Stuff-I-Like: #4 That Cheesy Feeling

For connoisseurs, it isn't really that difficult. I know a few who could accurately plot how salty, smooth, pungent, tangy, sharp, piquant, milky, dry, mild, ripe or wheyed a lump of Camembert feels in the month of August, depending on its ageing.

However, trying to describe the taste of cheese to someone who hasn't tried it at all is like describing the difference between dark cyan and teal to someone who's been blind all their life. Far more difficult than describing a cat's eyes or coffee's fragrance. Cheese orgasm, on the other hand, has seen the most choicest of metaphors and similes seeking affiliation. A few come to mind as I go back a couple of days in time, Diwali eve, the last time we (me + the usual suspects) took a dip into this pond of cheese-bursty-white-sauced-penne-like-pasta-tubes... (Gomito, to be specific: it's like penne with an elbow)

Wipe the drool off your keyboard already...

A cheese explosion in the mouth, a burst of taste, a sudden hot lava-like spread embracing the tongue, a warm fountain filling the corners, a bedsheet of flavour, a river of sinful ecstasy forming deltas of deliciousness, an éclairs of cheesy delight, melting glaciers of awesomeness... And before the moans and groans could cease, lo and behold! Lasagne Varuno was there! (Or was that Varuno alla Tuscany?)

Making a ceremonial offering to Aristaeus, the Greek God of cheese (true that!), shortly before eyeing it and saying, "Oh Fuck it! Let's dive!"

Layer upon layer, baked spaghetti with the delicious combination of tomatoes mixed with the yeasty goodness of soft bread perfectly seasoned with softened onions with just the right amount of grated cheese, all mixed perfectly together with hot, cheesy cheese topped with a garnishing of coriander... And all finished before you could say Dhaniya! And again the Cheese bursts... The explosiveness of the dish could easily put Guy Fawkes to shame on his own night (Remember, remember, the fifth of November?).

Besides the man of the hour, Varun "Mr.Cheesus Christ" Singh (my companion from DADT) himself, joining in were Aamod "Call-me-Mod" Shanker, Aditya "Awwn..." Sriram, Satyabrata "aka-Bunty" Mohanty, Naveen K. Sharma (Best roomy ever :P), Praveen K. Sharma (Bhaiya!), Aditi "Arre!" Gupta, Divya "What-can-be-said!" Tak, and Palkush "Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar" RaiChawla (Mera!), all those who made the evening so very special, and without whose presence, well, frankly, I could've have had some more!

What followed is best left for diaries and journals, accounts to be read at farewells, wedding receptions and eulogies in years to come.


Title Credits, Photo Courtesy and Culinary Orgasm Credits: Varun Singh (Top Chef, IIT Kharagpur)


Ulti-Peace...

Stuff-I-Like: #3 Cats

How can you not like cats? Indeed, any resistance is futile in the face of a little fluffy creature that roll up on your knees and purrs from joy. Cats are loving, playful and charming companions.

But its about more than being cute. They are sophisticated, sleek, attractive, graceful... no wonder the Egyptians were floored!

They are independent, keep themselves clean, and won't tolerate being put on a leash. Cats exude an air of superiority that makes those who share their lives with them feel privileged.They have a mind of their own that you want to respect rather than to subdue.

If you like cats and have one near you, you'd love to spend time watching it, as they live in their own world that is closely bound up with ours, but doesn't go round our world. You can feel a unique sense of unanimity and trust which it suggests by rubbing its head against your leg.

The air of mystery about them, the way they walk, silently but not slowly, their agile bodies that will climb anywhere, go through anything, and whatever happens, will always land on their feet. Quiet as they usually are, a meow is the most calm animal sound known to mankind, next only to the purr. Ah, the purr... Nothing could be more relaxing to me than the gentle rumbling of a contented kitty.

And indeed, many cats manage to reach places the most ambitious of men can't dream of ;)

You can be a cat's owner but not its master.

Fun fact: The weirdest cat on record was a female called Mincho who went up a tree in Argentina and didn't come down again until she died six years later. While treed, she managed to have three litters with equally ambitious dads.

Peace...

Stuff-I-Like: #2 Walking

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.
--Raymond Inmon

Walking is good for solving problems - it's like the feet are little psychiatrists.
--Terri Guillemets

I think I've always liked walking, and my interest in this activity has grown rapidly since I took it up nearly two decades ago. On the contrary, the rest of mankind, after 1.5 million years of rambling along, has very recently (since just a millennium or two) nearly given up strolling on horses, bullock carts, cycles, cars, trains and aeroplanes. But then, striding along is more than just a form of biped locomotion or an exercise (that is, if you count reduction of cancer, arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, anxiety, depression, obesity, high BP and LDL (bad) cholestrol; and increase in life expectancy, bone health, and HDL (good) cholesterol; as health benefits, minus any chances of pulling a muscle or spraining your back).

There are the environmental, economic and social concerns of course, with "walkability" now considered a significant parameter to measure liveability in urban design. More the footsteps, lesser the carbon footprint - building sustainable cities IS a walk in the park!

But walking is about more than these mundane considerations. Just peep into the details of evolutionary and philosophical progression of man, and we see that gait has been vital to our cerebral growth, with millennia of human development firmly based upon this connection in walking and thinking. Just imagine, a street in Greece, and an old, grey, wise-looking, bare-footed man in his sixties striding along with a young man in mature manhood, handsome, well-shod and dressed with gold, discussing ethics, politics, morality and other ideas. The logical flow of thought smoothly permeates into words with each step, and the plinth of western philosophy is laid on the walks of Athens.

The elder one is Plato, walking with his favorite disciple Aristotle, who created the Peripatetic school of philosophy modeled on the walks he took with his students in the natural environs of his academy. Plato himself considered his learning a product of his walks with Socrates.

Closer home, we see hiking as the mainstay of spiritual enlightenment, with devotees from all walks of life trekking along pilgrimages to meet their favourite imaginary friends. Mahatma Gandhi really walked the talk on civil disobedience, bringing about a socio-political revolution rambling his way to Dandi.

Be it a balader sur les Champs-Élysées, a stroll around downtown Toronto, or even circumambulations of our humble "2.2" at the institute, one just needs to recall a few steps to rush in a flood of memories of times well spent. Oh, and how many of you noticed the banner on this blog?

Keep Walking!

Peace...

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.
--Paul Dudley White

Stuff-I-Like: #1 Coffee

Coffee, unlike life itself, should be taken very seriously. A good cup of coffee is like sex, magic and love. It’s a feeling one can’t really define.

(Source)

In my opinion, the only reason coffee hasn't seen as widespread regulation or taboo as alcohol or tobacco is because caffeine is far more addictive and loved than nicotine/ alcohol. I love coffee, but would defer from making this a forum for discussing its positive/ negative health effects. Because, frankly now, which true coffee lover really gives a damn! I am an insomniac all by myself anyway; I don't NEED caffeine for that. And drinking coffee because it reduces the risk of colon cancer, is like getting down to it solely to boost immunity.

What person of substance wouldn't love Coffee... the smell, the taste, the look, and also, the culture - the cafe culture. The filter coffee, the latte, the au lait, the Irish brew, the one from the anals of South-East Asia (no spelling mistakes there), the frappe, the liqueur, the frappuccino... and above all muggle brews, the BLACK ! Oh how I missed it, my only regret of living in this backwater town full of chaiwallahs, who not only kill the taste of coffee, but follow it up dark alleys, beat it up and rifle through its pockets (Thankfully, we have a Cafe Coffee Day outlet now, which works OK to my needs). So many would just call it a beverage, putting in obscene quantities of milk and sugar to take away the "bitterness". But then there are those who believe it should be respected and revered for its own sake...

Everybody should believe in something. I believe I'll have another coffee.

Peace...