forbidden to eat meat. These days i have given up my five year old tendencies of stealing food. I am vegetarian instead.

Mum with steely voice : We need to talk about something

Do i have a choice here.

Mum : I have studied in Bridgets and gone to university.

(WTF again, mum went to some wierd sounding local school and dropped out of school in grade seven as far as i remember)

Me : What are u on about

Mum : U have to maintain this story now that i am getting a daughter in law.

Me : Mum are u mad? we cant make up some stories about your past and i am not playing a part no one will. Next u are going to tell me dad was in Yale uni.

Mum : Oxford

I parked the car and turned around looked at her.

Me : Dad talks about walking without slippers at the age of fifteen and tells us to be thankful that we are having too many slippers every time we meet. where the hell is oxford coming into this. U better stop this nonsense right now.

Mum trying to hard to cry and obviously the boru tears not coming threatens to tell my kids about the sandwich stealing.

Where in my adult life did bargaining with my kids go into my mums hand and i am in square one again.

Three more months………

Christmas in three more months, another year another set of resolutions. So there after all the power yoga, gyming, aerobics and eating healthy (all this in my imaginary world I was at last a staggering size eight). After absolutely doing nothing and eating away I decided its time to lose that last six kgs (hemm did I not say five kgs last year this time).

Saturday evening I started exercising. Went for a jog which left me panting for more (Not). So damn tired had to get back within twenty minutes. There I was in my newly exercised feeling and so tired. Where is the glow (with all the blood rushing to my face) I looked not healthily glowing but sickeningly wheezing.

I fell asleep, I mean all this serious shock the body has been through has put it into serious damage mode. Woke up with a start and wandered downstairs and ate a Twix bar……..Great since all the jogging with eating chocolate gives me a Fat chance of getting my goals. (It’s so ironic the fat word comes again)

These days when I go anywhere I seem to see that all women are extremely thin. Ok not all at least the majority of them. It must be the obsession of all this I am hallucinating sometimes. The other day while at hospital had a brain wave and asked H if I could spend my savings to have liposuction. Durdans had a poster up about some new high tech liposuction blah blah.. Obviously he was so encouraging about it. I got scolded nicely for even thinking about such mad ideas. …..He was nice enough to buy me a walnut brownie to cheer me up…..

Pasta Mania

Having lunch with my friend at a very popular restaurant ( no i am not going to name them and tarnish their image or whatever) i was served a very beautiful plate of pasta. I have a bit of a pasta mania and tend to order it whenever the opportunity arises. Friend stuck to a basic sandwich and was happily eating almost finishing the meal and there i was waiting for the pasta. After signalling the waiter a couple of times since i was starving i was quite happy that it was taking ages, obviously they were chopping the veges and making it fresh.

So there came the beautiful plate with beautiful looking pasta and vegetables. It looked so lovely and appetizing, i did not want to eat it.....

I shouldn't have cause the minute i put a forkful in my mouth. Something was really wrong. The panic in my eye gave signals to friend.

Friend : What is wrong with it

Me : I dunno i think spoilt ( and i continue to forcefeed my second helping into my mouth)

Friend : DONT EAT IT

(There goes the third spoon into my mouth, i wanted to throw up but did not want to complain in case the chef spits on my drink or whatever) Friend brought the situation into control by pushing plate away and calling the waiter.

Waiter : Any problem miss

Me : i think its got spoilt (with this apologetic smile from me )

Waiter : Might be old, let me the get manager

Oh my god, i died, did i hear him say it might be old. Manager comes inquires same and yes confirms might be kind of old and serves up something else for me.

Lesson learnt. If its spoilt, its spoilt. Dont eat it... ( think will stay off pasta for a bit)

A Category Food

Out on a girls night out found out some interesting new aphrodisiacs (herewith called the A Category) that I have never heard of. Why we wandered on to this subject where you could add endless lists I have no clue. Some of the common aphrodisiacs that I have heard of being asparagus, oysters, ginseng tea, strawberries and so on. Some of my cousins have told me that drumsticks also belong to the A category. Have no idea where that came from unless they were trying to increase the murunga market which has seen better days anyways.

So out with the girls and catching up with different topics, one girl said that Camels milk is major in the Middle East. I thought ok there are no buffalos and cows in the dessert, so probably they drink this instead. She went on to explain that camel’s milk has A grade qualities. Camels milk, was a bit flabbergasted that people drink a camels milk. This is a big time A category thing and there are sweets made out of it which are suppose to be a big hit with the men. Felt a big finicky thinking of eating camels milk sweet but it’s suppose to be like a soan papdi (Indian sweet).

Dinner gone wrong!

A friend invites me to have a Japanese Dinner with her group. As doubtful as I was about this little invitation, I said yes. I mean I do eat a random veggie sushi roll n all once in a while. Anyways get to the dinner and the ambience was really great. Looked at the menu they had quite a variety of vegetarian stuff. Got a friend to order for me since he is the expert of Japanese Cuisine.

The food arrived it was beautifully presented like some sort of art. I was quite impressed but then my mind started alerting signals like these are fish. They are raw. Ignored the alerts and ate some of the veggie stuff which was all right. But I was so hungry end of the dinner because they had not ordered filling stuff I suppose. Was very suspicious with the tofu and ate only little of everything. I thought I was not a fussy vegetarian. But I realized that was the first time I was not feeling that all right with seeing all that raw fish. Or maybe I am just getting old or something.