Simply Being | Simple Being

Tag: meme (page 1 of 1)

Ooh… Style.

Can you resist talking about yourself? I cannot… I admit. I wonder if anyone can. That likely explains why memes are so popular.

So, here we go… Q & A, suggested by Archana at To Universe with Love, borrowed from How to Spend It.

My personal style signifier is my hair.

Moi

I have silky, black-silver hair that falls straight down. No bounce, no wave, no drama. Until I found an excellent stylist in 2005. She has given my hair all manner of styles including simple bobs, layered bobs with side-swept bangs, blunt bobs, pixies, and more. She is a keeper, indeed! My hairstyles have always drawn compliments, and now my husband goes to the same stylist as well. He has a thick head of hair, and she cuts it beautifully (and patiently) with a pair of scissors.

The last thing I bought and loved is a set of tops from LOFT. It was my first time shopping at this place, and I found three rayon tops that fit me beautifully, almost perfectly. I scooped them up, took them to my alteration guy, and voila, they now fit perfectly. It isn’t always easy finding clothes my size, so this felt like an unexpected bonanza. A grey-blue-steel shirt-style top with long sleeves, a sleeveless top in metallic dark pink-maroon, and an aqua shirt… Beautiful.

And the thing I am eyeing next is nothing. No, I don’t need any more clothes. I have a good collection of things that can be mixed-matched, and that actually fits me well. I am really set for a good while now.

The last meal that truly impressed me was made by my husband. He pulled out an eggplant from the backyard and roasted it with an onion and a couple of shishito peppers (also from the backyard). We layered them over multi-grain toasted bread with tomato slices, Earth Balance vegan spread and almond milk ricotta. Ahh, bliss.

The people I rely on for personal grooming include my hair stylist Sarita Singh and the ladies who thread eyebrows at my local Indian salon.

A recent “find” is what I found at LOFT, I guess. I also got a couple of great skirts in my size. Well-fitting clothes make ALL the difference. I couldn’t emphasize this point more.

The last items of clothing I added to my wardrobe are the ones I got from LOFT. I also bought a couple of linen tunics from Uniqlo but they are probably going to my sister.

The site that inspires me does not exist currently. I used to adore reading Youngna Park‘s blog. Yes, it inspired me. But it seems to be offline since a week or so. I have read and re-read that blog SO many times.

The best gift I’ve received recently has come from our backyard garden. Actually, there are so many gifts. Heirloom corn, mint, Thai basil, eggplant, peaches, Swiss chard… A real bounty of riches.

The best gift I’ve given recently also came from our backyard garden. My husband potted a bunch of Tulsi plants and I gave them away to friends.

An indulgence I would never forgo is my evening cup of chai. Black tea, coconut milk, fresh ginger, mint, tea masala.

The last accessory I added to my wardrobe is a pink fabric bag I got from TJ Maxx that is charming and simple, and in need of a wash.

My style icon is… I don’t really know. I am working on finding my own style path, so I look inward for inspiration and ideas.

The place that inspires me is my home. It feels equal parts charming, cozy, comfortable and me.

An unforgettable place I’ve traveled to in the past year is Colorado where I visited my cousin. Gawked at the blue expansive sky, ate delicious food, walked many miles of trails, listened in on interesting conversations.

If I had to limit my shopping to one neighborhood in one city, I’d choose… No idea, really. I have no preferences, truly.

An object I would never part with is my diamond ring. Also my diamond earrings. Such exquisite little things, beautifully crafted.

In my fridge you will find ginger, cilantro, lots of flours (freezer), coconut milk (for chai).

The books on my bedside table include “La’s Orchestra Saves the World,” a book I greatly adore.

If I weren’t doing what I do, I would be doing something else, perhaps?

Questions for the Resident Chef (Ahem, me)

Refinery29 is one of the sites on my oft-visited list. It is a fashion/lifestyle website that features trends, street style, interviews, beauty DIY tutorials, nifty recipes… all that is hip and happening. It so happened that I was trawling the website last night and I chanced on a slideshow featuring an interview of six top chefs from San Francisco. The questions looked interesting and I thought – hey, I am the chef in my home AND I would like to answer these questions too! So here we go. Aparna, Parita, Ganga, Tea – consider yourself tagged!

Chillies!

What are the three fave things in your fridge right now?
Freshly ground almond butter (from Harry’s Farmers Market), Earth Balance soy-free spread, Mom’s Chai Masala.

What’s the one thing you always have on hand?
Fresh ginger, it goes into almost everything I cook.

What’s one thing you’d never have?
Soda/pop. Been years since I have had an aerated drink.

If you had an unlimited supply of anything, what would that be?
Organic dried fruit and nuts! For a long while now, they have been serving as breakfast. I soak a couple of dried dates, apricots, figs and 10-12 almonds and some walnuts overnight in water. Drain the water in the morning, peel the almonds, eat.

What’s your go-to market and what do you get there?
I adore Sandy Springs Farmers Market but they are only open 7-8 months in the year. The other times, I make a round of Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Dekalb Farmers Market and my local Indian store. I enjoy shopping for groceries, I totally do.

What ingredient are you currently loving?
Can I mention a couple? Jowar and Bajri flour. Both are forms of millet flour, available at the Indian store, inexpensive, gluten-free and healthy. Plus you can cook up a host of healthy goodies with them!

What’s your favorite thing to whip up at home?
Cashew Sesame Spice curry. I make it with all manner of root/hardy vegetables namely beets, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, radish, etc. The original recipe uses peanuts but I prefer cashews or almonds. An easy recipe that tastes better with time, this one is a keeper.

Roasted Spice Mix

Roasted Spice Mix

Any songs you like cooking to?
Indian classical (Pt. Bhimsen Joshi’s melodies are often heard in the kitchen), South Indian film music, Indian-Western classical music fusion.

What are the best items to have on hand for a quick and easy dinner?
Rice noodles, toasted sesame oil, carrots, Bragg’s liquid aminos, zucchini, tofu… Noodle Soup!

Rice Noodle Soup with Vegetables and Tofu

Rice Noodle Soup with Vegetables and Tofu

What are your favorite kind of leftovers?
Cashew Sesame Spice Curry, Chhole, Biryani, Chili.

Fill in the blank: If I’m cooking to impress, I make….
Haven’t ever cooked to impress (who’d I impress, duh) but if I had to, I’d make Peppermint Olive Oil Brownies. Or Maria Speck‘s Date-Apricot-Anise Muffins.

What’s your condiment of choice?
So many… Toasted sesame oil, dried ginger, Garam Masala, etc.

What’s the strangest thing in your fridge at the moment?
Dry yeast. It is probably six years old. I got it for my mother-in-law who wanted to make jalebis. She made a batch but we didn’t use up the yeast entirely. So it remains in the fridge, to this day.

When a midnight snack attack strikes, what’s the plan?
Bajri Khakra, perhaps? Frankly, midnight is no time to eat anything, so I’d stave off the snack attack as best as I could.

Mem(e)orable Meals!

I am an avid reader of food blogs and The Traveler’s Lunchbox is one of my Favorites that I read regularly. Inspired by its creator Melissa, I thought of the meme below.

Five memorable meals ever eaten: It could be anything that makes the meal memorable – the food, the place, the place you were in your life when you ate, the company, the weather, the ambience – heck, the guy who served the food! So here’s my list.

1. Uttam Da Dhaba, Bombay: Some of my old friends will probably remember the infamous day when we trooped to Uttam for lunch. It was Holi, many years back. The day is engraved in my memory as one of craziness, laughter, and infinite understanding. What made it memorable was also the food. Those were the days of butter chicken and what amazing butter chicken it was! We also ate baingan bharta that day and honestly, I haven’t eaten a better version of the dish till date. Some of us ordered lassi but I didn’t. I’d go back to Uttam in a heartbeat and although butter chicken wouldn’t feature on our menu, the smoked baingan bharta and the huge fluffy nans would have us asking for more – that I’m sure about.

2. Cafe Berlin, Puerto Rico: The weather was fantastic, most of the tourists had left and we had one last afternoon before our flight back to Atlanta. I had heard of Cafe Berlin, a vegetarian restaurant in Old San Juan. We hardly expected to find it but there it was, bang en route to the airport. The food was real basic: pita chips and hummus, eggplant parmesan (maybe). I think we’d ordered a fresh fruit drink as well. On the wall was a motif of a female face with long black hair. The food was superb.

3. J & J’s housewarming lunch: Since we couldn’t cook in the new home (they hadn’t closed yet), we went to Global Mall for lunch. The place is anything but global. It is a mall with stores selling Indian clothes, music and Bollywood film DVDs, restaurants, SAT coaching centers, dance schools, a couple of temples, etc. There were so many of us and so we joined a few tables to sit together. And the food kept coming. South Indian coffee, pani puri, Haandvo, masala chai, spicy Indian Chinese dishes, vegetable pizza, more chaat, masala dosa, and more. I don’t know what it was about the food that day – every thing we ordered was delicious. Probably the people, the day, the event…

4. Kandahar: There were probably just a couple of Indian restaurants in Cairo in 2002-2003 and this was one of them. It was situated in the suburb of Mohandiseen which, if I remember right, actually means ‘engineer’ in Arabic. Honestly, there was nothing memorable about the food. Filo dough cannot be used to make samosas, as we realized sadly on our first visit. One time we were dining, a group of men walked in. One of them was an Indian and he was dressed in the way one imagines a money lender dresses like. Or so I think, based on my knowledge from Hindi films. The guy was wearing gold earrings, an old-fashioned silk kurta, a topi! In 2002, who dresses like that? Even funnier was the hostess. An Egyptian, she wore a saree in the most awkward way possible. I think she just wound it around her waist (zero pleats) and threw the rest of it over her shoulder. I always marvelled at the way she walked and wondered if it’d all unravel…

5. Cafe Mocambo, Bombay – When Pinch and I were in college, we frequented Churchgate ever so often. Buying books off the pavement, browsing through music tapes (Yeah, I am old – those were the days of audio tapes!), watching Hollywood films, eating awesome food. We often went to Mocambo, an old Irani eatery that served fantastic chicken dhansak. So we sat and ate and ate and ate. The cafe was frequented by old Parsi gentlemen and they would sit around on the simple tables, sipping tea and reading newspapers as the busy office-going crowd surged by. Reminds me of ‘Sit’ by Vikram Seth – Geckos, sunshine, and Pinch sitting across me.

I’d like to tag sampada, inspirethoughts, iyer_the_gr8… and any one else who wants to do it!