Aren't enquiring minds difficult things to bend ? Recently I was reading a recipe for dressing up a store-bought crab meat, with nice photographs and a reminiscence-backstory. One phrase* within that sent me thinking up an old movie title "Guess who's coming to dinner ?". *Chatting up versus Chatting with:
>> I often feel sorry for people who post happy family photos on fb or social media, and wonder what sordid things they are trying to hide. In my case too, I am always thinking about what went on behind the scenes. You know that picture perfect, Christmas morning picture where the family is wearing match red/green pajamas in front of the Christmas tree with all the gifts beautifully wrapped. - How many times hubby had to click auto-mode, run back to scene, show wife, check if she is happy how tucked in her tummy looks, and then run back to repeat. - How many toys and amazon packages had to be dumped/kicked in to various closets or just outside the scene to make the living room look picture perfect? - How much time mom spent on Amazon finding sizes that would work for the entire family and arrive on time and then process picture and then upload a day or so after Christmas - so it still feels in the season? - How many meals before and after photo-shoot had to be "take-out" since mom/dad are not going to be able to slave in kitchen - before getting the family decently fed and dressed up for the photo shoot? And for this I appreciate the effort. And I learnt one thing recently from my cousin. At their home, they have Diwali celebration, where it is about the prayers, and sweet making, and eating together as a family, crackers, rangoli. And then have - another event at home which is the "Diwali" photo-shoot, where hubby sets up camera, background, props from the celebration etc. And mom preps kids and herself. And the second is the photo shared with the family on FB and whatsapp. And boy was I impressed at the reason why their family photos all looked out of the world!
I happen to write a post on @nakshatra1 thread on curry.... and then in my wanderings yesterday I bought a red snapper fish... and decided to try fish head curry. To be honest, I do not like cooking FHC. It is best in the hawker stalls of southeast asia. So I look up where in Singapore one would enjoy this delicacy... and here it is: Is it Chinese, Indian or Malay? This is another ambiguous dish which probably has a South Indian origin, but has been heavily influenced by the various ethnicities in Singapore. What I do know, is that it’s delicious. Either half a head or the whole head of a red snapper is stewed in curry with assorted vegetables like lady’s finger (okra) and brinjal (aubergine). The Indian-style of curry has heavier spices and flavours, while the Chinese-style is lighter and sweeter. Variants include the Assam-style fish head curry, which has an added tinge of sourness from tamarind fruit (assam). Best Curry Fish Head Stalls: Gu Ma Jia (assam-style): 45 Tai Thong Crescent, Singapore 347866 Bao Ma Curry Fish Head (Chinese-style): #B1-01/07, 505 Beach Road, Golden Mile Food Centre, Singapore 199583 Zai Shun Curry Fish Head (Chinese-style): Blk 253 Jurong East St 24, First Cooked Food Point, #01-205, Singapore 600253 (closed on Wed) Karu’s Indian Banana Leaf Restaurant (Indian-style): 808/810, Upper Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 678145 Samy’s Curry (Indian-style): 25 Dempsey Rd, Singapore 249670 Read more: 30 Famous Local Foods To Eat In Singapore Before You Die
Hehe! No aberration escapes your micro-sight. Friends in a whatsapp group sign off with a 'chat up later' which I found chummy informal over the customary 'chat later'. What is the significance of that 'up'? Chatting is inherently informal, add something superfluous like "up" to it, and that turns out super-informal in a continuation ...as if .. keep the crab stove/insight burning, I will resume soon. Don't turn it 'down'.
Fried carrot cake: 'crispy version with the cake fried on top of a beaten egg to create a crust and chunks of cake.' Jeez! Such labour to replicate a cake-ish sight that too with no carrot.
Chatting up is an old old phrase that is quite English. In America, we don't use that much. "Chat Up someone" means foisting a self on another person, usually a stranger, (but could also be a friend), with the hopes to see more of that person. Preferably in private, that very evening. Successful philanderers are supposedly good at chatting up their conquests to agree to "go home with" them. Perhaps to eat spiced crab. I was listening to James Obrien (LBC radio) while browsing here... and he is now talking about talking to complete strangers on trains (tubes). Old lady called him up and he asked if she gets chatted up in the tube. She answered "not anymore.. these days". Another caller said that it happens to her in bus route number 101 (London), and she is 72 !
In an American stand-up comedy Kashoggi was pronounced g-ghi (hard g- hard g) whereas the continental pronunciation is g-jhi (hard g- soft g). Mistaken, played the sequence again. It was definitely hard g-ghi throughout the skit. Soon enough the comedian pronounced Hyundai as Hun-day! What was that hack? I looked up and Hyundai had three different pronunciation -- Korean, American, European. The American pronunciation rhymes with Sunday (since the super bowl ad aired?). Worried, inadequate, confused, how could people claim to speak English when there is no longer standard or common English but only regional English. If I called you up and greeted "Howdy", would you mistake that for Audi car?
I just happened to read 'men in kitchen'. My observation might transcend the common grievance, hence posting it here. I have noticed and studied men in kitchen with a grunt, but an approving guttural grunt. Indian dinner dates alternating at respective homes could be fashioned into stand-up material for any comedian, even the Hun-day comedian, when observed acutely. On a eat-at-home dinner date, whilst the woman cheerfully grinds the khandani masalas to boil the vegetable stew to aromatic explosion, the man swaggers out of his kitchen with a tussled salad or baked pasta. Are finessed meals emasculating to a likewise Indian man in urban rising with subtle contention in cooking -- not whether a man should cook, but what a man should cook. Ask him to arrange breakfast and he would be thrilled at the vision of scrambled eggs with toast at her bedside tonk whilst she anticipated rava dosa with three types of chutneys. He would brag that he used organic butter whilst she chomps on her scattered thoughts on why the man does not surprise her with a plate of piping pav bhaji in baguette at least. Blade, rotors, oven, smoothies and vitamix are his occupational indulgence. Men feel macho and dissociative to cook in styles (like: pasta and tofu stir) that have not been helmed by maternal aprons in their childhood household. But what about rasam and pacchadi? No way, he grins and resists. Is it elaborate? but he cooks that damn Paleo or Mayan intricacy. What is this illusion of a urban man resisting the de facto 'slender' and 'delicate' and 'coy' recipes while bickering in disputed custodianship of recipes? Egg Florentine taught by a bachelor friend is manly but not the Egg Curry of his beloved grandma! No 'jaanuu, 'baby', 'men are sexier in sambhar' ever convinces that hardliner into adopting traditional cuisine. Whilst some women in the past have been able to lure men into kitchens to coax even the minuscule contribution in the form of chopped onions and tomatoes, their egalitarian successors today still grapple with their inherited men with overtones of 'wimpy holdback' and 'gallant delight' in cooking. (Meat biryani is the most manly by the way, same cannot be attributed to her chicken biryani! CB for your home-styled dinner date, MB for mine.)
Would he want to marry if he had been binge reading her blog where she lays out "Sound of Music" ishtyle --- these are a few of my favorite things --- list ? Pav-bhaji on baguettes, And dosa with chutneys, Bright copper dum with biryani in dem. No easy quickies for breakfast, or bed. These are a few of my favorite things
A witch, eh ? Some American conservatives think that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, US Congresswoman is a witch who is constantly cursing Trump, and preventing him from making america great again. <source> The next time I change my forum-avatar picture, I will borrow AOC's face in the picture:
