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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Maggi or wanna make something delicious with the rice left over last night?

I moved into another place like a week back. Since then, got a little more into cooking as I am the head cook here :)

Preparing Maggi in a better way. We all prepare Maggi as its supposed to be the fastest. I dunno if people followed it the way below, but atleast for me this was something that I learnt new.


1. Take some water in the bowl and light the stove
2. Add the Maggi noddles in water
3. Add the masala that comes with the noodles
4. Add some Tomato ketchup/sauce and little bit of green sauce (if you have)
5. Cook it on high flame till the water is fully absorbed by the noodles

Serve the noodles hot garnished with coriander (and Onion if you like it raw).

Usually when we make rice for night, quite a little remains as my room mates are north indians and they prefer the chapathis to rice. So, the quick solution, I get for morning breakfast and same for lunch:

I assume you would have kept the rice in the refrigirator.


1. Take the rice out, add some hot water and keep it aside
2. In a frying pan, add 2 Tb Sp oil
3. Add some mustard and wait till it sprouts
4. Add some pea-nuts and fry it a little
5. You may also choose to add some dry red mirchi and fry it a little
6. Now the rice is quite fresh, Add the Rice to the pan
7. Add mirchi powder + Coriander powder + salt + Tamarind sauce
8. Stir the rice properly till it mixed properly
9. Fry the rice in the pan and serve hot

Some quick dishes that I relish preparing and eating too!!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Learning Indian Cooking with Design Patterns

Working on OOAD for sometime now, I have tried to emulate almost all of my daily work in OOAD; believe me, its made my life easy and more happy.

Cooking is what I got used to once I started working out of Bangalore. In Hyd, I was living alone in a room and I was just cooking rice and having it with curds or chutni pudi. Believe me, I have done it for 6 months everyday and I don't think I got bugged with it. Now, after getting to NYC, started to live in a house on shared basis, cooking other food becomes inevitable. I have learnt cooking in just 3 weeks.

This is a blog, trying to emulate the OOAD into Indian Cooking. Hopefully I will be able to put down all my design thoughts on this blog seamlessly. I would try to put down the design patterns for (1) Sabji and (2) Sambar in this blog.

Sabji:
North Indian Food that is usually served with chapathi/roti(indian wheat bread) and its not a good idea having it with rice also. Usually major chunk of the ingredients are vegatables.

Design Pattern:
Fry Oil in Pan
Put some Mustard, curry leaves
Add Vegetables
Add the Masala Powders + salt
Cook for 5 mins


Example:
Fry Oil in Pan
Put some Mustard, curry leaves
Add some Onion, deep fry till onion is brown
Add Gobi, Alu, Tomato Piecescludin
Add the Dhaniya Powder + Mirchi Puwder + Garam Masala + salt
Cook for 5 mins

3rd and the 4th step in the example depends on your choice. You can choose to add garlic also in the 3rd step. Quick and tastes good. Max of 15 mins including cutting vegetables and cooking.

Sambar
A South Indian Food. Again, can be served with Chapathi / Rice. But also a good side dish for Dosa/Idli/Vada. Ingredients are usually vegetables with some Dal.

Design Pattern:
Take some Dal in a pressure cooker and clean it in a stream of water
Add Vegetables
Add Masala Powders + Salt
Boil it till 2 / 3 whistles
Put Oggarne(in kannada)/Talimpu(in telugu)/Tadka(in hindi)
Cook for 2 mins


Example:

Take some Dal in a pressure cooker and clean it in a stream of water
Add Onion, Potato, Tomato
Add Mirchi Powder + Salt
Boil it till 2 / 3 whistles
Put Oggarne(in kannada)/Talimpu(in telugu)/Tadka(In hindi)
Cook for 2 mins

2nd step is customisable with any kind od combo vegetables you like with or without Onion. Garlic again is optional in the last but one step in Oggarne.

Hmmm.. I have told about the ingredients that get in. How about the measure of it? I Important Question. I have a very vague measure. Below is my measures for above:

Dal: For 2 persons, 2 measures of Dal as much an normal adult can take in his one palm. (ondu hidi as in Kannada)
Vegetables: For 2 persons, 2 measures of Vegetables as much as an normal adult can take with both his hands.Onion: For 2 persons, 2 measures of Dal as much an adult can take in his one palm. (ondu hidi as in Kannada)
Masala Powders: For 2 persons, 1 tea spoon each powder.
Salt: For 2 persons, 1 tea spoon.

This is all based on my experience and the valuable guidance of my Mom and Kusuma. Thanks to them for everything and inspiring me to blog it too. I guess I will blog atleast another 3 4 cooking design patterns before I return to India (tentative return date is in 1st week of December).

I HEREBY CERTIFY WHOEVER HAS READ MY BLOG AS "SRIKANTH CERTIFIED COOK"

Friday, October 19, 2007

Great Service Is a Matter of Choice

No one can make you serve customers well. That’s because great service is a choice.

Years ago, my friend, Harvey Mackay, told me a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point. He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey. He handed my friend a laminated card and said:

“I’m Wally, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement.”

Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said:

Wally’s Mission Statement:

To get my customers to their destination in the quickest,

safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, “Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.”

My friend said jokingly, “No, I’d prefer a soft drink.”

Wally smiled and said, “No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice.”

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, “I’ll take a Diet Coke.”

Handing him his drink, Wally said, “If you’d like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.”

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card. “These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio.”

And as if that weren’t enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air-conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

“Tell me, Wally,” my amazed friend asked the driver, “have you always served customers like this?”

Wally smiled into the rearview mirror. “No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written a book called You’ll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’”

“That hit me right between the eyes,” said Wally.

“Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.”

“I take it that has paid off for you,” Harvey said.

“It sure has,” Wally replied. “My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.”

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I’ve probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles. How about you?

(Excerpted from The Simple Truths of Service)

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Searching for accommodation in NYC

Hmmm.. 4th week in NYC now. I have changed 2 houses now. I have had wonderful experiences here especially looking out for accommodation. Srivatsan (One of my colleagues) suggested I blog my experiences so that others might benefit out of it.

I traveled to NYC from Bangalore with close to 1 weeks notice. I'd started looking out for accommodation just after I was notified that I would have to leave the next week. Being a fan of Bangalore Craiglist, my first search started from Craiglist. I did not find any Indian posts of looking for roommate and wondered what kind of Indian population resides in NY/NJ. All that I found was in Brooklyn, Queens and Jackson Heights. I thought staying towards that NY Side will be better and not get to NJ/Jersey City.

I had a call with my Onsite Manager and he suggested I lookout for something in Jersey city as most of them stay here and most of the Indian population also is here and I would not feel LONELY and LEFT OUT!! He then referred me to the www.sulekha.com website and asked me to find something which was viable for me.

Kusuma was in CA by now and she too was assisting me search for some accommodation and was doing the calling stuff to the people enquiring about the house, rent, utils etc..

For people like me who have not been to US before and this is your 1st visit, be it with family or single, you choose to rent a house / share the house rented by someone else, the utilities are extra. The utilities include the electricty/gas + phone + internet + groceries.

www.sulekha.com is one of the best online portals to search for accommodation. The next best will be the referrals. If you know of anyone who stays in the place u r traveling, referrals is the best as usually you will land there without any hassles and have a good stay. Not to say that others don't; but others may/may not.

If you are traveling to NYC (like me) and looking for accommodation, here are some TIPS:

1. See if anyone else is also traveling so that you could share a hotel room and make your stay "The Happiest". Hotels like Ramada, Red Carpet Inn, Extended Stay America are some places you could choose to stay. You would save as well as have some real fun..

2. if you are coming single and will stay single (not with family) you could probably lookout for some shared accommodation or paying guest accommodation. If you want to be among the Indian Crowd, you may want to search something in Journal Square, Jersey City. You can find some accommodation towards in the Indian Square / Indian Street.

As soon as you come out of the Journal Square Path Station, towards your right is the "Indian Street". Prefer staying to the right of the JSQ Path Station.You will be near to the Indian street and will not feel left out. Not that the left side area towards SIP Avenue and Summit Avenue is not good; however I prefer the right for some reasons better unspoken.

Things spoken till now is only if you are coming alone or single and wanna commute to NYC to office faster. It takes just over 10 mins to get to NYC by the Path Train from JSQ. Now, if you are coming with your family, then the whole picture changes.

I would prefer to stay in Edison or near Metro Park if I am coming with my family. This would be when someone would come for a long term. That part of NJ, Edison and Metro Park is full of the Indian Community with the city being more clean and better in many ways. Though its a pinch to the pocket and time to travel all the way from Edison to NYC to work, anyone would love the atmosphere and would wanna get there if with family.

Just to brief you about the travel from Edison to NYC; anyone who is travelling to NYC, or NY, would have to take the NJ Transit train till Newark and then depending on which part of NY you would have to go, you decide the train. If you have to get to somewhere near WTC, one would have to take the Path Train from Newark to WTC; else if it is the upper Manhattan, one could take the same NJ Transit train to get to work. You may want to refer to the NJ Transit website for more information on the train network and the train schedules along with the connecting Path Train timings.

I hope reading this blog now, you have a fair idea of what you should be doing. Anyways once you get to this place you would surely learn it as this country makes you learn to live independently.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave me a comment, I will try to get back to you ASAP or atleast make sure I refer you to the right person.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The World's honeymoon Capital - Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is known as the Honeymoon Capital of the World.

How many of us know it? 9 out of every 10 people wish to see the Niagara Falls atleast once in Life time. I'm also one among the 9 people who wanted to get there.

Being in NY for 3 weeks now, we planned to get to Niagara falls, its like 6 hrs drive from NYC. Kusuma (My Fiancee) and I along with my old friends whom I met here decided to make it to this wonderful place on earth last weekend.

We decided to take the gotobus as the weather was getting cold. We booked seats well in advance and lucky to get the tickets confirmed as this is supposed to be the peak season before close of Niagara Falls by end of Oct.

Kusuma made it to NY in the early morning flight. We all meet up at a pre-decided place and made our way to Canal Street where we were supposed to board the bus. As usual, I make some last min shopping of some snacks as they do not provide any meals in the bus.

Checked into the bus with the e-ticket and the most awaited our was just about to start. There comes the guide whom name we christened as Malcolm (Chinese that he was, we wanted to name him similar to what he "welcome" us; just replace "we" with "ma").

Out of NYC into Jersey City and towards Pennsylvania. The trip was via the Corning Glass Museum. The Corning Glass Museum was our 1st stop. It was just about lunch time too. Imagine not having breakfast and having to survive on some potato chips and just juice till 2 PM. And also having to only be eating vegetarian Food in the US.

Had our food and went around the Museum clicking some pics. The Museum had some awesome collection of Glass Art. It was sheer surprise and astonishment to see the shapes, color and texture that glass can take.

The Shopping section in the Museum was again just too good. Eventhough I was crazy about a couple-a-things and wanted to buy them to take them back home, it was logical not to buy as the checked in baggage are manhandled at the Airport.

Till now the bus was half filled, at the Corning Glass Museum, many more people joined the tour (rather they were already on a 2nd day of the tour and they joined us).

It was a looooooooong way before we got to the Niagara County eventually by 6 PM on Sat. We were waiting by now to put some Indian food into our mouth. Lucky to spot a Punjabi Dhaba near the Niagara water park, we grabbed the opportunity with both the hands and all of us took the buffet there. Had our dinner so early by 7 PM and loafed around the Niagara park enjoying the night view. It was very very cold. 9 deg Celsius. I bought a cap to cover my head till ears to keep myself warm.

Got to the Hotel and then decided to go to the Waterfall to witness the night view. Toooo good. Awesome!! Niagara Falls just the one border of Canada and US. Standing on the US side, the Canada Niagara City looks cool with a lot of Casinos and some skyscrapers.

Got to the hotel at night and got to our rooms to catch some sleep as we had to get up at 6:30 the next morning to get to the Maid of the Mist.

Early morning, its so cold. Grabbed a cup-a coffee each and boarded the bus. We were driven to the Park to see the American Falls and Horshu Falls. Beautiful, amazing, awesome.. The roar of the falls, just standing next to the mighty falls, seeing the water with an unbelievable current falling off the cliff, roaring with a mighty fall of more than 100 feet. Niagara falls was the first to have the Hydraulic Power Station. The current the river catches just before the fall is enormous.
Quickly got back to the bus to get to the Maid of the Mist. This is among the common waterfall region actually separating the 2 countries US and Canada. The mighty waterfall, from more than 100 feet, oozes out so much of mist around the falls that most part of the falls is very much invisible. Maid of the mist is a Ship Cruise, which takes us close to the falls, below the falls at a safe distance and gives us the enthralling life time experience and memory of the waterfall from such a height.

After the maid of the mist, its back all the way to NYC. A loooong de-tour of more than 7 hrs. All exhausted coz of the journey and more exhausted crossing the Holland Tunnel in a huuuge traffic jam. Back to NY and Kusuma flied back to LA. End of a memorable and life time tour to the Niagara Falls, THE HONEYMOOM CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Mexican Food - Burrito Bowl

Its 3 weeks that I am in NY now.. I was getting bored of eating the rice I pack from home. We usually cook some extra rice every night so that we would take the same rice to office next morning with with curds / something thats there.

Too much!! You cant keep eating the same rice! Atleast I got bugged. The other day, we had been to an Indian Restaurant Baluchi's just one block from our office. The food was authentic, and tasty! Indian food around WTC, you could try Baluchi's

Today, my colleague told me he will get me some real fresh and healthy Mexican food. He said, he will get me something of rice with beans and stuff. Ahhh.. beans and peas.. made my mouth water and so, I said "OK".

Out of our office in 2 mins.. we started walking towards WTC and up there.. left and straight down the road, to get to Chipotle. Mexican he had told me. Very apprehensive I must say I was, if or not I would like it. Anyway, if I did not like it, I had the choice of getting back to office and eating the curd rice in my bag.

We stood in the queue. It was jus 12:10 when we got there and there was a long queue. Very busy restaurant with people just starting to get in. Looking at the menu, I was unable to figure out what is Veg in that. Srivatsan quickly suggested me. "I am taking a Burrito Bowl Vegetarian. Try it. You will like it."


Eventually we got to the counter in 10 mins.. ordered a Burrito Bowl Vegetarian. He put some rice, and some peas curry on it.. whoof it goes to the next counter. "What (toppings)would you want sir" the beautiful girl asked. I said, "Everything Vegetarian" (Just what Srivatsan had told). Quickly she put some Onion, Capsicum, some green sauce, some while sauce and cheese. and whoof it goes to the next counter. "$6.43 sir" the cashier said. Paid in cash and took the bowl.

We were just lucky to spot a table free and got to it quickly. Srivatsan went and got fork and a knife. Opened the bowl praying god..

"Delicious.. Amazing.. So fresh.." was my immediate comment and Srivatsan said, "I was sure you would like it." A little heavy, coz its too much(in quantity, less in calories). But yes, it was worth walking all the way from office and also enough the walk to return to office and WORK.


Given a chance, do try Mexican food. And Burrito (Bowl) is what I would recommend(coz as of now, I have not eaten anythin else there). I took a Burrito Bowl, they also wrap it a bread very much like "Frankie".

Lets see, what next food I would like in Chipotle when I get there the next time!

Happy hogging Burrito (Bowl) meanwhile!!

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Believe in Yourself

Hmmm.. strange!! I'm again getting into the habbit to writing blogs to tell out things that I see everyday.

I am in NY for 2 weeks now. Today, it was the Last Working day for one of the high profile guy in my client's office. (lets be professional and keep the name to myself)

He's been with the organisation for like 11 yrs and he left with a heavy heart (I think). Before he left, our team had a small meeting with him as he was the person directly meant business to my company.

He mentioned about his 11 yrs journey of building the system to wat it is now. Very proud I must say of what the system is now. He then talked about the architecture, the flexibity that it has to integrate with other systems, the robustness of the system to handle the volume of data that actually it recieves every day. He went on and on. It was nothin but delight to listen to him speak proudly of what he calls it as "Priemer Application in this Business".

He ended our meeting answering to a question that one of our team mates asked. He answered, it is the self belief and self confidence that drives a leader. The leader must believe in himself and his potential. Once he is confident, he must show it in his work to his followers. That is when his followers will believe him. It is then the actual work of the leader starts. He needs to show the path to his followers and EVENTUALLY TAKE THEM THERE. It is very important to prove his leadership qualities to TAKE PEOPLE ALONG THE PATH with the RIGHT DIRECTIONS.

He continued elaborating his experience; When a system fails, its a faliure of the architect, not the programmer. The programmer does his work in his given view; with a deignated input to a required output. The architect is the guy who sees the big picture.

Answering a question on Integration of systems, he said, big problems can be solved using small solutions. There is no meaning in giving a complex solution, which may lead to loss of business/customers. The emphasis is always that the current business is intact; the new system integrated should get in new business/customers; else placing the new system has no meaning.

Infact this is the 1st meeting I had with him. Only once that I have got to listen to his thoughts. I'm glad that I was present in this meeting!

Great Thoughts Sir!! "Wish you all the success in your new venture" is what all of us wished him whole heartedly.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

My Tour of New York

Ah!! Just been like 1 week I’m in New York. It was a delight watching the city from the plane just before I landed at JFK on 23rd Sept. Luckily for me, the air traffic was more and the plane made almost like 5 or 6 rounds around the airport before landing. I had a good bird view of the whole landscape at various altitudes. I was waiting to get to each of the streets I saw, the monuments that were so tiny.

Last week, my roomies and I decided to make the Saturday evening memorable by visiting some places in New York. We had our food quickly and left home by 2:30. We live at Vroom Street; its like 10 mins walk to the Journal Square Path Station.

Just Lucky enough to catch the train to the World Trade Centre. (This is no new place to me, coz my office is just the next building to the construction site). Quickly showed them the site and the monument and started to the Chambers Street to catch the Subway Train to get to Statue of Liberty.

That day, the 1 train was not running and hence the authority had arranged for some free shuttles to the place. Took the bus and made it to the riverside by 4 PM. From this distance, it just looks awesome. Took tickets to the ferry and hurried to catch the next ferry at 4:30. Ah!! Watte view!! Just when we were praising the buildings of NY and clicking some pics with the buildings background, soon we were nearing the Great Monument of US of A. The Statue of Liberty!

It was a great feeling to be there. Clicked the pics of the monument from every possible angle, enjoying the beauty of the island. The island is quite small. I guess like 20 acres on the whole. Walked around the island and got to the last ferry from the island which is at around 6:15 PM. On the way back in the ferry, enjoyed the sun set behind the great monument, it was just too good.

Got back to the banks of the river and plans changed all of a sudden? We wanted to experience the nightlife of NY. Bored of being at Jersey City and not being able to see the real beauty of NY. We decided to get to Times Square. Took the shuttle back to Chambers street and hurried to the subway train to get to 33rd street. Wanted to even see the Empire state building.

Its huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge believe me.. too much!! To make it more memorable, we went to a pizza hut nearby the Empire State Building and had some cheese pizzas (that was the only thing that was veg).

Walked all the way from 33rd street to the 42snd street, passing by the CompUSA and other famous stores. Had a gala of time at the Times Square and started back to the Subway train to get to Journal Square.

Took the Subway to get to 33rd street and then, the path train to go all the way from 33rd street, NY to Hoboken and then to Journal Square.(that’s how the train operates on weekends)

A lovely way to spend a weekend in NY. It was 10 PM by the time we got back home, and it was 2:30 AM in the morning by the time I finished uploading the pics from the 3 cameras and dozed off to a nice sleep that night to only get up at 9:30 in the morning.

You can find the pics at: http://picasaweb.google.com/srikanth.bhaskar/NewYorkTour