Eat Right, but how?

We confuse ourselves when someone says Eat Right. The common misunderstanding is:

1. Be Vegetarian.

2. Count the calories of what you eat and burn the excess on treadmill. Some even use scale to exactly calculate the calories.

3. Eat less and less and less.

4. Eat whatever dish made out of healthy food items even though they don’t taste at all and look really obscure. Maintain this list of healthy food and be obsessed with only eating that, resulting in more paranoia.

And probably a lot more that I cannot think of right now.

The spirit of eating right is in the eating.

While what you eat is equally important, it is useless if you don’t know how well to eat it.

So let’s clear the misconception and let’s try to eat right, the right way.

1. Be a Vegetarian by choice and not by force. Vegetarianism is born out of compassion towards other living beings. Until you feel that naturally, do not be so.

2. Eat at the speed of the body and not hog at the speed of the mind. Chew nicely and when you do that, you will eat at the speed of the body. You will listen to the body and naturally eat less. No need to count calories, because the body will tell you what it needs now when you listen. You will notice, you will be filling your plate with less food as you go.

3. Time table eating can bore the heck out of you. Eat normally, what you wish, at the speed of the body, 3 times a day. Fasting can purify your body and senses, but don’t be obsessed with it, do it only if you can.

4. Do not drink water atleast 30 minutes before you eat, while you eat and atleast 30 minutes after you eat. Water douses the digestive fire and can affect digestion. But don’t forget to drink water the other times to flush out the toxins.

5. Eat what you feel is tasty. Because the digestive fire is induced more with tasty and nice aromatic food.

6. Do not eat/cook emotionally. You will attach all that emotions and thoughts to the food and affect your digestion. Not only that, but it can also affect your thoughts, character and personality. Don’t ask me how, but they do. So Eat/Cook the food in silence.

7. Eat Consciously. By this I mean, that watch what you are eating without judging the food or yourself. Because at some point we get carried away and do what everyone does, “Top up” with more food. If we watch then we will refrain from doing that. This will leave a gap in the stomach which is good as it will be easy to rotate and digest the food.

8. If you believe in God, then offer the food to God and eat it. Just do it mentally with a loving heart, don’t need to place the food at the altar every time. This particular point needs deeper understanding, beyond just the rules of dogmatic religion.

These are just simple guidelines for normal people who lead normal lives.

Food is the best medicine for your body. Eat less and you will be  sick, Eat more you will still be sick.

All about Non-Curries

To an average westerner Indian food is made up of a magical substance called Curry. Anything liquid gravyish that smells great with dripping oil and vegetables and Paneer floating around is called Curry. I am a south Indian and my normal lunch is what many call it as “South Indian Food“. It is hard to term a South Indian Food as Curry based. So, I find it amusing that during my lunch at work, I microwave a box full of Sambar Rice and one of the passer by colleague would say “hmm … Curry smells great!” for yesterday’s left over Sambar.

The analogy that I can try to bring here is how Bollywood became the single known identity for Indian cinema to the outside world. Think about it, Bollywood is not the only cinema power house in India and yet people outside India only know about Bollywood. The highest paid actor in India is not even from Bollywood. A lot of Regional film industries are lost into the nomenculature of “Bollywood”, falling into an Identity crisis. (This topic needs its own post) Curry does this to other Indian food, as to what Bollywood does to other Indian Film Industries. Phew, I think I ended up advertising Bollywood a lot by adding the word “Bollywood” in every freaking Bollywood related sentence in this Bollywood related Paragraph.

Even the almighty Oprah Winfrey didn’t exactly know what Curry is. Dr. Oz had to explain the difference between a Curry powder and Curry. Now let me do the job of saving the identities of 3 popular South Indian dishes (not in any order) that have been more or less generalized as Curry or Soup.

Sambar:

This is perhaps the most popular liquid dish in South India. In the west, this is consumed in the name of Lentil Soup, but it is far from being a Soup. Yes it can be had as Soup but being a Soup is not Sambar’s primary purpose. Sambar is made from Lentils, Tamarind and a Mysterious powder called Sambar powder. A recipe of common form of Sambar is available at Wiki Cookbooks.

Sambar can be made in multiple flavours with different vegetables, but the base of all Sambars start from the all powerful Sambar Powder, the equivalent of Curry Powder.  Sambar is usually had with rice or South Indian Tiffin dishes like Dosa, Pongal, and Idli. With vegetables like Drumstick, Okra, Onions, Carrots, Tomatoes one can make variety of sambar that would taste entirely different from each other. For this reason Sambar has to be a category of its own and no you cannot have it as a Soup.

Kozhambu:

Kozhambu is a derivative of Sambar that is cooked without the lentils. But since it’s taste is very different from Sambar, it cannot be categorized as a Sambar. Kozhambu is made with Kozhambu (or Sambar) powder with vegetables or chicken or fish or Lamb meat. All Kozhambus are made by constantly heating the mixture of powder, water and ingredients until it becomes thick.

Some popular Varieties of Kozhambu are – Vatha Kozhambu, which tastes great with rice and Papad/Vadam/Vathal. Tomato Kozhambu, a famous dish from my community (Sourashtra), is awesome when had with Dosa or Idli. Fish Kozhambu, Cooked fish in Kozhambu, if you are a non vegetarian this is an awesome dish to try, it is best had with Rice. Urad/Coconut Kozhambu, which I had for lunch recently, made from boiled Urad and Coconut pieces. The list goes on. Kozhambu is indeed it’s own category and has to be had with rice. Don’t try to take it as soup for you will have a blast the next morning, if you know what I mean. Head on over here for some Kozhambu recipes.

Rasam:

Rasam is another of my favourite South Indian Dish made from Pepper, Tomato and spices. If you head on over to this Wikipedia entry you can find how varied Rasam is. There are various varieties like Lentil Rasam, Tomato Rasam, Pepper Rasam, Lemon Rasam and so on, which tastes great with Rice and had with Papad or Chips

Rasam in Tamil means “Essense” and that is just what it is. It is said that in the Mythological epic of Mahabharatha, the character of Bhima is a great cook of Rasam Varieties. From this you can know, how ancient the Rasam dish is. Rasam is one dish that I can approve of as a candidate for Soup as its primary purpose. It provides great relief for head aches and cold (yes, Grandma medicine we call it) when had as Soup.

You can find some South Indian Recipes here.

To summarize, It is hard to term these dishes as curries because it doesn’t taste or is not made like the dishes that deserve to be curries viz Paneer Makhani, Malai Kofta etc. Compared to these Paneer Makhani is just a curry of one kind and there is only 1 standard way of preparing it. So there it is, Sambar, Kozhambu and Rasam are really a category of their own and has nothing to do whatsoever with the term “Curry”. They have to treated individually with their identity and not even categorized as Soup, but just be called as Sambar, Kozhambu and Rasam. Perhaps I can allow all three to be called under one name – SamKoRas or any other innovative words.

PS: These days I am extremely busy being Lazy and hence I haven’t had a chance to write a new post, but I was glad to find an ancient post from my drafts that I forgot to post. I have a few of those and I will try to post them until I can properly get back to my style of blogging.

Zen and the art of Cooking

Is Cooking an art?

Cooking is just cooking. Cooking starts of as just a process to learn and then It becomes an art in the hands of an able master. A master chef would say that the best food is not made by its ingredients, but the way it is made with it. There is a lot of philosophy associated with Cooking than just following recipes. Recipes are mere guides. The universal truth about cooking is:

“The same dish cannot be made the same way, again!”

Even master chefs would agree to this. They would make it tasty every time, but it may not look or feel or even taste the same every time.

So what has Zen got to do with Cooking? Everything!

There may be a lot of aspects to cooking, but according to me there are 4 aspects that will make a particular food, the best product of art ever.

HOSPITALITY

Hospitality is not just about how you treat the guests. It is about how you bring your guests and set them free in the confines of your environment. The guest can be anyone – a new friend, or a relative or even the family in the house.

This is an aspect of cooking that happens before the chef even enters the kitchen. We can refer this to ambiance in a restaurant to an extent. We always have some anxiety in a new place. Hospitality is about letting that go away and making them comfortable. Only a relaxed mind, a mind that is free, a mind that is sure about its environment, will be able to taste the goodness in a good food. Even Wolfgang puck would need this for his food to taste good.

I know this is abstract, but a little prior knowledge about the guest will help you make this happen. This is where the non-cooking member plays an important role in cooking (see the paradox here?). They can make the person feel comfortable by talking things of their interest or indulging in simple activities of their interest that can free their mind.

This is what they call it as – ‘BE AT HOME’

COOKING SPACE

How would you like to have your food? In a Clean Plate or In a plate that is not washed?

If you answered Clean plate, then why should you start cooking in a dirty kitchen? Space is precious. According to Zen, Space and the Material world go together. They are different entities, yet they cannot be separated and hence they are one. Would you know how to define space if there was nothing but space in this world and vice versa?

So it is very important to start cooking in a space that is clean, that is devoid of anything from your previous stint of cooking. Just like how the universe appeared from the void or singularity, your cooking should also start from nothing or Shoonya (Zero) or empty space.

A Clean space will indicate a clean mind, a clean mind with no prejudices and hence the cooking will start with no silly assumptions from before. You will be creative each time. Why do you think programmers like to write the code from Scratch? Why do you think Mothers clean the kitchen space before hitting the bed every night?

Start with a Clean Slate everyday!

SPONTANEOUS

When Arjuna was learning to shoot the arrow, he was asked what he saw through his eyes, as he aimed. He said he saw the eyes of a bird. When he shot the arrow after that, he didn’t think even for a second. He just shot it.

So if you know what to do and figured out how to do, just do it. The moment you think as you do, you will likely be derailed from the original plan. You may end up spoiling the dish. But at the same time, if you think you can add a pinch of salt more than what the recipe says, then just add it without thinking. That will be spontaneous. Your alterations to the recipe should also happen in a spontaneous way. Also, the alterations you did today, may not work the same way the next day, so don’t bother to take notes of those alterations.

Just feel the flow, and be spontaneous. Why do you think a Mother’s food tastes the best in the world. It is because she knows you more than you think she does and she cooks the food in a spontaneous way which will make you love it! That is why it is called the Mother’s touch. It is her spontaneous alterations that suits the needs of the family, makes it taste the best in the world.

COOKING MIND

What is on your mind today? Happiness or Sorrow or Jealousy or any kind of emotions? Your food that you cook will reflect what is in your mind. So what is the best emotion that should be on your mind when you cook? Is it Happiness or should we not have any emotion at all?

It is Love that you should have in your mind when you cook. When you mind is full of love for your family and yourself , your food will taste fantastic. You can’t hate yourself and still love others, only when you love yourself (which is not the same as self centered) you will be able to love others. It flows from the inside to outside.

A Mother’s food tastes the best because of the love she radiates from within herself to the whole family. We fail to see that in her most of the times, but we sure enough love the food that she cooks. What we like is not just the tasty food, but we indirectly feel that love. And when you tell her that you enjoyed the food very much, that is all the acknowledgment she needs, to know that her love has reached you.

Cook like a mother, with all the love in your mind.

Here is an Imaginary Conversation with the Wife:

Wife: “You don’t cook much or often. All you did was a silly Rasam when you were a Bachelor! How can you even write an article on the art of cooking?”

Me: “Why not! Did Vatsayana, before writing his book, ever …” (Wife Interrupts).

Wife: “Enough, I got the point. Now, Let’s keep your blog at PG!”

Rasam-a-Touille

“Why do we have to eat in a Random Restaurant everyday?” asked my friend S.

“Yes, I agree. Why don’t we cook?” I said, as I set out a stream of hysterical laughter around my room mates.

When you come out to live on your own and when there is no Hostel mess to feed you everyday as you had in College, it is hard to believe that you will be able to cook. It is actually hard to even consider cooking, never mind being able to. So the natural reaction among the gang for cooking was a simple no. Other than me and S there was no one in the crowd, who were excited about the idea of cooking.

We made a few random jokes about the new Woman training staff and made abusive remarks on the male training staff and went back to sleep.

“Anyone can cook Anyway!” said my Grandmother.

“Grandma … What are you doing here?” I tried to whisper hoping not to wake up the roomies.

Grandma: “You were talking about cooking and I thought I might help you”

Me: “But how will you? Hey wait … How do you speak English? I thought you didn’t know English!”

Grandma: “Well this is your dream and I am the figment of your imagination. So that’s how I know English. But anyway, tomorrow being a weekend why don’t you try and make Rasam and Rice. It is very simple!”

I heard Grandma talk some weird Rasam Recipe – Mix a Chameleon Juice in a Glass jar and then slice a pumpkin peel into 10 exact pieces, then cut a cactus into exactly two halves and put them all in a container. After that you pee on it.

“What! Pee on it???” That’s when I woke up and realized it was 7:30 AM and I really had to pee. We lazed around the morning reading the paper and munching some bread with Amul butter and Kissan fruit jam for breakfast. I hit the conversation with S.

Me: “So what do you think about cooking? Do you think we can really do it?”

S: “Yes definitely, I think Anyone can cook Anyway he/she wants”

It was the same words from Grandma from last night’s dream. Am I halucinating? Is the bread gone bad? I pinched myself and it pained. It wasn’t a dream.

Me: “So what are you waiting for then, let’s cook something for lunch. What do you think of Rasam and Rice?”

We set out to buy a single burner portable gas stove. It was something we could quickly buy to experiment what we were going to do. The rest of the gang spent the morning completely disinterested having no idea of what we were doing. It was like we were invisible to them. Even AS, who was food lover, wasn’t caring even a little bit about what was going on. AS can taste food very well and can be a harsh critic of food. In one bite he can quickly write off the restaurant, and so we were daring to give our food to him for feedback.

It was risky. Rasam and Rice was a very ordinary dish. He can easily reject it. But we wanted to try our best.

S: “So where shall we start first!”

Me: “We need chameleon juice”

S: “What?”

Me: “Sorry, I think I need to pee, I feel nervous about doing this. Let me relieve myself of some tension and come back in a few min”

After few minutes we were off to chop the Tomatoes, Onions and using a vessel we mixed tamarind paste, Rasam powder and added Tomatoes to it. We realized Onion is not an ingredient of Rasam and had to keep it aside, perhaps use it as a side dish. The ready made Rasam powder that we had bought smelled very good so we kept stirring the contents for a while and then let it boil. We then added Cilantro as the final touch and let it simmer for a bit and took it off the stove finally.

Making Rice is a piece of Rice Cake. Yet we managed to over cook it a little bit and made it softer. Overall, the meal wasn’t anything brilliant. Rice and Rasam was ready. We put a small serving in a plate and gave it to AS for his review. Our limbs were trembling out of fear. This time S had to pee, we waited for him.

Here came the moment. AS took the plate from us and grabbed a nice big amounts of Rasam Rice in his right hand. He then put it in his mouth with a slurping noise and sat there stunned. The camera zoomed into his face and went through his eyes into a flash back, in which Young Boy AS was having a plate full of Rasam Rice and Chips in his home.

Young Boy AS said “I love Mom’s Rasam Rice!”

The Camera came back to the Young Man AS who said “Super da! Sign me up, I am joining the Cooking club”.

We smelled our victory in the form of a great Rasam. We won, we started cooking our own food and we never turned back. We loved the food, whatever we cooked. It was a very satisfying meal everytime.

Grandma appeared in my dream again “See I told you, Anyone can cook Anyway”

Dragon fire chat

On a Friday party evening, we had a snack called Channa Masala chat before the main course. I was involved in the following portion of the dish’s life cycle;

1. Take a Close up photograph.

2. Eat one spoon of the dish.

3. Run around the living room, emitting fire like a Dragon.

4. Mix some more curd and eat.

5. Still Do step 3.

6. Finish the dish without giving up.

7. Name it as “Dragon fire chat” and post it in my blog.

The chat was very tasty but too spicy for me to handle. I loved it though. Unfortunately I do not have the recipe for it. If you really really need it, then you should reverse engineer it from the picture below (Tamil: உத்து பார்த்து நீங்களே கண்டுபிடிங்க). May be A-kay can do the recipe or Apar in her secret food blog.

These are the following ways to confirm if it can be named as a Dragon fire chat:

1. A burnt dining table. Due to the fire emitted from the mouth.

2. A burnt dining table chair. Due to the fire emitted from ahem … you know where.

3. There will be absolutely no side effect from the dish, but there will definitely be a back effect and it will be felt at the most by next morning.

 

Delicious Diwali

Diwali in US happens in a very simple way. Usually the closest weekend is taken up as Diwali and a party happens at someone’s place. The party involves some food, and more food and then a lot more food. So the Diwali party on Sunday at my friend’s place went by the same way.

There was a huge lineup of sweets – Bread Halwa, Wheat Halwa, Motichur Laddu, Jamun. Of all the sweets, the significant one was Halwa. Yes, this Diwali we were all given Halwa. The term “To give Halwa” is well known in Tamil Nadu for a different reason. Let me illustrate the second meaning of the phrase with a few examples.

1. When the gas prices shot up like the SLV rocket, the brilliant business minds put forward a deal to customers buying cars in US. You buy their car and they will give you guaranteed $3 Gas Price even if the prices go up. So the customers thinking that very soon the gas prices will go up to $10 per gallon, signed the deal for $3 gas and bought the cars. Unfortunately, gas prices have fallen down to about $2.15 now which means their $3 gas deal is worth nothing. In other terms these customers were given Halwa by the car dealers. I pity them really.

2. You go to a much promising multi starrer Bollywood movie – Hrithik, Abishek, Aish expecting it to be exactly like Dhoom. But it turns out to be a disaster and you come out with the same old comment “Sequels are not always good”. In this case, the Movie producers/directors have given Halwa to the Audience.

3. The classic case of giving Halwa is from the “Boy loving Girl, Girl loving another Boy” Love story. In fact, this is where the term Halwa is used a lot. Girl tells the Boy that she likes him very much. Boy replaces the word ‘like’ with ‘Love’ and dreams about her, makes love to her, marries her, has 10 kids and 38 grand kids all in one dream sequence. The next day the girl insists I like you very much, but I am in love with your hot hunky friend, can you help me get to him? In an audible distance, the bursting of a transformer sound is heard and the boy’s heart is broken into 1000 pieces. The Girl has successfully given Halwa to the Boy.

The following are the laws of Halwa:

1. If a person is vulnerable to be given Halwa, then he/she will definitely be given Halwa at some point of time.

2. For every Halwa given, there is no equal and opposite Halwa unfortunately. So there is no possibility of the affected, being able to give back the same Halwa to the Source. You can try a different one.

3. The system of Halwa giving and receiving is unaltered unless acted upon by an external force, which has to be another Halwa giver or receiver.

If you do not understand the above laws, then you are vulnerable to be given Halwa at some point of time, So please read carefully and mug up!

The main dish had a lot Chicken. Sorry, there were a lot chicken which had main dish in them. Chicken Biryani, Chicken Kuruma, Chicken Fry you name the dish it was there with Chicken. By the end of the party, I am sure the entire Chicken race should have been extinct. If you are still having chicken it is either the last batch or a new breed of teenage mutated ninja Chickens.

Finally, we were desserted with a new innovative way of turning you ‘over’overweight – Fried Banana Icecream. It was delicious and I couldn’t help myself having it the second time. It was basically Banana, fried with some flour and topped with a scoop of Vanilla Ice cream. Fried Banana Icecream Rocks! But it turned my (Relatively) Rock Hard (Six pack) abs into Flowery soft round Michelin tyre. Hence the following comic:

Picture of Surya – http://www.chennai365.com , Michelin Man – http://www.berrimilla.com

It will now take me a full year to go back to Six Pack Surya. But then there will be another Diwali and I will be back to Michelin Muniyandi in 1 day.

Diwali is always Delicious!

How I ate another Orange

It is my habit like most people to have a small snack in the evening, after coming back from the office. I have anything from Juicy fruits to Junk food. So on one evening this is the conversation I had with my wife to try and get some Junk food as snack.

Me: Honey, Can I have some snack to eat?

Wife: Sure, How about an Orange?

Me: No, Do you have anything else?

Wife: Sure, I have another Orange!

And that’s how I ate another Orange!

The Orange was juicy fresh and delicious. Do you know what else is? an Award from a fellow blogger friend. Few good words from someone who interacts with you in the blogosphere – Brillante Weblog, is definitely a Juicy fresh and delicious experience. Apar at Headtrip, a lovely and expressive writer, has awarded me with the Brillante Weblog award and I am very much excited about that. Thank you, Apar! It means a lot to me coming from you. I am not sure if I am worthy of the award but it encourages me to write even more. I would also like to take this chance to thank all my readers who have been giving great comments on the posts that I have made. Readers and awards such as this are the lifeline of blogs. Thank you so much for being a part of 18,000 RPM.

Now, I will be the good samaritan and distribute this award to some of the best bloggers I have known.

Anshul at Brainstuck – His cartoons are simple, effective, zen like, funny and thought provoking. I wake up to a daily dose of his cartoons almost everyday. (i.e., if he blogs daily and if I am conscious at 7AM daily).

Maxdavinci at Dappan Koothu – This man is innovative in his blog posts. He talks to Gods via Baba Bangali and questions them like Karan Thapar. He watches every Bollywood movie and alerts the entire human race to avoid the bad ones. I mean he is practically a messenger of Human Rights!

Shivya at The Shooting star – She is a delightful writer of her life experiences, from bungee jumping to F1. I can proudly say that I know someone who has seen the First ever Singapore Formula 1 grand prix under flood lights.

Sriniani – He is a very informative blogger and one of the first few who appreciated my efforts here. I just wish he blogs more often than he does, but he deserves the award for the way he brings out rare contents even if it is less frequent.

Twisted DNA – This man brings out the normal life around us in a very hilarious way. His replies to comments are very interesting and funny, and will make you revisit his blog just for that. I liked that so much, I am replying the same way to the comments in my blog. Beware of stomach cramps due to extreme hilarity.

As I always say, all the folks on my blogroll deserve an award for their brilliance and they are there in my blogroll just for that reason. Keep up the great work folks.

Let the spirit of blogging live for ever.

The Indian man who went to buy Chicken but came down with a lot more

I had already mentioned sometime back that doing Grocery Shopping is an Ordeal here in the US.

On a usual work day evening, I had to face the ordeal for the millionth time again albeit due to my own fault. I suddenly had a craving to eat Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani and so I wanted to hit the store to get some chicken for next day. I was all dressed up (which is wearing a T-shirt that would beg washing and a Shorts that would wish it was worn inside out) and checked with my wife if I should get 0.5 or 1 pound of Chicken, as I was the only chicken-eat-tarian in the family.

Wife: “0.5 would be too less, you won’t get much for making the 65. 1 pound will be too much, you won’t be able to eat it fully. 0.75 pounds! How about that?”

And so w(if)e decided that 0.75 pounds is the right quantity of chicken I would need, if I should minimize the wastage, never mind that the Grocery store itself wastes tons of meat every single day that could not be sold.

The Hitchhiker’s guide to Grocery states that, If you know what you are going to buy, you should never turn back and check to see if anything else is needed. Because 100% of the time, you will be asked to get more. As I am someone who hasn’t read the guide (heck, the guide doesn’t even exist!), I ended up going for the door knob and making a courteous turn around and asked the dreaded question.

Me: “Do you need anything else?”

I could have simply opened the door and walked away merrily with just 1 item to buy, but no I had to be Mr. Nice Guy and turn around and ask. Little did I realize when I asked that question, that I was in for a big list of things to buy.

Wife: “Oh sure, we certainly need milk. I forgot about that!”

It is like Dominoes. You just tip one and the rest of it follows through and falls down. Now, being in US buying milk is not as easy as going to the nearby bakery and getting a half litre Aavin milk packet. It is much more confusing than you think.

Me: “Which ones?”

Wife: “Hmm… half gallon of 1% milk, 1 gallon Fat free and 1 gallon Whole milk” (Good luck trying to understand how the word “Milk” became such a long sentence).

Me: “Ok, I will get them.” and I thought I would be spared and that’s all I might have to get, but no. We are now going full fledged.

Wife: “Let me see the fridge!”

That is when I realized I would need a paper to write down the list, because my brain cannot hold more than 2 grocery item at a time. I already had 4 (Chicken and 3 kinds of Milk). I quickly grabbed an old receipt lying on the kitchen countertop and tried to look for a pen. After fighting for 2 minutes with the daugther over the only pen I could spot, which she was using to scribble notes on from her previous experiment, I was ready to take down the rest of the list.

Wife: “We need Apples. 4 or 5.”

Me: “4 or 5? Please give me one number and no, we can’t do 4.5″

Wife: “Ok 5 it is. You and your obsession with accurate numbers. We will also need a bananas. Just get a bunch whatever number you feel like and the usual Bread that we buy”

Choosing a bread itself is a big task. There are thousands of varieties to choose from. In India, it is easy to buy a packet of bread, you just walk to the nearby bakery and ask for a bread packet. That’s it your 2 minute bread shopping is done. But here, you have to choose if you need white or wheat or honey wheat or whole grain or multi grain or thin sliced or anorexic sliced and the list goes on. Thankfully, we just like the Sara lee Honey wheat and just stick to it. So no big deal there beyond your first few attempts of trying to choose and like one from the variety. We have already attained nirvana in the kind of bread that we need.

Wife: “And finally a Cabbage. Make sure it is white in color, it shouldn’t be green”

For a moment before that I thought the list was over with the bread. One more to the list didn’t hurt and so I added cabbage to the list.

As I was ready to shop in the store, working my shopping cart through the multitude of aisles, I realized that Cellphones are necessary evils. I have a separate post on themselves that I am waiting to post. I say this because, with an already confused mindset I get a phone call from home adding 2 more items to the list.

Wife: “Can you get 1 bunch of Cilantro and a bunch of Green onion? I forgot about them”

Me: “What? wait I don’t have a pen, I can’t write it down, I can’t remember the other ones, what did I buy, what else I need to buy, my god my brain is short circuiting, I see sparks.”

Wife: “You need those for your Hyderabadi Biryani tomorrow!”

Me: “Oh ok, let me just get it then, hang on!”

Butchers can easily upsell you.

Me: “0.75 pounds of Boneless skinless chicken thighs please!”

Butcher: “Sure!” and puts it on the scale “Oh! it comes to 0.84 pounds”

Me: “Take a little bit out please!”

Butcher: “oh, it is 0.64 now! that will be too far away from 0.75, you want more or you want less?”

Me: “Got me, I want more. Let’s do 0.84 pounds”

And so my friends, an average ordinary Indian Man who was quenching to eat a Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani one day, set on a mission to buy 0.75 pounds of Chicken but came back with a big list of items – 0.84 pounds of Chicken, 3 kinds of Milk, 5 Apples, 6 Bananas, 1 Bread packet, 1 Cilantro bunch, 1 Cabbage and 1 Green Onions bunch.

This post should have really been title “The Ordeals of Grocery Shopping – Part II” but I thought it would be cool to make the title rhyme like a movie and hence I titled it “The Indian man who went to buy Chicken but came down with a lot more”. Anyone wants to guess the real movie name that sounds like this title?

Edit: And the winner for the Movie guessing contest is Nikhil. The answer is “The Englishman who went up the hill, but came down a mountain”, starring Hugh Grant.

Cinzetti Vs Sweet Tomatoes

Cinzetti is an Italian all you can eat restaurant here in the United States. Sweet Tomatoes is a salad bar/italian buffet restaurant. It is not fair to compare both of them as they belong to different classes of restaurants, but this comparison is from a view of an Asian Indian who seeks Vegetarian food in the land of steaks and bacons. It is not easy for us Vegetarian Indians here in the United States to get some great quality Vegetarian food at restaurants other than Indian (or probably Thai). Cinzetti and Sweet Tomatoes both do a fairly good job at providing such food. Without wasting much time let’s get down to the details of the comparison in the order we eat.

1. Soups and Starters:

Cinzetti didn’t have much of soup varieties, they only had 2 Vegetarian (and no Non-Veg) soups. We had Minestrone Soup and it was pretty good. It tasted great with the Crouton breads and breadsticks on the side. The breadsticks and Crouton were the best part as it was crispy on the outside and soft and melty in the inside. We had never had any breadstick as tasty as this one. I have to say even though Sweet Tomatoes offers a lot more variety in the Soup department, the lonely but tasty Minestrone soup with breadsticks simply trumped the Vegetarian variety of soups at Sweet Tomatoes. The mixed Veg soup at Sweet Tomatoes might come close but the Croutons and Breadsticks at Cinzetti had the last say.

Verdict: Cinzetti wins hands down in the Soup department

2. Main Course:

It is Fresh Salad, Pizzas and Pastas at Sweet Tomatoes. I already commented on how the Pizza at Sweet Tomatoes tastes great and probably one of the best I’ve had. Well, that stays because Cinzetti’s Pizza couldn’t match even a little bit to Sweet Tomatoes. Pastas were cooked better in Sweet Tomatoes when compared to Cinzetti’s. Cinzetti’s pasta felt like it was cooked in a hurry. There was no salad for us Vegetarians in Cinzetti, Period.

But when it came to variety of dishes Cinzetti simply trumps Sweet Tomatoes handily. You will be left to loosen the belts of your pants or spend some extra time to make room for more food. Yes you will very easily consume more calories than needed at Cinzetti’s, although Sweet Tomatoes will also be sumptuous with lesser variety. The dish that we liked the most at Cinzetti was fresh made Crepe (Which is like Dosa for us South Indians). With Apple Cinnamon filling and Strawberry topping, the Crepe tasted awesome and easily the best part of our Main course experience. The fried veggie aisle was nothing great to talk about and they simply added to the variety rather than a great tasting experience.

Verdict: Cinzetti wins in Variety, Sweet Tomatoes wins in Taste.

3. Dessert:

With not anymore room left in our belly, we braved ourselves to a multi-variety dessert treat at Cinzetti. Compared to Sweet Tomatoes, which only serves a few muffins, brownies, Frozen yogurt and Fruits, Cinzetti was much more beyond that. Perhaps, this is where we saw the true Italian experience. With Several flavours of Ice cream to choose from, and multiple varieties of Pastries, Tiramisu, fruits Dessert made our experience at Cinzetti complete. Sweet Tomatoes even though offers lesser variety, you will feel you had a good desert experience but not fully exotic like Cinzetti.(I warned you they are restaurants of different class)

Verdict: Cinzetti makes it complete, Sweet Tomatoes makes you feel good.

4. Price: Ah! The economics of the game. It is evident from my description above that Cinzetti will cost you a little more than Sweet Tomatoes. How much more? as much as 50%. The weekend price at Cinzetti is $14.99 and Sweet Tomatoes is close to $8. So obviously, Sweet Tomatoes is more economical and wins in the pricing department. Because, I feel that even though you get a lot more variety at Cinzetti, your stomach can only hold so much and Sweet Tomatoes gives you enough great tasting food for a lesser price.

Verdict: Sweet Tomatoes is your wallet’s Friend

Overall: My Dear Vegetarian Friend, if you go to either of these above restaurants you will be in for a great vegetarian treat feast. Sweet Tomatoes gives you everyday value meal, reasonably good variety and great tasting food. Cinzetti offers that occasional quench for the exotic weekend dinner or a Rendez vous, Family Treat and parties with a good variety and great tasting experience.

Bon Appetit!

P.S: Sorry about an America centric post, But I thought that this might be helpful for all the Indians in America who look around for decent Non-Indian Vegetarian food.

“Software Engineer”ed cooking

I was wondering what would happen if Cooking is treated as Software development, following all the Software Development Life Cycle steps. To keep it gender neutral I will use terms like Honey and Spouse to refer to either sex.

The Non-cooking spouse sends his/her requirement for dinner to the Cooking Spouse via e-mail:

“Honey, I would like Venn Pongal and Sambar for tonight’s dinner. Luv – XXX”

Cooking spouse replies to the e-mail:

“I am sorry but your requirements are unclear. What kind of Sambar do you need? Do you also need Coconut Chutney? I know it is not mentioned but I have to ask to keep my customer delighted”

Non-Cooking spouse now gets careful and writes up a Requirment document and sends it to the Cooking spouse, the excerpts of the document is given below:

“Objective: To have dinner tonight

Requirements:

Req 1: Venn Pongal made using Sona masoori rice with less usage of Pepper corn and more Ginger. Rice has to be slightly over cooked for better taste.

Req 2: Onion Sambar with bits of carrot. Sambar can be made using MTR Powder if home made powder is unavailable. (Note: Use less tamarind paste as it will be too sour from me).

Platform: Standard Indian Kitchen with Standard Crockery items.

Contact List: XXX – +91 123456789.

Constraints: Internet Recipe References strictly prohibited. Use Mother in law’s provided Supplemental copy of Cooking for Dummies along with the Encyclopedia of South Indian Cooking by Grandma.”

Cooking spouse gets enraged by the non-standard compliant Requirement document and insulted by the Constraints statement, conducts a review with the Mother in Law and replies back with 10 defects and 15 corrections. A review workbook is filled and filed for Auditing purposes. After a few rounds of email the Spouses agree on what has to be made for the dinner.

Cooking spouse now sends an estimation workbook totalling the cost of the project as $400.

Non-Cooking spouse is now completely bewildered looking at the figure and hence resorts to a phone call over email:(N – Non-Cooking Spouse, C – Cooking spouse).

N: “Hello dear, How are you?”

C:”I am fine, whatsup?”

N:”What’s with this $400?”

C:”Estimated cost for today’s dinner.”

N:”But we are in India, why did you bill it in $?”

C:”We need to think global, so we should only transact in $”

N:”But can’t you use the money from the House eating budget Bucket?”

C:”No, that is not applicable for special requests. If I use that bucket you will be eating leftovers from afternoon lunch”

(N is caught in a diplomatic documental evidence loop)

N:”But Pongal won’t cost $20 even in a Five star hotel”

C: “Oh $400 includes the cost of Father in law even though he is in your hometown and doesn’t contribute anything, Phone support with Mother in Law and a new innovative idea for dinner making – iPod. Yes It includes the cost of iPod and it is just one time cost. I believe I can cook better if I listen to music while cooking. It will improve Quality Standards”

N: Sigh …ok!

The Cooking spouse finishes the office work and heads home to perform the design and implementation of Venn Pongal and Sambar. On the way, Cooking spouse collects the check for $400 and stops by the store to get the iPod. Cooking Spouse makes the Venn pongal sambar in an hour with the power of iPod and that is the only mention I am going to give above the actual cooking, to keep it realistic with Software Development. (Development is the peaceful, less noisy phase to the outside world. No one knows what happens during this time, only when things go to testing and production everything comes out!).

In the middle of cooking, the Non-cooking spouse calls up home and says “Hey, Can you also make Coconut chutney please? Just thought I would like that too with Pongal”

Cooking Spouse: “You will need to raise a change request and will have to pay an extra $20 for that and it may not get done until tomorrow morning. Is that ok with you?”

N: “phew! Never mind!”

Cooking spouse makes a mild noise “Meoow…Meooww…” and the neighbours cat comes to the window thinking “It’s time for testing!”. Cooking spouse feeds a little bit of pongal to the cat and monitors it for 5 minutes. The cat is all merry and goes home unaffected and the testing is certified.

Dinner is now ready and served:

N: “Honey, the pongal is wonderful. I am completely satisfied”

C: “Can you please fill out the feedback form for Customer satisfaction? Also please send this in an email,so I can send it to my Manager (Mother in Law) for an Award and my performance review for the year”

N: “Oh, but I had to add one comment. Sambar needs a little bit of salt.”

C: “I had followed your requirements word by word and it was assumed that we will use Standard amount of Salt for the dishes. I will have to analyze the problem and then will look into it.”

N:”Can we simply not add a pinch of salt to the sambar and kalakkufy (mix/stir)?”

C:”I will have to open a conference bridge with the mother in law and my mother and find out the severity of the problem. Only then I can decide what to do”

(N keeps eating slowly…)

(Conference bridge is open)

Mother in Law: “Lets start by systematically analyzing the problem. Has N fainted?”

C: “No, N is still wide awake munching down the Pongal”

Mother: “So this is definitely not a Severity 1 (High severity) issue then! Is he atleast choking, begging for life, anything at all?”

C:”Nope!”

MIL: “It is not even Severity 2 (Medium Severity) then. We have to categorize it as Severity 3 (Low Severity) and you don’t need to fix it until a week. That is what the service level agreement says”

(N keeps eating and is almost done now)

C says to N: “Did you hear that? I don’t need to fix it until next week!”

N mumbles as he finishes the pongal and C finishes off the pongal too. N fills the Customer satisfaction form and gives a 9 out of 10 rating.

N and C walk to the bedroom and crash. Now, in Software terminology Crashing is not good, the program needs to keep running unless it is Microsoft Windows. But since it is life and cooking, Crashing after dinner is perfectly ok and is a sign of successful cooking.

So, My dear fellow Software Engineers, just be glad that Cooking is not handled as Software Engineering.

My beloved Non-Software Engineers, from this please understand the frustrations we go through everyday. Also, Please don’t take any clue from the $400 estimation, it was just a joke, you won’t get an iPod for Cooking.

Price of Rice

I wrote this article a couple of months back on my old blog and even though some of the information is little outdated, it is relevant. I was tempted to repost this article after reading Nita’s Society’s badge of honour in which she talks about being friendly to the environment as one factor. When it comes to caring about environment talking about food is as vital as talking about energy consumption. So here it is:

A few years back sometime around early 2005, the price of a 20 pound (about 9Kg) rice bag costed us from $10 to $12. Three years later the price of rice in this region has jumped almost a 100% and it now costs us $20 to $24 for the same amount of rice. I remember spending around 15 to 20 rupees per KG of rice in India in 2004 and I don’t know how much it costs now. There have been various theories going on in the media and I would like to summarize what I know over here:

1. Our quench for Fuel never subsides. We consume oil and now we want ethanol. How do we make Ethanol? Using Corn. So as the demand goes up for ethanol, farmers cultivate Corn instead of wheat and more corn goes towards fuel for cars than as food to humans. With lowered Wheat production (due to the cultivable lands going towards corn production), people substitute wheat with Rice causing a demand for Rice. This is the case in the US and Europe. I had already talked about Ethanol in one of my previous posts.

2. People of developing countries like India, China want better nourishment and hence the demand for good food (read Rice as staple food for most of Asia) has increased. Well, we can’t really blame them for wanting good food, can we? I have an interesting link on this topic

3. Hoarding. That’s right, merchants still buy Rice in bulk and store them in a secret godown which no one knows or can see, which is called Hoarding. They sell it when the demand goes up. Hoarding is a huge issue especially in India. I do not know about other countries but the Govt of India has promised to raid and capture all these hoarders. Another Govt. promise that no one knows what happens to it after a few months of promise. It simply gets replaced by other problems and people forget about it.

These are the 3 main things that any media conglomerate will state. None of the above points can really be controlled by an Individual like us. If you are not a Corn farmer, how can you stop the production of Ethanol? If you do not live in the so called Developing countries, how can you prevent a demand surge? and don’t even think of getting into a shady Godown and fighting our dear “Hoarder Merchant”, That can only happen in a Movie.

There is one important thing that not many talk about – Food Wastage. I only read about them in some blogs. In our normal life, we tend to waste food. I have done that myself before. We buy a lot of Grocery, use as much as we can and trash the rest. Sometimes, we trash a lot, we forget we bought those and we never use it and just trash it when it expires. Is this something we can quit doing? You are damn right. This is what we need to do as an Individual. It is an undeniable fact that we waste food and now is the time for us to look back and see what we bought and what we use.

- During your next Grocery purchase, buy only the things that you used. Be efficient and never allow food to go wasted. By wasting less, we can have a huge impact on the price of food. You will be sending a direct signal to the economy that you are consuming less, there by the demand is less. You do not need to starve to lower the demand, but definitely avoiding food wastage will help it a lot. If you go to a restaurant, make sure you pack the left overs and eat them the next day. Go ahead give it a try. You will also save some money in the process.

- Avoid Impulse buying. When you go to grocery stores especially in developed countries, it is not uncommon that items are placed in strategic positions to increase sales and we know how much of an ordeal it is to buy Groceries here. We tend to have a lot of stuff in our cart that we didn’t intend to buy at all and this remains one of the main causes of food wastage. Stick to the list and you will save money/avoid food wastage.

- Avoid Panic Buying. Just because a Rice bag now costs you $20 and you expect it to go up, don’t go hunting around stores and stock up on rice. You are causing the conditions to get worse by creating artificially pent up demand. Sam’s club (A big wholesale grocery store in US) has done the right thing by rationing 4 bags of Basmati rice per customer. But we are geniuses, so we still stock up on rice by visiting multiple Sam’s clubs in that area. If you want the situation to improve, please stop carting out all the 4 bags from all of your local Sam’s club. Hey, if you buy so many bags there are chances of infestation, if you do not store the Rice bags in proper storage place.

- Consume lesser rice and substitute with Fruits and Vegetables. Well, one good reason to go healthy. Everyone knows too much of rice is not good for the body, so why not take this as a chance and replace one serving of your rice with a fresh salad (veggies or fruit). You will bring down the demand for rice and increase the demand for other vegetables, but overall it should work out fine.

If you have any thoughts yourself, Please leave it in the Comments section. Good ideas are always welcome.

Free rice for a word

Would you like to improve your English Vocabulary and donate rice to the hungry at the same time? If your answer is yes then I have got the perfect solution for you – Freerice

About Freerice (taken from their FAQ):

FreeRice is simply a website committed to the cause of ending hunger around the world. While it is not a registered non-profit organization, it is run entirely for free and makes no profit. All money raised by the site goes to the UN World Food Program to help feed the hungry. Sponsors make all payments to the UN World Food Program directly.

Read their FAQ section for more answers. An Ad-based website where you learn some new English words and donate rice in the process of learning is what it is all about. All the money needed for the donation is generated from the Advertisement on the page. This is a great chance to contribute our time to end World Hunger and also learn new things in the process.

Of Junk food and Tobacco

I love eating healthy food. But that doesn’t stop me from saying that from time to time I gobble up an odd Pizza or Some sweets, snacks, chips. This way I can keep my diet balanced. So how would you stop someone like me from even those rare inhaling of junk food once a while, well the Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss says it should be banned from College campuses.

Yes, that’s right. So if the student goes back home and his/her mom cooks a nice sumptuous meal dripping the badness of junk food, then I think that might be ok. In any case he says that Junk food cannot be sold in campuses within 100 metres. You see that is the deal breaker, you walk 100 metres from outside your college and voila there will be a line of Kaiyendhi bhavans (Roadside snack shops) waiting for you. I am still wondering what was acheived from this ban, so please help me out, may be brain has shrunk to the size of a lemon over having too many junk food all these days.

Ramadoss said, ”I have already spoken to chancellors, who have conducted meetings with vice-chancellors to ban the sale of tobacco and junk food within 100 meters of educational institutions.”

In other news, Tobacco it seems can be used to treat some form of cancer. But don’t get too excited and start smoking cigarette or chewing tobacco, as the side effects are not yet investigated completely:

However, so far, the experimental vaccine has only been tested on a handful of patients to check for any side effects, so its effectiveness at fighting the disease is still uncertain.

So a new cancer curing Tobacco based drug/vaccine can have side effects picked from the list – Nausea, Constipation, Heart burn, Sudden decrease in blood pressure, head ache, knee pain, mouth ulcer, reddish eyes, cramped stomach, gas, more gas and some more gas. Everything else will be fine.

But seriously this seems to be a promising discovery.

The Ordeals of Grocery Shopping

In those days Grocery shopping was pretty easy. It usually involved only a few steps:

- Mom makes a list of things to buy in a sheet of paper.

- You take the shopping bag and walk to the store with the list of things and some money.

- You struggle a few minutes to get Balu, the Shopkeeper’s attention. This is the only tough part and requires some skill of Tamil Yelling and hand waving and saying “Anne”(Brother).

- You hand over the paper to Balu.

- Balu begins packing your list for you, while you count the stars during the day, look at the nearby wall poster of the latest Rajinikanth movie, try to put bracket for the girl next door who is standing near you.

- Balu completes and you walk away with the things.

The whole process is completely seamless, as in you don’t seem to have the need to bother about anything. Life was so simple in those days. It can also be pictorially represented as follows:

The figure is not to scale, but who cares really. It is just 2 boxes and arrows.

But now, to shop for Groceries requires Super Human powers. The steps are similar but they are laborious:

- Wife makes a list of things to buy in a sheet of paper/you bring wife with you.

- Drive the cart with kid on the front seat in a huge supermarket as big as a foot ball field.

- Look for signs to find where you get Coconut milk and end up in the Pets Aisle.

- Look for Icecream and end up in Greeting cards Aisle.

- Lose track of where your wife is and go up and down the aisles looking for her, while kid is getting tired of simply sitting in the cart and trying to do the Minority Report Stunt.

- Deciding on which brand of items to buy.

- Read Ingredients and Reject items with High Fructose Corn Syrup as per Dr. Oz’s advice from the Oprah Winfrey Show.

- Count calories from Fat and Sugar on the label using complex abstract algebra with differential equations and transformed with Lagrange’s theorem.

- check expiry dates on each item.

- Mathematically and logically compute which cashier’s lane will move you faster.

- Ransack your wallet to decide which credit/debit card to use.

The list goes on.

There are so many things that the super market carry, you just wish that there was a Google Grocery. A web based tool for your mobile phone to show you the shortest distance to the item you are looking for in Aisle 7, or you just feed the list of things and Google Grocery gives you the shortest distance map of all the things. Of course, there will be ads of nearby and related items and you shouldn’t be distracted by that. But one such thing like Google Grocery is needed for us dear shoppers. If Google doesn’t come up with one then we will all have to evolve Supervision, which will help us track down the items that we need through our high powered Supervision Eyes, like the Terminator Robot.

But until then a common man like us will have to suffer the ordeal of grocery shopping and here is how i will pictorially represent it:

Legend:

Blue Rectangular Strips – Aisles of racks with grocery items

Yellow Rectangular Strips – Cashier Lines

Yellow Star – You are Here (Duh!)

Green Diamond – You need to be here.

Red circle with a strike – You don’t need to be here but you will end up being all over here more than once.

Little blue square – 100x Magnified view of your house.

The grocery store will be gigantically huge that your house will be just a dot when compared to the store’s size. In order for your naked eye to catch the glimpse of your house a 100x magnifying glass provides the necessary enlargement for your viewing pleasure. This makes the diagram not to scale.

Good luck with your next grocery shopping. If you have more fun facts and ideas about this please feel free to drop in your comments.

In Search of a Great Pizza

The round Italian Uthappam, The infamously delivered Vennai Rotti and perhaps the most popular edible item throughout the world, Pizza is world famous. Yet, it is a gruelling job to find the best Pizza in town. May be it is easy in Italy, but not elsewhere.

My first taste of Pizza was at Pizza Corner in Chennai and my reaction “boouuueaaahhhh!”. I guess hailing from South India where Rice (Ponni boiled Rice in particular) is the staple food, it was a difficult job to face a boat load of Cheese in just a circle of about 1 and a half feet diameter. Perhaps I was allergic to Cheese I thought, I was just not used to it.

The next time around I tried Pizza again, It was several years later in United states, in the state of California and for some reason, I was starting to develop an affinity towards Pizza. Suddenly, it was ok for me to munch down a bucket of cheese and sauce and still not feel “booouuueeeaahh”, The same factor which made me steer clear of these circular dishes did not matter anymore. I was exposed to Pizza Hut, Dominos and Round Table. I liked Pizza Hut of the lot. Yes, Pizza Hut is the King of Pizzas.

I carried the tradition of eating Pizzas from Pizza Hut to India. The greatness of Pizza Hut in India is they sell Indianised versions of Pizza. Palak Paneer Pizza, Paneer Butter Pizza, Vendakka Sambar Veggie Lovers (This one is a DIY by my Dad, He just smeared Sambar on Pizza and ate it like Dosa, Genius!) kept my thirst for Pizza varied.

With so much experience through the years with Pizza Hut, Pizza to me meant only Pizza Hut. It was like a symbol, a status, a standard. To eat in Pizza Hut is where you will find divinity, it is our destiny to eat in Pizza Hut. It is the ulitmatum of all Pizzas. It is the universal answer to life. It is 42.

Oh, I was so mistaken. I was blinded from the truth for so long. I saw only one road all the time and neglected others. With a much broader view, I saw streets later, I saw alternatives, I saw things superior to the Incredible Hut. It was like a long time Windows User finding Heaven in the form of a Macintosh.

I found 3 alternatives out of which atleast 2 I can frequent. After I found these, I hate Pizza hut now. I don’t want to go back to Pizza Hut. Here they are, Let the mouth watering begin:

1. Sweet Tomatoes:

It is a chain of salad bar buffet restaurant, which provides you with unlimited everything. You can eat whatever you can and whichever you can and they offer you Fresh Veggies, Soups, Pizza, Pasta, Muffins, Bread, Frozen Yogurt, Fruits and Thanks. If we go there, we eat our heart and stomach full.

I love the Quattro cheese pizza a.k.a Four Cheese Pizza. I cannot spell or pronounce the name of the Pizza but I can eat it. They cut it into small breadsticks like pieces and served hot from the oven. The layer of cheese is thin and the sauce is also mild. It tastes awesome, It can blow your mind, explode your nerves, bring world peace, solve world hunger! Currently, this is the pizza that is holding the top spot.

The optimal number of pieces you should eat though is 4, if you eat less you won’t be contempt, if you eat more you would feel you had too much and would develop a temporary hatred. 4 Pieces will leave you delighted and quenched from that Pizza thirst. However, 4 might not be the optimum number for everyone, you will need to calibrate it yourself.

2. Whole Foods:

Whole Foods is an organic Grocery store. They sell exotic food items that is. We make selective purchase of our Grocery from this place, as some of the other items they have can be very pricey. They make pizzas, kinda like how Sams club or Costco make Pizzas in a small counter, except Whole foods is way better. The Hearth Baked Pizza that they make is very innovative and tasty. Grilled Vegetable Pizza, Basil Pizza are some of my favourites here. They make the Pizza with thin crust and all sort of exotic vegetables. You will just love it for the variety that the Pizza has to offer and the taste of the crust. The cheese that they use is so much more tasty and better than Pizza Hut.

Each day the pizza is made from scratch and made at that place and served fresh and hot from the oven. The price is good too, $2.99 for the slice and $13.99 for a whole pizza (which is nearly the same as Pizza hut).

3. Statue of Liberty:

I wrote about the symbol of freedom a while back on my Mini Travelogue Series. But little did I know that there will be a Cafeteria at the Liberty Island and I will end up having a lunch there someday. It was quite a simple lunch -a Burger and a Pizza with family. We had to have our lunch there since we had no other choice. Time was running out and we were hungry and since it was a Cafeteria, our expectations were less. May be that was the reason that we ended up liking the 4 cheese box pizza.

It was probably not freshly made, or may be it was we didn’t know. But with low expectations and good hunger, we loved the 4 cheese pizza. Now that is a place where you won’t go everyday, but if you do get there hungry, there is always a pizza for you to treat your taste buds.

My search for a great pizza hasn’t ended though. I will continue my search.

This is what I would call a temporary Nirvana, an illusion that you have sought the best.

Even the best is temporary, for it will be replaced by something better as time goes by, until then you can live in the present and enjoy your best.