20 Cups of Chai and a Sugary Sunday

Happy April! No foolin' or practical jokes here- I haven't the bandwidth. This is just a quick recap of fun moments from the last couple of weeks. 

I had the chance to give another Indian food talk to local seniors. This one focused on chai culture in India. They say that teaching is the best way to learn, and it is certainly true for me. I did some reading and light research before the talk, and learned quite a bit. Such as the fact that chai culture as we know it, which is so ingrained and ubiquitous in everyday Indian life, only really came about in the last 100 years. I read an interesting article on this bit of history called Making Tea in India, Chai, Capitalism Culture (Thesis Eleven, 2012) by an American professor named Philip Lutgendorf. Some of his work is covered in this article. 

A few of the things I covered in my talk-

• Tea and chai mean the same thing, so don't say "chai tea" :) (a public service announcement, if you will, although I will say that hearing "chai tea" doesn't trigger me the way it seems to trigger some people...)
• Tea and hospitality in Indian homes- the concept of "atithi devo bhava"
• Stories of Irani cafes in Mumbai when I was in college and tea-time breaks in canteens
• Typical ways of making chai (boiling water with black tea, spices, milk, sugar)- stovetop, pot and strainer
• Explaining spices that are added to chai- ginger, cardamom, chai masala, etc.
• Etc.

The talk was secondary to all the food and drink, of course. I made 20 cups of chai in the instant pot in the classroom! The morning of the class, V asked me, "oh, can you make chai in the instant pot?" and I was like, ask me tonight because I'm about to find out! It does work well. 

• I made it in an open instant pot, no lid, on saute mode.
• Added 12 cups of water to begin with, with tea, sugar, and about 4 cups milk...this is in a 6 quart pot
• Made an "everything" chai with ginger, cardamom and chai masala since I couldn't just choose one flavor!
• Strained the chai into cups, then added more water and milk and kept the chai going, just like the tea stall folks do it. Made for a strong tea.

For food, I served 

• An assortment of biscuits (cookies)
• An assortment of mithai (sweets)
• Chaklis, as an example of "namkeen" or savory treats
• Sev puri (with homemade sweet and spicy chutneys)
• Chutney sandwiches, which were a bit of a flop since I forgot to take along the sliced cucumbers and tomatoes! 

I used scraps of Indian block print cottons to sew cute little tea-bag bookmarks to give out as a party favor to all attendees. Wish I had taken a picture of the colorful lot! It brought together my love for books, chai and sewing into one project. The participants were very gracious and sweet and seemed to enjoy my little chai party.

* * *

I generally reserve Sunday afternoons for a good bit of cooking and meal prepping for the week ahead, making 2-3 entrees like dal, lasagna, and/or meal components like baked tofu and cooked black beans. This Sunday I spend a good bit of time instead making cupcakes to take in to work on Monday for a celebration. One work friend requested pistachio cupcakes so that's where I started, with this recipe. Spiked it with a bit of cardamom because I am genetically programmed to add cardamom with pistachio. The cupcakes were great, if a little dry. 

The frosting was my favorite ermine frosting, but spiked with a tsp. of rosewater, zest of one lemon, and juice of half a lemon. It was a fantastic combination!

The cupcakes called for 3 egg whites, so I had 3 egg yolks left over. As on most weekends, my house was overrun with kids, and my daughter and her friends turned up wanting to bake. I pointed them to the three egg yolks and a recipe for vanilla pudding that called for 3 yolks! 

Rummaging through the fridge, I pulled out all available fruit- grapes, oranges, apples- and made a quick fruit salad. The girls enjoyed the fruit and custard in my thrifted "fancy" cups- this was a favorite childhood dessert of ours and I was pleased to share it with this lot. 

No productive cooking got done on Sunday, but we sure had a lot of dessert!

* * * 

Recent books--

On The Beach by Nevil Shute, a post-apocalyptic novel. I picked up this book because it keeps being recommended in Reddit book forums. It was written in 1957 and set in 1963, a time when there was a great deal of anxiety about nuclear war. The premise of the book is that a nuclear world war has killed off all humans in the Northern hemisphere. The cloud of radiation is drifting slowly southward, and people in Southern Australia spend a few months waiting for the inevitable.  

As grim as the premise of the book is, it focuses on everyday life and the different ways- from denial to acceptance- in which ordinary people react to catastrophic scenarios. I loved this book- it was a quick and engaging read. Sometimes a book matches your headspace at the time you read it, and this was the case for me. 

• The epigraph of the book is this quote from the poem The Hollow Men - T.S. Eliot: This is the way the world ends/ This is the way the world ends/ This is the way the world ends/ Not with a bang but a whimper.
• Two quotes from the book--
• “Maybe we've been too silly to deserve a world like this.”
• “It's not the end of the world at all," he said. "It's only the end for us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan't be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us.”

Not all my books I read come from thoughtful recommendations. Many are books that I pick up randomly at the biannual library book sales, where you can fill a bag for 10 bucks. This was my haul from last weekend. I just grab whatever catches my eye, jostling my way through a crowded room of dozens of other book enthusiasts, and in most cases these are read and donated right back for future sales. 

These are two books I read in the last month that were bought in past book sales-

Good Morning, Miss Dove by Frances Gray Patton (published in 1954)- This looked like one of those cozy, old-fashioned stories, and it is just that. There are a few interspersed line illustrations in this book. You know the type. Enid Blyton vibes. It is the story of Miss Dove, who has served as a small-town geography teacher. She is feared and revered by generations of students. When she ends up in the hospital, she discovers just how far her influence goes. If you're looking for a cozy read, I recommend this book. 

Most of us probably have a "Miss Dove" in our lives. I certainly do- my high school English teacher. She was legendary and we heard stories about her from older cousins long before we ended up in her class. She was highly competent and terrifying, and I credit her for my love of the English language, grammar and prose. To this day, you can wake me up from a deep sleep and I will accurately point out figures of speech on a page- onomatopoeia, synecdoche, alliteration, and so on. They are imprinted in my brain.

Word Nerd: Dispatches from the Games, Grammar, and Geek Underground by John D. Williams Jr. Published in 2015, it is a memoir of sorts by the long-time executive director of the national SCRABBLE association. I have liked this board game all my life, which is why I grabbed this book when I came across it. It is fascinating to learn of these cool and off-beat careers (director of a board game association? how do I get this job?) and how people stumble into them. 

I learned quite a few things about the game, notably, that there is a huge difference between casual players and tournament players. The former (speaking for myself) enjoy the game because they enjoy words and their meaning, and language in general. The latter get where they are by memorizing massive word lists, and don't care about the meaning of words. They treat tiles as game pieces rather than letters of the alphabet.

Best blog post I read recently- Johanna's account of attending a massive cake picnic. Living vicariously!

Best new-to-me podcast- Good Job, Brain- a very entertaining trivia podcast.

Tell me about your month of March- what have you been cooking, eating, reading, watching?