is wondering what SHOULD be an ideal presidential phone?

R.A.M.E.N. - national dish of mAcAu...well, almost!

RAMEN....a rustic serving of meat stock spiced with celery, spring onions, burnt garlic, ramen noodles, assorted greens, bean sprouts and chicken/ pork/ beef with huge chunks of potatoes, carrots and other tubers.
This may not be the most authentic version of the popular Japanese dish, but this is more or less the adaptation that you'll encounter across all the restuarants in Macau, China.
Ramens are easy to make, since assembly only involves building from ground zero in a huge bowl an assortment of gravy, noodles, veggies, meat and garninsh. Restaurants generally keep each individual part of the dish ready in steaming bain maries n then once the order's punched in, assemble it within seconds.
The best way to eat a Ramen is to hold the chopsticks in your right hand and a soup spoon in your left. Keep shoving meat/ tubers/ veggies in your mouth with the c'stix n wash it down with the ramen gravy with your soup spoon. Locals do this in an almost involuntary rhythm and its fun to watch them finish a bowlful of steaming goodness within seconds.

One RAT did, what chefs couldn't for years!

I got my laptop a couple of weeks back, n RATATOUILLE was one of the first movies that i watched on it. I regretted not having watched it in a cinema hall, coz da animation is so brilliant thats its unfair to the movie to watch it on a measly 14 incher. Nevertheless, whats important is the crux of the movie - ANYONE CAN COOK! but what interested me more was the portrayal of the winning dish in the movie - ratatouille. A mish mash of farm fresh vegetables that da woman of the house cooks to feed hungry souls. Its simple, unornamented, basic, filling, yes but i've never heard anyone celebrating its attack on the olfactory senses as this movie does.

My memory took me back to the 1st year of our food production practical classes in the hotel management classes, where chef iyer would shout out instructions one by one and help us cook international cuisines. Then, Ratatouille was a simple, soggy mash of fresh vegetables, the choice of which was determined by the color contrast more than the flavors each one brought to the dish. So what went in our ratatouilles - aubergines, carrots, zucchinis, fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, white wine, rosemary sprigs, fresh peppercorns, bay leaf, some thyme and salt. All of these ingredients were merely out together one by one in a pot while we would concentrate on building the perfect raft on the consomme or get the hollandaise sauce to uncurdle. And by the end of some ignorance and thankfully timely reminders from chef iyer to add the white wine and salt n rosemary to the pot, after about 20 minutes the ratatouille was cooked n ready to be dished out as an accompaniment to the grilled salmon with hollandaise.

Maybe that was the problem...the fact that ratatouille was taught to us as a side dish, one that merely accompanies the main course, hence it never occured to us that this simple dish could be the star attraction itself.

Thats why we owe it to the movie, where the little chef creates magic with simple ingredients. Thanks little chef, for re-introducing the beauty of simple cooking to us! Thanks for making ratatouille the most sought after dish now! Long live Little Chef!

I live to eat!

I love eating, well who duznt? I love talking about food, who duznt? I love trying new cuisines, who duznt? I love travelling to the corners of the world to sample new flavors, spices, dips, salads, entrees, desserts, cheeses, wines, again, who duznt???

Well, thanks to my job I get to live my dream, do you?

Dats exactly what this blog's gonna be all about! My gastronomic adventures, from all the places that my work as a Travel show anchor take me to!

So have a heavy breakfast, coz u r gonna feel H.U.N.G.R.Y after this!