Au Hasard Balthazar: A most powerful movie

Though not well-known to the general public in the US, Au Hasard Balthazar is one of the best movies ever made. As the name suggests, it's a French movie. It was directed by Robert Bresson and released in 1966.

So much has been written by movie and art critics about this movie and Bresson that it's hard to say anything new. I focus my attention to the last 10-15 minutes, the final scene of the movie that made me cry like nothing ever has. There is no music in the final scene. All you see is a donkey on a gently sloping grassy hill (like Kentucky's rolling hills) move about, sit down and die. No words are spoken and you see the donkey die, while other animals around it go on with their business. I saw it and I thought to myself if that's how I would die. We all have to go one day; would we go without even a whimper, all alone, having accomplished nothing to look back upon -- not leaving any legacy, anything behind us. Go that way after a life of cruelty that the world inflicted on us, not fighting back, moving around like a dust speck that hovers and wafts in the slanted shafts of morning sunlight, coming to rest no idea where? Who even thinks about it?

It was a really powerful moment. I understand the whole movie is allegorical, and I am not religious, but the sheer force of those moments stayed with me. And I decided to spend more time with my family, to listen more to others, to see if I can enrich my life as well as those of others. It's a little bit like the lines from T. S. Eliot's poem named A Song for Simeon

...
Grant us thy peace.
I have walked many years in this city,
Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor,
Have taken and given honour and ease.
There went never any rejected from my door.

Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children
When the time of sorrow is come ?
They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home,
Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords.

...

Indian food is not just curries

I sometimes grow tired of hearing wannabe world citizens that are not of South Asian origin, say that all Indian food is a variation on curry. And by curry they mean meat and/or vegetables in a red/orange/yellow thick liquid. As recently a Chinese colleague of mine put it: Indian food does not have much variety. It's all the same. Now I know better than to engage such people in an argument, but it annoyed me.

Three Stages of Cooking an Indian Dish
An art in Indian cooking is braising. Braising is a cornerstone of Chinese cuisine as well, and basically means cooking meat or vegetables with small and variable amount of liquid. A lot of Indian dishes are prepared this way. There are three stages of cooking. The typical Indian pot for cooking this kind of food is called a Karahi or Kadai which unsurprisingly is very similar to the Chinese Wok.

1. First one sears the vegetables or meat at very high heat (presumably locking the flavor in, but I don't completely agree) to give them a firmer texture.
2. After the initial searing, you cover and cook on medium heat for another ten minutes. As you cook your dish covered, the steam does not escape and water or other juices materialize at the bottom of the pan.
   
3. Finally the heat is reduced to low until the dish is finished. One reason behind reducing the heat is to retain the moisture and liquid. The end result is more flavorful than steamed vegetables -- a unique blend of crisp outside and succulent inside.

Anyone can make a liquid curry
Anyone can make a dish with a lot of liquid. Since heat is passed by convection in a liquid, which results in slower transfer of heat, it is very forgiving. Braising is not always forgiving. You can burn the food in the first step, or make the food mushy if you're not careful. I find that many Indians living abroad do not make braised foods, because they cannot be bothered to make food that takes some effort. On the other hand, you can dump everything at once in a fair bit of liquid and voila!

Summary
Good food takes effort, no matter which culture you consider. French food takes a lot of effort because it is often prepared from scratch. Same about Persian Food. And it is the same about Indian food.

Wendy's Sucks

Wendy's advertises its fare as being better than fast food, but I find that is just for appearance's sake. It is no secret that I eat fast food only occasionally. A few months ago, a new Wendy's opened up across the road from the community where I live and we thought we'd give it a shot. Bad mistake.

Their spicy chicken sandwich was sandy and fried too long in a batter too thick and oil unfit for frying. The result was a clovis knife of a sandwich with so much salt that you were left gasping for a river. The fries were cold and had the weird taste of having sit too long in too much salt and oil. We had another sandwich which was equally bad.

We emailed our complaint with all the details to Wendy's. It's been six months and no reply. We are not eating at Wendy's again. I can understand an occasional misstep in fast food preparation, but the complete absence of consumer relationships is awful.

On the other hand, we were not completely satisfied with a pack of Emergen-C Heart Healthy sachets around the same time as the misadventure with Wendy's. We heard from Emergen-C within days and they mailed us a replacement pack with the flavor of our choice, for free. Now that's good customer service. You can bet that I would stay with Emergen-C.

Shame on you, Wendy's.

Creating the ultimate shopping experience

Taken from a speech I delivered a few months ago to the local Toastmasters club

SHOPPING: WHY DO WE DO IT?

CREATING THE ULTIMATE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

Shopping. It is the most American of activities. Consumer spending amounts to two thirds of the GDP of the greatest economic power in the world. Humans have been shopping for the longest time, but shopping these days is driven increasingly less by basic needs, but more by the emotional needs it fulfills. I will focus solely on the retail sector, and to be precise, clothes retailing. I will discourse about the four modes of shopping (the whys) and suggest ways to make the shopping experience memorable, fulfilling and fun: just what makes shoppers return even when there are no sales (the what and how).

The first and obvious driver of shopping is need. We need our daily bread, milk, shampoo, toilet paper and underwear. It is a very brutal market in needs retailing. Wal-Mart is the clear winner here, but many prefer Target over Wal-Mart. Prices for staples are quite similar in both, but Target provides a cleaner, brighter and more orderly shopping experience than Wal-Mart.

The second driver is features. Small innovations in providing customers with that little bit extra works wonders to attract more customers. One way to deal with it is through carefully controlled special editions that give an air of exclusivity to what you wear. The second is consistently superior quality.

The third driver is affordability. With the retailing market akin to the tower of Babel, it takes a lot of time and determination to know how much every item in every store retails for at all times of the year. And despite obsessive aisle prowling, customers know little about inventory. Some stores deal with it by never having sales, and some, like Wal-Mart by having cheap prices every day. You have to be mad as a hatter or rich as Croesus to take a definitive stance on it.

The largest, though imperceptible driver of shopping growth is the emotional needs a product, a brand and a store fulfill. Luxury today might be a need tomorrow, but that’s not where the growth is. Study upon study has shown that customers are irrational when a product or brand stands for something they want to be associated with. Many women eat brown bag lunches for months just so they can afford a flowing robe from Anthropologie. Many men forego Saturday six-packs to afford an iPod or iMac. Even children forego some luxuries to get their toy or an icon of tween fashion. Because it makes them happy, like a cat that’s just eaten a canary. It’s not all about the product. What matters increasingly more these days is the “experience” of shopping in a store. Take Nordstrom for example. People love shopping there, and why? If there is something in stock, they will happily and cheerfully find it for you. Walking spaces are broader. The store is orderly, clean, relaxing and just luxurious. People spend time there, they feel valued and the experience is rewarding. The loop begins.

Now that we know the four drivers of shopping, how can retailers use this information to improve the shopping experience for customers, while not catering to a tiny niche and becoming a boutique? I offer four suggestions:

Lighting

Clear as daylight, the obvious aspect of lighting carries connotations. Most stores use fluorescent lights, but that light is not flattering to people’s appearance. If the lighting makes every imperfection in your face or body dominate the aesthetic value of an outfit, it is self-defeating. Studio lights are the way to go, as you see in Abercrombie & Fitch, offering a warm refuge from the hoi polloi outside.

Music

Music to my ears! Retailers have not figured out that loud, commercialized punk rock and punk rap deter customers rather than engage them, for sure among customers that wield the wallets. More people leave a store because of music than stay longer. The retailer is free to choose the message they send with the kind of music they play, but it must be in the background, and not make you feel you’re at a rave. Abercrombie & Fitch does this poorly. The music is too loud and gives the impression that they don’t want the customer to hang out, to touch and feel the merchandise.

Direct the traffic

You want to offer the customer a natural way of wending his way through the store, where every kitty corner corresponds to a concept, an expression, a story vignette. Janie and Jack does this very well, as does Pottery Barn Kids. With a carefully designed store, the sight lines take in all the store has to offer – and every section is coherent and somewhat private.

Keep it personal every day

There is no substitute for great, unobtrusive service. Have you ever wondered why they ask you for your name at Coffee bean and other aspirational places? So they can address you by the first name when your latte is ready. They are not going to remember you name if you return in 3 hours. This is hypocrisy, and makes me as red as a tomato. You want retail staff to be like a seasoned server in a five-star restaurant. Out of your sight and shopping experience, unless you need him or her – at which point you realize he/she is knowledgeable, prompt and friendly.

In summary, shopping is all about the experience. Retailers have to create an experience that is warm, personal, regularly surprising, relaxing and rewarding. Stores like J. Jill get it right with their suffused lighting, earth tones and secluded spaces. Happy shopping and happy retailing!

Anxiety Hotline!

I was surfing the website of IIT Kanpur, and found a link to the Anxiety Hotline. I felt puzzled as to why would you need a hotline for anxiety. We all know Suicide hotline or Depression hotlines, but anxiety is such a piddling little thing. Anxiety is natural; we all get it from time to time -- if it gets too bad, it's called panic.

However, a reading of the text on the link made it clear that the goal was to prevent suicides. Everyone who attended an IIT for a Bachelor degree and many those who did not are acutely aware of the tremendous stress that IIT undergraduates face; most of it arises from a huge amount of needless information that's shoved down their throats day in and day out. I knew several students who committed suicide; some were successful, some were not (they later dropped out). I remember that in the four years I was there, there was at least one suicide every calendar year.

Mental health is still taboo in India and many pretend mental disorders are genetic and signs of weakness. So, while the attempt has been made to help suicidal or depressed students cope with their C, D and F grades, the name is disingenuously benign. I am sure the intention was to make it sound less pejorative. I think you ought to call a spade a spade. Another weird aspect was that they list names of professors who can help. How many of them have been trained to deal with this? Do they know enough to identify how much help someone needs? Most Indian professors hold the view that effort succeeds. Obviously, that's often untrue.

There is too much unnecessary pressure to perform academically, and it is unhealthy. There is stress at MIT and Berkeley, but nothing compares to IITs: it's time they do something about it. MIT did something about it, and is now paying attention to how an applicant will handle the stress when on campus. The IITs should do something about it as well. Four or five suicides every year is just scandalous.

Chicken Fricassée

There is great joy in preparing food from scratch, without any artificial flavors and have it taste marvelous. One thing I cook reasonably frequently is Chicken Fricassée broadly based on the recipe by Julia Child in her seminal book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I tend to make my own tweaks, so I use black pepper because it tastes better, I use breast meat only because the thigh meat has a strong flavor that does not go well with the delicate sauce. Sometimes I add paprika for a pink dish, which is cute. I typically skip the mushroom garnish because it takes too much effort to fry mushrooms, and my kitchen is small, which means I have to fry them in batches in my largest pan, which cause a lot of spattering.

I have found it tastes best with somewhat sticky rice, like what is used for making Sushi. Even Jasmine rice is not suitable with this dish; Basmati is just too nutty. I have found that pasta does not go well with it. It is a favorite in our household, and I find it easy to make. It takes about 10 minutes to cut the vegetables and get everything ready, but from that point on, cooking continues in one pot. You have to be careful with the final egg yolk-heavy cream enrichment. If the egg yolks are heated suddenly, they curdle. That ruins the appearance of the sauce, though the taste is not affected.

For an Indian flavor, you can add clove powder, chopped almonds, raisins, cumin powder, fenugreek leaves, green cardamom and coriander in addition. Saffron strands are also something to consider, but they make the dish earthy. Please do not use curry powder, I hate recipes asking for curry powder.

The joy of deep frying!

Deep frying in an ancient method of preparing food. It is all around us, like French fries. Whole franchises have been built on the art of deep-frying (KFC anyone?) Yet time and again we are presented with deep fried food that is soggy, dank and makes your esophagus revolt. Why? I think people have lost the art of deep frying.

For a long time, I had an electric deep fryer. It did an OK job frying French fries, but it bombed with other things such as Pooris. I decided I had had enough and tossed the deep fryer and started frying in a huge cast iron wok. It made a world of difference. The food came out crisp, light, bright and refreshing. That is because one of the major purposes of cooking, no matter how it is done, is to get rid of the water in the food. When the oil is as hot as it should be, the water in the food is transformed to steam and gushes outward at such speed that oil can't get inside your food. Oil can only penetrate the outermost layer of your food. Deep fried food is not necessarily more unhealthy. I fry only in peanut oil, which has no trans fats and does not decompose into gunk when it's heated. If you have the money, you can use clarified butter for deep frying, which is the best. However, deep frying can be expensive.

I am attaching some photos of deep fried wontons I made recently. I know I used Gyoza skins instead of proper wonton skins, so they don't have long ears.

Sichuan Beef

The Sichuan a.k.a Szechuan province of China is known for its fiery cuisine. A common ingredient in Sichaun cuisine is crushed red chili pepper -- seeds and all. That is interesting because chilies are native to the Americas and reached China only in the 1600s. Before the chilies arrived to China, a native spice, the Sichuan pepper was common. The taste of the Sichuan pepper is not hot like the chili or pungent and clean like black pepper, but a little lemony and rather vague. You could not import Sichuan pepper to the US until recently.

I made a popular dish recently, called the Sichuan Beef. I used top sirloin steak and sliced it as thin as I could, but it is clear to me that I need more practice dicing things finely with a cleaver. The kitchen got a bit oily with all that frying in batches. Two pounds of top sirloin lasted of all 3 hours for 3 persons and a toddler.

What are you eating today?

This is a transcript of a speech I recently gave at my local Toastmasters Club. I have a PhD in a related field that supposedly gives me some credibility in this area. The title is a pun on Joyce Carol Oates frequently anthologized short story Where are you going? Where have you been?

What are you eating? What have you eaten?

So what did you have for dinner? What are you planning for lunch? Are you eating healthy? Do you think you are eating healthy on the Low-carb diet? The low-fat diet? Expensive pre-cooked entrée? Do you have any idea what you are pouring or shoving down your gullet? Today I will discuss some major misconceptions we have about our food. I promise that you will look differently at the food you put on your plate at the end of this talk.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
HFCS. It’s in every industrial food product you can lay your hands on. High fructose corn syrup sets America apart from rest of the world. Does Mexican Coca-cola have HFCS? Nope. Anywhere in Europe? Nope. People have called it sugar on crack. Some studies have shown that you can consume high amounts of HFCS without realizing it. It’s not that HFCS is cheaper than sugar. It is cheaper in the US largely due to import quotas and tariffs on sugar. It is advanced because it makes logistical sense. It does not spoil, and pound for pound is sweeter. You ever wonder why it is so cheap to super size your soda? That is because restaurants get SYRUP to which they add water and fizz and bring to your table. It costs a restaurant 9 cents to make a 16 oz drink for you. You probably pay $2 for it. HFCS is here because it makes industrial sense, even though it tastes decidedly worse.


All Natural or 100% Natural
You probably feel good putting stuff labeled all natural onto your shopping cart, thinking your children are eating healthy. Cadbury Schweppes was labeling 7 Up as "All Natural" or "100% Natural", despite containing high-fructose corn syrup. While the U.S. FDA has no definition of "natural", there is nothing natural about HFCS due to the high level of processing and the use of at least one genetically modified (GMO) enzyme required to produce it. In 2007, Cadbury Schweppes agreed to stop calling 7 Up All Natural. They now call it 100% Natural Flavors. Mamma Mia! Even if anything is derived from rotten insects, it can still be labeled all natural. As a matter of fact, Tropicana is bugging your food, literally. Bug juice and carmine is what makes their grapefruit juice red. Buyer beware!

Trans Fats
If you remember your Chemistry lessons, you may know of cis- and trans- forms of a molecule. In trans form two groups are on the opposite sides of the molecular backbone but in the cis version they are on the same side. This simple difference makes a HUGE difference to their qualities, especially in how human body treats them. Trans fats may be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. You may not even know that you are eating trans fats. Your food may say it contains hydrogenated fat or palm oil or corn oil. Trans fat remains in the blood stream for a much longer period of time and is more prone to arterial deposition and subsequent plaque formation. It has many other deleterious effects such as an increased likelihood of diabetes, coronary disease, liver dysfunction, obesity, and more. Why is it used? Better shelf life. You can fry in them for much longer before they go rancid.

Salt
Ah, the staff of civilizations. We need it, but too much of it can cause severe problems such as kidney stones, porous bones, high blood pressure. It can kill you too: Salt solutions have been used in China as a traditional suicide method. Back in the US, three slices of a 14” Pizza Hut Meat Lover's Stuffed Crust Pizza have 1,560 calories. Well it sounds like a lot, but wait there is more: they contain a whopping 5 grams of Sodium. All you need in a day is half a gram. They give you enough salt for TEN DAYS in one meal. Wow. What do you think of desserts, eh? Raspberry Scone from the Atlanta Bread company contains 1.75 grams of sodium, same as seven servings of bacon. Too much salt makes you angry, unproductive, depressed, thirsty and dumb.

Your food is becoming like cardboard, because though it has become cheaper, it has lost its soul as well. It’s being prepared like cardboard. The next time you go grocery shopping, read the labels carefully. There is nothing natural about 100% natural. Genetically modified foods are not Just what nature intended. Just because an advertisement said something is healthier, it doesn’t make it so. Remember: if fat doesn’t kill you, sugar will, and if you survive sugar, salt will. If you are feeling beat up, bloated, fat, cantankerous, have a murderous headache and an unquenchable thirst: look to your food for clues.

Why Olive Garden Sucks

Worthless place with pathetic food, needless snobbery and full of pretenders who think they know fine dining! I recently went to OG after a hiatus of four years, and was quickly reminded of the the cause of my long rejection.

Service was so-so, the ushers were bitchy-snobbish and wore a rubbery smile and flashed cold eyes and then rolled their eyes like a perverse urban Madonna.

First up were free breadsticks. This was an improvement to their earlier super-salty, soggy and oily bread, but it was still too salty and too margarine-y. You think they use butter? Ha!

The minestrone soup had a distinct taste of canned tomato paste and the kidney beans and garbanzo beans came from cans and were overcooked. The Tuscan sausage soup was the high watermark of our meal, it was creamy with a hint of bacon and contained slices of potato. That would do as a passable appetizer.

The appetizers were fried a million times (mille fois frié, a pun on mille feuille). You could kill with those chicken fingers, even stab. Yep, they were that hard! So dark was the crust that I thought I had fallen into a fresh dug grave. Toasted raviolis were over-toasted, many times over, generating only a slightly lighter hue. The fried mozzarella squares were all right, but how can you screw THAT up?

Up for entrées, the lasagna was all right, if a tad too oily and salty. The Fettuccine Alfredo Chicken sucked in all three measures. The fettuccine were overcooked for 3-4 minutes, so in stead of being al dente, they were al gum. As a matter of fact, at the bottom of my pile of noodles, some were COLD. This means the noodles were boiled, thrown into a colander to stay, and they were not tossed with the sauce! The sauce was floury and lacked the delicacy of fresh grated Parmesan cheese. But what do I expect when I know their sauces are shipped frozen. Eyes wide? Aghast? Tsk tsk tsk. To top it off their chicken was cheap quality and watery, no spring to it. The grilling lines were tasty though.

House Special
My wife had "Tour of Italy" which had Fettuccine Alfredo, of which I would say no more. The second item was lasagna, which I have already commented on. Finally, it had what Americans think is true Italian food: Chicken Parmesan. Now once again the crust was hard and dark. And if you pressed the patty, it did not give or spring back: in cooking school, that means you have fucked up a chicken breast, and should be ashamed of yourself. There wasn't much chicken inside either due to heavy use of meat tenderizer. It was an overfried schnitzel with thrice-thick breading.

My daughter wanted a dessert but I vetoed it. I told her I would make the real Zabaglione at home with real Marsala wine. This evening I made Chicken a la Milanèse with Sauce Parisienne and we ate well. It however brought to mind what I hated about OG and why I stopped going there.

If you are a gourmet, stay the hell away from here. If you want to impress those who are not foodies or gourmands even, bring them here. It's like pouring Seagram 7 out of Chivas Regal or Glenfiddich. If they don't know it, it won't hurt 'em.

Surfer dude and unified theories

The holy grail of Physics is a Unified Theory, i.e. a theory that describes different but fundamental forces, such as electromagnetism, the weak interaction and the strong interaction. Except for String theory, no Unified theory has been proposed. And String theory apparently cannot be tested.

A surfer-dude named Lisi (he holds a PhD in Physics from UC San Diego) has proposed such a theory, called An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything. See original coverage here.

It looks simple and elegant, and came from someone outside the academic circles. Do similarities to Einstein end there? Only time will tell.

Magazines I read on a regular basis (2)

I have subscribed to some more magazines, thought it has meant I am less likely to read them all. See my earlier post for a list. I have a few more subscriptions now.

1. Poets and Writers Magazine
2. Poetry Magazine. I remember reading one when I was an undergraduate in India.
3. The Smithsonian magazine. Only $10 a year. Can get a good article every other month.
4. Wired. Only $10 a year. Why not?

I will update this list if I start reading more magazines. It's getting hard to balance a job and other ambitions/interests. With the economy in a bad shape, I'm having to work harder! And I don't like that :)

Caesar III and Addictive Real-Time Strategy Games

Caesar III came out in 1998. I was in graduate school at that time, and had a lot of time to fill in between experiments, and found Caesar III demo from download.com and played it. I loved it and bought the game. I have spent hundreds of hours, maybe even a thousand playing and perfecting my strategy at Caesar III. I didn't realize games could be so addictive. Sure, games like Wolfenstein and Doom were addictive, but how many times could you play the same level with the same demons at the same location? In Caesar III, you could play a game many times over without repeating the progression of events.

Micro-management to the extreme
Caesar III gave you basic building blocks of a city. Roads, farms, gardens, fountains, clinics, theaters, prefectures (police stations), engineer posts, mines, workshops, bridges and so on. You can build
farms only in a certain location in the map. You want to make sure that there are enough workers living near work. And you have to keep them happy. They want everything -- clean water, market access, food, entertainment, schools and theaters. The happier houses are, the bigger they get and pay more in taxes. Yes, you have to collect taxes to balance your budget. Yes, you have to balance the budget! You need to keep the Roman gods happy or they make your life hell. It is very addictive to try and build the perfect combination of services and houses so that everyone has everything. You have to make sure everything your populace wants is given to them. Their expectations are low at first, but become gradually steeper until it becomes a challenge.

The Walkers
Caesar III uses the ideas of walkers. Every building, for example the prefecture would have employees (prefects) come out of the building and walk on roads. At every junction, the walker will randomly choose one road. If a building has not been passed by a prefect for a while, its risk of catching fire goes up. Similarly, workers will leave their home and walk the same way in search of a job. If enough walkers come regularly to a farm, the farm will have its complement of employees and food would grow in it as fast as allowed by the game. This makes it critical to build homes and workplaces near, but not too close as to annoy the citizenry.

Military Aspect
There is a military aspect to it as well, but it's primitive -- nothing like Age of Empires. You bring your units to enemy units and they take over, you have no control over them. The best defensive approach is to build walls around your city and to build towers from where you can throw missiles at an attacking force and inflict good damage on them without taking any losses. Legions are the best fighting units here; the other two units are worthless -- they have mobility but poor striking power.

Summary
In summary, Caesar III was a perfect game with endless micro-management and many maps to play. If you haven't tried it yet, I would recommend it. You have to make your brain work for you in this game, and you will be challenged. The graphics are awesome (keep in mind they date from 1998). They made a sequel, Caesar IV, but I found that boring and too slow.

Caesar III has many cities as maps you play on. It is often a challenge to bring food, pottery and furniture to the people, as you may be forced to manut

Mail-in Rebates: Beware!

All of us have seen mail-in rebates for years now, especially at large electronic/computer chains like Best Buy. These rebates make the price very attractive and encourage impulse shopping. I have seen too many inconsistencies and useless caveats -- with the sole intention that the customer will not receive the advertised rebate -- that I do not count on the mail-in rebate when purchasing a product.

Most mail-in rebates require that you

1. Send in the original receipt, serial number bar codes and original UPC
2. Send in the rebate within a certain time frame
3. Send in everything at the same time

What do they want?
The unstated goals are that once you return the mail-in receipt, you may not be able to return a product; that you may make a mistake by sending one piece of paper less than required. Certainly offering a mail-in rebate has advantages for the seller -- they will invest and collect interest on the $100 mail-in rebate that they'd pay out 3 months later. A conversion rate of 50-70% swells the profits for the company.

You have no rights
If the seller says you made a mistake, or that they didn't receive the package, there is little you can do. If the seller refuses to refund you because they say you didn't include the original UPC code, there's nothing you can do. Think businesses don't lie? Always mail it certified mail where someone has to sign for it.

Shameless Lying by Sears
Four years ago I purchased a treadmill from Sears. The representative told me, and the documentation had it, that I was eligible for a floor mat. I sent everything as detailed, but the rebate was refused. Why? The rebate department said there was no rebate associated with this product. Incompetence? I think not. A couple of phone calls went nowhere, and store representative were no help (they get commissions on what they sell, so they don't care), and I gave up. Sears' benefit? $40. I haven't bought a large-ticket item there since. I hate liars.

Devious Rebate Form at Circuit City
Recently I purchased a laptop from Circuit City and saw something VERY curious. I followed a link with the intention of printing the rebate form. At the top of the page was a little button saying Print Form. Sure. I pressed it. It only printed 40% of the page. And guess what, the text on the web said Send this form in its entirety. A-ha! A dummy who uses the conveniently place button will be rejected. Intentional? I think yes. And you had to write the Serial Number on the paper form as well. What the heck? Do they have baboons dispensing rebates? How hard is it to read 3 pieces of information?

Read the Fine Print
Best Buy is shameless in having lots of rebates that are contingent on you signing a 2-year contract with an ISP. When I purchased a laptop in 2002, I was told to get a $100 rebate when I sign up for MSN Internet for 2 years. At $25/month for dial-up, it came to $600 for the duration. Why do that when I could get DSL for $30 a pop? Don't be a sucker, and read the fine print.

Summary
I'm not saying that mail-in rebates are evil, nor that all sellers are devious in this way. Just keep in mind that there's a 30% chance you won't get the rebate, and factor that in the price. And avoid sellers or manufacturers who nickel and dime you.

The Sunlight on the Garden

I like poetry. I liked it even when I didn't understand it, because good poetry is like music -- you appreciate it by hearing it. I remember one poem that read a long time ago, and have never really forgotten, and it's not a highly fancied one or one that's often fed to students of classics and poetry. It was written by Louis MacNeice and is titled The Sunlight on the Garden.

I am reproducing it here. The first stanza is just beautiful.

The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold,
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free lances
Advances towards its end;
The earth compels, upon it
Sonnets and birds descend;
And soon, my friend,
We shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells
And every evil iron
Siren and what it tells:
The earth compels,
We are dying, Egypt, dying

And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew,
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For sunlight on the garden.

Beautiful, but vague. Like U2's lyrics. Hence timeless. Apparently, it was written by Louis after his wife had left him for someone else. If that influenced this work, the net effect is saddened. Even without that knowledge, the poem remains nostalgic, a tad wistful and jumps from one idea to another, thought it ends on a positive note. I have drawn pleasure and perhaps strength from it over many years, and at times I've felt that it contains infinite wisdom, constructed as it is with universal themes of loneliness, regret, alienation and acceptance.

Pasta is a gourmet food

Pasta has gotten an undeserved bad name in the US, where it is associated with red sauce and cheap Italian restaurants with poor service. That is just not true. Italian food has a lot of variety; just that what passes for Italian food in the US (except in the Haute Cuisine) is Sicilian food. Sicilian food uses a lot of olive oil, and very little Parmesan.

It's all because of the geography. Northern Italian cuisine is a whole lot closer to French and German cuisine than to Sicilian cuisine. Reason? Northern Italy has weather that allows raising cattle that feeds on grass (Sicily is a whole lot more arid). Cow's milk is converted to butter and cheese. What grows locally is used: such is the way of the world. Italian cuisine is refined and versatile.

The best Italian cookbook I know of (and most critics agree) is Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. In that she talks about the right way of making pasta. A little bit of butter goes a long way.

How to make pasta sauce?
It is very simple to make pasta sauce at home. All it takes is some care and a tiny bit of effort. Homemade pasta sauces can be jarred or frozen, they keep for about 6 months.

Here's a photo of my homemade pasta sauce. This sauce has no olive oil or coloring. The heavy cream and fresh grated Parmesan give it a orange hue. Topped with chopped parsley and finely grated Parmesan cheese. Served over shell pasta, cook al dente and then tossed with butter. Everything except the cheese is organic.

TV Advertising in India

While watching the semi-final and finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL), I was reacquainted with the TV advertising in India. In the West, we feel rather blasé about advertising and mostly can't have too little of it. Except for the biggest showcase of them all -- the Super Bowl. In general, one would agree that Western advertisements are largely function and relatively very few of them are memorable, as say the Taco Bell Chihuahua or the Slim Mac vs Bloated PC. As an observer of consumer psychology and of marketing in general, I made some observations.

The Lighting
First of all the bright lighting and consequent filtering is ubiquitous, as if we are watching the advertisements in an idealized world. This lighting may be called the Latin Soap Opera lighting, but it has very direct importance -- to make the persons look whiter than they are, and therefore more of an authority figure. Patriotic as the Indians are, they always take their cues from the fairer-skinned person.

There is also an unmistakable glow on screen that makes one feel as if they are talking to a deity. It reminds me of flowers and other shapes in psychedelic videos that puts you in a trance and makes you smile and engage.

Everyone is Happy With You
This may be a remnant of the long socialist era, but ALL advertisements show large groups or crowds, and everyone is happy. It is ironic that with the increase in materialism, people are becoming increasingly lonely, but the advertisements portray camaraderie and communal good. The message this may send is: Buy this product, and everyone will be happy, including you. Something that's called a Bandwagon effect to influence the audience. This works because the market is small and not fragmented, as the next step is still pretty basic.

Another way of looking at it is that the advertisers are simply mining the patriotism and nationalism India never had any shortage of, just that the booming economy seems to corroborate it. There is enormous mileage in this approach. Complicated and concerted movements of hundreds of people are a hallmark of Communistic countries. I find it amusing that socialist propaganda ass

High Drama
An Indian advertisement is full of high drama. They don't sell you life insurance by telling you that the breadwinner may die an untimely death, so you better get some backup. Too understated for the Indians. Instead you get a long scene where you're given enough to believe that the breadwinner has been murdered by an intruder, as the housewife returns to a clearly affluent house.

Volume
Everyone knows that the volume goes slightly up during the commercial breaks. We know the volume will go up by 20% or so, and are ready to compensate for it by hitting the mute button, or using functionality that adjusts for it. On Indian TV, the volume may well go up 200%, because no one is regulating that. There has been too much growth in this industry in such a little time, and regulation, as is usual, is slow to catch up. It's a seller's market all the way.

Every culture has its own norms of what is subtle and what's hardball. My observation is that advertisements in growing countries are a whole lot funnier, edgier and entertaining than their counterparts in the developed countries, perhaps because all creativity has been exhaustively mined. Think of the campaign to get Americans to buy toilet paper. The ad campaign had a memorable line, spoken by a child to her mother: They're nice people mommy, but their toilet paper hurts. So it was then in the US, so it is now in India.

Homemade Sushi

Sushi has gained in popularity in the US dramatically over the past few years. I personally think that Sushi, cheap that it now is, remains very overpriced, and few places serve good Sushi. I don't like the quality and seasoning of rice in many Sushi joints, and find it just overpriced.

Sushi is deceptively easy to make. It's all about the rice, and it doesn't necessarily have raw meat. If you're interested, you can find video instructions on VideoJug. All you need is a sharp knife and a sushi mat.

This is a picture of my homemade sushi with the following fillings:
* Organic avocado and organic cucumber
* Organic avocado and fluffy organic scrambled eggs (green and yellow)

I like throwing some toasted sesame seeds inside my rice. I also like to put some organic ranch dressing, free of vegetable oil. Another colorful idea is to throw some orange roe on top to contrast with the white of rice and green and yellow of filling.

In the middle, I have my dipping sauce, made with dark soy sauce, sugar, salt and lots of sesame seeds. My sushi pieces are not perfectly round, something I am still trying to achieve consistently.

Lamb soup with spring vegetables

A photo of another family favorite: Lamb soup with spring vegetables. A recipe that's as Turkish as it is Indian, made without any spice mixes or packaged broth. Tastes best with Jasmine rice.

I also make a French version sometimes in which the lamb cubes are coated with caramelized sugar, and cooking is continued in an oven at low heat.

This Turkish/Indian version was prepared in a Kiwi Le Creuset 5 quart Dutch Oven with organic vegetables and spices, and all-natural lamb.

Supernova caught on tape

A supernova is a massive stellar explosion where the material of a star is ripped from it and converted into energy that is thrown in all directions at the speed of light. The burst lasts a short time, but can produce tremendous amount of energy, sometimes rivaling the luminosity at the core of the galaxy the exploding star is in. Supernovae producing heavy elements in galaxies through runaway nuclear fusion.

Yesterday, some astronomers noticed a sudden eruption of X-rays from a spot in the constellation Lynx in real time, in a galaxy 90 million light years away. This means that this supernova occurred about 90 million years ago. The wonderful thing is that this is the first time astronomers have been able to observe and record the act of explosion. Other supernovae were found due to their brightness while randomly scanning the heavens. In this case, the whole process could be observed, which is very exciting. This star has been named SN 2008D.

The observations seem to confirm the theory that the first burst would be a blast of X-rays. This burst continues for days or even weeks, and a great many people -- astronomers or not -- are looking at the blast. There is a news story here.

Entrées I like to cook

An inchoate list of entrées I like to cook for my family. I probably have the more impressive ones listed here :) These are in no particular order. I make them all from scratch with no preservatives, hardly any canned food or spice mixes.

1. Pan-seared Lemon Pepper Halibut Fillet with Sauce Parisienne and Parsley Potatoes
2. Lamb Soup with chick peas and spring vegetables
3. Kung Pao Chicken with medium-grain semi-sticky rice (Sushi rice without any seasonings)
4. Oven-baked layered Biryani with Raita (Yogurt sauce with cucumber and tomatoes)
   
5. Pepper steak with pan-fried fingerling potatoes and deglazing sauce
6. Yogurtlu Kebap (minced-lamb kebab with yogurt-garlic and tomato sauces) with grilled pita bread
7. Buttered rigatoni noodles with homemade French-style tomato (pasta) sauce with butter and garlic
8. Chicken breasts à la Milanèse (Milan-style, with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese), with pan-fried potatoes
9. Boeuf à la Mode (Beef pot roast with vegetables and a red Burgundy wine) with mushrooms fried in butter and sherry
10. Chicken Fricassée à l'Ancienne (A Fricassée with creamy white burgundy sauce)
    
11. Beef Burgundy (slow-simmered ragoût of beef with vegetables in a red Burgundy wine)
12. Linguini with Olive oil and basil tomato sauce
13. Fettucine or Pappardelle with fresh homemade Alfredo sauce (butter-cheese sauce)
14. Shish Kabob with garlic Raita and fried rice
15. Chicken Curry with Basmati rice and Naan. Good with Mango Lassi
16. Avocado and Cucumber Sushi
17. Teriyaki chicken, with grilled vegetables, Japanese-style fried rice and white/cream sauce
18. Murg Masallam (Pot-roast of stuffed chicken in a creamy sauce with nuts and raisins)
    
    

Kung Pao Chicken

A staple of American-Chinese restaurants and the safest bet if you're not too familiar with Chinese cuisine, and are eating in North America. It's quick and colorful with green-yellow zucchini, red bell pepper, and soy sauce-brown chicken. Taiwanese influence would have you garnish with chopped scallions. But you must have peanuts in it, or it's not Kung Pao chicken.

I like my own version, made in a cast iron wok with potato starch instead of corn starch and with scallions. Here's a photo. I don't think I want to share this recipe just yet ;)

Star Trek: The Original Series

It is said that if you scratch any Sci-Fi fan a little, you will find a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS). From now on, I mean TOS when I say Star Trek.

I bought Star Trek DVDs
I recently bought seasons 1-3 of TOS from Amazon, where they were priced very well. Yes, I know that the remastered editions would be coming out soon, but I couldn't resist the urge to make a good deal on a program I secretly love.

My attachment to Star Trek is purely emotional. I have always liked watching some Star Trek and then looking at the heavens on a moonless, cold night. I can't watch Star Trek just any time though, but when I'm in the mood for it, I enjoy the simplistic plots, the well-rounded but non-complex main characters. It's like talking to an old friend. Sure there are blemishes and irritating mannerisms, but you've grown used to them so much that they only register when you're grumpy. That's why I watch Star Trek when I'm not grumpy or peeved.

The Cast
Why has Star Trek become such an important part of pop culture worldwide? The series was a failure. It hardly had any original ideas. The science in Star Trek was woefully wrong, and rather funny. The acting was ordinary, and even campy: I still laugh at the macho statements of James T. Kirk (William Shatner, now known as the Priceline.com guy). The bloodshot eyes of DeForest Kelley ("Bones") were those of an sardonic alcoholic. You could relate to these guys. And then there was the satanic Mr. Spock, who was admirably logical for the 1960s. The most iconic Star Trek actor was the beautiful black woman Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), at the time when segregation was the norm in the Southeast. There was Chekov with his thick Russian accent and Scotty with his thick Scottish accent. There was a Japanese fellow called Sulu who occasionally had a role to play. These things were revolutionary for their times, but the force behind Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry wanted a diverse cast.

Reasons for iconic status
In my opinion, the success of Star Trek stemmed from being a simple show. Every episode was like a fable, and it had a message. All messages were simple. The plot was straight forward: Kirk was the brawn (and occasionally the brain), Spock was the brains and Bones was there for commentary. Kirk was irresistible and kissed all pretty women. Spock collected samples and conducted analysis. It was a soap opera where space was used for dramatic effect. Warp Speed got them anywhere in the universe in a short time. Teleportation meant they didn't have to show 2001-like landing scenes. Trouble often arose when the flip-open communicator was lost or just wouldn't work. Star Trek succeeded because it had believable characters, progressive storylines and good pacing that kept viewers engaged. It was loved because it was optimistic and cheerful, even when discussing very serious matters. It's a difficult balance to be both relevant and optimistic.

Conclusions
Of course, the fans loved the series obsessively, and a massive franchise was born. There have been many movies and sequels, some of them good (The Wrath of Khan) and some bad (Voyager). But most ideas can be found in TOS. For the Star Trek franchise and for most other science fiction. It was done first in Star Trek.

Here's a link to the summaries of every TOS episode by Eric Weisstein.

A History of Salt

Introduction
Worth his salt! Salt of the earth! With a pinch of salt! Salt it away! What do all these phrases have in common? Salt, of course. The idea is that salt is important, and a pinch of salt makes anything palatable. The word salary comes to us from the days when Roman army was paid in salt and means literally salt money. Salad means, literally, salted. As does sauce.

Salt. Sodium Chloride. Every human consumes it on a regular basis. Too much or too little of it causes health problems. If you drink too much water, it might reduce the level of sodium in your body to cause death by hyponatremia or water intoxication. A very important mineral, salt is.

History
Not that long ago, salt was a luxury. It made and broke kingdoms and dominated world trade. Without salt no civilization would have been possible. It allowed humans to preserve the seasonal bounty, and sustain themselves on it during harsher times. Free from the vagaries of weather and able to transport such food helped form empires – dependent for their very existence, as it were, on the white powder called salt.

How does salt preserve?
If you leave vegetables to the elements (moisture, air), within days they begin to rot away. Their decay will form lactic acid, which in turn slows the rotting, but that process is slow. Salt halts the decay or proteins and carbohydrates for a while, until enough lactic acid has formed which then acts as a preservative. Without salt, yeast forms, and you’re left with alcohol, not pickled gherkins.

Salt is even more important in curing meats. The famous hams from Italy and Germany are heavily salted. Salt extracts water from the cells, and thus disallows bacteria to form and feast on the dense source of nutrition. This process also enhances the flavor of food. It is salt that gives parma ham its flavor.

What role has salt played in civilization?
In Roman times, the condiment of choice was garum, a heavily salted fish sauce, quite similar to the fish sauces common in South East Asia. Over time, this condiment was forgotten, but the importance of fish and salt did not diminish. Salted cod, for example, changed the course of Western Civilization. Brought in from the cooler seas, cod could be preserved very well by just laying them in salt. Salt desiccated and preserved cod. Salted cod, upon soaking in water for a day, was found tastier than other alternatives. This was revolutionary as a perishable source of food could be preserved for long times, thus enabling exploration of the world.

Salt is also used to make soy sauce, which is a descendant of early Chinese fish sauce. Salt is also essential to making cheese, to making olives edible. These were the major foods of world civilization and continue to be so to this day.

Conclusions
So that’s the story of the humble white powder we eat in copious amounts every day. It’s everywhere: in pizza, in burgers, in cheese and lots of it in commercially produced foods. It provides us with a basic taste, and prevents us from getting muscle cramps. The best salt is said to come from French coasts, hand-picked just after dawn breaks. It’s called fleur de sel, literally flower of salt. Fleur de sel from Camargue, in Provence, France is a superstar of humble salt. And you can buy it from Amazon.com now.

Afterword
This is a rough transcript of a speech I gave a couple of years ago. A lot of it is based on the book Salt by Mark Kurlansky (ISBN 0802713734).

Recipe: Aloo Gobhi

Based on my experience with Indian restaurants in the US, a popular entrée is Aloo Gobi, or combinations of Alu/Aloo (potato) and Gobi/Gobhi (cauliflower). I don't like the way it's made in most Indian restaurants. The preparation commonly found is easier to assemble and more difficult to mess up than the authentic Punjabi version I make at home.

I like my recipes simple, and in Aloo Gobi, I intend for the taste of cauliflower and ginger to stand out. My version has no sauce, garlic, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, onions and tomatoes. I consider the addition of those ingredients as a subterfuge to disguise the poor quality of ingredients.

Utensils
Ideally, you need a seasoned cast iron wok-shaped utensil with a lid. A non-stick pot would work as well. In the preparation of this dish, please avoid corn oil, butter or other cooking fats that have a low smoking point. Canola oil is satisfactory, but not vegetable oil. It's not good for you anyway.

Ingredients
1 medium-sized cauliflower
3 white/boiling potatoes diced into 3/4-in cubes
2 tbsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp sunflower/safflower oil OR clarified butter/ghee.
A pinch of turmeric (for color)
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper (freshly ground)
1 tbsp chopped cilantro [optional]

Preparation
1. Wash the cauliflower, pat it dry, and break it into small florets about half the size of a golf ball. Discard the stems, or if you want to use them, peel the skin off of them.
2. Peel and dice the potatoes into 3/4-inch cubes
3. Heat the oil in the wok at medium-high heat for about a minute, and then drop the cauliflower florets in. Add a pinch of turmeric and toss for 3-4 minutes to coat the florets evenly with oil.
4. Drop in the potatoes, ginger and spices, and toss for 3-4 minutes to coat the potatoes with oil as well. The goal is to evenly coat the vegetables with a thin layer of oil, so they would not burn, and get dry-braised.
5. Reduce the heat to medium, and cook covered for 10 minutes. Note that depending on your utensil and heat source, cauliflower may brown in 10 minutes. In general, use medium-low heat when using a utensil that retains heat (such as a cast iron pot) and medium heat when cooking in a utensil that loses heat fast (such as Aluminum).
6. Stir once. There should be no burning of the cauliflower at this stage. Reduce the heat to low, and cook covered for 15 minutes.
7. If the cauliflower does not yield readily to bite, cook covered on low heat for another 5 minutes.
8. When the cauliflower yields to a bite (you don't want it to be mushy), turn off the heat, sprinkle chopped cilantro, replace the lid, and leave the utensil covered for another 5 minutes. If using a heavy cast iron utensil, leave the lid slightly ajar.

As you can see, the recipe is not as simple as dropping vegetables and spices in water and boiling the heck out of them with curry powder. Making good Aloo Gobi where cauliflower florets and potatoes hold their shape and are cooked perfectly takes practice, and a lot of it. But the taste is worth it.

Recipe: Guacamole

There are plenty of guacamole enthusiasts in the US. The authentic Mexican variety is more like a sauce, but in the US the predominant version is thick and chunky. I have seen many weird recipes for guacamole, with all sorts of bells and whistles, but I like my version best. Most good things in life are simple. Guacamole should bring the flavor of avocado to the front, and nothing else should be allowed to mask it. You want to choose an avocado that yields to your fingers, is not brown inside, and can be spread with a butter knife without too much effort.

Ingredients
2 Haas Avocados, peeled and pitted
2 tablespoons lime juice (or lemon juice), OR
Juice of 1 medium lime
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp finely chopped shallot OR red onion [Optional]

Preparation
Put all ingredients in a food processor, or use mortar and pestle. Mix.

Variations
There are many variations. My favorite is to add 1 deseeded chili pepper (Arbol or Thai). I don't like tomatoes in my guacamole. There is something called salsa and it utilizes tomatoes quite well.

Commentariis

The URL of my blog contains the term commentariis. The "s" is superfluous, and I would have liked to have it as commentarii, but I was too slow to get on the bandwagon and that name was already taken. So I made it a double and impure plural by adding an "s" at the end.

This term is inspired by the legendary commentarii of Julius Caesar from his Gaulish campaign. Considered a masterpiece of propaganda and statement of intent and style, it shows Caesar as an observant person and able commander who puts a consistent spin on things.

Gourmet Coffee and Café chains

Unless you live in rural Wyoming, you have probably seen and been a patron at the coffee chains such as Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, Peet's Coffee and Tea, Coffee Bean and others. Most of them started as luxury and novelty chains purveying gourmet coffee to US consumers. The business has done well, with many readily plunking down $3-$4 for a cup of lattè. The whole idea was inspired by the European cafés, though the American coffee shops are very different from their European counterparts. In European coffee houses, people go to sit, linger and talk, even for hours on end. Believe it or not, in Europe no one is likely to ask you to leave a coffee house, unless, of course, they're closing :). In Starbucks, for example, businessmen, entrepreneurs and students are the only groups who actually consume their food and drink in-store. This behavior, however, is likely influenced by the faster pace of life in US metros.

A Recent Trend
Retailing of espresso-based drinks has boomed in the past decade. Not that long ago, most Americans drank drip coffee bought in large tins from the local supermarket and brewed with a $25 Mr. Coffee coffee maker. A cup of watery brewed coffee was purchased from the gas station, cost 50 cents, and served just fine. Of course, espresso-based drinks existed, but not in a mass market. These days, especially in large metro areas with significant single and young population -- e.g. San Francisco, there are literally 4 of these chain stores on every city block. The trend is identical in suburbs, though to a lesser extent.

My Gripes
In general, I don't like Starbucks and other such companies, not because they're evil (I do take out coffee occasionally from such stores), but because:
1. They push espresso made exclusively from dark roasted beans on customers. I personally like espresso made with medium roasted beans à la Vienne (Viennese style). They should offer choice to engage the foodies, and to build loyalty.
2. Many youthful baristas don't know much about coffee. They just run machines, and are looking for another job anyway.
3. Their regular coffee is a joke. I hardly ever drink the coffee of the day, but they do no good to their image by serving coffee brewed 4 hours ago. It makes the store smell of burnt coffee grounds. Hint: Change the coffee filter and discard the coffee grounds. Don't serve poor-quality stuff.
4. They don't know what they stand for, and end up looking like any other general merchandise place -- offering stale tarts, hard pastry and ham and cheese sandwiches, thus massively diluting their business proposition.
5. There is consistency but they don't delight the customer. In retailing, unless you regularly (and mostly pleasantly) surprise the customer and make a personal connection, you're just another shop.

Gourmet in Gourmet Coffee
If one likes coffee, a good espresso maker (pressure based, not steam-based) can be had for $300. That's 3 months of one lattè every morning, just that a good Krupp will last 3 years, and you get to choose the beans yourself, and taste the terroir, not Starbucks which would be like "chicken". Unless one can tailor it to one's own taste, what kind of gourmet is one anyway?

I read an article a few months ago where the columnist's proposition was that every nation that got hooked on gourmet coffee soon got destroyed. The first example was the Ottoman Empire.

Happy Glucking!

What is chiaroscuro?

Chiaroscuro is an Italian word made up by joining two words -- chiaro (clear) and oscuro (dark). So it literally means clear-dark. In its strictest sense it is applied to paintings where the contrast between light and dark is used to enhance an image by making it stand out in all its glory and stereo-vision. I don't know much about painting, but the paintings of Caravaggio make the human body glow, and he's a famous name associated with chiaroscuro.

I named my blog chiaroscuro because it is very opinionated, and I blur and obscure, even obliterate opposing views. It hints at a contrast between what is being said pointedly, and what (a lot) is being left out.

Dead Letter Office (DLO)

We had ordered something online and had it shipped to our address in Southern California. The package was not insured but was tracked. And lucky for us it was, because it never got to us. After the expected period of delivery was over, our package was shown as being in Santa Clara, CA. A few weeks later, USPS website showed it to be in Saint Paul, Minnesota enduring the bitter cold.

Dead Letter Office (DLO)
On a whim, I mentioned this to a nice lady at the local post office. She informed us that Saint Paul is where the Dead Letter Office is. That's where the undeliverable packages go and wait for recovery. She directed me to another friendly staffer who took care of the matter by sending a fax to the DLO in Saint Paul with mailing addresses of sender and addressee, along with the tracking number and phone number of sender or addressee should any questions arise. Three weeks afterwards, the tracking number fetched thin air at the USPS website. At this point, we gave up hope again, such is the belief inspired by government agencies. We were wrong. The package was delivered within a week.

Kudos to USPS
Ol' Ben Franklin's system is working quite well. I know that the postage has been rising consistently since 1999, but know ye readers that the cost of sending a package or letter via USPS is far lower than that in other state-run post services in prosperous European countries. And that's in spite of the fact that dwellers in 48 contiguous states subsidize the postage to and from Alaska and Hawaii.

Cricket in India

For weeks now the country of India has been awash in the madness brought on by non-stop cricket. Everyone is whoring to get their face on TV. To be associated with the glitz and over-the-top extravaganza that is more entertainment than sport. I can't recall any other sport being afforded such status for such duration anywhere anytime.

It wasn't always so. Before the 1983 Cricket World Cup held in England, there was little cricket on the TV. Few people understood it, and few watched it. The Indian team lost most games anyway, and no one wanted to watch their team lose. The country was socialist and with the edict of self-reliance, there was just too much for everyone to do on a daily basis to allow for obsessions.

The Summer of 1983
That all changed in the Summer of 1983. Late one evening in June 1983, someone told us to tune in to Doordarshan, the only and state-run TV station in India at that time. West Indies were five down, and it appeared that they would lose the final of the 1983 World Cup, and that India, with their rag-tag two-bit outfit, would actually win. Till that time, the only sport India ever won at an international level was field hockey. It was late in the night when the game finished, and I don't remember how it ended. That changed everything. The socialist country had beaten the best in the world at the most hallowed ground. Not once, but twice.

Until that time, most children played other sports for recreation. I didn't even know how to play cricket, and I was not alone. Buoyed by the euphoria of success (As wrote Emily Dickinson -- Success is counted special, by those who ne'er succeed), every parent was buying cricket gear for their children, and the children were hitting some balls. The mood didn't last though, as West Indies toured India and humiliated them. But the deed was done. A whole country turned to a sport, productivity suffered as everyone was glued to their radios for any game of cricket involving India. Grade schoolers ran home during the lunch break to catch some action, were late and received punishments. A whole country, poor and backward, fed on the collective euphoria for a long time.

Endnote
Despite the madness, there is little infrastructure to support new players. The league cricket system is ludicrous. There are not enough facilities and there is little money unless you can make it big on the international level. The advertisers have made money and spent money on themes related to the national gratification brought on by cricket, but very little money has been invested in generating a system to produce better players -- a system where a determined person with talent can succeed. I have seen many talented players give up, and go to the dogs. And that was where the families supported the perilous path of becoming a sports person. Unless that changes, I will remain skeptical of the hype associated with cricket in India.

The Curry Craze

Curry is rampant in the US now. It conquered the UK decades ago, and is now invading the country across the pond. Therefore everyone wants to cook Indian food now. Even Julia Child's old and seminal French cookbook Mastering the art of French Cooking had many dishes with curry powder. I have seen many Indian restaurants in Paris, in Amsterdam and even all over Germany. That means everyone is telling everyone else how to make Indian food. Including many first-generation Indians who are very proud at having found something they're better than the Westerners at. Indians have major complexes about Europeans and European-Americans and European-Australians.

Funny recipes
I find the recipes quite funny. Almost all recipes ask you to fry onion, garlic, ginger and chili peppers. And then they ask for adding tomatoes. And then they ask you to add turmeric, red chili powder, garam masala and cumin seeds. To everything you cook. They also stipulate you garnish with cilantro. Even spinach and other greens are garnished by cilantro. It makes no sense gastronomically or visually. This is also a bit of a joke because at least 50 percent of Indians do not eat garlic, and many don't like ginger. Very few Indian dishes have cumin seeds in them, and even when cumin seeds are present, they're the last addition. Well, maybe the second after the garam masala which is added just before serving.
Such recipes give the impression that the base of all Indian food is the same. I have read that in many places. All curries have the same base. Why do we have different curries then, I wonder. It's just a comforting thought that you have distilled the Indian cuisine with one base -- like summarizing French cuisine by béchamel sauce.

Please don't fry spices in oil
My pet peeve is with people recommending frying spices in oil. It is not at all canon, and very few home cooks in India other than the aspirational ones do it. You are not supposed to fry all the spices in oil. Roast some spices on a very hot plate, yes, occasionally, but fry in oil, never. It paints your walls with a yellow patina and, of course, smells awful. Sadly it makes the taste worse, as the aromatic compounds in spices are borne away with oil vapor before they get a chance to bond with the food. Frying a little too long can mar a dish.

Bad recipes
Some recipes are just plain bad. They have you use ricotta cheese to make Kulfi. Others ask you to use heavy cream and whip the hell out of it. That's ice cream, and not good ice cream, with far more volume taken up by air than by milk solids. To make kulfi, you have to slowly simmer milk, till it thickens enough to lightly coat a spoon. I feel sorry for those who ate ricotta cheese kulfi. I associate ricotta cheese with body-builders who want to eat a lot of protein. I can't imagine them eating kulfi.

Rachael Ray version of Indian food is alive and well
The Indian recipes floating around are like Rachael Ray's Turdy Minute Meals (Get it? Thir-ty Minute Meals) where a lot of ingredients are thrown in and massive busywork is shown to produce something that does not look pretty. And probably tastes even worse.

My recommendation
My approach to cooking Indian food or any kind of food really is simple. Use fresh ingredients. Do not overcook meat or vegetables. Remove the scum when you make a broth. Add spices at the end, after you are satisfied with the saltiness. Cilantro loses its flavor when it's boiled for even one minute. Don't overdo cilantro. And seek balance.