Sveriges nationaldag 6 juni ( National Day of Sweden)

Happy Swedish national day.

We are celebrating the national day with Manipuri food, my husband is making some really good food and I have promised to be his assistant chef today.  Unlike the midsummer festival in Sweden I don't think their is any specific tradition to eat any special food today except for maybe a barbecue or picnic but taking the holiday as an occasion we are having a yummy day for sure.

(Picture from google.se)

Maroi Nakuppi ga Khajing Kanghou (Chinese Chives and shrimps fried)

Maroi Nakuppi is an important part of Manipuri cuisine, we use it as an alternative to onion esp for tempering in vegetarian dishes and many people from the older generation prefer this than onion. This recipe is an age old recipe and one of my all time favourite, my mother makes it really well like more other things but since I love to eat, this was one of the first things I learned to make on my own. Its easy to make and taste really good. If you are in Delhi you can buy it from the INA market and if abroad most Asian food and grocery stores sells it. In Sweden I buy it from the Asian store which is a bit expensive but during summer we get the locally grown chinese chives which is not only cheap but taste far better.  I am looking forward to next month when we will get it in the local market. The ingredients bellow will serve about 2 people. 

Ingredients:

1. A small bunch of chinese chives or about 250 gm.

2. 2-3 green chillies 

3. Few garlic cloves 

4. Shrimps ( I used the dried shrimps, soaked in water for 10 mins and drained , one can always use the fresh ones as it tastes better)

5. 2 tbsp mustard oil.

6. Turmeric powder

6. Salt to taste 

Steps:

1. Take a frying pan and put it on medium heat, add the mustard oil and once it is smoking hot add the crushed garlic and chopped chillies. Fry for 2-3 mins and add some turmeric powder and stir it well.

2. Add the shrimps and mix it well, fry for another 5 mins on medium heat.

3. Add the chopped chinese chives and mix well. The chives gets cooked real quick so continue cooking on medium or even low heat. Mix it well with the other ingredients. 

4. Dried shrimps are normally salty so don't add a lot of salt. If you are using fresh shrimps you can add little more salt. Taste and remember never to cover it while frying this will retain all the moisture and make it a bit soggy. 

Serve hot with steamed white rice and with some eromba will be really good. 

To eat or not to

Last summer I decided to stop having chicken not completely but cut down as much as possible, I allowed myself to have a chicken dimsum/wantons that I made myself at home but other than that I mostly ate fish, lentils and vegetables. Summer in Sweden is awesome for vegetarians we get all kinds of greens and greens I like starting from hangam (mustard leaves), leibak kundo (purslane),  amaranth, methi leaves and many other varieties of greens we eat in Manipur.

One of the most interesting greens I found was leibak kundo, a vegetable not commonly known to even fellow manipuris. My mother once made kangsoi with some nga ayaiba (smoked fish) and I still remembered the taste, from my days in The Hague I knew that it is available in Turkish vegetable  stores but here I buy it from stoles owned by people from Arabic speaking background. One can even make kanghou with come potatoes and leibak kundo but kangsoi taste the best.

It is much easier to stick to a meat less diet in summer but I do need my daily does of fish and Sweden is Salmon heaven  :) thanks to the neighbouring country Norge we get both farmed and wild caught salmons but also several varieties of sea food.  I was anyways never a fan of meat and since the only meat I ate was chicken it was easy to give it up and for some weird reason whenever I used to cook chicken it used to taste horrible so I stopped cooking chicken long time back. My husband makes really yummy chicken but I normally eat just the gravy.

With summer on the way I plan to continue my meat less diet and some interesting recipes will be uploaded soon.

Purslane (Leibak kundo)

Balestrand- Norway (Norge)

Balestrand- Fjord town

 Last summer my husband and I went to Norway, it was a well planned trip and me being the super planner /organiser I managed to find some awesome deals. Before I go any further I must mention that Norway is super expensive BUT if you dig and do your research one can manage it and stay within budget. Now summer in Norway is a busy time, flocked by tourist from all over the world finding accommodation within your budget could be a challenge (even Airbnb) and the only reason we choose Balestrand was because it was the only place we could find a decent hotel within out budget, fortunately it was a blessing in disguise, our Norway trip was spread over 10 days and Balestrand was the last leg of our trip.

We started our trip from Oslo, it took us just about 6 hours by bus from where we live the Swebus tickets were cheap and the bus comfortable. I will write about the Oslo-Bergen-Balestrand journey in another post.

If you plan to go to Balestrand by public transport that is by the Express boat and if you don't have a car it is best to buy the Norled Fjordcard, we bought the 5 days Fjordcard each costing 995 NOK ( 1250 NOK 2017 summer price) but it is an awesome way to explore the Fjord towns in Sognefjord. We bought the Fjordcard from Bergen and made full use of it. We visited  few other fjord towns and loved every part of the explore Sognefjord tour.

 Food in whole of Norway is expensive, I personally don't like burgers or Mcdonalds food but even the cheapest burger in Mcdonalds or Burger King will cost 99 NOK, so we decided to stick to normal food by paying a little extra. In Sweden I can except to have a decent meal in 100 SEK, I am not talking about donor kabab or falafel but a proper meal say a buffet in a good (not so fancy) restaurant, sometimes we can have lunch even in 65 SEK say at the small Thai-Chinese takeaway food kiosk/restaurant but in Norway that is just not possible. A decent meal will cost 200 NOK or more. So while selecting Hotel accommodation I was careful to book in hotels which included breakfast, in fact the hotel we stayed in Bergen (amazing location)  included even dinner.  So it is important to check what all are included in the price and select hotels carefully.

 Balestrand is a very picturesque town with just about 1500 inhabitants, perfect for a quite and soul searching trip. The view of snow capped mountains and the fjord was not just serene but had such a calming effect on me, the town is also know for some landmark places like the Kvikne hotel, the wooden structure with the view of the fjord I am sure will make anyone fall in love with this place.

Kvikne hotel

View from the balcony....breathtaking...oh yes

 The sunset was late and the sunrise early but when the view is as beautiful as this I was more than happy that the days are very long and nights short or rather very short. We stayed at this hotel called Mintnes and had the most amazing view from the room. The three days went so quick that I immediately regretted spending three days in Oslo. Norway just took our breath away and of all the countries I have visited I have to admit that its the most beautiful and wonderful of all. The mountain, fjord and nature everything was breathtakingly beautiful. I am a mountain girl, I feel most at peace and home in the mountains but the combination of the snow capped mountains + water made me  wishing for a trip to Norway every summer, we do plan to visit Norway as often as possible and we are yet to explore and visit more amazing places.

This does not need any caption

Growing Malabar spinach - Balcony garden

Back to business

Maybe I was thinking to start blogging again ;)

Between work, travel, cooking, eating,packing and moving to another country, it seems I forgot that I once used to actively blog. 2014 was a sure a busy year or maybe the busiest year of my life and 2015 seems like the most relaxed so far and whats better than reviving my blog, so here I am, back to blogging again and hope to continue it without any further breaks. The last post was over  year back waooooo and why did such a long break happened, it's not that I did not travelled or cooked interesting food but  was just too occupied with so many other things in life that blogging took a back seat. 

Now that spring is here and the spring flowers lifts my spirits, it's time to blog about all the interesting places my husband and I are planning to travel and all the yummy food that will follow. 

Steamed Pak-choy with Black Bean paste

Steamed Pak choy with Black bean paste

Inspired by the steamed baby Pak Choy I had at Yauatcha last week, I bought some Pak Choy from Foodhall and tried my version of the same. It was not as good as the one I had but considering it was my first attempt it was good.

Recipe:

Ingredients;
1. 4-5 Pak Choy
2. 3-4 Garlic clove
3. Spring onion (optional)
4. Black bean paste
5. Light Soya Sauce ( Preferably  Kikkomon)

Method:

1. Clean and wash the Pak choy and remove the outer leaves use only the tender part.
2. Chop the garlic and spring onion, mix it with 2 tbsp of Soya sauce, 2 tbsp of water  and Black bean paste. Take a big bowl and coat the Pak Choy with the mix.
3. Take out about 1/2 a mt of aluminium foil and arrange the Pak Choy neatly. Cover it well and place the parcel on the heat proof plate of the steamer. Steam for 10-15 mins.
4. Let the parcel cool for 5 mins and take out your best plate and serve hot :)

Yauatcha, Delhi- Michelin Starred Resturant

Food....good food and me are inseparable, I can go almost anywhere to have good food. Starting last Friday I have had a food filled weekend, which started with the Cheesecake @ Foodhall followed by a platter of Sushi at Sakae Sushi both in Ambiance Mall, Vasant Kunj   but the best food I have had in a very long time, was last saturday at this Michelin Starred Restaurant called 'Yauatcha' which serve modern Cantonese cuisine. My desire to have food at a Michelin Starred Restaurant ended at Vasant Kunj and I must say the restaurant and the food were better than expected. Located in 2nd Floor at Ambiance Mall in Vasant Kunj, the restaurant is very well located and by the time we left at 10 pm it was full. 

The food met my expectation and the service was also good. For starters we ordered  5 types of dim sums out of this I was most impressed with the Pak choy wrapped dim sum, Chicken and Prawn Shui Mai and the thin fish fillet wrapped dim sum, I can claim that I had the most amazing dim sum available in the whole country last saturday , the presentation was super good and the taste even better. The main course we ordered were also good, steamed baby pak choy in light oyster sauce  (I will try to replicate it soon) and french beans with Shaiitake mushroom in spicy black bean sauce (The mushroom was missing tough), 2 types of chicken, thin rice noodles and jasmine rice, for dessert we had Raspberry Delice which was mind blowing, the presentation was so beautiful that I didn't felt like eating it. . 

So if you are planning to experience gourmet food try 'Yauatcha', the price (inclusive of taxes) is a little steep but totally worth it (you may end up spending Rs 2500/- per person including drinks) , booking a table during weekend is recommended . 

My rating:

I will give Yauatcha 4 stars for ambiance, 4.5 stars for Food and 4 for service. The picture of the dessert is to motivate you to visit and enjoy the food :)

Raspberry Delice

#Dinner # Momos # Steamed Spinach # HAPPINESS

The combination momo's (Dimsums are popularly known as Momo's in India) with steamed spinach was really good, add a glass of sparkling wine if you want to make it more interesting.

#Instagrammed  #my dinner

Comfort Food- 1 Thambou Singju

Thambou Singju

Recently I met my dear fren 'CT' and the first thing she said was 'Why did you never made singju for me?'. I laughed and said because I never had the right ingredients while we were in Hague but I promised that I will make it for her very soon once I procure all the ingredients including Thambou and even Thoiding. We make different kind of singju (Manipuri salad mixed with herbs, chillies and sometimes with Ngari) but Thambou Singju reminds me of my childhood and the uncountable times I have had this comfort food with Aloo-saak, the combination of these two item was lethal, it still is :).

Thambou or Kamal Kakdi (in hindi) is available in many vegetable market in Delhi most of the vegetable stalls/shops in INA Market stock Thambou and even my neighborhood vegetable vendor sells it, in fact INA market sells almost all the Manipuri vegetables, which make me double happy whenever I visit the market. Before making it for 'CT' I decided to make it for myself and it was quite good. The recipe is below:

Ingredients:

1. Thambou (Kamal Kakdi/Lotus Root)

2.Cabbage

3.Spring onion

4. Toningkhok (Houttuynia cordata- Roots and leaves)

5. Thoiding asuba

6. Besan (Lightly roasted)

7.Chili 

8.Salt to taste

Steps:

• Finely (as fine as possible) chop the cabbage,spring onion, Toningkhok and thinly slide the Thambou.
• In a plate/bigger bowl mix the chili with salt and add the chopped vegetables, mix the ingredients well and add Thoiding and Besan, mix all the ingredients again and garnish with coriander leaves (optional). 

Enjoy the super healthy and yummy Singju. 

A Holiday post- Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar

Sunset- View from Table Land Panchgani

I visited Panchgani with my husband few weeks back, after google searching and more google searching we decided to visit Panchgani for a short break. The view of sunset from the famous Table land and the really awesome weather makes Panchgani my current fav. holiday place in India. I used to think that I like sea and beaches more than mountains but off late I have realized that for the kind of person that I am I prefer mountains than sea. Growing up in Imphal and seeing the Mountains almost every day of my life for 17 years, mountains never fascinated me now but for a holiday destination I will choose Mountains over any other destinations because its peaceful

Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar are two  very popular holiday destination for people from Gujarat and Maharashtra but I think more popular among the Gujarati's, my husband said he has never seen so many Gujarati's at one place  in any other popular tourist places in India, which was true because almost every car and Bus had a Gujarat number. As Panchgani offers great weather, affordable accommodation and also the proximity to many district in Gujarat I guess that makes Panchgani attractive. But the reason we were attracted to Panchgani was  because it's close to Pune and I just didn't wanted to go to Lonavala or the over hyped Khandala.

Panchgani is a just a little over 100 Kms from Pune, if you travel in your own vehicle it wll take about 2.30 hrs but if you travel by one of those commercial private bus service it will easily take 4-5 hours because they will stop for lunch which will easily take 30-40 mins and also they will stop at so many places that you will easily end up travelling for at least 4 to 5 hrs. If you plan to travel by Public transport the best way is to take the MSRTC buses which is cheap and may even take lesser time. (http://www.msrtc.gov.in/msrtc_live/index-eng.html). We stayed at this really nice place which was 5 mins walk from the main market and the main Bus and Taxi stand,  Hotel Mount View Heritage ( http://www.hotelmountview.co.in/heritage.html) located on the main road and owned by a Parsi family, the property is well maintain and the owners very, very hospitable . The food was really good and the best part was almost all the tourist places were located within walking distance, including the Table Land, if you are in a mood to walk and explore the town I suggest you avoid taking taxi in Panchgani. My husband and I walked till Sidney Point and also till Table Land, which I thought was just a flat mountain top till I saw the Sun set, the view of Sun set is breath taking and I have never seen such a beautiful sunset in my life. What was really amazing was that as I was admiring and watching the sun set I realized that it sun sets very quickly but yes we did managed to take some really amazing shots.  We also visited Mahabaleshwar but it was so crowded that we happily came back to the hotel as soon as possible, the Venna Lake and even the garden next to it was beautiful but it was so crowded that I didn't had the patience to go on one of the boat rides. The Mapro garden was a total disappointment, I thought that garden will have some Strawberry garden but it was just one big overcrowded restaurant which had an empty so callled 'Chocolate Factory' on display. I advice is skip the MAPRO garden and spend some time at the Venna Lake instead.
 
Panchgani is in my list of 'Must visit' places and I plan to make that happen soon :)

Venna Lake

Stir Fried Vegetable in Black Bean sauce

Stir Fried Vegetable in Black Bean sauce

Ingredients:

1.       Cauliflower florets

2.       Cabbage ( 2-3 leaves)

3.       French beans (100/150 gms)

4.       Mushroom

5.       1 medium size onion

6.       5-6 garlic cloves

7.       1 inch ginger

8.       2-3 green chili

9.       Soya sauce (Kikkoman)

10.   Black bean paste (1 tbsp- Available in INA market in Delhi)

11.   Salt to taste

12.   2 tbsp corn flour

13.   1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

Steps:

1.       Boil water in a pan and once it comes to a boil  add the chopped french beans, cabbage leaves  and cauliflower ( DO not add the Mushroom). Cover the pan and keep it for about 5 mins.

2.       Drain the hot water and immediately run cold water  over the veggies for  2-3 mins.

3.       Take a Wok/Kadhai and add oil, once it’s hot add the chopped garlic followed by slit green chili and onion. Fry for 4-5  mins.

4.       Add the vegetables and fry it for another 5 mins, add the soya sauce* , also add the black bean paste and mix it well with the vegetables.

5.       In a bowl add the corn flour and ½ cup of water. Add this paste and mix it well with the vegetables.

6.       Add salt to taste and if you feel you need to add more soya sauce add ½ tbsp.*

7.       Cook for another 10 mins on medium flame and enjoy with fried rice.

*Always add 2 tbsp of water to 1 tbsp to soya sauce and mix it well.

Baked fish wrapped in Turmeric leaves - My version of 'Nga-nam'

Last week was lot of fun, the extended Durga Puja holidays were fully utilised by cooking, eating and shopping. The other day on my way back from work, I dropped by INA market and bought my weekly quota of fish, what I absolutely love about INA is that the market never disappoints me and what is even more interesting is that INA market works like a mood elevator for me. I may sound a bit crazy but I'll choose to spend time at INA market over any of the swanky shopping mall in Delhi. 

To make my weekend interesting and food filled I decided to make baked fish and stir fried mixed veggies, so I bought 1 Kg of Red Snapper fish, Rohu, chives, Pui saag also known as Malabar Spinach, Black beans paste, Kikomon soya sauce and few other things. The final result of my exotic buy was very satisfying...baked fish is not a new recipe, Manipuri's love the 'Nga-nam' made mostly with smaller fish or 'Nga-kha' as we call it and never made with fish bigger than the little finger. But once I tried it with medium size fish and it was quite good. The recipe of the baked fish is below:

'Baked Fish wrapped in Turmeric leaves'

Ingredients:

1. 2 medium or small size Red snapper fish ( One can also use Pomfret, Tilapia or any other medium size fish)

2. Ginger Garlic paste- 3 spoons

3.Turmeric power- 1 tbsp.

4.Onion- 2 

5. Garlic- I whole pod 

6.Chilli powder - 1 tbsp (opitional)

7. 15-20 leaves of Awa Phadigom ( also know as Culantro/Mexican Coriander)

8. Mustard oil.

9. 4-5 Turmeric leaves (In case you don't have turmeric leaves use Banana leaves)

10. Aluminium foil

11. Salt to taste.

Steps:

1. Wash the fish properly, make small slits and pat dry using kitchen paper towel.

2.Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl ( Ginger garlic paste, Turmeric power, Chopped onion, Crushed garlic, chilli power, chopped awa phadigom, 1 tbsp mustard oil and salt). 

3. Smear some turmeric powder and mustard oil on the fish and also sprinkle some salt.

4. Cover the fish properly with the mixed ingredients and also put some inside the fish. Once done leave it for about 30 mins.

5. Pull out some aluminium foil and on it put a single Turmeric leave, now put the fish on it and put another turmeric leave on the fish, to save turmeric leave as it's always on short supply I had cut it neatly and covered the fish well with the leaves. Now wrap the fish with the aluminum foil, I used another layer of aluminum foil to fully wrap the fish. (Traditionally we use only the turmeric leaves to bake it but due to limited supply/availability of the turmeric leaves I used the aluminium foil to cover it fully and maintain the aroma)

6. Take a Tava and pre heat for 2-3 mins on high flame, add 1/2 tbsp of oil  and  put the foil wrapped fish on the tava, cover it fully with a plate or another container to maintain the heat. Turn the fish every 7-8 mins and cook on medium flame. It will take about 40-45 mins for the fish to get cooked. 

( One can also use an Oven to bake the fish but I prefer using the Tava, I find it more convenient )

Unwrap the fish after about 15-20 mins and serve hot with some simply yummy stir fried veggies and rice. Enjoy....

Chicken Rice and Raita for lunch

No excuses for not updating my blog again but here I am, trying to revive the blog again with a very simple and yummy recipe for a lazy weekend lunch. Easy to cook and yummy to eat is what I can guarantee from this recipe, the recipe was shared by one of my colleague 'SG' and I made it for lunch yesterday 'Chicken Rice, cooked with curd and kashmiri mirch powder'. This is quite similar to biryani but compared to biryani it's much easier to cook and as tasty as biryani.

Ingredients:

1. 500 gms chicken
2. 500 gm curd
3. 3 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
4. Few strands of safrron
5. Green Cardamom- 5-6
6. 1 stick dalchini (Cinnamon)
7. 2 big onion
8. 1 Tomato (Optional)
9. Bay leaves
10. 1 tbsp garam masala
11. 2.5 cups of good quality basmati  rice
12. Salt to taste

Steps:

• Marinate the chicken with the curd, chilli powder and salt. Cover the marinated chicken and leave it for at least 1 hr.
• Wash the rice and keep it aside for about 15-20 mins.
• Heat a Kadhai and add 2 tbsp of vegetable oil, once it's smoking hot add the bay leaves and sliced onion, fry it it turns golden brown. 
• Add the marinated chicken and cook it on medium flame. Also add the cardamom, dalchini , garam masala and the chopped tomato.
• Stir the chicken every 5 mins and cook for about 25 mins. ( Chicken will get tender since it's marinated in curd)
• Since cooking rice on a Kadhai is not advisable, put the rice in a Rice cooker or a flat bottom pan,   add the saffron strands,  cooked chicken and add 5 cups of water (double the quantity of rice).
• Cook till the rice is done and serve hot with raita.

While it may not taste exactly like Biryani but this is easier to cook and as yummy as biryani. Pictures will follow soon.

Before the month ends

Weekend lunch- Pasta in green pesto sauce and Stir fried chicken

My plan to write at least 3 blog post has gone haywire...thanks to me getting super lazy and the crazy work schedule. Between shifting house, cities, travelling and juggling work I find almost no time for myself, it's sad that m not even able to write even1 blog post a month but before this month ends I had to write this post. I hate this when I find no time to update my blog. 

Couple of weeks back I was bored of eating the same food, so decided to cook something different and the result was Pasta cooked with green pesto sauce and Stir fried chicken cooked with bell peppers and Balsamic sauce. Making pasta was super easy but the chicken was not, I did googled for the recipe and thankfully had all the ingredients. The end result was satisfying but not as good as I had expected it to be, the chicken was not so tender mainly because it was overcooked but next time I will improve on the chicken and make it taste better. 

Europe on a budget

For the longest time I have been thinking to write this post, how to travel to Europe on a budget and by budget, let me make it very clear that I do not mean shoe string budget I mean a little over shoe string and not staying in hostels but hotels in good and accessible locations with breakfast, where to eat (cheap), tips to save money, what to buy as souvenirs and how to stay safe and out of trouble . 

Since I have traveled to many European cities alone,with friends and also with my husband I plan to cover these aspect of travel as well. Like if you are traveling with your friends, you may not mind staying in a hostel, in fact few of the hostels I have stayed were really good but having said that hostels have their own issues like the shared toilet being one of them which will be a BIG NO if you are travelling with you family, moving on as part of the Europe on a budget series I plan to cover  cities I have traveled  and enjoyed every moment of it. I will also be writing about day trips that can be done if you happen to live in a neighboring country. The following popular cities will be covered 

a) Paris

b)Barcelona

c)Lisbon & Porto

d)Belgium- Brussels, Antwerp & Brugge

e)Prague

f) Rome

g) Florence & Pisa

h) Venice

i) Netherlands- Amsterdam, Delft, Texel,Rotterdam & Den Haag ( Hague) of course

j) Geneva- Mt. Titlis, Interlaken

k) Germany- Cologne

l) Krakow & Warsaw

m) Luxembourg 

Keeping my target of writing 3 blog post a month I guess for the next 4 months this blog will be lively and I hope to write some interesting and informative post. 

Creation of the day or rather perfect copy - The perfect Sunny side up :)

Sunny side up on a Saturday morning

'That feeling when you create a perfect sunny side up' well in my case I feel happy and extremely satisfied  whenever I make something I really like and turns out perfect.....just the way I like it. Yesterday my sister sent me this link from FB which showed how to make sunny side up inside a perfectly cut bell pepper, so I decided to make it for breakfast the next day. The first thing which came to my mind after seeing those pictures was Godrej Nature's Basket store and Le Marche, two of my favorite food stores in Delhi, so I left work a little early and rushed to Basant Lok, where both the stores are and bought 2 bell peppers (1 red and 1 yellow) some organic eggs and few other things. 

This morning as soon as I woke up I had only the sunny side up and a perfect cup of chai in mind, so I made three of these, the first attempt was not successful but the 2nd and 3rd ones were perfect. The trick is to cut the bell peppers a bit thick and the tomato's really thin and also make sure you don't break the egg york because that will be the end of the sunny side up. I suggest you break the egg carefully in a small bowl and then put it inside the bell pepper and remember to cook on slow flame. 

The facebook link from where I saw these perfect sunny side up is mentioned below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=596287397062788&set=a.189645094393689.47536.188289297862602&type=1&theater

Wondering Why?

From Active to dormant is how I should describe my blog. I started this blog purely to document my love for travel, cooking and eating of course :) and I do find myself looking up the blog very often to recall the ingredients and recipe of certain  dish I had made/created/invented . But over the past 2 years, ever since I left Agartala I find myself blogging less and lesser with every passing month, I should not be giving any excuse because the past 2 years have been the most active and busy years for me in terms of discovering different cuisines from around the world and also in terms of travelling.

The past two years has been really wonderful for me; I got married to the person who makes me happy & laugh with his happy ways always, was on sabbatical from work (a much needed and deserved break), completed an advance degree on development (next degree will be a Phd hopefully) , visited 11 more countries and just for the record I have visited Paris thrice and Rome twice, made some wonderful friends, discovered Dutch, French, Italian (The REAL Italian kind) ,African  and Latin American  food, learned few words of Spanish & many, many words in Dutch, discovered my hidden talent of organizing holiday on a shoe string budget, finding cheap tickets. One thing I really want to mention is, I cooked food for about 100 people for one event at ISS with 3 other wonderful people who lovesss to cook, the team included a French, Japanese, Nepali and Indian....the butter chicken, fish curry and kheer was loved by all. And the most important I discovered that I am bad or should I say horrible in cooking chicken....lol. The only good chicken curry I ever made was the Butter Chicken for the ISS event, but that was all thanx to the pre-mix masala, that chicken was a big hit.

So much activities in life and I failed to document most of it....ahhhh what a shame. But since I am back in India and re-adjusting life post ISS and my European Extravaganza I should and MUST start blogging again. 3 blogs a month is what I am targeting at, so 1 post every 10 days.....hmmm the target is achievable. All the best to me and happy blogging.  

Hagueover

Hagueover or Hague-Over and not Hangover, a new term coined by one of my batchmate from Philippines, explaining in one word how much we miss the awfully windy yet lovely city, we called  home for 15 and half months.  The city I learned to love...now that ISS and Hague is over I have to admit that I do miss the city but  what I miss most about the city now when I look back is difficult to put in few words or in just one post.

I still remember the first day in Hague, it was bright, sunny and a perfect day, 'Perfect Day' was not what we thought back then, only now I can say, it was indeed a perfect day. When the Admin person, told us to go out and enjoy the sun, our reply was "Oh! we come from a HOTTTT country so we do not appreciate the sun so much" , only to realise that we would regret what we said the very next day. Hague is awfully windy and I am not joking, the wind can sometimes blow you away like literally, but despite all the wind and rains, Hague is a lovely city to live. It's weird when I think, why I never took pictures of Hague when I have over 1000 pictures in Paris, and another 1000 pictures in Rome alone. I never took any pictures standing in-front of the   Nordeinde Palace or even the famous Peace Palace, both located 5 mins walking from Dorus.

Missing Hague, friends, ISS and the community we build!

Travel Plans November

To begin with we are going to Amsterdam, followed by Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, maybe Barcelona, Brugge, Antwerp and if we get cheap tickets maybe Cologne also. Enough reasons for me to finish my RP before 9th.