Sharmila and Nikita are back from India. Looks like, together with my mother-in-law, they dug up my late father-in-law’s stuff and got one of his prized possessions – a Yashica-D camera. He was an avid photographer back then. This is from the late 50s – nearly three-quarters of a century old! I think it was one of the first twin-lens reflex cameras.

It has now been added to my small but growing collection of things that most folks today would not recognize, nor know how to operate!

Sharmila and Nikita traveled to India by KLM. Which meant I got to add to my collection of KLM houses. I had even given them the list of house numbers that I have, so they will not pick up a duplicate. 🙂

They publish one new replica of some famous houses/buildings in Netherlands every year – I believe on their annual anniversary day of existence. I have long ways to go!!

Thirty, to be precise! This year’s goal is to try to specialize in Indian cocktails. Which means cocktails with some Indian twist to it. So far, I have some base alcohols from India and some tropical fruit juices from there. And a myriad of Indian spices.

This will be tricky. Indian spices are so flavorful that the palate I am afraid will overwhelm the nose. Let’s see if trial and error gets me anywhere.

When I first got started with cappuccino and all that, my friend Raghu from Austin had sent me this contraption to make South Indian coffee – often called “filter kaapi“. Now, this is something I grew up with during my college years since I did my engineering in Chennai.

This year, one of my goals is to learn how to make good “filter kaapi“. Today was my first attempt after looking up a few YouTube videos.

The result of the maiden venture has been distinctly un-South-Indian-like. Followed all the instructions, and then I was left with only half a tumbler of totally diluted coffee. I might have had some more coffee in the cup if only I had not spilt some in the basin while trying to do that South Indian frothing thing with some panache!

If you are not aware of what I am talking about, you have to look it up. Those guys in the coffee stalls in college would throw the milf-coffee combo from high up in the air from the tumbler into the dabarah – without spilling one little drop.

I need to call up Raghu and Prabha and get some tips on how to make the coffee thicker.

[P.S. My second attempt fixed the volume problem but not the thinness problem]

Fixed the volume problem. But something is amiss. The water is percolating immediately. It is not supposed to.

Thanks to a call last night with Lakshmi (Vidya), I changed up a few things, and the results are improving. The big difference was the grain size. Instead of using some packaged grind, I used the Breville to grind the coffee beans with a “3” setting – that is Turkish Grind level. That made a huge difference to the dripping speed. In fact, there was no dripping during the blooming period.

Ten minutes later, while meditating, I could hear the sound of water dripping in an otherwise quiet room. Caught between the prospect of a bathroom faucet leaking and my coffee-dripping reaching a modicum of success, I rushed to the coffee counter and was delighted to find no bathroom leaks!!

I still have a long way to go. While the decoction was strong, the coffee (with milk) did not hit the richness of what I have tasted in my South Indian friends’ houses. I wonder whether using skimmed milk is part of my problem.

Also, I can’t get the end result to be piping hot. Do not get me wrong — it is coming out hot — around 160 deg F. But, in my friends’ houses, I can barely hold the tumblr!

The experimentation shall continue…

The year was 2021. The month was February. The world was still under the spell of Covid virus. I was dealing with the news of my mom’s death. I did not know then but a couple of weeks later, my dad would pass away too. Due to the virus, we were all cooped up without any ability to travel.

Moment I got my first vaccination, I hit the road. I needed to get out somewhere and decompress. Deal with my mom’s news and the constant feeling of getting stuck in a place. It was me and my friend Avi.

If you notice the break in the beach where the water goes in, and then follow to the first multi-storey building a bit to the right – that is the Sheraton I had escaped to.

That was my first trip after Covid!

I had just come back home from office meetings for a couple of days in St. Pete. And immediately turned around to go on a vacation with Sharmila. And what do you know? We flew right over St. Pete. I can see the pink Vinoy hotel where we stayed in!!

We flew over the Sanibel Causeway and right there below, we could see the hotel we are going to stay in!!