The greener grass..

I am here to reflect once more how the grass is indeed greener on the other side. Forever it seemed like I complained that we wore sweaters or jackets in Paris for the past 8 months... and how the sun never seemed to shine in all it's splendor and what not. And the sun had it's revenge on us for my bad-mouthing. The temperatures soared to 30+°C and we sweated it out this weekend in Paris too.. showing the brilliant sights and sounds to yet another bunch of visitors.

Two days later.... the sunniest weekend in Paris in 10 months later... insane sweating later. (try the Paris metros in Summer).. many blisters later... infinite tan lines and infinite tanning later... I've realized I've asked too much from the sun. And maybe the time the sun was away wasn't too bad? Now either it has to head for some cover giving us some muted glory or I am going to walk around in ridiculous wide-brimmed straw hats uncaring about the stares I am sure to receive while making a thorough fool of myself. Like I said.. any way you look at it, the grass is greener on the other side. Any other experiences any of you'd like to share where you stumbled upon this universal truth? Comment away.

Got Milk?

You know that F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode where Chandler and Joey wager the girls that they can guess every item in Rachel's shopping bag because they know them so well? Well if you want a head-start on me, you've got to start with milk. And I'm not kidding. I don't know what it is with my Parisian obsession with milk. I like the milk in this country but that's no excuse to go scouting for different brands when you can't really tell the difference in taste between them. Yet, I do that. I like to try different brands from different stores just to see if my tea tastes any different. Completely weird. And so if you guess there's milk in my grocery bag, full points to you. 

The real reason behind buying milk with every grocery purchase I guess might be rooted in three things.

1. Unlike the US where gallons of milk are available to be purchased, here you have only the option of 1 liter bottles/tetrapacks or 1/2 liter ones (but in packs of 6 so I guess that makes up?).

2. Milk being a staple gets used as often as anything else.

3. The expiry date for milk in this country is insanely long. If the pack/bottle remains unopened it is likely to last for over 3 months and who's keeping milk that long anyways?

Oh and I hate getting up in the morning to discover that we ran out of milk and I have to go out to buy milk to be able to retreat to the solace or my morning chai. That's worth going into any trouble lugging back excess bottles of milk. Hence, got milk? Hell yeah!

The fine line...

This is about the fine line between sharing details and sharing too much details on social networks like Facebook and stuff. Recently I've marveled how some people have absolutely no qualms in posting stuff about themselves that may potentially harm anything from their professional opportunities to their personal relationships. On that note, here's a poll on where I stand in your opinion...

Brushing the results aside for a moment, I think most people are a little lost on what can be shared what's too much information. And I gave it a little thought and came up with just 1 question that they need to answer -

Would they be comfortable with their boss and their mom reading whatever's been posted?

Well that sounds fairly simple. But sometimes some people neither have their moms nor their bosses on their lists and hence have no boundaries either. On the other hand, its not just about the inappropriate content either, not just about posting pictures of one completely zoned out after a night of partying or the likes of it. It's more about sharing too much. Like breaking up over Facebook or publicizing one's fights and misgivings, rants and fantasies about other people (not celebrities) which are very real. I haven't understood that. For instance if someone broke up with someone else, why would they want to actually scream all over Facebook about it? I have the same question about a million other scenarios. And it's like people's personal boundaries have eroded into ambiguity with the popularity of social networking. Now getting "likes" or unwarranted advice/comfort from relative strangers is more welcome than actually sorting things out with one close confidante.

A while back, I read on Dear Prudence that someone found out that her best friend was getting married only through FB. That's just ridiculous. On the other hand posting information about the really big events might be ok (not like an invitation, but like an information). Like buying a house or moving to a new city- surely things everyone would like to know and find out eventually anyways. But then there's another thing I realized even as I write this post. Each person will have different boundaries. For instance what might be my too much might just be normal for someone else. Which makes the whole post moot, I guess? But then there's still something to ponder about. How much is too much? Comments appreciated.

Father Figure

Once more I am hardly going to dare to belittle my Appa's sacrifices and role in my life the way it's turned out by merely writing about it. Instead I am just going to pause here and thank God for having gifted me a father with whom I've succeeded in having a continuing close, extremely friend-life relationship. Neither my brother nor I could've hoped for anything better. Ever.

Thank you Appa and here's wishing you a very happy Father's Day on all our behalfs.

Firing the canon

So here she is… the newest member of our growing Canon family – a simple film SLR camera. I’ve only just loaded new film into the camera and I got to say I love the “sound” of clicking. There’s nothing digital about it. It’s all mechanical. And it’s finally refreshing to be limited. With the film SLR, thanks to the manual settings, you really got to know what you’re doing. There are no second chances for a single photo. And so this first roll is going to be entirely experimental. If any of the photos do turn out to be masterpieces, you know where you can expect to see them. Until then, just wish me happy clicking.

My new Canon film SLR.

  

PS: This one doesn't have a "on-off" button, just a "lock". Hence the poll.

Curb your enthusiasm..

Nope.. once again wrong. Not the Seinfeld writer's newer venture. This time it's photo-centric. About 6 months ago I wrote lamenting the fact that no one takes too many prints of digital photos anymore. Though its a serious advancement in technology and improvement in everything, we have allowed digital photography to cripple us on the basic level. You can read that post here. And so I took the plunge. A film camera. A return to innocence almost. But at it's best. A Canon. An SLR. 36 shots in one film roll. Better yet it's upto us to bring the best of our talent out in that. No more retouching. No more post-processing. Time to restrict the impulse and fire the Canon.

PS: Will post pics of the new camera soon (but through digital means of course).

And here's an interestingly elementary question and poll to finish -

Broken faith?

When I suddenly think back to some things that I tend to do, I realize that I have accepted certain things without question. These have been imbibed into me from when I was very little and though I probably don't know the premise of the evolved action, I haven't bothered to question it at all. For instance, the thottu-othifying - the practice of touching something with your fingers (typically of the right hand) and brushing them across your eyelids in an action of seeking pardon. For instance if you step on a book (which represents Goddess Saraswati or knowledge, no matter if it is indeed your Chemistry textbook or instead a trashy movie tabloid), you do the action of thottu-othifying to absolve the wrongness of the deed. You see? Similarly I have unquestionably followed in the typical Hindu faith of Idol worship. And no I am not ashamed of being "backward" nor do I question the power of that faith... when one stands in front of an idol, bowed by faith, and with an almost conversational plea in front of God, I think it's empowering. Especially to believe in an "upper cosmic force", something that can change things for you the way you yourself can't.

However, the purpose for this post was none of that. While cleaning the Swami Shelf (the cabinet that holds all my Godly possessions) yesterday, I came across a broken idol of Pillayar (Ganesha). It must've broken perhaps when we moved or something. And of course I felt inexplicably sad. I also felt that this shelf was not the right place to keep the idol anymore. Instead I decided to do a Visarjan (submerging the God's idol in a water body to represent the cycle of life and death) and ended up submerging the idol in the river Marne near my house. Why? Again one of those things that was put in your head for time immemorial. Did the idol lose its power? Did I stop believing in its power now that it had broken? Did I believe that the God wasn't happy there anymore? I don't know as a matter of fact and I only did what felt right. Was it right? Was I cheapo to purportedly banish the idol away? Again, I don't know. Was the faith broken? Not exactly. I believed that the idol would rather return to the water than be displayed out there in my Swami Shelf. Ok before I start sounding any closer to butterfly net territory, let me leave it as one of those things - to each one, his own. And in matters of faith, it is whatever that works for each one.

Lipsmacking – Samosa channa chaat

So the other day I had time on my hands... Hence, dinner was served. Piping hot and all from scratch. Enough said. You’ve already gotten the channa recipe. And the samosas? Separate blog to follow.

 Crispy hot samosas. Serve piping hot with ketchup/chutney. We’ve saved these to serve with channa as chaat.

And here’s a shot of the full dish as served…

 Served with freshly chopped onions and tomatoes and a hint of yogurt. Add samosas to channa only just before serving.

Bon Appétit!

Postcards from Quiberon…

As promised… courtesy the ‘S’ in our SLR… some pics from our visit to Quiberon, a coastal region in Bretagne, the North-west of France.

And one more…

Enjoy!

The rental car and the mental tension

So going out to rent a car in France? Easy-peasy right? However, paperwork rules in this country and for all it's beautiful landscapes you'd better hope you can rent a car to enjoy it to the best possible extent. As we were going to Quiberon, this past weekend and we hoped to take in the coastal views and a lot more with the help of a rental car of course. So we waded down to the Hertz at the Rennes gare, armed with our reservation. There was a short line of 5 people before us. And a "scene" was just starting to unfold in front of us, given away by the exasperatedly angry voice of the front desk lady battling 3 just-arrived tourists from a different country. They had a reservation, a valid driving license from their country but no International license, so to speak of. And that was the problem. For those who've never heard of an International license, it may sound like a strange thing. But the knowledge of its existence in India gave me the slightest jitters. I too, had only an India driving license and no international license. But according to the French government rules, one can drive with the license of a different country so long as they are a student. Or so I believed. And the various car rentals over the past 2 years stood testament to my belief too. However the lady at the counter was real hardcore, unwilling to budge to any threats by the dissed clients and showed them the "rule book" and eventually the door. I pondered only for an instant if indeed they expected US state driving license holders to have an International license as well. It seemed highly unlikely. But I had better things to worry about at the juncture and painstakingly waited while the other 3 people ahead of us in the queue quickly furnished the required documents and sped away with their keys.

Come our turn. Cold sweat was threatening to appear on my forehead. And in the instant before we handed over my papers and our reservation to her, my mind flashed to me the million possibilities in case we too were shown the door - How would we get to Quiberon that was over 150km away? Take a bus/coach/train? Ditch the plan? Cancel the hotel? Camp around Rennes? Approach another car rental agency? However I smiled and uttered the golden passport - Bonjour to her and passed her all my IDs and documents all at once. And in return she uttered the words that held literally held the keys to our weekend getaway - Et voilà - vous avez tous! (There you go... you have everything that's required!)

Relief crept in at first and then filled all of us rapidly. We hadn't realized that we were indeed holding our breaths. Banished were the worst case scenarios. To top it all, we were given a gorgeous brand-new keyless entry, button controlled 7-seater Renault Scenic 2010. It was a bon voyage. On that finishing note, a picture postcard from Quiberon or the adjoining island of Belle Île shall follow soon... Happy sunshine and hello summer!

Linguistically biased?

PS: This blog is a reflection from the same situation I've been faced at many stages when I meet new people. Nothing happened recently to prompt it.

Have you ever been faced with this situation? You're in a group of Indians predominantly speaking one regional language. And it happens to be your Mother tongue too. Yet, there are some people who assume you don't speak it well. While I've found that preposterous and ultra-presuming each time, I thought I should dig a little deeper to see what makes these people assume such things. And conclusively it was one of two things -

1. My English is so well-developed that they've assumed that I speak English with everyone around and just a smattering of the regional language, to my family included. Loosely translated: Pure BS. I mean, just because I am one "Mary" (English speaking Tamil woman - read "Peter's" female equivalent), doesn't mean I can't speak  great Tamil. Come on!

2. Dialect: Being from a TamBrahm family means that my Tamil has remained sheltered in spite of all the Chennai glory years probably because most of my closest friends are TamBrahm as well. So sure, we have a lot of specific lingo which the others probably don't understand sometimes but hey, it's a two way street . And even if it does sound different, you don't hear me mocking your poyirchu to my poyiduthu , both essentially meaning "it has gone" or use the age-old wise-crack of naan kolathuku poren (I'm going to the pond) while I ask "aathuku polama?" (Brahmin lingo for "shall we go home". Basically aar(th)u also means river in Tamil). And speaking a different dialect doesn't preclude me from understanding others. And just 'coz my vocabulary in galeej words may not match some others', it needn't lead to the conclusion that my Tamil isn't proper. 

 

I'd love to extrapolate that logic to English and see how many people actually know English. Now wouldn't that be fun... throw in the word play and we'll have a riot. Nakkal? Not really.

On the other hand, out of the blue, time's freakin' flying, don't you think?  It's the end of May!

Vaux le Vicomte

So I was on a picnic to Vaux le Vicomte on a trip arranged by my college. Here's a panorama from the day trip.

Hint: Click on the photo for a full image.

Well the Château has a sad history but we had a great time being there. And the college treated us to a day of fun.. what lunch on a bateau, day at the Château and what not! The day played a bit of a spoilsport though.. it was raining in patches. But the gardens of this Château were spectacular and apparently a huge influence on Versailles' ultimate design. Anyhow, what it did accomplish was get me wholly interested in French history. And so I have been devouring reading material and Youtube videos since. Will keep you posted on what happens from that (if anything does).

Last of the tofu: Tofu masala puris

I didn’t plan on this one. I actually wanted to make tofu ice cream but S discouraged me of the idea in such a manner that I was a bit apprehensive to try. And so? Tofu puris.

Crispy soft tofu masala puris.

Interested enough? You should be. Of all the 3 tofu dishes I’ve made over the past week, this was hands-down my favourite. It was crispy yet soft, flavorful yet subtle. The perfect dish to conclude the long weekend. So here’s what you need -

Ingredients	Quantity
1. Tofu	300 g, finely crumbled with your hands
2. Atta	400 g or 2.5 cups
3. Oil	2 cups for deep frying and 1 tablespoon for mixing into the dough
4. Water	Enough to make dough of the right consistency, approximately 1 cup
5. Dry spices	Salt to taste, 1 tsp of dhaniya-jeera powder, 1 tsp of red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp of sugar, a pinch of turmeric

Serve with any hot subji and you’ve got yourself a killer combination.

How? Just mix all the ingredients to make a consistent dough like chapathis or parathas. Let it sit for at least an hour. Use some fresh atta  to make small balls from the doiugh and roll them out into puris of the size you desire. Heat the oil for deep frying sufficiently before frying your puris. Test with a bit of dough. Do not keep the flame too high or the puri will cook only externally but not all over in addition to “drinking in the oil”. Next.. just deep fry and drain the excess oil on a paper towel before serving piping hot with the subji of choice. Bon Appétit!

Served with Mughalai Subji (Holler if you want a recipe).

One thing’s for sure though… I bet all of you are as done with tofu as I am. Whoosh! Here’s hoping for wider ingredients to feature here soon. :D

P’Arc de Triomphe: The urban jungle

You have to hand it over to the French. The most famous road in Paris, probably even the world, Champs Elysées, was turned into a garden. For 2 days. At a cost of 4.2 million euros. You can see the news item here. And it was a sight to behold -

The Arc de Triomphe at the head of the world-famous Avenue de Champs Elysées.

And boy, did the people turn out or what! I have never seen a rush like that in Paris. Sure, Champs Elysées is always crowded. But the crowd yesterday was such that if you happened to drop something, it would cascade through at least 10 people before it reached the ground and inevitably got stampeded. It was an exhibition by young French farmers, displaying everything from their crop to their domesticated animals. However, the “natural” greenery was far less obvious than the urban jungle on display. The people who thronged the place in millions in the sweltering heat braving it all just to witness the miracle of having paved away the traffic from this amazing street and fill it with mud and trees, flowers and animals. I’ll admit. All we saw was people. Joie de Vivre!

The urban jungle. The street was so crowded it was impossible to see the Louvre at the far end of Champs Elysées.

Beat the heat: Strawberries ’n cream

Ah Paris has dived into summer, skipping Spring entirely. The temperatures are in the late 20s-early 30s, and believe me when I say that it is hot. Sure, a lot of you are wondering if I am not from Chennai, where I’ve faced only 3 seasons – hot, hotter and hottest. But there’s something about the Parisian air.. the humidity perhaps, the sheer intensity of summer is just as cold as the winter  is, the temperatures never telling the true story. Here’s one of the sure-fire ways to beat the heat. Dessert.

 Serve in a chilled wine glass for that extra oomph.

This time it’s the Wimbledon favorite – Strawberries and fresh cream. There’s really no great secret to this one right. You just can’t go wrong when you mix two amazing ingredients to create a dish, better still a dessert. However, some tips might go a long way in enhancing the experience.

1. Keep the strawberries refrigerated until the last minute before you dunk the cream on them. There’s no need to cut it. Just remove the stem, rinse them well and go.

2. Pre-chill the wine glass/dessert bowl in the freezer for a couple of minutes so that the cream doesn’t “melt” right away.

Serve chilled, indulge and enjoy. Bon Appétit!

  Wimbledon’s favorite dessert served chilled.

Saturday Brunch: Bread Upma

So it’s typical… you get up late on a Saturday morning. In a short while after a tea/coffee your stomach starts signaling to you that it’s about time to break its fast. But you are just not in the mood to make anything elaborate. And something like cereal or toast just seems boring. Bread upma is perfect for those days… minimal effort, mildly spiced, the perfect, warm, carb-fest to kick start your senses for the weekend.

Getting started. Bread slices broken into bite-sized pieces.

I am sure every house has a “different” recipe for this dish. My house has a minimalistic delicious one. What do you need? Of course you need about 6 slices of bread broken into small bite-sized pieces. Additionally,

Veggies: Just one small onion and tomato, finely chopped.

Spices: Salt to taste and red chilli powder. I’ve also used a pinch of turmeric.

Seasoning: 1/2 tsp each of mustard seeds and channa dal.

Garnishing: 1/2 a sprig of fresh coriander.

And how to? Please, I am sure you know how. Heat 1/2 tsp of oil, add the seasonings, fry the veggies, add the dry spices and finally the bread. The bread should not get soaked by the masala, it should remain dryish and just get coated with all of the spices and the veggies. Turn of the gas once the bread gets “heated” and garnish with coriander.

So there you go.. under 10 minutes you have a simple, sumptuous and tasty breakfast/brunch. Serve piping hot. Bon Appétit!

Pictured here garnished with curry leaves.

Stage-fright

Everyone has been faced with stage-fright at some point or the other in their lives. It maybe something as simple as giving a presentation in front of your peers or something as life-changing as getting married. And very few people are very sure about the consequences. For instance, typically just before any presentation, my legs temporarily lose all feeling and my fingers are icy to touch. I have instant misgivings about the whole concept. At that instant, everything seems to be like a bad idea. It was a bad idea to recommend those changes to the experiment that brought about those new results... a bad idea to accept that it was you indeed who had to give the talk in front of everyone... bad idea to work against the close deadline and even worse idea to actually complete the job in the allotted time. But you know what? When I walk there to face everyone, if not instantly, slowly but surely the warmth spreads to my extremes - my fingertips and my toes. My initially high-pitched voice regains it's natural timbre and my poise and confidence increase exponentially as I make eye contact and start to explain. After all, it is my topic and my choice and I know it best. That reassurance carries me along quite well till the very end and all feelings of misgivings vanish. 

And no matter what the occasion, with every big event, come the nerves and the momentary self-doubt. And I have come to realize that very few people don't have the initial nerves... that split-second of second guessing the choices made. And of course I am not talking just about "presentations" here. Anything big... getting married, buying a house, etc. As soon as you add the "this is it" clause to it, it assumes paramount importance. And it's all in good humor too. According to me, if you didn't have those nerves, it wasn't as important to you. And if you're making a grand decision in your life, you might as well be as sure as you can be. Before you take the plunge and do the best that you can for the decision you entailed. Fair enough.

Exotic: Tofu koftas

Didn’t I say there would be more tofu recipes following? So here it is, as promised – something different yet something reasonably healthy for what it is – tofu koftas. Here’s a first look -

And if I say so myself, you’ve got to try this. So here goes -

Ingredients for the kofta	Quantity
1. Tofu	300g, finely mashed
2. Dry spices	1tsp of dhaniya-jeera powder, 1/2 tsp of turmeric, salt to taste, 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder and 1/4 tsp of sugar
3. Oil	1 teaspoon
4. Corn flour	2 tablespoons
5. Rice flour	1/2 teaspoon
Ingredients for the gravy	Quantity
1. Onions	2 medium-large, finely chopped
2. Tomatoes	1, medium, finely chopped
3. Tomato paste	1/2 tablespoon
4. Ginger garlic paste	Make fresh equal to 1 tablespoon or use store-bought.
5. Fresh cream	1 tablespoon
6. Green chilli	1, finely chopped
Other	Quantity
1. Oil	For deep frying
2. Coriander	1 sprig for garnishing
3. Jeera	1 tablespoon

The Koftas.

1. Mix all the ingredients for the kofta and knead well with your fingers. Bare in mind that the “dough” should be roughly the consistency of any chapathi dough and not wet at all. If your tofu is refrigerated, I would suggest letting it sit outside for a while to come down to room temperature.

2. Once you’re done, make balls roughly the size of a lemon and coat with corn flour and set aside. Make dumplings from all of the “dough”.

3. Deep fry in oil till golden brown.

So here’s the transformation - Dumplings of tofu set aside for deep frying

 Tofu dumplings after deep frying

I admit it was very tempting to stop here, nuke them with ketchup and just pop them in, piping hot as a snack. Maybe some other time. :)
The Gravy.

1. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and allow the jeera to sputter once hot.

2. Add the green chillis and the ginger garlic paste to it after lowering the flame (so as to avoid them from sputtering and burning you), whilst stirring constantly.

3. Once the garlic has browned and ginger has cooked, add the onions and stir them in. Add sufficient salt to allow the onion to release its juices and cook well.

4. Once the onions are translucent add the tomatoes and the tomato paste and stir in well. You want the tomatoes to cook well and so let it cook for about 7 minutes while the pieces lose shape and the tomato lets the oil float up.

5. Add some water if the gravy is thickening too much. Now add the dry spices and stir well. Close the lid of the saucepan and allow it to simmer for a while.

6. After about 5 minutes of simmering, open the lid and add in the cream, give it a quick stir and turn off the gas.

Add the koftas to the gravy just before serving. This keeps their crunch intact.

 Pictured here with phulkas.

Serve with hot rotis/parathas/phulkas or good old steamed rice. It’s positively yummy and you won't regret the brief effort you put into it. So, all I have to say is Bon Appétit!

In case of emergency...

We've all heard of  tourists being robbed (not at gunpoint or anything like that) when they were unaware of their belongings under various circumstances. It could be on a commuter train where the getaway was easy (read this) or in an extremely crowded tourist spot, like the Eiffel Tower on New Year's eve. And until my friend here in Paris, NN lost all her belongings at a beach in Spain, the magnitude of the deed didn't strike me. I mean, while we all know we have to be careful with our things to the best possible extent, not too many of us are prepared for the worst-case-scenario where the thief succeeds. She for one, lost all her papers - her passport, her French residence permit, student IDs, etc., all her keys - home, office, hotel room, all her money - cash, ATM cards, credit/debit cards, her return tickets to France and her mobile phone (which means she had none of her contacts)-  all with her handbag which she had set down next to her for a second while taking a picture of the sunset on the beach. Yes, she shouldn't have set it down. But on a vast, open space of a beach, you think it's fairly unlikely for someone to swindle you of all your belongings in one millisecond. Yet it did happen. What then? Luckily for her, she was traveling with a friend who was able to buy their tickets back and with a police report, she didn't need emergency travel documents for within the Europe. And because of the friend and all their reservations and the common nature of touristic fraud, they weren't required to disprove any illegal entry. She was able to travel back here and in a quick act of non-bureaucracy, she was able to get most of her papers replaced under a week's time. Of course it cost her heavily, but nonetheless.

Which set me thinking. What if you were traveling alone and this happened? And the thought was truly scary. What if indeed all was lost and you were alone, penniless in a foreign country? Sure you could get to the hotel somehow and scarper the rest of your belongings and owe a fine on your credit card for the keys. But what about your way back? You'd probably have to call a friend (on hotel charge) and have them wire you some immediate money to some place known and what not. Everything, a far bigger hassle than you'd want to find yourself in. And not worth any trouble at all. So what do you do?

1. Do not carry your most important papers when you are out sightseeing. Most hotels have safe deposit boxes with locks, the keys of which you can carry. It's probably prudent to stow it away there on hotel property and risk it on their safety procedure than carry it with you in a bag and risk the million thieves out there out loose. Better yet, if possible stash it on the inner coat pocket or something similar which remains close to you at all times (unless you remove your jacket at a restaurant and hey presto, it's gone again). This includes your return tickets, and other things that you wouldn't immediately be using in your short outing of the place.

2. Money matters. Weird as it may sound, it's best to leave some cash (a couple of 100 bucks) taped to your passport (in which case we assume you keep your passport safe) or inside your toiletry /makeupkit or in an equally unlikely place as a backup. And again, maybe it's best to avoid bulky wallets and the likes, which are primary targets anyways.

3.Contacts. Emergency contacts are there for a reason. Like for health emergencies and for situations like this. Either carry their information on some part of your luggage or have them memorized. Or have them stowed away in your email which you can hopefully access freely enough, thanks to all the hotels now having atleast lobby-enabled free wifi.

None of these apply to youth hostels. If you are staying in youth hostels, it's best to travel light, carry all your terribly important things, which should be minimal, on your person.

Is there anything I missed out? Is there anything you'd handle differently? Other than hitch hike your way back into town? Voice up.

Protein powerhouse: Tofu parathas

As vegetarians in France, we have to grab the olive branch to any decent ingredient out there, which is out of the ordinary. And tofu is definitely one of those ingredients we are going to pick up only outside of India. I mean when paneer is so vastly available, who’s going to pick tofu? Well, not me. But I chanced upon this really fresh, home-made tofu supplied to us by our cafeteria manager lady (she is Vietnamese) and I took a kilo (that means you are likely to be receiving tofu recipes for a few days).  And so, I made a dish I’ve made many times in the past but have only been lazy to blog about – Tofu parathas.

Pictured here with Aloo Matar.

The other reason I like making tofu parathas  is that I face the perpetual problem of making the really bland ingredient taste interesting. And I came up with a couple of recipes before. You can see them here. As for this recipe, because it’s so ordinary, I am not making any hue and cry of it.

Stated simply, knead in the tofu (about 300g) with your hands to about 2.5 cups of atta. Make a smooth dough, adding 1 tablespoon of oil, salt-to-taste, a pinch of turmeric powder, red chili powder and dhania-jeera powder and sufficient water to knead into a soft, non-sticky dough (similar to chapathi dough). Let it sit for about an hour and roll out like chapathis but tava-fry them like parathas (without exposing to the naked flame). And this is a particularly good dish because the blandness of the tofu is masked by the typical blandness associated with the savoury Indian bread varieties and the side-dish is what spices it up. Plus, all that protein! So, no waiting.. Bon Appétit!

PS: The Aloo Matar was truly divine. If anyone needs a recipe, holler!