Some Cribbing and a Cupful of Desire

I don't like kids. Particularly in restaurants, movie theaters, airplanes & my house.

Gaaah, who am I kidding? I don't like kids anywhere, period. They are generally crying, wailing, throwing tantrums, misbehaving, destroying/messing up things around them, or acting like monsters. Not to mention they are major attention seekers. But more than kids, I can't stand parents who don't know how to/won't control their kids in public places.

Last weekend, we went for dinner to this nice restaurant where I had the most decadent dessert, but more on that after I'm done cribbing about kids.

There was a kid running around the restaurant while his parents were chatting away with friends at a table next to ours. He would often come and start running around our table. We tried scaring him away with angry looks but he just wouldn't leave us alone. And then he started poking his finger into our food!

So imagine you've gone to a really nice restaurant with your partner/friend/family/whoever and all you want is a quiet, sumptuous meal with lots of nice conversation and there's this random kid who comes over and starts poking his finger into your food! What would you do?

We turned around and asked the mother to get a hold on him, and this takes the cake - her reply was "shayad woh khana chahta hai, thoda khila dijiye na (maybe he wants to have some of your food, feed him some"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just stared at her open-mouthed. When I finally managed to pick my jaw up off the floor, I told her that I wasn't there to feed her kid. Neither were the other people in the restaurant. And if she couldn't control him at a public place, she had no business bringing him to one.

At this point, the manager intervened and thankfully, he had the sense to point out to the harebrained woman that there were perfectly behaved little kids at other tables as well, so could she please look after hers as he wanted everyone at the restaurant to have an enjoyable meal, and moreover, the kid might hurt himself by falling/running into furniture?

I was impressed by this man.

While we are on the topic of kids, I got a little shock this morning.

I ran into two of my neighbors who have 1 year old kids. They were going to drop their kids off at school!!!

I asked them what kind of school exists for 1 year olds and apparently, it's a play school that starts at 9 and ends at 12. But isn't 12 months too young for a child to be going to ANY kind of school? And both of these women are stay-at-home moms, so why do they need to be sending their child to school anyway?

I tactfully enquired whether they thought the child was old enough to be sent to school and they blatantly replied that they do it so they can get some peace in the morning and get household chores out of the way, pack their husbands off to work and get their pujas & what not done.

I mean, this really pisses me off. Everyone has the right to "peace" but if peace is so important to you, DON'T.FUCKING.HAVE.KIDS.

When you decide to have a kid, you undoubtedly & unequivocally give up your right to "peace" at least for a few years. It's like people have this pressure to procreate and then the kid can go to hell.

Why do people have kids when they can't take care of them? Gets my goat every single time.

Phew! So now that we're done cribbing about pesky, annoying kids, let me tell you about the mindblowing dessert that I had at the restaurant. Chocolate fondant with crushed peanuts and butterscotch ice-cream with peanut and salted caramel. Oh man, it was orgasmic.

For non-food connoisseurs, the fondant was essentially a cupful of molten chocolate, baked so it was slightly crusted on top. It had crushed peanuts in it and I love peanut butter, Reeses peanut butter cups and peanut Snickers, so I really enjoyed it. The crushed peanuts gave the molten chocolate a slight crunch as well as a slightly salty, nutty taste. The butterscotch ice cream was equally good. It too contained crushed peanuts and was drizzled with a salted caramel sauce. You couldn't help but moan with every bite.

I'm not much of a picture taker (basically I'm just a lazy person!) so I don't have pictures of this mouth-watering dessert. But here's an idea of what it looked like. All that the picture below is missing are tiny bits of peanuts and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce :)

Picture courtesy: http://blog.5min.com/

My Mini-Vacation is Over :(

Pizza slices and lamb stew at Pali Village Cafe...

Baked Philly cheesecake, chocolate "sin" cake and white chocolate latte at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf...

Bacon, ham, salami pizza and cheesy pasta with chicken & mushrooms at Pizzaria...

Baked Philly cheesecake and mango cheesecake from Moshe's...

Soba noodles with bacon & orange zest in a creamy sauce, pan seared chicken with porcini, caramelized onion sauce & roasted potatoes and Baked Philly cheesecake at Salt Water Cafe...

A box of yummilicious chocolate eclairs and brownie cheesecakes from Sante brought by a wonderful friend...

Two foodies, dessert lovers, shopaholics and BFF enjoying a weekend off together...

The Knife trying his best to make a disgusted face...

And my chubby face and chubby arms having made it to a celebrity food blogger's blog (isn't that just delightful!)

I had the most fun mini-vacation! More on it coming up soon...

What you did over the weekend?

Black Forest, Sausages, Sauerkraut, Pretzels: All Things German

Did you know that the Black Forest cake is named after the Black Forest region in Southwest Germany? And the original Black Forest Cake, or Black Forest Gateau as the Europeans call it, is LOADED with whipped cream (Gateaux are very light sponge cakes with a rich icing/ filling).

The Black Forest Gateau consists of two or three thin layers of cake sandwiched between thick layers of fresh whipped cream, covered on the top & all around with whipped cream and decorated with whipped cream, maraschino cherries & chocolate shavings. It also consists of Schwarzwald Kirschwasser, a cherry liquor from the Black Forest, or Schwarzwald region of Germany.

The baked cake is stored for 24 hours before it is dressed with the whipped cream & cherries. From the outside, you’re only supposed to be able to see the whipped cream and not the chocolate cake.

The original Black Forest cake is supposed to look like this:

(Photo courtesy: http://www.andreasrecipe.com/)

Or this:

(Photo courtesy: http://www.kitchenmishmash.com/)

Contrast these with the poor excuse for Black Forest cakes that's served in India.

Did you know that an average German eats approximately 67 lbs (approx. 30 kgs) of sausages in a year? The sausages are accompanied by sauerkraut (got the spelling right without help from the dictionary!) which is made from cabbages & onions. The cabbages are thinly sliced, pounded, sprinkled with generous amounts of salt & let to stew in the salt for 6-8 weeks!! The salt drains the water from the cabbages and they are then cooked with onions.

Did you know that pretzels are German too? Legend has it that a monk, in 610 AD (beginning of the Middle Ages) was trying to use leftover bread dough. He twisted the dough in the shape of arms in prayer (Christians in those days prayed with their arms across their chest, apparently) to reward children who had learnt their religious lessons well. He named them “pretiola” in Latin, which means "little rewards". The three empty holes were meant to help children grasp the concept of the Holy Trinity.

(Photo courtesy: http://michaelprocopio.wordpress.com/)

Pretiolas spread throughout Europe over the centuries and became really popular, particularly in German-speaking countries where they came to be known as “pretzels”.

Almost all food in the world has such interesting origins, most often than not drawing from the local culture and tradition of the place it originates from. Some of the stories around their origin are too old to be traced or verified but they are amazingly interesting stories nonetheless. The world of food is a fascinating one.

Yes, I’ve been watching a lot of Travel & Living lately. :)

One For The Knife

I apologize for the quality of the picture. Taken with a camera phone.

So We’ve Been Good This Weekend!!

Shopping (for clothes, shoes & bags though not necessarily in that order) & desserts are two of my biggest weaknesses, and I was good on both counts.

After unexplained and totally unnecessary crying over the complete absence of shopping in my life, I went to my favorite store (in India at least) - Cotton World - over the weekend. I hadn’t been there in AGES, so I was ravenous for clothes! Raided the entire store and ended up trying some 20 outfits (!!) out of which I short-listed 9. But obviously I couldn’t walk out of the store with all 9 items in tow, or it would’ve put all those months of abstinence to waste.

So I went on another round of trials, after which I sadly and with a leaden heart let go of four. It was a very tough decision folks, to let go of a sexy top, uber-cute pajamas (baby pink with white polka dots) & the cutest sleeping shorts (with pink & purple hearts on them et al). Sob sob :((

I was depressed. To put myself in a happier place again, I decided I wanted cheesecake. I headed to a patisserie....but....just then....alarms bells went off in my head! (Remember, we haven’t lost the entire 10kgs yet?)

Gaaaaah....goddamn alarm bells! They always go off at the wrong time!!

So there I was standing in front of the patisserie with the sad face of a baby that wants chocolate but doesn’t get it, while there was a huge war waging inside my head....like the war between the id & the superego! 'Id' wanted that cheesecake, which I could so clearly see calling out to me from inside the patisserie (they have voices, trust me!), but the superego was yelling “Leave! You’re fat! You don’t need that cheesecake!”

And I walked away.

Sigh…depravity! How difficult can life get? But the same evening, my sister came over with a box of freshly baked, warm & gooey chocolate chip and walnut cookies from Cookie Man.

There’s always justice in the universe, you know? What's yours shall be yours forever. No one can take it away from you :P

Tiramisu

Okay, stop salivating. This post has nothing to do with the picture above :) But did you know that Tiramisu literally means 'Pick Me Up'?

That's the theme of this post and it happens at every gym, picking-up that is. I fail to understand what’s so attractive about sweaty, stinking men & women who look anything but graceful (no one looks graceful while exercising).

Yet, at every gym you will find women who come dressed up in the most non-functional clothes. They spend the entire time preening at men, and are generally more interested in checking themselves out in the mirror and talking on their cell phones than in exercising. You’ll never find them lifting anything beyond 2 lbs or running on the treadmill...they’ll always walk leisurely as running will make them sweaty you see!

Not that they need to run or be at the gym in the first place, the thin bony creatures that they are. And you’ll find men who’re more interesting in talking to these PYTs than working out. I mean, how desperate do you have to be to have to come to the gym to pick people up?

There are a man & woman in my gym, probably in their 40s. The man keeps chasing the woman across the gym. He’ll follow her to all the machines and try to make conversation. She’ll be sprawled out on the middle of the gym floor giving orgasmic poses, while he'll stand there salivating. It’s all really weird and kind of gross, actually. So obviously I was under the impression the man is trying to get something going with her.

Turns out they are husband & wife!!!

I mean, how was I supposed to know? They don’t even look like each other! Well...ok…a husband & wife aren’t really supposed to look like each other…but there’s a husband-wife vibe between them...which is completely missing in this couple!! I mean, why would you salivate at a public place watching your wife sprawled out across the floor? Wouldn’t you get enough of that at home already?

Maybe he doesn’t.

PS1: Factoid about Tiramisu - Venetian courtesans used to eat it before their men arrived for the evening because they believed it would give them the energy to make love all night!

PS2: Gotta love the Italians for their fine taste in food & beverages. Cases in point - pizza, pasta, lasagna, cappucino and Tiramisu!

Dezzert anyone?

I strongly recommend the strawberry baked cheesecake at 5 Spice, Bandra. I can't believe I'd never tried it before inspite of being a 5 Spice regular. IT IS TO DIE FOR!

I've been trying to find such a cheesecake in Bombay for the past five years but none came close to it. Have it & you will know what I mean.

Just remember to order the strawberry BAKED cheesecake & not the regular strawberry cheesecake.