Wednesday, October 18, 2006

3C Ale at Oleana

The 3 C Ale at Oleana is available at Vintages in West Concord, MA
http://www.vintagesonline.com/ContactUs.htm

Made specially for Oleana by Nantucket’s Cisco Brewers, this highly flavorful beer features three spices: Cumin, coriander, and cardamom.
Notes to follow.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Skiing Trips This Winter

So the Winter of 2005 - 2006 is all set to be the winter of skiing trips.

Ski Gear - Check
Season Pass - Check
Enthusiasm - Check (Flagging at times)

This post will hopefully keep a short diary of all the ski trips this winter.
I might break them up into different posts eventually.

Oh and this post is still a work in progress. I'll write in more detail eventually. And at some point these two lines will disappear.

December 3rd Week - Belleayre Mountain, NY
Belleayre as usual, is fun. Much smaller than Hunter or Windham Mountain also in the Catskills. More family friendly, read, kids wont get run over by agressive skiers or snowboarders. I have a soft spot in my heart for Belleayre since this is where I learnt to ski parallel....:-). At any rate, decent snow and not too icy in mid december.

December Christmas Week - Sunday River, Bethel, ME
Sunday River still ranks highest among all the resorts I've been to (not too many).
Lolapalooza, I was happy to note, was still fun.
Hit a black slope thinking it was a blue slope and was baffled at how steep this blue slope was. Realised it was a black after 3rd run. 4th run was spectacular.
Cold but not way too much.

January First Week - Mount Snow, VT
Mount Snow is only 3.5 hours away from New York City and it shows.
After the wonderful weekend at Sunday River where often times we were the only people on the mountain, Mount Snow was a bit of a shock. Lines at times were so long that we felt we were at Mountain Creek in NJ.
It was a bitterly cold weekend with highs in the teens. SD wasnt feeling very good and his lack of enthusiasm reached across and affected us as well.
Second day much better, hit slopes earlier. Discovered smaller lift which was not crowded at all. Lots of moguls this weekend. (reminder: post lift name and trails)

January Fourth Week - Attitash Mountain, North Conway, NH
Took friday off and went to Attitash. Turns out we compare everything with Sunday River. Looks like Sunday River is the gold standard till something better takes its place. So Attitash... yes... very nice, except that it was scary icy... I mean seriously icy. By 1PM, it was like ice skating down the mountain. Very relaxed weekend. Typically, the ski day is sort of like this:
Lifts open 9am - Must hit slopes by 8:30 am
Lift closes at 4PM - Must ski till 4 PM or Until legs collapse from sheer exhaustion

We hit the slopes at 10:45 am, skiied till 3 pm, quit. Went to eat chinese food and shop... yes.. shop. The Seafood hot and sour soup at China Chef in North Conway (Route 302) comes highly recommended.

Dinner at the 1785 Inn, a nice 2002 Trimbach Gewurtz and some very good food indeed.
Breakfast also at 1785. On the slopes by 9AM.

Once again skiied till 2:30pm and quit. Excellent skiing at least in the early part of the day before all the snow was scraped off. Warm warm warm, cant believe this is January. Folks were skiing in t-shirts. By 2PM, the lower mountain was getting pretty slushy.

Attitash has a a lot of blue and black trails. Not too many green trails. SD lost his ski on Mythmaker (Black Slope on Bear Mountain) and spent an eventful 20 minutes looking for it on the steep slope. A kind woman came down and helped him.She found it in the woods. It was sort of funny to see him hopping up the slope. It wasnt funny then...:-).

Skiing improving, but still get screwed on some slopes. Must read that "Lito Tejada Flores" book which has been languishing on the bedside table for months now.

Lunch/Dinner at Curry Lime (Thai,on Route 302 in No. Conway). Good food, not amazing, but very good all the same. Maybe a tad expensive compared to the standard beer and a burger option.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Last Temptation of Christ

I finally saw this last night after letting it languish at home for over 4 months.
I think its an excellent movie. The movie tries to explore the dual (maybe schizophrenic) nature of Jesus as man and "son of god". Willem Dafoe is okay and Harvey Keitel has an unmistakable brooklyn accent and it all somehow works. But the high point, the truly high point of this movie is its soundtrack. Peter Gabriel is unbelievably good and even if you dont watch the movie, please listen to the soundtrack. He uses a plethora of instruments and electronic drum sets to create a very very cool sound. The start of the movie with the aremenian doudouk (or duduk) and the drums is haunting to say the least.
One of the most powerful scenes in the movie is the one leading upto the crucifixion, and also the best track in the soundtrack. One of the greatest singers of the 20th century and arguably of all time, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is the voice in this track. I dare you to not be affected when you watch this.

Highly Recommended and do watch the video interview with Peter Gabriel on the DVD.

p.s I should probably rename this post to "Soundtrack for the Last...."

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Make The Perfect Vada Pav

The Vada Pav is probably close to the top of the list of perfect foods to be eaten on the go. While I am sure there have been many paeans devoted to the Vada Pav, this post does not involve itself with them. Here we shall learn how to make the perfect vada pav.

The ignorant boor would say whats the big deal? Its just a potato fritter between two slices of bread. Ahhh Jimmy...., you have so much to learn yet..... read on and we might make a sensible person out you yet.....

Obviously a vada pava consists of a vada, a pav and some condiments to be applied sparingly. A vada being a potato fritter. A pav is a roll similar in some ways to dinner roll but not very crusty. I remember reading that it is made like a sourdough bread, not sure how true this is. The usual suspects in terms of condiments are a cilantro chutney and a garlic chutney.

To make the perfect vada pavs, you obviously need pavs. Buns, brioches, crusty italian loafs etc.. just wont do it at all.

If you are among the lucky few who live where a Hot Breads is located or the friendly anda-pav walla shows up at your door, thank your stars and offer blessings to whoever you offer them to.

If you live in Bombay, then why are you trying to make them at home, they are fairly easily available. I could start a war by trying to name THE best vada pav in Bombay. But I will say that Krishna Vada Pav located in Dadar TT and another place in Thana (whose name I have forgotten), 5 minutes from the station produce something close to Vada Pav Nirvana. I have also heard good reviews about vada pav walla outside Kirti/Saathye/FuckKnows_What_Its _Called_Now College and Mithibai.(There ....now, I await the slaughtering). Well anyways for some reason you want to make them at home....read on...

If you happen to live in Minneapolis, well... you can drown your sorrow in lite beer.
No seriously..... (dont you just hate people who say no seriously...), in a pinch one can use hamburger buns. Just get good quality ones, not the Wonder Bread variety and toast them lightly. Filipino/Latino stores sell Pan De Sal which is better than hamburger buns but might not be as readily available. Dinner rolls sold in just about every supermarket will also do the job.

Now we need to talk about potatos, for they are the star of the vada pav. Get good quality russet potatos or Idaho potatos. Look for clean, smooth, well-shaped potatoes. Potatoes should feel firm, the "eyes"--the buds from which sprouts can grow--few and shallow, and the skins free of cracks, wrinkles, or dampness. Reject potatoes with black spots, bruises, or other discolorations.

So now we have potatos for the vada and we have also procured the pav by some means.
On to the recipe...

Garlic Chutney:
I bought the Garlic Chutney from a random grocery store. Its basically red chillies, coconut and garlic ground together with salt. You might be able to find it in your Indian grocery store. If not, I dont know how to make it yet so I cant provide a recipe here. Ask for Lasoon Chutney or Lasoon ball.

Dhania (Cilantro) Chutney:
One needs dhania chutney to wet the pav a little and provide some nice cilantro freshness.

2 cups Cilantro coarsley chopped
1 pod Garlic
5 - 6 Green Chillies
20 leaves Mint
3/4 tsp (To Taste) Salt
1/2 Lime
Grind together in your favorite grinder. Once its smooth, take it out and add the juice from 1/2 a lime. Taste for salt.

Vada:
Made from dipping potato filling in a besan (Chick Pea Flour) batter and deep frying.

Potato Filling:

5 (600 - 700 gms) Potatos Medium Sized
7 Garlic Pods
7 (Or to taste) Green Chillies
3 tbsp Oil
1/4 tsp Turmeric
1/2 cup (Or to taste) Cilantro(Dhania)finely chopped
1 tsp Salt (add more after tasting)

1. Boil or Microwave potatos till they are cooked completely. Cool.

2. Grind the garlic and green chillies to a coarse paste.

3. Mash the potatos and remember not to overwork the potatos. They will become gluey if you mash them way too much.

4. Heat the oil in a frying pan at medium heat.

5. Fry the garlic/chilli paste for about 30 seconds

6. Add the turmeric and stir the mixture. If the garlic has begun to brown already turn the heat down a bit.

7. Add salt

8. Now add the mashed potatos and turn the heat off. Mix well so the fried garlic paste is incorporated well into the mashed potatos.

9. Add the cilantro now and mix throughly.

10. Form into lime sized balls and keep aside.

Batter:

1 cup Besan(Chick Pea Flour)
1tsp Chilli Powder
1/4 tsp Turmeric
3/4 cup Water
1/2 tsp Salt

Mix Besan, chilli powder, salt and turmeric together in a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup water and mix. Add more water till the mixture is the consistency of an egg white ie., not stiff but not very thin either. If you screw up and add too much water just add a few spoons of the besan till you reach the correct consistency.

Vada:

Heat 2 (two) cups of peanut or corn oil in a kadai or wok at medium heat. If you dont have a kadai or a wok, use a tall saucepan.
Heat to about 400 F, this will mean waiting for at least 5 minutes. To test, place a small drop of the batter in the oil. It should almost immediately float to the top in a rush of bubbles.

Now take the previously formed balls of potato stuffing and dip in the batter. Make sure that the ball is covered completely. Here is where the consistency of the batter makes all the difference. A thin batter will just slip off the stuffing and a thick one will make dipping the ball painfully sticky.

Now carefully and I urge you one more time carefully, place the coated ball in the hot oil. You should be able to fry about 4 of them simultaneously.

When the coating is a nice reddish brown colour, take them out with a fine strainer.
Make sure you drain as much of the oil as possible and turn out onto double layers of paper towel. If your oil was hot enough, the vadas should not be oily and the fried batter should taste crisp and distinctly un-oily. My pet peeve with most restaurants is that they rarely wait till the oil is hot. At 250 F the vada will turn out like yesterdays spring roll. You should use that to to fix squeaky hinges.

Once you are done with frying all the vadas. Turn the heat off and place about 5 -6 green chillies in the hot oil. Remove within 5 - 10 seconds. At any rate before they start exploding.

Vada Pav Assembly:

1. Cut the pavs in half.
2. Apply the dhania chutney on one half
3. Sprinkle the garlic chutney on the other
4. Place the vada on one of the halfs
5. Close the halfs together so that the vada flattens.
6. Serve with the lightly fried green chillies for extra heat.
7. Enjoy!!

I'll try to add photos as soon as I can.









How To Name it

Fans of the "great" composer will realise the post title..............

Oh well after going through the following names:
kdiary
kdoctrine
kdisinformation (can be "kd is information" or "k(d) disinformation")
krsna
fudge
civicman

kdspoint
kdman
kdefibrillator
kdissect
kdoreo
krishdadawg/kdawg
kdnotes
kdrant
kdemented

kdiagnosis
kdd or kdhd
kdriver

kdingbat

Kdawg, Kdnotes, or just kd

I finally settled on fookd.

I would have liked kd.blogspot.com but blogspot in its infinite wisdom doesnt want people to make blog names which are only two characters long.

This post will self destruct in 846000 seconds.......