Feasting out!

Good Morning to all of you today! I 'll write about one of my South-East Asian cuisine experience. After many days we decided to eat out. My mother wanted to go to Bibi's since we had been to their earlier branch"Taazas".
It is located in an old lane in Jodhpur Park. As we entered the room it reminded me of a restaurant in Goa called "Viva Panjim". When we sat  down, a lady emerged from the kitchen, she was very charming and lively. It was the owner herself!
She suggested that we take 'Cambodian Mushroom soup' for starters.Ayam Bali(Chicken in Peanut sauce) and Oriental Fish(spicy fish with Noodles and Sesame seeds) went for the main course. As for drinks, I ordered for Apple juice with a dash of ginger and my mother , her usual Sweet  Lime soda.
It is a quaint little place. There are bookshelves with books on either side. The walls had paintings of Degas, Lautrec and Picasso. There was a boy who was looking at us so peculiarly  that it made me feel awkward.

Now the soup had arrived , it was very delectable  with flavour of lemongrass and so on. The main course was laid on the table ,seeing the dishes my mouth started watering.Ayam Bali was non-spicy , just as I wanted it to be. Oriental fish was a little tangy but tasty, noodles were just perfect. Both the dishes were fulfilling.
After our hearty repast, it was dessert time now.I ordered for Mocha Gateaux and mother asked  for Lemon passion.Mocha Gateaux is Coffee Cake with cream. It was the first home-made dessert in a restaurant I had eaten. Lemon passion was Lemon Souffle with a layer of biscuit at the base.
The whole meal was very delectable and all of us ate to our heart's content. We look forward to come here often. Bye- Bye!

Easy and tasty recipes contd.

You must be wondering what to do with the Grape fruit which I was talking about yesterday, actually I had to leave the blog midway! Good , the grapefruit has ripened and ready for the salad! Here we go:
Ingredients:
1freshly cut Grape fruit
2 to 3tsp lemon juice
2 to 3tsp sugar
a pinch of salt
2 to 3 chillies
some mint leaves for garnishing
Method:In a bowl scoop out the fruit. Add the lemon juice, sugar and salt. Now cut the chillies into smaller pieces and mix them in the salad. garnish with mint leaves and eat.
Do you know that grapefruit makes a good salad by itself. It is  freely available near my house in Narendrapur.
If you are fond of eating Garlic Bread and in the bakery it is not available here is one quick fix  recipe for you:
Homemade Garlic Bread
Ingredients:
2 to 3 bread slices
a few pods of Garlic
butter
salt and  pepper
Method: Finely chop some garlic . Butter the breads. Sprinkle the garlic, salt and pepper on the buttered breads. Put the breads on the grill for a few minutes, now take them out and dust the garlic off, your Garlic bread is ready .
One dish I really like is Mango Salsa, which my grandmother prepares very well. Here's the recipe
Ingredients:
2 unripe Mangoes
1 bottle of Mustard Sauce
2tsp sugar
2tsp salt
2tsp lemon juice
Method:Cut the unripe mangoes into smaller pieces. Toss them with salt sugar and lemon juice. Now just  mix them with Mustard Sauce, and your Mango Salsa is made. now I am going but till I come back you must try all the recipes. Bye Bye

Easy and tasty recipes

Good morning everybody  , I am back . Today I will write some easy and very tasty recipes, which are very easy to make . The first one is Pomello or Grapefruit salad . In Bangla it is also called Batabi Lebu(lemon).
Ingredients :
1 freshly cut Grapefruit

Food fun

Good morning! everybody, While reading some old issues of Graphiti . I came across some food related facts and words which I would like to share. Julienne- cut in thin strips
Aroma - pleasant smell , Sauteed - fry in shallow fat , Simmer- stay or keep just below boiling point. Some facts In Tuscany there is a tradition of dipping biscuits into a glass of strong wine after a meal. Many sweets in India are covered by a thin layer of silver called ''Varak '' made by beating silver inside a sheep's intestine. In Assamese food Khar is Soda-bicarbonate made by burning the trunk of a Banana tree. Some items of  Lebanese Cuisine Tahini ( Sesame seeds and Olive oil) , Harrisa (chili sauce) , Khoubiz (sweet bread) , Tabouleh (salad) ,Fattoush (salad) , Baklava (sweet pastry) Baba ghanoush (egg plant ). In Udupi food Avil is fresh vegetables with coconut  yogurt, chillies and Cumin. Sous Vide is Vacuum packing and cooking slowly for hours in hot water. If I get to know more I'll surely share with you . Bye! Bye!

Tangy affair

My first Goan food experience was in 2006 in Goa . If you ever go to Goa , for eating I would recommend  "Viva Panjim" in Panaji (Panjim ) . It is in Fontainhas. It is a small and cozy room; you can smell prawns , , garlic  lobsters and other sea fish. We had ordered for Solkadi {a dish prepared with coconut milk , crushed Kokum  garlic and chopped chillies}. We had ordered for Bombil with extra Recheiado [red Goan masala]. The waiter had recommended us to take Bhakri [a thick bread made of dry shrimps] as it would go well. My mother liked the Sturgeon fish sauteed in butter the best.  Soup of clams , mussels and lobsters were among my father's favourites.  It was dessert time now , we had ordered foe the one and only dessert Goa is famous for,   Bibinca a delectable sweet made of coconut milk , milk , egg yolk , honey , pure ghee , it is done in rich layers. My father ordered for some real Port Wine. Viva Panjim is run by Linda D' Souza. Over all my Goan food experience was great!

Making Music

Hello everybody! how are you, fine I hope. Did I tell you that I learn piano .I love playing piano and my teacher Sharmistha  Shome . Today I will tell you all about my exams , grades etc. I learn it under the ''ASSOCIATED BOARD OF ROYAL SCHOOL OF MUSIC''. We have exams every year , theoretical as well as practical. Altogether we have 8 grades in piano. ''All of the grades are difficult but if you try hard you will be able to do it well'' . Well this what my teacher says, but sometimes I really don't agree with her. But the preparatory is the easiest grade that I found . After taking the grade 2 exam I am now in grade 4.. For exams we have to learn Scales, Arpeggios(Short tunes) , we have to play three Pieces of different moods . Sight reading (Short and unseen piece of music) , Aural tests ( singing , clapping to beat , the examiner will play a short piece of music 2 times and in the second time he will make chanes we 'll have to identify it etc) are also there. Our this year's examiner was Martin Richards, he was a strict person. To be honest I am quite bad  in singing but very good in pieces. There is one more thing in Aural Tests that   the examiner the will play a full piece and we will have to say how loud or soft it was , mood of the piece etc. I am eagerly looking forward to my grade 4 exam and I hope I do well .

Firsts in India

A very good morning to all my friends viewing my blog and ''Subho Bijoya'' . Being an Indian I think I should know the first things that happened in India. I have got some information that I would like to share. Nowadays all of us use credit cards but do you know which was the first Indian Bank to launch a credit card? It was ''Andhra  Bank'' which launched it in 1981. The most common form of entertainment for Indians is watching the television ,at least for us children . But do you know who manufactured the first television set in India? It was the''ELECTRONICS CORPORATION OF INDIA Ltd'' in 1959 . We should always wash our hands with soap ,but how many of us know that ''Lifebuoy'' was the first branded soap in India. These days almost every body has a car but do you know that the first car introduced by the '' HINDUSTAN MOTORS" was called the Landmaster , forefather of the Ambassador . As most of the men in India drive car most women drive scooty (scooter)   but do they know that '' Lambretta'' by the ''Innocenti Company'' was the first scooter in India. Everybody loves chocolates and ''Dairy Milk was the first branded chocolate in India launched by Cadbury.  Denims are very popular among youth . But do you know that '' Flying Machine was the first denim brand in India . Just grab a bottle of Cola and that makes your day but do you know that Double Seven was the first Cola brand in India. Just one more fact to go . Do you  know that ISI Kolkata was the first institute in India to buy a computer and D.D. Majumdar wad the first to use it . Bye Bye.

Ace sports persons of India

We all are interested in sports ,I believe, so today's blog I will dedicate to sports.I will write about sports- persons who were the first to have achieved something for India in their sport.
Do you know who was the first Indian to get an Olympic Gold?
Answer:India got its first Gold in 1928 in Hockey . India defeated hosts Netherlands 3-0. India won the match for a player called Dhyan Chand. After that India received several medals in Hockey in Melbourne Olympics , Tokyo Olympics and Moscow Olympics.
Do you know who was the first Indian to receive the '' Super Series Tittle''.
Answer: It was none other than  Saina Nehwal.  It was Saina's gold that raised India in the second position in the '' XIX COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010'' in the medal's tally.
Do you know who was the first Indian to swim across the ''English Channel''.
Answer : It was a man called Mihir Sen , he crossed the ''Channel on 27 September 1958 in 14 hrs and   45 minutes.
Do you know who was the first Indian to get a ''CWG'' medal
Answer : It was Rashid Mian Amwar , he received the bronze medal in wrestling in the ''Freestyle Welterweight '' Catogary in 1934 London  Empire Games as the Games were called that.  

The Legend of the Legends,'' Bob Dylan''

A very good morning to all my friends viewing my blog, I am sure that none of us our austere people so we all love music and today I will tell you about one such legend 'Bob Dylan''. Currently I am listening to a lot of old and classic Western songs and Bob Dylan is one of my favourite now I will write my favourite lines of some songs written by him. ''Blowin' in the wind'':
How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man
how many seas must s white dove sail
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
I hope you liked it and I look forward to write  more lines in future.

Spicy Talk

I am sure that we all spices. The best thing about spices is their aroma, taste and their hue. Today I will dedicate this blog to spices. Do you remember that in one of my blogs I had mentioned that therere five spices in Bengali cuisine (Panch Phoron): Mustard Seeds (Sarson), Cumin Seeds (Jeera), Fenu greek (Methi), Nigella (KalonjAi) and Fennel Seeds (Saunf). There are many other spices too like Carom Seeds or Thymol Seeds (Ajwain)
Sesame Seeds (Til) and Clove (Laung). I am going to to tell a little about all of them.Carom Seeds: Carom Seeds are also known as Ajwain India. They are in great demand in Gujrat and UP. I  call them very adjustable becausetough they are put in so many dishes like '' Kadhis"   cooked veggies; dpughs of (rotis) , (samosas),  (puris) etc. they go off so well. The best recipe I find for Carom Seeds is this; just sprinkle some Carom Seeds into a glass of buttermilk and your day is made!. Sesame Seeds: Sesame Seeds help in curing skin problems. There are two types of Sesame Seeds  one is ''Black Sesame Seeds'' used in laddoos, chikkis etc. ''White Sesame Seeds are used to make dishes during the festival of Sankranti. Clove : Clove oil is used to cure toothaches. We have talked enough of thinges related to food now lets stop or we all will feel hungry!.

Rembrandt Harmensz.van Ryn, a famous dutch painter.

While flipping through the pages of an art book I came across this painting called'' Night Watch'' by Rembrandt Harmensz.van Ryn, a famous dutch painter. He was born in Lieden , but he later  succeeded as an artist in Amsterdam. At one point of time he was very rich and he bought an elegant mansion for Rs 13,000 which was a large some in those days. His life was a sad one for two of his children had died  and later his wife Saskia died of tuberculosis. He was also accused of bankruptcy by some. His famous paintings  include the '' Night Watch'' which shows 17th century militiamen standing with a dog in the right and a young girl in the left. It is his most famous painting . Some of his significant painting were "The three crosses ", " The  storm on the sea of Galilee". One of his painting called "Young woman sleeping" was reminiscent of calligraphy with a few brush strokes of ink on paper. He was a very creative artist. Rembrandt died in Amsterdam.

Bard of Avon

Recently we went to''Starmark'' the famous book store in Calcutta, and bought a book called ''Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare'' by E.Nesbit. This is the perfect book for those who are interested in Shakespeare. This book includes famous stories like Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo-Juliet, etc. My favourite story is Hamlet. This book is written in simple English for children to understand. In today's world we use words like addiction, bedroom , cold-blooded, fashionable and many more. Do you know who has given all these words? Shakespeare is the correct answer.
Did you know that Shakespeare was called the '' Bard of Avon''. He used 17,677  words in his plays, sonnets and poems, Many of his stories are now being made into Hindi movies like Omkara(based on Othello), and Maqbool (based on Macbeth). We have just reached to the end of today's blog just two more quiz questions left..
1) I live in Venice , I am a Jewish moneylender I have a young daughter called Jessica. I hate the rich and prosperous merchant Antonio. I will soon have my pound of flesh. Who am I?
2) Which planet has all 27 satellites named after Shakespeare's characters?
Answer- 1) Shylock 2) Uranus.

Palindromes

Happy ''Teacher's Day'' to all the teacher's viewing my blog. Palindromes are words or numbers that are same when read from front or back like madam, mom,  pop, they can be numbers also like 1331 121 999etc. Today I will share some problems with you involving Palindromes.
Problem no. 1: Find the total no. of 4-digit Palindromes?
Problem no. 2: Find the total no. of 5-digit Palindromes?
Problem no. 3: How many 7-digit Palindromes are there that do not start nor end with 1.
  Solution for 1: A four digit Palindrome is like ---- where the first and the last digit is the same and the second and the third digit are the same. So for the first and the last digit we have 9 choices(0-9) and for the second and the third we have 10 choices (0-10). Answer 9 multiplied by 10.
Solution for 2: A five digit Palindrome is like ----- where the first and the last digit are same and the second, third, and the fourth digit are the same.So for the first and last digit we have 9 choices(0-9) , for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th we have 10 choices(0-10) each. Answer-9 multiplied by10 multiplied by 10.
Solution for 3: a seven digit Palindrome is like ------- for the first digit we have 8 choices because it cannot be 0 or 1, for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th,5th,6th we have 10 choices each (0-10), and for the last digit we have 9 choices  since it cannot be 1. Answer is 8 multiplied by 9 multiplied by 10 multiplied by 10 multiplied by 10 multiplied by 10 multiplied by 10. I came across this problem when I was reading a book by Mr ''Titu Andreescu'' . Bye-Bye.

Animal Intelligence

Rakhi greetings to all of you .Let's start my new blog. In the new issue of the''Time'' magazine the cover article is ''What Animals Think''.There are some interesting facts about some animals.The human brain weighs up to 1,400g(3lb),the dolphin's  brain up to 1,700g(3.75lb) and the Killer whale's brain weighs up to 5,600g(12.3lb).
Higher thinking is done in the Cerebral cortex. Humans are magicians with tools, so are apes.Otters are masters in smashing mollusks in to get meat inside it. Crows indeed are better tool users than anybody. They can bend a wire to create a hook so they can fish a basket of food from the bottom of a plastic tube. Rooks, another member of the crow family, have shown us that if stones are thrown in a pitcher with shallow water that water can be drunk easily. This reminds us of that story by Aesop. Dogs understand what pointing means.Blue Jays,  another member of the crow family, treasure their food until the other animals are gone. If you tie a bracelet around an Orang-utan's hand  and put him in front of the mirror it puts the bracelet on it's face. It can make out it's own reflection. Elephants can understand if another elephant is dead or alive by touching their skull. If they are dead they mourn the death. When rats are in pain and wriggle, the other rats that watch the scene also wriggle like them. So in simple words animals also have brain, intelligence and feelings.

Painter of the ''Sunflowers''

Recently I was reading an article in''Reader's Digest'' called ''The Last Days Of Vincent Van Gogh''.Van Gogh was a Dutch painter . His friend Henri Toulouse Lautrec had recommended Van Gogh to go to the south of the ancient city of Arles.Arles was the city of hot and bright colours and a mellow sun.Vincent had turned out paintings ''full of Sulphur''.It was the time when Vincent was at his best.He used to work as well as live with his friend and painter Paul Gauguin whom he admired most . Later he had a small fight with Gauguin.Those years many painters such as Edward Degas,Lautrec,Georges Seurat,Camille Pissaro were offering friendship and encouragement to Van Gogh. In Arles Vincent had been showing signs of madness,but the doctors said that he was not mad at all but diagnosed him with ''Meniere's Disease''.A disease that affects the ear.Vincent was sent to an asylum in Auvers.The most remarkable thing is that Van Gogh had completed 36 paintings in71 days.In Auvers ,Vincent had met a man just like him 'Dr.Gachet'.Vincent had painted a portrait of Dr.Gachet .He even painted Dr.Gachet's 19 year old daughter.He painted the famous paintings ''Crows Over The Wheat Field'' and ''Sunflowers''. Van Gogh thought himself to be a burden on his brother Theo so one day he shot himself in his chest and died.Thus the world lost a genius.

Prince Of Mathematics

Today let's talk about Mathematics. I will tell you a little about the famous Mathematician Karl Gauss. He has been called ''The Prince Of Mathematics'' by Mr E.T.Bell in his book ''Men Of Mathematics''.One day Karl's teacher asked them to add from one to hundred, he thought that the students would take time and he would rest.
But there was one such divine child who did it in seconds .It was Kar.He simply added
1+ 2+ 3+ ................+100
100+99+ 98+............+1 .It struck him that if he writes the numbers in reverse order he would get 50 pairs each that add up to 101,so he simply multiplied 50 and 101=5050. If you are also to do something like this here's the formula: n(n+1/2), where n is the number of characters in the number. Gauss also gave another important idea which we will learn now.
For instance, if today is Sunday, what day it will be forty days from today. Lets name Sunday, day 0, Monday 1 and so on. Since there are 07 days in a week, we can divide 40 by7 which gives us a remainder of 5. So the answer is Friday, which is day 5. We can say that 40 is Congruent to 5 Modulo 7. That is 40 and 5 both give the same remainder when divided by 7. This idea of Congruence and Modulus is very important in Number Theory.

Jatinga Mystery

As I was reading the book called ''Wildlife Of India''by Mr E.P.Gee, I came across a very rare or I must say an interesting fact about the birds of Halflong a village near Assam more specifically Jatinga.It said that during October-November, on cloudy nights, when the weather is very cold , people light lamps electric bulbs fire etc. They see birds coming from the North-South direction towards them. Feeling the warmth of the lights birds jump into the fire.
It is a kind of suicide done by birds. It is said that the villagers who saw these birds jumping into the fire did nothing but waited for the birds to die so that they could eat the birds.
After reading this, I grew more interested and started to read the book called"Dance of the Sarus" by S.Theodre Baskaran. He also read Mr E.P Gee's book and went to Assam to see this phenomenon.In his he mentions how he had seen a ''Red Headed Tronga 's suicide.I have grown so interested in birds that I also wan to go to Assam to see this phenomenon and I promise that if I ever go I'll surely tell whatever I saw.I'm signing off Bye-bye.

Birdwatching

When you think of birdwatching which is the first name that comes  to your mind? Salim Ali of course! The famous Ornithologist.Ornithology is the subject that studies birds and bird behaviour. Salim shot a little known sparrow when he was young called'Yellowthroated Sparrow'.this is was how he started birdwatching.Salim came to know that just as we humans have name and surname birds have genus(surname) and specie name(first name).young Salim did a bit of research work on the shabby bird crow.He found that the domestic crow is called (Corvus Splendens) whereas the jungle crow is called (Corvus Macrorhynchos). Years later Salim Ali wrote a book called 'The Book Of Indian Birds' which is a classic book for amateur birdwatchers.Years passedand made Salim Ali the best amateur birdwatcher.
One day Salim received an invitation sent by German ornithologist Erwin Stressman. He invited Salim to teach him bird taxonomy which is the science of classifying birds.Dr Salim Ali is famous for his work on Baya(Weaver Bird). He discovered that the male Baya is a wonderful builder. Each and every male baya builds a beautiful  bottle shaped nest . Salim Ali had written in his autobiography the "fall of a sparrow" his love for birds of Kerala. to which he had dedicated his book called "birds of kerala". he undertook bird surveys  to Princely states such as Travancore-Cochin, Bhopal, Indore,  Gwalior and many more including Gujrat where he studied the  Greater Flamingo in Rann of Kutch. He noticed a peculiar as well as interesting fact about the Malabar Hornbill. The male hornbill locks up his wife and babies in the nest in the tree and covers it with mud and supplies food at right time . He does it so to protect them from lizard and snakes.There are some birds discovered by other Ornithologists but named after Salim Ali,' Oriental White eye' (Zosterops Palpebrasa Salimalii) Rock bush Quail(Perdicula Argoondah Slimali) and many more. So in simple words I would call Salim Ali the god of Ornithology.                                       

Lets get going!

Hi! I'm back! here are some interesting nuggets I came across which I would like to share.
1)What are the ingredients of "Paanch Phoron"in Bengali cooking?
2) In Mumbai, if a restaurant serves you " Bombil", what will it be?
3) What is Horse Raddish in Japanese cuisine called?
4)Which delectable sweet of Goa is made in layers of Coconut milk, Honey and Egg Yolk?
5) In a restaurant if the menu refers to a dish called "florentine", what does it mean?
Ans: 1.Aniseed(saunf), Cumin(Jeera),Fenugreek(methi),Mustard(sorshe),Nigella (kalo Jeera/kalaunji)
        2. Bombay Duck, Lote in Bangla
        3.Wasabi
        4. Bebinca
        5. Spinach
Here are some amazing facts I bet you also don't know!
1.What is "filtrum"?
2. What is an aglet?
3.What is a "tittle" ?
4.What is "Purlicue"?
5.What is a "Brannock Device"?
6. What is a 'Lore' ?
7. What is a"lifer"
Ans: 1.The space berween the nose and the upper lip.
        2. It is the metallic part of the shoe lace.
        3.It a dot over the "I".
        4.It is the space between the thumb and the forefinger.
        5. It is the device which measures foot size in a shoe store.
        6. Birdwatchers call the space between the Bird's eye and bill.
        7. A bird you have seen for the first time.
So you see, every inch of space matters! That's all for today. Bye!




           

My Favourite Things

Hi, I am Ranjini Ghosh. I am a class V student in G.D. Birla, Kolkata. In this blog I will tell you from time to time my interests and whatever interesting things I come across. I like to eat and also read about various cuisines. I also like to play piano. I have a telescope. I like to read Ruskin Bond, Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew. I will not tell you more now since I am very excited about this blog. I will tell you more in the days to come. I will post quiz questions on astronomy, mathematics, bird watching, cinema, food, music. I am signing off now. I shall be back soon. Bye.