McDonald’s @ Ascendas

Well Shiva has been really enthusiastic about McDonald’s ever since it came to Chennai. He has gone to the extreme of being a fanboy. So, ever since he has been pestering me to write on McDonald’s.

Here’s a snap of the McDonald’s at Ascendas.

He tells me it’s really cheap there and the food isn’t all that bad either. (Ok, here’s hoping he never reads this post. When he does, I’ll be served at McDonald’s-Minced.)

Last Day in College (Everything Official About It)

Well, I never write posts related to college normally. There are quite a few posts on AU, but not on college. I think it’s time to make an exception. Tomorrow would be the last working day (officially) of my 4 year Engineering course. Yea, we will later have to go for the exams and stuff. But no more sitting in the classroom. (We haven’t had classes for a while now) It’s hard to think straight in times like this. There’s always a mix of happiness and sadness (even if only a bit) involved.

Here’s probably a list of things ill miss doing:

• Getting up in the morning and mindlessly running to the bus stop at around 7:20 A.M. I have always been in a good route. The bus from Besant Nagar used to be excellent in the first few semesters. Then it got crowded and to add to that OMR road construction began.I remember days when I had to run with shoes in hand just so that I didn’t miss the bus. You see, I have this policy wherein I stay home if I miss the bus. Once missed a model exam for it and I came out clean when asked about it. (To the shock and astonishment of the staff in-charge.) I still remember taking a private bus in first year, not knowing the bus stop name and buying a ticket for Mahabalipuram. I somehow managed to get down after seeing the college. Unfortunately the next stop was near Hindustan college and I had to walk all the way to college, Erwin Kreysig in one hand and drafter/ED charts in another. I did make it on time though. Decided to never take private buses after that.
• Breakfasts in college mess:As bad as the college food is, my palette is used to it. I mean, I have been eating there for four years now. (Yea, I know I have no taste in food. ) It’s not the food I will miss. It will be the discussions we had over breakfast. But then things changed as we progressed through years. From being an absolutely wonderful place with very little crowd where one could have discussions in the first year, to a crowded place in the second where one had to hunt for stools to using paper plates and all that in the third. I still like the well lit portion of the mess closest to the basketball court. Abhi used to come to the mess back then. So did a few seniors. (Rahul, Varun, Pankaj et all)
• Lunch: Lunch (by lunch I mean the recess and not the food itself) used to again be good till they made two slots out of it. This way, I no longer got to see the guys who I normally had lunch with. It was alright for a while till my class dayscholars came along. Then that changed too. They took the smart option and opted out. :D And I was stuck alone. 
• There are a few more things I’ll miss. Not going to put everything up here though.

The worst thing about college is epitomised best by the boys’ mess probably, from a bright, well lit and airy place, it got duller and duller and more cramped.  I used to enjoy my first few semesters in college. It used to be kinda pleasant. I had come to terms with the fact that I had done abysmally badly in my board exams and that I would make best use of what I had. And I think semesters 1-5 were OK with semester 6 being bearable. The last year or so though, has been pathetic with a lame #uck for principal.

Things were OK for a while, before they started introducing the worst of schemes. Had some happy times, but I am just happy to be on the way out.

My Tryst with Indigenously Made Gulab Jamuns

The obscure title not withstanding, it’s Food again

I made Gulab Jamuns today all by myself. Quite an achievement I say. And a definite upgrade from cooking instant noodles. Agreed this was ‘Instant Gulab Jamun’. Yet, man!! the amount of work you have to do is really laborious. Here I was assuming just because I can cook noodles, I can cook anything else that says ‘Instant’. Man was I mistaken or what ?

The Instructions on the pack was very simple really.

• Add 1/4 measure of water to 1 measure of mix and kneed the mix gently into a dough. Set aside for 5 min.
• Make small balls and fry in hot oil/ghee over a low flame until golden brown.
• Soak the Gulab Jamuns in hot sugar syrup until they completely absorb syrup and serve.
• Sugar Syrup: Add equal measure of sugar and water and boil for 15 min (this pack needs 1.2 kg of sugar.) Add rose essence or cardamom powder if desired.

 (Yea, it had the same instructions in Hindi, Tamil and a couple of other languages that I am guessing were Telugu and Kannada.)

Part of the reason I even ventured out into making it was because the instructions sounded really simple. Bachelors beware. Don’t be tricked into that one. It’s never as easy as it’s printed especially if you have had no prior experience with cooking whatsoever.

So I started with the simple task of mixing 1/4 measure of water to 1 measure of mix. I tried to kneed it gently as the pack suggested and all I has was powder flying in all directions, and the water no where to be seen. I was sure I had made some mistake with the measuring. How on earth was I to kneed it into a dough it I just had powder. This is where I made the first mistake. I added a little more water than necessary I guess. I thought what harm could come from adding just a little water. I mean now I could mix the powder with the water, but whoa!! how do I make this into a dough ? This is where I am glad my mom intervened and said ‘I told you not to experiment. I was sure you would screw it up’and asked me to add more powder. (Since this was my experiment, I did not intend on using the entire pack. That was my 0th mistake but at-least it came to my aid with the 1st mistake.) Now after trying really hard, I actually did make it into a dough.

Next issue was rolling it into balls. How easy it sounds again. Ad there it was sticking onto my hands refusing to come away form my hands let alone be rolled. Again I managed this somehow after a long time trying.

The frying part was quite easily accomplished for I have experience with frying paneer, and even bread. (But my mom tells me the Jamuns weren’t cooked on the inside-which means I did not do this well either. )

The sugar syrup was what I royally screwed. First I thought I had done enough but the syrup wasn’t syrupy. Looks like I over compensated in keeping the burner switched on for a tad too long. It became almost solid. The Jamuns aren’t absorbing the syrub. My mom again helped me by asking me to pour some hot water in it and I was thankful she did.

Finally the Gulab Jamuns came out pretty decently. They were not as good as they should have been, but with instructions like those and a cook like me, they could have ended up disastrously.

Ok, that isn’t my pic. That’s what I hoped my Gulab Jamun would look like. It resembled it a lot really. Until next time…

Noodles

One of the things I am bad at is cooking. While bachelors my age can probably cook a decent meal, all I can cook is instant noodles. :D  (I shall expect my prospective wife to be good cook, or maybe just hunt down a good and affordable restaurant. I know girls probably expect their husbands to be a good cook these days and write the same in their blog. I am not visiting such blogs.) Maybe I can boil eggs or make an omelette’s. I can definitely toast bread in my toaster. What more do you need ?

But I must say that I cook noodles pretty decently. Not that there is anything to cook there. Just put it in boiling water add the seasoning, let it simmer for a while and then eat it. (Transferring it to a plate is optional. ;)  ). Some of the popular brands in India are:

• Maggi Noodles. (Probably the oldest.) Instant 2 minute noodles.

• Top Ramen Smoodles

• Wai-Wai Noodles

There are other local brands available, but I don’t like them. I tried it once or twice and didn’t like it at all. (They don’t come with the masala or seasoning.)

Maggi: 

Maggi has been a mainstay in Indian market for a long time now. Maggi and Noodles are synonymous. So much so that competing brands named their noodles something else. I know of people who will swear by Maggi. I used to love Maggi myself, but IMHO Top Ramen tastes better. There are many flavors available and “Atta” and “Rice” noodles are available too. I don’t remember how “Atta” noodles tased, but the “Rice” ones are definitely bad!! Stay away from them. They may even make you vomit.

When I was a kid, Maggi meant a lot more than noodles. They had a Maggi Club (Whatever happened of that) and I used to be a member. I even have the membership cards somewhere I guess. The funda is you sent them empty Maggi wrappers and got board games and stuff in return for free. Pretty cool concept eh ? Another thing was the “Maggi quiz“. Though I never won the Maggi quiz, it was always memorable. I still have the participation certificates form my 4th and 5th grade. I made it to the finals twice, but never won!! (The story of my life.)

Top Ramen:

Top Ramen is another of the major brands in India. I am sure that if someone did a market research they would find that they are second only to Maggi when it comes to market share in Noodles. (I am positive that Maggi is still the market leader.) Their range of smoodles taste pretty good. Actually if I were to compare the taste of Maggi and Top Ramen, it’d be a tough job. (I am a vegetarian and eat only vegetarian flavors. So I don’t know how the chicken noodles and stuff compare across brands.)

Top Ramen Curry Smoodles though, is in a different league of its own. It’s probably the best noodles I have had till date. It has a flat shape compared to the cylindrical noodles. The seasoning is simply amazing!! That coupled with the fact that you have it with gravy translates to “Fa Kin Supa” (Borrowed without permission from Marc’s blog)

The Cup-O-Noodles are equally popular. But crap, they are meant either for travel or when all you have in your house is a electrical kettle or something. 

Wai-Wai:

I didn’t know about Wai Wai until a year back when Garima told me about it. It’s slightly different from it’s other counterparts. It can be had either raw (it’s pre-cooked), or it can be made into a soup, or just made into normal noodles. It’s pretty nice. It’s a Nepali brand I guess and is more popular in North-East India and West Bengal (not to be confused with West of india. West Bengal funnily is East of India. That’s because Bangladesh has East Bengal I guess.)

Some tips with making noodles:

• In most cases, the garnishing is never enough. So you can add a pinch of pepper and salt for taste.

• Never add too little or too much water. It makes it bad. Never pour less water first and then pour some more later. It messes things up bad. (It tastes like….well it doesn’t taste of anything then really)

• If you are a novice and think of adding the vegetables they show you on the cover, you better add very little quantity, boil them before you get started with the noodles (or the vegetables won’t get cooked) and add some more salt and pepper.

• Best vegetables to add would be onion and carrot. (Easily cooked.) Beans and Peas take a longer time to get cooked. (Although cabbage is added in restaurants, I normally don’t use cabbage in my noodles.)

• Make sure the water is boiling before the noodles is in it. Then follow instructions.

• The seasoning powder is tricky. It’s supposed to be added at the end. What normally happens is when you put the powder in, it forms globules and gets attached to localised regions in the vessel. (I am an Engineer ;)  …what it means is that, its not uniformly mixed. So its always a better idea to put the powder in a glass, add a little water to it and mix it before pouring the same into the  already cooking noodles.

• Water makes a huge difference. I learnt this the hard way. Even if you get everything else right, unless the water is soft, the noodles will end up bad. (Don’t ask me why. I don’t know.) So I always use water from the water filter.

I guess that’s about it. Happy cooking….

The Indian OREOs

 

Before I start, I must confess I never thought I’d be writing about food. :) What inspired me to write the post was a friend of mine giving me a couple of “Sunfeast Dark Fantasy” biscuit packets. And hey if it’s interesting(and yummy) to write about then, why not ?

 

So this is about…yea you guessed it. The delicious and delectable OREO cookies and its Indian counterpart. I had my first OREO cookie courtsey my elder brother who had been to Germany and back. (Well when vegetarians go abroad, they end up eating cookies and stuff like that. Vegetarian food is really expensive ) Till then I was blissfully unaware of a “biscuit” by the name of OREO. But once I was introduced to it, I wanted more!! After finishing off the packets my brother had got home in record time, I had to wait again till he’d go to the US of A and come back with more OREO. And once again it was gone in no time!! Brittania’s Pure Magic has always been good, but is never a match for the OREO.

A few facts about OREO:

• It’s called a “sandwich cookie.” (We Indian’s simply call it cream biscuits) - It has two chocolate cookies with Vanilla cream in between.
• Oreo WaferStix - long wafer sticks with cream filling and covered by chocolate
• Uh-Oh Oreos     - reverse/Inverse OREO’s. They have Vanilla wafer’s and chocolate cream.
• Other Oreos include Golden Oreos, Mini Oreos, Double Delight Oreos, Flavored Oreos, Double Stuf Oreos, Big Stuf Oreos, White fudge Oreos, Milk Chocolate Oreos, ……..

Sunfeast Dark Fantasy:

Sunfeast Dark Fantasy made by ITC is pretty good. Though a poor substitute to OREO, it’s as god as a desi OREO can get. It’s definitely better than Britannia’s Pure Magic ones. But for the health conscious, hey its supposed to contain a lot of calories. So watch it!! Don’t just indulge

For people who will swear by OREO and will not take a substitute, its avilable across all “Nuts n’ Spices” outlets in Chennai I think. It was also available in “Singapore Shoppe” in Thiruvanmiyur and “My Shoppe” in Neelangarai.