Cooking up a storm...

Yes, that is me. And yes, that is my class in that advertisement. My class, as in, a class that I taught - to actual people. Nope, not kidding - not even a little bit! I did - I actually, unbelievably, incredibly taught an Indian cooking class!! Now, I consider myself a fairly decent cook - but I'm not winning any prizes anytime for my cooking - and I'm definitely far, far from being an expert!! But as an Indian with a lot of non-Indian friends who love Indian cooking - I'm suddenly an authority on anything even remotely Indian!! Anyway, I don't exactly remember how or when I signed on for this cooking thing - but there it was, I was official an Indian 'cooker' with my own 'cookery class'!!t

The first thing was to decide on the menu. Recipes I was comfortable with, and could easily demonstrate, availability of ingredients, something simple, but yet, with a big wow factor....hmm, tough call!! Tried a whole bunch of different things at home - much to Ajey's delight!, went through my recipe books, even emailed by favorite food blogger - Nupur of One Hot Stove for help! So here's what I came up with - a basic tomato-onion curry with chickpeas, yellow potato bhaji, cucumber raita, vegetable pulao and Indian tea, chai - the last one by popular demand!! It is one of the mysteries of life to me why people pay exorbitant prices for a Chai latte at Starbucks - rather than brew a quick cup at home!!

While planning my menu, it occurred to me that most of my intended audience would have no idea about the various spices we use in Indian cuisine - so I decided to make a presentation explaining different spices, and their importance. I had a lot of fun researching this - learnt many thing too!! Of course, it is common knowledge that turmeric has antiseptic and anti-carcinogenic properties, and that garlic is good for cardiovascular health - but did you know that chili powder helps to increase absorption of iron from beans and legumes, or that cardamom can be used to treat depression?? Fascinating stuff - why we eat what we eat!! And although I do say it myself - I came up with a really good Powerpoint to go with my spice display!

Spice display

Initially, I was thinking that I would be doing the cooking and my 'students' would watch, take notes, ask questions - more like a demo. Then I found out that that everyone would cook together - our lavish school kitchen has 6 cooktops, one for me - and with a total of 15 people signed up, groups of 3 at each of the remaining 5. This meant I had to totally revamp my strategy - get the logistics sorted, putting together grocery lists, making sure I had every little detail down - can someone please remind me why I signed up for this??!!!

With the possibility of so many things going wrong, I decided to do a trial run at home - would get a better feel for the time needed, and also my mock audience - my friends TW, MW and VH - could tell me if I was making any sense, or if I needed to explain something more. That went better than I was expecting - finished cooking all the dishes in just under an hour - add the time for the spice presentation, and the the time needed for everyone else to  cook - another hour for sure! Feeling pretty confident at this time. The other advantage of doing the trial, my friends would be able to walk around and help other people while I was cooking!

Next was the packing!! First, making mini-spice racks for all the work stations - couldn't forget anything - down to oil, sugar and even salt. All the other ingredients - vegetables, yogurt, chick-pea cans, milk, tea, sugar, my cooking vessels, spatulas, it was endless! Once it was all assembled, next step was to get everything in the car - and then into the school. MW and TW to the rescue again - I dropped off 3 bags for them to bring, and my very helpful driver, Chen Shifu, helped me carry the rest to the the school kitchen! Just goes to show how formidably organized I can get if I set my mind to it!!

Ready to go!

Setup in the school kitchen!

Ingredients at each station

In spite of all the preparations, I still ran into a couple of issues! The spice presentation went off pretty smoothly - next I walked everyone through the recipes we would be making, explaining the ingredients and the procedure. Now onto the cooking - and a problem which almost derailed the whole afternoon! The school cooktops are induction, not flame - for safety reasons, obviously - I knew that, I had used one just last week with the Year 4 chapatis. What I did not know - not all pots and pans work on induction stoves - and to my dismay, not a single one that I brought with me was ok. In all of my failure mode analysis - what, I am an engineer! - this had never come up. Verge of panic - saved by my friends, searching for appropriate pans in the school kitchen! Disaster averted!!

It was smooth sailing after that. All my dishes turned out exactly as expected - and I guess my instructions were clear enough that most everyone came up with good food too!! There were a couple of mixups - adding the turmeric too late, forgetting the tomato puree, but no major issues. I did manage to catch one potentially disastrous mistake - I had boxes of Kitchen King masala for everyone to take home - this masala also needed to be added to the chickpea curry - and 1 person almost emptied the entire box into their curry!!! Ok, most important lesson of the day, people - when it comes to spice, less is definitely more!!

In action!

Whew! What a day! I hope that everyone enjoyed the afternoon, and was able to learn something new!! I did get some really good positive feedback - one woman asked me if I was a professional chef, now that really made my day! The most appreciation was for something so trivial that I burst out laughing at all the oohs and aahs - for the raita, I chop cucumbers in a particular way, holding the knife along the length of the cutting board, the blade pointing up - so the chopped cucumber is somewhere between small cubes and fine grated. Nothing special - that's how it's done in countless Indian homes - in this kitchen, it was like I had performed an extraordinary conjuring trick!!

I'm not going to downplay this and say it was a piece of a cake - it most definitely wasn't. There was a lot of work I had to put in - after all, if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right! - the preparations were on a war scale, and needed military precision - not exaggerating, it was crazy how many times I checked and double-checked everything - I was paranoid about reaching school and then finding I forgot something! Really happy that all the hard work paid off!! I got asked if I took orders - no, sorry, I don't - and there were a number of women who asked when the next class would be - but I'm thinking that this is firmly in the 'been-there-done-that' category - no encores in the foreseeable future!!

Yes, I really did - I taught an Indian cooking class! Pinch me, somebody!!

Celebrating Diwali - Suzhou style!

Happy Diwali!!!

Diwali - the most festive time of the year, and also the most nostalgic! It is the time that I miss being away from all my family the most, miss the celebrations and even the phone calls we make to our extended family are so hard - happy that everyone else is together, at the same time, deeply aware of being the only ones far away. Still, there are traditions to follow - the customary Diwali faral, the lighting of the diyas, the sumptuous meals - and although it's just the 3 of us, we always have the best time ever! Happy Diwali, everyone!!

 Making Diwali a little more fun this year - I got an email from Manasi's Year 4 teacher, asking if I could come in and help out on India Day for Year 4. What kind of help? Well, they asked about Bollywood dance - yeah, no - I can't do that - actually, anything other than that...so how about a little Indian cooking for the kids? So thought long and hard, and finally it was Ajey who came up with a plan - have the kids roll out chapatis and then eat with jam! So mixed up a whole lot of dough and headed to school - no surprise that our 5-star school has a fully equipped kitchen for our junior chefs! The kids had a blast rolling out the chapatis - lot of interesting shapes - and they loved eating them too!! One little boy told me - "You eat this every day? You are sooo lucky!!" And in a really sweet gesture, the kids made a lovely thank you card and sent it home with Manasi - really touched!!

Last year, a few of us organized a Diwali party for about 20 Indian families living here in Suzhou - to be honest, I really didn't know many of them, but really enjoyed celebrating with such a large group of people - more the merrier, right?! We had arranged with a popular Indian restaurant in Suzhou, Namaste, for a set dinner menu - and then bought fireworks for the kids. Didn't go as smoothly as planned though - the service was terrible, and a lot of the food we had ordered did not even make it to our tables. Our hungry kids ended up eating plain white rice - it was just really not good at all. What made it worse was all the negative comments - so we really weren't planning for an encore this year!

So here we were planning a smaller get-together, just our regular group of 6 families - but somehow, it didn't feel right - the biggest festival of the year deserves bigger, better, grander! One thing was clear, though - no more Namaste! Luckily for us, a new restaurant just opened up really close to Golden Lough - well, technically it's not new, it's a branch of the Indian restaurant Ganesh, but still! And actually, this whole new area - it's a block away from the Auchan, and is being developed as a new Ligong Di kind of area - canals, old Chinese style construction, lots of restaurants - really, really beautiful place! Anyway, New Ganesh - after a few phone conversations with the manager, we had a reasonable deal! Diwali party is back on!!

And what a party it was!! We had an almost private room to ourselves - with French doors opening to a wide terrace outside. The weather held - no rain, no clouds, and a delicious nip in the air! The food was tasty - and service was really excellent! Best part, the restaurant let us bring our own drinks - beer and soft drinks - which meant a huge saving! Great events - a photo booth for formal family pictures, a rousing game of charades, fireworks - after much debate, it was agreed to keep the fireworks to a minimum - environmental concerns aside, what's Diwali without fireworks!

Photo booth

Good friends, good food!

Cheers!

What's the good word?

Sparklers!

The piece de resistance was undoubtedly - wait for it - our floating Chinese lanterns! In the words of the littlest member of our group "I like it the hot air balloon!" The night before we tried out one at a friends's house - and it was a spectacular failure - the lantern literally went down in flames!! So we didn't really have any high expectations - at the very least, it would be good for a few laughs - and then, one after the other, the lanterns soared up, up and away - filling hearts with joy, tinged with a little nostalgia - sending messages of goodwill and happiness to the world! Such a simple thing, such a profound joy!! The very essence of Diwali!!

Needless to say that this year there were no unhappy customers, no negative comments!! Thanks to New Ganesh and the manager, Daniel - a wonderful job done! Would highly recommend this restaurant to all our Suzhou friends!! A memorable Diwali - one for the books for sure!! Like the past few months, October, too is racing to its end - and like the past months, I'm scrambling to get my posts out in time!! So watch this space - I still have a bunch of exciting October stories to tell!! Until then - a very Happy Diwali to everyone!!

In Manasi's words - "Year 5 goes to NanBei Hu!"

In keeping with their tradition of encouraging independence from a young age, Dulwich College Suzhou organizes China week trips for the students - starting with an overnight sleepover at school for Year 3, moving up to a 3 day outing for Year 4, to 5 day trips for the Year 5 and Year 6 students. Year 5 usually goes to Nan Bei Hu - a scenic lake located about 100kms from Suzhou, a 2 hour bus ride. Manasi and all her friends were on this exciting adventure last week - but here's the best part - Manasi has graciously agreed to write about her China week trip for the blog!! So without further ado, over to my first ever guest blogger - Nan Bei Hu in Manasi's words!!

Day 0 - Sunday
It  was an awesome day today - my mom helped me pack for Nan Bei Hu. I was a little sad to leave my mom because my dad is in America, so she would be alone. I will be sleeping with my friend Edna at Nan Bei Hu. We are going to have a great time!!! I am sooo excited!!!

Day 1 - Monday
Our bus took 4 hours to get to Nan Bei Hu because the driver took the long bridge when he shouldn't have. When we got there, we ate lunch - there was french fries, apples, oranges, rice, coca cola, sprite and fantastic noodles. Then we started games.

'Capture the Flag' was the first game. By the way, at Nan Bei Hu, all the Year 5 students were split into 6 different groups. I was in Group 5, with Mr. Mellows, who is also my class teacher. So, 'Capture the Flag'. Groups 1, 2 and 3 were Team 1 and groups 4, 5 and 6 were Team 2. The game started. The aim of the game is to get the other team's flag without getting tagged by the other team. Team 1 won 2 times, and our team lost both times.

Capture the Flag

Next, we played a game with water balloons. 1 person has to get the balloon without using hands and the second person in line has to pop the balloon, and collect the water. The first team to get the bucket full is the winner. In this game, our group won twice! Then we had to go for a shower before dinner time!

Dinner was ok - I was missing home food. After that we had to make our flag. It took us 10 minutes to think of a name. It was an awesome, fantastic name! It was.... "THE GODS OF AWESOMENESS"!! Then we started designing and making our flag. After 1 hour, it was time to go to bed.

Making the flag

"Gods of Awesomeness"

We got journals to write in every day. They also introduced the points board - we were in the 4th place. We had to vote for a team - so that they could deduct points from that team. I didn't really like that. "Purple people" got 20 points deducted because everyone voted for them. Now they are tied with another team. Going to bed now.

Day 2 - Tuesday
It was very rainy today. Me and Edna woke up at 6:30. In our groups, we ate breakfast. There were banana pancakes and orange juice - well, that's all I ate - there was lots more food.

After breakfast, our group made a rope stretcher. We did it in 10 minutes, so we got 100 points. Next we did shelter building. We used sticks and super glue. The aim of the activity was to build a small model shelter. The glue was soo sticky! Finally, it was lunch - apples, oranges, dumplings and soda - that was a good lunch!

Rope stretcher

Next stop, Leap of Faith! I was soooo excited!! There was the cargo net too. Another team went first onto the Leap of Faith. So our team went on the cargo net. When it was my turn, I was scared to go on the other side of the net. But I did it - and then again, one more time. The second time was fun. The other group was done, so our turn for the Leap of Faith. When I was in line for the Leap of Faith, I gave my camera to Mr. Mellows to take pictures. The whole point of Leap of Faith is to climb this big pole, get to the top and then jump and try to get the swinging trapeze. It was my turn now, I wasn't that scared. I could do it! I started to climb. I reached the top! The pole was wiggly - I just needed to stand up. I jumped, grabbed the trapeze and held on with one hand! It was an amazing feeling! Mr. Mellows got lots of pictures!

Dinner time! Rice, noodles and watermelon!! After eating, we went to set up a campfire. The fire was so big. We all sang songs. We had to copy the instructors. We headed back to the hotel after that. We saw how many points we got. We were second place!!! Today everyone voted for us to deduct points - we had 430 and now 410 points! 20 points lost. I felt so sad. Well going to sleep - tomorrow is tomorrow!

Day 3 - Wednesday
Today after breakfast were the sensory activities. We had to learn to use our 5 senses. First activity was that you had to take off your shoes and smell it, feel it and use other senses to it. Then, close your eyes and the instructor will hand you one shoe. Using your senses, try to guess - if it is your shoe, keep it in front of you. If not, you have to pass it the person on your left. I found my shoe! Next activity!

Blindfolded!

This activity was the real sensory trail. You were blindfolded and you had to try to get a letter from a maze. The rope will lead you to the letters, so you have to feel the rope. I found the letter 'K'. Then, when everyone got a letter, we had to open our eyes, see all the letters and put them together. All the letters together spelled 'Teamwork'. Next - lunch!!

Same lunch everyday!

Next, it was rock-climbing. I was so excited!! There was an easy side and a difficult side. I was a little bit scared, so I did the easy side first. I touched the top - I was so happy!! Then, I did the difficult side and I reached the top for that too!!

We did low ropes after that. You had to take a bucket of water across a small river on a rope. We got 60% of water to the other side - so we got awesome amazing points! Not just 10, 20 - but 60!!

We went to take a shower after. Then we played ambush. Group 1, 2 and 3 went first. They had to put arrows of where they were hiding. But they can misplace 1 arrow. If the hiding group scares the finding group, they win. If the finding group finds the hiding group, they win. Group 1,2,3 scared us and we scared them too.

I am so tired! Time for bed.

Day 4 - Thursday
We had breakfast and then headed on to a good day. It was catapult building first. We made the catapult out of bamboos. Then, we had to fire water balloons at the the other team. Our best one was when the other team was standing under a tree and we fired the water balloon in the branches and everyone got wet! In my opinion, it was AWESOME!

Next, it was laser tag. You had a fake gun and a helmet. The aim of the game was to shoot the other team. That was really fun. I 'died' lots of times. We played 6 games - and it was lunchtime!

Laser tag!

After lunch, we went raft building. Using the equipment that is given, you had to build a raft and then test it. The girls made one raft and the boys made another. Our raft was made of bamboo, ropes and 3 barrels. I was in the middle. Then, we put our life vests on. The girls and boys were ready to sail! It was so cool! The boy's raft was better than the girl's raft because it was more stable. Overall, we got 100 points altogether!

For dinner, we went for a BBQ. I ate mostly chicken and vegetables. At the end, we had marshmallows - I had 3! Disco time now! We started the disco! Sadly, it only lasted 20 minutes. That's 4 songs. After the disco, they were going to announce the group that had won. Drum roll please...

It's PURPLE PEOPLE!!! I knew it! We came 4th. Purple People got a T-shirt. Lucky them! Oh well, I am sleepy. You know the drill - brush your teeth, put on you pjs, and go to bed! I'm going to do just that! Good night!

Day 5 - Friday
I am going to see my mom today! We had breakfast and then went for a hike! We saw a shop that was taken by trees and we saw some cool plants. From up top, we could see our hotel. After 1 hour of the hike, we went to the hotel and ate some lunch. I wanted to see my mom and dad, but I was going to miss Nan Bei Hu.

I don't want to leave!! I'm on the bus - it is going to leave! I loved the experience and all the activities. Going to Nan Bei Hu taught me to overcome my fear of heights. It taught me to be brave about leaving my parents. Bye bye Nan Bei Hu! Bye, bye!!

Looking back at September

Whew, this year is really speeding by - October already!! It's getting so hard to keep track of what happened when...and my once legendary memory is not what it used to be!!! Maybe I should try this strange making-a-list thing that Ajey is so fond of....wow, I must be really growing up - making lists, what next?!!

The highlight of September is always, always the Ganesh festival - puja at home with modaks for prasad - perfect!! This year, we also attended the Shanghai Marathi Mandal Ganesh celebrations - the venue is usually the same, the Marriott in Puxi. The cultural program this year was quite ambitious - a depiction of the 4 yugas, starting with the creation of the world and moving on through the Satyuga, Dwaparyuga, Tretayuga, all the way through to the current Kaliyuga! Dances, skits, songs - a real variety program! It is quite obvious that a lot of hard work goes into these programs! The rousing arti and sumptuous lunch were the perfect ending to the festivities!!

The first week of September is also the Moon Festival long weekend - like last year, time for our Satyanarayan puja. Decided on a bigger scale this year - ended up inviting 10 families for lunch! I've never cooked for so many people at a time - and I was really hoping to make a really traditional Maharashtrian meal - so as much as I didn't want to, I had to make those dreaded lists!! First ingredient lists, then shopping lists, then all the planning - surprised myself a bit there!! In the end, I will grudgingly admit that the lists do help - everything went off without a hitch, and I did not have a single panic attack - well, maybe just a tiny little one!! I forgot to put down 'take pictures' on any of my lists, though - so no photos!! Sigh!!

The Year 5 coffee for parents was soon after - co-incidence or not, all 4 of us parent reps live right here in Golden Lough! So, obviously the place for the coffee was the Starbucks across the street - it's no secret that these coffees are very poorly attended - so worst case, it would be just the 4 of us, so somewhere close seemed to make sense!! So it was a pleasant surprise to see so many people turn up - including quite a few Korean moms, who usually don't mix that much!! It was fun to socialize with people I usually don't meet, fascinating to try to understand where people are coming from! In the end, we may have got more than what we bargained for - couple of moms from my class requested we do this very month - umm, I thought I was done for the year!!

Another first was Euchre night - Euchre is actually not that complicated to play, there are even a couple of apps online that can help teach you to play. Ajey and I got a private lesson - thanks, GL and BL!! There were about 20 people to play our first night - and the pot is quite big, starting of with RMB 50 per person, and then put in 20 each time a player fails to make the bid! Lot of food, lot of wine, lots of fun!! There are a few people who play very seriously, but most just enjoy the socializing!! Normally, I have the worst luck in cards ever - but September seems to be the month of the surprises - and I ended up 2nd, winning 25% of the pot - a whopping 400 RMB!!! To be very honest, I'm a little uncomfortable about playing for money - and while winning the very first time I played was thrilling, it also felt a little weird! Can't bring myself to spend it - I guess I'll earmark it to pay for the next 3 Euchre nights!!!

Still ringing up the firsts - the first FoD event of the year, Family Fun Day!! The venue was new year this year, the Grand Jinji hotel, not too far from my house! The weather changed a couple of days before the event, the clouds and showers had all us organizers biting our nails with anxiety - luckily, Saturday dawned clear and sunny, a perfect day for Family Day! Ajey had left for Peoria a day after Euchre night - so it was just Manasi and I - and we managed to have a pretty good day! I was 'on duty' at the registration desk, but that tapered off after the first couple of hours, so other than lending a hand at the organized games, wasn't really that busy! After all the planning and meetings and emails, it was good to see everything go so smoothly!!

One of the funnest things I did this month was a dosa lunch for some of my friends here at Golden Lough! Most people I meet really like Indian food - but they are totally unaware that there is a whole world of Indian cuisine outside of samosas and naan and chicken tikka!! So once in while, I enjoy introducing my friends to some new dishes - it is also a great ego-booster, because they think I'm a fabulous cook!! Reality check - I'm not, really, really not a fabulous cook - to be honest, I think 'competent' is probably a better adjective!! Anyway, so dosas it was - and followed by a big dose of solid Bollywood masala - we watched 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge', English subtitles and all - which by the way, are hilarious - "Don't chew my brains, you wastrel!!"

Last week of September - and 5 days of solitude for me!! Ajey was still in Peoria, and Manasi left for her week long China week trip to Nan Bei Hu - I have convinced her to write about her trip for the blog, and she's almost done, so I'm not going to steal her thunder by talking about her adventure - that will almost certainly be the next post!! Anyway, 5 days - I was kind of looking forward to having the house to myself - catch up on my reading, finish Manasi's blanket, take a mid-morning nap, stay up late watching TV - on paper, I was going to have the best week over! In reality, I was bored out of my mind!! I missed Manasi and Ajey like crazy - at least I got to FaceTime with Ajey, but Manasi - all I got of her was a few pictures on the school weebly!! I will admit that Sunny and I did some moping together - and I was really happy when they both got back on Friday!! I did finish Manasi's blanket though - cue, the only photo on this post!!

Packed a lot in this month, didn't I? No wonder, it's all a blur - and I haven't even mentioned all the FoD meetings, the parties, the potlucks, and a million other things!! No signs of slowing down - October is speeding on at full steam too - so lot more posts coming up! To finish up, on the family front, we heard some really good news this month - we will be soon welcoming a little niece or nephew back in Peoria - well not soon, in March - but I'm really excited, because everyone knows that March babies are the best ever!! I can personally vouch for that - and so can my mom!!

Until later!!