Ladled

There's nothing like finding a solution to a problem you have faced. Some time ago I struggled with softening hardened brown sugar. If I had access to page 13 of What Einstein Told His Cook , I would have known the reasoning. Until then some easy and some difficult tips . 10.15.11 have the book now. The author suggests putting the sugar in a tight lidded container, covering it  with a plastic wrap, then placing a damp paper towel on top ans seal it for a day. Other things I learnt from the book: Instant noodles  are deep fried, so they can retain shape.

Man Ray's creation A critic compared The Slave Ship  to "a cat having a fit in a platter of tomatoes." - What the Great Ate

About Jackson Pollock "He was very fastidious about his baking - marvelous bread and pies," said his wife, Lee Krasner."He also made a great spaghetti sauce." - What the Great Ate Henri Matisse could cook three different kinds of onion soup, a popular dish in Northeastern France, where he grew up . - What the Great Ate Even regular chefs can miss the traditional cheese topping on the French onion soup.

While going through a post on French idioms  related to cooking, I wanted to write one such too. The one that first comes to my mind is ulli chesina melu thallaina cheyadu, onion does more good than mom. I dont like raw onions. Raw onions are had as salad in North India. They are had along with lime juice while eating non-vegetarian food in Telangana. They are also used in perugu chutney . I have mostly had this in weddings. Other foods that I associate with weddings is Spinach with Chanal Dal left whole instead of mashed. As a child I have seen elders in villages have small white onions along with buttermilk. Those onions were not agreeable but I wonder why they still had them. On onions: "I don't like food that talks back to you after you've eaten," Chanel said. - What the Great Ate When it comes to food talking theres an idiom in Hindi kal ke chole aaj ko bhole about chole announcing themselves flagging the end of digestion. But so do onions. Actors and...

All kids love icecream and chocolate. You might say except one and each person might know just one person who doesnt like them. Given the popularity of icecream, if I am in the vicinity of kids, I will break into icecream making. Between icecream and hot beverages, I will opt for the hot stuff but recently I did have tutti frutti ice cream . Its a great flavour.

On our train trips mom often packed Pulihora Judith Choate  calls Macaroni and Cheese, a great traveler in her book A Readers Cookbook . Maple-Mustard sauce in this book piques my tongue. Garlic Almonds doesnt. Pollo borracho Cranachan Pissaladiere Liberian coconut bread This bread needs coconut water. Although I can find canned ones, I want to use a fresh coconut for this. Today at Safeway I walked by Zico coconut water . In the last month, I have offered some coconuts to God and each was an experience. Once I broke the coconut and forgot to save the coconut water. Another was so tender that I ate it even before it could get home. One turned rot and thats believed to be a good thing. Ma'amoul Dal Pancakes . I happened to have Patoli  for lunch today which requires yellow split peas to be soaked. I should have soaked them longer for the dish to be more palatable. Yesterday a colleague of mine passionately recalled  dal puri  being made in Caribbe...

The menus in Comfort Table  come with a playlist. I am reminded of MasterChef Australia  where in the contestants had to prepare  a dish that would mimic the sin they chose. nutella french toast sandwiches  fits gluttony. There's a recipe for oysters on the half shell with mignonette sauce. I looked for the mignonette sauce but that didnt follow. I forgot all about the word until I came across it in Near a thousand tables: a history of food . Mignonette  is also a ship with a history and consequences to law.

Reading the story of baba au rhum  in What Great Ate , I am reminded of the pineapple upside down in custard sauce served on Qatar airways flight.

The Art of Eating In spruce up muffins with almond custard tartsh with leftover muffin crust  recipe Taktouka Caipirinha I once made pistachio cupcakes using club soda and hadnt used all of it. Heres a good  pancakes  recipe that would have prevented the soda from staying in the fridge for nothing.

I have always given ariselu  the high brow. I saw them as these hard goodie for nothing. Recently, I had fresh ariselu at my relatives and I realised how I was in the bland (forgive my replacement for 'in the dark' in food context) all the while by not having them as soon as they were made. Now I can feel the taste of the rice in it or is it because I know what goes into it.

I caught some of Kunal's Foodie show episodes  on Qatar Airways flight. In an episode in Delhi, the blackboard had a list of parathas of which parath parantha  (also called 16 layer paratha) and khurchan paratha  (sorry for just a line reference) caught my eye. But Khurchan is  not all sweet . I like crisp samosas, but for those who like flaky puffs there's Japani samosa .                                                     On the same flight I enjoyed the mixture of food and art in  Eating art  by  Oliver Peyton . The snacks of broad beans and other things had me want another packet of it. Just what my neighbor was thinking too. Lunch had kumara  in it. Never heard of it.  ...

Bawarchi  is busy even at 11 in the night. A family arrived at that hour so non-chalantly like it were 3 in the afternoon. I tried chicken biryani and mutton biryani there. Mutton biryani was more steeped in the masala than the chicken biryani. In my favorite pastime of looking for new items on the menu, I found Chicken Reshmi .

About seven years ago, I had a snack called Khandvi . I am not a fan of the taste but the procedure looks interesting.

I attended a wedding today and had Qubani ka meetha . Its too sweet for me. Friends at masters college touted this dish as the ultra Hyderabad thing, so had to check out the deal.

Today I had  a yummy breakfast, Appam . I have heard of it before but had it for the first time.

In a cooking show on TV, maa voori vanta chutney was made using nalleru kaada, botanically called Cissus quadrangularis .

Yesterday I visited relatives in Andole . I was served what they called Avisa podi . Turns out its a powder made from Flax Seeds . 2.15.16 Finally I made Avisa podi with V iva labs Organic Ground Flax seed.  All I had to do was add some red chili powder and salt. I was all set to have this new mixture as a healthy side for various dishes like dosa, idli. You can add peanut powder too.

For dinner, I had stopped at a eatery and decided to have a dosa. A word 'Gutchi appeared many times on the menu. I am not sure if this is what I'm looking for: guchi

On a wintry day, after darshan at  Tuljapur and a exploratory stop at  naldurg fort , food sounded great. At a roadside dhaba, one dish on the menu that caught my attention: ambada bhaji After seeing how comlicated it is, I wish I had tried it.