I can’t believe it took us so long to finally check out Veil. Somehow we never think about this place, while brainstorming about places to go to. This time also, it happened by accident. Since our friends D & H are going to India for a month this week, H pinged all of us Friday afternoon to check if we wanted to go out and catch up before they leave. Well, of course we did! Siv and I never say no to a night out. H wanted to go to Umi Sake House again, but since Siv took some of his customers there the previous night, he wasn’t too keen on Sushi two nights in a row. Since it is tough to find a table for 10 for a Friday night, especially when the planning starts at 3 PM on Friday afternoon, we made a tentative reservation at Umi, and I had to find a place real soon. After trying a bunch of places in vain, I somehow ended up on their web site, and the online reservation form showed me that they could seat 10 of us at 8:30 PM, perfect!
Pistachio Flan and Self Reflections
Sunday, October 28th, 2007Filed Under Desserts, Diary, Eggs, Nuts, Spanish | 46 Comments
Some people asked me about my training, I can’t really get into details because it was a work related event. It was a grueling four days of Experiential Learning. If you are not familiar with the concept, check it out here.
It is a very effective method for learning; even though things may not hit you then and there, eventually you will get some insights. I’ve been getting some epiphanies over the weekend when I reflect on the course, some of these are direct concepts that they wanted you to get out of the class, but many are indirect.
One of the shocking self discoveries is the fact that I don’t believe in second chances. If I think I’ve been wronged by someone, I cut that person completely out of my life! I can count a number of people I stopped talking to, after they said or did something that annoyed me completely at the time, but on hindsight looks so silly!
After much soul searching, I figured the reason behind this behavior. It is rather simple actually! I am the center of my universe. I don’t give much importance to other people’s feelings. If someone says or does something that hurts me, I never stop to think why they did or said that.
Most of the times, if you take your own feelings out of the equation, it normally has very little to do with you, the other person is after all the center of his/her universe too. If you just think about the reason for the action from their perspective, it will put things in a new light. They might just be expressing how they feel at that moment, mostly driven by factors in their own life. Hurting you is the least on their agenda!
So, I have decided to look at things from other’s perspective from now on, and give people a second chance to redeem themselves. Obviously if someone continues to hurt me, even if I can find an excuse for the behavior, I will decide to either confront them, or stay away from them, depending on how important they are to me. I am human, after all!
Cafe Juanita
Saturday, October 27th, 2007Filed Under Italian, Kirkland, Seattle Restaurants | 17 Comments
Last Sunday night three girlfriends went out to celebrate a birthday. These three girls have been friends for quite a long time, 15 years to be specific. They met in a deserted town, where there was no life other than an engineering college. The four years which could very well have been miserable, turned into the most memorable time of their lives, thanks to all the friendships formed during the time. Some of those friendships have been forgotten since, but not the one these three girls had. After spending four years together as roommates, they moved to the same city after college, and shared a house there too for the most part. Then they had to move to a different country, for different reasons, and somehow ended up again in the same city.
So for the past fifteen years, they have been together, and their relationship has turned into something beyond friendship, more like a sisterhood. They have been with each other through the bad hair-dos, embarrassing fashion choices and dumbest mistakes. They have fought with each other, made each other cry and laughed at and with each other for all these years. Their personalities are so different, but they are still the best of friends. So when it was time to celebrate one’s birthday, there was no surprise they decided to have a private celebration. They had the best night with great wine, amazing food and some great conversation. Happy Birthday once again M!
It’s been a busy week. Siv was in Dallas the whole week, and got back Thursday evening. Seattle had some heavy storm warning for Thursday, so I had my fingers and toes crossed till his flight landed and he got out okay. After the devastating wind storm we had in December 2006, that left about one and a half million people without electricity for several days and caused so much property damage, any storm warning here is scary!
I got out of work at 2 PM hoping to beat traffic and the storm, but everyone had the same idea! Traffic on 520 floating bridge was literally crawling ahead, and after sitting in traffic for a long while, I finally got on the bridge. Wind was almost 50 mph, and water was getting thrown over the bridge by the waves. The frickin’ bridge was rocking! One of the scariest experiences of my life! What I just didn’t understand was that people took so much time on the darn bridge! If you are on a rocking floating bridge in such a wind, wouldn’t you want to get out of there as soon as possible? Yeah, it is scary to drive on a bridge that is moving like that, but it is even more scary if it actually fell down! I wanted to get out and shout – MOVE IT PEOPLE!
Spinach Walnut Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007Filed Under Greens, Misc, Nuts, Pomegranate, Soups and Salads | 39 Comments
Cooking for one is not fun. When Siv goes away on a business trip, I normally resort to leftovers and take-outs if I don’t find anyone to go out with. I am too lazy to cook an elaborate meal just for myself. I am not into eating out alone either! I can do pretty much everything alone, I am proud of being quite self sufficient, but hate sitting in a restaurant by myself. Sometimes I am forced to, like on all day shopping trips to the mall and on business trips - though I try to order room service whenever possible.
I have no problems sitting alone in coffee shops - with my laptop of course, but I just hate doing this in a restaurant where one has to wait at a table for the order to arrive. I don’t know what to do with myself, where do I look, what do I do with my hands, on the table/off the table? I get all self-conscious all of a sudden! If I absolutely have to eat alone in a restaurant, I have to take a book with me, if I don’t have one on me, I go to the bookstore and buy one! This is a bad habit I am trying to overcome… is it just me?
Chicken Drumsticks in a Spicy Gravy and FAHC - Donate Smiles Campaign
Sunday, October 14th, 2007Filed Under Appetizers and Snacks, Chicken, Good with Drinks, India - Kerala | 26 Comments
I know, I have way too many chicken recipes! I haven’t even published half of my different chicken dishes here. Most of my Indian chicken recipes call for very similar set of ingredients, but the ratio of ingredients, and the cooking method itself finally make these all unique dishes with their own unique identity. That is the beauty of Indian cooking I guess!
This chicken dish is special, because the chicken is first cooked in a gravy which is thickened down, and then most of the gravy is removed from the pan, and the chicken pieces are charred along with the leftover gravy. The charred spices on the slightly fried chicken is the main attraction of this dish. The chicken pieces taste heavenly after this small step. You can use this method in any of your regular chicken curry recipe, try it and see how much different the dish tastes!
Awards, Long due thanks and a Me-Me
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007Filed Under MeMe, Random Musings | 47 Comments
This is not a food related post. Yes, I know I made this big announcement some time ago about starting another blog for non-food posts, but who was I kidding? I am so lazy, it is a miracle that I am somewhat regular in maintaining this one blog, I might have been delusional to think I could actually handle two. So, you just have to learn to ignore my occasional rants here, if you are here just for the food.
Now, the subject of this post - Awards. I feel so ashamed, 
feel like I should just send these awards back… I never really acknowledged all these nice people who passed these awards to me… Now these are so out of season, it is embarrassing to even display these, but here to you go… Its better late than never…
Pumpkin Loaf - A Friendship Bread
Monday, October 8th, 2007Filed Under American, Baked Goods, Breakfast and Brunch, Nuts | 45 Comments
I made my first bread! While I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece, it didn’t turn out to be a total disaster, in fact it tasted pretty great! In the looks department, it was just okay… the top looked too dry and had some cracks, but the inside was really moist. I am so darn proud of my creation, I had this for dinner the night I made it.
It all started about three weeks ago, when I got an email from a favorite blogger of mine, funny gal Rajitha, inquiring if I wanted some friendship starter. I was a little confused - on one hand there is my lazy side telling me, you are not a baker, you know how much work it is to get these things right? On the other hand, how do you refuse anything that has Friendship in its name… So I said, yeah, bring it on! So it came, the smelly white creamy liquid in a Ziploc bag, with an instruction sheet, and some handwritten notes lovingly attached by Rajitha. I followed the instructions, till the tenth day, when to my horror I discovered that I had screwed it up completely! Well, the details of how exactly I screwed up the batter is too embarrassing a story to share with the world. 
I was too embarrassed and mad at myself, then I got an email from another one of my favorite bloggers- Sharmi - asking if I wanted the starter! What a coincidence, it was on the day of the disaster. So I jumped on the bandwagon again, this time swearing to myself that come rain or shine, I am not messing this one up. Within a few days, the starter arrived along with some tasty butter biscuits, which almost made the first screw-up worth it Thanks Sharmi, You’re such a sweetheart!
Spicy Mushroom Stir Fry
Sunday, October 7th, 2007Filed Under India - Tamil Nadu, Mushroom, Side Dish - Dry, Vegetarian | 33 Comments
I’ve been posting a lot of meat based recipes lately, so time to post something pure vegetarian. Yep, trust me, I didn’t sneak anything in, no fish sauce, no minced meat, no shrimp paste, nothing. It is a Tamil recipe, I think. Siv gave me the recipe, but he has never made it before. He makes a great mushroom dish - a thick gravy, which is very tasty, and I know that is his mom’s recipe. When I wanted to make a quick side dish with mushrooms, he told me how to do this, and swore that it is the way his mom makes it. I have my doubts though, because how-many-ever times he has made a dish, he still calls up his mom to confirm the recipe just before cooking. Since he didn’t need any external help on this one, I am thinking he made this up, but that is fine, because this turned out quite awesome, if I say so myself. But any Tamilians out there, let me know if it really is an authentic Tamil recipe.
Restaurant Review - Umi Sake House
Saturday, October 6th, 2007Filed Under Belltown, Japanese, Seattle Restaurants, Sushi | 15 Comments
If I have to describe Umi Sake House in one word, the word I’d choose will be BEAUTIFUL! The food is so beautifully crafted, the decor is beautiful, add the mostly eye candy Friday night Belltown crowd to the mix, and it is a place of beauty! For a person who was not too much into Sushi a month ago, Umi has sure made me a convert! I’ve been here three times in the past four weeks! First time was an accident, when my fried M and I were walking along first avenue looking for a place to grab some drinks, and somehow ended up in there without really thinking.
Umi is less than a block from our place, and has been there for over a year now! This is where Bada Lounge used to be, and I hear that it is the same owners. That is one of the reasons we never went in here, since while Bada Lounge was a fun place to hang out and party, the food was just okay. And as I said I have never been into Sushi. But the first time M and I were there, we were seated at the sushi bar, and seeing all the rolls in front of the other customers, we had to get one. We did, I took a bite, and fell in love with Sushi. Then of course I had to take Siv there, who is a big Sushi fan, and he loved the place. Then we told our friends D&H, who really love Sushi, and this Friday night, all four of us went to Umi and had an amazing time. This time I remembered to take my camera, finally!
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