Lost & Found

How would you react if you notice a recognizable face from yesteryears in one of the least preferred spots --the public restroom? It was the Men's Restroom at Spice Hut (an Indian Fast Food Joint) at Fremont where I once again met my ex-college mate after so many years. Of course, it didn't happen like in the movies, when you are knocking on the neighboring stall asking for more tissue paper. But still, that's not the place you are supposed to have a Lost & Found. I, of course, ensured that we shook hands only after following CA Dept of Health's protocol on hand hygiene, and there were strictly no hugs in the land of Brokeback Mountain.

If this reminds you of your chance meeting with someone at such an unholy place as the restroom, do post a comment with your experience.

Chicken Biryani

Biryani is a dish made from a mixture of spices, basmati rice, vegetables/meat and yogurt. Its a very simple and a straight forward recipe but a little time consuming. Its one of our most favorite dishes :). I tried making it as simple as possible, and it tasted heavenly. To read more about Biryani, refer to this link.


Ingredients:

1. Chicken - 1 lbs(preferably thigh fillets)
2. Basmati Rice - 2 cups
3. Cinnamon - 2 inches
4. Cloves - 4 to 5
5. Green cardamom - 2 to 3
6. Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
7. Bay leaves - 1 or 2
8. Onions - 3 medium sized ( 1 julienned and fried till browned , 2 finely chopped)
9. Ginger-garlic paste - 2 tsps
10. Green chillies - 6 (slit)
11. Yogurt - 3 tbsps
12. Tomatoes - 3 medium sized (finely chopped)
13. Chilly powder - 1 tsp
14. Coriander powder - 2 tsps
15. Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
16. Cumin powder - 2 tsps
17. Mint leaves - 1 bunch (keep aside few leaves for garnishing)
18. Coriander leaves - 1 bunch (keep aside few leaves for garnishing)
19. Few saffron strands soaked in 1 tsp milk.
20. Salt


Method:

1. Marinade the chicken with little yogurt, lemon juice, little salt and some spice powders of your choice. Marinating is optional. You can add the chicken even without marinating. Completely your choice. Then wash the rice and saute it in some ghee along with few of the whole spices and a pinch of turmeric. Then boil the rice until it is half cooked and strain the remaining water. If cooked fully, the biryani will become very soggy.

2. Once the rice is cooked, spread it on a plate and allow it to cool.

3. Then heat oil in a deep non-stick pan ( i used a dutch oven), and add the remaining whole spices along with the finely chopped onions. Keep frying till the onions turn golden brown. To this, add the ginger-garlic paste and slit green chillies and fry for 3-4 minutes. Then add (one at a time) the tomatoes, yogurt, chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, cumin powder and salt. Keep frying till the tomatoes turn mushy.

4. Then add the chicken pieces and let it boil completely. Do not add water, since the chicken sheds a lot of water. Once the chicken is boiled, turn the flame to high, so that all the water evaporates and a thick gravy is formed. Add the coriander leaves and mint leaves and stir for 2 more minutes. Put this chicken curry onto another plate.

5. Now the chicken curry and the rice is to be layered. First, spread half of the boiled rice in the dutch oven. Then spread the chicken curry, and on top of it, the remaining rice.





6. Garnish this with few mint leaves, coriander leaves, fried onions and saffron.


7. Then close the lid and cook on a low flame for 10 minutes. Later, mix it carefully starting from the sides. See to it that the rice grains dont break. Hot and Spicy Chicken Biryani is ready to serve!

United Miles - Take charge, don't let them expire.

United Airlines recently made a major change to their frequent flier miles program, also called, 'Mileage Plus' policy. With this, all the miles in your account will automatically expire if the account has been inactive for 18 months. While this 18 months period seems long enough and reasonable for most, but for "Not-So-Frequent-Fliers" does this mean giving up the elusive dream of being able to fly one round-trip for free? Just give up all those earned miles easily?.

I have seen many of my "Not-So-Frequent-Flier" friends either letting their miles expire or use those miles to buy newspaper subscription to newspapers that they would never read or buy those restaurant coupons where they never want to dine. For most, being able to gather those 25,000+ miles needed for a round-trip ticket seems like a distant dream that will never be fullfilled.

My miles are due to expire in July'08 and hence I did some quick research and found that there many easy ways to keep my account active. I would like to share my thoughts on what you could best do to save your hard earned miles.

United's policy states that "Any activity on your account, whether you earn or redeem miles, keeps your mileage balance intact for the next 18 months".

Buying or transferring miles between friends and family members (or an outsider) qualifies as an activity that most people do to keep the account active ; but this is expensive (35$ per transaction plus a % fee for every mile transferred).

Instead you could do the following and keep your account active. If you have any better ideas please add comments to this posting.

1. Make online purchases of regular household or daily consumables from stores like Amazon, Target, Barnes&Noble, Buy.com, Macys, Sears, Kohls, Home Depot, Office Max, Office Depot, Dell, Staples, HP, Apple, TigerDirect, Shutterfly, Snapfish, CircuitCity, Netflix, Bose, JC Penny, GAP Kids, OldNavy etc. Go to http://mponlinemall.com/ and use your Milage Plus account number before transfering out to the website of these stores.

2. Simply dine at one of the restaurants listed here http://mpdining.rewardsnetwork.com/advanceddiningsearch.jsp. You can eat a burger at Carls Jr or a samosa at Wah-Jee-Wah, each time simply pay using any credit card that you have registered in the program. You will earn a mile or more for every dollar you spend. Those miles will appear in your account and your account will remain active for another 18 months. So go and register your mileage plus number and your credit card here http://mpdining.rewardsnetwork.com/

3. Shop grocery at your local Safeway store. You will earn 125 miles once you have spent 250$ over any period of time. Next time you visit Safeway find out (using the Safeway club card) how much $ purchases you have made so far.

3. Open a Non-Retirement brokerage account with Fidelity or TD Ameritrade and earn 5k to 25k miles.

4. You could either use your miles to buy a subscription to Wall Street Journal or San Francisco Chronicle or pay to subscribe to these and earn miles at http://www.newspaper-miles.com/. Either way your account will switch to active status for next 18 months.

5. Buy cell phone services, handsets from Verizon, Sprint, ATT or TV programming from Dish or Directv. http://www.mileagepluswireless.com/

6. Other activity like flying, staying, renting with one of the United's partner airlines, hotels or car will also earn miles into your mileage account.

Finally, if you apply for United Airways Visa Credit card you might not only earn enough miles to qualify for a free round-trip travel, in addition, your miles will never expire since you will be earning 1 mile for every $ you spend on that card.

Whatever approach you take just make sure your miles remain active forever till you accumulate enough to fly free and at the time you want. Don't ignore and let them go waste. You earned them and they should be yours to keep.

- B Kamath.

Attitude !!! -- TAKE 2

Author known. It's a fresh new take on this post.

There once was a man who woke up one morning, looked at his partner sleeping besides him, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. “Well,” he said, “I think she’ll braid her hair today!”

So she did and he had a wonderful day.

The next day he woke up, looked at his bedside and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

“H-M-M,” he said, “I think she’ll part her hair down the middle today!”

So she did and he had a grand day.

The next day he woke up, looked the other side and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

“Well,” he said, “today she's going to wear her hair in a pony tail.”

So she did and he had a fun, fun day.

The next day he woke up, looked at her and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.

“YEA!” he exclaimed, “Finally, I have reached the end of the cycle! Tomorrow, I shall spend my night with the lady with long locks of hair!”

Attitude is everything.

Everything in life runs in cycles... Your day will come... again!

Attitude !!!

Author unknown

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. “Well,” she said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today!”

So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

“H-M-M,” she said, “I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today!”

So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

“Well,” she said, “today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail.”

So she did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.

“YEA!” she exclaimed, “I don’t have to fix my hair today!”

Attitude is everything.

Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly…..

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Pedve Ghashi (sardines curry)

Pedvo(sardines) as it is known among Konkanis is a fish high in omega-3 fatty acids and iron content. It is considered to be extremely beneficial if consumed by women during pregnancy and tastes great even otherwise. Konkanis usually prepare ghashi or deep fry this fish.

Here's the recipe for Pedve ghashi:

Ingredients:

1. Fresh or frozen sardines (9-10)
2. 3/4 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut or coconut powder
3. 7-8 roasted red chillies(Bedgi)
4. 1/2 tsp tamarind concentrate
5. 1tsp coriander seeds
6. 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
7. 8-10 Szechuan pepper (Teppal) (optional)
8. 1 tsp coconut oil (optional)
9. Salt to taste

Method:

1. If using frozen fish, thaw it in cold/lukewarm water first.
2. Chop off the head and tail and clean the fish thoroughly.
3. Rub a little salt and turmeric over the fish and keep it aside.
4. Roast the coriander and fenugreek seeds together in 1/2 tsp oil till they turn slightly brown.
5. Grind the coconut powder or fresh/frozen grated cocunut, roasted red chillies, tamarind concentrate, roasted coriander and fenugreek seeds into a fine paste.
6. Empty this paste into a vessel and heat it until it starts boiling.
7. Now add the fish to this paste, add salt to taste and boil for another 5-10 minutes on a medium flame.
8. Since fish gets cooked very fast, keep checking the curry frequently taking care to see that it does not get overcooked.
9. Once the fish is fully cooked(the fish flesh should turn completely white on the inside), sprinkle some coconut oil over the curry and turn off the gas.
10. For added flavor, you can also add slightly ground Szechuan pepper (Teppal) to the curry while it boils.
11. Serve hot with rice, upkari and some plain yogurt!

The Elusive Second Rank

It seems my blog co-authors have taken to heart our motto "where the taste bud matters!" Almost all the recent blog posts had something to do with food. Just to bring some variety, I'm posting this piece... recycled from my personal blog :)

Have you ever tried to deliberately score a rank in a competition which is other than your usually attained rank? I tell you, I have, and this is my story.

[This piece has been written for a narrator of the caliber of Morgan Freeman or Amitabh Bachchan. Hear that voice?]

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to any real person -- living, hospitalised, or dead -- is purely by God's own will, and I couldn't write it any other way.

In my good old school days, academics came natural to me. I happened to top the class, and get that coveted 1st Rank. Soon I felt a monotony to it, and then the fun started -- to deliberately try coming in second.

There was this girl in my class who would always come in second, and I would always hopelessly be ranked one above her, how-much-so-ever I tried not to! Of course, she wasn't trying to come second deliberately, but had she known about my intentions, she would have loved to help me.

In those days, betting wasn't a commonplace. I, however, had the good fortune of getting acquainted with a classmate, who was born to be a bookie and in the future, make his presence felt in the best known arena of all -- the Shaharjah Cricket Tournament. Let me call him, Aamir Bahaauddin Tyaagi, Aamir for short, which mind you, is a name from my imagination not Google™-able, lest I reveal his true identity.

Aamir knew that it was easy for me to secure the first rank, and hence would make it all the more interesting by raising the bets for the second rank, while keeping the odds at 1/1 for the first. Whenever I was confident that I have done so well in my class exams, or should I say so badly that I deserved nothing more than the coveted second rank, I would bet heavily. The currency involved for betting were in marbles, and I had to part with a lot of those. But that didn't stop me in trying for one final time, and then once more, and so it went on.

You might think that for someone who can come first, how difficult it would be to come in second for once. Well, let me try to explain to you the problem with coming in second deliberately, as compared to coming in first. The first rank holder's score only has a lower limit, and no higher limit. On the other hand, to come in second, you have to determine the highest score amongst others in the class, and score just about enough to not exceed that score, while ensuring that you score more than the rest. A lot of number crunching is involved. You might even get a Doctrate just for making an attempt in finding a sound mathematical formula, containing weird Greek alphabets, for coming in second.

Now, I wouldn't say I always stood first in these attempts, while it's true that I didn't come in second either. After the initial monotony of firsts, I have scored a fifth once, and a tenth too! Well, it's not that I lost my ability for coming in first, but that the parameters involved used to change every four years or less with new students rolling in my class, which made my calculations go wrong all the time. In the 6th Grade, you had to opt for a third language, and I took Sanskrit, which resulted in a new class, and a different batch of pupils. In the 9th Grade, we had to go to a new school for, the old school only had classes upto 8th, and thus put up with another new batch of students. You can consider yourself lucky if you have mastered the art of coming in second after 10 years of analysis on a static population with only a few controlled parameters changing (refer: ANOVA / DOE statistical analysis techniques), and I had to either come up with a solution in less than four years or incorporate the rules behind dynamically changing population in my calculations!

Now I have grown up and am not involved with academics, professionally speaking. But mind never stops working, especially on an unsolved Mathematical mystery. The other day, I came across on the internet a puzzle about an Arab sheikh and how he thought of distributing his wealth. Here it goes:

There was once an Arab sheikh who had two sons who were not the sharpest scimitars in the palace armory, as it were. He loved playing jokes on them to watch their reaction.

One day he told his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who would inherit his fortune. The rules stated that the one whose camel was slowest would be the winner.

The brothers, after wandering aimlessly for days, going slower and slower, finally ran across a wise man in the desert whom they ask for advice. After hearing the advice they jumped on their beasts and raced as fast as they could to the city. What did the wise man say to them?

I had always thought that Shaharjah, the land of the Arabs and the camels, had answers to these types of mysteries. How rightly so! If you are still wondering what the wise man said to the boys, let me not keep it from you for long. He said, "Switch your camels and try to reach the city first, thus making the others' camel which you are riding on, faster than yours!" So neat. So beautiful. So clever. Is it not?

How do we apply this wise man's logic to my problem of coming in second? For that, I would need the help of the girl who always stood second in class, whenever I stood first. Even though this is not a camel race, if you note, writing exams is no different. Switching the camels would mean switching the answersheets! Got it? Let me explain further. If I write her student roll number on my answer paper while she writes mine, we have effectively switched the camels! Now both of us would answer the exam based on our abilities, without deliberately trying to make mistakes, and ensure that she makes me get the elusive second rank, while she boasts the first! Perfecto, isnt it? So clever, yet so profoundly simple. Had I known this earlier, I would have won a lot of marbles, by Jove!

These days, whenever I attend prize distribution functions, I clap, cheer, whistle, and what not, whenever they announce for the second prize winner, while booing the first comer. People might think that I am related to the second comer, but now you know the real reason behind my actions.

[ If someone does go ahead and makes this movie, of course, after buying the credits from me, following text would now roll on the screen... ]

The Second Rank girl is now a qualified Medical Doctor, and is some big shot with a corner office in WHO headquarters at Geneva.

Aamir is now not making as much money as he used to when there were India v/s Pakistan cricket fixtures all year round in his current home location. India's decision to not send their cricket team to Shaharjah after the betting scam broke out, has not only put some breaks to his burgeoning bank balance, but also made him borrow from others in order to meet with his spouses' shopping expenses. (Note the location of the apostrophe.)

As for me, I am at home, sitting in my lavish mansion on a private island in the Pacific, writing a new movie script to get another nomination for an Academy Award! Yup, I still aim for the 2nd place!