Everything I Ate - Japan

Charcoal Kaiseki Dinner at Honke Bankyu Bankyu Ryokan

2009-12-05T19:49:00.000-08:00

The way to dinner on Day 2 - the Honke Bankyu is way bigger than it appears, and we had no idea it had this whole extra wing with private dining rooms...

our personal charcoal grill was all set up

the initial set up of my tray, before all the individual dishes were brought in

Appetizers. Couldn't tell you what they were if my life depended on it. Not that I've forgotten, we just couldn't define what any of this was. Nicely done, though.

Can't believe I've overexposed the tofu! It's hard to describe just how out of this world creamy and silken this is - if there is anything of this sort in the US, please somebody let me know. I've never had anything like it.

I think this was fish? In sweet miso sauce w/ pickled plums?

the lovely Maki-san who took care of us, bringing more and more food

more tofu, this time fried, in some amazing clear broth

herbed and fruited jellied somethings w/ fresh herbs and grated daikon

hot sake heated over the charcoals

beef grilled at the table, in butter

ingredients for a chicken veggie hot pot that's heated at the table as well

sauce and condiments for the little hot pot

and here the finished beef...

and the finished hot pot. Loved it!

a yuba gratin! Yuba is a kind of tofu skin or soy milk skim that is created during the making of tofu.

as a gratin, it's super light and flaky. Filled with creamy-cheesy ham goodness

and miso soup as the last course. There must have been rice, too, but I must have been too full since I didn't take a picture.

fresh fruit, whipped cream and a little cake for dessert. Another spectacular dinner.

Lunch in small town Japan

2009-12-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

After a morning hike and not quite ready yet for lunch, we whiled away a happy hour or so sitting outside a small grocery store on the main road through Yunishigawa (yes, that's the one seen below), watching the world amble on by while munching on some shrimp crackers (Ritesh had a beer) and pondering our options for lunch.

Before we knew it, we'd made a friend in an older gentleman who just came back from a fishing trip with his daughter and who decided that since I was letting Ritesh laze in the sun with a beer before noon, his daughter would have to let him, too. So he joined us and offered us some of his fresh wasabi - spicy stuff, as you can imagine.

And then the granny who runs the grocery store offered us some home-brewed nigori (unfiltered sake) on the house - and it was delicious! If we hadn't been at the beginning of the trip and dreading to schlep it all over the country, we would have bought a bottle or two. Of course, nigori is very uncool these days (it's the kind of thing that little old ladies offer you in the countryside, precisely) and I kind of made a fool of myself later on requesting some in a very hip sake bar in Kyoto where of course they didnt't carry any, but ah well, I think this is seriously good stuff.

The place we settled on for lunch, right across the street from our grocery store

Ritesh's curry rice and tonkatsu (fried pork)

My own katsudon, which is a bowl of rice w/ tonkatsu, egg and condiments. Very good, homey comfort food.

Dessert courtesy of the Honke Bankyu back in our room at the ryokan - a soft cookie with a nutty filling in the middle. Not quite as good as yesterday's sweet, which was so amazing that I went out and bought myself a whole box of it, whether I'd have to schlep it across the country or not...

Here's the box:

since we were the only non-Japanese around, this was composed especially for us :)

what you get when you remove the paper, open the lid and remove the plastic lining (the Japanese do some serious wrapping):

And here is one of the amazingly light and almost transparent yuzu (Japanese citron) daifuku. Oh wait, I've blogged about these before? I'm not surprised. Eating one of these is a quasi-spiritual experience, the mind goes still with this much deliciousness, so never mind some reiteration here...

Honke Bankyu Breakfast

2009-12-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

the best green tea ever, in the room...

...made with these fantastic tea bags (looks like gyokuro if you ask me)...

...and water from this fantastic water heater, which keeps the water at the perfect temperature depending on what kind of green tea you're brewing. I want one of these so badly - but they're pricey and clunky and take up a huge amount of space. Plus they must use a good amount of energy as well, so probably not a good idea after all.The buffet downstairs in the breakfast room - an embarrassment of riches. The weird looking green things with the mushy brown sauce on the angular plate in the middle are actually sweet green mochi with a sweet (red bean?) sauce, everything else is savory. Grilled sardines, pickled cabbage, pickled daikon, cucumbers, pickled ume plums, edamame, stir-fried veggies...

...fabulous smoked salmon, a pickled bean sprout salad, and just regular mixed salad with three fabulous dressings .

So we would find our way back to our table from the buffet? Which was all of 10 feet away? Or maybe to prevent others from sitting at our table? We were a little puzzled by the name tags everywhere, but they sure were pretty.

my plate - favorites were the salmon, the omelette, and the sweet green mochi

fresh noodle soup w/ wasabi and some fabulously silky tofu in broth, both great

two rice congee porridgey dishes, both kind of bland and gooey and not so favorite
great salad w/ miso dressing and miso soup (loved the salad for breakfast! Who needs French toast?)

a happy camper enjoying a good start into the dayfresh pomegranate juice

The damage we did. Ahem. It seems that after all the jetlag-induced instant ramen for breakfast in the first few days and then the hiking in the fresh mountain air and the soaking in the onsen, we just couldn't get enough. They must have thought us a bunch of barbarians.

Raw deer meat at Honke Bankyu Ryokan

2009-11-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

the last fiery instant ramen on our last (for now) morning in Tokyo

took the Yamanote line from Shimbashi to Tokyo station, left part of our baggage in lockers, and got on the shinkansen to Utsunomiya, where we had to change to the Nikko line - and managed to get lunch, right inside the train station. This is one of the restaurants where you place your order and pay at a vending machine outside, and then you go inside to get and eat your food.
here's the menu:here's where you place your order:

this was my choice - soba tempura

and here's Ritesh's curry and rice

and here's what the real thing looked like inside - not bad!

Some green tea chocolate for dessert, while waiting for the Nikko line train to Imaichi, where we had to get off and walk from the JR station to the private Tobou line station at Shimo-Imaichi, from where we took one train to Kunigawa Onsen and then another to Yunishigawa Onsen, from where we would take a bus to take us to our ryokan (trad. Japanese inn). Quite a trip, but beautiful.

a welcoming snack at the ryokan Honke Bankyu Bankyu in Yunishigawa - the best daifuku ever.

Not sure actually if these would be called daifuku as well, since they were not filled with red bean paste but with yuzu (Japanese lemon) paste, but it's the same mochi-wrapped principle. The most delicate and delicious thing ever. I ended up buying a box to take home...

And here's dinner at the ryokan - a rustic version of the traditional multi-course kaiseki, including charcoal grilled items. Kaiseki is all about balancing the taste, texture, colors and presentation of food, using fresh, local, seasonal ingredients. Sadly, I was too shy the first night to take more pictures and close-ups, so you'll have to take my word that it was delicious. I was more brazen in my picture taking the following night, having realized that the Japanese around us all came equipped with cameras and were taking pictures of everything as well...

our personal charcoal grill

ground chicken w/miso, charcoal-grilled - amazing. we couldn't even tell it was chicken, that's how different it tasted

fresh veggies w/ miso dip

sake served in bamboo containers. The big one was heated over the charcoal.

the reservation tag by our charcoal grill

the famed Honke Bankyu specialty and climax of the meal: raw deer meat. We weren't sure we could eat it at first, but it was actually very nice, soft and flavorful.

Ritesh recovering from the many courses we've had so far...

miso soup, rice and pickles is the traditional last course

and here's dessert - doesn't look like much, but we were relieved it was light. Plus it was excellent fruit. Plus if you've seen my other pictures, you know how expensive fruit is in Japan. So no complaints. Fabulous meal, and this was just the beginning of our stay...

Tokyo Day 2

2009-11-09T20:54:00.001-08:00

more instant ramen for breakfast, at an ungodly, jet-lag-induced hour

matcha and a red-bean flavored sweet at the tea house in the Hama-rikyu gardenthis is where we had lunch, a somewhat unassuming place in Asakusa - two blocks down from the main street and totally devoid of tourists

the reason Ritesh picked this place for lunch: they had chilies drying in the sun outsidewe managed to order the set lunch w/ mackarel, with the help of another customer who spoke a couple of words of English, and our trusty dictionary - super tasty and super cheap.

we ordered a plate of the fried bean sprouts because the gentlemen who helped us out was having them and they smelled really good... tasted great, too, although granted, they're not all that photogenic

freshly made red-bean cakes walking up to Asakusa Temple

and spicy dinner at a Thai hole-in-the-wall under the train tracks near Tokyo station. We knew we had some fine dining coming up the next few days, so went nice and cheap on this. Tokyo really doesn't have to be expensive...

Btw, for pictures of anything other than food, such as what we actually did and saw all day, check this link.

Tokyo Day 1

2009-11-06T22:51:00.000-08:00

Dawn from our hotel room window. first cup of green tea - even the hotel sencha is good

spicy instant ramen for a super-early breakfast - we managed to pick this up last night at a store in Ginza.

actually, this was mine, which was not so spicy at all. Ritesh had a spicy one, but I didn't take a picture...

plastic crepe display on Takeshita Dori

another breakfast just off Takeshita Dori, getting ready to explore the Meji shrine and garden: Some more green tea, with two kinds of rice ball - one triangle wrapped in seaweed and filled with something that might have been spicy tuna, and a round one covered with something sausagey. All very tasty.

After the Meji Shrine, in Yoyogi park, we stumbled on what we now know to have been our first Takoyaki:

at this stall:green superfood drink and veggie goodies with miso dips at a veggie fair between Yoyogi Park and Shibuya

Iced tea at Starbucks, only for the location on the second floor overlooking the mad diagonal intersection in front of Shibuya station. Note that Starbucks in Japan does not carry green tea. Or rather, the only way to get green tea at a Starbucks in Japan is as a green tea latte. Hmm...

ok macaron, but lame flavor. Reminds me of a much better Japanese-flavored macaron I had in LA - ume and black sesame.

fried veggies and some meat at a bar in the Golden Gai near Shinjuku

some extra: green onion, tomato, asparagus - and two bananas for dessert!

spicy shoju w/ ooba and chili

Not such a good day for food just yet but just wait... we're just getting started...

First dinner in Tokyo - Ginza Lion

2009-11-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

We arrived on a Saturday night, starving and exhausted, and walked over to Ginza from our hotel get a bite to eat before going to bed.
We were not in the mood for something fancy so ended up at this fabulous beer hall from the 1930ies, the Ginza Lion, which apparently is a Ginza institution.

They had a German Oktoberfest theme going, what with the waiters in Lederhosen (seriously!), German Oohmpa music blaring and all kinds of German classics on the menu, but I went for this super tasty warm Japanese mushroom salad, which we shared.

Ritesh however got this nice German Bratkartoffeln mit Wurst (fried potatoes and sausage) - the only Japanese touch was the green onion on it. Very tasty, though, too...

...plus we got to eat it with chopsticks!That's about all we could do before we collapsed in our tiny but lovely room at the Park Hotel in the Shiodome Media Center.

Tokyo - first impressions

2009-10-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

Shibuya at night

prayer requests at the Meji Shrine

at the Meji Shrine

simple lunch of miso soup, kukicha and fantastic grilled mackerel at a little family place in Asakusa

view from our room on the 29th floor of the Park Hotel in Shiodome. Somewhere behind the haze sits Mount Fuji, The red-and-white thing is Tokyo Tower, a replica of the Eiffel Tower and several feet taller than the original.

the high tech toilet in our hotel, complete with heated toilet seat and hydraulic lid

off to the mountains to soak in some hot springs - won't have internet access for a few days. More soon!

Chichibu Ondo

2009-10-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

You may not be aware of this but apparently the Japanese are a very merry and festive lot. Researching our trip, we've come across no end of festivals - every city, town and neighborhood seems to have a minimum of three big street festivals a year where everything grinds to a halt and people drop everything to celebrate. Kyoto for instance has the Jidai Mitsuri going on while we're there, which we were very excited about until we found out that you can't get a bed in the city during that week. So unfortunately, we've had to push Kyoto into our second week.

One of the most charming festivals we've come across, and again it's not one we'll see because it happens on August 14, is the Chichibu Ondo Mitsui in Minato Town (not Minato the neighborhood in Tokyo I take it). The entire festival is based around over a thousand people dancing to one very popular folk song all day - and the song is adorable! Couldn't find a video of the dancing, but Ritesh dug up the song itself on you tube - a classic, love it :) !

Chichibu Ondo Festival (Minano Town)
Takes place on August 13 and 14. Dancers parade through the town and dance to the tune of Chichibu-ondo, one of the three best traditional folk songs in Japan. Dancing contest and firework festival are also held on the same day.

"Chichubu Ondo (dance song for Chichibu Ondo Matsuri Festival) is thought to be one of the most famous folk songs in Kanto area. At Nagashi-odori competition, 60 teams of over 1,200 people from various parts of Saitama prefecture participate every year, and you will get to hear voices of participants echoing through out the mountain. The fireworks display also adds the excitement to the festival. Chichibu ondo was started by the local valley people about 200 years ago. At the end of Taisho era, Minano town added lyrics that was collected by local people to the sound and performed Chichibu Hohnen (a year of plenty) dance to the public. The performance was renamed later as Chichibu Ondo Matsuri Festival and became one of the most famous fold songs in the Kanto area, along with Gunma`s Yagibushi and Tochigi`s Nikko Waraku Dance. The festival is held every year on Aug. 14 in Minato town."
Quoted from some tourist sites.

Countdown to Japan - One Week to go!

2009-10-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

So a week from today, we'll be landing in Tokyo. We're actually leaving on Friday, but that 16h time difference pushes our arrival into Saturday afternoon local time. We're very excited. We've finally managed to book our hotels for the entire trip this week, now we need to tackle in-country travel and dish out for a Japan Rail pass, which may require a hasty trip to Japantown this weekend, we'll see.

We've been a bit worried about the weather, though. As you can imagine, this is what the weather is like in LA:

And this is what it's been like in Tokyo for some weeks now:

It seems to be getting better gradually now that typhoon season is over, but I'm packing a rain jacket!

Chocolate truffles and rice krispy treats

2009-10-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Home made chocolate truffles, made w/ hazelnut butter, raw cocoa, agave syrup, cocoa nibs and some dates, if I recall. This was a variation on Ani Phyo's chocolate truffles -hers are made with almond butter.

And for those of us who love peanut butter (Suzie, are you reading this?) - some maple-sweetened peanut butter rice krispy treats w/ pistachios, from this fabulous recipe.

Japan!

2009-09-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

Now that the pops is home safe and sound and solidly on the road to recovery, Ritesh is finally getting ready to leave for his Fulbright year in India. The exciting bit about this from my end is that I'll be going with him as far as Japan, which is sort of half way to India from here, for a two-week vacation to celebrate our anniversary (guess how many years it's been... :) and for some couple time to recover from just about everything that happened this year. He'll then go on to India, and I'll come back to work (did I mention we're getting restructured?) and will fly out to join him in India towards the end of December.

So we're taking the blog to Japan and will try to blog as much as possible about everything we eat, and then some! Yay!

PS: we're having a really hard time deciding where to stay in Tokyo, Kyoto, on Mount Koya, and possibly in Hakone, Nara, Magome and Hiroshima so are grateful for any recommendations...

Ani's Raw Food Desserts

2009-09-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

Ever since that fabulous raw peach-pistachio cobbler that I made four times in a row, I couldn't wait to try more of the recipes in Ani Phyo's raw dessert cookbook - here are some of my efforts. They all turned out fantastic and I'm a devoted fan now, to the extent that my official goal is to try every single one of the 85 recipes in her book.

First off, here are the lavender chocolate bars from p.85 - made with unprocessed coconut oil and almond butter, dried lavender, organic cocoa powder, agave nectar and sliced, raw almonds - my first ever homemade chocolate, and it rocked!

the is my first ever homemade raw and dairy-free/vegan cheesecake, made from ground cashews, lemon juice, cococonut oil and agave nectar, with some raw cocoa nibs and a raw chocolate sauce mixed in the top layer. If you have Ani's book, this is the chocolate chip cheezecake swirl from p. 51

the chai-spiced blueberry cobbler from p. 93this is the raspberry ganache fudge cake from p. 49 that I made for Ritesh's birthday, with walnuts, dates, organic cocoa, agave, and a frosting that consists of avocado, dates, cocoa and agave - super rich and decadent in its deliciousness and yet totally dairy and cholesterol free and actually all good for you
and this is the acai cheezecake from p. 54, again made from cashews, lemon juice, coconut agave, with a packet of frozen acai blended in. The crust is any form of nut mixed with dates - this one is salted pecans, almonds, walnuts and some shredded coconut. I cut these into bitesize pieces since they're pretty rich. Plus they keep best in the freezer, so it's easiest to take out just however many little pieces you can handle.

Banana Cream Pie

2009-09-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

So Ritesh's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I had promised I would try my hand at a banana cream pie, his favorite, so here is my first ever effort:

There are so many egg yolks in the custard that I made a meringue top out of the leftover egg whites. So no whipped cream here, but it was pretty tasty.

A few days later, I made a second one, this one vegan and soy based:

The custard is made from tofu and the bananas are actually mixed in, rather then layered under the custard. And the topping is a whipped soy product I found at Whole Foods that actually comes imported from Germany and tastes pretty darn good as well.I haven't been able to extract from Ritesh which one of the two pies he liked better, so may have to make both again next year :)

Indian Smoothies

2009-09-24T17:27:00.001-07:00

Mango-ginger lassi, made with ginger-yogurt made from sheep milk, some fresh ginger to boost and a huge, juicy mango

Chai smoothie, made with some Indian masala-spiced tea, ginger yogurt, ground almonds, banana, mango, and some extra ginger for good measure.

mango-red currant smoothieRose-pistachio smoothie with banana and rice milk

And the crowning glory: a mango-cocoa-curry smoothie. If you've had curried chocolate, or dried curried mango dipped in chocolate, you know this is the best!

Where the hell have I been? Part 2.

2009-09-22T20:23:00.001-07:00

Then there was Omi and Minal's wedding, which required a very fun weekend trip up to the Bay Area. This is the setting for the ceremony, in a lovely garden in Fremont.

Ritesh doing an Inspector Clouseau with my purse while waiting for the arrival of the groom.

video of the groom's arrival - in an old cadillac, accompanied by his grandmother (she in the blue sari), a little cousin and a bunch of family and friends - and totally stalling since Minal was still getting her make up done... nice energy though, and all this before 9am!

Then, at the end of a long and lovely ceremony, the walk around the fire - this is the part where the bride leads the groom

Alison at the luncheon after the ceremony

two happy couplesand a close up of bride and groomtable at dinner

the wedding photographer, the amazing Nataline Viray-Fong, in action

and some strawberry wedding cake. Perfect weekend.

Then there was also Laura's B-day, feted at Will Roger's State Park: Here's the b-day girl with little Jasper and old best friend Inger (who was at Harvard Law when Obama was there - the stories she can tell :)

some nosy deer, admired by Marzhan and Yuval and Caroline's daughter, whose name sadly eludes me right now (this is why it's not good to wait before blogging about whatever it is you're blogging about).

and more pretty little girls (Christine's twins) all excited about the deer

And finally, there was Ritesh's b-day as well! Here's the happy birthday boy, with a happy mom and - check it out - the pops! Back at home! Ready to eat some b-day cake! Yes, the pops has been back home for almost two months now, and is doing great. Best present ever!

A post or two about food coming soon. Plus some exciting news as well. Stay tuned!

Where the hell have I been? Part 1.

2009-09-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Good question. What can I say? I've been busy. First and foremost, there has been lots of drama at work. I can't really give you all the juicy detail but it involved a team member who narrowly escaped getting fired by quitting, said team member's tragically neglected territories that need to be brought back to some level of normal functioning (guess who's been given that task), and interviewing for a replacement (who, sadly, hasn't started yet), all within a framework of a company hit harder by the economic crisis than we'd like to admit and now officially undergoing restructuring. Ouch. Need I say that I'm spending untold evenings at work plodding away?

Then there was a lot of fun stuff, too, that kept me from blogging. First was Ritesh's 20th High School Reunion, which I was happy to attend since I missed my own back in Germany earlier this year. Here he is happily reunited with some old friends from way back when:

Then there was a weekend trip out to Redlands in the desert to visit my old friend Andrea, who recently moved back to California after years out east in Virginia. Went on a lovely little hike along the shore of picturesque Lake Arrowhead. I can't believe it's been almost two months since then. Where does time go?

Then my old college friend Roger came to visit - well, really, he came for the Visible Evidence conference at USC, where was presenting and on a panel, newly tenured film professor that he is (congrats, Rogie!) but he spent a few days with us before the conference which led to some very late nights catching up and a general sense of happy exhaustion, which made blogging feel somehow less than vitally important. Here we are at the rooftop bar at the Standard Hotel in downtown LA.

enjoying the view

my mojito

we also did some cooking at home: This is Rogie's classy signature daube d'aubergine in the front, a black pepper crusted steak after my Dad's recipe, and a roasted sweet corn and orzo salad - a real feast. Sorry the picture is lame.and here is Ritesh's fantastic signature chutney sandwich, made in Rogie's honor

To be continued - am off for dinner...

Artichokes from Nady's Garden!

2009-07-26T12:26:00.001-07:00

Another treat Nady brought from her garden were these artichokes. I've been holding off on writing about all the goodies we got from Nady because I wanted to make the artichokes first and then combine everything into one whooping post of gratitude (thanks, Nady!!!). But with all the tomato sandwich dinners this week (thanks, Nady!!), and then dinner at friends' places Thursday and Friday, I didn't get to the artichokes until yesterday - and look what had happened while they were waiting in their bag: the biggest one was in full bloom, and the next biggest one was starting.

The blossoms are amazing: an electric purplish-blue, and they smell really nice, too. This is while they were soaking in water to get the creepy-crawlies out - but there weren't any.I was't sure if the blossom was edible, plus I wanted to show it to Ritesh, so I didn't toss the big one into the pot. Here are the others, nicely simmered in pepper-garlic-bay-leaf water, with some lemon mayo.

Aren't they beautiful?Artichokes are amazing. Check out all this furry hair. This is what would have turned into the blossom, I assume, if it hadn't gone into the pot first. Sadly, however, the blossom seems to be generated from the fleshy artichoke heart, because there was really not much left to speak of.

So we didn't get to eat much artichoke (shame on us for wasting a week before cooking them), but boy what an aesthetic experience. This is what went into the trash - isn't it stunning looking?

Goodies from Nady's Garden!

2009-07-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

When Nady & co. came over last weekend, they brought bags and bags full of goodies from Nady's garden: the sweetest cherry tomatoes ever which we just ate by themselves (talk about tomato heaven!!)...

...fantastically flavorful yellow tomatoes which we ate in tomato sandwiches three nights this week (the green bell pepper went into a nice omelette)...

they already brought this giant container full of OJ from oranges from Nady's garden, which Unkies had squeeezed for us and which took us three days to finish (we should have had it with dinner, coming to think of it, but I guess everyone needed a beer or some wine that night :).

...plus an extra bag full of more oranges, which was used for juice and smoothies (and there are still some left!)...

...plus lemons from Nady's lemon trees!

... some of which were pink!
... and some of which went into smoothies like this one: Lemon-mint smoothie with banana (kind of like a mojito-smoothie) - and there are still some left, too!Can you tell how much we're enjoying all this? Thanks so much, Nady!

Raw and versatile

2009-07-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

I'd made another one of them raw peach cobblers w/ pistachios and dates as dessert for last night's dinner at Greg & Phinneys...

...and not to belabor the point, but leftovers from raw desserts make awesome smoothies the morning after: here's this morning's breakfast, a peach-date-pistachio smoothie (with some OJ from Nady's oranges - which btw I have a post on that I need to finish :)

and here's a variation on the cobbler, using mangos instead of peaches and spicy chili pistachios instead of the salty-sweet date-pistachio mix. Also fantastic. I think may cake days are officially over...

Alice Waters' Roasted Chicken

2009-07-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Greg and Phinney invited us over last night to try Phinney's first ever home-roasted chicken. Phinney was a bit nervous and had promised that In&Out would be on her if the chicken didn't turn out right (not that WE were worried). But check out this bird! It was perfect! Juicy on the inside, nice and crisp on the outside, very flavorful and garlicky - loved it. Phinney made it from an Alice Waters recipe - and I think I want to get that cookbook :)

first course: a lovely white=bean garlic soup! This was so good we had to stop ourselves so as not to fill up before the chicken...and here's my plate, with a great salad w/ tomatoes, chevre and dried cranberries.

It's been a very long and trying week at work, and this was the best way to relax and ease into the weekend! Thanks so much for having us over, and fabulous job on the chicken, Phinney!

Encore...

2009-07-24T19:22:00.001-07:00

Jasper's cute little throne in the bathroom...

Pasta feast at Laura's

2009-07-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Laura is finally back in town, after a long two months in Norway, Bosnia and Greece, so we had a girls night at her place to celebrate her return to our midst with her favorite food: pasta. So here we have a pancetta-pea-mint pasta made by lovely Paola, who's actually Italian, penne marinara made by Jasper's nanny, and I'm not sure who brought the pesto tagliatelle but they were great. Although my favorite was the pancetta-pea-mint...

a close-up with some added grilled asparagus

here's world-traveling little Jasper in his Obama T-shirt...

obviously enjoying his nanny's red pasta more than the others

much rose was had by all

and here's the dessert I picked up at Whole Foods since I came straight from work and had no time to make anything: a lemon-raspberry tart. And yes, after the third glass of wine, I didn't mind the sugar and flour in this one half as much and finished off the whole piece. Ho hum.

Izzy's b-day macaroons!

2009-07-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

This is already a couple of months old, but here's Cecy's cutie little Izzy, enjoying her birthday macaroons from Paulette... apparently, she took a bite of each and then passed them along to her mom to finish - smart little girl!

Our godson comes to dinner!

2009-07-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Little Mr. Sweet Cheeks paid us a visit on Sunday night and brought his mom and the rest of the family along. Here he is with his favorite person in the world...

... and here he is again with mom, and with his big bro M, all entranced by a DVD of Pixar shortslittle M totally absorbed...

so focused in fact you could twirl his hair all over the place and he wouldn't even flinch

until it was dinner time - and then the mission became to stop Daddy from eating his soup!

Ritesh made a fabulous Indian dinner, but I was too busy cooing over the kids to take any pictures. (I'm hoping to pinch some of Nady's :). The only pictures I do have are of dessert - a raw peach cobbler, made with fresh peaches, agave nectar and vanilla, and covered with a salty-sweet mix of ground pistachios and dates. This is the first thing I made from a recipe from Ani Phyo's dessert book which I just bought this week, and it turned out really well. Nady seems to have liked it, too, which made me super happy. People still assume that I'm depriving myself by not eating sugar, dairy, soy, regular cake etc or that this endo diet is boring, but tasting this natural goodness is really quite an experience. Rich and satisfying and not at all a sacrifice.

a close-up of my dessert plate: raw peach cobbler, some fresh mango, and some saffron-rose ice cream that I sampled just a bite of. I'll so figure out how to make a raw, sugar and dairy free version of that, you just wait :)

little M having his first coconut water, fresh from the coconut, served by Unkies who's visiting from Germany and who was the guest of honor tonight. I hope Nady has some pictures of him, as well as of sweet cheeks having his first mango!And everyone taking a break and relaxing after dinner. What a lovely time - thanks for coming over, guys!

Mango Nectarines!

2009-07-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

Some California-grown deliciousness: Not sure if it's really a cross between mangoes and nectarines, but the flavor is unique, and they're juicy and sweet and have the deep mango yellow color as well as some of that mango fibrousness. Found these at Whole Foods and just got a couple to try, but will have to go back for more!!

Gjelina

2009-07-20T08:28:00.001-07:00

A special dinner for us on Saturday night to celebrate that Ritesh just got an article accepted for publication - and not just any article, mind you, but one based on his dissertation and therefore very close to his heart and that had been a long time coming. And not just in any old journal either, but in the Journal of Social Science and Medicine, which apparently is the most cited peer-reviewed journal in his field, not just in the US but in the world. Congratulations, love! So happy for you!
Unfortunately, I can't link to the article because a) it won't actually be published until the fall and b) you have to pay for access to the journal's website. So all I have to offer is some pictures from our festive little dinner at the cozy Gjelina on Abbott Kinney in Venice:

Starting off with a rose pour moi and a Hefeweizen for the man of the hour

then we shared the trout salad with avocado, red grapefruit, arugula, red onion and shaved parmeggiano

Ritesh's roasted fennel pizza with tomato confit and spicy fennel salami

oregano, red chili flakes and parmeggiano to add al gusto

my mushroom, goat cheese and truffle oil pizza. Gjelina is not a pizza place but they are famous for their pizzas so that's what we went for. And they were both outstanding. Very flavorful but perfectly balanced (I was worried they might go overboard on the truffle oil but it was just right).

our dessert wines, a great port and an amazing Austrian ice wine

dessert: banana chocolate bread pudding with caramel and cream - sadly, another banana dessert not quite up to someone's very exacting standards

can't a guy get a decent banana dessert around here, even on a special night like tonight?

a ghost across the table

and a little night cap on the way home: my pomegranate margarita and Ritesh's classic margarita, at El Cholo

What a treat to have a date night out! And congratulations, love!

This week's endo diet

2009-07-19T22:35:00.001-07:00

Wasabi-salmon cakes with watercress and bibb lettuce salad and a peanut-sesame oil dressing - from a recipe from the New School of Cooking where I took the Fish Basics class last year.

brown-rice pasta with home made pesto and home-dried super-spicy chili pistachios

regular wheat pasta with pesto and an egg that was cracked open on the pasta when it was piping hot so the egg got boiled by being stirred into the hot the pasta. Not sure how Ritesh came up with this but it was tasty, just a shame that you can't really see the egg.using up the leftover pesto on a grilled veggie panini. plus some oven-baked yamsusing up leftover salsa, in the absence of tortilla chips, on an omelette-avocado sandwich...

... and a lovely fruit salad with perfectly ripe white nectarines, kiwi, strawberries and figs to go along with it for Sunday breakfast (this was last Sunday, admittedly, I'm obviously running way behind with this blog..._

fabulous spicy home-made hummus from the recipe in the Endo cookbook, with some added roasted serrano chilies in itand this is a lovely banana-chocolate pudding, agave sweetened and flax-thickened, from a couple of weeks ago which sacrificed itself and went into the 4th of July flag cake as part of the chocolate-custard layer...

This week's smoothies

2009-07-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of these yet? Not me... it's been more than two months since the surgery, and we've had smoothies pretty much every morning except for a handful of occasions (at most) when I had to go into work early. And I don't think I've made the same smoothie twice. A lot of them end up looking alike, what with all that green superfood powder so I don't take pictures of every single one, but I do try to vary ingredients as much as possible and so far it's been easy and great and a lot of fun. Even Ritesh, who is not a breakfast person, is kind of into them by now and doesn't feel right when there's a morning without one. Yay for healthy breakfast smoothies!

mango-banana-hemp smoothie

golden kiwi and avocado smoothie

my original blueberry-flax seed smoothie, but with protein powder and maca

strawberry-raspberry yogurt smoothie (with yogurt made from goat milk)

apricot goat-milk yogurt

a light and refreshing watermelon-kiwi-cherry lemonade (no protein and fat in this one, to recover after Bastille Day)

Roger & Gallet

2009-07-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

And one last trailing P.S. on the French theme: Finally started using the Roger & Gallet soap I got from Laurence for my birthday, and it is just as you might expect, exquisitely refined and sophisticated.

The Green Tea scent is very strong and doesn't smell even remotely natural, but then again I guess refined and natural are sort of mutually exclusive. We'll see how we like it once we've used it for a while...

Serge Gainsbourg's Marseillaise

2009-07-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Not quite done with the Bastille day theme yet - got this link from a friend and have to share: The incomparable, immortal Serge Gainsbourg with his very own rendition of the French National Anthem. This apparently was for the French what the Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen was for the British, with Le Figaro declaring it an outrage and that Gainsbourg's citizenship should be revoked.

Enjoy! :)

Bastille Day

2009-07-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

I guess it's too late by now to wish you all a Happy Bastille Day, but I hope at least some of you got to celebrate. I for one actually got to celebrate twice, and loved it!

For lunch, my French co-worker Caroline and I made a point to leave the office (for once!) and regale ourselves with some French cuisine at Saint Amour in Culver City. We actually made a reservation to make sure we got a table outside, so check this out - if it wasn't for the metal railing, you'd think we're in Paris!

some perfect bread and perfect butter - ahh....

lovely Caroline with her delicious tarte aux poireaux

And my steak au poivre, with the most perfect fries. I think this may well have been the first steak I have ever ordered. I don't do a lot of meat, but it was Bastille Day and this was outstanding.

pretty little condiment containers - the French manage to make even ketchup look sophisticated

And in the evening after work, Caroline took me as her guest and as an honorary French person to the French Consul's reception at the Pacific Design Center, which was a real treat. There was outstanding French cheese (check out all that chevre on my plate), delicious veggie pate - and lots of charcuterie that I'm sure was delicious but that I stayed away from after that steak for lunch. Oh, and of course that sumptuous red from St. Emilion that we were both having.

As the sun was setting, the French Consul himself gave a little speech, which turned out to be surprisingly moving. Predictably, he spoke about the French-American friendship and its history, about how French soldiers fought alongside the Americans during the US war for independence and how this friendship can never be dissolved although eight years ago it felt like that's what was happening (this he then dismissed as "the unavoidable tensions in such a close relationship"). But what really got to me was the part of his speech that was directly addressing the community of expats that he was facing, yours truly included. He said that if we left our motherland (the French call it 'la mere patrie'), it was not because we were in search of 'la facilite", of an easy path, but because we wanted to break out of the path that was laid out before us and create our own. And that this path was harder and required more courage and determination and perseverance than anyone back in the motherland or even in our adopted country could understand. That living in the US of course means a lack of safety net that is unimaginable back home. And that we should be proud of ourselves for having succeeded anyway, in exile, in a foreign language, on a path that no one else had imagined for us. He must have touched a nerve with this, since both Caroline and I started tearing up a little. And then they let go some of the blue-white-red balloons that were decorating the terrace, and off they went into the evening sky.

2 BBQ's in one weekend!

2009-07-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

After being virtual hermits and having no social life to speak of for the last 5 months that the Pops has been in hospital/rehab, we finally got out this weekend and got to spend time with friends at not one but 2 BBQ's. What a treat! The only problem was that they were both on the same day, so we had to cut one of them short a little - but hey, we FINALLY got to see our adorable godson Spike again after all this time, so it was all worth it.

Here's the fruit salad watermelon, cantaloupe, mango, strawberries, papaya and figs) that we brought to Katherine and Kevin's. It has an agave-lime sauce and was supposed to be served with Indian chaat spices that we brought separately since they're not everyone's cup of tea. We actually left before this was served, so I'm curious to find out what people thought of it.

Appetizers at Katherine and Kevin's. They also had a fabulous goat brie that I couldn't stop eating and probably finished off on my own... And here we are down the street at Nady and David's... this is Ritesh's home-made spicy salsa, in honor of Nady's great uncle who's here on his annual visit from Germany and who really likes spicy food!

Our godson, his big brother and the lucky mom of these gorgeous boys!

Ritesh and Mr. Jolly :)

some oven-baked yams that could have used an extra 10 min in the oven...

...but the burgers were ready, so we pulled them out. These are Nady's signature low-fat turkey-burgers with yummy spicy andouille sausage inside, plus a very yummy salad. What a feast! Thanks so much for having us over, Nady - and can't wait to have you over here next weekend!

Hugo's Restaurant

2009-07-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

Friday night, we trekked to Hugo's Restaurant in West Hollywood for some healthy grub. Below is their fabulous Cuban sandwich (grilled organic chicken breast, goat cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and a honey-chipotle sauce) which Ritesh and I shared and loved. Unfortunately, we were in a bit of a rush as we were on our way to see Brüno on opening night, so I didn't pause to take a proper photograph (hence the non-descript backside of the sandwich) and I flat out forgot to take a picture of the ginseng-chicken soup we got along with it. It was all good though. The only thing we didn't like were the beets - they were supposed to be roasted but looked and tasted boiled and totally bland.

With all the rush on Friday night, I forgot my keys at the restaurant and had to trek back to West Hollywood to pick them up today. And since I'd come all that way, I decided to make a meal out of it. So here is Hugo's absolutely fantastic 'Hippie Hemp Salad', a completely raw mix of chopped leafy greens, celery, mango and sprouted mung beans, with dried cherries and hemp, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, all in a hemp dressing. Wow. Will have to try to reproduce this at home. Loved it

a nice and refreshing agave-sweetened watermelon lemonade, perfect on a day as hot as today

and dessert to go - the yogi smoothie, consisting of mango, apple, ginger, toasted almonds, yogi chai and soy milk (big no no that one, can't believe they still serve that stuff, but never mind, I figured once isn't going to kill me). And it tasted great! Another thing to reproduce at home... So look out for some chai smoothie coming up! (soy-free of course!)

Prashant and Suzanne's fantastic dehydrator

2009-07-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

Prashant and Suzanne have been kind enough to lend us their dehydrator so that we could dry the huge amount of Tulsi leaves we got from Ritesh's mom for tea. We didn't think it was possible at first since the dehydrator is so bulky and cumbersome, so I'd already strung up bunches of leaves around the kitchen, but thankfully the brothers figured it out and the dehydrator has been a huge help. Thanks, Prashant and Suzanne! On the right is the tulsi we dried in the dehydrator (only takes a couple of hours), on the left, the tulsi that air dried in the kitchen in a small eternity, about 4-5 days.

The dehydrator makes enough noise to wake the dead but other than that it is one great piece of kitchen equipment. Since we've had the opportunity, we've been exploring some other recipes, too, such as these raw lemon-coconut cookies...... and these super-dark chocolate-walnut-pecan cookies. Dehydrating them at below 130 degrees (versus baking them) is supposed to keep the natural enzymes alive. And of course these cookies are all sugar-free and agave-sweetened.

I hope Suzanne and Prashant got the little goodie bags we left for them! Here's a little peanut-butter-cookie sandwich, in honor of Suzanne who REALLY likes peanut butter :) and here is the most recent experiment: spicy zucchini and sweet potato chips...

and some super-spicy chili pistachios that are still not quite done - these take forever, about 48h straight at least to get them nice and crunchy. Unfortunately, we have to turn the machine off at night so we (and the neighbors) can sleep, so we've been at this for a few days now...

More breakfast smoothies...

2009-07-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

Grapefruit-kiwi-avocado smoothie

Brazilian guanabana-coconut smoothie

crappy picture, sorry, but this was a lovely strawberry-mango smoothie

Sunday morning special: a luscious, rich cherry-marzipan smoothie, with almond butter and almond extract

and this morning's flag-cake smoothie!

I've been having my raw flag cake for breakfast these last couple of days and have been feeling just as energized afterwards as when I have my morning smoothie. Since the ingredients are basically the same (nuts, fruit, and some protein), I decided to test it and tossed the last piece of flag cake into the blender. And guess what - the nut-and-date base, the banana-chocolate custard, the strawberries and blueberries and the tofu whipped cream, helped by just a bit of hemp milk for consistency, turned into this delicious, fabulous smoothie! Needless to say, I was chuffed.

Palos Verdes / Trump National Golf Resort

2009-07-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

On the 4th of July, on our way down to San Pedro to see the Pops, we decided to swing by Palos Verdes, which is kind of on the way, for some lunch and a bit of seaside hiking. Here's Ritesh exploring the area at our first stop in Palos Verdes.

And here's the view from our table out on the terrace at the restaurant at Donald Trump's golf resort. That faux-Parisian clock literally has Trump National engraved on it. Can't say I'm a fan of the over-manicured lawns but I was thinking of Laura's daughter Claudia, a golf champ at the tender age of 13, and decided I should probably give it a try sometime.

just because it was 4th of July...

my lunch plate - pan-roasted halibut with a warm tomato vinaigrette on a bed of greens, roasted white asparagus, fried artichoke hearts and basil-mashed potatoes. Very yummy. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of Ritesh's tempura-battered fish & chips, which was also very tasty.

and because it was such a special day, I splurged and shared a cappuccino with Ritesh - am not supposed to have caffeine, milk, nor sugar, but honestly, my diet is so good right now, this was ok. The idea is to stick with the endo-diet about 80% of the time, and I'm pretty much at 95%, so I'm not worried. However, again, as with the one other time I had sugar in the last six weeks, it really didn't feel all that great. Don't think I'll do this again, just as I don't think I'll have another bacon doughnut...

the cliff hike behind the golf course - this is more my kind of nature, I like things a bit overgrown

view south from the cliff

view north from the cliff

Ritesh exploring the rocks on the beach

and finally, the view from the Wayfarer's Chapel up the street - love that place

Raw Flag Cake - Happy belated 4th of July!

2009-07-05T13:35:00.001-07:00

Here's my first ever flag cake, and a raw one at that... crust is made of ground almonds, pecans and dates (plus a bit of hazelnut butter and vanilla extract), then there's a layer of chocolate-banana custard (agave-sweetened, with a bit of almond extract and gelled with a bit of brown rice and flax seed meal), and the fabulous whipped cream is made from tofu, again agave sweetened and with some lemon juice and vanilla extract. I'm a big fan of real whipped cream, but this tofu stuff is pretty amazing!

This is what I was going to make yesterday for the family, assuming we'd spend 4th of July with the Pops, but then people had other plans, and although we did get to see the Pops, I didn't make this until this morning - seeing all the berries (and the tofu!) in the fridge, I figured it'd be a shame if I didn't give it a try. Can't wait to actually cut it open - just wish we had someone to share it with!

More fabulously healthy endo dishes

2009-07-03T19:44:00.001-07:00

More treasures from the Endometriosis cookbook by Caroly Levett from www.endo-resolved.com:

A raw and dairy-free cream of mushroom soup, made with crimini mushrooms, avocado, tomato, a huge amount of herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro, mint), garlic, nama-shoyu (a raw, organic, unpasteurized soy sauce) and fresh grapefruit juice. The recipe also included a red bell pepper which I left out because we didn't have any. Tasted great anyway, loved it.

spinach brown rice pasta with a zucchini sun dried tomato and pine nut sauce w/ fresh herbs

spicy coconut mushrooms with fried rice

fabulous spicy oven-baked yam fries

This one's good for a laugh: a very tasty Thai veggie curry - with my first ever home made pasta, a horribly misshapen dandelion fettucini that I obviously didn't roll out thinly enough... (not a recipe from the Endo Cookbook, I hasten to add, although of course it was mostly wheat free, consisting only of dandelion greens, eggs and rice flour, with just a bit of whole wheat flour mixed in).Quinoa with basil, parsley, spring onions, roasted carrots and pine nutsRitesh's spinach daal, not from the cookbook but perfectly endo-safe (and super-tasty)and some mini cucumber-chevre sandwiches with some splendid peppered Spanish goat cheese (the only kind of dairy allowed)

Awash Ethiopian Restaurant

2009-06-30T21:07:00.001-07:00

I've been having a serious craving for Ethiopian food and Ritesh finally gave in - he's not that much into it ("bad Indian food" he calls it) but we had a good time at Awash anyway. Very down home kind of place, total hole in the wall from the outside, hidden away as it is on a non-descript stretch of Pico (hey, there's street parking!). This is the vegetarian combo plate, which really, really hit the spot.The sizzling steak on the small plate in the back not quite so much...

I love my job!

2009-06-30T21:05:00.001-07:00

Ever since I was upped to senior manager, my life has changed. Really. Becoming manager was nothing in comparison - more work, more complexity, more responsibility, but still, it was ultimately just me managing my territories. What is making the big difference now is people. Managing people is the best! And I don't mean this in a powertrippy kind of way at all. Managing people is challenging, stimulating, fascinating - it's worth getting up for in the morning. Maybe not for everyone, but blimey, I love it. It's made all the difference for me. I love figuring out why people do what they do (and not necessarily what they're supposed to do), and be there in a way to help them overcome their obstacles and process issues and motivational issues and even shortcomings if you will, as much as trying to figure out answers to their actual work-related questions (not that easy, considering that their territories are new to me). I love coaching people to perform at a better level, whether that involves writing (yes, go figure, I'm coaching native speakers of English on their writing :) or client management or time management or just interpersonal relations, and I love mediating between people as well. My boss frankly admitted that she thought she might have killed last week's worst offender if I hadn't been there to intervene and take her off her hands.
It helps of course that I've gotten an incredible amount of acceptance from everyone on the team - even the people with seniority who I got passed over were not only overwhelmingly gracious, but have come and sought my advice and confided in me. Everything just kind of fell into place in a perfect way, and although my workload is insane, what with all the digital and iTunes and Xbox deals, and although I'm spending more hours at work than ever, I'm actually enjoying it. I never thought I would say this. In my world, anything not related to creative writing was never really worthy of my full attention. And here I am, all absorbed in my little niche of corporate Hollywood, aglow and abuzz over how to distribute work load and redirect work flow within the team so each member is challenged at the right level and can contribute most according to their strengths and weaknesses. Who'd have thunk? Plus I'm actually happy when I get called in to deal with a crisis situation, because I feel I really have something to contribute. Must be that counseling training I went through a couple of years ago. I finally feel like I'm being put to good use, that I'm not only using my analytical, project-management, problem-solving and language skills (two native French-speakers on the team, yay!) but that while at it, I'm also having a distinct influence on my social environment, coaching both downward and upward. I've been around here long enough to have pretty good opinions on what works and what doesn't - and to be able to actually do something about what doesn't work (mostly communication) is a thrill. Really.

Mojito Smoothie

2009-06-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

And back to healthy living, with my best smoothie yet - an avocado mojito smoothie, with fresh lime and a ton of fresh mint leaves, some coconut water and agave nectar plus some vanilla protein powder and green superfood (but without the hemp oil for once, and certainly without the rum). Loved it. Light and summery - perfect for the beautiful weather we've been having...

Nickel Diner's Bacon Donut!

2009-06-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

I went off the endo-diet a bit this weekend, for the first time and in a premeditated way, for the sake of Nickel Diner's signature bacon donut and potato-chips chocolate cake which I'd been wanting to try since before the surgery and never got a chance to.
It was quite a trek downtown,
but here we are inside the Nickel Diner, after a shortish wait. Prices on the wall roughly 1954.

Some pretty flowering basil on our table.And here it is! Since this was the reason for the trip out here, we decided to start off with one, afraid they might run out if we waited until dessert. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but this was one amazing donut. The bacon in the glaze was just fantastic. The donut itself could have been a little fresher, as in straight from the fryer and piping hot but it was great anyway.

Nickel Diner's home made V8 - Riteshified w/ some tabasco sauce and extra salt and pepper. Should try this at home - very tasty, and brought back fond memories of a lazy summer weekend a couple of years ago that we spent pretty much in its entirety mixing and drinking Bloody Mary's on the balcony of a friend's house in the Marina

my BLTA on sourdough with a fried egg - fabulous! BLTA's, if they're well made, are my favorite sandwiches, and this one is one of the best I've had. Great spicy aoli, too.

a close up of my BLTA, with a great mint-lemonade and Ritesh's pozole in the back

and here's dessert: Nickel Diner's famed mile-high salty chocolate-peanut-potato chip cake! Great idea for those who love sweet-and-salty combos like yours truly. However, this was just a little too heavy on the artificial flavors - basically like a really intense Snickers bar. The potato chips are in the crusty brown layer and are mixed in with peanuts, so peanuts is really all you taste. I'm pretty sure I can make a healthier version of this at home... We just had a bite to try and then took it home, where it is still languishing in the fridge.

PS: So I just went to the fridge and had another couple of bites of this cake, and honestly - it's not worth it. Not that this is a bad cake, it's great for what it is. It's just that sugar is really overrated. As is dairy and flour. If you're off it for a while and get sensitized to how it actually affects you when you have it you don't really want it anymore. Seriously.

Chef Rawsheed's Sun Power Natural Cafe

2009-06-25T21:31:00.001-07:00

Chef Rawsheed makes some very awesome raw chocolate cookies (consisting of little more than raw nuts, raw chocolate powder and agave syrup) which you can get at Whole Foods if you're lucky because they tend to be out. So I felt compelled to trek across the mountains and check out his cafe in Studio City, stock up on some healthy cookies and try some of his main dishes.

Here's the fabulous smoothie I got while waiting for our to-go order: a sweet kale smoothie, with kale, bananas, almonds, agave nectar and almond extract. This raises the art of smoothie making to a whole different level. Very impressive.
And here's the raw pesto pizza - crunchy sunflower seed crust with creamy pesto, cashew cheese, green onions, tomatoes and marinated olives. And that's a side of the kale salad with pine nuts on top.

And finally the raw Mexican torta - spicy raw veggie sausage, pico de gallo, avocado, pickled cabbage, raw basil ranch dressing and a side of greens w/ raw ginger-orange dressing

all very yummy and super-filling, in a healthy, nutty kind of way. I did stock up on the cookies, too, but I'm embarrassed to admit that they have already been demolished, and no picture was taken... :(

How I make it through the day...

2009-06-24T21:37:00.001-07:00

What's a 12h work day when you have the excellent Royal Himalayan Bliss Mix, consisting of Himalayan goji berries, mulberries and raisins (them Himalayan raisins are tiny and tart), raw chocolate nibs, pistachios, cashews and Brazil nuts to sustain you? Awesome stuff.

Real Food Daily

2009-06-23T22:17:00.001-07:00

Real Food Daily is an LA institution, a fantastic vegan cafe and coincidentally the place where Ritesh took me on our second date back in the day about a decade ago, ahem. I love the place way more than he does so we don't go all that often together, but recently with the endo-diet and all we've been back a few times - so these pictures are not all from one visit...

fantastic vegan nacho appetizer plate, with cashew cheese and tofu sour cream

raw living foods roll
Kung Pao tempeh with stir-fry veggies and pineapple rice

Ritesh's one RFD favorite: the ranchero style burrito with a great chipotle bean filling and saladthe Jamaican special for the month of June - fried plantains, some Caribbean empanadas filled with tempeh, rice and beans and some fruity salsa. Not so great this one, just a bit dry.

and check this out: vegan banana cream pie, with tofu whipped cream and a spelt crust! This almost deserves its own post. Not that I had more than a bite of it since I was sure there was sugar in it, but Ritesh was happy. And the presenting hands are Anisa's, who's moving to LA from Atlanta to attend acupuncture school. Very cool.

More Avocado Smoothies

2009-06-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been incommunicado for a little while. It's been a trying, tumultuous, traumatic, toll-taking and turmoil-y few weeks is all I can say. Maybe, hopefully, some day I'll be in a position to talk about this time and its vertiginous array of life-changing options with the wisdom of retrospection and some lightheartedness, but today is not that day, and since I feel like talking anyway, I'll talk about smoothies instead. You know, the kind with avocado and protein and a bunch of other goodies that I'm continuing to whip up every morning.

Here's a whole Osterizer's worth of my avocado-honeydew-kiwi-lemon-hemp protein-maca-and coconut water smoothie that I made for breakfast when Ro and Anisa were in town and staying with us last week

strawberry-cantaloupe-OJ smoothie with some berry-flavored protein powder and a red superfood mix (goji, pomegranate etc.)

chocolate-avocado-smoothie! With dates and hemp milk. Very tasty but too rich for breakfast. More like a dessert.

apple-cinnamon smoothie w/ avocado, honeydew, a fuji apple, coconut water, some apple-cinnamon flavored protein-superfood powder and some almonds. Great one this one, made it several times.

the crowning smoothie glory of the week: tulsi-marzipan smoothie, made with tulsi juice extracted from Ritesh's mom's tulsi leaves (tulsi is an Indian sweet kind of basil that makes a great tea, too) , avocado, banana, almonds, some agave nectar and the ultimate secret ingredient: almond extract! Amazing!

and this morning's strawberry-pineapple-banana-protein powder-coconut milk smoothie. I don't use avocado when I'm making a red smoothie because red and green just ends up looking brown. Can't have brown mush for breakfast unless it involves chocolate...

Sunset on the Seine

2009-06-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

I love Judith's missives from the City of Lights - here's another one from late April that brought back fond memories of balmy nights spent by the Seine...although I think Aline needs to move, or talk to a good therapist. Phobias are actually curable.

A beautiful, sunny, spring day in Paris. Aline picked me up in her car and we drove to the nearby Luxembourg Museum, which is just a few blocks from my apartment. Drove around and around trying to find parking on the packed streets and finally did. Would have been faster to go on foot, however, Aline lives on an island, the Ile de la Cite, and has a phobia about walking across a bridge and can only leave the island by car. So though we live 5 minutes apart, she needs to drive. The exhibit was Fralippo Lippi and his son Fralippino Lippi who was conceived with a beautiful, young religious woman in a scandalous liaison in the 1400s somewhere in the Tuscan hills. The paintings, with many, many Madonnas and baby Jesuses, were lovely to me only for their vivid colors after many centuries, excellent awareness of perspective, and three dimensional quality in some. We then went to lunch outdoors at a cafe and talked about our book on France, the men, the women, the story. Sat for hours, no one bothered us, didn't even bring a tab. So it is - the table belongs to you.

Decided to go to the theater in the evening to see two Albee plays and then Robert called and said rain was coming in the next few days and we should spend this evening on the Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge over the Seine where people congregate on warm evenings and spread out on the planks and have picnics, with wine, and live musicians. So upon his arrival at my flat I took took a blanket and flatware, paper plates and cups stuffed into a big canvas bag and we went to the fabulous food store and bought roast chicken, a big slice of pate, a bottle of wine, bread, salads, and and off we set for the bridge. We found a good spot, spread out, and got out all the goodies. People gathered all through the evening with parties of 2, 4, 20 all picnicking, sharing wine, listening to music from the live saxes, and watching the setting sun turning the river red. Both Robert and I felt that we were in Paradise - the beauty of the river and the big tourists boats sliding under the bridge, the palaces along the banks, the people who know how to enjoy, without much fuss or much money, just good food, wine, and friends. We sat and ate and drank for about three hours and when the sun set and it got chilly, we walked to his flat a few blocks away and watched Pan's Labyrinth while outside his windows the boats on the Seine with brilliant night lights floated up and down the Seine looking like big space ships landing on the river.

Everyone should picnic on the Pont des Arts on a warm night sometime in their lives.
xxx
J

Not the Pont des Arts. Not even the view from the Pont des Arts. But the only picture of a Parisian bridge that I have in iPhoto, so it'll have to do.

Obama in Paris

2009-06-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, my friend, mentor and role model, the fabulous Judith, emailed the following missive from Paris, where she lives six months out of the year:

Last night as my friend Michael and I emerged from the metro at St. Germain into the Paris white nights, we found ourselves in the midst of a huge crowd clustered on either side of the Blvd. St Germain and lots of police vehicles and security officers with automatic weapons. Michael asked a Frenchman Is this for Obama's arrival? Bien sur was the answer. Of course, they were gathered to greet Obama as he sped down the boulevard. Then the police escorts started to wizz by, with lots of unmarked vehicles with tinted windows, and the big cheer went up . What a thrill, what a feeling of pride Michael and I had that France loves Obama and that everyday people turned out and waited for just a possible glimpse of the man and to show their enthusiasm. Thrilling!
J

A week's worth of smoothies...

2009-06-08T22:17:00.001-07:00

Part of my new and improved diet are mega-nutritious smoothies for breakfast - with one surprise ingredient: avocados. The basic idea for this is not from the Endometriosis cookbook, but from a different book (the somewhat lamely entitled but informative "Spent - How to Overcome Exhaustion and Feel Great Again" by Frank Lippman) - but the recipes are all endo-safe and I love them and make them in endless variations. Each of these smoothies contains different kinds of fruit, fresh squeezed lemon juice, some hemp oil, protein powder or flax seed meal, green food powder and either coconut water or orange juice or aloe vera juice or a combination - plus 1/2 an avocado for the healthy fat and creamy texture.

This was one of the very first ones I made, and it doesn't have any extra fruit, just avocado and coconut - kind of like my avocado-coconut ice cream from a year ago, but with all the added powdered superfoods and protein

avocado-blueberry smoothie
avocado-blueberry smoothie on a rainy dayavocado-honeydew-kiwi smoothie
mango-coconut-smoothie (ok, no avocado in this one, the next batch isn't ripe yet)
raspberry-cantaloupe-banana smoothie with red superfood powder (goji, noni, pomegranate etc)this was yesterday's pineapple-banana smoothie with hemp seeds (no avocado)
and this was this morning's pineapple-peach-avocado smoothie, again with hemp seeds. Looking a little chunky because our blender is so loud and our walls so painfully thin and our neighbors so cantankerous that I'm terrified of causing them grief at 8am in the morning. So I blend for a maximum of like 12 seconds, holding my breath. The weekends, when we get up later, are a different story, hence creamier smoothies on Saturdays and Sundays...

Settling in

2009-06-08T22:06:00.001-07:00

Along with the promotion came a new office... I'm working too much right now to do much decorating but have at least unpacked and am settling in. Since I'm in one of these air-conditioned high-rises where you can't open the window (and since I'm there an ungodly amount of hours a week) I got myself a plant and a very fancy air purifier - and here's Ritesh sacrificing his free time on the weekend to help me carry both to my new digs.

and here's the view from my window. Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics, will try and take 'real' photos soon. That beige fancy building on the left btw is allegedly the ultra-luxurious home to Tori Spelling's mom whatever her name is - Candy or something appropriate like that. Not that I care, but it was pointed out to me as one of the perks of my office...ah, the privilege!

Bienvenida Trail

2009-06-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

Already time for another Sunday hike - where did this last week go? At least the weather had cleared up - check out the blue skies over the bluest of oceans. And doesn't it look like someone is growing wine on that hill above the pine trees?

From the top of the trail (which connects to the Temescal Canyon ridge), you can see all the way to what Ritesh thinks is Venice and I think is Marina Del Rey...

And this is the trail seen through my sunglasses...

I have to say, I love these glasses. Life is just beautiful when I wear them...

Trisha's Birthday

2009-06-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

Lovely Trisha is one of my co-workers from the old MGM, from before we got sold to Sony and 85% of employees were laid off. Knowing how passionately we all felt and continue to feel about the old MGM (as opposed to the new one, and every other studio in town), it came as no surprise that this get together turned into another MGM reunion. So lo and behold here are former MGMers Suzie and Chris, Chris' boyfriend John plus a photographer, at Trisha's pool in her mindblowing new house in the Hollywood Hills.

The view of downtown LA from Trisha's rooftop

nice fish bowl of sangriaan amazing catered buffet of Thai food

my own little pad thai, with some flower decoration provided by the chef himself when he saw me wield the cameraoops - caught the caterer in flagranti, adding the flowers I brought to the buffet centerpiece

the birthday girl being feted (on the right, Natasha, another former MGMer)

the birthday girl about to do the deedand yours truly with the birthday girl, who had set up a photo booth, thus providing no end of fun and countless group pictures of former MGMers in silly poses that will hopefully find their way onto facebook...

Bar Food on Wilshire

2009-06-07T14:50:00.001-07:00

We have a new neighborhood bar! Yay! Aptly named Bar Food, very stylish but low key at the same time and run and owned by the nicest and most amiable Irish exilee ever, Jason (who is the chef, and is behind the bar). They have the most amazing sweet potato fries (with chipotle dip)...

...and thanks to Jason's Thai girlfriend, Thai bangers & mash! How cool is that? The sausages are Northern Thai (Issan) style (did he say pork and rice based? I can't remember), the mash is made with cilantro, and the glaze that pulls the dish together is spicy ginger. Fabulous! We'll so be back for this...

Daniel Craig Popsicle

2009-06-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

This picture is from the LA Times article about the Daniel Craig popsicle, issued in Britain for their first ever National Ice Cream month and supposedly immortalising his coming-out-of-the water-scene in Casino Royale ('immortal popsicle' - hmmm.... just a bit of an oxymoron, innit?) - click on the picture to read the article.
Just one question here - why didn't our marketing department think of this? Casino Royale is our movie, we're selling it around the globe, but does our marketing department do anything fun and buzz-worthy with it? If they do, they're keeping it a secret. Only comforting thought for now is that the studio that co-produced it with us, astronomical marketing budget and all, didn't think of something like this either...

Oh, and one more question... Daniel Craig is getting a cut of the revenue from this, isn't he?

June Gloom

2009-06-02T21:21:00.001-07:00

Our first Sunday hike in ages. Nice and cool and all but honestly, we're very much done with June gloom and ready for some sun, thank you very much!

We love soups!

2009-05-31T21:33:00.001-07:00

While we were both home sick and recovering, we spent a lot of time preparing our all-round favorite food - soup, in all shapes and forms:

Ritesh's first home made chicken soup, entirely made from scratch, hours of work, but the best broth ever

the de-boned chicken and veggies that were boiled in the broth

and the horseradish sauce to eat with the veggies (right) plus a German-style cucumber salad (left) - Ritesh outdid himself that night!

Ritesh's famed home made miso soup (if you think miso soup is simple and easy, think again...)

and our first home made borscht, from a recipe 'from a kitchen in Moscow' that we found on some Ukrainian website. Very nice recipe, but it looks like our beets were more golden than ruby. And we made so much of it, I'm borschted out for the foreseeable future. Plus I don't think I'm that big a fan of dill, coming to think of it...

Godiva sucks

2009-05-31T21:29:00.001-07:00

So I went to Godiva the other day in the hopes of finding a nice box of chocolates for our London office - they were so kind and generous when I was there, I wanted to send something back. Not that I particularly like Godiva but they're right across the street and I figured I'd find something decent. Not so. None of their gift boxes looked even vaguely interesting, all just the same lame old stuff. They did have some individual salted caramels though, and if you remember my salted caramel phase from earlier this year, you'll probably guess that I had to get a couple to try (that's the hearts in the picture below). And because they had some special promotion going, I got an extra chocolate for free, so I picked a dark Grand Marnier truffle for Ritesh.
But alas, when we tried them at home, what a disappointment. Not sure if Godiva just really sucks as much as Ghirardelli, or if my palate has changed so much from a few sugar-free weeks, but I had one bite and hated it. It wasn't salty enough, just super-sweet, so sweet in fact that it left a nasty, almost bitter aftertaste - enough to keep me away from Godiva for good.

If you're into salted caramels, the ones to get are the award-winning grey salt ones from Fran's Chocolates in the Seattle. I made Ritesh bring some home when he was up there for a conference right after we came back from Mumbai, and they were truly amazing (sorry for the blurry picture - I must have been in a real rush to try one):

But forget Godiva.

And I think the London office is going to get a bunch of bacon chocolate...

Padma Lakshmi

2009-05-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

I just found out that Padma Lakshmi also has endometriosis, by way of several articles (here's the one from Newsweek) discussing her creation of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, which aims to foster awareness and encourage research into the disease which affects 5-10% of all women and as yet has no cure. Poor Padma apparently has it way worse than me, she had four surgeries already, and her first one alone took four hours (mine was just over an hour and a half). Plus she's had it since she was 16, and wasn't diagnosed until 20 years later, when her symptoms had become pretty unmanageable, while I've only had it for a couple of years and was diagnosed pretty much right away. So when she talks about how debilitating it is and how embarrassed she was to talk about it, I may think I can relate to it but really, I probably can't.

The Endometriosis Diet

2009-05-30T19:49:00.001-07:00

So here's the deal about this new diet of mine. Since my endometriosis surgery, I've been following a special endo diet which is supposed to help prevent the (very likely) recurrence of the illness. There is ample explanation of the science behind that online (plus my Chinese herbalist had been telling me all along), so I was ready to buckle down and do it in spite of any sacrifices required. The diet at first seems really restrictive - no sugar, no dairy, no soy, no wheat, no processed foods - and I was bracing myself for a lot of suffering and deprivation. I had gotten myself Carolyn Levett's Endometriosis Cookbook online but it being an e-book, the print-out wasn't pretty and didn't look like anything to write home about. But honestly, this little Australian book has blown my mind! Every single thing I've made from it so far hasn't just been acceptable in a restricted-diet kind of way but absolutely fantastic. I am really, really impressed. This is not just a great cook book for people with endo, but a great cookbook, period. It's available at www.endo-resolved.com.

Here's the first thing I made from it - just a nice fruit salad, but with a dollop of fresh home-made dairy-free yogurt made from pine nuts, of all things - delicious!

Here's the pine nut yogurt in its jar - the creamy yogurt is on top, the whey at the bottom

and here's the fruit salad again, just so you can see evidence of the fact that I finally invested in a melon baller! Oh, and the green stuff is not parsley but chopped fresh mint.Recipe No. 2: an amazing lemon-garlic pasta with grilled veggies. It's hard to describe just how fabulous this was. So super-simple but very intensely flavorful. Gave it five stars.

the veggies wanted to sit on the stove for a bit before going into the oven...

Recipe No. 3: Grilled peppers and onions salad with a Nicoise olive and caper dressing. Great appetizer. Another five stars. Recipe No. 4: Oh my. This was so good. This is brown-rice pasta with a fresh Vietnamese pesto made with sweet Thai basil, cilantro, lime, fresh roasted peanuts, rock salt, a pinch of cinnamon and a good amount of fish sauce. Five and a half stars. Absolutely incredible.

A close up of the Vietnamese pesto...
Recipe No. 5: a banana pie for Ritesh. This is a raw, vegan pie with a walnut-almond-date crust (ok, I smuggled a bit of hazelnut butter in there too) and a banana-date topping. Should have used more fresh fruit on top, but we were low on strawberries, and the nectarines weren't quite ripe yet. And the topping didn't quite gel enough because I used too much lemon juice for the amount 0f agar-agar, so it was my fault, not the recipe's. But this rocked anyway. Definitely way more flavor than any old wheat-and-sugar based pie.
I also made a raw Italian pesto soup from the book but forgot to take a picture. But there'll be plenty more to come - I'm loving this book so much I have half a mind to cook my way trough the entire thing.

Surprise Package from NY!

2009-05-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

Look what I got in the mail this week! A surprise get-well package from one of my oldest friends (who's soon to be a tenured professor - yay for Rogie!)! I had no idea it was from him until I opened it, because it was sent from Colorado. He must have ordered it online. But how did he manage to include that hand-written note? Hmm.... mystery. I did call him to thank him, but forgot to ask. He's coming to visit in August so note to self, ask Rogie how he pulled that off!

And here's what was inside - it was a true care package if ever I've seen one: chocolate covered pretzels, Mighty Leaf tea, Southwest flavored orzo, basil pesto and a lime syrup that you can do a million things with. Very, very nice selection, and really made my day, thanks so much, Rogie! Ritesh and I got started on the chocolate covered pretzels right away - they were brown-rice syrup sweetened and not only certified organic, but Vermont certified organic! That must mean something, and we were very impressed. And boy were they tasty! A real treat...

The Big Day

2009-05-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry to keep going on about pre-surgery and post-surgery, but the surgery was kind of a big deal around here. Plus I've changed what I eat since that day, so it feels like there really has been a dividing line, a distinct before and after... more on the after part coming up!

The Golden State

2009-05-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Golden State is a new joint on Fairfax devoted to showcasing a vast array of odd and exotic (and overpriced) beers, as well as a smaller selection of hot dogs, sandwiches and salads to go along with it. They also have great fries and dipping sauces. I loved my sandwich - the best BLT I recall eating, ever - and liked my wine fair enough. I don't really like beer, what with my dad being a Master Brewer and all, I got saturated before I reached my teens...

This was a little while ago, when Przemek (left) was in town to screen his movie at the Polish Film Festival. Unfortunately, we missed the movie but we did manage to catch up with him and Greg and Phinney at Golden State afterwards...

Rakish Desires Cont.

2009-05-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

A couple more pre-surgery indulgences: a mini sized chocolate cheesecake, and a mini chocolate cupcake, both from Whole Foods and pretty disappointing. These were apparently created to look good, not taste good.

This one is the exact opposite - a somewhat plain and unassuming-looking rhubarb crumble that tastes fantastic! Made this one from Simon's reliably fabulous recipe again...

Rakish Desires

2009-05-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

I wanted to regale you with a couple of these beauties... a very classy macaronade at the Little Next Door, with Andrea, pre-surgery

and a supremely indulgent raw and vegan chocolate truffle cake from Cru, at home, with Ritesh

... before pulling a 180 degree turn and presenting my new inspirational role model, Ukrainian yoga master (contortionist is more like it) Andrey Lappa. I am attempting to learn his rather challenging Dance of Shiva and have been reading up on him a little, and here's what he has to say about the theme of my blog:

Food preoccupation or appetite is the result of old rakish desires and the absence of the will to humbleness. It also be connected with the unconscious striving «to tune out» from stress influences and become distracted by the sensations of eating. This is usually connected with the psychic overloads of a modern style of life.

Ho hum. Spoken like the true ascetic-living-in-retreat-in-the-Himalayas-six-months-out-of-the-year kind of guy that he is. But truth is, he has a point. Also, as it happens, my post-surgery self has been a very conscious and sparing eater and doing very well without rakish desires for sugar, cake or ice cream or anything of the sort, thank you very much. Now the question is how I will fare once I re-enter the stressed-out and overloaded work force on Friday....

Tulips and Jasmine

2009-05-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

Some very pretty get-well flowers from Ritesh...

and a very cool get-well bag from Nady - this is a super eco-friendly and sustainable purse handmade in the Philippines from recycled rice bags. Can't beat that! Thanks, Nady and Ritesh!

The Five Things We Cannot Change

2009-05-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

1. Everything changes and ends.
2. Things do not always go according to plan.
3. Life is not always fair.
4. Pain is a part of life.
5. People are not loving and loyal all the time.

Thank god for Buddhism and its insights. It's been a trying week, and lord knows I've needed them.

My surgery finally happened and was successful, as they say, meaning they did what they set out to do and it all went well and without complications. It was last Wednesday at 7am and was over at 9am. I started coming to around noon, and around 3pm they had finally figured out which anti-nausea medication to give me. I remember being told in England that today's anesthesia doesn't make you nauseous anymore so not sure what happened there. Maybe I'm just sensitive. Anyway, I was bandaged up and discharged at 5pm, exactly 12h after we got there. So far so good.

What I wasn't prepared for was what followed, the sucky, lonely recovery time at home. Ritesh was very busy. He continued going to work during the day and visiting his dad during the evening. The pops is doing well, btw, but the better he gets the more company he wants, so they have him covered around the clock. Ritesh's brother is there from morning to early afternoon, the mom from afternoon to early evening, and Ritesh from early evening to midnight. Ritesh did spend the surgery day with me at the hospital but starting the day after he went back to his usual routine and I found myself alone at home, loaded up on painkillers, having a hard time thinking straight and focusing on that Indian novel I was trying to read, let alone moving around. Same on Friday, day 2 after surgery. My parents called on Friday and wanted to thank Ritesh for taking such good care of me, assuming of course he had taken time off work and visiting the Dad. I didn't have the heart to tell them I was alone, so I lied and said Ritesh was just out grocery shopping. He did do some grocery shopping on Saturday, after catching up on some sleep until 2pm (poor guy is exhausted) and before heading back south to visit the pops. It doesn't help that the mom calls to ask when he's coming to the hospital as soon as he's in the door. Honest to god, I've come to resent the sound of his phone ringing. Can't they let the guy have some peace, and let him take care of his wife? He did also cook me dinner twice this week, and took me out for Chinese food around the corner once, which was nice. The rest of the time I've been eating leftovers and lots of fruits. Not so bad I guess. I've lost seven pounds so far, since the beginning of my bronchitis.

Now I'm not one of those people who can't stand to be alone and always need someone around. Quite the contrary, I really enjoy having time alone to re-group and think and read and just putter around the house and do my thing. But as I discovered, that is quite different from being in isolation 22h out of the day after surgery when you're fragile and in pain (did I mention that Ritesh has been sleeping on the futon in the back for three weeks so as not to catch my bronchitis?) I did try to keep myself busy, speaking to friends and family on the phone, reading a couple of books and watching a couple of movies and generally doing things I shouldn't be doing like making my bed, loading and emptying the dish washer, driving myself to the doctor because one of the sutures is bulging and hurting so much more than the other, and doing some grocery shopping myself. But really, I've come to my limits. I've learned that when you've had surgery, you need someone there with you to take care of you, and not in some half-assed way. You can't really do this on your own. Looking back on it now, I think it would have been smarter if I had had the surgery in London after all. My heart aches just thinking about it. Delia is at home anyway, she cooks food anyway, and she and the kids would have been great, spirited company. It would have been a very different experience. As it is, things have gotten so bad that I'm actually missing work and can't wait to go back next Friday. And that I'm seeking refuge in the time-honored tenets of Buddhism. The five realities above couldn't be more appropriate, and I find them really helpful when resentment rears its ugly head.

Ritesh is now home sick himself, not with my bronchitis, mind you, but with some cold that he caught at work or at the hospital. How ironic. Anyway, I'll go cut up some fruit for breakfast.

One week down, 9 more days to go.

Yay for the pops!

2009-05-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

The good news is that while I'm languishing in limbo, the pops has been making strides. STRIDES, I tell you. He has been gaining strength in his hands and can now HOLD A PEN and WRITE which he does with abandon and which is very, very exciting to us. It would be hard to overrate the importance of being able to communicate. He himself is so happy about it it's hard to stop him. The night nurse reported he was up at 2am writing the other night. What was he writing, you ask? "I tried and tried, but I just couldn't read his handwriting" she said. He's writing on a white board and when he runs out of space, he wipes it clean and starts over, so we'll never know what was on his mind that night. But what he writes when Ritesh is around is all comprehensible, and he says the pops is very with it, if a little iffy on short term memory. Ritesh does give him little quizzes every now and then, just to keep tabs on his cognitive function, and this week, the pops had no problem recalling who Obama was but had no recollection of the previous president. Oh merciful mind. I wish we could all just forget about that guy.

But the most exciting this is: THE POPS CAN EAT! YAY FOR THE POPS! He passed a swallow test yesterday, some slivers of ice, some apple sauce and a graham cracker, and so today he got some more apple sauce and some mashed up veggies and soup and, believe it or not, mashed up teriyaki chicken. I've been looking forward to the pop's first meal for weeks and am really bummed I missed it (me an my bronchitis are still staying as far away from him as possible). We had done a lot of speculating on what he would want as his first meal after three months of intravenous protein goo, and finally Ritesh asked him the question and he said what he missed most and wanted first was daal bhat, i.e. Indian lentil daal with rice. Instead, he got teriyaki chicken, poor guy, but I'm sure the mom is whipping up some daal as we speak and he will get it soon - this all happened so fast! It was totally unexpected but I'm convinced and keep saying that him being able to eat real food will make a huge difference in his well-being and recovery.

Now please let there not be another set back. He's still in the ICU and I guess the next step is discharging him, again, to the rehab place.

Cranky

2009-05-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

It's been one endless miserable week. One thing I've tried these last couple of days to help heal my bronchitis is taking gentle strolls on the beach. I figured the salty, humid air could only do good things for those poor, inflamed bronchioli. I can't really say that it caused noticeable improvement but it was nice to get out of the house for something other than work. (Yes, I went into work most days. And I am not resenting having had to go in at all. No siree. Staying home is for pussies. And I just got promoted again and am expected to show my dedication. So there.)

This is looking south on Santa Monica beach, towards Venice:
And this is looking north, towards the Santa Monica pier and Malibu:

It's been a week and a half time and I'm very ready for this to be over. The surgery was indeed postponed to next week, although I'm still not sure that I'll be ok then. Apparently, you not only have to be able to breathe during surgery, but also to abstain from coughing afterwards, what with all the abdominal incisions that need to heal. So we'll see - will talk to the doctor on Monday.

At least it's not the swine flu

2009-05-03T16:27:00.000-07:00

So it looks like the surgery will have to be postponed - my bronchitis/flu thing has gotten way out of hand and is not responding to antibiotics. I'm coughing up a lung and then some every hour or so and have the mother of all sinus infections to go along with it, as well as an ear infection (it takes having had one to understand just how painful these are), as well as a low-grade fever, total fatigue and stabbing aches and pains all over my body. I was supposed to go into work this weekend to prepare for being out for a couple of weeks starting Wednesday, but there's no way I could go in, and there's no way I can have surgery being this sick. So God knows what's going to happen. Hopefully they can schedule me in for the following week.

Doctors

2009-05-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

My surgery date is now set for next Wed, May 6. I'm not going back to London for it, although I would have loved to. I turns out that although the surgeon's fees are so much cheaper there, once you add in the hospital fees (which here are covered by my insurance) it ends up costing about the same. Add to that all the hassle and the jet lag and the recovery at a friend's house - I didn't really want to be a bother to Delia who has her hands full with her three boys. So instead, I'll have to be a bother to poor Ritesh who insisted that he'd rather do double duty taking care of his dad and taking care of me than having to worry about me on the other side of the Atlantic. Thanks, love...

So instead of the lovely doctor on Harley Street, my surgery will be done by a great doctor in Santa Monica who is an expert in the procedure I'm going to have, committed to being minimally invasive, and who is supremely personable and reassuring, all of which has contributed to him being chosen for Best Doctors in America and Top Doctors since the 1990s. This is him:
He is not within my insurance network and therefore several thousand dollars more expensive than the creepy doctor at UCLA I was with before, but I'm at peace with it. At least I can trust him. I hope :) .

This may be a bit of a cheap shot, but just for contrast, here's Dr. Evil at UCLA who wanted to do a medically unnecessary and outdated procedure on me and just wouldn't back down in spite of second opinions from other doctors with a combined 50 years more experience than him.
This is also a doctor who makes you wait somewhere between 1h and 1.5 h at every appointment, no matter if you're his first appointment of the day. It's because of guys like him that we were warned by a family friend, retired MD herself and professor emeritus at UCLA, that the certain university hospital in question has a reputation for doing unnecessary surgeries to bring in revenue and that I should get a second opinion. Which thankfully I was able to do. But I'm still not quite over my experience with this guy. It left a really bad aftertaste and on some level I feel I should report him so he doesn't do this to other patients. But if the whole system is dysfunctional, what point is it to denounce one individual? I mean, this place is called the Ronald Reagan Medical Center - what else can you expect? Should have known to stay away.

Anyways.

Meanwhile, I'm actually out sick with a weird bronchial infection - it feels like bronchitis, but the doctor says its bacterial. I hope the antibiotics will take care of it or that it will at least have run its course by Wednesday. I'd hate to have to postpone the surgery...

Not so good news

2009-04-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

What a difference a day can make. The pops couldn't handle the rehab place and was transferred back to a hospital - not the one he was at for the last couple of months, but one that was closer (so much for continuity of care). As we speak, he's been in the emergency room for close to six hours, on the ventilator but stable, just waiting to be admitted to his room. Ritesh and his mom and his younger brother are there with him. The older brother had been there since this morning and finally went home exhausted. And yours truly is not down there, but at home in bed and in so much pain that I'm actually looking forward to the upcoming surgery just to finally put an end to this. Not a good day for anyone.

Health Update

2009-04-25T08:00:00.001-07:00

This week, the pops was finally discharged from the ICU after about 76 days, if I'm counting correctly. He was transferred (by ambulance, mind you), to a rehab facility about 30 miles away from Ritesh's mom's house but actually a little closer for us. It's near the seaside, not in an idyllic beachy kind of way, but in a major cargo port kind of way. But somehow, him having been a marine engineer and spent many years on his life on cargo boats, it seems somehow fitting and we're hoping he'll recover well there.

He is still fed through a tube, still on the ventilator so can't talk, and has lost the use of all his muscles so will have to learn to walk again. But he's conscious and aware and smiles and can sit up in a cardiac chair for a few hours a day (on a good day), plus, eyewitnesses tell me, he can pick his own nose, so progress is undeniable and we're optimistic.

Festival Week: ColCoa, IFFLA, Depeche Mode, Anil Kapoor

2009-04-25T07:09:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been incommunicado all week - too much going on. For starters, my car died on the way to work one day and required getting towed to the mechanic (had to make up the hours missed at work) and then picked up again, outside of work hours, of course. Then I've dealt with a lot of my surgery prep and it looks like I'll have a surgery date to communicate next Tuesday, knock on wood.

But the biggest time drain this week, and in a good way, were the ongoing film festivals, with the concomitant cross-town driving and late nights! I saw two films that I really liked at the French Film Festival ColCoa - short for City of Lights (which would be Paris) City of Angels (that would be us), which happens every year at the Directors Guild in Hollywood.

I won't dwell on this much but if you have the opportunity, check out Le premier jour du reste de ta vie , a moving dark family comedy with the fabulous Zabou Breitman, Jacques Gamblin and Marc-Andre Grondin, and the fascinating Les Bureaux de Dieu, a Cannes selection about a Paris family planning center based on real interviews, but with such abortion counselors as the stunning Nathalie Baye, whom I love, and the scandalous Beatrice Dalle, she of Jean-Jacques Beineix 1986 classic 37°2 le matin (released in the US under the title Betty Blue).

IFFLA is the Indian Film Festival Los Angeles, and we caught a film there that we had missed in Mumbai: Little Zizou, about the Parsi community in Mumbai, directed by Sooni Tarapolevala, who is the co-writer on Mira Nair's movies. It was ok.

What really made the trip to the Arclight worthwhile that night was that free concert that Depeche Mode was playing just a couple of blocks away, at the storied intersection of Hollywood and Vine, for the release of their new album. Hollywood Boulevard had been closed off, with the stage placed just east of Vine. We only caught one song before we had to turn around so as not to miss the beginning of the movie, and we could see precious nothing because we were on the wrong side of the stage...
... but of course the music was booming and that one song we heard in its entirety was the opening song Never Let Me Down Again, so it worked out great and I was very happy.
There are lots of crappy videos of the event on YouTube. Thankfully, I only had my iPhone with me, otherwise I'm sure I couldn't have resisted and would have added some myself.

Anyway, as part of the Indian Film Festival, I also attended a seminar ominously entitled Hollywood's Spotlight on India, with a bunch of panel discussions on such engaging topics as The State of the Indian Entertainment Industry, Film Financing: Co-productions and Alternatives and Producing Indian content for the Indian and International Market, the latter affording the opportunity to brush shoulders with Anil Kapoor, who was on that panel (he's the show host in Slumdog Millionaire). And since people keep asking me if he's short, let me tell you that I can vouch for the fact that he is as tall as I am, which is a reasonably respectable 1.72m.

And to round off the week, we're trekking to the Polish Film Festival today (what a stroke of programming genius to have all three festivals happen at the same time). Greg's former roommate, a Polish guy by the name of Przemek, who studied film in LA and then went back to Poland, has a short movie showing there today, and he's in town himself, so that should make for a happy reunion....

The night before it happened

2009-04-18T09:50:00.001-07:00

A fantastic tortilla soup, at Don Antonio's, with my friend Cam, her husband Cesar, and Ritesh. We also had some serious margaritas!

Cam had us cracking up all night with stories from her last trip back to England to visit her folks (Cam is hilarious).

After dinner, we got soaked running to the car. It was pouring that night and we were giggling like kids as we were skipping over the puddles. This was the night of Friday, Feb 6. We didn't know it then but this was the last night of carefree goofing around and hanging out just for the hell of it that we would have. Less than 12h later, the pops would have his heart attack, and we'd be on our way to the hospital, our lives changed for good.

Presidential Soft Drinks

2009-04-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

Another unposted post from the week of the pop's heart attack:

I have it from an authoritative source (Time Magazine, no less) that in his first week in office, Obama had the White House refrigerators stocked with bottles of Honest Tea in his two favorite flavors: Black Forest Berry and Green Dragon. I'm no friend of bottled drinks, what with all that assciated trash, but I'm as susceptible to some decent product placement as the next person, so I hurried out and tried to get me some of that tea, rationalizing that at least it comes in glass bottles, not plastic, all the way to Whole Foods.

However, wouldn't you know it, I can't have been the only one to have read that Time article because from all the shelves of Honest Teas I inspected, these two flavors were suspiciously missing. A gaping void above the product tag - sold out. I tried several Whole Foods in my area, as well as Gelson's and Pavilion's, but lo and behold, it took about a week and a half before I finally got my hands on some. Ta da!

But between you and me, they're really just ok. There's nothing much to write home about except maybe the fact that we have a president who turns to organic and raw cane-sugar sweetened green tea rather than Coke when he hits a sugar low during the day...

Cake!

2009-04-15T20:56:00.001-07:00

I've been cleaning up around here and found this post that never got posted from the carefree days back in early February just before the pops had his heart attack. Here it is unchanged and unedited:

Cecy, who is the nicest and kindest, got me this for no apparent reason at all: a delicious fruit tart from the legendary Cuban bakery Porto's, in the valley. Loved it - thanks so much, Cecy! I went outside to enjoy it in the sun, away from my desk, that's how special it was...

One of my Cuban-American co-workers, who in a reassuring confirmation of stereotypes bears the illustrious last name of Castro, got married recently and was sent off home to Florida with a nice wedding reception involving champagne and a luscious wedding cake. Yes, we had champagne in the middle of the afternoon, in a conference room at work, and it did wonders for morale...

I have a newly developed banana-pie radar and scored a delicious specimen for Ritesh at Amandine, my favorite French-Japanese neighborhood bakery: a great crust topped with a mousse-textured vanilla pudding, a layer of caramelized bananas and walnuts and a top layer of caramel-infused whipped cream, plus some caramel swirls on top. This was quite something. I think I'm getting really into this whole banana pie thing...

Vegan Sacher Torte from the macrobiotic M Cafe de Chaya

Fancy Wedding

2009-04-14T19:47:00.001-07:00

Just a couple of glimpses at the set up for what looked like a pretty extravagant wedding at a certain five star hotel in Mumbai.... We've seen our share of Indian weddings and are not so easily impressed, but what was amazing about this one was the use of flowers -these curtains, for instance, are made entirely out of real, fresh flowers, innumerable little blossoms strung up on pieces of string...

More flower curtains. God knows how many hours and how many hands it took to get this done. And you have to imagine the smell, too - just beautiful.

Kitchen staff hard at work on some fabulous desserts

and a few humble watermelons awaiting their turn in the kitchen hallway...

Freida Pinto

2009-04-13T19:08:00.001-07:00

Before her breakout performance in Slumdog Millionaire, the lovely Freida Pinto appeared in a number of ads, including this one for She brand sanitary pads. This was apparently a few years ago already, but the brains at She are of course re-releasing these ads now to cash in on her new-found fame. This one is from the Mumbai Times or Mumbai Mirror, I forget which (they always arrived together in the morning).

And here's an entire billboard at a bus stop near Dockyard Road....

Mumbai or Bombay?

2009-04-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

In case you're wondering why I've come to use Mumbai and Bombay pretty much interchangeably, here's my attempt at an explanation: Officially, the city's name was changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1996, although it wasn't accepted by the AP until 2006. Initially, I was of course in favor of this eradication of British-Raj era names, done in an apparent attempt to re-claim the city's identity from its colonial heritage. I assumed that calling the city Mumbai was the politically correct thing to do. However, once we got to Mumbai I was surprised to hear a lot of people continuing to call it Bombay. Same thing for the main train station, formerly and ongoingly called Victoria Terminus (VT), although officially it is Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), the Prince of Wales Museum (now officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya - quite a mouthful that one) and a number of street names, including the one that Ritesh used to live on (Coppersmith Road - no idea what the official name is now). People either just continue to use the old name or at most use both interchangeably. Old habits die hard, you might say. However, there is a deeper, political reason for this ambivalence. It has to do with the fact that the party responsible for these name changes, the Shiv Sena, is very far right, violently pro-Hindu (i.e. anti-Muslim) and aggressively pro-Maharashtran (i.e. anti-everything else, be that Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil or foreigner) meaning that large swaths of the population don't identify with it and feel excluded if not openly discriminated against. In that light, calling the city Bombay can actually be seen as a rejection of the Shiv Sena's extremist and anti-outsider policies, which is certainly a decent stand to take. So basically you have a choice between two names that each carry their own unfortunate connotations, a choice between sounding like a pro-colonial jingoist or a Maharasthran Hindu extremist. Which is why I do what most Bombayites and Mumbaikars tend to do - I just use both.

Random Mumbai

2009-04-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

The western end of Chowpatty Beach, with South Bombay in the background, on the other side of the bay.

a roadside temple in Mandvejust outside Dharavi slum, with the minarets of a mosque (wish I knew which one) sticking out above the roofs

stairwell in the public hospital near Dharavi slum

back in South Mumbai - Churchgate Train Station

early morning in the neighbor's courtyard, seen from our hotel window

stately bird in the Mumbai Port Authority Garden in Colabaslums and highrises in Colaba

side street of Cuffe Parade in Colabaoutside some Christian building on Cuffe Parade
little Swayam fell asleep on the train and woke up to find himself on Marine Drive, in front of the Express Towers...

...but at least he got a view of this... Queen's Necklace by day

Haji Ali

2009-04-10T09:58:00.000-07:00

Just a passing shot of Haji Ali, a mosque and dargah (tomb) and one of Mumbai's most stunning landmarks, located as it is on an island just off the shoreline of Worli. It is connected to to the shore by a 500 yard long narrow bridge/causeway that has no railing, so it is only accessible during low tide. It was built in 1431 in memory of Haji Ali, who was by varying accounts either an Islamic preacher or a Muslim merchant traveling the world and giving up all worldly goods before his pilgrimage to Mecca. Although it is a Muslim site, it is apparently also very popular with Hindus who like to come and get the blessings of the saint buried here. We didn't make it there on this trip as we weren't aware that it was open to non-Muslims, but I definitely want to visit when we're back later this year.

Mumbai Azaan

2009-04-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

One thing I really liked about Mumbai was that in many parts of the city, you can hear the azaan, the Muslim call to prayer. It's something that I've always really enjoyed listening to, partly because I just like the way it sounds, but partly also because of the way it makes me feel, somewhere between meditative and respectful (except maybe for that 5am one, ahem). I wonder why I've never heard it in Germany of France, what with all the mosques that are around. There must be a 'see, don't hear' policy or something (funny how that doesn't apply to church bells though). In LA, there's not even church bells.

This is on our first trip to Andheri, snacking on the roof top with Ritesh's cousin's family just after sunset. Masjid Al Haraam it ain't but it's still beautiful. Sorry I didn't quite know where to point the camera as I was recording...

This one is in a garden near Ritesh's old house by Dockyard Road Station. The path we're on is called 'joggers' circle' and we're trailing a couple of ladies, one of them in her sneakers, working out with the azaan in the background. As a bonus, you get a chorus of the omnipresent crows that are louder than anything, really...

Harley Street

2009-04-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

More on the street that yours truly hadn't heard of until a couple of weeks ago...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Street
Seems like the place even had an eponymous TV medical drama dedicated to it. Which was axed after like three episodes. Ah well.

Medical London - Harley Street

2009-04-06T22:01:00.000-07:00

My first morning in London was a busy one. Before going into work and before even getting my hair done, I had another appointment - a doctor's appointment that Delia had made for me. Not for the food poisoning, mind you, but for that cyst which needs surgery and which I've been so badly procrastinating on. Some day in the future perhaps I'll write a post chronicling my unfortunate experiences at the UCLA medical center which resulted in my just wanting to stick my head in the sand and not deal with this issue, but for now because suffice it to say that I didn't have the guts to fire a doctor who was not trustworthy and that there was too much else going on these last few months, what with the pops in the ICU and the overwork and the sleep deprivation and then the India trip, for me to focus on the bigger picture. Meanwhile, Delia - who's a great friend and a supremely practical person - realized that I was in no shape to move forward on this, so she did it for me.

So here I am. This, unlikely as it may seem to the eye accustomed to American functionality, is a doctor's office in London. On Harley Street no less - Delia is not one to mess around.

The rest of the waiting room. Not what I remember health care looking like when I lived here. But then again - this is outside the NHS, as of course I'm no longer a resident.

The hallway up to the treatment rooms. The doctor himself was fantastic. He answered all my questions, resolved the thorny issues that had me stuck, all while exposing the UCLA doctor as the unsavory character he is without even trying. I was very impressed. This London doctor was so competent and sensible and straight forward and reassuring that I'm very tempted to go back and have my surgery done here. Need I add that the cost here is a fraction of what it would be in the States?

And after the appointment, when I went to settle my bill, it turned out that not only had Delia booked the appointment, she had also paid for it. And wouldn't let me reimburse her. Can you believe it? I was so touched by her thoughtfulness and generosity that I just about started bawling right there in the doctor's office (I get weepy when I'm sick and jetlagged). It didn't help my composure that the office manager declared "You have a very good friend here", and then went off about the importance of the heart in living a good life. All this to say, thank you so much, Delia! This was one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me, and I appreciate it more than words can say.

Random London

2009-04-05T21:21:00.001-07:00

I was very badly in need of a haircut before rolling into our London office, so Deli got me an appointment with her stylist, Ethal, at Mad Lillies. Ethal is a fabulous and openly gay Gujarati (don't hear these three words together very often...) from Leicester, where apparently 25% of the population is Asian. He says when he goes back to India, people can tell right away he's not from there - no kidding, with that Robert-Smith hairdo he's sporting! Really great guy, though - and great haircut, too! Unfortunately, I have no picture to show of either Ethal or the haircut, but I do have one of my empty tea cup. Ahem.

Yours truly in the tube, still ailing and frail from the food poisoning on this my first day in London, but at least with the importantables (i.e. hair) in place...

Spring time in London! Told you this was going to be random...

Dinner at Jen Kichi (right up the street from Mad Lillies) w/ Deli and Matthias, the night before Ritesh arrived.

Still Life at Delia's

2009-04-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

Love Delia's dining area - bay windows, lots of light, Magnolia tree in bloom outside...

And for comparative purposes, the iPhone version from the day before....

and just outside the window, little Jos really, really, REALLY not wanting to go to pre-school...

and finally getting whisked away by Dad. Ah, the heartbreak. Would have loved to spend the morning with him...

Inglorious Bastards

2009-04-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Bit of a surprise this week: I was emailing with a client in London about work-related stuff when it occurred to me that it was past midnight his time. So I asked him what he was doing, working so late. And the answer I got was this:

Deadlines.

MRS. HIMMELSTEIN
Good. A basterd's work is never done.

This seemed funny in a sort of cryptic way, until I looked up and noticed there was an attachment. And in the attachment was nothing other than the complete screenplay of Quentin Tarantino's new flick, Inglorious Bastards (or Inglourious Basterds, as Mr. Tarantino likes to spell it). The Mrs. Himmelstein line turned out to be a quote from the script, which the gentleman I was emailing with very kindly attached to his email so yours truly would get the joke. I was floored. I mean, this is a movie that's going to premiere at Cannes in May and not going to be released stateside until August. Vanity Fair is going to publish parts from the script in May, as an exclusive. So I was hyperventilating about this thing on my screen and I emailed him back saying - ok, I'm assuming this is confidential and I'm supposed to delete it? And he goes, naa, it's pretty widely available. So I checked online, and indeed it seems the script was leaked a while ago and there are reviews of it on several websites. Which is why I feel it's ok for me to mention this publicly, and also to disclose that yes, indeed, I went ahead and read the whole thing, all 157 pages of it.
Now I'm no fan of Mr. Tarantino, although I will confess that the screenplay of Pulp Fiction was the first thing I purchased on my first trip to LA when I was still scoping out grad schools out here. But I think he's gone way downhill since then, so I'm not one of the disciples who've been waiting for this for the decade that it has been floating around. But it was a good read. Full of Mr. Tarantino's trademarks, of course: insane, over-the-top violence and that verbal logorrhea that can be both really funny and really exasperating. It's set during WWII in German-occupied France and chronicles the exploits of a group of ass-kicking American-Jewish motherf***s who are out to personally take revenge on the Nazi regime by killing (and scalping, mind you) as many Nazis as they can get their hands on, all while discussing German film of the 1930s vs. German film under Goebbels. In the end, after spectacular shoot-outs, fires and explosions, it seems most everyone ends up dead. You'll have to see it for yourself to find out if Brad Pitt's character survives...
All I will say for now is that I agree with the commentator on one of the websites reviewing the script who said:

Quentin Tarantino spells like a third grader. Just sayin'.

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-04-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

When people ask me about Mumbai, one question that comes up a lot is: Is it like in Slumdog Millionaire? Apparently, everyone and their mother has seen the recent Oscar winner which seems to have firmly superseded Mira Nair’s 1984 Salaam Bombay! as the main cultural reference point for Mumbai in the popular imagination of Westerners. Slumdog Millionaire was of course shot in Mumbai and tells the story of a Mumbai slum dweller, based on a novel that was written by someone who wasn’t born in Mumbai but is at least Indian and has hopefully spent some time in Mumbai (he’s now the Indian Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa). But to what extent it actually shows the real Mumbai is a thorny question. My first instinct is to say – not at all. It couldn’t, possibly.

For one, the real Mumbai is not art-designed and cinematically enhanced. The colors are not this vibrant and intense, the light is not this warm and golden, and whatever lense the cinematographer used to cut through the polluted haze – I want one to add to my sunglasses! The real Mumbai, particularly in the slums, is more muted, has more shades of gray and black and grime, and the pollution is such that the sky never really looks as blue as it does in the movie. The screen shot above is one of the few that looks unaltered and gives a true impression. (And as an aside, if I ever hear anyone complain again about bad air in LA, I’m going to punch them on the nose).

Then there’s the smell, the all-encompassing, hovering stench of a city where millions of people don’t have access to proper sanitation and where open sewage runs between slum dwellings – a smell that is characteristic not just of Mumbai but any city with this problem, and something that you’re spared when you watch the movie. Watching the movie is a sanitized, non-visceral, comfortable, consumer-friendly experience – everything that the real Mumbai isn’t.

And then there’s the story itself, which every Mumbaikar will point out to you “could never happen here”. Ah, where to start. I remember seeing the movie for the first time in LA, dragging Ritesh to the theater on opening weekend with a giddy anticipation based on nothing but the promising combination of “Danny Boyle” and “Mumbai”. I was excited, and I was bowled away. I loved it, everything about it. The energy, the verve, the intensity, the way it grips you from the first frame and doesn’t let go, whirling you along an emotional rollercoaster to the final, very satisfying resolution. Of course, the camerawork is superb, the editing is stellar, the children are cute, the tunes are catchy, a likeable underdog overcomes all obstacles fighting for his one true love – what’s not to like? Ritesh, however, who is of a more sober nature and less susceptible to getting carried away over pretty images and a good yarn, left the theater uneasy and a little put off. He didn’t appreciate the poverty-porn depiction of slum life, felt the film was glossing over unfathomable social realities, was too unrealistic and even exploitative of the people it presented.

It’s a fairy tale, obviously, and that’s what a lot of people outside of Mumbai respond to. In the US, it is considered and marketed as a feel-good movie because it makes people living reasonably comfortable lives feel better about all the other people who don’t – if one orphaned slum kid can make it in life thanks to nothing but his own resourcefulness and a good heart, there’s hope for everyone out there and the world really isn’t that bad a place after all, right? Everyone loves a good rags-to-riches story. However, when you’re actually in Mumbai, with the realities of the city all around you, you can’t buy into the movie that easily. Which may be why the movie didn’t do so well in India. The fairy tale is just too painfully untrue.

We saw the movie for the second time when we were in Mumbai , with Ritesh’s cousin and her husband, who were both underwhelmed and a little annoyed with it. They assured us that no slum dweller would be able to win this show, or even be allowed to win – the police would not mess around interrogating him but put him away or have him disappear, period. Also, as a minor point, they felt it was totally incredible that after a win that was supposedly witnessed by millions countrywide, Jamal Malik could sit comfortably and undisturbed in the city’s major train station waiting for Latika and not be mobbed by throngs of people wanting a share of his cash. They agreed that the only way he could live after that win would be by leaving the country. And with regard to the depictions of slum life, they felt, like Ritesh did, that the movie glorified it, and they didn’t quite see the point of watching a movie about something this unpleasant that already intrudes on their life on a daily basis (there is a slum right next to their house). On some level, I think, from the beginning, Ritesh saw the movie as a Mumbaikar and I saw it as an outsider, clueless and oblivious.

I saw the movie again upon leaving Mumbai, on the Virgin Atlantic flight to London. I watched it twice in a row – the minute the closing credits were done, I started over, letting the images wash over me in a numb haze while trying to figure out how the film related to what I had just experienced in this city, and how I felt about it all. And to be honest, I cried. The ridiculousness of it all was now cringe-inducing. Here’s this cute 18 year old British TV actor with his thinly disguised English accent pretending to be an uneducated chai wallah getting everything he wants in a city that really doesn’t do any favors and that, on some days, I was convinced, must have its own circle in hell. A city, though, in which I now have family, a city that I will return to not just to visit but to live. A city that my parents wouldn’t be able to handle and will never visit me in but a city that will be my home and that has already started becoming part of the fabric of my life, for better or for worse. I can’t say how I feel about any of it. But the movie still gets to me. It still pulls at my heartstrings and it still triggers the feelings and images it stirred up first, images of Mumbai as a vibrant, exciting, energetic place where anything is possible. A place that’s as beautiful as it is horrid, as loving as it is cruel, a place that's constantly changing and re-inventing itself and that doesn't turn anyone away, offering some sort of home to millions of refugees from all over the country, and the world.

The Mumbai of Slumdog Millionaire may not be the real Mumbai, but it’s a Mumbai that lodges itself in your imagination and stays there, an alternative reality that is a lot more valid and a lot less escapist than anything Bollywood might churn out. And as such, it adds a layer to the experience of the city that I wouldn't miss for anything - a layer of poetic perception of the kind that helps you live, at least if you're a clueless and oblivious outsider.

Meanwhile in the Dominican Republic...

2009-04-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

... one of the storms / sand storms my brother and his girlfriend were reporting...

At work in London

2009-04-03T08:30:00.001-07:00

While in London, I got to visit our local office and spend some time with my lovely coworkers - some of whom I hadn't even met although we email every day. It was a real treat - everyone was wonderful and gracious, they all chipped in to take me out to a great lunch at the Med Kitchen (thanks, guys!!), and I got a tour of the gorgeous, spacious new offices, which are little short of mindblowing. Located in the West End right between Leicester Square and Covent Garden, and a few flights of stairs up, they have the most stunning views, too.

I've been hesitant to post these pictures because they were taken with my iPhone and just don't look that great, but what the hell, they're enough to give an impression...This is the view from the conference room...

...and here's a close up - check out the London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Nelson's Column...

They even have a nice aquarium in the office!

I wish I'd taken more pictures, even crappy iPhone ones... The only other one I can show you is of Camisa's on Old Compton Street (near Wardour), which is just a skip and a jump away from the office, and one of my old-time favorites. When I was an undergraduate, we would end up here on every single trip to London, the main reason being their anchovy-filled olives. They are out of this world. Seriously. If you're ever in London, check them out.

This just found on someone else's blog

2009-04-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Ritesh, yours truly and James Hebert, a professor of epidemiology at South Carolina, whose company we very much enjoyed, on our day trip from Mumbai to the beach. James is currently a Fulbrighter in India, and writes this wonderfully reflective blog about his experience.

This just in: Ritesh is a Fulbright Scholar!

2009-04-01T11:55:00.001-07:00

This has been a long time coming, but the big news is finally here, and it's official:

Ritesh is now a Fulbright Scholar!

CONGRATULATIONS, LOVE!

For those of you who are not familiar with the Fulbright, it's a "program of grants for international educational exchange for scholars, educators, graduate students and professionals, founded by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright. " And I continue to quote from wikipedia: "The Fulbright Program is one of the most prestigious awards programs worldwide, operating in 144 countries and with 51 commissions." And get this: "More Fulbright alumni have won Nobel Prizes than those of any other academic program, including two in 2002." (No pressure, Ritesh!)

He got the confrmation letter yesterday - bear with me if I go a little overboard and transcribe parts of it - it's a beautiful letter, and if I'm quoting it at length, it's as much for you present readers as it is for our future selves next year in Mumbai. There are bound to be some frustrations and some difficult times ahead, and it will be good to have this to come back to and remember why we're there:

On behalf of the J.William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), I am pleased to congratulate you on your selection as a Fulbright scholar grantee to India. The FSB is the Presidentially appointed 12-member Board that is responsible for establishing worldwide policies for the Program and for selection of Fulbright recipients. Your grant is made possible through funds that are appropriated annually by the U.S. Congress and, in many cases, by contributions from partner countries and/or the private sector. (...)
Your selection for a Fulbright award is, in itself, an achievement for which you can be justly proud. (...) As a Fulbright grantee, you will join the ranks of distinguished participants in the Program. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEO's, university presidents, journalists, artists, professors and teachers. They have been awarded 39 Nobel Prizes since its inception more than 60 years ago.
Developing international understanding requires a commitment on the part of the Fulbright grantees (and their spouses, if I may say so myself) to establish open communication and long-term cooperative relationships. In that way, Fulbrighters enrich the educational, political, economic, social and cultural lives of countries around the world. We expect that you, too, will (...) demonstrate the qualities of service, excellence and leadership that have been the hallmarks of this program. (...) As a representative of your country in India, you will help fulfil the principal purpose of the Fulbright program, which is to increase mutual understandng between the people of the United States and the people of the over 150 contries that currently participate in the Fulbright Program

There is some talk about research clearance and medical clearance and visas, and then they wrap it up with:

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, which oversees the operations of this program throughout the world, joins the Board in congratulating you. (...) We hope that your Fulbright experience will be highly rewarding professionally and personally, and that you will share the knowledge you gain as a Fulbrighter with many others throughout your life.

CONGRATULATIONS, RITESH! WE ARE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU!

And Mumbai - here we come!

Assaggi, Notting Hill

2009-03-30T22:06:00.001-07:00

The night Ritesh finally arrived from Mumbai, we picked him up from the Heathrow Express at Paddington, and then got whisked away to Notting Hill for some fabulous Italian grub at Assaggi. We were wondering what 'Assaggi' means and decided it must be the name of some pretty village somewhere in Emilia Romagna or something, but I just looked it up and turns out it means 'samples' or 'nibbles'. Just as well... thanks, Delia and Matthias, loved the place, and this was a great dinner!

We started with kirs for the gentlemen, a prosecco for Delia, and a campari soda for yours truly, since somebody ventured the idea that campari, being herb-based, might do wonders for my tummy. It didn't, really, but it was worth a try...

pear salad w/ pomegranate, walnuts and a nice cheese - I forget which kind it was

my gnocchi w/ wild boar ragout

Ritesh's interestingly twirled simple pasta w/ tomato and basil - this wasn't even on the menu, but it was so all he wanted after a fortnight in India that they made it for him

Dessert: semi-freddo of amaretto w/ crushed amarettini in it - fantastic!

In London with Jos

2009-03-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

Lunch in the garden w/ fresh pasta and mushroom sauce from Camisa's on Old Compton Street.

Jos loves pasta, and with a lot of parmeggiano!

Feisty little bro Max does, too - without sauce

LOVE this picture of Maxi, if only it was in focus....Jos and older brother Finn climbing trees (and making faces) in the Hampstead HeathFinn taking a breakJos on his walking bike - somebody get this boy some pedals!
Superdad giving a lift to three boys on one buggy, on a stroll to Hampstead Heath...

... and Supermom getting three boys age 4 and under ready for bed at the same time. Hats off to Delia and Matthias!

Yours truly trying to keep up - but not really doing anything useful...

Still in Tunisia...

2009-03-30T14:15:00.001-07:00

... Doris and Hector had sand storms to battle. They were about 180 miles south of where Lolo and Jacob were (Zarzis vs. Hammamet), but still on the coast.

Meanwhile, my brother and his girlfriend were in the Dominican Republic and report sand storms from there, too - apparently very untypical for the region and the time of year. So much for the global weather report, and the climate getting crazier...

Meanwhile in Tunisia...

2009-03-29T11:00:00.001-07:00

...Jacob and Lolo had a whole lot of rainy weather...

... while London showed itself in its most glorious and sunny springtime colors