Food

when my soup came alive

Eating Out in Taipei2 September 2010, 2:30 am
The first stall that I encountered in the Lin Jiang (Tonghua) night market - they were selling pork dumplings and chicken, among other things. The pork dumplings had some black sesame sprinkled on them. The price for five was NT$40. Steamed shrimp - mild and deliciousThis stall had a variety of foods - meats on a stick, tofu, several bowls of broth bubbling away. I didn't know how to eat them but just bumbled along. It turns out that one way of eating them is that you have to choose your meats, ...
Everybody Loves A Happy Ending - Of Chalks & Chopsticks1 September 2010, 1:03 pm
When the sweet-faced teenager navigating a shopping cart in the narrow aisle asked her to “excuse me, Aunty”, she turned and stared. “I’m not your aunty,” she told him severely, and as he watched the boy’s face fall, Amar turned away and smiled to himself, but not without some exasperation.Why couldn’t she let things go? Did she have to kick up a fuss all the time? And it wasn’t as if she wasn’t of Aunty-age, after all … As if she had heard him, she came up to him, wagged a ...
Of Chalks And Chopsticks - The Round Up4 August 2010, 8:59 am
1. The sabzi had become a bit watery and Nikita had acidly remarked that now she understood why there was a water shortage in Mumbai and everyone had laughed. 2. And then after few more minutes her Kaka was gone. With that, he left some wonderful memories to cherish for Vabhavi and her parents. Few years later they also moved to this big city. And since then whenever her Kaka would come to meet up with them, he never forgot to bring a big pack of samosas.3. She was so engrossed in grating that s...
Of Parties & Peanuts30 July 2010, 1:24 pm
As inadequate as pop quizzes are, they are fun to do. Often, there are questions where none of the choice of answers apply; heck, even the question doesn't apply.Like this question, for instance:What's your usual pick-up strategy?Dress in something revealing, then go to a bar or dance club and mope at the counter with a martini until someone notices me.All I have to do is walk out my front door, it seems. I get a lot of people - both guys and girls (regardless of which i am) hitt (sic)People not...
Of Apples, Cheese, Chalks & Chopsticks28 July 2010, 4:03 am
They were meeting after twenty-five years. She looked the same, though he could detect a thread of silver here and there in her still luxurious hair. Surprise, not excitement, had been his first reaction when she mailed him out of the blue, saying she needed to meet him. He couldn't bring himself to ask her why. Slowly, though, curiosity and elation took over and he began to look forward to the visit. The last time he saw her, they were around 20 years old. Her lip had curled in derision when sh...
Operation Jackfruit27 July 2010, 3:17 am
We got this bounty today. Some of it is not yet ripe and is hopefully, ripening in the heat of this summer's night.How did it come about? K, who works with us, harvested this on his farm and brought us one, and cut it up for us. Cut it up doesn't describe it adequately enough. Neither does the word procedure. It is an operation, out and out.The way he did it: Several sheets of newspaper, a small bowl of oil, sharp knives, one big, another small ...... lots of strength and more patience. The roun...

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