SAST Wingees

On the Rossogolla trail

I was in Kolkata last week on business. I told my colleagues about my love for rossogollas and that I wanted to go to K.C.Das. One of my colleagues told me that Chittaranjan made better rossogollas than K.C. Das and ordered me some for lunch. They were definitely extremely good. But for me K.C. Das is the original. So couple of my colleagues took me to the K.C.Das shop in Esplanade and we had fresh rossogollas – out of the world. Thanks to my colleague’s digital camera, I now have documented proof of my visit to K.C.Das. I was also introduced to Amriti – apparently another famous sweet in Bengal. It turns out to be the same as the South Indian Jangiri (sweet version of Jalebi which is a bit sour). Amriti was extremely good as well. Priya was doing some research on the differences between Jangiri and Jalebi and concluded that both these sweets were of middle eastern origin (Moshabbek is the middle eastern one) and that Jangiri was introduced to Southern India as Emperor Jahangir’s favorite sweet – Jahangiri which over time has become Jangiri. Fascinating, isn’t it.

Lebanese cuisine in Chennai!

I have expressed my affection for Lebanese food (or middle eastern in general) before. We used to have it at least once in 2 weeks. Having relocated to Chennai, we were wondering how we are going to keep our fancy going. Priya did some research and found this place called Cedars (on Gandhi Mandapam Road opposite Oriental Bank of Commerce). We went there last night for dinner.

We had moutabal (made out of smoked eggplant), fatoush salad and hummus first. The moutabal was easily as good as the best we have had, extremely flavorful. To top it, we got some fresh warm pita bread straight from the oven. Even in “The Street” in NJ most restaurants serve only store-bought pita bread – only 1 restaurant gives fresh warm pita bread and pita bread served by Cedars is easily the best we have had. The main course was passe.

We saw “Ashta Bil Medjool” on the dessert menu and quicky ordered. It was pretty good but nothing still beats “Ashta Bil Asal” from Vine Valley Cuisine.

Overall it was a great experience. So we inquired about the chef and we were told that there was a Lebanese chef for 2 years and the current chef was trained by him for over 1 year. No wonder the food was so authentic.

Steven Seagal is a tulku !

Here is the most interesting article I came across this year (so far) :
Steven Seagal has done it ! He is a tulku it seems.

Costliest city in the world

Oslo, Norway replaces Tokyo, Japan as the most expensive city in the world. The survey was done with New York as the base of 100 (Via Priya Raju).

How Indian food has changed over the ages

Although a bit dated, here is a very interesting article in The Hindu tracing the evolution of Indian food. (Via NK Sreedhar.)