GAME OF DISHES & FISHES

What is precious than a hand of food that is been fed by our mother or a dinner made by our sister/brother/ friends/relatives. The mere word “FOOD” is sure to bring loads of fondly memories and the taste will sure to linger in the tongue for a life. The smell of the freshly cooked food is more than enough to kindle the hungriness and the interest to eat anything in the world.

FOOD ; AN FOLLOWER OF TRADITIONS : 

No wonder Food after a feast after any special occasions or festivals finds an important place in our Indian tradition. Our ancestors found the best way of uniting our souls through the craving for foods. What an insight.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” 
― Virginia Woolf

Our country has “Unity in Diversity” in food too with a plethora of food dishes and cuisines around our country. From the North to the South and across the East to West, thousands of dishes made with the recipes that were passed down through the ages and the culture that has been woven around our food is fascinating history.

“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.”

                                              George Bernard Shaw

FOOD = LOVE : 

Food is related with love. No one can forget the days when we were fed by our mothers or the food that we savored during a festival or the food that has been presented to us by our friends or relatives. School or college lunch hours are unfinished memories if we hadn’t grabbed our friend’s lunch and savored it.

Food brings peace of mind and when one savors his favorite food, he sure is to be transcended to a different where the memories of the taste, the smell and the instant that we eat the particular food will remain in our mind for a life as pleasant beautiful thing.

“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.”

 

MY TURN OF FOODFIX STORY : 

There is an anecdote of mine which I would like to share that made me to cook myself thereafter making me a better cook and the love for foods that has been cooked by me and the happiness of sharing my cooking with others.

                                      “Any food can satisfy the tummy, but only a good satisfies both the heart and the tummy.”

– Ustad Hotel 

I used to spend a lot of time with friends during the holidays where we would be trying various food stuffs in the garden in our friend’s home. Mostly we would try Grilled Chicken which would be a much easier task. We would use the wood for firing/heating the chicken and cook in the traditional way which is been still in use in many parts of our country – the woods, dried leaves to make fire and use bricks walled up to make stove like things. Those were some happy days of making along with my friends and savoring it was a different story.

As we were passionate in riding bikes for a long drive, we planned for a long drive to a seashore town near our home some 50 kms apart. That was one fond memory where we were welcomed by the rains during the drive and we were a bit late in the evening when dark clouds were busy wandering the sky. As we reached there we saw a lot of boats untying the fish that’s been caught, weighing and selling them. As we were fully exhausted by the rains and driving for a longer time, we decided to get some fresh fishes. A local fisherman offered a load freshly caught fish for a very low amount (Nearly 7Kgs).

It was late when we returned and my friend’s parents were surprised at the fishes we bought and also the thought cleaning it brought nightmares to them. As my parents were not in my home, me and my brother along with my friend’s got this fishy idea of cooking fresh fishes with fried fishes and fishy curry with rice for the dinner. But no one in our gang knows to cook fish or clean it either. One of my friend’s mother took the task of cleaning and giving us guide on how to cook fish.

After immensely cleaning the fish (the all fishes at the same time), she said “I will cook and give you”. But we were determined to cook and taste it as it would be the best thing to do on a rainy night. So I and my friends started to cook with the steps as told by my friend’s Mom. The rice was being prepared in another room by my brother who wasn’t confident enough that I will prepare fish dishes and was ready with some curd to be savored for safety. As the masalas were rubbed and the basic ingredients were churned out on the pan, the smell was superb and we were in a transcending happiness.

I was bit ignorant on the amount of fish to be put in for curry as this was my first time. In a minute of eating soon, I put out only two fishes inside the curry that was being made reserving the others for being fried. (Gosh I couldn’t how I did that still). After the dishes were made, my brother was craving for the dish to be savored. Everyone was ready with their plates.

But as soon as they got their mouth of the curry everyone’s face was like Mr. Bean. I had in a hurry put only two fishes in the curry which must be put according to the ratio. (I must have put around 8 to 10). My brother was kidding me like anything and asked my friends not to share the food to the pets as they would be serious if they eat it. And then we took the whole pan consisting of the curry to my friend’s home where my friend’s mother couldn’t control the laugh on the ignorant decision I have made and she promised to rectify it. Then she added the other fishes in there and in 20 mins we were savoring our food that we made so drastic and been rectified.

What a Day it was, the day where we had bought the ingredients and the fish ourselves, cooking ourselves and sitting and eating with all my friends and their parents was joyous day that I couldn’t forget in my life. The craving to eat the fishes and the foodfix I made to savor the dish that I made myself had made me a better cook these days I suppose.

P.S. : We didn’t have the super cool food delivering startup giant “Tinyowl” at that time. If it were we would have ordered our favorite dishes like now which would have been les messy in the kitchen and messier in the dining tables with lots of football matches and sitting in the couches and ordering stuffs. Missed it badly during those times way back in 2012 in our cities. But anyway now that I found it would recommend my friends also to take a notice and try them.

                        Image Credits : TinyOwl Facebook Page                                (https://www.facebook.com/tinyowlapp)

Trust Me, they are more speedy even though they have only a mobile app version. Who needs a web version these days ? (only Facebook)

Check them out “TinyOwl” app versions over here : Android and iOS 

(Windows users and friends just wait, they are on their way to you also soon !!! )

Happy Reading,

The Curse of Surya – Book Review

Too many thrillers these days made me to think in a different perspective. That’s not the end of reading , you know , So here I am with another interesting book called , “The Curse of Surya” written by the award winning author of “Pitch It”, “DEV PRASAD”.

I haven’t read his previous one “Pitch It”, When I got the book, I had no idea about how it will be. The cover design of the book , well gave me a small idea. Thought that the story would be revolving around a character called Surya, and yes as usual it’s always the opposite.

Image Credits

What’s this story is all about ?

The story is about finding the precious gem called Shyamantaka , which is a 5000 year old stone and it can make the man powerful who is having that and all the nations are behind the hunt for the most valuable stone. The interesting story starts from singapore , where Ms. Sangeetha Rao, a TV Reporter was sent to India to cover the events which are going to be historic as the most influential political leaders of the governing nations meet in Taj Mahal in Agra. Also another big event is being arranged in Mathura which is The All Saints conference hosted in the Krishna Janmasthan Temple in UP.

Swami Brij Mohan assures the media that he will reveal the place where the precious gem/stone Shyamantaka is there. Sangeetha meets Alan Davies a welsh man who introduces himself as an archaelogical professor from Oxford. Due to unfortunate happenings , they were marked as international terrorists in the media, due to the bomb blasts in the All saints conference killing Swami Brij Mohan. During the escape from the temple in mathura, they meet Anton Blanchard. The three of them , unfolds the quest to capture the stone which will fortunately help them to escape from the big threat ahead of them.

The story travels further and has answers to the questions like

• Who killed Swami Brij Mohan?
• Who is Alan Davies?
• What is the link between the tibetian who was killed in the temple and who killed Swamiji?
• Was the stone found?
• Will Sangeetha , Davies and Anton escape from the threat ?

The author have made it very clear about the story of Krishna and why the gem was missing. He unfolds the history through a quest and the link between his dynasties and also how the Kings of the Ruling was wise enough to hide a gem from a tchnologically equipped nation today. The turns during the quest were splendid and also he reminded that always a information has both a original and a duplicate meaning in it.( That was really interesting and when they discovered that they were fooled , they look at that piece of information in a different way). I would make it as a sure read for the newbie’s going to start thrillers.

The history linkage was excellent and the readers will be astonished to unfold the quests through their travel of reading.

This book will suit a reader who wants to read a thriller with a mystery and historical stories involved with a fast paced mythological story.

                                                                  About the Book :

Title : The Curse Of Surya

Publisher : Random House Publishers India Private Limited

Genre : Fiction/ Thriller

ISBN : 8184006225

Rating : 

Links :

Flipkart : The Curse of Surya

Amazon : The Curse of Surya

Kindle Edition : The Curse of Surya

Happy reading.

Go Go Airtel 4G India for a speedy Internet

Everything in the world has become so fast but still , the mobile internet connection with a high speed connectivity is still a vivid imagination in the wildest dreams. Due to the use of mobiles , we have been addicted to the usage in the usage of whatsapp, facebook,twitter.,etc.

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Mobile usage have a transformation from the hourly usage to the minutes usage in the present day. What makes people to use their mobile too often, it’s the mobile internet connection that provides ease of usage for them. People get know about technology, news,updates about everything. This has made people more active in the area of usage of mobiles.

One fine morning I was fascinated to see pages of advertisements for Airtel 4G in a national daily. It had many unbelievable things. I primarily used a different mobile service provider. I thought of getting a 4G sim because , I had a 4G supported mobile to check out the new features of the above said advertisements.

The one thing which was a big highlight was “Get 4G benefits with the cost of 3G” and with no extra pay. I was put in a undecided world, whether is this possible? 4G at the rate of 3G , that was impossible was my thought.

The next unbelievable thing was , your 4G sim is a tweet away and when you tweet with #GetAirtel4G , you can get your sim at your doorsteps. Also when I went for further information about the 4G services, only airtel have introduced the scheme and the other companies are speeding up to find the real possibilities for that technology.

As an advertisements went live on tv with two persons standing opposite to each other and gaming for their war between the mobiles which they have. That was a rally nice way of telling the consumers about how fast the network will have a reliable connection. Moreover 3G in India is still a viable option for many who are hardcore users of internet and without internet many of them cannot even make a way out of their work. So internet have become a major part of everyday life.

We will not determine a product only by it’s ad’s and other stuffs , but by reliability. Many people have started using 4G services in India and are posting good reviews on the social networking sites. Even I had a chance of using 4G service of Airtel and i’m amazed by the speed which it has processed my internet. It would usually take 2 minutes to download a song in a possible 3g connection with a average speed. But it took only a 1+ second to download in a 4G connection.

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When tested in a speedtest , the speed it gained was enormous and it will surely change the way people use the internet and will surely change the time of people with speed.

Find more interesting facts about Airtel 4g in : AIRTEL 4G

Check out this video to know still more

Roger Federer – The Inspiration

I admire a lot and even dream a lot. In a country like India where people worship cricket as their religion and Sachin as their God and other players like his disciples and even other God’s. I’m no way different from them , I admired sachin a lot, like many people who was saddened by the retirement of ” God of Cricket”, i was also saddened.

I remeber in my childhood days, where I had heard of Karanm malleshwari and Leander Paes winning medals for India and then came Rathore who won a Silver medal for India. I haven’t heard tennis and also tennis was not even a great sport in India , until they heard the names of Roger Federer and then the likes of Rafael Nadal.

The tennis court was dominated by these two greats after the likes of Pete Sampras, andre aggasi , martina hingis, serena williams and Venus williams.

I still remember there was no facilities of home wifi and internet and the only way to know about sports is the “last page of dailies” and sportstar ( a weekly magazine which comes with a poster ).

The first tennis match which I saw in TV was the US open final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and it was the first of it’s kibd where the rivalry between the two greats started. Eventually the ” King of Grass ” won the match defeating the “King of clay” in a epic match. From that tennis became a regular follow up due to the king of grass , “Roger Federer”.

Whenever a tennis season comes , I heard many asking to someone who is talking about tennis , ” What happened to Roger and Rafael”. They have even became the great tennis players , the world has ever seen.

I personally love to see the tweener shot of Roger , which he plays as a late shot inbetween the legs. I closely relate it to the present shots which steve smith plays in cricket.

I don’t compare other greats with Roger. I wish Roger a huge success in his forthcoming days. Let Roger wins as many grandslams as he can. I would love to see your tweener soon in several matches. Add some french opens as the collection of French Open is only in the starting Level.

He holds the record for the most grandslam titles and even holds the record for the player who has been in the World No.1 for consecutively many weeks, which is unbroken yet.

Records are to be broken and I wish a happy birthday to my favourite tennis player of all time, “Fedex , JesusFed , Tweener Boy. Swiss Storm, Switzerland Express”, “King Of Grass” ,”Roger federer”.

I make this as a tribute design to my favourite player, “Roger Federer”

To order is to Human, To deliver is to FOODPANDA

Happiness rarely keeps company with an empty stomach. –Helen Keller

Image Source 

A hungry stomach doesn’t always make a happy thought or day, but a stomach filled with a delicious food would surely make one. That’s the secret of a happy delicious food.  But happy food doesn’t make memories, the food which is savoured when hunger strikes and which is sweet and delicious to the mind makes memories and stays in our taste buds forever.

Many of us love to eat foods which please our taste buds and senses transporting us to a dreamland, but most are cautious and select, eat only healthy green foods. Controlling one’s taste buds is also important on the whole as unhealthy foods and irregular food patterns will lead us to health hazards.

For every season we would like to eat a particular type of food. But some kind of foods can be savoured or will be fan favourites for all season. Here is my summer experience on using FoodPanda App.

Chicken Tandoori from Nalaas Aappakadai

It was a mundane where I had my works overloaded and I remembered that I had promised my friend for a lunch outside in any hotels. But due to time constraints I was bewildered where to choose and what to eat. Also my locale is filled with loads of eateries, hotels and restaurants. So the thought I would ask for a suggestion would end in a long list of hotels. Sudden thought stroke me when I glanced at my mobile and saw the FoodPAnda app. I had once used it earlier and was easing to order it. So Now I got the second chance of using it. The app provided me with hordes of hotels and restaurants in my locale minimizing my working of choosing a best hotel within my budget. It has the prices of the dishes too (That’s Sweet FoodPanda). So I choose three different items for me and my friend and here is the list:

Briyani from Nalaas Aappakadai

I chose Nala’s Appakadai in my locale which contained the necessary food items. I am great fan of Chicken Biryani’s , so my choice was apt. For me “LIFE IS A COMBINATION OF MAGIC AL LOVE AND BIRIYANI”.The love for it cannot be quenched with another food. The Mughals may have spread it in India and thanks to them for it because it is my saviour many times.

Chicken Chettinad from Nalaas Aappakadai

And I ordered Aapam my friend’s favourite dish from his area where he hails from and a chicken chettinad along with it. Aapam is a favorite dish for the South Indians in Tamilnadu basically and with a chicken or mutton curry it would be a delicious pair making them the best in the world.

And to finish the dish we had ordered for a Tandoori Chicken which will be a finisher along with coke.

The belly rules the mind. ~Spanish Proverb

The order was over and I received a text message from FoodPanda that my order was confirmed and I will receive a message from Nalas Aapakadai. Then started my panic when my friend arrived and asked me where we shall go for lunch, waiting for my answer enthusiastically. I rather said him to wait for some time giving him the coke which I had. In the meantime within minutes my order was confirmed from Nalas Aapakadai and they were confirming the address and my order.

My friend went for a lil walk nearby to get some Coke and meanwhile within ten minutes the food arrived from the hotel. My friend on return was surprised to have this and he made sure to savor all the food in a short while. Our joy knew no bonds when the last piece of the chicken was to be fought with great effort to savor it.

A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe. ~Thomas Keller

The recipe has nothing to do with the taste rather it is the cook that brings the desired taste to it. It is the base message that’s been given in the film “Ustad Hotel” and the main character Ummar Ikka  portrays,

“Any food can satisfy a stomach but only a tasteful food satisfies both the stomach and mind”

Voila!! That was a superb experience for us and Thank You FoodPanda for such quicker services and making bachelor’s life a happy one.

“EAST OR WEST, FOOD IS THE BEST “

They also provide with us with lot of offers which is high in their APP. So , why miss that precious offers , Do try

FOODPANDA or use the link http://www.foodpanda.in/

With Love for Food ,