27 July 2018

From the bartender’s corner – The Hot Mezz

As the weekend started rolling in, I figured it might be a good idea to go ahead and try a mezcal drink. Upon some research, came across a bar in Chicago called Barrio (actually it is a bar in the restaurant called Barrio) where mixologist Calderon has concocted The Hot Mezz. It is watermelon, jalapeno with some sage syrup, lime juice and of course, mezcal.

My taste in mezcal is still growing. The part I like most is that earthy tones. Which lingers for quite some time in the finish as you exhale. Like most cocktails with these many ingredients and ice, there is no strong nose – although the earthiness and the citrus still comes thru. To the palate, it is a little biting spicy. Towards the end the water melon comes in a small wave.

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22 July 2018

As the Bengali poet Sukumar Roy would have said…

“Ekush dofa dourey maarey” (from “Ekushe Aain”)

As many as 21 runners showed up for the Chalupa group run. Remarkably, three of the youngsters – Uma, Raya and Nikita – forsook sleeping in on a summer vacation Sunday morning and came out. We had four out of town visitors – Aniruddha and Indrani from Dallas, Texas and Shilpa and Scott from Birmingham, Alabama. Funnily enough, Scott introduced himself as Scott-esh 🙂 🙂

The usual culprits – Mrinal-da, Seemita-di, Indrani, Rituparna, Tania, Sharmila, Malobika, Ashok, Samaresh, Haimanti, Sreerupa, Bhaskar and Rakhi were all there. We missed Mrs. Banerjee who is visiting India.

In the excitement of taking pictures of such a large group, three other non-Chalupa runners who we run into every Sunday morning joined us in the melee too!

By the way, our run almost did not happen. As we approached the trail, we realized that a tree had fallen and effectively cut off the entrance of the trail (see the picture). Many of us were secretly thanking our luck figuring that we would go straight to Starbucks for coffee and chit-chat. Except that the three youngsters who were leading the pack, jumped off the trail (it was about two feet deep or so), found a way to hunch down and tunnel thru the tree and once they cleared the tree, jumped back up onto the trail.

We had no option but to follow them.

That was a good run!! Has to be one of the largest turnout for the Chalupa group!

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19 July 2018

Meeting Lata!!

Lata and I go back to the mid 1980s when I was studying engineering in Chennai. We became very close friends then. I think she left for the USA to do higher studies around the same time when I started working in India. Later, when I came to the USA, I had kept up with her. I remember some of my office friends in USA and she had once driven from New York to DC area. I had also visited her in her college (Columbia) in New York later when she was doing her PhD. And I certainly recollect she meeting me and Sharmila in New York once. Finally, about four years back I had met her in Atlanta (I think she had come to CDC).

Her area of work has always fascinated me. It used to be that she was into oncology. She has worked in two of the biggest pharmaceutical companies. But now she is in a much smaller company. And she is working on another very interesting area (for me at least) – bacteria!!!

If you think I talk, you should meet Lata! She is nothing if not a bundle of energy. Over dinner in Boston last week, I got a great primer on bacteria. I learnt a lot about so many different bacteria we have in our stomach and our gut and how it is difficult to put bacteria from outside into our gut thru the digestive system. Apparently, the bacteria that thrive in our gut and are crucial for our existence cannot survive in any acidic environment – which our stomach is.

One of my curiosity questions was about probiotics that we hear so much these days and see TV ads of. In general I am very skeptical of anything on the food front that come up suddenly as new fads. But she did put my curiosity to rest. I understand while having probiotics cannot harm you – indeed, they increase the good bacteria – the matter of fact is those bacteria is very easy to produce by our body and it does so constantly. The ones that are far more important and is singularly important for our system to survive (in the guts, for example), no amount of eating probiotic food is going to help.

Well, that was end of Chapter 1 when we finished dinner.

Hope I do not have to wait for another four years for the second chapter!! Cannot wait to learn more new things about bacteria…

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19 July 2018

This is the difference that 38 years makes…

After the sprints on Tuesday, we took Wednesday off. Today, we went back to the running trail. After the sprints, my hams are still tighter than drunken sailors in an Irish bar. She, on the other hand, asked if we are doing sprints again today!!

Good 5K run which she finished for the first time without a single stop.

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