Home experiments!

2nd November 2012

I'm posting these so late, I can't believe these pics were created last year. When I went home for diwali I finally got some time to cook and I tried making pasta and momos. Turned out pretty nice! Here're the pictures!

The pasta turned out as good as it looks, maybe better!! It got over that very day and the quantity and taste was delicious. My irritating dad couldn't even wait for me to grate cheese on top of it. Of course I used a lot of substitutes. Next time, green pasta!

This is mum's special - she makes it atleast once when I come home. Steamed buttered vegies, garlic toast, fish or meat with a potato salad on the side. DELICIOUS!!!

 

My awesome good secret keeper gran (ajju) helped me make the flour into flat circles. 

So they could become these!

Finally my ambitious momo experiment. The momo filling turned out SUPER delicious and very much like a real restaurant. I decided I should try making the cover with wheat flour instead of maida since it's healthier. BIG mistake. It started to get gooey and it got a little weak. Also the twist on top had too much wheat and it didn't get cooked properly. First cooking failure. But the taste was delicious.

Tomato sauce cooked with it was a little chunky and hasty, but it was so good you could have it plain.

It was still delicious, but I'd give myself a 2/5. Next time, maida instead of wheat flour and thin twists. u_u Wish I could make you guys try this as well!

Incase you haven't seen my first ever super ambitious super delicious super successful lemon-rosemary chicken recipe, here it is:

When I was buying the ingredients my parents thought this would be a big failure. It was the day before I was leaving home for college and I knew that I had to cook something one last time. So dad said he and mum already ate and they've have just one leg piece. So I bought two, one for them, one for me. When it was done they were licking their fingers and hungry for more. *sigh* I was hungry too. My dad had called his friends and we had to divide the 2 legs by 5 people. -_-

If I didn't have to massacre it it would have looked even better in the photo. 

And that's the end of another long post.

**All food cooked with instinct and recklessness. No recipe used.

Objects

12th Sept 2012

Here're some old photos I'd clicked in our computer lab where I worked everyday. There's something about objects that make you feel so comfortable that you need to see them, wear them and interact with them everyday. Maybe a book, your cell phone or your bag. Somethings remind you that your best friends are around. Like their jacket, or their water bottle. I just loved the feel of these photos. Would like to know if you guys have such objects in your life. ;)

Egypt in transit!

3rd and 4th June 2012

Once we landed we had to wait for them to finish the forms and transit stuff which look a friggin 1.5 hours!! During that time I took out my sketchbook and tried to inconspiciously sketch all the wonderful people with all their shapes, sizes, hair colours and styles, clothing and gestures.

Egypt Air sucks. They keep you on transit for hours, they're not punctual, they're not organized, and the lost and found is useless. If you've got a choice to halt somewhere, let it be Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

This was how our hotel room looked. Pretty cosy huh? It was called the Baron Hotel as it was right in front of the Baron Building, which if I'm not mistaken is the parliament or some political structure.

The amazing looking breads on the breakfast table, though I was too full to try all of them!!

I know, right?? *drool*

Customized mushroom cheese omelette.

Our driver - he was a really nice chap. He didn't know English, but Sherif was there to translate thigns for us. The first night after the sound and light show he invited us to his home for his son's coming-of-age party! Unfortunately we were too tired to go, but it was a really nice gesture.

We've seen this sort of thing in Ahmedabad.

funny architecture ain't it?

Loved capturing these locals on bikes, selling stuff, walking and talking, smoking hookah, training horses, sleeping in trams!

Mundane activities in Cairo. In Egypt they mainly travel in these tram-bus like thingies. They take upto ten people and cost about 2 egyptian pounds for a ride (20 rupees)

Sherif introduced Cairo to us in a funny way. He said there's one really interesting thing about Cairo that you will never forget - 'The traffic'. We laughed. Obviously he'd never been to India! ;)

Lotta palm trees on the way to the Pyramids. we were now in Giza.

These Egyptians do like their hookah.

Cute camel bums!

My family with Sherif, our guide. Sherif was very friendly and cheerful - he must have been around 26, and he knew practically everything about the ancient Egyptians and their stories.

 

Why am I looking so excited? Because I'm in Egypt!! I've dreamed of visiting this country all my life, and here I was, even if only for a day!

I'm making Raina do touristy things. First I make her do this, then I make her look fat, and then I upload and tag her!! She's gonna disown me.

 

LOL!! This Papyrus fellow was hilarious! He's asking if we want our family name written on Kartouchés and Hieroglyphics on a papyrus scroll.

LOL!!!! Bilu acting like she's shy, although she sucks at it!!! So glad I caught this on camera. Makes me smile everytime!!!

Bil+Loni make a Billoni. :|

This snap has a story behind it. On day one of our trip, Egypt Air lost Mumma's glasses and she was feeling very blind and handicapped and she couldn't take photos. When I gave her the canon and showed her that she could adjust the number in the viewfinder, she was AMAZED. This is how she looked when holding the camera.

We had a lot of private jokes that day.

The sphinx!! How I was dying to see it up close. That would have to wait for tomorrow. It's actually the head of the Pharoah Khufu (to whom the greater pyramid belongs)

The sound and light show was great - it highlights the story of king Ceops - to whom the biggest Pyramid belongs to, and his sons, wife and daughters, to whom the other pyramids belong. It also told us how they were made at the time. It showed the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Ceops in greek), the Pyramid of Khafre (elder son of Khufu) and the Pyramid of Menkaure (younger son of Khufu).

In this snap I could just about fit in all the 3 Pyramids of Giza!

Great Pyramid of Khufu (Ceops in greek)

The food we had at Baron Hotel that night

It was yum! For the first time in my life I tasted Sushi, and I wasn't in Japan! (it tasted disgusting) Besides that everything else was absolutely delicious. As a staple diet, Egyptians generally eat meat with a little bit of rice.

The walls were initially made of camel dung and then with the casing stone.

Way to the Pyramids.

Second pyramid with a little casing stone remaining on it. Originally they were all covered by it but in time it wore off, exposing the stones under it.

Desert Sands!

Here's a helpful tip about Egyptians - they are inborn conmen! They trick you and needlessly beg for tips. At the pyramids the camel riders begged you to take a photo of them (Pls take photo, I say cheese) and then asked for money for the photo, even if you're not even in it. They sell you artifacts worth 5 Egyptian Pounds for 25 Pounds! So don't trust anyone about their prices! Be firm, and say no. Walk awayyy......

I walked away, he walked away.

When you look at them from afar they really don't look that big; probably as tall as a ordinary skyscraper - but they're HUGE when you come close! The largest one was made of 3 million slabs of rock, and each weighs about 3-5 tonnes. It took 300 men to move each slab at the time, and the first pyramid of king Kiosk took 20 years to complete with the workers working for 3 months in a year.

Did anybody notice the top of the pyramid? does it look anywhere close? And all this to just house ONE mummy and his belongings!!!

This is what the Egyptian boats were parked in! They carried the slabs weighing a tonne each from across the Nile to the desert.

Camel droppings!! They look like rotten Jamuns.

Haha!! At first mumma refused to climb on to take the camel ride, but after a lot of persuation she came with us! :D

'ssup y'all?

Munch munch.

From there we went to the papyrus making place where we saw how the ancient Egyptians made papyrus. It's kinda like Sugarcane, but it has a triangular stem. The inside of this stem is sliced in strips and soaked in water for 6 days, after which it is pressed and dried. The paper is immortal! It's strong, it doesn't tear, and it's flexible.

The guide there explained how papyrus is made. The outside bark is sliced off, and then strips are cut from the inside and soaked in water for a few hours. After that they're pressed under a pressing machine and dried for 6 days. After drying they are arranged in horizontal and vertical strips alternately, giving the paper its strength.

The guide explaining the most important piece in Egyptian History, the last judgement. When a king was to go to the afterlife, his heart was weighed alongside a feather. There was a creature placed between the man an Osirus (god of the underworld). If the heart weighed more than the feather, it was assumed guilty and the creature would devour it, leaving the soul of the king lost and wandering. If the feather weighed more, the creature would point to Osirus and the Pharaoh's soul would reach Heaven.

My family listening with 'Constant Vigilance!!!' or rather - rapt attention.

The papyrus plant.

The salesman there was very persuasive on making us buy one of the paintings, but they looked nowhere as beautiful as the originals where they'd used natural dyes instead of the metallic paints we saw. After a lot of debate we bought two empty sheets.