24 May 2017

Second attempt at the run was a little more successful

Samaresh, Arup and I ditched the idea of running in the trail and instead ran on concrete sidewalks. The road was very hilly and there were some great spots for taking “action” pictures. Unfortunately my phone was almost drained of battery and therefore, I had left it in the car. When we came back, I took a chance and put it on the car hood to take a picture of us. It did. About three seconds before completely dying!!

Lucked out with this picture…

Category: Running | LEAVE A COMMENT
21 May 2017

From the bartender’s corner – Aviation Baron

As I mentioned before, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the Aviation gin when I opened the bottle. I tried over the next few days one more time neat, once with tonic water and regrettably, came to the same conclusion – while the nose is more in line with what I would expect from an American style gin, the palette was flat and weak. In fact, after fifteen seconds or so, it was almost like I was holding water in my mouth. The finish was even weaker.

Either I got a bad bottle or this gin is best used in cocktails. I tried last night with a couple of liquers and ingredients that would hide the weakness of the gin. A Baron is made with gin, both styles of vermouth (dry and sweet) and triple sec.

Category: Cocktails | 1 Comment on From the bartender’s corner – Aviation Baron
19 May 2017

Repost:: My inimitable nephews

This is a repost from this day, last year. I had a chuckle remembering the incident. The two nephews are, without an iota of doubt, my biggest fans. Note: nobody has yet accused them of having standards 🙂
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Easy lies the head that wears a “crown” 🙂

It was yet to be 4:30 AM. I was on my way to Portland airport to catch a flight back home. Called up mom and then my brother. As soon as my brother started talking, I could hear the yelling of “Jethu?” (which is what my nephews call me – it is the Bengali word denoting dad’s elder brother) and then I figured the nephews had snatched the phone from my brother and were talking all over themselves trying to tell me something very excitedly.

Once they stopped to take a deep breath, I asked them to calm down and explain the whole thing from the beginning. What I gathered was the following – my sister-in-law (their mom) is in China now for school work and my brother had brought the nephews to my parents house for a few days. So far, this was old news to me. I kept mechanically driving to the airport as they kept telling me what I already knew.

Then the conversation took a quick turn. Turns out that on Day 1 with grandparents, they got their heads shaved. Why would they get their heads shaved?, I asked myself. In our culture, that is the custom if one of your parents die – which clearly was not the case here – or perhaps if you had an attack of lice or something even more sinister – which would be a shame. In my confusion and surprise I missed my turn at the airport 🙂

As the story started to sort itself out, I came to know that my dad told them the story about my brother getting his head shaved at their age. [Oh! yeah! in those days, as a kid, we used to get our heads shaved a few times. We were told that our hair would grow stronger and better; I have lived long enough to know that there is no truth to that advertising 🙂 ]. In any case, my dad told them how my sister and I used to write with “dot pens” (ball point in today’s terminology) on his head. The nephews found that story very funny. Presumably, which was what my dad’s purpose was.

But then the two brothers started asking themselves how come they don’t get their heads shaved. Having not come up with any good reason by themzelves, they approached my brother. Who had the same logical question every rational thinking dad would have. As a response, I understand, the younger one, driven by sheer desperation, came up with the following – “Jethu-r moton dekhtey laagbey, tai”. (“so that we can look like Jethu”).

My brother, apparently not convinced that the world has suffered enough with looks like mine, quickly obliged and a short trip to the local market later, they came back with this… ahem… “barber”ic act 🙂 My brother said that the whole day they had been waiting for my daily call to tell me about their moment of “crowning” glory.

Once I understood the whole story, I got in on it too. “When I come to India next end of June, we will all get shaved together and take a picture”, I suggested. To which, the elder nephew protested. “What happened?”, I asked. He demurred that the kids in school would make fun of him. I figured they still use “dot-pens” in school these days 🙂

So, we opted for the second best course. They took pictures of themselves and sent them to me. A little stitch here and and a little paste there, I was able to put together the following picture. Which should make you laugh in stitches.

Sometimes I worry if I am setting a low standard for my nephews…

Category: Family in India, Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
15 May 2017

From the bartender’s corner – Gin #11: Aviation Gin

A couple of weeks back, I was in Portland, Oregon for work and one evening paid a visit to House Spirits Distillery to check out the making of Aviation Gin and perhaps pick up a bottle. Much to my surprise, I was told that while House Spirits Distillery still manufactures all the Aviation Gin that is ever made, the marketing and sales has been outsourced to Davos Brands. In fact, a quick search on the internet showed that Davos Brands has bought the “Aviation Gin” brand itself.

I was, however, given a tour of the distillery where the gin is made. The still itself, as you can see in the picture, is a stainless steel one with a full capacity of 400 gallons. The heating is done with steam (to about 78 degrees Celsius).

Neutral grain spirit (rye) is used and the botanicals include the usuals like juniper, coriander, cardamom along with some other common ones like anise and orange peel. What is unique is lavender and something they told me called Indian sasparilla. Till this day, I have not been able to figure out exactly what it is but it is supposed to render some of the floral-ness (along with lavender) to the gin.

Regarding the taste itself, this might be a slightly controversial topic. Purists who believe in the juniper-forward traditional gins (also called London Dry Gin), may not be a big fan of this style of gin (sometimes called American Dry Gin and this particular style often referred to as New Western Dry Gin). The key concept is that it is less junipery and sometimes citrus forward. Or maybe even floral. But the idea is go with less junipers.

I had an Aviation on the rocks. The nose was clearly very floral, thanks to the lavender. While many reviews of the gin describe it as “bold”, I have to say that I found the palette to be very mild. In fact, the finish was almost non-existent (very feeble junipers). Maybe my palette needed a lot more cleaning. I will try again for the couple of weeks. But if it is as weak as I think it is, I would probably use this mostly for cocktails that have strong complementary ingredients or botanicals. (e.g. a Negroni)

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14 May 2017

Interesting trivia

I learnt today that there is indeed a Procrastinators Club of America. Based in Philly, they currently have 6,000 members. But, I am sure, that is only because a few hundred millions keep postponing applying for their membership. I know my own family can apply for a couple of life time memberships.

I am not kidding. You can read it up. And they have a great sense of humor.

Their monthly newsletter? It is called “Last Month’s Newsletter” 🙂

Their motto? “Behind You All The Way” 🙂

I am thinking of applying just for their sense of humor. Although, I am afraid that they might postpone laughing at my jokes for a future day 🙂

Category: Humor | 10 Comments on Interesting trivia