Word Attack!!

Onion Dosa Breakfast and Square Dosa Musings

I had the most amazing onion dosa for breakfast today! Well, it was the first time i’ve had it, and I don’t know if it could be any better, but I’m a fan now!!

It so happened, that I was passing by Balaji Veg(our local veg fast food resto) and I saw a couple eating some sort of square dosa. I was intrigued. It looked crisp and it must have been pretty good because the man kept leaning over his own masala dosa to try some of this square dosa from the girl. I wanted to try it too, but I didnt know what it was called. I know plain dosa - crisp, flaky dosa that disintegrates beautifully in hot sambhar, I love masala dosa, the portly cousin of the plain dosa, with a handful of potato palya peeping from inside, glimmering because a nice fat blob of butter has been tossed over the palya, before the dosa is wrapped up..I know set dosa, but since i haven’t tasted it yet, I’ll assume it tastes as insipid as it looks. But this one, I didnt know what to ask for. At the counter, the man looked busy. I asked him if they have a square dosa but he shook his head. Maybe in the din he didnt hear me.

SO this morning when i went out with Azhaan, I thought, let me try out all the other dosas they have. One of them will surely be the square one. I asked for Onion dosa and the man nodded and gave me the coupon. I had the strangest feeling as I gave the coupon at the other counter. Like, what the heck are you doing with an Onion dosa coupon? You ALWAYS buy idlis, or vadas or masala dosas…don’t you know what you’re getting into?

I watched avidly as the dosa chef spread the batter. Square, let it be square I thought. But it was the usual round. And to my disappointment, he loaded it with chopped onions and coriander. Obviously. Well, what was I thinking? Onion dosa. Obviously it would have onions.

It seemed to take a longer time than usual to make, and I waited as he finally served it on a plate. Two small bowls, one with chutney, and the other with some red curry were kept ON the dosa, and he plunked some white chutney on it. I took it with me outside because there was no place inside. With Az on my hip, I broke a piece and put it in my mouth. It was fabulous!! The long time he had taken over it, (after flipping it) ensured that both sides were crisp, without becoming papery. The onions were half cooked and half crunchy, but it was just great!

When I finished it, I wondered which one the square dosa was. Next time. Next time I’ll find out. And onion dosa wasn’t bad at all!!

Chick lit…

Do ALL chick lit books read the same? There seems to be some sort of formula here. Working girl, messy life, London, parents in suburbs, girl friends and men. Of men, there seem to be two types: the good looking guy who she will fall for, but who will turn out to be an SOB and the slightly offbeat character who is actually her true love, but believe me…she will look the other way as long as possible! Chick lit authors probably take these ingredients, toss them around here and there and work in other things and voila…there it is!! Their runaway bestseller! While this may sound patronising, actually it isn’t. I really, really love Chick lit books! They’re so full of life, and the contemporary and conversational tone the author sets is something I find really cool.

I read Bridget Jone’s Diary about ten years ago and I thought it was amazing. Here was a book that didn’t read like a book. At that time I hadn’t even heard of chick lit. I read the book that Helen Fielding wrote before Bridget Jones and I read the sequel to Bridget Jones too. The movies were passable I’d say. I am not so fond of Renee Zellweiger ( I find her Brit accent very slow and pronounced, but maybe its just me)

I haven’t read that many chick lit books over the years. I got into a phase of reading books by Indian authors and that hasn’t left me yet. So when I popped into my library last week, for some reason I picked out a book that literally screamed ‘chick lit’. Pink cover, shopping bags, high heels….:)

I started read it..oh, by the way, its called The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopoholic, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I’m enjoying predicting how bad things will turn out for this girl, and seeing my predictions come true too!!

There’s not much to review in it, and although its not like some of the fluff I so shamelessly read (historical romances, and the like…), I don’t think I’ll be posting a review about it. That’s why this post comes under the Just Stuff category. But for now…i’m getting back into the world of the serious shopoholic.

Yeh kya hua???

It started because of those severely insipid vanilla wafers that Mansoor brought home the other day. Me and the boys were like, seriously,..what were you thinking? Vanilla wafers???? Mansoor thought it was pineapple since the packaging was yellow. I was like, pineapple? When it comes to wafers its only chocolate for me, and apparently thats the case for Saboor and even Az!

So, I thought I’ll use them in some recipe, called up ammi, asked her for the recipe for some dessert of my childhood that she used to make, by layering custard, wafers, biscuits, custard etc and freezing it. Sidra smsd me the full recipe, and i spent my Sunday evening pottering about in the kitchen doing that.

I followed the instructions, but there are times when your mind seems to be glazed and although you’re seeing things, you’re not really looking. The heat in the kitchen stunned me a bit, and then I stood stirring the custard, a little stupidly perhaps…and there! before I could realise what happened, it had curdled. What was supposed to become a creamy custard became a disastrous curdy mixture. There was no way I could use this. SOS alert! I called ammi, who said that she really couldn’t do anything, as she was sitting some 7 to 8kms away.

‘Make ande ka halwa with it’ she suggested when I sounded desperate. ‘Add some khova, a little crumbled biscuits, some ghee and stir it a bit.’

I quickly delegated this task to my MIL who was glad I was thinking of not wasting food, by making more food. Then, I heated up another litre of milk, reduced it, and started the custard process again. I remember, there was one point where I actually opened my eyes wide, just so I didnt miss anything.

I waited and waited for the custard to thicken. When it seemed slightly thick I switched off the gas and followed the remaining instructions, of cooling it, adding gelatin and vanilla and then starting the layering process.

By this time, my MIL had finished making the halwa. It was not a bad effort considering that it had started out as something else.
When I got down to the exciting part of layering the pudding, I dipped the wafers in juice, arranged them neatly on the base of a pretty bowl, and poured the custard over it. Only thing was that the custard hadn’t thickened and the wafers promptly floated up. What layers, I thought in disgust as I poured the rest of the runny custard into the bowl and jammed it into the freezer. When I peeped into the freezer after half an hour, the wafers were floating and I realized that this was an even bigger mess than the first attempt!!!! I had to hack off a few blocks this morning for Saboor and Mansoor, who kind of liked it, but decided it was too sweet for them. Its still lying in the freezer. I hate it when this happens!!! And by the way, the ande ka halwa is ok. Its not bad, but its not fantastic either!! Yeh kya hua!!!!

What a waste of time!!

Usually my experience with indiaplaza has been good. Especially when it comes to buying books, they offer some of the best deals. And once you become their customer they keep you hooked on by sending you gift certificates for small amounts that you are tempted to redeem even though you don’t want to buy another book.

Sometime back I had got a gift voucher from giftmate. I used it to buy a book for Saboor on indiaplaza and they had an offer that they would send a new gift voucher of the same value as the amount I have spent on the book. I got the gift voucher some days back. I never read the fine print. I dont know why. Anyhow, its been on the back of my mind to pick up something for me or the boys. Why to waste it I thought.

And tonight, I thought I’ll wrap up some office work, but in stead I got side tracked into surfing indiaplaza. And there I’ve been, deciding on that, wondering if this will do, and finally I dumped everything into my virtual shopping cart, checked out(virtually again) and when the payment option came, I thought…ha!! no entering my bank’s web banking portal you! this time its your own gift certificate(GC) which will do the honours for me. I hit enter after pasting the GC code, and what do I see?

‘This GC can be redeemed for only purchases up to Rs. 955.’ I blinked in surprise. Quickly I went back to my email, scrolled down the full page and saw, ‘This Gift Certificate can only be redeemed online at http://www.indiaplaza.in for a minimum purchase of five times the Gift Certificate amount.’ I remember reading it, but not really wondering what it meant. Then i realized…my GC value is Rs.191, and so five times 191 is 955.

No way was I going to spend my 955 here…when there’s no need to really. And how much time have I wasted browsing through possible ways I could redeem the voucher to actually blogging about it here!!! What a waste of time seriously!

Smell

Naturally I was intrigued by the name of the book when I came across it in the library. It was a debut novel by Radhika Jha, and reading the blurb on the back intrigued me further. I got it back home and was caught up in it, in no time at all.

Smell is an unusual book, one that really had me stunned at times with the evocative language. It is the story of Leela, living a carefree life in Kenya until her father dies and her mother sends her to Paris to live with her father’s brother’s family. Leela’s perspective of Kenya, the wide open spaces and then Paris, the confined living arrangements and how she breaks free form the beginning of the book.

The name of the book comes about, because of Leela’s acute sense of smell. Where others see and merely look, Leela can smell. Some of the descriptions of the smells actually had my nose twitching. Leela escapes the humongous Aunt Latha and her husband(her father’s brother), and with the help of a friend, learns French and then moves in and out of relationships quite predictably. However, it is at this time, that she discovers that she too has a smell. It is fetid and she is afraid of being rejected because of it. Her relationships suffer because of her preoccupation with her own smell, until of course, she finally finds someone she is really happy with. The smell comes in here too, attacks her when she least expects it, and there follows a period of extreme madness in which she travels across most of Paris, on train and by foot, trying to rid herself of the smell.

A very interesting book, written beautifully, and apparently, this was a best seller when it was released. However, there are places where it drags and you kind of lose interest in Leela and her life. It picks up pace languorously and then moves in a steady momentum till the end.

Still, a definite recommendation to read it from me!

Was it love????? Uh no….

What is it with magazine editors? They changed the name of my story, naming it something I wouldn’t have named it in a thousand years. It kind of deflated my happiness when I saw the name of the story, had been changed from The Phone Call to Was it love?

Anyway, that’s beside the point. I am thrilled to have finally got my story in a magazine! I have to scan the story yet and send it to everyone. Until then, here’s a dekko…

Kids!

My MIL had some suitcases outside and Az and Rayaan promptly made use of them as seats. They played on top of the suitcases and then at some point, Az felt very loving towards Rayaan and he bent over trying to kiss him, saying ‘BeeBee’. Rayaan, affectionate and bumbling lil fella that he is, thought that Az was now his friend and tried to topple him over in an enthusiastic response. Needless to say, before the day was at an end, Az had bitten Rayaan because he was by now absolutely fed up of Rayaan trying to be friendly with him! Kids!!

Nothing yet

I’m a little disheartened right now. But I shouldn’t be. Anyway, here’s the update on my novel, Kite Strings. Osians Literary Agency showed a lot of interest in my novel and today they replied. They can’t represent me, but they are very interested in representing me if I make some (a lot actually) revisions.

And even though the actual writing work is out of my way, this revising and editing is not something that I look forward to. However, it may be for the best of the novel. The only good thing is that they haven’t rejected it outright. They are waiting for me to send the revised novel.

So, until then, nothing yet…

Glorious Aamchoor

September 16th, 2007

Whenever I went to Vellore, amma (my naani) would call me aside and when no one, specifically my mother, was looking, she’d hand me some aamchoor. How I loved her for that! Aamchoor was something even better than chocolate!

Sour, tart, dripping with salt…a piece of aamchoor could last for more than two hours if you just nibbled at it. And it was something we often did, nibbling at the aamchoor while playing cards with the others, or simply lazing around in the old house in Vellore, or lying down on that huge swing that was there in amma’s house.

As I grew older, however I started liking aamchoor that was dry and not soft and squishy. I wanted to learn how to make it, but every year, during the mango season whenever I’d put out the mango pieces in the sun, they’d magically grow less and less, and even less, until there wasn’t much to dry anyway. Magic being, one of us who would pop a piece or two on our way to ‘check’ it out on the terrace, to shoo away crows ostensibly.

Last week on my trip to Vellore, I had my first bout of car sickness. I MUST be growing older. I’ve never had car sickness ever! But this was awful! Spinning head and squirming insides! They called for a nice, big piece of aamchoor to quell it. But as luck would have it, no one had any.

At our stop in Visharam, there was no aamchoor in chichajan’s house(he’s my mom’s uncle). Then, in Sathvacheri, there was no aamchoor in my aunt’s house either. I was getting desperate and didn’t want to sit in the car at all!

On our way back, we had to stop at khalajan’s house(mom’s youngest sister) who lives in Alathur. I asked her if she had and she said she’ll be right back. She came back with this HUGE bag of aamchoor and gave it all to me!!!

Azeem also loves aamchoor and he was hankering after it. So I told him, we’d split it back in Bangalore. On the way back, I happily nibbled at two pieces and watched disgusted as Saboor popped a whole piece in his mouth. He used to hate aamchoor when he was small, but thats changed now.

Aamchoor was the only thing that helped me out last year when I was pregnant and had such awful digestion problems. On the way back, I asked Zakia aunty how to properly make aamchoor and she gave me instructions. Will post that later in another blog.

Mmm! Right now, I’m fasting and all this talk of aamchoor is literally making my mouth water. I’d better stop right now.

Jobless!! Who? Me?

How else would you describe someone who opened a new wordpress blog, exported all the blogs from Word Attack there, deactivated Word Attack, tried to incorporate the new blog in www.andaleebwajid.com…found it wasn’t happening, re-activated a new blog in the website with Movable Type, found it wasn’t so cool, deactivated that, re-activated a brand new blog in wordpress for the website, and then re-exported all the blogs from the old Word Attack to the new Word Attack?

Whew! I can’t believe this is how I spent my evening. Jobless or what?!!! More like mad, i’d say!!
I still have some issues to iron out with my new blog. And I want it to appear on my website. But for that I have to give it an external link on the home page. Anyway, you guys don’t scratch your heads over this. One head(mine) doing the scratching is enough. I’ll figure it out one of these days for sure!!:)