Tuesday, July 29, 2014

I Don't Want Nirvana! I Want Great Food, Always! -- Part VI -- I Live For Xocolātl!!!!

Recently I bought a DVD compilation of all National Geographic magazine issues since 1888. After installing the DVD on my computer, I was flipping through the various editions, when I came across this 30-year old issue, from November 1984 which documented the journey of cacao from the New World to Europe and then to European colonies around the world. I remember flipping through this issue as a kid, an 8-year old, and the Statue of Liberty crafted in chocolate (featured on the cover) massively fascinated me. 
"So much chocolate" I thought, and my mouth watered endlessly... I guess that's a reasonable thought for a 8-year old!



But things are pretty much the same for me today. Even though I am on the verge of stepping into the so called middle-ages, chocolate for me will always be an enduring love. 
The journey of chocolate is fascinating. 
Columbus in his journeys to the New World virtually ignored chocolate. But a few years later, in the 1520s, Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, the Spanish Conquistador found the Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma II, drinking xocolātl, in goblets of gold. 
The Aztecs valued chocolate a lot. Aztec rulers also demanded that their tributes or taxes be paid in cacao. Cacao seeds were used as currency, traded at the market and kept locked up. They believed that the god Quetzalcoatl brought the cacao tree to them and Aztecs also used the beans as offerings to the gods. They also are said to have used chocolate to calm those who were about to be sacrificed - human sacrifice was prevalent in Aztec culture.
But the Aztecs learnt these traditions from their preceding civilisations - the Olmecs and the Mayans were known to have consumed cacao a good two-millenia earlier. The Mayans wrote about cacao as “the food of the gods,” they carved the shape of the pods into their stone templates, painted people drinking cacao into their artwork, hired artists to decorate elaborate drinking vessels, placed those vessels in tombs and even used the beans in human sacrifice. They also grew cacao trees, planting them in their household gardens. References to cacao were found in the sacred Mayan book, the Popol Vuh. The Mayans also used cacao for medicinal purposes.
Hernán Cortés carried a few cacao beans back with him to Spain, as a tribute to King Charles V. That brought about a popularity of chocolate in Europe. And very soon, as the English got addicted to the wondrous food, they got into the act and went about setting up cacao plantations in their colonies, notably in West Africa - Ghana, that's where the best cacao comes from today!
As legends of chocolate grew in the West, the Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus, who is known for his pioneering work work in taxonomy christened cacao with its biological name - theobroma cacao. Theobrama is Greek for "food of the Gods" - yes indeed it is as magical as food for the Gods....
But the food of Gods has descended today, for lesser mortals like me, it is affordable and available just around the corner today, thanks to the conquistadors and colonisers. Something that I always maintained in previous editions of "I Don't Want Nirvana! I Want Great Food, Always!" is very true - that food travels and evolves with the spread and interplay of human civilisations across continents. Chocolate is living proof of that.
A few years back, we visited an army memorial, the Hall of Fame at Leh in Ladakh. Exhibits of the wars fought in the region were on display. Food specially packed for our brave soldiers in Siachen Glacier were displayed and these included chocolate - it indeed does give an instant burst of energy and vitality.



Last year, when Neeti and I visited China, in Beijing, we had Spanish churros for the very first time. Those churros came alongwith hot chocolate. Now this was intriguing - churros were brought to Europe by the Portuguese from the Ming Dynasty China - the Chinese have something similar - you tiao or youzagwei. In the Iberian peninsula, churros met their soul-mate - chocolate from Latin America. From there, this delectable combination came back to China, where, we Indians, enjoyed the delectable dessert in the narrow hutongs! 
Food indeed travels!
Health benefits of chocolates are indeed many. Chocolate is packed with healthy chemicals like antioxidants, flavonoids and theobromine. In fact, chocolates have five-times more flavonoids as compared to apples. Dark chocolate is said to reduce the risk of heart diseases. It does reduce stress and activates the pleasure and reward centre of the human brain, bringing about a general feeling of well-being. Besides, chocolate is thought to be a potent aphrodisiac. 
So should we be rather saying "A chocolate a day keeps the doctor away!"?
And yesterday, a colleague who returned from a tour of Europe brought with him some chocolates that we all gorged on - these were bite-sized Côte d'Or chocolates from Belgium, the wrappers on the inside had wonderful quotes - Stress would be easier to handle wrapped in a chocolate! How true!
Or this one which is my absolute favourite - Life without chocolate is only half a life!




So from the jungles of the New World, the humble cacao has come a long way. But, today, it is indeed difficult to imagine a life without chocolate. I would rather get addicted to chocolate for infinite cycles of birth and rebirth. Who wants Nirvana when there is chocolate? I Don't Want Nirvana! I Want Great  Food, ahem well, Great Xocolātl, Always!
And it's time for me to slip away from Neeti's prying eyes to grab a pack of dark chocolate!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

I Don't Want Nirvana! I Want Great Food, Always! -- Part V -- Of Croissants and Crescents!

Last night, Neeti and I went out for an impromptu date to Starbucks, I ordered my timeless favourite - the Salmon Croissant. With its soft, flaky crust and a delectable cheddar-salmon filling, the croissant made for an incredibly enjoyable meal.


While I was enjoying my croissant here at Starbucks, I told Neeti about the best croissant I ever had. That was at the Novotel at Hyderabad Airport. It was Independence Day 2013 - my colleague and I had an early morning flight from Hyderabad. At the time of checking out, the front office staff suggested that try out some stuff from their boulangerie. Only croissants and muffins were on offer with a choice of tea and coffee accompanied with fruit. I had some fruit followed by croissants and Assam tea. The croissants were absolutely heavenly. And I would have lost count of the croissants we had if we were not to catch our flight...
I have been having croissants for the last 15-16 years but undoubtedly the ones at Novotel were the best croissants I had ever had... 
I was convinced that the French (Novotel is a part of Accor, a French hospitality chain) have a way with their art of baking (and I am told that's true for their charcuterie as well).
And today I was reminded of a story that a friend told me way back in 2005. He said that croissants dated back to the Crusades, when the Turks had occupied the Holy Land, or Israel as we know it today.
I did not believe him then, but last night, after the date, and after devouring the rather flaky and delectable croissant, I did a bit of Googling on the history of where croissants came from. 
What I discovered was incredible.... My friend was somewhat right.
It wasn't about the Crusades, but the croissant did have an Islamic connection in the two legends doing the rounds.
The first account dates back to 732 AD, when a pastry in the shape of the Islamic crescent was made by bakers to celebrate the defeat of the Umayyad forces at the Battle of Tours by the Franks.
The more popular legend, is also supported by the Larousse Gastronomique, the definitive encyclopaedia of anything even vaguely connected with French gastronomy (yes, my prized copy of the Larousse Gastronique occupies an enviable position in my bookshelf). The Larousse Gastronique suggests relatively recent origins of what we know as the croissant today.
In 1683, Austria was under siege by the marauding Ottomans, who were on an Islamic expansionist spree in Europe. In Vienna, the Ottomans lay siege, but as time was running out, the marauders came up with an ingenious plan of digging tunnels at night to make their way into Vienna. 
But the Ottoman marauders were outwitted by Viennese bakers. The bakers got into business at night, in their underground bakeries, preparing bread for consumption in Vienna the next day. As legend has it, the bakers heard the sounds of the Ottomans digging their way through and alerted their army. 
The siege ended and the Ottomans were decisively defeated and Europe was forever rid of this expansionist menace that threatened the European way of life. To commemorate their success, Viennese bakers came up with crescent shaped pastries (the crescent was then, and still is, a symbol of the Turks and was emblazoned on their flag). 
These pastries were popularly called Viennoiseries and over time, the Viennoiserie became a generic term to denote Viennese pastry. Viennoiseries included baguettes, brioche, pain au chocolat, pain au lait, pain aux raisins, chouquettes and chausson aux pommes.
Nearly a hundred years later, in 1770, Marie Antoinette (the Austrian archduchess who married Louis XVI), introduced the croissant to the French Aristocrats. She was homesick after her marriage and yearned for Viennoiseries. She got the chefs from the palace kitchen to learn the fine art and ended up introducing croissants to the French. And the rest is history! Today French breakfasts are nothing without croissants and café au lait.
Despite, her significant contribution to French culinary heritage, which isn't well known, Marie Antoinette is infamous for her statement “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”—“Let them eat cake.”, when she was told that her French subjects had no bread to eat. And that infuriated the common French folk, who led her to the guillotine.
The story of the croissant doesn't end there. More recently, Syrian militants got a fatwa issued banning croissants after these gunmen got know of the legends behind this flaky delight and the defeat of the Islamists in Europe....


But as I write this, from here in Mumbai, it's time to dig into another warm croissant, on a rainy evening. And it's time to relive over 1300 years of history, of war, of conquests and of culinary innovations spawned off by war and the timeless interplay of cultures....
I am pretty sure the Viennese bakers and Marie Antoinette would have agreed with my statement "I Don't Want Nirvana! I Want Great Food, Always!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Delhipolis Moments... Part 1

After a long series of Bombaypolis Moments, it's time to document life back home, in Delhi and here comes a new series, Delhipolis Moments!
One thing about Delhi that I have always missed in Mumbai are the open spaces and the greenery. With an abundance of parks in neighbourhoods, a connect with nature is obvious...
In the first part of this series, I bring to you beautiful images from Gulmohur Park. 


A bee gets her nectar...


Is this really a city of 25 million people? This sight does not give that sense....



I could spend hours in this serenity, amidst nature, reading my favourite book...



The clear blue sky of March is amazing....


And dusk sets in, the trees cast their long shadows...


Birds fly about chirping, as though they call out to each other, "Have your dinner before the sun sets!"


The shades of green and blue are seductively tantalising, they made me fall in love in nature all over again... I thought I was in paradise, but then I realised, I was in this megapolis, or shall I say Delhipolis...

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Bombaypolis Moments.... Part 18

Bombaypolis Moments is back, pictorially documenting life in this megapolis! This time I am posting photos of the skyline of Powai....



A breathtaking view from the Renaissance! It's hard to imagine that this place is in Mumbai...


The elephant greets us!


The golden glow of dusk!


A panoramic view of the Powai skyline....


Friday, July 4, 2014

Up In The Air .... Part 20

The latest edition of Up In The Air is back. This edition has exciting grabs from the short finals into Bangalore'a Kempe Gowda International Airport!
Flying into Bangalore is always exciting - the skies are normally clear over Bangalore, especially in mornings - the clear blue skies with a touch of clouds, and the multi-hued ground below makes these photos particularly interesting...


The green and brown mosaic below... so beautiful...



Lovely....


The clouds cast their shadow below.....




Flaps down....



Short finals begin!




Beautiful!!!!


Am I landing in the infotech and startup hub of India or in a countryside...?








"Retard, retard!"
Spoilers and reverse thrusters deployed!



The Flight Mural at BLR, Kempe Gowda International Airport.....


Plane Spotting At BOM -- Part VI

This latest series of Plane Spotting At BOM from a recent trip to Delhi. I boarded a 0705 flight on a rather cloudy morning...  As always, the widebodies were in full splendor at the airport.
Enjoy!


Interesting backdrop of heavy clouds, but I am sick this old livery of Jet Airways...


A Cathay Pacific Cargo Boeing 747 at the cargo terminal...


The heavies docked at T2 - Singapore Airlines and Air Mauritius....



Pushback time for the Air Mauritius Airbus A330...


Air India Express Boeing 737 and Air India Boeing 777....
Air India indeed has one of the best liveries around...



Jet Airways Airbus A330 and Air India Boeing 747-400


Two Jet Airways Airbus A330s - wonder how long Etihad would have let Jet Airways live with these widebodies


And the queen....


She's so pretty.....


If I could, I would have "married" a Boeing 747-400!


A full frontal...


I repeat... she's so pretty!


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