I have been running in this trail for nearly ten years. In snow, sub zero temperatures, torrential rain, tree uprooting winds and sweltering heat. Regardless of the mood of Mother Nature, you can always count on a few nut cases like me defying logic to go put in a run.
Not today. Finished run at 9. Still no other car in the parking lot. Saw nary a human being in the trail !!
Niki and I… this evening over dinner….
Niki: “I am so mad at our lunch teacher”
I was a little confused where all this was coming from. She just got up after sleeping in the evening and I was quite sure she was still groggy. But I played along…
Me: “I am sure you have a good reason”
Niki: “She confiscated my phone”
Me: “She confiscated your phone?”
Niki: “Yeah Yeah, she gave it back”.
Me: “What did you do?” (meaning what got her in trouble)
Niki: (interpreting I wanted to know how she got it back) “Oh! I pretended to cry.”
Me: “You pretended to cry?”
Niki: “Yes, I kept sniffling and walking around her so she will notice me and feel bad”.
Me: “But that is being manipulative”
Niki: “No. That is being smart”.
Me: “Really?”
Niki: “You had a better way of getting my phone back?”
I just walked away before she could see me desperately trying to hold my laughter back!!
In my defense, I was a goody two-shoe nerd is school and never got in trouble with my cell phone. Good thing, those days, none of us had cell phones either 🙂
58 miles to go to complete 1000 miles. 28 days left.
Cloudy and cool day with slight wind. After the run, the momentary feeling of achievement quickly turned to that of desperation and hunger when I realized that once again I had left the post run nourishment on the kitchen counter :-(And I am ten miles away from home!
I had been struggling with the tamarind paste for quite some time. I must have tried at least four different cocktails and thrown them away after a couple of sips. The tamarind – being very sour – was very difficult to balance out. Finally, I managed to get to something that I liked. With some help from Sharmila.
The inspiration behind this drink goes back to very early days of childhood. On Saturdays, my parents used to be out for work and the three siblings were left home alone. I suspect I was in fifth or sixth grade that time. One of the favorite past times my sister and I had during those days was to make some concoction out of tamarind paste. It used to be inspired by “tetul lozenge” that you could buy for 10 paisa those days. Well, it was less of a lozenge and more of a ball of tamarind paste mixed with all sorts of yummy ingredients and then packed in a plastic wrapper. My sister and I had eventually mastered the art mixing tamarind with the right amount salt, sugar, lime and green chilli. And the three of us used to sit and enjoy it for some time. And somedays, when we did not get the mix right, we would still enjoy it – but with one eye closed – reeling from the tartness of the tamarind.
I was trying to create that taste I remember. I think I have finally managed to get there. The first trick was to get the right amount of tamarind paste – about the amount that you can pick with weighted bar spoon. Then I used brown sugar – two spoons of it. From previous experiments, I can tell you that white sugar did not work well and neither did simple syrup. Then I muddled it in a muddler after throwing some King’s Ginger Liquer (an ounce) of it. Again, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur did not work so well. I have not tried fresh ginger but my sense is that it would overwhelm the smell.
Jalapenos did not work – it became too spicy. So, finally I settled for an ounce of UV’s Sriracha Vodka. I did throw in a small piece of green chilli before muddling. Finally, a couple of ounces of Vodka and quarter lime worth of squeezed juice. As an alternate, you can try lime infused vodkas. Topped it up with an ounce of soda water, stirred it well and poured it into a cocktail glass.
The taste was almost there but still no cigar. Got Sharmila to try it and she hit it right away – there needed to be a little salt to match the remnants of the sourness. But the challenge was that if I mixed salt in the cocktail – most any cocktail, perhaps with the exception of Bloody Marys – it would completely mess up the taste. So, I finally settled for a margarita style salt on the rim approach.
That worked out excellent. First the salt hitting the tongue and then the tarty liquid coming and diluting it in the mouth with the hint of sweetness and the aroma of chilli and lime made it a very complex but very satisfying experience. The only thing missing in this afternoon was my sister and brother to share it with.
I am going to try this next time with tequila and see if essentially a margarita like approach to tamarind works too.
Now, for the toughest part – what to name it? Would you volunteer to christen it?
As many of you know, I enjoy going to a grocery store with roughly the same level of fervor as I enjoy having a hole in my head. I guess today was one of those “you gotta have a hole in your head” kind of day since Sharmila asked me to pick up something from an Indian grocery store which was close to where I was meeting a friend.
Now, let me tell you something. If there is one thing that confuses me more than a grocery store, it is an Indian grocery store. At least in a normal grocery store, I can wander around listlessly with not a clue where to find the stuff but nobody would be any the wiser since they are big stores and I usually do not run into anybody I know. In an Indian grocery store, somehow, there will always be somebody who will walk up to me and address me by my first name. Which, experience has taught me, is a strong indicator that I have met them before and ought to be addressing them back by their first names too. Except that, for the life of me, I would not remember where I had met them, what their names were and why do I even know them. In the bargain, I would also forget which aisles I had already visited and eliminated as possibilities and would have to start from square one (which is usually the lane left of the entrance door) again!
But I was impressed this time with the precision of Sharmila’s instructions. Absolutely no room for doubts or errors. As a result, most of those people who would have otherwise recognized me did not do so today since I was walking around like a zombie with my head down staring at the iPhone. I am fairly sure they thought I was some idiot playing Pokemon Go in the Indian grocery store.
On the upside though, that was an well executed shopping exercise for me. Kept following step by step and after I bounced off a couple of counters – muck like a snooker ball bouncing off the edges – I was quickly shot out of the store into the parking lot with a couple of fresh chicken tikka masala boxes in tow!
Like I said, I am very impressed with the precision of her instructions. I think she is about a few parentheses and a couple of well placed comments away from writing out some good computer code!!
We were down to the final round of Jenga. Whoever won would have won the night. As you can see from the picture, the game started very aggressively by removing not one but two of the blocks from the lower most layer. Nikita was a nervous wreck after that. As you can also see I took out an outer block from third and fourth layer. It was a very very unstable structure at that point.
Nikita put up a fight for over fifteen minutes extremely gingerly moving blocks and the hands were visibly shaking….
Eventually when it fell down, she came back with a prompt excuse – “I am good at games which require mental strategy and not this shaky-hand strategy” 🙂
And before I could cry foul or suggest this is grapes being sour, she immediately added “I get the mental intelligence from your side, dad!”
I weighed my options. I came to the inevitable conclusion that anything I said at that point of time would only work against me.
So, I quietly packed up the pieces back in the box. I did get beat in the final game!!!
