A Scorcher of a Week, Cozy Curry, Pound Cake

A tiny and beautiful visitor

Praying mantis (pics taken by V)

Every day last week, temperatures shot up into the high 90s, with heat indices as high as 110F. Tennis lessons were canceled and we hunkered indoors for the most part. 

Our heat-loving curry plants started wilting dramatically unless we remembered to water them generously every single day. One evening, V went out to water them and came back to call us all out. Atop the curry plant was a tiny and beautiful visitor- a praying mantis. Look how beautifully camouflaged it is! 

As insects go, these guys are big and also have a big personality, believe it or not. Four humans clustered around the plant to gaze in wonder at this bug. It stared back curiously. As V moved his hand around, the praying mantis turned to follow it, turning its head this way and that, making expressive gestures with its hands. We watched it admiringly for several minutes. How amazing even the tiniest creatures are! How lucky to see nature's beauties on our doorstep.  

A meme I spotted on Reddit- it made me LOL

* * *

Southern pound cake 

The burnished pound cake (right pic by C)

Strictly speaking, it is NOT baking weather. I am avoiding turning on the oven at all costs, which isn't difficult, because the air fryer, instant pot, and microwave oven cover most cooking needs. 

However, a weekend baking project popped up. It started when my friend C dropped off a fat wedge of pound cake made by her aunt mid-week. It was the platonic ideal of pound cake- plush, just the right density, absolutely melt-in-the-mouth. Pound cake may have originated in England but it is a staple of Southern US cuisine. Southern ladies do make some amazing pound cake.

Ensuing recipe-investigating texts revealed that this wasn't a secret family recipe, but rather, a back of the box recipe. Yes, some of the most popular and best-tested recipes in America are found printed on the back of supermarket packaging. And then, of course, home cooks make these recipes their own and perfect them or tweak them. 

This pound cake is the whipping cream pound cake from the back of the Swans Down cake flour box. Swan's down- I'm guessing the brand gets its name from how soft and white this cake flour is. 

C invited me over to bake the pound cake with her on Saturday afternoon. This is one of those recipe that isn't difficult at all, but can be tricky to get just right. It is a traditional pound cake recipe in the sense that there is no chemical leavening (baking soda/ baking powder) in the recipe. The lift comes from the eggs and from the all-important creaming step of the butter and sugar. It is crucial for all ingredients to be at room temperature (but not melting/warm!) for this to work well. 

We baked the cake at 320F (because the oven ran hot) for 1:20 hours and C covered the cake with foil once the top was browned. It is important to cook the cake through or it will collapse upon cooling. 

The flavoring is where pound cake can get a little creative. This time we added a combination of fiori di sicilia extract (which is sort of a combo of citrus and vanilla) and rosewater! It was unusual, subtle, and delightful. 

* * *

Weeknight curry

In Marathi, there's a cooking term called "vaatan- ghaatan". It literally translates as grinding and stirring. But what it refers to is fussy cooking- those tedious multi-step recipes that call for roasting and frying and grinding to make a curry base. Simple everyday cooking is not of the vaatan-ghaatan variety if you are the sensible type. And it is true that my weeknight curries tend to be of the one-shot variety, no separate grinding required. 

But this week I had some nice mushrooms that I wanted to cook, and some onion and peppers and carrots on hand. I was in the mood for a cozy curry. So I compromised and made one with some simple grinding to make a cashew paste. It came together very quickly. This curry can be adapted to use whatever veggies are on hand. 

Weeknight Mushroom & Soy Curl Korma

1. 

   Take-out fake-out curry

   Start by soaking raw cashews and poppy seeds in warm water
2. Heat a bit of oil in the instant pot insert on saute mode
3. Fry some cumin seeds, chopped onion
4. Season with ginger, garlic, turmeric, red chili powder, kasuri methi, kitchen king masala, salt to taste
5. Add handfuls of soy curls (no need to rehydrate), chopped mushrooms, diced peppers and carrot, a chopped tomato
6. Add water and cook the curry for 3 minutes at high pressure. 
7. Release the pressure.
8. Grind the soaked cashews and poppy seeds into a thick paste. Add it to the curry and simmer for a few minutes. 
9. Garnish with cilantro and serve!

What was your favorite weeknight meal this week? 

Overstuffed Wraps, Detectives, Divers

This week felt very different from the week before, with no hosting/food sharing situations at all, and a full week of school marking a return to the routine, although after-school activities have not started up yet. 

A beautiful pergola
on my walking route

Every day after lunch, I took a break from my desk and treated myself to a solid walk. It was very hot in the middle of the day, but the blue skies and blooming flowers made up for it. However, I made the mistake of walking in my work shoes (assorted slip-on shoes and sandals), and by Friday, I had sharp pain while walking on my right leg. That was alarming. I self-diagnosed it as shin splints from walking in unsupportive shoes. 

A friend had invited me to go on an overnight trip this weekend. It would have been a wonderful little escape, walking to restaurants in a small mountain town, scrambling up to find cool swimming holes, some hiking...but I reluctantly canceled the trip to stay home and rest my legs. The timeout has certainly helped, because the leg isn't hurting any more. And...a lesson learned- I'll be careful to stash a pair of sneakers under my desk from now on.

No banana for scale, but this hibiscus
was the size of a dinner plate!

I took advantage of the suddenly-empty weekend calendar to stay home, put off errands, sit around a lot, and potter about when I felt like it. The result was great- I watched a fun movie, finished a great book (more on those below), and got the satisfaction of organizing a messy cabinet and unpacking the last of our bags. Before the travels, I had picked up a small embroidery kit to work on during layovers, but didn't take it with me in the end. This weekend was the perfect time to make this sweet little design that now hangs on my kitchen corkboard. Embroidery is such fun! 

* * *

A sampling of meals from this week-

I had beautiful (and pricey) heirloom tomatoes from a sadly infrequent visit to the farmers' market. I used some in an open faced tomato and pesto sandwich as part of a this-and-that dinner that also featured some rajma, veggie sausage, spinach dip, and cucumbers. It reminded me that seasonal tomatoes are incredibly good!

I was in the mood for a big and hearty burrito. For that, you really need those burrito-sized tortillas that are large enough to stuff generously and roll properly. This one was a breakfast for dinner situation, with scrambled eggs, boiled potatoes and soy chorizo, served with a cabbage and avocado slaw.

Every few days, I soak and sprout beans or lentils, cook them lightly, and use them in various ways. This was my daughter's lunch yesterday, a veggie wrap made with the biggie tortillas stuffed with hummus, cooked sprouted lentils, veggie sausage, cucumbers, all sprinkled with tajin for a burst of flavor before wrapping and halving. 

* * * 

I was very reading-deficient this summer due to lack of time and lack of access. I did use the library app Libby to try listening to an audiobook for the first time- a mystery, All The Devils are Here by Louise Penny from the Inspector Gamache series. It was good but I realized that I was zoning out at times and unable to flip back and catch up on what I've missed. (You can rewind, but it is inconvenient to find exactly what you missed.) I'm not sure audiobooks are my thing but maybe I'm just not used to the format. 

We shopped for books a few times- mostly in Crossword, the chain bookstore in malls, and a couple of others bookshops that we came across. For the most part, I was focused on helping the kids pick out boredom-busting books. 

For myself, I picked out a couple of easy-reading books set in India. The first was The Star from Calcutta, a 2026 book by Sujata Massey from her Perveen Mistry series. It was a good read but I left it behind in the guest house for others to read (along with a dozen other books we purchased), not wanting to carry it back with me. 

The second book was the Feluda Omnibus by Satyajit Ray, and this one did earn a place in my suitcase. The legendary film director Satyajit Ray also wrote a beloved series of mystery novels featuring the private investigator/ detective Feluda and his sidekick, his young cousin Tapesh/ Topshe. These books are simply delicious and delightful- Feluda and Topshe find themselves traveling to various locations in India, staying in guest houses, traveling in tongas and trains and taxis, encountering folks of all stripes and solving a variety of mysteries. These books were likely targeted to a younger audience but they have an enthusiastic fan in me. My aunt mentioned that some of the Feluda movies are on YouTube in their entirety- today I found one with English subtitles- Joi Baba Felunath, a 1979 movie by Satyajit Ray, and it was such a fun watch. Made my day.

This week I also found myself completely immersed (hah) in a book called Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson, published in 2004. Narrative nonfiction is one of my favorite genres (as I have mentioned in this post), and this book is an excellent example of how a skilled author can weave an exciting and engrossing and completely true story (the research is meticulous.) While I have no particular interest in WWII or deep water diving or shipwrecks, I was enthralled by this account. 

Tell me your highlights from last week!

The Stove Heats Up Again

The long summer of travel gave me a long break from cooking and baking, but last week I made up for lost time. It was a big week for food sharing; the stove and oven worked overtime.

Restocking the veg crisper tray

Work dinner: We hosted a visiting scientist (also a good friend) and a few work colleagues. It was a busy weekday and the menu was simple- Indian comfort food- with emphasis on the conversation and company rather than laying out an elaborate meal. I trotted out familiar favorites- dal makhni, a mixed vegetable and paneer subzi, jeera rice, raita. Appetizers were simply some packaged snacks- pudina lime peanuts and bakarwadi. Dessert was vanilla ice cream topped with mango puree from India- from my parents' tree that they get processed into packets for us. So that was special. It was nice to sit out in the porch and talk- the backyard owls showed up and were duly admired. 

Bringing a meal to a bereaved friend: While in India I heard the sad and shocking news that a good friend/neighbor had died suddenly. We were knitting buddies and I had a nice friendship with her over shared interests. I'd stop by now and then to borrow a needle or just chat, and we'd text each other recipes and pics of knitting projects. She was a big dog lover. With her husband, she helped us several times by keeping our Dunkie while we were on vacation. She will be sorely missed. 

I brought over a meal for her husband and her sister who were working on all the endless stuff that needs tackling when a family member passes. Dinner again was basic comfort food- dal makhni (I'd made a big batch), paneer pulao, a salad of radish, cucumber, carrot with my favorite Maharashtrian-style dressing of crushed peanuts, lemon juice, salt, pepper, minced cilantro. 

A cake for a friend: One of my close friends celebrated her birthday last week and our families met up in a casual local restaurant for dinner after work/school. I made the cake- tres leches, which is fast becoming a favorite. It is a light and pudding-like, very refreshing on a summer day. This one turned out to be my best tres leches cake ever, and I'm happy to have an easy and eggless cake recipe firmly in my repertoire. I've blogged before about a rasmalai version- this one was a simpler version with cinnamon in the batter, rose water in the whipped cream, and a garnish of fresh strawberries. The birthday dinner on a covered porch was accompanied by the loudest, longest, most fierce rainstorm I'm seen in a while!

Another birthday cake: My son celebrated his 10th birthday in India last month. He wanted a small birthday celebration with his two close friends here, and we did that this weekend with a birthday sleepover- a 23 hour party. It included 2 outings- one to a trampoline park, and one to the botanical garden play area. (A lake beach picnic was also planned, but the lake was contaminated with high levels of bacteria...so, we turned right back.) 

My son requested a chocolate cake with caramel frosting and a caramel sauce. Caramel is his favorite flavor lately. I showed him this recipe and it was duly approved. It was easy to make:

• make one single layer 8 inch chocolate cake
• make caramel sauce while the cake was baking
• make a buttercream frosting, add some caramel sauce at the end to flavor it
• frost the cooled cake
• drizzled caramel sauce on the frosted cake
• add some frosting swirls and a border
• top with unwrapped rolo caramel candies.

 

My verdict: I really, really wish I had made my usual ermine frosting and added caramel, rather than making this buttercream frosting from the recipe, because it was just too sweet and one-dimensional. Note to self- ermine frosting ONLY from now on! The birthday boy, though, oh, he was delighted with the cake. Told me it was just what he dreamed of, said it looked like something you could buy in a store, told me the caramel sauce was exactly the kind he loved. I think it was the candies on top that won him over! 

Bringing a meal to a new mom: I became friends with one of the middle school teachers last year while volunteering at some school thing. She spent some years working in SE Asia after graduating college, so we had a lot to chat about. She had a baby a couple of weeks ago and I offered to bring a meal. I still remember the meals people brought me after I had my kids- you're so hungry those first few postpartum weeks and barely functioning. It is nice to be able to do this for another new mom. I usually cook a few dishes on Sunday afternoon, and I took her what I made yesterday- rajma, jeera rice, egg curry, cabbage subzi. And some of the birthday cake! 

The nice thing about making a big batch of food is that we could share it with a neighbor who dropped in for dinner. Our son is frequently at their house swimming in their pool and staying back for dinner, so I was happy to reciprocate for once.  

Finally, this is a meal from one evening when we were not socializing- just a bunch of things from the fridge put together...kale dip from TJ's with baby carrots, cauliflower roasted in the air fryer with sriracha sauce, avocado toast with boiled eggs. 

The other big highlight from this week: The kids started the new school year- my daughter is in her first year of high school and my son is in his last year of elementary school. The familiar rhythm of work and school is now launched and we are all quite happy about it. 

* * *

I've written short posts on fitness themes ("moments of fitness") on the blog in the past couple of years, and one such post talked about the ups and downs in the fitness journey that are pretty much an inevitable part of life- I think of them as playing a game of snakes and ladders. Well, in the last two months, I encountered a long snake. There was a complete break in my own exercise routine as I abandoned any attempts at regular exercise during the 7-8 weeks of travel. Other routines around sleep and diet were also affected.  

Now, I'm taking my own advice and getting back to my familiar schedule slowly. Last week, my goal was a 30 minute morning workout at home + walking whenever possible. From Monday to Friday, I used the videos from Fitness blender free 5-day challenge for busy people, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5. I am very sore but it felt energizing at the same time.

I also took walking breaks at work (especially after lunch) and V and I have resumed our walks after dinner, although we managed to do those only once or twice this week. Still, it felt good to have an average of 9000 steps last week, which is more activity than I have been getting. 

* * *

I often listen to podcasts while walking, and an interesting one from this week was this NPR/Fresh Air interview with a woman who spent 37 years visiting her mother in prison and has written a novel based on her experience. 

While it felt like a hectic week, I found time to lie back on the couch and watch a mini-series on Netflix, The Bombing of Pan Am 103.  I feel like I've heard of "Lockerbie" all my life, and learned a lot about the details of this incident and its aftermath. It is incredible to think how the fate of a tiny Scottish village changed in a second as a fireball fell from the sky. 

Tell me your highlights from the last week!

Six Weeks in India

This is a summary of my crazy summer. My last post was about a week-long work trip to Brazil. I landed in Atlanta from Brazil and then, just 24 hours later, left on a 6 week trip to India, this time with the whole family. 

This unusually long trip came about because we accompanied V who was working on a project in IIT Madras, a storied engineering and tech school in Southern India. We planned to live/work on campus for a month, and then we tacked on additional days for visiting family elsewhere and for transcontinental travel. We visited two states on this trip- Tamil Nadu (TN) in Southern India and Maharashtra (MAH) in Western India. 

I wrote this stream-of-consciousness processing of my long India trip as a brain dump as we prepare to fly back tonight. Read on if you have a lot of time on your hands! 

The Travels

• Landed in Chennai and stayed at the Taj Wellington Mews to get our bearings (2 nights)
• Moved into our temporary accommodation- a furnished bungalow on the IIT Madras campus (8 nights). V's mom came down from Mumbai and stayed with us in Chennai for the remainder of our trip, so we were a family of 5 much of our time there
• Vellore overnight work trip for me, sans family; a 3 hour drive each way from Chennai (1 night)
• Pondicherry- family holiday; also a 3 hour drive each way from Chennai (3 nights) 
• Back on campus (2 nights)
• Panvel, Navi Mumbai for a family wedding (2 nights)
• Kolhapur to visit my parents (2 nights air bnb + 5 nights at home)
• Back to IIT campus in Chennai (9 nights), including a day trip to Mahabalipuram
• Navi Mumbai (3 nights), then fly back home tonight

The Good

• Novel experiences- Like most parents, we hope to give our kids novel experiences and introduce them to ways of living that are different from our own. We got that on this trip in a big way. In the old and bustling city of Chennai (formerly called Madras), the IIT Madras campus is an oasis at the edge of Guindy National Park. We were put up in a comfortable three-bedroom bungalow. The kitchen was basic- we could make tea/coffee on a hot plate, and there was a fridge to store fruit and milk. We walked to the guest house a block away for meals three times a day. What makes this campus unique is the wildlife living freely in it- more on that below. 
• People- Throughout this trip, I was blown away by the friendliness, generosity, and kindness of everyone we encountered. 
• Family- Both V and I have one sibling each, but we both have large extended families with masses of aunts, uncles, cousins...
• Pondicherry- We hosted a get-together for V's mom's side of the family, 14 people in all. We went to the beach and to the French quarter in Pondicherry.  But the star of the spacious and beautiful rental house was a pool and the kids spent hours every day splashing with their 10 year old cousin from Coimbatore. The property also was home to a little stray dog (dubbed "Karen" by the kids) and her two half-grown pups. These dogs instantly became part of the family for the weekend.
• Wedding- We were able to attend the traditional Maharashtrian wedding of one of my sweet nieces, the daughter of one of my favorite cousins. The kids had a blast with their cousins, staying up until 4 am chatting and playing the night before the wedding! They all held a fabric canopy over the bride as she walked in for the "muhurta" which was a special way to include them in the big moment. For the first time in over 30 years, all seven cousins on my dad's side were together in one room- we lined up oldest and youngest and took a photo- one of my favorite moments of this trip. 
• Birthday lunch- My sister and nephew also flew over for a couple of weeks, and she and I hosted a milestone birthday lunch for my parents. I got to see other cousins (from Pune, Belgaum, Bangalore) who I haven't met in years. My only regret was that events like these are hectic when hosting and you get very little time for 1:1 meaningful conversation. But it was great seeing so many friends and relatives, some after several decades.
• Kids met a new aunty- In Chennai, it was a special pleasure to get to know V's paternal cousin who is one of the kindest and most generous souls ever, and to meet her large multi-generational household. She took time out to spoil our kids silly, taking them to the movies, to arcades and escape rooms and ice cream shops and even went go-karting with them. 
• Friends- 
• My friend VK from IITB who hadn't seen me in 25 years (but looks exactly the same) bravely invited me and the whole fam to dinner at her place. It was awesome to meet her 2 kids and 2 dog-kids.
• Sweet blog friend H arranged a memorable trip to Dakshin Chitra, a wonderful open air museum in Chennai- the two of us and our collection of four kids had a great day together. Predictably, what the kids enjoyed most was playing on the playground with a plastic water bottle that they found somewhere! They also loved the hands-on pottery and mehendi. 
• I slipped away with my high school bestie M for iced tea- it was great to have a heart to heart with her and to applaud her successful business. 
• We encountered so many wonderful people outside our immediate circle of family and friends, including-
• The students at IITM who were sweet and hospitable and helped us in so many ways, including finding a bicycle for V to get around campus.
• The professional drivers who we relied upon to take us around in the chaotic traffic- so grateful to them. Every last one of them was kind and patient and made the trip so much smoother, literally and figuratively.
• Animal encounters- For my kids, this was undoubtedly the best thing about our trip. 
• Wildlife on campus- The IIT Madras campus is a unique place where people and a few species of wild animals peacefully coexist. There are strict regulations in place to protect the animals, notably the fact that when you enter campus, you have to drive very slowly to avoid hitting them. We spotted and admired-
• Spotted deer called chital (axis axis). We have a whole herd of deer living in our backyard in Georgia, and we loved meeting their cousins- these gorgeous spotted deer. Our American deer are silent but the spotted male deer make calls that sound like a person screaming! That was something new to us. Over days, the deer became very familiar and the kids gave them names. 
• Indian antelope or black buck (Antilope cervicapra). They are so beautiful. It is surreal to have animals from an endangered species walking casually beside you as you run errands. 
• A rare white blackbuck (displaying albinism) was living in the stadium across from our bungalow- we actually saw two white blackbucks while we were there.
• Once on a walk, a tiny blackbuck baby tottered up and entertained us for a solid 15 minutes as it jumped around, smacked up against a gate (facepalm), got back up, did antelope things, then found its mom and started nursing. Simply magical to see this in person with a free-living animal. 
• Interestingly, their faces reminded me of camels.
• Monkeys- There were troops of bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata). They are cheeky and audacious. 
• On our very first day there, my daughter had her drink snatched by a tiny baby monkey! But we enjoyed their monkey antics very much. 
• One afternoon, we sat safely inside the coffee shop and observed a trio of monkey moms and their babies. They are SO much like toddlers. One wandered off and started falling off the ledge, causing the weary monkey mommy to reach out and grab it by its tail. The look she gave him was so relatable. 
• There were many other creatures, including parrots, mongoose, fruit bats, giant snails, strange/ pretty bugs called "push me pull you". Less fascinating were the creatures we spotted in our bungalow- lots of ants, the occasional roach, spider, many geckos. 
• Stray animals
• Stray cats- We saw dozens of these on campus, particularly in the hostel areas where they seem to be fed and cared for by students and other campus community members. Some had their ears tipped, which indicates that there must be a trap-neuter-release program in place.
• Stray dogs- Stray dogs are absolutely not allowed on campus, to keep wildlife safe. We did see them outside, of course, but fewer than I've seen in the past. Many dogs seem to be community dogs, some wearing collars, many looking quite healthy and well-fed. The kids would go around handing out food to stray dogs whenever they could, and complaining that we forbid them to pet the dogs.
• Pet dogs
• The kids did get to pet dogs at homes of our family and friends, of course. 
• Over the travels, they enjoyed meeting new doggy friends Coffee, Toffee, Abby, Snoopy and I'm sure I am forgetting some.
• At the wedding, my cousin's dog Winnie was part of the festivities, dressed in a gold and red outfit!  
• Cow sanctuary- The kids were fascinated by the stray cattle dotting the streets, especially the nonchalance of cows who relax wherever they please (read: in the middle of thoroughfares) knowing that folks will move around them. So they loved their visit to a cattle sanctuary "panjarpol" in Kolhapur where they saw hundreds of cows and a few buffaloes. 
• They petted a ~4 month old buffalo calf for several minutes- an adorable thing with scruffy, coarse hair. After a while, the calf decided it had made new friends and started playfully head-butting my daughter! A caretaker shooed it away to play with more suitable bovine friends. 
• Madras crocodile bank trust- We stopped here on the way to Mahabalipuram. This place has been operational for 50 years and V remembers coming here as a child, and possibly seeing some of the same crocodiles! (They live for a long time.) This was a unique and fascinating experience for the kids.  
• Food: Food is always a highlight on any trip to India, and both TN and MAH have wonderful food available everywhere. 
• Shout out to the friends and family who took the time to gift us special treats from their kitchen (you know how I love food gifts)- masala puris and chivda made by R tai, Tamil treat suyyam/seeyam (stuffed dumplings) made by V's cousin, chirote (flaky pastries) made by my 80+ year old aunt from Pune, to name a few.
• My kids became obsessed with a food store named Milk Corner in Kolhapur- an emporium of snacks and treats- all impeccably made. They wanted to visit daily. 
• My daughter is a foodie and loved trying the iconic cocktail ice cream in Kolhapur (a colorful sundae), roasted corn with chili lime from a stall when out on a picnic, fresh mangoes in both states, and much more.
• Other things I'm grateful for
• Health- Other than a few days when I had a sore throat and a minor cold, we stayed healthy on this trip. That's not something I take for granted when we moved around so much in hot/ monsoon weather, and consuming food and drink from so many places.
• Related to the above, filtered water is something I was very grateful for. Everywhere we stayed, there were water filters or filtered water bubblers, so we did not have to rely on bottled water. 
• Travel between cities was surprisingly smooth given the weather. One flight from Chennai to Mumbai was diverted to Hyderabad due to exceptionally heavy monsoon rain that morning, but otherwise, all travel was on time and all baggage arrived safely. (so far- hoping the trip home goes just as well.)

The Bad

This was a fantastic and memorable trip overall, but there were many moments when my patience was seriously tested. There were days when I was willing to undergo the expense and headache of changing my flights in order to go home earlier than planned. (In the end, we just stuck it out.) I'm going to record my litany of complaints here because venting feels quite therapeutic sometimes. In time, I hope the stressful moments will be forgotten while the happy memories stay alive. 

• Too much travel, too many flights. We booked our international flights so that we would fly into Chennai, spend a month in Tamil Nadu for V's project, then spend 10 days in Maharashtra to visit family, flying out of Mumbai (TN- MAH). This fairly sensible plan got upended when my cousin dropped the news of her daughter's wedding in Maharashtra in the middle of our trip. This resulted in more domestic travel than we had initially planned (TN- MAH- TN- MAH.) 
• Unpacking and packing 10 times (yes, I counted) felt like a lot. And when travel includes events involving festive attire and gifts, you simply can't pack as light as you would like to. 
• On the plus side, I feel like I've been through a travel boot camp and am now a much more efficient and confident packer than ever before. For one thing, I have discovered packing cubes and love them for how well you can organize your stuff. 
• Bored and bickering kids- Campus is where we spent most of our days, but as visitors, we did not have ID cards and were not allowed to borrow books from the library or use the campus pool. Those two things- books and swimming- would have been a game-changer for the kids. Bored, lacking adequate physical activity, and thrown together without other activities and friends to distract them, my son and daughter bickered and fought way more than usual. 
• An unwilling traveler- My son did not want to go on this trip at all- he was completely opposed to being away from home for 6 weeks. We talked/cajoled/forced him into it, and while he enjoyed SO many things, he made his displeasure apparent. He's not a good eater at the best of times, but in India, he took it to the next level. He almost seemed to lose his appetite, and definitely did not want to eat Indian food. 
• The mood changes were dramatic. He would be a hangry little gremlin, and just getting him to eat even something small like an idli or buttered toast would be like flipping a switch and turn him instantly into a sweet and reasonable child. But it was exhausting to manage his meals and moods all day every day. Seeing my frustration and dismay, friends and relatives kept reassuring me that this is an age thing, that I shouldn't take it so seriously, and it won't be like this forever. I can only hope.
• Weather- We could only make this trip at this time of year when our kids have 10 weeks off from school for summer break. Unfortunately, it coincides with difficult weather in India- heat and humidity in TN and monsoons in MAH, making it challenging to be out and about. 
• Other challenges
• Transportation and traffic- Getting anywhere can be difficult in big Indian cities with chaotic and heavy traffic all times of day. It was particularly bad in Chennai with half the roads being disrupted for metro construction and autos/uber and equivalents being either unreliable or unwilling to go into campus. With the added language barrier, I felt a bit trapped. 
• Caregiving- This was no vacation as V and I juggled work and social commitments while taking care of the kids. Every day seemed to be full of making and executing plans, for meet-ups, for meals, for transportation, for keeping everyone comfortable and fed and entertained. I've had almost no downtime during the last two months.
• You live and learn. If this trip had been 10-14 days shorter, it would have been a whole lot sweeter. Also, I will not take an unwilling child on a trip ever again if I can help it. 

The Photo Dump

The entertaining baby buck

Black buck

"Enchanted" the stag

Visitor to the bungalow yard

Snacks by the guest house kitchen

Auroville- Karen and one of her pups

Winnie in her festive attire

My daughter's cartoon of Winnie

A bask of crocodiles

The wee hairy baby buffalo

My daughter's cartoon of the baby buffalo

Gorgeous Bagayam campus of
CMC, Vellore

Frangipane/ plumeria flowers

Stately banyan trees on campus

The pool at Auroville where the kids splashed for
hours and hours

The waterfall near Ratnagiri, Kolhapur

So much strong, milky filter coffee in TN

Breakfast in Vellore- idlis and coffee

Breakfast in Chennai- uttapam and papaya

A typical lunch of chapati, subzi, dal

Another typical meal- yogurt rice, rasam, poriyals

"Upvas patties" from Milk Corner, Kolhapur

Chirote (pastries) made by my Pune aunt P

Pasta made for my son by his doting
Chennai auntie P

Sev puri- one of many meals in
mall food courts

A display of block printing in Dakshin Chitra

Pipli work from Orissa- animal art

Mehendi at Dakshin Chitra

The preciousss- water cooler

More than anything, travel makes me utterly grateful for my home and my routines, my simple, small-town life. I look forward to spending the rest of this year focusing on staying active, eating a modest and nutritious diet, resting more than I've been able to, and getting some solitude. 

Tell me about your June and July! Got any travel stories of your own? :)

Postcard from Brazil

I just got back from a week-long work trip to Búzios, Brazil, my first trip to South America. While the majority of time was spent working, it did give me a flavor of this wonderful country. 

Sunset

Travel time was quite lengthy. Rio de Janeiro is a 10 hour (overnight) flight from Atlanta, and Buzios is about a 4 hour drive from Rio. (On the way back I flew Rio- Sao Paulo- Atlanta. Sao Paulo is probably the glitziest airport I've ever seen, like a high-end mall with some departure gates thrown in.) I can't sleep on planes at all, so if this post sounds loopy, it is because I am quite sleep-deprived.

Buzios is an upscale coastal resort town, apparently made famous by the French actress Brigette Bardot. She is credited with transforming this sleepy fishing village into an internationally renowned vacation destination.

I stayed at the Hotel Atlantico, where you can walk down the steps directly onto the beachfront, dotted with restaurants and boutique shops. It is off-season there now (being winter in the Southern hemisphere), which just meant it was less crowded with absolutely perfect temperatures- in the late 60s to early 70s (F) the whole time.

More sunset

Photo taken by one of my colleagues

A memorable part of this trip was a morning spent hiking. We walked along the beach (orla Bardot), then scrambled on the cliff, walked up trails and down on the other side to Praia Tartaruga (turtle beach). The hike was led by a local marine biologist who specializes in species that live in the intertidal zones. He showed us several creatures that I would have totally overlooked if not for his expert eye. 

On the hike

Most coastal cacti

I was fascinated by the native cacti in the coastal cliffs. Apparently the cacti flourish here because it is quite a dry climate.

There are a few stray dogs in town, but better described as "community dogs" because it seems locals take care of them, local businesses feed them and let them sleep indoors. They look healthy and well-fed. Two dogs accompanied us throughout our hike, delighting the group. They are clever and know how to find fresh water collected in some of the bowl-like cacti. 

After the hike, the rest of the group stayed to enjoy the beach, but I was tired and walked back to the hotel with the guide to rest and prepare for a workshop I was teaching later in the day. I was rewarded by a sighting of cute little (and they are truly tiny) capuchin monkeys who, far from being afraid, scampered out of the trees to stare curiously at me. 

Can you spot two capuchin monkeys?

Our "guide dog" cleverly finding
fresh drinking water

Black vultures were everywhere

Buffet plate

Brazilian food is meat and seafood-heavy, and vegetarian food was not always easy to find. One good option was the "por quilo" buffets where a wide variety of food is set out, and you fill a plate and pay by weight. There was one such buffet in Buzios, and another at the rest stop between Buzios and Rio, and I was grateful for these. Although the majority of buffet dishes were off limits for me, I could fill a plate with brown rice, black beans, fresh and cooked veggies, and sometimes extras like cassava fries (aipim frito) and garlic bread, like in the pic here. I would always get a limonada (lemonade) with the meal, and it was always excellent and somehow better than any lemonade I've had before.

The hotel served a breakfast buffet every morning. I enjoyed good coffee, fresh fruit (amazing pineapple and mango), oatmeal with toppings like cinnamon and chia seeds, scrambled eggs. There were a variety of breads set out, and loads of desserts- imagine whole cakes and puddings for breakfast. The one snack available everywhere are pao de quiejo, small bread bites baked from dough of cassava flour with egg and cheese.

Pao de quiejo

[This is a snack that I get to eat often at home in Georgia, because one of my best friends is Brazilian and she will often bring some over when we get together for a meal. A lady from Atlanta makes and sells these frozen (ready to bake). My friend orders it via text and the lady sells them out of her car trunk in a Target parking lot ha ha!]

There was one other person in our group who was vegan, and she and I exchanged notes on the veg-friendly options we found. On the very last night, we fortuitously found that a restaurant right next to our hotel served vegan versions of a couple of Brazilian dishes- and we got to enjoy vegan ceviche and vegan moqueca, traditionally a coconut-based seafood stew.

Vegan moqueca

Vegan ceviche

Other times, I managed to find that one veg option in restaurants. Once it was a spaghetti with plenty of vegetables. It hit the spot on a rainy evening. 

Can never go wrong with pasta and veg

Oh too cheesy vegetarian risotto

Another time it was this vegetarian risotto- but it was super cheesy. I do eat a bit of cheese but don't like strong, funky cheeses and this definitely had aged parmesan or something- this was a meal I did not enjoy. I should really look for vegan options rather than vegetarian to avoid cheese altogether. 

Below is what I ate at the opening reception- it was a pretty fancy restaurant with a couple of vegan options- I had the sweet potato puree served with an eggplant cutlet topped with sauteed veg. It was delicious, and someone else at the table got a bowl of black beans with their meal that they didn't care for, so I got to eat that for some added hearty protein. 

Eggplant cutlet with veg and sweet potato puree

I looked for a vegetarian restaurant in Buzios and found one named Samsara- the first floor was a hippie store selling incense and idols and tie-dye...and the second floor was a tiny restaurant with just one employee- a sweet young woman. I got a lunch called "basic vegan" and it was anything but basic. It came with two platters- one with lentils, brown rice and two types of hummus. The other with a chickpea patty surrounded by roasted potatoes, steamed sweet potatoes, salad and cabbage. As with most food I encountered in Brazil, it is not spiced, and was seasoned only with a little salt. This meal was so satisfying with the plethora of veggies, and I had enough leftovers to eat for dinner.

"Basic vegan" plate(s)

The coffee breaks at the conference had lots of wonderful cookies, many different varieties, often typical Brazilian ones with a filling of jam or guava paste or chocolate. And those wonderful elephant ears made of puff pastry. 

Cookies

Brazil is, of course, a Portuguese speaking country, and I got by with a translation app, lots of smiles and gestures, a heartfelt "obrigada", and the occasional colleague who could translate for me. People were kind and friendly and quite patient with me. If you can speak Spanish, you can get by; they are similar enough languages. 

I've never been to Brazil before, but something about the locale and people feels familiar. For instance, driving through Rio reminded me very much of Mumbai.

Rio on a rainy afternoon

Art in Atlanta airport

Not counting India (which is amazing for vegetarians and also pretty great for vegans), I found England to be surprisingly veg friendly. The Czech republic was the hardest for me. I think I lived on beer and fries for a couple weeks there.

If you're vegetarian or vegan, what have been the most and least veg-friendly travel locales you've been in?