2 October
2016
2 October
2016
From the bartender’s corner – Sugarcane Daiquiri
Hit the perfect spot this time. Tried rum with the sugarcane juice. And switched from limey and spicy to limey and sweet. First, rum and sugarcane are made for each other. In fact, rum was first made by fermenting sugar cane in the Caribbean when Columbus brought sugar cane from Spain to that region. Second, looks like sugar cane wants to stay sweet without trying to go for the edge of a spicy end.
I used Bacardi Limon Rum, sugar cane juice, a little simple syrup and Rose’s Lime juice.
Finally, hit the mark for me!!!
1 October
2016
From the bartender’s corner – Sugarcane Martini
This has come out infinitely better. I think Vodka goes better with sugarcane juice than gin. The botanicals in gin seem to conflict too much with the strong taste of sugarcane. Moving to a martini glass with no ice has made it far more consistent.
I went with the same citrusy-spicy theme. Used Lime infused Vodka and some splashes of Sriracha Vodka (believe it or not, there is such a thing).
Great end result. Slight aroma of spice and great sweet and lime-y taste. This one you can try at home…
While we are at it, you can still claim this drink by giving it a good name…
1 October
2016
From the bartender’s corner – Sugarcane Gimlet
Well, there is no such thing as a Sugarcane Gimlet in any of the acknowledged books on cocktails. But this is pretty much a gimlet with sugarcane juice in it. Therefore, my lame attempt at naming this. I would be really glad if any of you want to claim this drink and name it.
This morning I woke up after dreaming about sugarcanes. I have no idea why. Sharmila did not even say “Sweet” Dreams (haha!) before I went to sleep. But once I woke up, I started thinking about all that street side sugarcane juice we used to have (“ganne ka joos”) when we were kids.
Then I started thinking about how to incorporate it in cocktails. (You have to be an idiot like me to get up in the morning and start thinking about alcohols 🙂 ). The problem was how to get myself some sugarcane juice. Anyways, after some failed internet searches, Sharmila came to the rescue by suggesting a Asian store. Sure enough, they had a can of sugarcane juice from Thailand (although 65% diluted).
I am going to try it out with gin, vodka and rum to see how it works out.
This is with gin. Given the sweetness of sugarcane juice, I used Tanqueray Rangpur gin (to get the aroma of Rangpur limes from Bangladesh) and muddled in a little bit of chili to finish every sip with a bite. And threw in a few drops of lime juice.
The end product was good but not as good as I was hoping. There is a big difference between freshly squeezed sugarcane juice and canned ones. Sharmila told me already where I can go stand in a queue and get freshly squeezed sugarcane juice in Atlanta. It is too late now. For today, I am going to keep experimenting with the canned juice. Also, if you try this yourself, pour it in a martini glass. The ice does not help an already diluted juice.
1 October
2016
From the bartender’s corner – East Wing
1 October
2016
Friday evening time…
“dard ho dil mein to dawaa keejay
dil hi jab dard ho to kya keejay
hum ko fariyaad karni aati haiÂ
aap suntay nahi to kya keejay”
Roughly translated…
“If there is pain in your heart, you can take medicine for it
But when heart is itself pained, what can you do?
Sure, I am perfectly capable of complaining too
But when you are not listening anyways, what can I do?”
30 September
2016
The two sides of humankind…
This happened earlier in the week. After all that name calling, accusations, counter accusations and foaming in the mouth with completely biased political points of views without any willingness to listen to the other side of the story – and this is just my Facebook friends’ posts I am talking about – I am yet to watch the debate – I came across a story that completely restored my faith in humanity. I believe my friend Aashu Rahar had forwarded a link in Linkedin.
This is a story of two human beings. You can see both of them in the top picture. The kid was a victim of what is called “witch child” accusations in Africa. You can read up in Wikipedia of this inhumane treatment meted out to young children by adults in parts of Africa out of sheer lack of education, poverty and sometimes worse.
This child came to this world thru no fault of his own. And the same people who is supposed to protect him and feed him and nurture him named him a witch child and threw him in to the streets and left him to die. And he was barely over a year old. He lived for eight months abused in the streets, fending for himself and lived off whatever scraps he could find on the streets.
And there is the other human being here in teh picture. Anja Ringgren Loven – a Danish woman who has dedicated her time and money to help abused kids in Africa. She and her husband David and her young son (who happens to be of the same age as the kid in the picture here) spend most of their time in Africa for the cause. Her foundation is called “African Children’s Aid Education and Development Foundation” (look it up).
One day, she got a call about an emaciated, abandoned kid on the street. That is when she went there and saw this child hopelessly starving, thirsty and to top it, riddled with worms. The picture of she gently feeding him and giving him water drew a lot of attention in social media on January 31 this year. Anja picked the disoriented kid up and took him to the hospital for treatment.
And that is where the vast humanity not seen in the picture comes in. The world at large raised a lot of money for the kid. (My research has come up with very different numbers – the more common numbers are 150,000 pounds and 1 million dollars. The former is more likely to be true). With that money, the kid was brought back to stable condition with a lot of blood transfusions and medicines. Finally, he had to undergo one last surgery to treat a particular body malformation.
Anja named the kid “Hope” and then settled him in a orphan’s home she has created and maintains that houses about 35 other kids.
The pictures at the bottom is the same kid Hope after only 8 weeks (just 8 weeks!!) of treatment and proper food and water!! That is an amazing recovery. Once again proving that sometimes all it takes is a little help, a little care and a little extending of our hands to make all the difference.
And you also realize that there are people like Anja in the world. What grace! What sacrifice! What humility!
What a wonderful human being!!!
30 September
2016
The good news about fall
The bad news around the advent of fall is all the allergies that kick in during and after runs. The good news though is the higher speeds over longer distances in the cooler temperatures. This morning the temperatures were in 50s. That let me shave off quite a few seconds off my pace – ultimately finished it at 8:50 min / mile.
30 September
2016
From the bartender’s corner – Ranger Cocktail
27 September
2016
“Believe in yourself”
The author of the book presented a copy of the book to me herself this morning. The story was, of course, hers. Each page illustration was also by her. (available in Amazon in paperback and Kindle). Here is the twist… the author is Trisha Rao – a 9 year old kid (she authored the book when she was 8 year old) from India. She is the daughter to two of my dearest friends and old colleagues – Rajesh and Sumana.
I knew the day was going to be great when Sumana had written to me from India that they were going to be in Atlanta for a couple of days and she would like to meet up and put in a run with me. You see, Rajesh and Sumana were my colleagues from the first start up company I had worked in. That goes back way too many years. Our professional paths separated but we have kept up the personal relationships. In fact, Sharmila and I visited their house in San Diego twelve years back and I had a breakfast with Rajesh around 2010 during one of those business trips. Then they moved to India.
Early in the morning, Sumana and I hit the road for a few miles. I have always admired her for how she grew from the back office side of the business to the sales side. Those are journeys that many have fallen on the wayside of. Caught up during the run with her family in India, the transition to India and so many other details about her that I always wanted to know,
And after the run, came the breakfast. That is when I met Trisha for the first time in my life and Rajesh after about six years. What was most inspiring was hearing Rajesh’s life journey – his physically challenged dad and his sister who I can relate to a lot more now since my mom is in a similar state. And how they all moved back to India to take care of their parents and family. And like everybody, they are getting to a point where they have to balance out the previous generation with the next generation. They probably will have to move back to US soon to ensure Trisha gets a great education. We had a great time exchanging notes on his sabbatical and the ones that I had had. To cap it off, Rajesh has taken to running too!
If there was a breakfast that I never wanted to end, it had to be this one. To quote Sumana – “Our passion for running is exceeded only by our zest for life”!!
