My Day!

It's my Birthday....once again.  Day was stress free....No Boss and it's the start of the weekend! I wore my uber sexy heels from the Korean Designer Suecomma Bonnie who makes handmade shoes made from luxurious materials imported from Europe. "I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot!"

Evening was fantastic....flowers, gift, cake and sumptous dinner....I had it all!

Last but not the least, thanks to "Facebook", I am overwhelmed with wishes!

Kunafa!

Coming to the middle east, I was introduced to this cheesy & sweet dessert called Kunafa for the first time about 8 years back in Kuwait and I simply felt in love with it! I have always loved cheese....all kinds... so it was obvious that I would favor this cheese based dessert!

Kunafa is a traditional arabic dessert and is quite popular particularly around Ramadan. Don't know why but during Ramadan many shops would make this dish in huge pans and just the look of it would be so tempting!

By far the most delicious Kunafa I have ever tasted were the ones in Kuwait. The cheese were real soft with a crispy layer of vermicelli on top and were bright orange in color topped off with sugar syrup. It was sweet but not so sweet and I could easily polish off quite a bit of it.

Two weeks back, knowing my love for this sweet dessert my friend prepared Kunafa just for me. The cheese was too little and it was more of the vermicelli. The vermicelli was too hard and it was tough to chew. It was a disaster but I was sincerely touched by the thought that went behind it. I will never ever forget this Kunafa!

Then today, I passed by Carrefour and I spied Kunafa in the delicatessen section! It wasn't that good to look at and now having tasted it, it wasn't that good at all!

One of these days, I shall learn how to make Kunafa. One of these days....

Taste of Thai

When it comes to eating something light on the stomach but filling, nothing comes close to Thai Food! Here too where I am currently living I have found a quaint little Thai Restaurant nestled among one of the busy streets. Where trees are rare there is a couple of lean trees richly decorated with those small colored light bulbs which makes it look so christmasy! One could sit outdoors as well as indoors.

My usual meal would consist of one of the famous hot & sour soup called Tom Yum to start with. The main ingredient I always choose for this soup is shrimps. So it it the Tom Yum Shrimp soup flavored with aromatic lemon grass, lime leaves, cilantro and fresh mushrooms. Believe me when I say this is yummy!

Then comes salad. Sometimes it would be the Shrimps Salad. This is shrimps mixed with red onions, lemon grass, cilantro & lime juice served on a bed of lettuce. At other times it would be the Seafood Salad. This is shrimps & squids with the same ingredients as the former more or less.
For the main meal, I like to have rice with any of the shrimps dishes. Shrimps with Basil Leaves, Green Shrimp Curry (shrimps & vegetables in green coconut curry with Thai Basil & chillies), Shrimps in Red Curry, sometimes with bamboo shoots and at other times with mushrooms. As an extra, the rice is topped with a fried egg!

All these food would be washed down with one of the Thai drinks.....Thai Iced tea or Iced Longan Drink usually though at times I could go for the Coconut Water.

A good meal in whole.....a little expensive albeit....but money well spent!

Simply Delicious - Strawberry Cake!

I have always loved Strawberry & Cream. So, it was a delicious surprise when one of the Store Girls brought in a huge slice of Strawberry Cake to celebrate her engagement.

It was layers of cake with cream frosting in between and topped with sliced fresh strawberries! Very pretty to look at and very good to eat! Yummy!

The Dates are coming!

Friday morning....la la la....I thought I would explore new routes down to Al Corniche! Yay yay yay!! It's a beautiful day!!! So, 7.30 am, I drive down taking totally different route than my usual. With my sense of direction, after all I am a Navigator's (ex Fighter Pilot) daughter....I finally reached the seaside. The drive was adventurous, the radio was blaring cool songs...just my kind and the weather was just fine.

The date trees are in full bloom now and many of them are already bearing fruits! What a wonderful sight it is! My walk down by the sea....all the more delightful! Things are looking up....life goes on...the dates are coming! Woo hoo!!!

PS:- I love the yellow crunchy dates which these green dates would soon turn into khalal...the 2nd stage!

Tabbouleh

True to my sun sign...a goat...I love having greens! I love salad...all kinds of salad...vegetarian of course though I occasionally indulge in tuna salad!

However, ever since coming to the Middle East, Tabbouleh, an Arabic salad is the one which I have most often and I just love it! The basic ingredients are parsley, tomato, white onion and bulgur (crushed wheat) mixed with salt, lemon and olive oil. The Lebanese claim this salad to be their own product but I cannot vouch for this!

Some days back, one of my Assistant, a Lebanese girl had Tabbouleh brought from home for me for lunch. True to the Lebanese style, this was served with lettuce leaves! Thoroughly enjoyed my green lunch! Shukran Habibti!

South Goa Tour!

I was in Goa for the first time and I wanted to see the place! So on the third day of our stay here, I booked myself for a day tour of South Goa by bus. We were staying in Calangute which is in the North of Goa and thanks to my friends all the famous beaches here were covered! So, going to see the other side made sense! None of the others were interested in the tour....all they wanted to do was lie on the beach whole day long just drinking & eating & drinking some more!

Boarded the bus around 9am from Calangute. The drive itself was nice and the beautiful weather helped! We headed to Panaji and stopped for a while at Miramar Beach while we waited for some more passengers to join the tour.

Then off we went to see the South. This was old Goa. The Portuguese were here long long time ago and they built many beautiful churches but the influence of the Indian artisans could be seen in the architecture.

The tour first takes us to Basilica of Bom Jesus which holds the remains of St. Francis Xavier. The body of the Saint is here on display in a silver casket and it is said that the body is as fresh as the day it was buried. The Saint is said to have miraculous powers of healing and so pilgrims come from all over the country.


Then on the other side of the road, we walk down to Sé Cathedral of Santa Catarina. This cathedral is dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria and is one of the oldest and most celebrated religious buildings in Goa and also one of the largest churches in Asia. This was built to commemorate the victory of the Portuguese army over a Muslim army leading to the capture of Goa. It was on the day of the feast of Saint Catherine, hence the cathedral was dedicated to her.


The tour then continues to the famous two temples in the South. First was the temple of Shri Manguesh at Priol. I am told that this is the ancestral village of the famous Mangeshkar Family of India (Lata Mangeshkar, Nightingale of India and her equally accomplished playback singer, Asha Bhosle).


Then onwards to the temple of Shree Shantadurga at Kavale. It is believed that there was a fierce war between Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu which sent the world into turmoil. Lord Brahma prayed and asked Goddess Durga to stop the war before the world comes to an end. The Goddess held Lord Shiva on one hand and on the other Lord Vishnu and brought a reconcilation thus bringing peace to the world once again.

After a brief halt along the way for lunch, we proceed too see Ancestral Goa at Loutolim. The tour only had time for us to see an old Portuguese Mansion. Got eductaed on how the Portuguese lived in style back in those days!

Then the last place to see was the Colva Beach. It was really crowded with tourists from all over India. There were less of foreigners here unlike the other beaches that I had visited.

After a full 12 hours of South Goa, the Bus brings us back to where we started. As I walk back to the hotel from the Tour Agency's Office, my friends pick me up on the way. We head for one of the many lovely bar/restaurant, "Cavala". They had a Live Band playing such wonderful music and singing old time favourites! We were at a bar for some time just enjoying the music, the band. Then for dinner we head to "The Fiesta" and I am glad we did. This is a beautiful place and I just felt in love with the place. It's an open air restaurant bulit on different levels with lovely nooks & corners. Very pretty and very well maintained. The food was equally very good!

All in all, a really wonderful day!

Goa!

At last, I got to visit Goa!

Plans of visiting Goa, not once, not twice but umpteen times never really took off...it remained but as Plans. This time it was just out of the blue decision. Someone had walked away with my suitcase at the Airport when I landed in my home country for a 3 weeks break. I couldn't proceed on my onward journey further up North where my Parents lived till investigation on the missing suitcase got concluded, so I decided to say "Yes" to a friend who was off to Goa for the New Year's! And am I glad that I did? I sure am!

Delhi was biting cold and Goa....perfect weather to be on the beach! That's where we headed as soon as we landed...3pm, 31st Dec 2008 ....even before we checked in to our hotel!

After checking in to our hotel rooms, showered, changed and off we headed once again to the beach. It was simply beautiful. The beach was all lighted up and there were plenty of music from different shacks wafting!

We were here at the beach for a while and about an hour before midnight headed to Nikhil Chinnappa's Party "Submerged". The music was great & Nikhil was good. His wife took turns to play too. The place also had a pool and towels were in ready for those who decided to take the dip & for those who got thrown in by their friends!

It was past 4 am, 1st Jan 2009 when wearily, sleepily we trudged back to our hotel rooms but the streets were still alive with people and various music from all over the place!

Woke up late in the morning....nearly 12 am and off we went to the beach...Anguna Beach. It was a short drive from where we were staying.

We headed straight for "CURLIES" but due to late night there was no staff to serve us and so we had to trudge to the next shack where we parked ourselves and ordered breakfast/lunch. I settled for the local favourite, Goan prawn curry with rice while the others had various omelettes & juices while waiting for "CURLIES" to open up.

"CURLIES" opened late in the afternoon and we shifted our base there. We were there till the sun went down and darkness set in. We ate, drank & we ate some more. For me the coconut water & the tender coconut was really refreshing as I walked down the stretch of the beach...all alone.

When night fell, we headed back....only to head to a bar/restaurant for dinner! It was aptly name "The End". That was the final stop. What a day...the first day of 2009!

No Office!

My eyes flew wide open when the alarm rang at 5am but I was awake long before then.....probably due to the early night that I had! I tossed from one side to the other.....curling up spoon-shaped ....trying to snatch a few minutes more.....before another day starts.....and then it hits me! There's no office for 5 days...EID holidays! No office?! I jumped out of my bed wanting to embrace the "No Office" day!

Got my morning cuppa (green with citrus), a slice of bread and a fried egg well done. Logged online to see what the world has been upto while I was sleeping....and generally catch up on my mails, blogs, etc. A friend back in my own country was already in the office pushing his Team to get the 3.5 million dollar deal closed! I am imagining him sitting at the edge of his chair, drumming his fingers on the desk, getting impatient....waiting for the phone to ring...telling him, "Boss, all signatures are there on the dotted line!" We chatted for a while and laughed at some silly jokes.....he was distracted....his mind was elsewhere....the deal needs to be closed. I left him to deal with the deal and decided to get out....

The weather was sunny and not that terribly hot. The pool was inviting and I went for a swim at the back of the villa. I swam & I thought and I thought & swam....how lovely it would be if everyday was just like today! No Office!

Alone I swam.....in the blue blue pool....with the sun beating down making the water just about warm. The swim was really invigorating and I am thinking to myself....I must, I must try to swim every morning....good for my soul & good for my body!

The swim made me hungry. I am not on a diet, I just happen to love salad! A big bowl of green pasta salad - M's Special! On a bed of spirally pasta also called fusilli, some Japanese mushrooms layered with diced carrots, cucumber & corns and topped with scrunchy green lettuce drizzled with olive oil. On the side, deep fried "Red Snapper" with pickled olives! To round off, settled for a couple of pieces of that nutty chocolate from my small stash of candies & chocolates!

PS:- I wouldn't have thought of photographing what I ate.....but the couple of food blogs that I happen to browse this morning inspired me!

#This was my morning! Evening, we'll see!