Sachin Tendulkar wins his French Open..!!

Sachin Tendulkar i guess beat Roger Federer (& a retired Pete Sampras) to win his French Open...!

This is what he had to say after the match.. the poise and the choice of words underline his class.

"I dedicate this century to the people of Mumbai," the batting maestro said, adding "cricket cannot lessen whatever happened... I hope this 100 will give some amount of happiness to the people.""What happened in Mumbai was extremely extremely unfortunate and it will be hard to recover," Tendulkar said, adding, "we are right with the people who lost their near and dear ones.

So, here is Congratulations to Sachin, on his French Open win..!

Me, my breakfast and Parthasarathy of Triplicane...

This morning, thought I will finally get around to the Triplicane Parthasarathy Temple. I had Madras born, Chennai bred Banglorean, as my guide (while on that, friend, philosopher, as well… ;-)).

One step inside the temple, it feels like you have been transported to some 13th Century Chola period and it seemed possible that the Pandian King could be somewhere lurking around as part of his evangelization drive to convert Vaishnavites onto becoming a Shaivite.

If this is difficult to picture here is an easier explanation. It was like walking into the sets of the film Dasavatharam and expecting Napolean to tap your shoulders. Actually Asin would have been nicer option but that will be veering out of the topic. Let me leave this at this. (Sigh!) (That sigh was for the fact that I actually had several taps on the shoulder, alas by my FPG)

Any case, it happened that Lord Parthasarathy had decided to hide behind the curtain, when we went. I was very much hurt that the Lord could spurn me. I mean what gall, having given the rights to someone else.

But then I could have had my revenge then and there. The Prasadam stall had Puliyodhara and other assorted stuff like the sweet Appam, etc. Since I haven’t had my breakfast then, it was a wonderful opportunity in the offing for me to treat the Lordship’s aboard as a meal counter and get even by gorging on the fare available. But anger overrode the opportunity and I rushed out. Only to realize that I was still hungry and angry while the Lord in his abode smug and smiling. Cannot stop thinking that only God knows what the Lord was up to behind the curtain!

So here is what I have decided. That I will once go to the temple only for the Puliyodhara and nothing else. Then will decide on a meeting Parthasarathy on a later occasion when my FPG is around.

In my case, revenge is a dish, best served hot and spicy from a temple madapalli!

Appetite, literally..!

To eat to live or to live to eat, that’s never an ambiguity for me.

In the past week or so, I have picked couple of books on food, to read. One a small compendium, titled, ‘A Cook’s Companion’ and the other ‘It must’ve been something I ate’ by Jeffrey Steingarten.

‘A Cook’s Companion’ is a typically neat British publication (Robson Books) on gastronomical trivia. It contains some wonderful little tidbits on food history, science, and facts/fiction.

Sample this trivia,

During wartimes, inside the rationed environs of a warship, the once a day complete meal used to be served in square plates, hence ‘Square Meals’.

And this quote,

There are two things in life I like firm, and one of them is jelly. – Mae West

Or this anonymous limerick,

There was a young gourmet of Crediton
Who took pate de foie gras and spread it on
A chocolate biscuit
He murmured ‘I’ll risk it’
His tomb bears the date that he said it on.

Nice, isn’t it?

The book has hundreds of such entries. And can be a delightful companion on a lazy Sunday afternoon or a lonely train journey (as I found out).

I have just started reading ‘ It must have ..’ and from what I have read, Steingarten writes with a very understated dry self deprecating humor which is hard to not grin at while reading. I will post a bit more once I am through with the reading.

A typical food related book would be a collection of recipes, more often than not. However, if you lay your hands on books which go beyond just recipes, they offer a reading with a new taste. Food is such an integral part of our daily life in times of mirth or misery. It is no surprise that there is so much to write about than just recipes.

S has been reading books by MFK Fisher and found them as relishing as a plate of home made festive savories. I got to find a way to dig into her fare. I have in my shelf an autobiographical book that I haven’t read yet, ‘The Devil in the kitchen’ by Marco Pierre White – a celebrity chef and on top of it, a Brit. (A British cook, makes you wonder, what a nice time pass profession that it would be, given the fact that there is nothing so much called British cuisine!). The point I am trying to make is that while there is so much to read generally, there is much more to read on food, specifically. I guess it will be a genre which can offer a lip smacking fare page after page.

Getting back to where I started: To eat to live or to live to eat, that’s never an ambiguity for me.

;-)!