Punjab Eggplant

I'm not much of a cook, but I've always wanted to know how to cook eggplants. The problem with eggplants is that I can never cook them right. Whether it's eggplant parmesan or what-have-you, the eggplant is either undercooked or just bitter. Luckily, they have these things called TV dinners (hehe):

This one is called Punjab eggplant and it tasted pretty good. You just pop it into the microwave or put the pouch in boiling water and then it'll be ready in about 5 minutes. The back of the box has a pretty interesting description of Punjab eggplant:

A traditional Punjabi recipe with a barbecue flavor. Whole eggplants are grilled over an open flame until they develop a wonderful smoky taste.... cooked with an array of spices.... Serve with fluffy rice.... You can also use as a burrito filling.

Did they really say burrito filling? hehe.

Anyway, I then thought, "How hard could it be to cook Punjab eggplant?" So I did an internet search and found a recipe for it on an Indian food website.

I could easily get some of the ingredients (like ground cumin) at a local supermarket, but other ingredients (like garam masala) I may have to get at the Asian stores. When I went to the Asian store, I found most of the ingredients, but I still could not find garam masala and ground coriander. Btw, did you know that coriander is another word for cilantro? I didn't know that until I looked up coriander. Anyway, I thought I would probably need to go to an Indian supermarket to get the remaining ingredients. Problem was that I didn't know of any Indian supermarkets. I did know of a place in Berkeley that had a lot of Indian restaurants and I'm almost positive there are Indian supermarkets nearby. Sure enough, I went to Berkeley and found the remaining ingredients.

Ok, time to test out the recipe. The thing with this recipe is that it requires the eggplant to be roasted over a gas flame or hot coals. I don't have any of those. I just have an electric stove and I don't think roasting the eggplant over an electric stove would work too well. hehe. So I just did what I could: I fried the eggplant instead. I then followed the instructions for the rest of the recipe and voilà:

Ok, that picture is not of what I cooked. That picture is actually from the same website that had the recipe. hehe. But the verdict for what I cooked? It wasn't bad at all. It only took about 30 minutes. I probably needed to cook the eggplant a little longer (its supposed to be a purée), but otherwise, it was pretty good. Not bad for a first jab at Punjab eggplant.

Technorati tags: Indian food

To Be or Not To Be...

... vegetarian, that is. Not the more serious "to be or not to be" statement posed by Shakespeare's Hamlet. ;) Anyway, I just recently found out from this guy on youtube, Ben Loka, that World Vegetarian Week is coming up on May 19th-25th:Here's his quote that got my attention:

Animals ... contain a spark of the divine like us. We're all living beings. We're all on the planet together.

Taking the opposing view is Comedian Adam Carolla, shown here dancing the tango on the show Dancing with the Stars (hehe):Ok, seriously, I don't have a video of Adam Carolla talking about why he eats meat, so I'll just paraphrase what I heard him say on his radio show once:

When you get a whiff of a flap steak being cooked on a barbecue grill and you feel your mouth start to water, that tells me right there that we were meant to eat meat.

Loka and Carolla -- one a vegetarian, the other a meat eater. Both funny guys. Both with vastly differing views on the issue of vegetarianism.

Disclaimer: As I've said in a previous post, I've tried becoming a vegan several years ago with mixed results.

Technorati tags: vegetarians

The Namesake and an Oilman

I recently saw and enjoyed two movies that are both based on books: The Namesake and There Will Be Blood. The Namesake, based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, is the story of Gogol, the the son of Indian immigrants to America. Gogol is named after his father's favorite author, Russian Nikolai Gogol. Gogol, however, hates the name and prefers to be called Nick by his American friends. Hmmm ... sounds familiar. hehe. By the way, the guy who plays Gogol, Kal Penn, is the same guy from the Harold and Kumar films. He's Kumar, just to clarify. ;)

The main theme of the film is about the culture clash between traditional Indian practices and the American way of life exemplified by the occasional friction between Gogol and his parents. I liked this film. The story is probably similar to a lot of immigrant stories where immigrant parents may clash with their American-born children over how to live their lives. Come to think of it, don't kids always clash with their parents regardless of culture?

**Warning: Spoiler Alert**

A memorable part of the film is the story line between Gogol and an Indian girl named Moushumi (also American-born) whom he was once set up with by his parents. The girl was a nerd when they first meet, but when they meet later in life, she metamorphosed into a hottie. When Gogol asks her how the change happened, she tells him that Paris happened. They start dating and they eventually get married. Later though, Moushumi confesses to cheating on Gogol with a French guy named Pierre. Interesting to note that according to wikipedia, in the novel, the guy wasn't French, but a German guy named Dmitri.

The second film I saw, There Will Be Blood, is loosely based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! . If they give out awards for the most dramatic movie title, then There Will Be Blood would win, hands down. ;) The film has several interesting characters: oilman Daniel Plainview who will do anything to beat his industry competitors; a young preacher named Eli Sunday who considers himself a "faith healer"; a con-man claiming to be Plainview's half-brother; and Plainview's adopted son, H.W.

The main story begins when Plainview is given a tip by Paul Sunday, Eli's twin brother, that he knows of a place that has oil, namely property owned by his family. Plainview pays him for the tip and then visits the property. Sure enough, they find oil and negotiate to buy the property from the Sunday family. Part of the money is used to found Eli's church.

One of the interesting parts of the film is Plainview's character. Plainview seems to operate in only two modes: you're either his best friend or his worst enemy. He welcomes a stranger who claims to be his half-brother, but then kills him as soon as he finds out he really wasn't his half-brother. After one of his employees is killed working in the oil fields, he adopts the deceased worker's son and even appears genuinely concerned for him when the son loses his hearing during an oil rig accident. But he then disowns his son when his son decides to leave the company. In short, don't get on Plainview's bad side. ;)

Technorati tags: The Namesake, There Will Be Blood

Gossip

It's unbelievable the amount of gossip that goes on in the workplace. I myself am not immune to them. A co-worker (let's call him A) once told me that another co-worker (B) said something negative about me. I didn't make a big deal about it, but co-worker A again brought it up a few days later. I had to do something because I cannot work with someone who's bad-mouthing me. So the next day, I confronted co-worker B and sure enough, he denied ever saying anything negative about me. Ok, somebody's lying.

Why do people feel the need to gossip? Why are people always talking in terms of getting "back-stabbed" (e.g. "you better watch out for that guy. He's a backstabber")? How can anybody work in this type of environment? In my case, I would just turn up the radio whenever I hear co-workers gossiping near my work area. The only thing I can do is avoid gossipers like the plague or block them out of my senses. Although, since this post is about gossipers, does this post count as gossip? ;)

Technorati tags: gossip