“He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.”
– Henry David Thoreau
Vegetarian appetizer plate, Mr.Kebab & Falafel, Capitola Beach
Beach day on labor day – Capitola Beach
Over a year of living in California and towards the last days of summer we finally went to the beach. I had dreams of blue waves softly caressing the white sand on a perfectly sunny day. Instead I got grey waters on a windy September evening. Capitola Beach was a pretty small beach. I come from Madras which has the Marina Beach, the second longest beach in the world so I might be a little spoiled. Or maybe I had high expectations for Capitola. None the less the beach was decent enough to last me till next summer.
There were quite a few restaurants around the beach. All that was very nice but I missed eating hot molaga bajjis and sundal on the beach. How can it be a beach without molaga bajji?! Americans are so weird, man.
The ratio of the beach size to the number of restaurants was like 1 : 8. We had dinner in a cute Jordanian falfalel place. Now that’s one thing I like about California – no matter where you go, you are never far away from a falafel.
Go Falafel!
I had the saltiest salted caramel ice cream at the Village Creamery, a must visit if you’re in the area. They have over seventy five flavors of ice cream! Say whaaatt!!
Two for Thai.
“First we eat then we do everything else.”
– M.F.K. Fisher
Tom Yam Goong, Bangkok Noodles, Union Square, San Francisco
Halalfest ’13
Last week I found out through Instagram that California was having its first halal food fest. Since food and I are BFFs I immediately searched for the location of said event and estimated how far it is from where I live. Half an hour? Not bad. An SOS was sent to Jay and Saturday morning saw me skimping on breakfast to make extra room for all the delicious halal food I was going to ingest.
We reached an hour and a half after the fest started. The stalls didn’t accept cash. We had to buy tokens that were sold at the two ends. In order to use time efficiently Jay and I each stood in one of the lines. The place was busy but as soon as the lines got smaller they ran out of tokens. We had to wait a good twenty minutes until they were replenished.
There were a decent number of food stalls – Indian food, Thai, South African and a BBQ place, cupcakes, shaved ice and bean pies. I felt the number of stalls for the amount of people that turned up was less. We had to stand in long lines to buy the food and longer lines for pick up. But I had come for my chicken wings and I would get them come hell or high water!
The South African chicken wings from New Africa Kitchen, Oakland were freshly fried and delicious. I gobbled them up while waiting in line for burgers from the newly opened King’s BBQ and Grill, Fremont. The people making the burgers and the girls in charge were extremely efficient. I was looking forward to try the brisket but they were sold out.
We had a few more tokens left and ideally I would spend them on more meat but it was around 1.00 pm by then and the lines were insane! Instead we had a Caramel Scotch cupcakes at Rajabelle’s. The frosting was on point! So decadent! Definitely one of the best cupcakes I’ve had.
The last few tokens were spent on Hawaiian shaved ice which was a fancy version of the humble Indian gola, except you could get three flavors in one serving.
Overall I had a pretty fun time at the Halalfest. I just feel some aspects could have been better organized like the seating area and crowd management, but apart from that it was good for a first time event. I can’t wait for next year!
Below are some pictures I managed to click. There aren’t too many pictures of food as I was either busy eating them or buying them.
Even the most misshapen chapathis are edible.
Put that samosa down! It’s Ramadan!!
Ramadan Kareem, everyone! This year is going to be my first Ramadan away from home, in a different country with a fifteen hour fasting time. This will also be my first year making **iftar and preparing for *suhoor, and I’m already starting to appreciate my mother for all the years she cooked it for me. I now realize it’s a hard thing to strike balance between your spiritual side and well, keeping house. I try to “keep” my house decent enough. It gets messy every few days and I do get lazy but I try to get by.
I know I will miss home terribly during Ramadan but I don’t want to admit it. I will miss the food and the bit of forced friendliness that Ramadan injects, both in society and family. We have suhoor together and break iftaar as a family. I will miss my annual iftar potluck with my girls (especially the one year where we went a bit wild, you know the one I’m talking about, ***Kuki). I will miss all the tiny traditions that I’ve done subconsciously. I only hope to continue with them and hopefully, create new traditions.
I will miss planning my Eid outfit. But that’s cause I already planned it in super advance this year.
Oh, I will also miss the samosas. Mmm.. samosas.
Have a blessed Ramadan, people. I pray we all come out of it as satisfied and better people.
*suhoor : Meal had at sunrise during Ramadan (fasting) time.
**iftar : Meal had at sunset during Ramadan (fasing) time.
*** Kuki : My stalker. I would named you the other thing but I don’t want people who read my blog to think I’m a pervert. Also, hi.
Pizza Power
“When the moon hits your eye
Like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.”
– Dean Martin
Pesto pizza, Pizza My Heart, San Jose
Dosa and I have a wild ride.
Today was like Christmas. The tattooed FedEx employee was Santa Claus and my present was a Preethi mixie my Mama sent. I immediately tear the packaging apart and spend a minute marveling at this mixie which is everything an American blender isn’t. The mixie seals what’s for dinner – chutney and godumai dosa. I’m really excited right now as this is my first time making godumai dosa. I check hungryandexcited to brush up on the how to’s of the dosa and I’m confident enough. I make the thokku for the chutney, cool it and grind it in a second with my new Preethi mixie. I then temper it with mustard seeds and enjoy the smell of the curry leaves. Also, tempering is like my favorite part of cooking.The first few sodas are clumpy. I don’t wait too long before I flip it and it forms a paste on the tava. I don’t let that deter me, I soldier on. Finally I make soft dosas. I’m ecstatic. It’s 7.00 pm by then and husband walks in through the door, “Mmm.. You made dosa and chutney! So good!”
I beam proudly, so happy of my achievements. After we eat our spongy dosas and spicy chutney in front of the TV, I clear the table and take the dishes to the kitchen AND I SEE THAT I’VE LEFT THE STOVE ON AND THE PLASTIC DOSA FLIPPER THING HAS MELTED AND FORMED A PLASTIC GOOP ON MY BRAND NEW TAVA.
Someone please tell me how I’m going to flip my eggs tomorrow morning.
Liquid Chocolate
“Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”
– Joanne Harris, Chocolat
Hazelnut chocolate milkshake, Max Brenner, The Forum at Ceaser’s, Las Vegas
I don’t like scallops.
“It is a very poor consolation to be told that the man who has given one a bad dinner, or poor wine, is irreproachable in private life. Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for half-cold entrees.”
– Oscar Wilde
Seafood Souvlaki, Opa!, Los Gatos
Maybe In Madras 