Candied Orange Peel, Cours Saleya, Nice

Candied Orange Peel, Cours Saleya, Nice
Originally uploaded by pradeep jeganathan.

This photo is being considered for the Schmap guide to Nice, France!

Nice!

Whale Watching off Mirissa + Lunch!

About a 150 km from Colombo, Mirissa is a very small town, on the southern coast. But from its habour, one can for a goodly fee (Rs. 6000/=) sign up for a boat ride of several hours, to the deep waters some 15 miles out and with luck, see both the blue whale, the largest animal on earth, and the dolphin, bottle nosed and other variates, who are of course, cuter than cute.
And so we went, stayed at the Giragalla Inn, which overlooks the lovely Giragalla (Parrot Rock), and woke up early, took the boat at 7, were very lucky with our sightings!


(Dolphin breaks the water -- above -- Whale dives, below)


Then, hungry after the long ride, which took 5 hours, and having postponed breakfast fearing seasickness (we had all dosed up on avomine), we fell upon a simple, classic 'rice curry' lunch at the old and famous Weligama Bay Rest house.



the most interesting dish, a karavila curry, which I'd never had before, wasn't the most popular, since true to its name (bitter gourd), it remained bitter :). Still since I've been fixing Karavila salads, I tried quite a bit of it. It wasn't very good; perhaps more lime would have helped, with more initial de-bitterizing!?

Rava Idly Etc.,

Nivi and Aditya took me to Sargar for South Indian food, on Sunday the 1st of March. Iddy/Dosa says Nivi has colonized all India from the south, like in the sphere of women's dress the salwar has done the same, from the North. I thought that was insightful. She is a smart person! No insight there :)
In Sagar, I discovered a whole lot of food that was new to me; as I always do -- there is so much variety in every kind of indian food! There were many things to try, so apart from my obligatory ghee dosa, which i simply had to have-- i had rava idly.
rava idly, as it turns out, is made of semolina and coconut, and only really shares a method of preparation from the regular kind I'm used to.



first off, i loved the slice of tomato that had been steamed in. i thought that was really smart and made the dish look so beautiful. the texture of the idly was grainier than the regular one, and it broke more easily in my fingers, the taste also being different. i guess there are many ways to make this: here is a variation i found on the web, with photographs lovelier than mine.

after breakfast, i was dropped off, by request at the National Gallery of Modern Art. I had been there before, but now the gallery has been expanded to a large new wing in two interconnected sections, that is separate from the old Jaipur House. It is, I thought, an extraordinary collection, especially the very contemporary work, which was nearly all new to me. Much of the work, I thought was incredibly good. I spent nearly fours hours wondering around, the only draw backs being the crazy, unmoderated ambient light, the misdirected spot lights and the lack of drinking water inside the gallery.
Actually a cafe with coffee would have been even better! Still just drinking from the ad hoc water bottle thing outside, and returning to wonder around more, was a good way to get over the excessive eating of the dosa and idly.

when i was done i walked through the old sculpture garden, which i had never photographed before.


then i some art work of my own, until Nivi and Aditya picked me up:

Lunch at Blanco's (Khan Market, Delhi)

Nivi, Adithya and their son Niru took me out to lunch at this lovely restaurant in Delhi, after the conference. Since I was all done with work as such, and it was the weekend to boot, we started with drinks. I had my favorite vodka martini, but nivi's drink looked tempting also :).


then we had appetizers.
in india, my friends never order the mains with the appetizers. they eat what comes, wait, decide if they want more appetizers, and then if they want more drinks, and then order the entree. its like my school friends here in colombo, when they have bites before dinner. but then they like to go to another place for dinner. i like the delhi system, you don't have to move, after you sit down. :)
the appetizers here were great. the asparagus and wasabi mash wraps were a subtle, yet tangy treat, and the shrimp and pork wraps (a new combo for me), with hot sweet sauce went down very well.



note to self: i should try asparagus wraps at home!



my main dish was grilled salmon, with orange sauce. it was very nice, but not as prefect at the appetizers; mainly the orange sauce being slightly too sweet, and not that citrussy. I prefer the orange reductions I've been working on, that mix sweet, citrus and bitter in a balanced way. But still it was a treat to have salmon.



Then in helpless over indulgence, I had the triple chocolate mousse for dessert. I think it hard to make softer mousse, and have them keep, but I do I prefer this. I must work on chocolate mousses, and see what I can do.




what a lovely lunch it was!

More on Tuile, with Coffee

In June, 2008, in one of cooking fits -- which are good things, I suppose, I had egg whites left over from making jaggery creams, and I made tuiles, the recipe I got from my big book of french recipes. this is what I wrote then:

"I like coffee, but i hadn't had it with tuiles before. i made these melt in your mouth crisps, which turn out in between a cookie and cracker, with egg whites i had left over from making kithul cream pots, with added sugar and flour. they are oven baked for 8 mins. really changes that ten mins with coffee.
also possible with added crushed almonds, which i didn't get around to yet."

(these are my ones, june 2008)

So there it was; until I stopped by at Monis (at Maggona, and famous for its rusks, of course) on the way back from Bentota the other day. I think it was Malathi who had said, when I first made tuiles 'Oh Monis does this' (like i was old hat for looking it up in a recipe book)-- but when we stopped before, at the New Monis, not the old, we are unable to find them. Well, at Old Monis, (and really can't they merge?) -- they have it, but its called Tuilips. Now don't cackle -- I don't know the history of this creation, its name or the confection, but it is melt in your mouth good, and at 6 for Rs. 45/=, very good value. Would be at least 450 at the Hilton, wouldn't it?

(the Monis variety)

Try some with Coffee, and say thank you to Monis!

Orange Shrimp, again in Delhi!

Appu, a young friend who lives in Delhi, has been interested in my cooking adventures for some time. Ages ago, he asked me write up a prawn recipe for him; but I didn't get around to it for ever. then, as the food blog got going, i did blog my favorite prawn recipe, which i worked on and tried to improve -- my most recent effort being a new variation with orange sauce and blanched peel. When I posted this link on Appu's facebook wall, he said he'd like me to cook it at his place, when i visited.

And so, it worked out! Appu's mother Mary got the ingredients, (peeled jumbo prawns, and oranges) and did all the preparation, with help from him (Appu was right that the peel had to heavily salted to draw out the bitterness) -- then we cooked it. It took a few hours of intensive work ( we were cooking for 10-12, and I'd never made the dish to this scale before), and reduction of the prawn sauce and organge juice was a challenge but the results were pretty good. The major error I made was blanching to peel to long, (it should be 30 secs., not 3 mins) so it didn't have its super citrus burst, but then that was a good lesson for me!
also i learnt about a new kitchen aid utensil while cooking, with Mary and Appu -- a steel grip, which comes in very handy, with hot dishes and pans, that eliminates the need for bulky paw pads! A few days later, Mary and Satish gifted me a beautifully wrapped one of my own.




















Thank you!

food after a conference

i was in delhi from the 24th Feb., to the 4th of March, first for a conference to celebrate to golden jubilee of the department of sociology, at the delhi school of economics, and then to visit with old friends.
many valued colleagues, were involved in organizing the event which was on 'location' and anthropological and sociological traditions; I presented a re-working of a set of older articles on 'violence' and 'anthropology,' which i managed to do okay. It was well received, and this made me happy.

(some of the people who were on the organizing committee: rajni is missing).



each day, we had lovely lunches on the lawn of the sociology department; on the last day, a interesting set of sweets and savories were served before a late lunch, so that the conference could keeping going with out a break. the students, who were working very hard, plated the food, with the help of the caterers.



note the green chille and chips, with the cake! marvelous!



then, we had lunch! some thing special on the last day, was the pan fried, stuffed vegetable platter, which is called a thana (i think, i may have got this wrong). anyway, it was a new experience. There were green peppers, eggplant, okra and bitter gourd!



then every one enjoyed their food. its a place i've visited before, and one of great memories.

Provencal Fish Stew

The fish stews of southern France are legendary. And in a short trip, I am quite certain I didn't have the 'real' one. Still, the basic idea, simmering a variety of fish and shell fish, in stock, herbs, saffron and tomato isn't that complicated. In fact, this was what a fisherman's wife did, with left overs from the catch -- that's way back when, wives cooked. :)
I had one in the old city of Nice, and it was good, with the rouille and croutons. The gravy was thick, thicker than i thought it would be perhaps since it was un strained. And tasted more of a tinge of tomato than saffron. Perhaps it was inauthentic.
I've been trying fish stews myself -- and now I think I shall branch out into a french inspired version with seer, shark, shrimp, and cuttle fish -- simmered in fish head stock, inflected with karavala (dried fish), ginger and green chille, balanced with vinegar and a little sugar. Watch out for it.
Until then...

Omelette aux Lardon in Antibes

I owe my visit to Antibes to Uday, wonderful new friend and colleague I met in Bellagio. He had visited there while a student, and recalled its beauty. Its a fantastic place, with a old fortress and city, going back again like Nice, to the Greeks. It was then taken over in the fourteenth century by the Girimaldi's of Genoa and still of Monaco & Monte Carlo. In the 1920s the old castle was turned in the museum, and part of it was being used as a workshop in 1946, when Picasso was invited to live and paint there for an year. The castle is now a Picasso Museum, with a collection of his painting and other artists. The court yard that over looks the Mediterranean is a sculpture garden, making it by far the most stunningly beautiful modern art museum I've been to.

Yes, that was wonderful. Then I walked down to old city and happened upon a small cafe that served only crepes and omelettes. So since I was not feeling like any thing sugarly opted for the Omelette Aux Lardon, which means, with bacon. Huh! I was very hungry and this was really teriffic. To die for, in more ways than one, of course.



To make this, and I had chat with the chef, you simply let your chopped bacon cook in a pan, until its sizzling, and then add the well beaten eggs. "How did you beat it," I asked him. "Whisk?"
"No," he said, holding up a knife." I looked suprised. "How do you say.." He went on, "knife and, kinfe and..." which he repeated until he found a fork. "Fork?" I said. And that was that.
You don't need salt or any other kind of fat, since the bacon has both. Amazingly good.

Cours Saleya

I didn't even know it, when I stumbled upon it, just as I crossed the road by the edge of the beach, walked through the arches, and there it was. I was behind on my guidebook, just stumbling around, when I was upon it, Market Street in Nice, Cours Saleya, thought to be the most exciting farmer's market in the whole of the South of France.

Wow.
Things they had there to look at, photograph, and even dip a paw into! Paw went dip dip.
Candied fruit was my favorite, and I even bought little bags of the orange peel, and ate it before breakfast. They were really quite wonderful, slightly bitter, tangy and very sweet, exploding in the mouth like the colour I've tried to capture in the photograph.
There were lots of herbs from provence, and regular vegetable as well, but also preserved stuff, like sun dried tomatoes. And whole stalls of fish, shrimp, lobster -- the works.

The Côte d'Azur

Nice sits on one end of Côte d'Azur, the coast of blue -- a bright blue, that mixes with the sky and sun, in ways that have drawn great painters to its shores, and a whole international glitterati of sun and fun seekers in season. It is the stuff legend, and the city, that was founded by the Greeks has a long history. I spent a few days there, taking day trips to Antibes and Cannes. Remarkable for autumn it was amazingly sunny, and on my first day I tried a few photographs.

It was very hot, really, and there is no sand on the beach.
But this cafe, where I had an espresso, looked very inviting, as I looked down.

Tasting the South of France

Then, after a week long Bellagio Conference, on Masculinities from the 3rd to 7th Nov., at the beautiful centre there, to which I was last invited to in May 2006, I took off to the south of France. Its really close by and train runs from Milan to Nice, with no fuss about boder controls at all, in 5+ hours.

I had checked the weather, and was thrilled when it kept to forcast! While it drizzled all the time we were on the banks of Lake Como, conferencing, it turned sunny the day I left Italy. Wow. In the next few blog posts I'm going to document my little adventures, mostly culinary on this short trip, interspersed with with a few sideways glances at other things.
I traveled for the most part, by train.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, describes a train ride from Antibes to Cannes, along the coast, in Tender is the Night (1934) : "...the vivid advertizing cards of the railroad companies... were fresher than the still motionless sea outside. Unlike American rains that were absorbed in an intense destiny of their own, scornful of people in another world less swift and breathless, this train was part of country through which it passed. Its breath stirred the dust from the palm leaves, the cinders mixed with the dry dung in the gardens. Rosemary was sure she could lean from the window and pull flowers with her hands."
Alas, that was the 1920s. Now trains are super fast, air conditioned, sealed and as aloof as those American trains he didn't like. But I love trains that work, and these were a joy to travel in, even though they were often late!

Dutch Pancakes

My last taste of food in Netherlands was a special delicacy, which I've had several times before. Some consider it, quintessentially dutch.

In fact, one time in Amsterdam, during an anthropology conference, I asked our hosts what typical, traditional dutch 'food' would be, and they couldn't agree. Usually, after a conference, if there are visitors involved, Dutch scholars take you to an Indonesian place -- since this was a colonial possession, its becomes the domesticated exotic, like Indian food in England. But when I insisted that Indonesian be left out -- what every one agreed in the end was that pancakes were typically Dutch! Now there are many verities of pancakes to be had, but what's very common in so many cafe, are these small round ones, served with butter and sugar. Yes, its beyond sinful.

One thing to notice about these little disks, is how thick they are. Very soft centered. They are not crepes at all; which is what we had as 'pancakes' growing up in Sri Lanka -- which is also English, I would think. Going back to the Netherlands and having pancakes made me remember again my surprise at the American variety when I first had it years ago, and realized afresh that they must have been Dutch inspired for sure. Neuiw Amsterdam; New York.

An Afternoon in Haarlem

Johannes Vermeer's The Little Street, which hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which is on the left, was on my mind after I had looked at it at the museum. So when I spent the afternoon of my last day in the Netherlands in Haarlem, which is 15 mins away from Amsterdam by train, and I stopped outside an ice cream palour, I remembered it. I resisted the icecreams, considered asking the girl behind the counter for a portait, decided the light was against me and then settled on this photograph of elder and younger, mother and son perhaps, eating fresh bought ices in the sun. There is perhaps some thing Dutch about this, a simple quiet street or it is just an illusion, but I enjoyed the momentary comparision between a great master's eye, and my own messing around.

Enlarge it, by clicking on it, and see it large on flickr -- there lots of interesting details.

An Amazing Snack

I had missed this the last several times I was here in the Netherlands, nobody told me about it, and this omission is going to be inquired into!
I discovered it by myself as it, only to be told by others and find also, that its very much part of local fare, (available on several menues) -- and I must say, quite a treat.

What is it? Warm goat cheese, heated so that is soft, moist, half melted, with crust which sits around it, floating almost, drizzled with honey and topped with thyme. It is served with bread rolls, and butter.
And Oh boy, is it beyond tasty! I had it twice.

Lunch in Amsterdam

A few days ago, I had a lovely lunch at Amsterdam restaurant made possible by a colleague here, Markha. Since I had told her I was keen on food, she went into a lot of trouble to find a place in the Netherlands ‘which takes cooking seriously,’ – as she put it. There are good restaurants here, but also, its true a lot of mediocre ones. De Kas, founded by a Michelin star chef, is an exceptional place, which grows the many vegetables and greens, used in its dishes in an in a old municipal green house, right in the city. In every dish I had there, the greens were so fresh you could smell each one, just would if you were walking in a green house. That was remarkable sensation.

We had the fixed menu, there is only one -- for lunch a least, but it did not leave one wanting more.

there were three starters -- with the roasted fennel bulb, wrapped in ham, and the succulent roasted lobster claws, with the faint bitter after taste with a fleshy sweet sour beetroot accompaniments being quite exceptional its the subtle balance of their flavors. I'm resolved to try this, wrapping and roasting, with banddakka or green beens.

The main course was baked plaice, with a saffron cream sauce that highlighted the deep, mellow taste of the carefully cooked fish.

Marinated Strawberries were central to the trifle inspired dessert, that was topped with a yoghurt ice cream.

If you've been following my blog, you know I've been a little strawberry obsessed, recently. What I got from this De Kas dessert is how well delicate strawberries took to a subtle marinate. I'm going to try that at home.
But it didn't beat what I think of as two of my specials, strawberry curd and strawberry orgasm.