Need Dabbawalla ;-)

Yesterday's biryani was good, but the recipe, which was supposed to make 4-6 portions made more like 8-10. So...we are left with a lot of biryani. Brought some to work:


...and Mallorie said she'd help me eat it. :-)

Still, some days I think it would be nice to have the Mumbai Dabbawalla service here in Munich, even if totally impractical for this city. I might imagine a team of German dabbawallas dressed up in lederhosen? Although I pass on the bavarian food - not a big fan of Schweinekrustenbraten mit Semmelknödel und Rotkrautsalat.


And I think the tupperware...while practical...is not nearly as beautiful as carrying your lunch around in something like this:


Or even better - the Singapore version:


I could hang it over my bike handle.

Picnic on the Isar

Andreas had other plans this morning/afternoon, so I called Britta, Oliver and Claudia and proposed a picnic on the Isar. What to make? Well, let's try out some chicken biryani. Never made it before, and not bad picnic food because it is one dish - everything thrown together. (Although we had raita with cucumber and mint with it and drinks and cake for dessert - which Oliver, Claudia and Britta brought).

Critical assessment? It wasn't difficult, but took some time. My Indian friends tend to make biryani (at least parts of it) in a pressure cooker - which I don't have - and perhaps this is one of the secrets because...it seems I can't cook rice in a pot, no matter how carefully I watch it. Somehow, I always overcook it and it is a bit mushy. Nevertheless, the biryani was very tasty, if a little over-done. I marinated the chicken in garlic and ginger and chillies last night after we got back from Star Trek, and then cooked it with the rice this morning, and then headed to the gym for a bit, and then met up with everyone at 1 in the afternoon. The recipe came from an Indian cookbook one of my former MBA colleagues, Anant, gave me before we left Singapore. It was a Hydrabadi Murg Biryani version (Murg means chicken)...I guess different cities have their own versions. (And...i made a couple ...small...adjustments...so it becomes the Hydrabadi-Julie version.)

We ate directly by the river, with blankets spread out underneath us to make the rocks a bit less ...rocky - the weather has been gorgeous this weekend and didn't disappoint today. Then we relaxed and chatted in the sun for a couple hours. Oliver and Claudia both work for Microsoft, and Britta and I are huge Apple fans, so there was some friendly insult exchanges right and left...;-)

Back home now, sort of sad the weekend comes to an end.

But Britta and Mallorie and I have some plans this week, so looking forward to that...

Picnic lunch

1 pm. Riverside.

Beautiful weather? Tourists? Check. Beer gardens full? Check.

Random notes....

The beer garden next to the Viktualienmarkt in munich where I buy the
best tomatoes in the world (well, maybe-except they come from
Sardinia) was jam-packed at 3 pm today. Note to self: go buy tomatoes
earlier in the day...

Off to see the new Star Trek film this evening. People whose taste in
movies I trust tell me it's good.

Meanwhile, read a well-written but very disturbing article yesterday
about Dubai, an article which spends a lot of time describing the
slave/servant class that has more or less built the monster skyscraper
hotels and shopping malls for the Emirates. Will post the link a bit
later with some other thoughts.
Actually, here's the link to the article: "The Dark Side of Dubai" - thoughts still to come.

Wanna bet?

I was treated to lunch today because Ranjith lost a bet to me a while back. :-))) He says he is going to prepare now for the next bet to ensure he can beat me.

We were sitting having lunch a few weeks ago in an Indian restaurant, and drinking some plain old (but very nice) tea after lunch. And it was obviously not some sort of instant bag tea, but something the restaurant had cooked up itself - some nice blend of black (Darjeeling?) tea leaves, ginger, cloves, black pepper, and some full cream milk and sugar. I made some offhand comment that the tea was really good and Ranjith said,

"Yeah, and I know what the secret ingredient is!"
Curious, i asked..."oh, what?" (always open to learning secrets of the kitchen...)
and he practically whispered "aesofoetida." (otherwise often called "hing.")
"No way," I said. "Forget it. That's not in here."
"It is!" he insisted.
"No, it's not. Aesofoetida is used in food, not sweet tea. It's used to prevent gas from vegetables like onions and pulses!"
He insisted.
"ok," i said, laughing, "let's bet."
"what'll we bet?" he asked.
"lunch. you owe me lunch when you lose this one. The next lunch."
"ok."

So we called the waiter over and praised the restaurant's tea profusely. And then I asked: "so, can you tell us, please - we were debating here - is there aesofoetida in this tea?" (feeling like an idiot asking this question...)
And the waiter laughed and said..."No no, no one puts that in tea. There is ginger and cloves and and and..."
And when he walked away I smirked - maybe a little more than I should have, because Ranjith is just learning to cook, and said,
"Ok, so when do we go for our lobster and champagne lunch?!"
"Do they serve that at McDonalds?"
"Ha ha."
"Did you pay that guy off when I wasn't looking?"
"You wish."

Anyway, so today Ranjith, Mallorie, Mick, Michael and I headed off to (another) Indian restaurant for lunch where Ranjith paid up (for me) and we had one of the craziest conversations for an hour that I have had in awhile. (Another blog perhaps...)

Mallorie's sunglasses helped set the tone of the crack-up fest - which simply shouldn't be worn by Indian men even if they ARE wearing purple shirts.

:-) Thanks guys for such a nice lunch! :-)))

O'zapft es (Let it flow)

Some photos from last night's work party. :-) I gotta think about getting a dirndl perhaps, although will wait until Oktoberfest (at least) to consider it further. :-) Or lederhosen...even better.

Theme was the May Pole....and some of the men carried one around the office to invite us into the lounge at the end of the day.

Tonight, I'm invited to join some friends in a beer garden, but the weather is looking iffy, so not sure if I will make it. Maybe just head home and relax.

Good Morning, Bogenhausen

Hey! I got up early this morning. I mean....not really early - only 6:30, but still...

And made some coffee.

Drank some coffee.

And then - went for a walk before work. (Andreas'...uh...gentle...idea...get Julie out of bed earlier....)

But it was lovely out and remains so today, and tonight Sapient will have a little social get together (theme is traditional german costume..which I will NOT be wearing...), and I am working on maybe attending a conference in Berlin towards the end of this month, so plenty to do and look forward to today.

Here is my (pictorial) walk:
Along our street.
Along the river.
Up to the bridge.
Down to the bakery (we were out of bread).
Back home, dress and go to work. :-)

No comments from the peanut gallery about the sunglasses. I like them. I don't care if you don't like them. :-P

Tree House

I live in a treehouse. :-) When winter finally vanishes from Munich and the trees turn brilliant green and burst with leaves and flowers (the second nicest time of year...i like fall a smidgen more), the apartment we live in is surrounded. And on the top floor, you look out of the window and are surrounded by green. Or...green and fuzzy white blossoms - the chestnut trees are in full bloom at the moment. A photo from a living room window.

Love Pug

Saw this guy in a shop window on my way back to the office mid-day today. He posed nicely for a moment, but then turned away and wouldn't turn back even when I pleaded with him and tapped on the window. But I guess, when you live in a boutique, you are used to being looked at and window tappers are status quo.

Playing again with photo editor for iPhone

Bear with me as I continue to experiment. After the downpour last
night, which, by the way, sounded like a lullaby as I slept and only
woke me for a moment sometime in the middle of the night when I
sleepily realized my bike was getting soaked, all the snails decided
to come out to the dry land and slime up the sidewalks. This one
blended right in and I almost stepped on him.

So...checking out photogrne for the iPhone. Only really critical
factor is that iPhone simply takes crappy crappy close-ups.

Signs Everywhere

One of the blogs I nip past every day is called "A Headline A Day" - yeah, you can find it over here. And some days i think the guy is channeling my brain. Shorter than a horoscope, his one headline every day is quite often something that really makes me stop and and think.

And the fact that some of his headlines seem somehow so close to what I might be thinking or feeling - maybe not on the day itself but sometime in the past - makes me recognize how on so many levels the things I think about or struggle with or contemplate or recognize are merely the same things that other people think about, stuggle with, contemplate or recognize. It's a humbling experience. Despite this, the headline a day often has a message worth spending time with - wondering how it applies to me and my life, if at all.

And some days, I don't have to even look for the official "Headline a Day" because there it is, on the street, right before me.


Although I wish it weren't written on gas guzzling monster jeep truck things...

Tiptoeing through the Baerlauch

I promise, I won't only write about food. It's just that the sunny weather this weekend and a strange cold that won't go away no matter how much I sleep, kept activity at least fairly limited and focused on soaking up (generating? i feel like a battery?) some vitamin D and relaxing.

So after the rather uninspiring squid on Saturday night, I turned to seasonal vegetables and herbs for Sunday. The Germans love their white asparagus, which I find pretty tasteless, mushy, and sorry, boring. But the green - those are another story completely. Toss them in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and throw them in the oven (or better - grill them! i just don't have a grill), for a few minutes until they lose their crunch and you have one amazing spring vegetable.

And it was obviously time to do something with baerlauch ("bear garlic") which grows wild and profusely in the English garden - just a couple hundred meters from our apartment. So after the gym and a shower, i grabbed a blanket and a book and my bike and rode over there to relax and people watch. Lots of students hanging out, and kids playing soccer (football...i know..football), and women working on achieving the perfect summer glow...but really a good mix of everyone, including horses - everywhere - leaving evidence of their comings and goings.


So I spent an hour lying around staring at the sky, and then went and collected some Baerlauch, which is actually not a good substitute for regular garlic. It's pungent in a different way, somehow a bit milder. You know when baerlauch is in season here because when you walk or ride your bike through the english garden, you can smell it even if you can't see it.

So there you go - a few photos of what it looks like...




And while I might make some bread with it later this week, baerlauch spaetzle (the ever-present german equivalent of pasta), hit our plates next to a piece of salmon and those asparagus.


Getting ready for work now...

Squid Blastula

They were quite some work, cleaning the squid, boiling the bulgar,
making the stuffing, stuffing and closing them, and them cooking for
almost an hour. In the end, they were tasty but really nothing to blow
your socks off. Next time: more mint, more garlic, and...as much as I
don't like to use it, more salt.

Am at the gym at the moment, blogging from the iPhone as I peddle on
one of the exercise bikes, BUT, the sun is out and I intend to go laze
around the English garden in an hour and enjoy...and maybe work again???

Am also busy trying to link up all the various profiles in a way to
only post once and have the right network get the right information.
Need to put some more thought into this.

Music in Muenchen Passagen

What's nice about the upscale shops around Odeonsplatz here in muc, is
that on nice sunny spring days, when lots of tourists are out and
about, the Russian musicians all come out and set up their bands and
instruments in the covered passageways between the stores. This group
had a talented violinist. They played classical pieces like The Four
Seasons which they did jazzy interpretations of. I was riding by on my
bike and heard them so I stopped for ten minutes to listen. Then on to
The Blue Nile restaurant for dinner.