American Chop Suey

I had learnt the technique of Chinese cooking many years ago, when there used to be column on ‘Chinese cooking’ in ‘MID DAY’ , the afternoon paper. There used to be a small chat and there would be two recipes per week, every Wednesday. Since I was interested in cooking, I tried two recipes every week dutifully and shared the food with my family. They loved it and encouraged me. The column went on for one year, and I had learnt all the basics of Chinese cooking.

Over the years, I have improved my skill and have even shared the tips with whom-so-ever-who-is-willing-to-learn.

Friendship means cooking specials meals for your favorite ones. This week I invited some of my friends for lunch. My friends also bring dishes whenever we meet over lunch at home  so that there is less pressure on hostess. I had made Thai curry and rice. But then I decided to make a snack that was simple, easy to make and cooked in just 5 minutes. I had fried noodles saved in the fridge, plus some exotic vegetables like red and green vegetables, Bakchoi and mushrooms so all I needed to do was stir fry veggies and pour sauce on it. ...

The romance started as soon as my friends saw the sweet n sour sauce simmering on the stove. I poured that sauce over the bed of fried noodles n crunchy veggies and as soon as the dish touched the dinning table, it disappeared, all I heard was the lip smacking sighs in the room full of food loving friends... such happiness in churning out a perfect meal

My friend liked it so much that she sent back her feedback the next day. She says: “It was a delicious meal. The crunchy veggies & crispy noodles with a delectable sauce with a subtle flavour of kaffir Leaves and the right amount of sweet & sour flavour, the " bang on " consistency of the sauce was simply a gastronomical delight! ! ! ! Thank you. YEH DIL, DIMAAG AUR TONGUE MAANGE MORE.”

I am not sure if I will be able to reproduce the same taste, but my friends want it again…..

Method

Arrange the deep-fried noodles in the plate * Stir fry exotic vegetables like broccoli  red and yellow capsicum, mushrooms, carrots, bakchoi, etc * cover the noodles with stir fried noodles

For sauce

Take 2cups water, add 1tbsp vinegar, 1tbsp tomato sauce, 1tbsp tomato ketchup, soya sauce, kafir leaves, basil leaves, vegetarian cube and 1tbsp corn flour. Mix and heat till it becomes thick

Pour over vegetables.

Food Bloggers Award Nite

Most of the bloggers blog for their own personal pleasure. There is no financial gain, whatsoever. Its more like a mini diary where one maintains life events jotting down day-to-day anecdotes to refresh the memory on an another day.

Blogging brings me immense pleasure. I am not sure if anybody is reading my blogs but I have the satisfaction of sharing my experience with virtual world. My blog is not designed to encourage comments because I do not like spams and promotions that appear on my blogs and the unnecessary waste of my time, deleting those useless comments. I normally get my feedback in my personal inbox that keeps me inspired to write more. During my recent trip to Spain this year, one Spanish woman married to Indian, came up personally to thank me for starting a food blog. She said that her hubby loved the food that she makes following my recipes.

That is the my most satisfying reward.

As more people enter the blogging world, it is gaining momentum and getting recognition too.

There is always somebody reading your blog and analyzing it and surprisingly, now there are awards for blogging too!!.

The first ever award for food blogging was held at J W Marriott in Mumbai. I am amazed at the effort the jury had taken to go through more than 700 blogs across various categories such as food blogging on travel and story telling, baking, creativity, photography, regional, etc. 

It is not an easy task.

My sincere thanks to Sameer Malkani, co-founder of Food Bloggers Association of India for organizing such a great event and bringing all the food bloggers under one roof.

There are many blogs that I follow and was pleased to see some of my food-blogger friends as winners accepting the awards

My sincere congratulations and best wishes to a good friend Alka Keswani for winning an award in 'Regional Categories' for her ‘Sindhi Cuisine’

 I was happy to see my food blogger friend Kalyan Kamrakar of Finely Chopped accept an award in ‘Food Culinary and Travel’ category

‪I do follow many facebook food blogs too and was happy to see Pet Pujari and Bukkad as winners.

Pet Pujaris won the ‘Group Blog Award’ while The Big Bhookad won an award for being the best blog in the "Restaurant Review" category.

Just blogging on a facebook also gain recognition. Sandeep Shreedharan proved it by winning in ‘facebook blog’ category

Some of the blogs have personal stories attached to their recipes and this becomes interesting to read. Was happy that ‘The Best Writing and Story Telling Award’ go to  Charis B  of Culinary Storm fame. 

The award was not limited to Mumbai bloggers only, it was awarded to Indian bloggers around the world.

There was one winner from USA too

When Farrukh Shadab of 'Cubes and Juliennes' from Delhi won the award for ''The Best Recipe Blog', my friend was so excited that she immediately sent him the message congratulating him.

The event was well organized and partially hosted by Sarnash Golia who kept us in splits with his humor.

Since it was a food bloggers event, the food served before and after the event was excellent.

The party continued till late night, with bloggers interacting with each other, clicking pictures and cementing the ties that revolve around……What else? But Food!!!

Potluck Party to Celebrate Terra Madre Day

People in Kenya revived the tradition of cooking in the earthenware pots, People in Istanbul gathered to discuss the importance of wheat as ‘Our wheat, our history’ Some people had honey festival, some people celebrated with workshops, art and discussion on seed and garden food, all the food-conscious people who wanted to revive the age-old tradition were celebrating around the world, a day called Terra Madre day. 

The worldwide Terra Madre network is working to create an alternative model of food production and consumption, in line with Slow Food's philosophy of good, clean and fair, good for our palate, clean for humans, animals and the environment, and fair for producers and consumers. 

10th December was Terra Madre day and it was going to be celebrated in my town, in Mumbai too.

A group of Mumbai food bloggers would cook traditional regional dish and enjoy the potluck party at one of the bloggers’ terrace. Rushina, our mentor brought all the food blogger together to celebrate this day. Nikhil Merchant was kind enough to do us the honor of sharing his terrace as a perfect venue to celebrate this event. The theme for this potluck was unusual traditional dishes from regional cuisines of India.

At 8pm, I arrived at Nikhil’s terrace to enjoy the potluck party. It was a full moon night and food bloggers had gathered in smaller groups, some sitting on a swing, some around the pool table, some near the drinks bar and some closer to the serving tables to enjoy their multiple visits for each serving, all enjoying the food and clicking their best shots. Everybody was excited sharing their dish, talking about its history and food culture associated with that particular cuisine. It was interesting to listen to other food blogger relating their story and some were happy to share their recipe too.

 I had brought with me the traditional mutton dish. It is the spicy dish cooked in cardamom and black pepper.

This is the traditional Sindhi dish and has been relished since Sindh days, when my family lived in Pakisthan, before the 1947 partition days. Mutton is stir fried in ghee with black pepper and cardamom till it is properly coated with the ingredients. Spinach, tomatoes, green chilies, ginger, coriander powder and salt is added and it is allowed to cook till all the juice dries up. It is then mixed and stirred till the oil begins to float. One cup of water is added and it is allowed to simmer till it is tender. Chopped coriander leaves, black pepper and lime juice is added before serving. This is a very healthy dish and tastes good when served with a buttered Bhakri roti

Talking about food makes one more hungry, and I shifted my gaze towards the drinks station, some were enjoying varied combinations of the drinks I am not familiar with. I stuck to my usual fresh juice.

 Finger food is what I am fond of and most of the parties that I attend; I normally have my fill on snacks.

 There was a huge variety of main dishes, just spoonful of each was not doing justice to the food, but since that was the only way that I would be able to taste all the dishes, I tasted as many dishes as I could.

 I am not a desert person; therefore, at desert station it was just tiny-viny bits to taste the flavor.

 The best part of this event was the take-away goodies which were on and under the Christmas tree. The cookies and goodies hung on the tree, sauces, masalas and sweets packed in beautiful packets surrounded the tree.

 I met some interesting people, made new friends and came back with happy memories of the event spent with like-minded people.