Food

RECIPE : Masala Upma

If you are hungry and want to cook something quick (which is the case with me and Laksmi all the time 🙂 ), here’s a recipe for masala upma. Upma is a south Indian dish usually eaten as breakfast. It is also eaten as a snack and can be prepared pretty easily. Masala Upma is a variant of the dish with some spices and vegetables. Credit for the recipe goes to my sister-in-law.

Ingredients:

Here’s a picture with all the ingridients in their glory

Process:
Heat up some oil in a pan. Add a spoon of mustard seeds (aavalu), Cloves, Cinnamon and let them sizzle for a minute. Add the onions and when they get golden brown, add the chillies, bay leaves, mixed vegetables, salt and the cashew nuts. Stir fry for a minute and add 4 cups of water (add two cups of water to every cup of rava). Bring the water to a boil and add the rava to the mixture, while stirring it. When the mixture thickens, let it simmer for a few minutes and add some chopped cilantro on the top. Enjoy the dish hot :).

Here’s a picture of the dish

New cuisine..

We went to Ros Dashen, an Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate a friends upcoming birthday. For those that haven’t tried Ethiopian food and like spicy cuisine, I would highly recommend trying it. In addition to the tasty food, the whole experience of sharing the same plate is very interesting. The food is served on top of pancacke like sour bread that you end tearing up and dipping/wiping the food in along with the rest of the folks at the table. Here are two pictures that show, how much we appreciated the food..

This is what we got…

This is what it ended up as… 🙂

New favourite Chinese restaurant

I accidentally ended up at the “Chinese Friendship Restaurant” on 2830 N. Miwaukee after a recommendation from a friend. I was pretty impressed by the service and food. It was authentic Chinese served with a flourish. The wait staff was very attentive and the owner (at least I like to think so) was making rounds to make sure that all the guests were happy. And a added bonus was their “Tuesday Special” where all the entries were only $8.95. The prices are a bit high for Chinese food but well worth it. Highly recommend the “Spicy Peppercorn Beef” and the “Spicy Garlic Shrimp“. Think this is my new favorite Chinese restaurant :).

Lazy weekend

It was a rather lazy weekend.. but got to attend two parties at some friends houses. Today afternoon, went to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba to try out some tapas. Highly reccomend the Chicken Paella at this restaurant. It was a bit on the pricey end, but the atmosphere was rather casual and laid back. Love places like this.

Here is a shot of me enjoying a good pint of english ale with my friend Sri.

And the Chicago Bears are on a rampage :). Looks like 2005 is going to be a good year for the Chicago sports fans..

Go BEARS!!!!

Larry the lobster – Ocean to Kitchen

Brian is an avid scuba diver. His typical routine is Work – Home – Dive – Work – Home – Dive … He is even working on getting a rescue diver license. He usually finds interesting stuff during his diving trips, so when he tells me that he found something “special”, I was expecting a shell or something like that. Little did I know that I was in for a treat today :). So without further audue, here we go

Brian - Diver - Fisherman!!
[Brian with his catch of the day.]
Vinay - Poser - Uneasy with Lobster
[Me, taking the chance to pose with a lobster.]
Larry - The Lobster
[Larry – The Lobster]
Larry' Death Bed (tub)
[Colorful food.]
Larry - Goodbye!!
[In he goes :)]
Larry - ready for the table
[Out he comes]
Presentation..Presentation..Presentation
[And right onto the table]

Yummy… To quote Brian “Hey man, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time” :). Sorry Larry.

Taste of Kapolei

I recently moved from Chicago to Hawaii to pursue my career. Thanks to my good friend, Brian, I get to live pretty close to work. I noticed today that these guys here are trying to mimic The Taste of Chicago, appropriately called Taste of Kapolei. Only difference is that you buy a single $60 ticket. Don’t know if that entitles you to unlimited food or not?? Have to try it out. Will post an update of I do go there.