My experiences in the US kitchen :)

Like most city girls, I too was not a great cook. My visits to the kitchen were very limited. My mother was a very lenient person; never insisted us to cook. She used to ask us to study or go to some useful classes and encourage us in everything but cooking. And we too never found time - lots of playing as a child, tuition and special classes while in 10th and 12th, then college - unfortunately I ended up being in a first batch and we were treated like school kids and then a career demanding unusual work timings and long hours of work. Of course I know these are lame excuses because one can always find time for something that they are interested in. So basically I had little interest in cooking and hence I was in kindergarten as far as cooking was concerned and used to cook only if need arises or when I find some recipe really interesting.

Then I got married, had to live so far away from home and had to cook myself! Thanks to Skype and my sweet amma - she used to tell me one recipe per day and I used to note down meticulously every thing she said. But for her, I never could have cooked so many yummy dishes. And these days I also refer to the net for new recipes. There are good sites with videos too. I got very inspired from all these sources and now I have developed keen interest in cooking. I also discovered that the secret to good cooking is a good recipe, lot of time and patience.

But let me tell you some of the experiences I had while in the kitchen. Here there is no gas stove but the heating source is an electric filament. It was very new to me. I used to keep forgetting that it is a stove. Somehow without real fire or flames, it didn't appear to me as a "Stove".

One day after grinding, I just kept the small mixie jar directly on the stove. Only when the plastic melted and the smell of burning plastic came out, I realised that I had kept the jar on the stove. The stove wasn't on but it was hot. I felt so bad because I didn't have my little jar anymore. And we had brought it all the way from India. Similar incidents are - plastic jars, spoons loosing their shape as I had kept them close to the stove.

There are four stoves and even if few are not heated, the radiation keeps other stuff on those stoves hot and I once ended up burning my fingers by touching a plate on another stove which was not at all turned on.. but was very hot as the stove next to it had very hot oil in a kadai.

Then we had purchased wooden ladles for cooking. I washed one to use for tempering/seasoning. As you know for seasoning the oil will be hot and the ladle should be dry, otherwise the oil splutters. I felt the ladle was too wet and thought I can dry it by keeping it in the oven for a few seconds, but it turned out to be a bad idea.. it got burnt and the ladle broke. The oven was filled with so much smoke. I got very tensed but acted calmly and cleared of everything.

Another incident was like this.. quite of stupid of me though ; I tried to melt the butter along with the butter paper wrapped around it and it started burning. I panicked but I quickly turned off the oven, put off the fire and cleared up the mess.

That is how I had successfully filled the oven with smoke and fire. And after that I learnt to be more careful with the electric stove and the oven. I am very cautious when keeping stuff in the oven. I also keep the cooking area clear and with lot of space so that I don't have to end up keeping stuff on or near the stove.

Thus ends my experiences rather experiments in the kitchen :)

The Spanish Influence

Hola!!
We all know that India is a very diverse country with varied languanges and cultures. So is the USA. There are people from various countries making up the population. But there is one particular chunk of this population which has a great influence in the USA. And they are the Mexicans.

The infuences can be seen in the popularity of their language, cuisine, names of places etc. Almost a large percentage of products have labels in Spanish apart from English. Some of the stores have Entry/Exit signs in Spanish too - Entrada/ Salida. Many Mexican dishes are popular too such as the Tacos, Burritos, Enchiladas, Tortilla(pronounced Tortiya), Quesadilla (pronounced Quesadiya).



It was new to me to accept the Mexican pronunciation. La Jolla was a street name and the right pronounciation is La Hoya. "J" is considered as a "H" and "LL" is replaced with "Y". San Jose is said as San Hose. We can see that many places are named with a prefix of San and Santa.. e.g. Santa Cruz, San Diego. These words mean Saint or Holy in Spanish. Even Los Angeles is a Spanish term with an English meaning of "The Angels".


Los Angeles and Mexico City were declared as Sister Cities in 1969. I got this data from a board in Little Mexico. This place in in LA downtown reflecting the Mexican culture. It has a market, restaurants, music and of course a lot of Mexican crowd.

All the snaps displayed in this blog were taken at Little Mexico.




Hope this article kindled in you a little interest to know more about Mexico and it's culture. Gracias. Buenos Dias!!

Entertainment is Universal!

Let's start with an easy question.. What is the famous entertainment theme park here in the LA area? Yes it is the Universal Studios. On a weekend, we decided to give it a visit. I have been to the campus before as it has the Citywalk and the AMC theatres and is about a ten min drive from home. But to enter the Universal Studios was a first time for me and I was very excited!!!!!!!!!!!



We went to the lowermost level first and took the Jurassic Park ride. The ride is on a boat in an artificial river. First are the Herbivores animals. Then we enter the dangerous carnivores zone where some sudden jerks in the ride happen and big Dinosaurs try to attack us. It's so thrilling for a first time. Some of the creatures are very realistic whereas others look like dolls. We went for a second time too!




Next was the Revenge of the Mummy Ride. My husband warned me saying that this one would be scary ; so much that I literally closed my eyes during the first time. All I could hear was loud voice "Your souls are mine" repeatedly and this was high speed ride with sudden turns and reverses inside total darkness. After the first time, curiosity got the better of me and I went for once more and enjoyed it. You can see more here http://revengeofthemummy.com
There were people dressed up as mummies, pharaohs and scaring away people around. They would pose for a snap if we wished to take one.



Then we saw the demo of how real fires are created for movies. How the fire fighters and artists and all the people on the sets risk themselves. A special short movie is shown about the Backdraft effect and is the name of this demo too. Technical definition of a backdraft "A situation which can occur when a fire is starved of oxygen; consequently combustion ceases but the fuel gases and smoke remain at high temperature. If oxygen is re-introduced to the fire, eg. by opening a door to a closed room, combustion can restart often resulting in an explosive effect as the gases heat and expand."
Some other fire effects demo are shown for real.

The next in this level was the Special effects show. How layering of 2 different scenes are done. For this few volunteers are chosen from the audience. There is a big screen with a background(say showing a Window). The volunteer then waves her hand. It looks like she is really doing it on the big screen. Her movements are mapped with the screen with an existing background/scene on the screen. The other effects were sound effects created with various instruments like moving of a barrel - the rotating motion creates a sound, different sounds created by metal clanks so on. Then they showed a vanishing act of a standing person being tied to a vertical board and an explosion occurs. Even before the smoke vanishes, the vertical board is present but in the place of the person is a skeleton; all this happens within seconds.

We went to the top level and after lunch we continued on. The major attractions here are The Simpsons Ride - Its dark inside, high speed but virtual visual effects are created. It was very good. There was a 4 D Shrek movie - a different story than from the movies. And the detailed studio tour in a moving open vehicle - the cars used for Fast and Furious, the Wisteria Lane - a fictional street appearing in the American television series Desperate Housewives, other buildings and miniature models, how rain and floods are created, cars in action, a plane crash site etc.

The other ones which we did not see are the Water World, UNIVERSAL Animal Actors and Terminator2 - 3 D, Curious George and House of Horrors.


It darkened by 5.30 PM and most of the shows and rides were closed. It was a wonderful experience. You can look up each of the rides and shows in the internet for further information but it would be great if you can personally experience and enjoy the suspenses in the rides!

My new favourite snacks..

After I reached the US and started a new life, everyday we used to go out somewhere to get things for the house or just to eat . Among these, the donut shop Krispy Kreme had become my favourite. Mostly during the evenings, the production will be on and you can see how the original glazed donuts are made. If you take kids along, they will get one hot donut for free. Oh how I wish I were a kid!
"No one can have just one" fits the hot original glazed donut. We usually have 2 or 3 donuts before buying a dozen to take home. There are other varieties such as the ones with cheese filled in, or chocolate covered or with banana or strawberry fillings. However my favourite is the hot original glazed. During Christmas, there was an offer; if we buy a dozen, we would get a dozen gift coupons ;against each coupon one donut of our choice would be free. So we instantly purchased a dozen and took the coupons. Now these would expire in a month and only one per visit is valid.

So every week I would find reasons to go to Empire Avenue where this shop is located along with other restaurants and supermarkets. We still have a few coupons left out. The dozen we buy for home would be used for breakfast or as an evening snack. Both me and my husband are crazy about the donuts from this shop and we never are generous when it comes to donuts. We make sure each of us get a fair share and none get the major share. I have had donuts earlier but nothing matches a hot original glazed from Krispy Kreme.



The other snacks I have tried here are the pretzels and cinnabon stiks. Pretzel is also soft but not so soft as the donuts and shaped liked a heart. The common flavour is cinnamon sugared one. Here you can find most of the snacks being coated by cinnamon sugar. I am not very fond of pretzels but I can have one once in a while. My other favourite are the Cinnabon stiks from the shop Cinnabon.

They come five a pack. How I came to like it - Once we were hanging out in the Universal Citywalk and reached this shop. My husband suggested that we buy this and that I will like it. Due to my earlier experiences with excess cinnamon flavoured snacks, I insisted that we buy just one. Even the lady at the counter said that two would come fr a chaper price but we were sure that we wanted just one. After tasting
and finishing the five sticks in a minute, we regretted not buying the other pack also. We then decided that whenever we come to Universal Citywalk, we should come and buy these. And we have been doing it without fail! These are like twisted bread sticks semi soft and coated with the right amount of cinnamon sugar. If you see these, do try to have a pack of these without fail and I am sure you will fall in love with these cinnabon stiks.

Other favourites are Vanilla Scones, Classic Coffee cake and Marshmallow bars from Starbucks Coffee. Marshallow bars are nothing but a family of our traditional "Pori Urundais". Instead of jaggery, some kind of sugar is used and the shape is not spherical but is similar to a cuboid. Being a coffee drinker, there are some favourites too - Vanilla Latte, Caramel Frappuchino(Cold coffee with anilla flavour), Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte, White Chocolate Latte and Green Tea Latte.
There ends my write up on my favourite snacks and coffee..Thanks for the patient reading..

Trip to the beautiful city of San Francisco

My husband and I decided to visit San Francisco for our Christmas holidays. It was my first visit and one of my dream come true as I have been hearing so much about this city. We started in our car from home and it was a 6 hour drive as there was traffic in most highways due to holiday season. We trusted our iphone and google maps for directions. After about 4.5 hours, we lost track.. We couldnt find out a Pacheco Pass..and we were kind of stuck within an area. Later we made it out and checked into our Hotel "The Domain" in E EL Camino Real, Sunnyvale. After snacking a "Make your own grand slam" dinner at Denny's, we went to sleep.

The hotel provided a complimentary breakfast; it consisted of muffins, juice, coffee, bread and danishes. We started by 10 am and picked up a friend on the way. We had to fill in gas as the fifteen gallons we filled the previous day sufficed only till the journey to reach Sunnyvale. Then we headed to San Francisco's Treasure Island to get a view of the Golden Gate bridge. We went through the Bay bridge. After a couple of snaps of the Golden gate and The Alcatraz from this point, we headed to a small hill nearer to the Bridge. The view was fantastic. And lucky me, there wasn't much fog on that day. What do you get when there is a newly married couple and an understanding friend who is a great photographer with an SLR camera : no dearth of snaps with scenic backgrounds - the best part of our trip. Then we left for Fisherman's wharf.

There are a lot of attractions in this area. We spotted the sea lions basking in the sun light on the boats that were tied here.



You could see birds too which come down ; guess for what.. there are lot of tourists here and hence food for the birds. After whiling away some time, we took the boat cruise about 30 min, with a recorded audio explanation of various buildings and places of San Francisco as seen from the boat. We headed directly to the open deck to feel the breeze and enjoy the 360 degree view of the San Francisco downtown from below the Golden gate. During the ride, the boat goes very near to the Alcatraz offering a closer view.

We then headed to the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. As this was my first visit to a wax museum, I was excited about it. After a couple of snaps inside the museum, we walked out and checked the local shops for souvenirs and found an apt souvenir - a half mug that stated "San Francisco was so expensive that I could afford only half of this".

After a tiring day of walking around, we went to an Indian restaurant Annapoorna in the E El Camino Real to fill our tummies. Food was just ok which was a little disappointing. Then we dropped our friend and reached our hotel to hit the bed.

The next day we started for the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. The route we took was very scenic and we reached the Mystery Spot in about 2 hours. We had booked our tour earlier through the internet and had taken a print out along with us.

It was fascinating to see the effects demonstrated, although you do tend to think if they are kind of optical illusions. You can check out more about it here: Mystery_Spot

After the Mystery spot, we started for Muir Woods, Mill Valley. It is famous for being home to old sequoia trees.

It started raining and we were in a dilemma whether to go ahead or not. As we did not have any thing else to do, we thought we would take a chance. It was a different experience reaching this place with rain around, dark woods and small pathways. We reached the Muir Woods but the rain hadn't stopped yet. We waited for a while for the rain to subside and then we decided to enter the park. It was an hour before the closing time and as there were no guides available to give us a tour, we weren't charged for an entry fee. We entered and were on our own. Only a few other groups were there along with us. We went around for a while and had a look at a giant Sequoia tree and a sample age ring of a 1000 years old tree on display. We departed Muir Woods with a hope that we would come along some other time for a leisurely tour. You can see more about this park here http://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm

We decided to go to the main city to have a look at the San Francisco roads. By the time we reached the city, the rain stopped. The roads of San Francisco are all hilly; most of the roads go uphill or downhill. The downhill view from any of the roads are beautiful. In some of the roads are beautiful big mansions. I have heard of and seen houses made of wood than concrete in California.
It was a different feeling to see the majestic mansions. And the main city is full of tall structures. I haven't seen such huge buildings in Burbank and it felt like the US as shown in the movies.. We then went to The Crooked street. In the intersection of The Lambord street with the Leavenworth street, is this crooked street. The down is inclined and is built in a zig zag manner. Cars are allowed only one way ; downhill. It was fun to ride down the road.


Well it was time for some food at last..We decided to give a feast to our taste buds and went to HSB - Hotel Saravana Bhavan in Sunnyvale. We ordered mini tiffin, pongal, kothu parota and coffee- everything had the authentic taste of HSB. After dinner, we retired for the day.

The next day we checked out and started back home.
On the way back, we stopped by at the Livermore shiva Vishnu temple. Being Vaikunda Ekadashi and a weekend, there was a lot of rush. After darshan, we had a variety of Prashadam consisting of Pongal, kheer etc.



We reached home by late evening satisfied with the trip and planning for the next one.

Whewwwwwww..........Finally I am done with this post. It took me quite a few days to complete this blog. Hope you enjoyed!

Visit to the dentist ... Ooucch!

Hmm..Reminds you of your last visit to your dentist? Or are you one of those who never got a chance to visit your dentist. Lucky you!

I have a cavity and had it filled about two years ago. It just wore off and troubled me; not by pain but the food particles simple stuck on to the cavity. I couldn't chew well on my right side. So I thought its time for a visit to the dentist. I told my husband and he discovered that we did not have a dental insurance. However he found a dentist referred in the web site our general insurance. And so fixed an appointment for today. I had my breakfast and brushed again and got ready.

The doctor examined by blowing air into the cavity. She asked how did my filling break. I said that it just wore off. She was surprised by the fact that the filling wore off in just less than two years. Then she asked me if I have taken a shot before. I was taken aback because I did not remember taking a shot when I got it filled back in India. But I do have experiences of taking injections in the mouth (it was when I got my teeth aligned during high school). She applied a gel (it did not taste good, but I was given a warning by the doctor about the taste). I wasn't ready for a shot, but...

The shot was for about 40 secs all over my right upper gum - minute prickles and little pain; thank god it wasn't like the "1 sec but painful" injections which I have had before. She asked me if I was alright and asked me to relax for a while. Then began the cleaning process; the doctor uses a small mirror and the blow pipe to clear your cavity. If you get the shot, there wont be any sensitivity otherwise it may be sensitive or painful depending on how big your cavity is. She went on cleaning for a while and I had to keep my mouth wide open. I have a small mouth, so she couldn't place the separators (some kind of a plastic thing that will hold your jaws open, placed vertically inside your mouth). After every minute or so, she would give me a break and I could close my mouth and rest. She had an assistant who will remove the saliva and the water used for cleaning using a miniature suction tube. Its indeed awkward when you keep your mouth open and things into your mouth and two people looking onto you. I just dread these visits!


Then she asked me to rinse with a weird tasting liquid. The next step was the actual filling. She said that I have to co operate and hold my jaws wide open as otherwise the filling may be sensitive. So I again went into concentrating on keeping my jaws open.. My temple started paining. Jaws were also hurting. The doctor took a little of the filling, spread it and used another device (I am not aware of what it is, probably dried the filling) set it. The device gave a beep once and after a while two beeps. I was happy that its done, but it was not so. She went on repeating this process about 8-9 times. She asked me to bite a piece of paper with the filled teeth. She also kept the piece of paper all over my mouth and checked if I was able to bite with all the teeth; just to ensure that the filling is of a proper level and it doesn't hinder other teeth from biting. Then she polished the filling. And whew..after what seemed ages(The session was forty minutes totally), she was done. My jaws had started paining by then. The doctor said that I can rinse if I want to before leaving. She advised me to be careful not to bite my cheeks or lips as they will be numb for a while but she gave no restrictions on food items. My husband then paid the fee using his credit card. I looked at the figure and regretted at not having done this procedure a few months back while I was in India. Would have been very cheaper; about ten times lesser the cost. But then I should not be making the comparison as every currency has its own value and differs from place to place. I still have the habit of converting the dollar value to the rupees!

My jaws hurt still and numbness on the right side of my mouth prevailed. But yippee..my visit to the dentist was over. Good luck to you if you have an appointment with your dentist. Otherwise keep brushing regularly and avoid these dreadful visits!

Hello there !

Hi there, welcome to my blog. I am just gonna pen down my experiences..and I guess this is going to be more of a diary entry. But I do hope it makes a happy reading for you!

The journey to the US.. let me begin about the flight experience. I am little alarmed when it comes to security checks for married Indian women. The "Thaali(mangal suthra) and Metti(ring worn on your toes)" makes the security guards suspicious. However the security check in Chennai airport got over easily. The first part of the flight from Chennai to Frankfurt went on easily. There was a TV screen in front of my seat and time flew by. We had a four hour break in Frankfurt where we made calls home using the pay phone and credit card. There wasn't much security check here, though we were advised to remove our belts before the security check. Women were advised to remove bangles too and I was worrying if I will have to remove all my glass bangles, a dozen on each hand, however the security official was considerate and she let me go. The second half of the journey was very difficult. I was advised to stay awake so I can cope with the Day Night shift easily and handle the jet lag. But it was going to be a difficult task. There was no TV for every seat. I did doze off for a while but not continuously. The airlines provided two meals in this flight and it did keep me busy for a while. Then I watched the Ice Age 3 relayed on the common TV and then part of the movie Julie and Julia. The map showed that we were near the zone where day ends and night begins. I was eagerly waiting to experience that change but some how our flight did not cross such a zone.

In the LA airport there was a very big queue in the Immigration. There were not much questions for me being on a dependent visa. Then there was a big queue to the exit. I noticed a peculiar sight - a lady official with a dog. The dog was wearing kind of a dress stating "Protection of American Agriculture". I came to know that this dog goes about sniffing baggages and if it suspects seeds, we will be questioned. And then there was one more counter where we have to declare if we have food items or not. If you have food items, you are sent to another counter where each of your food item is checked. This is to ensure that no disease causing stuff enters the US. These kind of security features fascinated me.

We reached outside the LA airport and booked for a shuttle. The shuttle is nothing but a van which transports you with your luggage and will be shared by other passengers if any, (kind of our share autos back in India but in a bigger manner).

It surprised me to be able to see the sky on all sides of me. Back home, we can see only buildings all over the place. All buildings were low rise , most of them not exceeding three floors. Only a few buildings were sky high. So I realized not all of the US is a concrete jungle.

Then the road system; every where there are lines, white, yellow and dotted white, proper arrows and signals everywhere. The lane system and people following the signals properly, signals for pedestrians was fascinating. I came to know of the term Jay walking existed after reaching here. Reason why people follow rules; you will be given a "ticket" if you do not abide by the rules ; this will happen immediately when a cop car watching you follows you or the cameras notice you breaking rules. The moment a cop car follows you, you have to stop and the cop then gives you a ticket.
This may be a fine in terms of cash or if in case of a severe violation, you may have to appear in a court. More than any of this, your violation will be tracked with your driver's license and your insurance premium will also increase.

After about an hour's drive, we reached Burbank to our new "Home Sweet Home" located in the first floor. The time was around 4.30 PM and it had started becoming dark. The temperature was about 20 degrees. A complete shift for me as I have been in a place where its hot hot hot all around the year except for a few weeks.

With a nice feeling of being in a new place and beginning of a new life, I stepped into our new home.