The Art of Cooking - by Ravi ...................

Apa kabar awak, thats bahasa malay for you meaning how are u?

During my earlier job , I had this discussion with a consultant about their 'modus operandi' - pardon me for that usage. What he said did sound pretty impressive ( just a case of 'other side of the pasture is greener'). So I took the plunge and here I am working as one as of now.

I looked back over this period (as a consultant) to see what is it I have gained. To name a few - a richer CV is one thing for sure, in addition to travelling to other countries, working alongside folks from different walks of life and ofcourse various cuisines to indulge in. Lying on top of this heap of things I have gained, is one more soft skill which is rapidly improving - but - unfortunately I am not in a position to add this to my CV. Wondering what skill set I am talking about? Cooking!!! yes, me - Ravi - who dons the garb of a cook quite frequently oflate. If Yan can cook - I can cook too. (too much of TV!!!). I can see some of the folks curling up their nose associating my fondness for sushi. Recipes for sushi are surely welcome. With the local restorans (thats bahasa Malay again, for Restaurant) dishing out all the TN cuisines in every nook and corner, it was time to get into something novel, zara hatke. So in my free time (most of it is, as of now :P) I spend time in my kitchen.

We guys, me and my apartment mate(Angshuman), have a mutual respect for whatever is cooked by either of us. Never ever have we said "nahi yaar yeh theek nahi bana". Its been "arre yaar.. yeh toh ekdum sahi hai", "mast hai boss" or "accha hai", "theek hai" (actually the last two are variants for - 'mmmmm its ok - can manage' or 'no comments' :P) With the basic parapharnelia available, and the challenges (I love this word being used by the IT industry folks!!), its been intresting. I have had this good fortune of savouring (I know its a bit too far fetched - those words) some bengali cuisine. Heard of Shahi alu karela sabji? Would like feedback on this from you folks. If it is something never heard of, I need to talk to my apartment mate to patent this!!. Recipe? - please do mail us and I am sure my apartment mate would give it a thought (pending patent?) and might wanna share it. FYI : For a start we never come up with names for the dish we concoct. Its only the end product that is christened appropriately..;).

Cooking, ofcourse, is not all about coming out with concoctions. We realise it everyday that it is also about 'managing' things (read as taste). We come up with lot many workarounds (uff the IT lingo again).Here is one of those workarounds - What do you do if the dish you cooked is a bit too salty. Simple - add a bit of sugar. DISCLAIMER: Please do note that we do not assure you the best of results if the same logic is applied vice versa. One more tip? here it goes - if the dish you prepared doesnt come out well.. mask it.. oops.. garnish it with something appropriate. Want more tips.. feel free to revert. I would refrain from revealing the identity of the person who came out with those bright workarounds. Reason - as of now its a healthy race between the two of us as to who is a better cook. I wouldnt want that suspense to be revealed right away.

Actually we are ruminating over the prospects of taking up cooking professionally - so that we could be called as CHEF(s). Stay tuned folks, depending on who wins the coveted title we shall come up with a new cuisine which would be a combination of TN Cuisine and Bengali cuisine. (TamGali or BengMil - we are open to suggestions for other names as well). My apartment mate has been pondering over the idea of having a website catering to - yes, cooking!! and in addition to that we shall 'also' provide solutions for specific software related issues. Yeah, we are looking for sponsors - again - feel free to get in touch with us.

PS: Just wondering if employers read blogs - searching for 'would be chefs' who have 'some level' of exposure on computer software as well. Wont be too long before I shall be updating my resume. ;)

Nee Hao ma?

Nee Hao ma - mandarin for you, meaning - how are you? needs that nasal touch to get it right. Before you get ideas, lemme clarify - thats the one of the few words/ sentences I picked up during my 8 month existence in HongKOng (HK). And that too from my wife (surprised?) - hang on hang on .. my wife is neither chinese nor has she mastered mandarin / cantonese. It is just that she picked up a bit of that language during her 45 day stint in HK.

I guess it would make sense for me to add a note saying folks who cannot 'digest' some facts related to eating, please keep away from this posting. :) Yes, this is a piece on food related stuff in HK.

HK, one thought that comes to our minds when we think about these parts of the world is -the culinary 'delights' and the eating habits. I was not too surprised to hear them mention about things they eat which we have kind of come to terms with. I am coming to the point that anything that moves is considered edible. Chill folks I am not talking about the robots. Spare a thought for the arachnids, I had a colleague of mine who said - scorpions tastes good wt beer!!!! whew isnt that a 'stinging' combo ?. There was this other colleague of mine who attached a medicinal value to Pearls and as per him I believe they are crushed and taken in the form of powder for that lovely skin. The fellow commuter in the bus was trying to extol the virtues of having snake soup during winter and he told me about the place I hould head to for that. Dont ask me if I found that place. ;)

The food habits I figured out, is more to do with specifics - sample this - OX's tongue, chicken neck, duck tongue (I liked it!). At the super market, my daughter was all excited to show me the container labelled 'edible frogs' and an other 'crocodile tongue'. I asked the person I worked for - as to how that tasted, her reply was a classic "t(h)ongue on t(h)ongue huh" smiles. Tongue fixation? :) Along with that she had that little story of going to meet her elders back in mainland and as part of their family dinner - she had to eat bugs :). Mummy Returns!!!!! .I did want to try frog leg soup (considered a delicacy in this part of the world), alas, I couldnt until the end. The list is never ending.

Leaving aside all that I spoke of, from what I learnt HK is a gastronomers delight. I had folks from Philippines who would talk to me about the stuff which I should try out here. Try?? yes I did... a little bit. Didnt have the time for everything. hahahahahahah. Intresting fare I would say, specially if you had that drive within yourself to try out new things. I did develop a liking for some chinese, japanese and thai food.

Dimsum, nothing too fancy about that - it is steam cooked stuff so all the health conscious folks - this is the right thing. My wife likened this to the modak. Ofcourse the filling is where the difference is - out here it could be anything from pork to chicken to prawns to beef. Snails, was something I found intresting to eat, I sampled a few and yes its good. Variety they say is the spice of life. :)oh yes, I can vouch for that. Folks out in HK like stuff to be fresh, head to spicy crab (a popular restaurant amongst locals) -and you would see what freshness is all about. The waiter would walk up to you with a live crab in hand "ok?" he would ask - all you do is nod your head - and in sometime that crab is cooked and served on a platter for you. Gooooooooooooood stuff - goes well with beer. Talking about freshness I can never forget that expression on my daughter's face when screamed "appa the prawns are moving" looking at the ones we had picked up in a polythene container - apparently a few of them were live.

Japanese - yes you got it - sushi. Its all about clearing out the mental block about eating something raw. Come on dont we eat raw vegetables - so why not meat. Trust me, once you get over it, you would relish sushi. The best part is the fish eggs and the wasabi sauce combo which kinda seem to explode in your mouth when you chew on it. One of the folks I was working with over there said this "u need to feel the raw meat on ur tongue" - thats the right way to eat sushi. Is that taking you back to the prehistoric period?. Eel, I didnt get electrocuted when I tried the eel dish I had one of those days

Thai Simple - IS THE place in Causeway bay if you develop a liking for thai food. Pad thai and satay - is palatable rather I would say good. Keep away from the avacodo prawn, for the presentation one would give it a 10/10, unless and until you wouldnt wanna see a obese caterpillar like presentation which you are expected to eat.:)

Coming to our own Indian cuisine, I did get to savour some new stuff as well, Murgh chat - a first of its kinds for me (maybe it is available in India as well). What is it? - a spicy concoction similar to all the chat varieties we get in india. Only difference - add a few chunks of tandoori chicken instead of the mandatory aaloo, poori etc, and garnish it with some greens. Voila!!! what do we have? Murgh chat. Goes well with a sip of JD. Go to Bombay Dreams within central for the best of this. Moving on to drinks, I fell in love with the frozen margharita served at Jashan (within central again) - try that with the chicken kaali mirch they serve. There are quite a few indian restaurants which serve good food - Tandoor (central again) - is in a class of its own, with a couple of folks entertaining your request for filmi songs. Wouldnt it be wonderful to listen to these guys singing "thodi thodi peeya karo" while you are sipping on your JD. Khaana Khazana (wanchai district) - a veggies delight - touch on the expensive side, but yes it is purely a Veggie restaurant. Intrestingly this purely Veg restaurant serve drinks as well :). More indian restaurants? - oh yes - there are heaps. Viceroy, Jojo, CurryPot (all in wanchai) does cater good food.

Hungry anyone, well I am. Adios folks - dinner time. Nothing fancy tonite - chapathi,daal and aloo/bhendi - the chef happens to be ..... your truly