Hyderabad the heaven of foodies

HYDERABAD THE HEAVEN OF FOODIES

The Asafi Jahi dynasty ruled the Deccan for 7 generations .
Strangely this magic of destiny too had something to do with food .
Asaf Jah was travelling down to Deccan .
Hepaid his respects to sufi saint Nizamuddin Auli who asked him to partake his simple meal with him and served him Kulchas .
Asaf jah quickly ate 4 kulchas as it was very tasty .
He apologised to the saint for devouring food but saint asked him to take more and Asafi Jah had seven kulchas .
The saint blessed him and told him you will rule Deccan for 7 generations from now and thus came with Qutb shahi dynasty or nawabs of Hyderabad and a grateful Asaf Jah made the Kulcha a part of Hyderabad kingdoms national flag .
So a place with food in its flag should be the mother of food places .
And it is .
Over the years the influence of local and foriegn cuisines and influences melded to form an unique Hyderabadi cuisine .

During the pre 17 century Vijayanagar reign it mostly Telugu cuisine that dominated.
Once Deccan sultanate rebelled from Delhi there was influx from Turkey and Arabia  .
Dastarkhanna or food on a tablecloth in Turkish called Dastar became famous .
The use of saffron rice and kebabs is from these Turko persian influences .
The Arabs too contributed to the famous Haleem, a wheat mutton gruel legendary of Hyderabads breaking fast in Ramadhan fasting days but also seen all around the year .
The Telengana ,marathwada,Karnataka influence is seen too .
Kalyana Biriyani is seen mostly as a karnataka influenced flavoured biriyani where smaller rice is used ,unlike Hyderabad Biriyani ,it uses tomatoes .

Now just a list of major to eat in Hyderabad most of which we did .

Haleem
....lukmi   made of mutton kheema a snack
Tahari ..mutton with rice
Pathar ki Ghost...type of mutton khabab made on a stone
Hyderabadi Kichdi
Tala hua Ghost
Faludas and shorbets
Qubani ka meetha
Sheer kprma
Firni
Hyderabadi Kichdi
Baagar ee baingan

Of course Hyderabadi biriyani uses Lucknowi dum pukht nethod to slow cook its exotic mutton and fine long leaved Basmati rice spiced tenderly .
Paradise restaurant since 1953 today has a lot of franchises .
Bawarchi looks like a poor mans paradise in ambience but its tastier in its Biriyani than  the paradise one .
The paradise one too was superb .
We had some excellent juicy kebabs both in Bawarchi and in Paradise .
Baingan e barar is at times accompany biriyanis made of brinjal
The MLA Potalam Biriyani with its strange name in the Spicy venue in Jubilee hills where authentic Telengana Andhra cuisine was served .
It was an big thin  omelette with finely flavoured prawn mutton kheema biriyani inside.
One potalam will easily serve 2 as we left behind half our potalam .
The thali itself had pooris many chutneys pickles and curries called pulusus .
The steaming white fine rice was served with a dollop of ghee first to be taken with some dhal .
This opened the taste buds wide .
Later came sambhar called Pappu charu or pulses curry .
After this the thin soup like Rasam
Later thick white curds
To me a sprite and to my wife a thick creamy lassi .
Rayalseema Ruchulu is another famous place for Andhra cuisine .
When we come to desserts too Hyderabad doesnt lack behind
Qubaini ka meetha
Sheer korma
Firni
Faludas
Osmania biscuits
.
Of course home made delicious ice creams unlike any we had tasted was found in famous ice cream in Nampully in an old building .
One sat in the open watching the milling traffic and metro passing by as one dipped into the delicious flavours .

Irani tea outlets are very famous all over Hyderabad .most have red coloured highly flavoured tea boiling in kettles and very invigorating usually taken with osmania biscuits .
Osmania biscuits named after the nizam is both salty and sweet made of butter and flour .
Its crunchy
Next to Charminar in old city you find an Iranian restaurant Nimrah chai .
It has the most delicious cookies bread and bun and cakes .
Huge crowds occupy the front .
Iwent in and selected a huge jam bun
It was warm fluffy and smelt nice .
With the red colured chai ,the snack ,some osmania biscuits transported us  upto heaven .

Earlier in morning arounŕd 8 am we asked for Govinds the famous dosa place near the Charminar ,no one seemed to have even heard of it
Finally we reached a junction with many people waiting for a dosa in front  of a small cart and Govind was the primma donna joking laughing and at same making excellent dosas .
Ours  was so grand
Much smaller than usual dosas this was auburn in colour crisp on edges and as filling had onions cut vegetables.
By the time we left Govinds dosa more than 2 of them and some vadas had lodged in my gut with an excellent red coloured chai to wash it down .
I heard theres an upmarket Govind dosa in another part of city though we didnt try it .

One definitely cannot ignore the home made ice creams well known in Hyderabad .
In Nampully theres an old antique building which has a vast open ground in front owned jointly by ice cream shops there.
We sat in Famous ice cream .
The ice creams were soft succulent and tasted Home .
We did see exotic pans .

Finally if I dont mention Karachi biscuits in a Hyderabad food post I am doing injustice .
During partition days a family migrated from Sindh in pakistan to Hyderabad and brought their baking skills by opening Karachi biscuits .
The sheer variety of choice of cookies cakes biscuits bun breads etc is astounding .

And thus Hyderabad i declare is one gateway to heaven

Paradise Biriyani

And to end our Hyderabad food odyssey where else but in Paradise the legendary Biriyani outlet .
Started in 1953 as a cinema theater canteen it grew into a symbol of Hyderabadi biriyani though some say it aint so great and its poor cousin Bawarchi is as good .
With many franchises managed by corporate governance Paradise shows Biriyani is big business .
Would have loved to see their kitchen and preparing biriyani in thier kitchen but then was wondering if they would permit maybe come next time with my SLR and label myself as PRESS .
We ordered some lovely chicken kebabs as starters came to know kebabs were first made in Turkey and Persia and were grilled meat or chicken of course smothered in spices in India .
The kebab was juicy fresh and mint chutney was invigorating .
It sort of prepared our taste buds to the primma donna of the show the Mutton biriyani .
We ordered double masala one
My advice dont do that as the masala was bit jarring
Better to have without extra masala
Best part is the fine basmati rice
The flavours were exquisite
I do like a bit lime or tomatoe in my biriyani for a slight sourness but in hyderabadi biriyani tomatoes arent welcome .
No dry fruits too
The raita was bit watery
The mutton pieces in biriyani need to be boneless chunks well cooked it should come out in layers
This was cooked well but had bones in small pieces too
I mentioned this to the waiter as the biriyani didnt come cheap .
So my verdict Paradise is real good as a biriyani outlet
Thier kebabs too are tasty
But as they become busy they should not find short cuts too .

Srisailam temple

It was such a huge ancient temple but no cameras or mobiles allowed inside
So these from outside hardly worthy of the grandeur inside .
Situated 215 km from Hyderabad the route travels through a tiger reserve a couple of hills and a dam .
On reaching the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam  tiger reserve the largest  in the country of over 3500 sq km  checkpost a cloth bag was given for Rs 20 to every vehicle.
All our plastic waste is to be put into it and to be emptied in bins on exit of resereve .
We can give the empty bag and collect 20 Rs.
I felt this a great idea of avoiding litter
Same can be used in many public places ,zoos,resorts,hill stations etc .
There was also a small map showing sitting resting places every 4 km for people to picnic if they want
Only in these spots can they eat.

Srisailam is atop a 450 mts hill .
Deep in a gorge flows river krishna .

Itook around 4.5 hours with
tea and lunch stops added to reach Sri sailam from Hyderabad .
The temple was atop nallamalai hills on right side of Krishna river in kurnool dt Andhra pradesh .
The temple is mentioned in ancient writings but only in 12 century was it officialy etched in stone .

This is from premilas post...

Srisailam Malikarjunaswamy (one of the 12 jyothirlingas ) darshan this evening🙏
It is said that this holy Kshetram exists from time immemorial.
In Krithayuga demon king Hiranyakasyapa  is said to have done penance here . In Tretayuga Lord Rama and Sitadevi have said to have consecrated the linga here. In Dwaparayuga Arjuna and the Pandavas during their exile are said to have had spent some time here worshipping the deities . In Kaliyuga Adi Shankaracharya and other great saints are believed to have worshipped here .
The present Garbhagriha where the Jothirlinga is said to have been built in the 13th century and  at present this vamana gopuram is gilded with gold plates which glitters and adds beauty besides the magnificent 4 big gopurams and the beautiful designs on the walls .
The Bhramaramba temple here is said to be the portion of the neck of Sathi Devi during Daksha Yagna episode  and is said to be a Shakthipeeth
Whatever be the mythology antiquity or history of this temple the serenity peace and happiness within has to be experienced than told . What a way to end 2019 ! Namashivaya 🙏

The town was quite and we walked along lonely roads to the temple which was quite big .
Inside Mallikarjuna temple it was just beautiful with gold plated gopura of sanctum sanctorum .
There were pujas going
An air of serenity pervaded the place and a small of pure ghee lingered in the air .
The prasadams were made in ghee .
We then were taken in

The Drums of love

The burnished lamp glowed in its efflugence .
He looked from a corner lost in the crowd .

The line of fine elephants stood swaying , thier tiny eyes crinkled in amusement .
The drums beat in synched unison .
The cymbals clanged thier full stops ,the mathalam thier commas .
The elephant keepers stood shifting sand in their long hours watch .
The crowd was in a frenzy mesmerised with the rythm thier hands jerking up with the beat .
Exopthalmic eyes open they watched in a trance .
To them there was nothing else but the drum beat and those gentle giants .

But to him his search went beyond
He was looking out for something which made his heart beat faster.

He had watched so for decades now .

She would always come in resplendent white mundum neriyathum , her lithe slim countenance sailing like a floating angel .

The gentle smile on her face was still the same from the time she wore a golden blouse and skirt ,
 in those days he a humble temple worker still had some wild hope that he would win her hand ,the hand of the darling of the royal family itself .

He never dared to tell it out but just watched with mountains of love at his etheral beauty .

Her forehead head shone with brightness and the sandalwood paste on it glowed,
Her popping eyes shadowed her setting sun red full lips
He would particularly zoom into those lips and think about the time he would posess its softness.
Her nape of the neck with its gentle down disappeared in fine elegance to forbidden frontiers and his mind would almost feel his nose touching them .
But his love stayed as it was

Did she even know he existed when she got married in the same temple ?

The 6 foot bald man was disgusting to his eyes though he heard he hailed from kottakal kottaram and was a great match .

Later she came only for vritchikotsavam  every year more older tireder and sadder though her beauty never dimmed .

She would clutch her children close ,with time they would clutch her as she grew older and slower .
He lasted all along in the same job and  never married
He just didnt want and had none to take care of .
He looked forwards to watching the love of his life every year.
He had retired 10 years back
 they asked him to at 70 years

Now he stayed in a tiny room nearby mostly eating in temple .
old aqauintances  saw that Unniettan never starved
The ettan who loved laxmi thamburatti for 60 years .
He watched her once again leaning on a pillar
His body just slumped as he fell
They quickly carried him to hospital but he had left the world as quietly as he lived .

Laxmi thampratti asked her grand daughter
Endha kutti avide ?
Whats happening ?

Ammmamma one old man fell down maybe your admirer !
They all laughed

Laxmi too sighed
 true i had lots she said

The drums beat till dawn

Sree poornathresiya temple

I consider myself lucky to live just  200 meters from an ancient temple
Sree Poornathrayeesa .

Thura means a  port on the banks of river Poorna with a Thiru which is a respectful connotation so its Thiru..Poorni...Thura later becoming Thripunithura .

It also comes from poorna thrayee which is lord of 3 vedas .

The place was an ancient land of vedic learning called veda poorni where Arjuna comes with an idol in his poorni or bag of arrows which he places in this area and by pun it is pooni thura or open poorni as thura means open in malayalam .

Arjuna was given the idol of lord Vishnu as Santhana Gopala or giver of children for childless
A form of Vishnu not seen usually here hes sitting on the celestial serpent Adiseshah instead of lying down in ananthasayanam
He sits cross legged one leg folded one hanging down with four hands one with Chakra or swivelling diskette a weapon one with Sanghu or conch one with lotus and other resting on Seshan the serpent seat .

Once a brahmin kept losing his children one by one they kept dying as children and in those days people can blame thier king for thier fate unlike these days where the peoples fate is decided by the bloody politicians ..
So brahmin keeps cursing the king for every childs death
When his 8 th child dies Arjuna happened to be with the king, he promises the brahmin that he will protect the child born from death but that child too dies though Arjuna tries to save child he fails .

The brahmin ridicules Arjuna for his great words and dejected Arjuna tries to jump into a fire to end his life , but Krishna stops him as he loves Arjuna ,tells him to get all children if he can find out
Krishna plays a celestial game
Arjuna travels to several world paathaalam swarga naraga indra etc but in vain finally krishna helps him in doing so during this time krishna shows Arjuna the maha Vishnu form and Arjuna trembles with fear and piety
Krishna gives an idol of santhana gopala to Arjuna and tells him to consecrate it in a suitable spot
Arjuna asks Vinayaka to help him and he finds out Poorna river bank .
Vinayaka falls in love with the place and occupies it himself
Arjuna pushes him to west corner and keeps main idol in sanctum sanctorum
Initially the idol is in moolastaanam a temple in west of present one Poonithura Krishna temple
Later its moved into puthan palace temple by Cochin royal family and still later to present location .
Poirnathrayeesan is elder brother of Chotanikara amma whose temple is 10 km away .
One of most important festivals is Vritscikotsavam and falls in nov dec its for 8 days and on 4th day a very important ritual happens its Thriketta ir offering by devotees into a golden pot
Huge lines stand to do that ..same day elephant is caprisoned in gold
In 2016 the Cochin Dewaswom which manages the temple wanted to melt old caprison and make new one
Dewaswoms are an anamoly for hindu temples
Filled with politicians who loot it they do anything which benifits them
The royal family pleads to dewaswo

m not to melt gold as new one cannot be made before vritscikotsavam but its done
That year there was no gold caprison and it hurt so many tks to the dewaswom .
Such is the history of this great temple

Chinese Tibet

Chinese Tibet ...

In 1951 China signed an acession agreement with Tibet and in 1959 Dalai lama escaped into India
My post of his escape
http://hariwrite.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-escape-of-dalai-lama.html?m=1

After a decade of supression cruelty and  destruction of Tibet the Chinese gave more freedom built good infrastructure and attracted the younger generation who found life more easier with greater pleasures than thier old forgotten country .
Today with train from Beijing to Lhasa Tibet is very much part of China .
The Tibet which we went round mount Kailas was still in the process of modernisation .
It was never easy as geographically Tibet is a rugged plateau with high altitudes and building roads and  bridges and towns was an uphill task but rely on the Chinese to take hard tasks easily .
Overland route from kathmandu the capital of Nepal to mount Kailas was around 948 km
It went over Himalayan mountains
The border between Nepal and China and the customs building was in a place called
Keyrong .
It was reached after 2 hardy days of travel in bumpy narrow roads on high mountains and sheer falls .
Nepali villages were dusty unkempt in plains
In hills they were cute with flowers but the way up was filled with danger of imminent landslides .
We managed to avoid some but once needed to walk through a narrow edge where a landslide had destroyed road and reached other side to take a bus on other side arranged for us
Finally we reached Keyrung .
The Nepali custom was in a ramshackle building and we could see a big bridge on other side was China and its building was new big and neat .
We had to wait on bridge for some hours as one German couple with our troupe had to come the next day due to some visa issue .
Later we went to other side and sailed through very efficient customs .
We got into spank new buses and good roads but later roads became bad as they were being built and we needed to go off road though there were large empty spaces to go off road but they were bit muddy with rains and several times one of our troupes 2 buses kept sinking in mud and we had to wait for a JCB to pull it out .
By the time we reached Manasarovar after staying in a city called Saga for acclimitastion for 2 days it was like a very long journey .
Saga itself was a fine city with broad roads traffic lights hotels shops etc
Manasarovar gave us first glimpse of Kailas which was an emotional moment .
No one is allowed to swim or take bath these days in the freezing waters of the lake .
There was a bathing area where water was let in
Some of us just washed our faces including me .
We stayed in Manasarovar for a night next day morning we did some pujas offerrings for ancestors who had left us and then went to Drachen our final city with civilised hotels etc by late afternoon
Evening we walked up as an exercise to acclimatise to thin air
Tibetians sold oxygen bottles along with souvenuirs .
The next day morning we were dropped by our buses to yama dwar about 14 km nearer to south face of kailas
It was a big opening in 2 mountains and was named after the God of Death Yama
In the opening we could see the magnificient kailas
We got into our horses for a days trek to north face a place called Dirapukh but thats for another day .

Maradu kottaram bhagavathy temple

 Maradu kottarathil Bhagavathy temple is a well known temple ,very popular for its annual fireworks during its festival .

Today morning we walked to the temple though the maddening traffic made us walk warily .

Once we reached the temple it was very peaceful and quiet under the banyan tree

They say temples are built by aghamic traditions as battery rechargers filling devotees with positivity .

The idols can be seen as God or as symbols of God or as merely stone to focus our thoughts on the one and all supreme energy of the universe .

That is the beauty of Hinduism
Its never dogmatic .
It never regulates or dictates
You are free to form your beliefs
Even non belief is valid in Hinduism .

It has rituals orthodoxity superstitions but it also has a broader sweeping spirituality which transcends everything .

Neither is the idol worshipper,
 nor the believer that nature or quiet solitude in a conducive atmosphere allows him or her to connect to the power ,
either considered superior or inferior
They are all the same

Fragments of the one dissipating energy .

And funnily this ancient great religion is accused of narrowness by shallower ones .

Spiritual time out

At times the workings of the supreme are mysterious and different .
He truly doesnt need us humans to fight for him .
Iam only a seeker and i make no edictments on matters spiritual because the truth is I dont know !
But i do believe
Belief comes out of what you learn from your birth and how you rationalise it with the limited faculties available to you .

Without rationality it becomes dogma .

Strangely being a Hindu gives one the liberty to choose from being a seeker and /or a believer .
One can go to temples pray to an idol but viewing it as a God because the concept is so abstract that we need a form known to us to comprehend or wander the Himalayas knowing the nature around spells God in its every rustle .
One can say that there is nothing neither heaven nor hell and no superior inhabitant sitting atop the clouds with a magic wand .
That too is fine .
One of the best statement i heard
 (I wouldnt call it a joke ) is when God met man both said later ....Today I met my creator .

Another may find the positivity in a place of worship is what his God is .
The vibrations that trill his phreomones to joy be it in the resplendence of an idol or the nuances of a ritual prayer and prostration done with piety or in the rhytm of a choral or a sermon from the altar .

That feeling of fullness is spiritual bliss where you just know or feel the presence of God though like the blind men and the elephant you accept him or her (gender important these days ) based on your sensitivity .
Thats why temples were built in a fashion to increase that sensitivity  from  footwear less feet  or by the glow of   lit lamps or to the  listening to cymbals and drums in ritual music or by the adornments of an idol these senses of every visitor is heightened .

Temples and places of worship  are recharge centers for our souls .

Our views on things one  knows nothing about  by the tiny chinks open to one .

Within these limited parameters we form our opinions which are subject to changes once our vision gets widened and to me that happens when the time comes or when a soul is ready for it .

So till then lets rejoice in our belief never ever transgressing in anothers for true religion of the heart is accomodative and not combative .
Its all encompassing and never competitive .

Sorry for this rambling .

These were some thoughts that came out when we talked on this topic yesterday morning when we went to drop Shyam in the airport .

It was a spiritual time out with our son  .

Amitabh Bachan

From the lipstick toting, tree hugging ,Hindi film heroes of the seventies who sang mournful sings to thier doe eyed heroines, there arose a tall lanky denim clad young man ,with a far away look in his eyes  who looked lean mean and hungry in the film Deewar !

I still remember the scene where he bolts the huge shed to thrash the goondah bunches and teeters out to wet his head under a public tap .

Amitabh Bachan had arrived .

Though Zanjeer had come before this I think ,where the bonhomie the young police officer had with that mischivous Pathan rogue Pran ,it didnt make the next chapter like Deewar did .
Though the clean mammas boy Sashi kapoor did win all that brawn and power by a simple statement
Mere paas maa hoon .

Those were days when films taken were imprinted into our cerebral crevices with boiling seals forever .

Amitabh strode like a colosuss to steal   the popularity of the most popular superstar Hindi cinema had ever seen, Rajesh khanna ,with his twinkling eyes,where charming giggling girls by the gallon became screaming banshees in his presence .

And then on to becoming  the reigning don in so many films that brought tears ,happiness ,and wow ,from the audience  for decades ,this one man film industry had no equal to his  talent charisma and presence .
People loved him for everything even when he romanced the other woman the dusky temptress Rekha the cleopatra of Hindi filmdom and they even made a film where he enacted the real life role in Silsila with his wife and Woh .

Whether it is the time he  was by the side of his friend our former PM shri Rajiv Gandhi ,or as a politician in dusty UP ,or as an anchor doling out  crores in prime time TV ,or as a failed buisnessman in the US of A or  even when millions had  wept for him in a hospital bed in Mumbai ,or as just a floating most famous voice in documentaries he was the winner always .

A life time of talent,charm professionalism,skills,etiquette,grace,style,sauveness,and dignity.
As he moved into seventies and fell into roles like the aged lawyer who fights for the rights of women ,or became the son of his lanky actor son ,and so many more roles .

He still sang danced, emoted ,even loved and floored forever .

He spoke in his baritone voice the most famous in the nation which once was rejected in audition by a foolish AIR ..

Today this colossus is 77 and awaiting the Dada Saheb Palke award for life time achievement and rightly so too .

May I be one of the millions who wish and pray for this great actor and human being AMITABH BACHAN to get long healthy years ahead when he continues to make us happy .

...

 wish him the v best

Harimohan

Mutton olarthiyathu

Mutton Olarthiyathu .

Being a reasonably good cook of the malayalee culinary USB the Beef olarthiyathu, today I made a mutton version of the famous Syrian Christian dish ..
Kerala is the land of spices,coconuts,green canopy of trees,lashing waves  lapping backwaters,verdant hills and dark forests.

The damp humid and warm greenhouse it is , has many culinary delights which grew out of years of its kaleidoscopic influences from all over the world .

 At times when the rest of India had prohibitions to travel beyond the black oceans ,the shores of Kerala had Europeans,Arabs,and Jews,pouring in .

In AD 52 St Thomas was said to have spread the word of Christ in the South of Kerala ,and centuries later when the Portugese came and were surprised to know that Christianity existed in this land years back .

The advent of Islam in the 6 th century,
 Jewish refugees  ,
Arab ,European,Chinese traders or colonisers ,
 African slaves ,
little Kerala had more foriegners in it than the rest of India .

The land absorbed thier culinary skills and secrets ,and with time it melded and moulded them with local recipes using locally available food matireal thus giving birth to an unique kerala cuisine of which the Beef olarthiyathu occupies a primma donna position .

The Mallu loves his drink and his parotta and for both this was the best side dish made .

So today I wanted to be a bit different in making a Mutton olarthiyathu as this was not much heard of .

The core ingredient is the Coconut
Ie liberal use of coconut oil and coconut bits .
I went to Thripunithura market as a morning walk to buy mutton from my weekly regular butcher.

I tenderised boneless mutton  pieces with some curd, all spices ,salt ,for an hour

Later pressure cooked for 2 whistles and  kept it aside .

Took a frying pan heated coconut oil sauted ginger garlic pieces with coconut chunks ,added whole spices ,small onion cut well ,salt ,coriander ,turmeric,chilly powder in that order and once well blended added tomatoe ,curry leaves and later cooked meat .

The next part is the real secret of olarthiyathu .

One needs patience and hard work to go one churning the mix in low heat for a long time till all liquid disappears .

Add a bit of coconut oil when it turns dry
Add some pepper powder and meat masala nearing the end and later green curry leaves .

By now it would be brown black ,but not burnt or charred .

Mutton olarthiyathu is ready and yummy .

Maha memories

For someone born and brought up in Madras todays Chennai ,Mahabalipuram is like the back of his elbow.
From childhood its the quintissential escursion point for schools .
Year after year we were bundled into bumpy buses with home made sandwiches and waved off by indulgent mothers to this place .
In the hot sun we used to try to push down the butter stone precariously positioned appearing to roll down at touch of a finger but elephants couldnt budge them .
For centuries they have stayed there and they did too when another indi chini bai bai happened today .
1962 bai bai turned sour as the Chinese marched into Arunachal pradesh .
We did see those places too in snow clad hill tops off Tawang when our Bolero was willing but we werent ,dazzled by snow blindness we told the driver to get back to safety , forgetting Madhuri lake where a jumping Shah rukh had frolicked with Madhuri Dikshit .
We felt good that day to know Shah Rukh had stayed in our suite in Tawam tourist bungalow tired after his exertions with a curvy Madhuri ..i mean in shooting dont u get me wrong there .

Coming back to Mahabalipuram in tbe days of romancing my present wife we had made a trip to soft murmurings in Arjunas penance and later as freshly married couple in our yezdi .
The Shore temple gave a great photo op for reunion of my classmates brats with bellies for a stud only get together as the wind lashed the waves ,we drowned our nostalgias in iced bacardis .

How could we forget the family get together in a sea food place when we crunched into shelled delicacies gazing at the silhoutted shore temple .

But today lighted and burnished mahabalipuram was shown to the world as never before
Modi the wizard is surely a great marketing executive for our tourism .

Masala Times

Good Morning

To me ordering breakfast in a vegetarian hotel has never been a big deal for my choices are written in stone .
My family orders for me if iam still parking and tell the waiter...the strong coffee should come along with the dosa neither before nor after and ..please make it piping hot ....
The tons of masala dosas that would have contributed to the lard deposited in my body have done their bit to give me a smile for the day ,a small prize one pays for a big gift .
Good masala dosas are never dry nor dripping with oil .
They are just in the middle .
They are golden brown with a promising middle .
The edges to me should never be paper thin nor carpenter hard .
They need to Aishwarya Roy slim .
The filler potatoe masala should be blended smooth with right flavours and tinge of spiciness being very careful not to trip over the crevasse
It should rather sit on the precipe but never falling to doom .
The ghee should be smelt before tasted .
It should waft gently into our nostrils and stimulate the olfactory bulbs waking up the cerebral masala dosa centers (iam sure i have them ) and then a million suns bursts at the first succulent bite ..
The chutneys are always the side actors and can never replace the hero dosa and heroine masala .
My vada too needs to be in the right sense it cant be cold ,it should be warm ,with crusted exteriors and soft insides just like all good people are .

The best chutney to go with uzzhunu vada is the fresh coconut dry chutney not the watery liquid one .
The Coffee to me preferably south indian  filter coffee
I can settle for a Bru or a sunrise if well made .
Milk undiluted with enough coffee powder with just a spoon of sugar hot and scalding is my coffee
Any lesser version i frown upon
So thats it
Its always better to tell ones choices
Never know where my next masala dosa is from 😁

Bayon

Bayon......the temple ruins with faces staring at you from broken towers .
Faces enigmatically smiling almost like Mona lisas of Cambodia .
In the 12 th and 13 th century these huge sandstone blocks were broken from quarries and dragged by slaves or elephants and built as turrets and towers some say 49 others 54 but today only 37 are left painstakingly restored by the Japanese aided restoration which continues till 2021 from 2018 .
Jayawardane VII the Khmer king Buddhist by his beliefs built Bayon they say for himself while he built Anghor Thom for his mother and Preah Khan for his father .
Buddhist idols were fpund smashed and thrown later by Jayawardane VIII who installed Shivalinga and Vishnu as he believed in Hinduism .
The galleries were etched and modified from Buddhist tales to Hindu ones and later again to Buddhist ones .
The famous one of  Ravana trying to destroy mount Kailas on top of which Shiva resides,
The dancing Apsaras
The telling tale of Bhagvad Gita with Krishna preaching to an anxious Arjuna in battle fatigues strangely a hunter Shiva finds a place in this .
Sleeping Buddha in repose
The gaurding lions
Elephants being taken for a bath
The king himself in his palanwuin with his concubines marching along
The defeated Chamers running away from.the Khmers the victorious Chamers in another battle
Above all the faces the trademark of Bayon more cleaer as one climbs to the higher levels .
A lost temple in the depth of a forest
A time machine to take you back
BAYON

The meats of my life

The Meats of my life

Deer meat can be slotted as an exotic meat i think ,maybe in parts the forest dept would be upon my guts !
Once I  went with some friends to this legendary heritage Chinese restaurant in Brunei known for its dear (deer )delicacies .

It was tender and nice but to my selective Indian taste buds it would have been better as a spicy kerala style fry .

Somehow the original authentic Chinese cuisine doesnt appeal to me with its bland sourness ,mild hint of sickly sweetness, and no spice this side of Timbuctoo
Whats life with no spice .

I prefer our indo chinese any day with its scollops of tomatoes onions and chilly powder or pepper with India in every single morsel of its fried rices .

I need india in some form to make things perfect .

Once i had moose meat (incidentally my grandfather was a moos..thats a clan so named in kerala ..am not mentioning them !!  Dont accuse me of cannibalism thats one border i dont cross .)
This one is like mux oxen , a cross between Bison and Deer
I had this in Norway which incidentally had moose overbridges on highways so that they cross from one forest to other without becoming meat 😁 for me to eat .

My wifes cousins husband an young Norwegian doctor cooked for us an authentic kerala style moose curry  which was awesome with soft succulent bread helping  to beat the freezing cold then .

Once wandering in downtown Sydney I saw a burger shop with pictures of kangaroo Burgers
Had one promptly .
It didnt hop on me but behaved  as good as any self respecting chicken Burger would .

Ages back in a thatched hut of a kumily Dhaba amongst the increasing fog I tucked into an exotic jungle bird with some fiery local manna  along with my college mates .
Those were the brave young days .

The memory is as hazy as the weather of  that day me in those wuthering heights for the liquid concotion surely hit me more than the fowl birds did !
In a dinner in Cochin once in a friends house i  was asked to name a succulent meat offered in menu
it was the poor rabbit of course .

" I love animals, because they are so tasty" is  one famous statement of my son .

But I really dont like those slimy creepy creatures which the far East like to indulge in like those insects worms frogs snakes etc nauseating indeed .
So Iam wary of street food
I did find a lot in the neat sterile nightmarkets of Taipei in Taiwan but settled down for a sedate Beef sizzler with an ice cold Taiwanese Beer .
China was one place I dreaded as i expected Snakes for snacks but proved to be otherwise .
I never saw reptiles there but my first bite of a fresh cabbage momo like dumpling in cold Beijing won me over and i have to mention the famous Peking duck which we had in a bye lane behind the Beijing palace a place where tourists hardly venture guided by our sauve guide .
In the streets of Bangkok and Patayya there were slimier choices so one could ignore the crawling ones .

As far as Japan is concerned Sushi is squishy to me and Sashemee is not for me .
My trials with these have never made me thier fans .
To me after knowing fire why should we hark back to the days of uncooked food our poor naked caved ancestors ate  because they had no   choice .
I agree Sushi is considered  an exotic gourmet dish by those who like it and I write this with due respects for thier liking .

Iam a fan of American food for one the Yankees are cool they have food in large sizes no nibbling like the French and to cut into a medium steak dip into a sauce is inviting not to mention those dripping Burgers and the yellow fries in ketchup
Dont scrunch your eyes my paunch never does .
But European breakfasts are just lovely .

I love  fresh crunchy sausages ,French loaves ,Turkish Balclavas which i bit into in the Swissotel Bhosporous during a chilly morning .
I liked the French pastry i bought off the Champ de Elysee on my walk to the Lido for dinner .
Once in Vienna a hot dog guy in a van gave me one with some fiery sauce as i kept asking for spicier one.He got his revenge as i went hopping like a rabbit all the way to the UNESCO  headqaurters .
In the rainy streets of Frankfurt we once had a selection of  meat and fine wine in a dinner hosted by a good German neuroradiologist friend in a heritage restaurant .
I loved the fresh breakfast we tucked into on our long drive from Vegas to grand canyon .

 Give me meat cooked slowly over time on a wooden fire its juices shining in red oil any time
May not  be good for my middles but excellent for my happiness .

And now to my home

 The variety indian cuisine has
Is just mindblowing
Every state every region every village every house has its story to tell it has its secret recipe of taste unheard of
Its just like indian music with infinite possibilities
The state of someone spoilt with this depth getting exposed to simpler alternatives is depressing !

Syabrubesi in Nepal

During our overland bus travel from Katmandu to Keyrung the border town of Chinese Tibet we stayed over on our onward trip in a beautiful hill village called Syabrubesi 2380 meters above sea level on the way to Langtan valley and in the Langtang national park known for its trekking routes .
Even though the village is just 80 km from Katmandu it takes more than 8 hours to reach there as the single narrow treachorous uphill road is dangerously steep with dizzying sides goes upto 5000 meters up to descend into valley .
Landslides prone area we had to stop for a couple .
The only vehicles possible are mini buses like ours or jeeps .
The river Trisuli known for white water rafting flows through village .
As it was dark we didnt see much of the village on way but on return we reached in time for lunch and we rested for some time before leaving the place ..
Its a lovely hill station with dreamy cottages spewing thread like smoky chimneys ,foggy valleys,gurgleof river,hot springs ,and chilly weather  .
The food was warm served with great hospitality ..

Cochin Metro

The extension of Cochin metro to Thycoodam later to Thripunithura will make a big difference in a city thats burdened with poor roads busy traffic and inadeqaute bus services and sorry driving .

All big crowded busy cities in the world have metros as main transportation like  New york Istanbul,Rome,Japan,Singapore,Hong kong etc .

They are efficient quick sleek and user friendly .

The connecting of south and north Railway stations to the most important transport hub of Vytila with a promise of water metro is the best thing that could have  happened to the city .

Now the planners need some imagination .

The KSRTC stand in Ekm should be  dismantled and Vytilla be the main terminal as it can be connected to all parts by metro  .

Cochin west Vypeen and many other parts can be connected by water metros .

Vytilla terminal needs to be a multistoreyed vast complex with metro.bus.boat .taxis.auto all in three floors
Multiparking in basement nearby
Malls entertainement hubs hotels markets corporate offices should be incorporated in this sprawling say 15 storey multi complex .

The KSRTC stand in city center should be turned into a huge park with refurbished stadium and a green lung for city .

All places with water acess like Ernakulam market ,marine drive  ,Nettoor,Thevara,wellingdon island,fort cochin ,mattancherry ,edacochin ,kumbalangi should be part of fast water metro connectivity .

Last mile connectivity by E Autos ,Bicycles under apps ,and small shuttle vehicles are needed .

The Cochin Airport definitely needs to be connected by water and land  metro  but airport city fare can be bit more costlier as in many cities .

The unified metro cards should be made available everywhere and topping it should be easy by apps .

Senior citizens and handicapped should get concessions .

People using metros need etiquette training to alight by waiting on sides of doors for people getting down instead of pushing in like bulls .
All transport should be kept clean .

With some effort we can create a modern Cochin .