Happy Sajibu Nongma Panba Cheirouba

Happy Cheirouba to everyone (Photo courtesy : e-pao.net)

Meitei Cheirouba or the new year for Meitei's in Manipur and all over the world is an auspicious day for all the Meitei's. As a kid growing up in Manipur, I loved this festival, it was the day we get to eat a really elaborate lunch...mom would always make Ooti (which is my favorite among of all Meitei dishes ) and atleast 10 more dishes, all vegetarian but really yummy, we exchange dishes with our neighbors, offer food to god on banana leaf before eating any of the special dishes  and the best part was Cheirou-ching kaba after the heavy meal. 

It's been many years since I celebrated "Cheirouba' at home in Imphal but every year on Cheirouba day I do cook Meitei dishes and make an elaborate meal for myself. Today I made Ooti, Champhut, Hawai thongba and  Aloo kangmet with Yongchak maru. Happy Cheirouba to me and hope this new year make me work harder and brings the best of life.

Super happiness wala food

Sometimes I think I get to eat more Manipuri veggies and food in Hague then in other part of India. The Oriental supermarket sells many vegetables we eat in Manipur. Hanggam, Yongchak Maru (though a lil different), Ekai-thabi, Thambou, Chile's simillar to Ou-morok, Yendem, Yai-ngangla, Marou-Nakuppi, Marou-Napakpi, Sa-Maroi, Kolamni, Ousoi and much more. The other day I went to The Oriental supermarket, I bought hanggam and Yongchaak maru it tastes the same but the only difference is the price, a packet of hanggam cost 1.5 euro where as back home it will cost just about 10 or15 bucks......I know I should stop this conversion business but my mind is stuck to the Rs and refuses to adapt to Euro....hahaha.  

I also went to another store as suggested by my Chinese floor mate called "Wah Nah Hong", which also sells things similar to The Oriental but a little cheaper and I found Wai wai and Ou-chi na at the store, food and ingredients wise I've no complains in Hague....my happiness is at max now with these food discovery.

In the evening for dinner I made "Nga ga Hanggam ga thongba & Yongchaak maru singju",  though thousands of miles apart, I felt closer to home.

Yongchaak maru, hanggam and Wai wai....happiness food

The best cheesecake in town @ Cheesecake Company

Lemon Cheesecake and Double Chocolate dip cheesecake......yummmmm

Last week I happen to visit this really awesome cheesecake shop with my food and partner in crime (for cooking and eating) fren 'CD'. It's called the 'Cheesecake Company', located very close to where we live, a small yet lovely shop near the centrum.  I had a tough time deciding which one to order but finally decided to have the Lemon cheesecake, my fren CD had double dip cheesecake and both the cheesecake were really yum. For the record let me put it that I've never had such yummy cheesecake ever  before and the best part is it's not expensive, it costs about Euro 4 a slice and the slices are quite huge. If you are visiting The Hague and love cheesecake this is a must visit and must eat place.....oh I am going there tomorrow to have some more cheesecake....happiness plan tomm. 

Address:

CheesecakeCompany

Torenstraat 32-2513 BS

Den Haag

www.cheesecakecompany.nl 

Sevinyan for dessert

Some real Sevinyan for dessert

Last week I invited some of my frens for dinner (I realized that inviting people & going for potluck dinner is my fav.social activity now :) hehehe). The menu was not very elaborate but it was yummm Prawn curry with coconut milk, Chilly Chicken, Aloo-Gobi-mattar ke subzi, Rice and Sevinya. I bought the real sevinyan like the one we get in India from a Pakistani shop near the open market, the 200 gm packet costed me just  75 cents and I think it was worth every cent. I tried making Sevinyan from the Euroshop vermicelli packet...which turned into a total disaster, two week back when me CT & SS had invited our frens for dinner, the food was really good that day but the dessert was a grand failure.  

But this time...all thanx to using the real sevinya it was really good. The best part about the dinner was of course the dessert and I plan to make  it again some other day for another grand dinner.

Spring is here....

and we are loving it. Hague has become almost a valley of flowers.

Finally found some snowdrops....

Kiley mei Fateh....

The "Kiley mei Fateh" joke between me, CT and SS started from Lisbon when we went to St.George Castle, our typical dialogue was "Sathiyon humme Kiley mei fateh haasil karni hai aur tiranga jhanda lehrana hai"...."Sathiyon maiden-e-jung ke tarah kouch karo...dushmano ko harana hai" and this has continued till Luxemburg, this time it was even more dramatic as I bought the Luxumburg city flag  and we used it to make our dialogues even more funny but the best line was of course "Maharaj ki jai ho". 

During our walk upto the castle we discovered that our fren from Kenya, 'J' used to watch a lot of hindi TV serials like "Ramayan, Mahabharat and even Ji Hanuman and she remembered the 'Maharaj ki jai ho' line from all these serials...we had so much fun at the cost of castle, talking in pure hindi  and our endless 'Kiley mei fateh' jokes. Luxumburg trip was quite fun and I plan to write some more post with details on how to travel and must see places in Luxumburg by end of this week. More trip post with pics. will follow soon :). 

Viandam Castle from a distance