Amy's Luscious Larb

From the kitchen of the lovely Amy Langenstein

Larb is the national dish of Laos. This is a relatively easy, lowfat and delicious recipe, and great for a light summer meal. Don't worry about making too much - it makes great leftovers as the ingredients marinate together.

Ingredients

• 1-3 pounds of ground turkey
• 1 red onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 bunch of fresh mint
• 1 bunch of fresh cilantro
• Fish sauce
• 1 red hot peper or red chili flakes to taste
• ~10 limes, juiced
• Romaine lettuce (for lettuce wraps)

Method

Cook turkey in broth or water and then strain liquid away. Chop veggies and mix with the turkey. Add Fish sauce, chili and lime to taste. Serve with romaine lettuce for wraps.

First dinner in my new house - Tilapia in Red Curry

New research says that eating fish just once a week contributes to overall brain health and staves off dementia. I've never been very adept at cooking fish, so I thought I'd use this as a catalyst to get myself going and damn if I'm not proud of the first attempt!

Tilapia with Red Curry Sauce

• .5 lb Tilapia filet (fresh from Whole Foods)
• One fresh Cherokee tomato (thanks, Mom!)
• A handful of green beens 
• One lime
• 1 cup farro
• 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil
• 1/2 bottle of Trader Joe's Red Curry sauce
• Salt to taste

Make the farro first - simmer 1 cup of farro with 3 cups of water and a couple of pinches of salt for 25 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.

Trim the green beans and cut into 1" sections. Put 1" of water in the bottom of a frying pan (to be used for fish later), and bring the cut green beens to a simmer, then shut off the heat. Strain the beans and set aside. Chop the tomato into bite-sized sections and set aside.

Sprinkle the Tilapia filet with salt and squeed a section of lime on each side. Heat ~1-2 tsp of olive oil in the frying pan, and cook the Tilapia filet for 3 minutes per side. Once the filet appears to be mostly cooked (flesh is opaque), add the tomatoes and green beens back into the pan.  Pour 1/2 of the bottle of red curry sauce over the fish and vegetables and squeeze in the remainder of the lime. Simmer for a minute until all ingredients are heated through.

Serve the fish and vegetables over the top of several spoonfuls of farro. Makes two servings.

One Day in Madrid

Sometimes traveling for work is a blessing; sometimes it's a curse. But, I am truly grateful for the opportunities I've had for excursions big and small, and to have my eyes opened to daily life in other countries, even when it comes in the midst of a whirlwind of flight connections, hotels, meetings, and three countries in as many days.  Today, I started one of those weeks, and to boot, I'm traveling to two cities that I would love to spend more time in, Madrid and Lisbon, with just a skosh less than 36 hours to allow either city and their respectively rich histories.

My concession to the bucket list was to take an afternoon stroll around the sights in central Madrid. With some recommendations from my favorite Spaniard in hand, off I toddled for a tapas lunch at Taverna Almendro 13, tucked away in La Latina. The "Oferta" del dia was a tasty selection of tuna salad with marinated tomatoes, peppers, and chopped hard boiled eggs, and lomo de ajo (pork cooked with garlic) atop a mound of homemade potato crisps. The waiter looked a bit offended and asked if I hadn't liked the salad when I didn't finish all of that, plus the four potato croquettes he gave me. They say Americans go crazy with portions, but Almendro was giving the Cheesecake Factory a run for its money with this menu-for-one.

After lunch, I wandered through the Puerta del Sol, and the spokes of streets filled with shops that hub off of the plaza. I treated myself to lovely painted abanicos (fans) at Casa de Diego as a souvenir to take home - I may need to learn some flamenco moves so that they can fulfill their purpose in life, but they were too lovely to pass up. After a thorough exploration of the shopping and monuments around the plaza, I ponied up to the standing coffee bar at La Mallorquina for some cafe con leche and an ensaimada with three Madrid matrons wearing mink coats - the Spaniards do not want for style.

Late afternoon was casting long shadows as I strolled through the Plaza Mayor and onward to el Museo Prado.  Madrid, washed in the deepening light of a Fall sunset is truly lovely.  There were corridors of trees with gold leaves and occasional glows of red foliage. Church facades and statues lit up as the sun dropped behind the skyline and the sky blushed toward evening.  I gave my feet a rest, sitting on one of the stone benches outside el Prado, soaking it all in, and then wandered through the church, unable to resist the play of light that was turning its stones the loveliest shade of pink.  I finished my walking tour by answering the siren's call that no American in Europe can long resist - a big cup of coffee and the wifi and easy chairs at Starbuck's. Then, it was onwards to the metro and back to our briskly efficient, but welcoming Hotel Maydrit, to meet Antonio and a partner for a surprisingly excellent meal of grilled asparagus with jamon iberico, fideua, and tiramisu at the hotel restaurant.

Business accomplished, and a bit of culture soaked in - now on to Lisbon.

Georgia's Garden Spaghetti Sauce

Hearty meals, canning and putting up soup for quick dinners to be had later all seem like home to me. And, now that Tahoe is my sometime home, it's a part of the cabin experience as well.  I always seem to have more time for cooking and enjoying family dinners when I'm up in the mountains.  It's part of what has made the last few ski seasons wonderful, and hopefully is the beginning of a lifetime of memories.

A few weeks ago, Mom came up and lent an expert hand to the process by making homemade spaghetti sauce.  In true Mackh-family style, the recipe is a dash here, a handful there, a smidge of this, and a dab of that, but you may attempt to replicate it at your own risk, using the ingredients below.  It was (and is) delicious, thanks to my super-talented mother.  Grandma Enid would have been proud of us!

Ingredients:

4 cans of Trader Joe's tomatoes
2 cans of Trader Joe's tomato paste (rinse cans and put water in the sauce)
1 can of organic pumpkin (plain, unsweetened)
Fennel seed, Oregano, Marjoram, Basil, Pimenton, to taste
4 cloves of garlic
2 big onions
2 large packages of mushrooms - shiitakes and baby Portabellas
3 big carrots, grated
3 zucchini, grated
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt, to taste
1/2 to 1 cup red wine
2 packages (8 links) of spicy chicken Italian sausage
Chopped greens, parsley or kale, added just before serving

Carmelize the onions and garlic in a bit of water at the bottom of your stock pot.  Shred the carrots and zucchini and add them to the mix.  Slice the mushrooms and add to the pot, then add your spices, pumpkin, tomatoes, red wine, lemon juice and tomato paste.  Allow the mixture to cook on low or medium heat for a few hours.  Add more liquid (water, wine, lemon juice), to thin the sauce if desired. Once all of the ingredients are incorporated and thoroughly cooked, the pasta sauce is ready to serve.  Immediately before serving, chop fresh parsley or other greens and stir into the hot sauce to provide fresh green color and contrast. Boo-yaa!

Chicken Shooting Star

There is something cozy about making soup in the winter, and what better place to do it than at a mountain cabin? Lauren and I were inspired by two leftover roast chickens and a partially unfinished bottle of white wine, et voila! Chicken Shooting Star Soup

Ingredients:

Do you remember the Indian shooting star icon,
 that would get you a free Tootsie Pop
if you found one on the wrapper?

• Two chicken carcasses
• Two onions
• Two lemons
• Fresh thyme (4-5 sprigs)
• Star pasta (one package, from Fresh & Easy)
• 5 large carrots
• One small/medium bunch of celery
• One leek
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup white wine

Method:

Caramelize the onions slightly at the bottom of a stock pot.  Add in 1 cup of white wine and simmer for a few minutes.  Add your chicken carcasses and cover with fresh, cold water until fully submerged.  Strip the thyme from its twigs and add the leaves to the pot.  Add one tablespoon of salt and ~1 teaspoon of ground pepper.  Squeeze the two lemons and add the juice to the soup. If desired, you can cut 2-3 lemon slices and float them in the pot, removing them later at the straining stage. Bring the soup to temperature and simmer for several hours, or overnight.

Remove the chicken bones using a handheld strainer, or by pouring through a colander. Cut any chicken meat into bite-sized pieces and return them to the broth. Slice the carrots, celery and leek into slender pieces and add them to the broth, stirring each element into the soup.  Add the package of star pasta, stir and cover the pot.  The soup can either cook slowly over low heat for several hours, or if you have time to watch the pot, you can turn up the temperature to reduce cooking time.  Taste the soup and add additional salt, pepper and lemon if needed.

The end result is a hearty chicken and vegetable soup.  We served it with homemade pizza and got solid reviews from the guests.  I will definitely try this concoction again!

Being Deconstructed

Remodeling a house seems like a pragmatic affair on the surface, but I'm discovering that it taps into a lot of vulnerabilities and perhaps a touch of crazy.  There are concerns about money, the constant paranoia that you're making the wrong choice and things won't come together, the time pressures, and a lot of compromise with the team of professionals who are trying to advise you and execute on everything.  It turns out that a home, even a part-time one, is an intensely personal space, and it says a lot about how you inhabit your life.  I may have gone a little nutty once or twice, but I have hoped that most of the turmoil was remaining under the surface, or at least confined to private consultation with my dearest buddies.  I mean, after all, I am trying to finish up my last few classes at Berkeley, adjusting to a new role and my boss leaving, as well as trying to pull off a remodel prior to ski season - it would be normal if a few cracks showed up, right?  I think, "I'm probably playing it off, at least I hope I am." And then comes the day my contractor says, "do you listen to Ted talks?....There's a couple of videos that I think you'd really like..." And he sends me this:

Now, I'm pretty sure that QB is more intuitive than the average man; in fact, he might be a savant.  And the video is really great - great and frighteningly insightful. But it also means that the crazy is coming to the surface way too much and those cracks might be starting to take on gorge-like proportions.  I am thankful for the video.  If you like it, you should also watch the sequel and I would recommend Brené's book, Daring Greatly.  I am not sure how I will apply all of this, but I do think that I need to find my own way to achieve the wholehearted state she talks about, or at least to get closer.  At a minimum, it might be time for more sleep, some deep breaths, spending time with people I love, and giving myself the benefit of the doubt in all this.  

Não Fala Portugues

I feel as though it's the end of an era.  After almost four years of living and traveling abroad for Google, I'm finally at home most of the time. As much as I've enjoyed my many adventures, it's lovely to be back.  If I do regret giving up my peripatetic ways, it is only because I will miss the wonderful people I've had the pleasure of working with and walking among.  Chief among these are the Brazilians.  I joke all the time with my Brazilian team that they are teaching me better manners.  I have never started a meeting in Brazil without each and every person in the room greeting one another, and bestowing a kiss on the cheek.  The same ritual repeats itself for every departure.  You never feel unacknowledged or overlooked in this gracious and fun-loving bunch. It's a social skill that I hope I can instill in my children, to see and acknowledge each person they meet with confidence and grace.

Brazilians are famed for their ability to party, not just at Carnival, but whenever the occasion demands it.  Should you go to Brazil, you will find yourself pulled out on the dance floor to samba, plied with Caipirinhas made from the local brew, Cachaça, and fed ridiculous quantities of churrascaria. This is so much a ritual that whole restaurants are devoted to it, and we came to know them fondly as "The Meat Parade," for their Stop / Go signs and endless rounds of luscious grilled meat.  After much sampling, my favorite place is Fogo de Chao; it is the buffet experience to end all buffet experiences.  Be sure to ask for the picanha and the warm, grilled mozzarella balls - both are amazing.  My second-favorite Brazilian food experience is pao de queijo.  A traditional Brazilian compliment to the churrascaria meal, these soft and springy cheese bread puffs are fantastic, but it doesn't stop there.  Oh no.  Some savant decided that the redundancy of cheese bread filled with warm soft cheese could only make life better and Casa de Pao de Queijo was born. If you go to Brazil, do not miss the opportunity to have one; both the white and yellow cheese fillings are fantastic.

I spent almost all of my time in São Paulo, and came to know it as a cosmopolitan and energetic city.  There are stark dichotomies everywhere.  Sparkling high rises are girded with warrens of flavelas. Bold graffiti that looks more like modern art adorns colonial buildings.  Gracious, futuristic bridges arc over the river, but the streets are choked with traffic.  I like to think, thanks to my year-and-a-half living in Delhi, that I've seen some truly spectacular traffic, but  São Paulo takes the cake.  Lord help you if there's a transportation strike or accident - you might never get where you're going.  I've had colleagues spend 3 hours on a 5 mile commute, only to turn back home in the end.  They say the truly wealthy in São Paulo commute by helicopter, and you can definitely buy one in the high-end shopping mall downtown.  Many of this will change in the next few years, I hope.  Not only is Brazil's economy booming, but they are hosting both the World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics; these will force some order into the public transportation system, or there will be a meltdown of catastrophic proportions.

If you go to São Paulo, there are some bits and pieces I would tell you - it's by no means a complete travel guide, but a girl does what she can:

• I reiterate - do not miss the caipirinhas, churrascaria, or pao de queijo.
• The Sheraton World Trade Center has amazing service.  Their night clerk remembered me, where I worked, and why I was in São Paulo after a year. The rooms are lovely and they give you locally made rose-scented lotion and soap, which I love.
• Go to the Hotel Unique. The views from the rooftop bar are among the best in the city. You can have an amazing meal at Skye, or just enjoy cocktails and appetizers outside under the stars.  This is not to be missed.  It's one of the nicest hotels and most-elegant dining experiences I've ever seen or experienced.
• The circular kiosk cab stand, just outside the doors at the airport, will take credit cards, speak English and get you anywhere in the city.  This is a huge relief when you're stumbling around tired and gritty, after your red eye.
• The Mercure Grand Hotel do Parque Ibirapuera has comfortable, sparkling clean rooms and will let you use their gym to clean up, if your room's not ready.  But, even more importantly, their cafe serves the best almond croissants I have ever had in my life, bar none.  Seriously - better than Paris, France, better than Gayle's French Bakery in Capitola, better than anybody.
• Leave for the airport at least 3 hours before you need to be there. Yeah, that's right, FIVE full hours before your flight. Not kidding.
• Want to have the best night's sleep you've ever had on an airplane? Hit Fogo de Chao on the way to the airport.  The meat coma will take you at least as far as Dallas or Miami.
• When you tire of the meat parade, Due Cuochi will make you a wonderful Italian meal.
• Brown Sugar Restaurant and Lounge makes amazing cocktails - get the Caipirinha or Caipiroska with muddled "red fruits," and very tasty dinners.  They have both indoor and outdoor seating and a great bar area.
• Fortune cookies are far more profound in Brazilian Portuguese, than in any other language. Here are two of my favorites:

"A inteligência é inata, mas a sabedoria se aprende." - Roughly translated, "Intelligence is innate, but wisdom must be learned."

"Aquele que faz e promove o bem, cultiva o seu proprio exito."  - Roughly, "She who creates and promotes good, cultivates her own success."

Airplane Husbands

I've been commuting back and forth to Phoenix for the better part of two years now, usually on a Tuesday through Thursday pattern and always on Southwest.  When you have that much of a habit, you start to notice similarities in your fellow passengers, the crew, the take-off and landing routine, the in-flight security schpeel, etc.  There have been signs that I fly too much. Like, for instance, I know that my orange suitcase will fit end-to-end in bins three through X, while my red one will fit that way into any of the bins, allowing me to sit closer to the front.  I also know that the clutch seats are windows and aisles from row three through the emergency exit rows, because those middles aren't close enough to the front to entice people to take them, and most will pass them up in the hopes of a window or aisle (or some bin space) in the back.  It's also probably a sign that most of the TSA agents in OAK and PHX look familiar by now and some of them know me well enough to comment, "you come through here a lot, don't you?"  Or perhaps it's the fact that I can assume the position in the creepy body scanners in about five seconds flat, and get out and on my way in under 30 - if I had a dime for every time a TSA agent had said, "you fly a lot, don't you?," I would be rich.

All of this has been true for the past nine to ten months, but the surest sign that I've overdosed on air miles has come over the summer.  For months, I flew back and forth, sometimes with the same people, but never frequently enough to really know who they were.  There was the Indian guy who worked for Intel who always had a construction-cone orange suitcase, and the always-rushed, super-serious, duffel-bag-wielding businessman with a slight pompadour, and the kind-of wooly guy with a neck pillow and good Bose headphones.  But this summer, these guys began having names.  I mean, when someone you've been on the same route with for months sits in your row finally, you can't pretend like you've never seen them before, right?  So, it turns out that the serious guy is Jeff, a father of two who works in Phoenix Tuesday through Thursday because he and his wife tried to move permanently, and couldn't sell their house in the Bay Area so they had to move back.  He's probably that serious because he's trying to make it home in time to put his kids to bed after being away for three days.  And the wooly guy is David, a tango and music aficionado who also works from Phoenix three days a week, and is one of the few people on the plane who out-ranks me in frequent flier miles and gets a lower-numbered A-group boarding pass.

These two, in particular, have sort-of become my airplane husbands, or if not that, then my airplane family.  Jeff and I have an unspoken agreement that if I get on first and get a window, he takes the aisle and generally makes the middle look occupied.  We chat for a bit and then he reads his book and I sleep, and when we get to Phoenix, he always takes my suitcase down for me and sets it in the aisle-way.  Yes, he knows which one it is, red or orange.  David always chats with me in line about how my week was and what the weekend plans are.  This week he recommended the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, and complimented me on my "superbly coordinated" blouse, sweater and green sandals.  It's moments like these that reinforce for me that people are fundamentally kind, generous and interesting.  I appreciate the solicitousness and care, and the general bonhomie of a fellow traveler.

To Jeff, David and all the folks who have been with me through repeated cycles of wheels up and tarmac down: safe travels, be well, and many thanks for having my back and making one of the world's longest commutes much more pleasurable.

Idyllic LA

Sometimes I feel like my soul has a muscle-memory for Los Angeles. As if, by failing to pay close attention and keep defenses up, I could get lured into the rat race that birthed my parents and thereby lose my way back home to the cool, rolling hills of Northern California.  It is precisely because LA has its charms that I have hardened my heart against her wiles, insisting I felt more at home just about anywhere else, including Delhi, half a world away.  Going to school at Berkeley has put me in close proximity to several die-hard Angelenos, and after a lot of kibitzing and regional trash talking, one of them finally called my bluff and offered to put the city's money where her mouth is.  Armed with an "I'll never live south of Monterey" chip on my shoulder, I headed out to La La Land for the Labor Day weekend.


After a quick SJC to BUR flight, I found myself quickly ensconced in a lovely, loaned Hollywood studio, right in the shadow of the Capitol Records building.  For dinner, we headed to Yamashiro's for sushi and sake.  We sat in a lovely garden courtyard, but the restaurant itself has commanding views over Hollywood and Downtown LA that are to die for - well worth a return visit.  I've learned that life in LA doesn't wind down early, so after dinner, we headed out to a late showing of The Help at a very posh theater in Hollywood (supposedly the highest-grossing in the country - likely due to the $16 tickets) and then wound down our evening listening to music and shooting the breeze until 3am.  Not a bad start to the weekend.


On Saturday we headed to Runyon Canyon to hike with the fit and fit-to-be-seen.  The views over the city were beautiful.  I'll never get used to not being able to see blue ocean nor completely clear sky, but you can't deny that the weather and sites are pretty spectacular. Brunch is, as always, the best meal ever, so we headed to Bottega Louie for an amazing meal of clam pizza, eggs scrambled with burrata, salad and mimosas, topped off by truly spectacular french macaroons - the salted caramel and Earl Grey are to die for. Replete with brunchy-goodness, we rounded Saturday afternoon out with a little homework and a nap, before heading out to dinner and drinks at The Federal Bar in Noho.  Another great day - score two for the LA team.

Sunday dawned as beautifully as her predecessor, so we drove along the beach to Malibu and wound our way up to the Getty Villa to take in the sights.  After a yummy lunch on the deck, we meandered through the museum, taking in the Roman artefacts and the lovely garden, and then topped it off with iced coffees and a tete-a-tete in the outdoor amphitheater.  In the evening, we headed to the heart of Hollywood and the Kodak theater to see Cirque du Soleil's newest production, Iris. It was hands down my favorite Cirque show, maybe my favorite theater production, to-date.  Phenomenal.


The best part of Labor Day weekend is the bonus Monday and we put it to good use.  What would a trip to LA be without a visit to the Magic Kingdom?  I hadn't been in years, but with Park Hopper passes in our hot little hands and a Starbuck's breakfast under our belts, we hit Main Street with a vengeance.  What's a winning recipe for a a great day at Disneyland? Read it and weep, my friends...

1. Fast Pass Indiana Jones
2. Ride Pirates of the Caribbean
3. Ride Indiana Jones
4. Ride the Jungle Cruise
5. Fast Pass Splash Mountain
6. Fast Pass Big Thunder Mountain Railway
7. Make lunch reservations at the BBQ place behind Big Thunder Mountain
8. Ride the Tea Cups (and deflect your partner's attempts to make you puke)
9. Have an amazing BBQ lunch (so, so good and with live Country music to boot - shoot y'all...)
10. Ride Big Thunder Mountain
11. Ride Splash Mountain
12. Fast Pass Space Mountain
13. (Jazz hands down Main St. and across the plaza to California Adventure - you cannot walk through Disneyland without wanting to treat it like a stage!)
14. Fast Pass Soaring Over California
15. Re-fuel with a slushy and ride California Screamin'
16. Ride the swing carousel
17. Ride The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (and try not to crush your seat mate's hand in a panic)
18. (Head back to Disneyland to cash in the Space Mountain Fast Pass)
19. Kill the time until Space Mountain riding Buzz Light Year's Astro Blasters. Have so much fun you run around to the front of the line and go again, trying to beat your score.
20. Ride Space Mountain
21. Ride the Matterhorn
22. Ride It's a Small World
23. (Jazz hands back to CA Adventure)
24. Ride Soaring Over California (A-mazing!)
25. Realize you could make one more run on California Screamin' and make a dash for it - last ride of the day.
26. Get dinner, drinks, and rest those tired feet in Downtown Disney before heading home. Oh, and don't forget where you parked....Perfect, perfect day.

Tuesday morning came around more quickly than I wanted it to, but I have no right to complain.  What a great weekend! I will always be a NorCal girl at heart, but LA staked out a claim on my loyalty and affection that I won't readily disavow in the future.  I will have to work hard to top my LA friends' superb suggestions and program of activities, but I'll do my best to represent my part of the state as admirably when they come up North.

East Bay Treats for LA Guys

Some of my nearest and dearest buddies are occasional coast-flippers. For those who are bold enough to cross the Northern / Southern California boundary with verve, we proffer an incentive: the best eats in the East Bay, bar none. At least four of my favorite foodies would concur, but feel free to go local and 'ejumicate' me.


View East Bay Treats in a larger map

Every day is "Friday!" in Kauai

There's no place like Hanalei, Kauai for getting away from it all. Peter, Jaime, Lauren and I spent ten days celebrating Lauren and Peter's MBA graduation, new career opportunities for Jaime, and partying in anticipation of new jobs starting later in July. It was great to see the Montgomery and Parks familys, and generally get some R&R away from the busy world of work and school.

Fun things we did:

• Ziplining! with Kauai Backcountry Adventures
• Hiking to Hanakapiai, Ho'opi'i Falls, and almost to the Alakai Swamp (darn that mud)
• Kayaking up the Hanalei River with Kayak Kauai - Lauren and I learned we don't have very good rhythm
• The Smith Family Luau - lots of fun with 500 of our closest friends ;)
• Sunset pu'pus on the beach x 2
• Pink floaties with dual cup-holders, roadie cocktails, and Lauren in the best Aloha get-up ever
• Snorkeling at Tunnels
• Tidepooling at Secret Beach

Yummy eats:

• Duane's Ono Char Burger - a must for post-flight lunching, but don't be in a rush
• Hukilau Lanai - our first night of vacation, after airport pick-ups
• Duke's barefoot bar for a yummy lunch and drinks straight out of a pineapple
• Tropical Taco and BYO beers for a casual lunch in Hanalei
• Kauai Grill at the St. Regis - our fancy night out
• Pau Hana Pizza in Kilauea - my favorite lunch of the trip; smoked Ono pizza...SO good
• Waimea Brewing Company for an all-appetizer dinner, hoo-aah!
• Olympic Cafe in Kapa'a - a full bar and a lunch of humungous proportions, everything a hiker could want
• Kountry Kitchen in Kapa'a for top-tier, greasy spoon breakfast; our goodbye to paradise

The beginnings of an unofficial soundtrack:

Sung by the mixing spoon brigade, in a kitchen or Charger near you...

• Friday, Steven Colbert & Jimmy Fallon
• Nightswimming, REM (for pu'pus at the beach)
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow, IZ
• Just a Dream, Nelly
• Stay, Sugarland
• Forever In Blue Jeans, Neal Diamond
• America F*ck Yeah
• Music of the Night, Sarah Brightman & Michael Crawford (because Lauren knows all the words, dammit...)
• If I Were A Boy, Beyonce (because Peter loves man-hating divas)

Firenze, la Fior di Italia

Bistec a la Fiorentina

Memory has begun to fade, but I'll do my best to do justice to lovely Florence.  After a very pleasant Eurail trip from Rome, we arrived in Florence and walked through the center of town to our hotel, Hotel Monna Lisa. This lovely little boutique hotel is really more like staying in a well-to-do family's townhome than a proper hotel. It's a calm oasis in the middle of Florence with furnishings that are unique and shabbily genteel, and a lovely atrium in the breakfast room with a view to the back garden.  Florence was my favorite city in Italy on my first trip, and this jaunt only confirmed my preference. I love Florence.  The cobbled streets, choc-a-block with chic shops, art gallerys, churches and museums are a pleasure to stroll through and the myriad food options are all amazing.  I could spend endless afternoons wending my way around.  This trip, we got more of an inside scoop from Mom and Dad's neighbor, Amy, who was studying abroad while we were there.  She introduced us to two of the best gelaterias in Florence, Carapina and Grom, which were so good that we made sure to go at least once a day while we were there.  I highly, highly recommend the crema di vin santo at Carapina, but everything was excellent. For dinner, Amy took us to Il Gatto e La Volpe for excellent pizza, pasta and some of the best house made balsamic vinegar ever - if you go, definitely try to pack some home, it's amazing. Another night, we took a bus to the residential part of Florence and had one of the biggest steaks I've ever seen - the waitress brought it out for Dad and I to approve before we ate it. You have to love bistec a la fiorentina - more meat than an American can handle!  I took Mom and Dad for the prerequisite trip to the top of the Duomo, where we had beautiful views out over the city.  The one-armed-bandit photo I took of me and Mom is one of my favorite from the trip.

Mom and me, from the Duomo

The Uffizi Gallery remains one of my favorite spots in the world.  If I could curl up in a chair with a good book in the gallery overlooking the Arno, with it's lovely whitewashed ceiling and delicate hand-painted detailing, surrounded by Boticellis and the watery sunlight streaming through windows that have begun to weep with age, I might be happy forever.  It has to be one of the world's most impressive collections of art, but it's also just a beautiful space in the world, and oddly cozy in its own way.  From the Uffizi, we took a stroll through the Piazza della Signorina and made a stop at Rivoire for the famous hot chocolate -- possibly the best in the world, if you ask me. Our art tour of Florence ended with Michelangelo's spectacular David.  The statue always makes me wonder about the boy who inspired it and the sculptor who was so fascinated by him; David and his Goliath seem the lesser subjects of the work.

You cannot leave Florence without some retail therapy, so we tried on gloves in every color of the rainbow in the leather market, bought chocolates for Dad, lovely ruffled opera gloves and a python clutch for me, and introduced Mom to the wonders of Missoni scarves. A return trip to Bartolucci secured wooden music boxes for Niels, Cordi, and Ronin, plus a fair bit of entertainment for all of us 'adults' as we wandered through the shop testing them all out. There are endless joys behind the tiny shop doors and through the alleyways of Florence. Rome was charming and not to be missed, but if you have one stop to make in Italy, perhaps in all of Europe, make it Florence - you will never regret it.

Rome, if you want to...

After a summer filled with PSA scans and surgeries, bad boyfriends and yucky prerequisites, the Mackh family was ready for a break. We decided the eschew our normal, lovely Thanksgiving for a vacation abroad. Mom almost didn't let us go because she was sure that my MBA-stressed brain couldn't handle it, but we did all right. I decided that Italy was the most digestible, and Rome and Venice were still on my list of places that I need to see, and soon. I also thought my history-buff dad would LOVE Florence and all the glories of ancient Rome, so off we went.

I was so pleasantly surprised by Rome. I feel as though with the Vatican at its heart, Rome has a tendency from the outside to seem immense, as though its reach is endless and one would become lost there. While the city does have modern-day sprawl to it, the heart of it operates like a bustling village. I suppose it helped that we were there in the shoulder-season, but really Rome was lovely, welcoming, and easy to meander through. Our first day, we didn't make it much farther than a late lunch and the Piazza del Popolo before jet-lag won, but it was still great fun. And we had this amazing torta di ricotta with dark chocolate shavings on top that, in itself, was worth the price of the flight. We got a little lost in the park, as we wended our way back to the hotel, but who's complaining? The moon was full and the storm clouds made the perfect Gothic backdrop - very Ides of March, heavy with foreshadowing (don't worry, we made it home).

On our second day, we tackled the Vatican, which was beautiful. Work never quite goes away, so I was madly text messaging my peer from the top of St. Peter's, which must be sacrilege, but I made it out, so perhaps all is forgiven. The Sistine Chapel, is swathed in low-light loveliness and hushed whispers. It is hard to imagine the years it took to perfect each gesture and symbol in the intertwined figures. Surfeit with art, we wandered back through Rome to the Piazza Navona and had a late, late snack in a cafe there. About halfway through the meal, a Chaplin-style clown set up shop in the center of the piazza, making fun of all comers. He was hilarious and soon had the whole crowd rolling with laughter. It was idyllic, and so not the way that Americans spend their evenings...just lovely. After our snack, we wandered through the Pantheon, which has been a temple to so many faiths, and listened to musicians playing in the piazza outside. I could truly live in a city with this type of culture. After the obligatory coin toss and wishes and the lovely Trevi Fountain, we ate dinner at Colline Emiliane, near our hotel and the Piazza Barberini. Everything was excellent, but the show stopper was my dessert: torta di ricotta, laced with amarena cherries, and crowned with a crumbly top...seriously one of the best desserts of my life; I must try to figure out how they made it.

Day three was all about Ancient Rome. We walked from our hotel to the Victor Emmanuel memorial, with it's amazing views of the city, and then went on to Colosseum. It did rain on us a bit, but the interplay of the storm clouds, shot through with the occasional rays of sunlight, did tremendous things for the ruins. It is amazing to think of the culture (and mayhem) that emanated from this tiny locus of Roman life. After Ancient Ro

me, we wandered through Trastevere on a somewhat fruitless search for restaurant that one of my friends recommended, and listened to part of the Mass in Italian in the local church. After a long walk back to our neighborhood, we had a yummy dinner at a local family restaurant and crashed early in preparation for our train to Florence in the morning. All in all, I really loved Rome and would go back again in a heartbeat. The people, history, and food were all amazing. We had an absolutely lovely time.

A Moment In Time

Dimple sent around this email today, and aside from being a total crack-up, it made me think about how fleeting pop culture is. I wonder if I'll remember in 10 years what all of this stuff means and what the 'early' Facebook culture was like. Will "Facebook official" still be a way to define a relationship? Will I still be considering the politics of "un-friending" someone? Maybe yes, maybe no. But, either way, it's such a phenomenon of who we are today, whether you're in your thirties, like me, or in your teens, or whether you're in your sixties like my aunt and my mom, who've now joined up - it's worth remembering...

If Facebook Existed Years Ago...

Do This In Remembrance of Me

The holidays are upon us again, and with all the lovely parties, planning, and family events come swirls of memories. I have been thinking a lot about my friend Jody, who passed away last year in Nepal. I am in Tahoe again, staying with Jody's friends Bill and Teresa, and skiing the slopes of Squaw that she loved. For me, this place and these people will always bring Jody's spirit to life, and it is so nice to feel her presence here. Jody had many wonderful qualities for which she should be remembered, her love of people and animals, her generous spirit, her sense of adventure, her creativity, and one of the best places to do it is here. I decided that this is the year that I will learn to ski properly. There is a cabin to go to every weekend, new boots, new skis. As I point ski tips down the mountain, I'm sending much love Jody's way. Hopefully, before the end of the season, I'll make her proud.

This is one of my favorite songs about missing someone, sung by one of the a capella groups from Stanford.

French Idyll

In November, I had the privilege of attending my friends Ally and Alexis' wedding in France. For me, it was the opening act on a week-long business trip to the UK, and what a stroke of luck to be able to combine business with pleasure and be present for Ally's wedding.

I left San Francisco on Thursday at midday, and roughly 24 hours and 5 airports later, found myself in Lyon getting picked up by Alexis' mom and her friend Bernard, just in time to make it to the rehearsal dinner on Friday. The wedding was held in Alexis' hometown, which is about halfway between Lyon and Grenoble, France. I had been to Lyon before on a prior trip, but hadn't been out into the countryside, so it was lovely to go skimming along through the fall foliage and pastureland, with snow-capped mountains in the distance, and just soak it all in. We met up with the bride and groom at the church, which is just down the street from Alexis' family home. The church itself was lovely, made of stone with beautiful stained glass. I would call the style French gothic, but that's probably chronologically incorrect. The overall effect was beautiful and timeless. Just the perfect setting for a modern fairytale wedding. After the rehearsal, it was off to a lovely dinner at the local country club, which opened up just for Ally and Alexis' families and those of us few friends who made the trek from the US. Replete with a tasty ham dinner, good wine and conversation, we headed back to Domaine St. Chepy, the chateau that hosted the guests and would be the site for the reception, and hit the hay in preparation for a busy wedding day to come.

The day of the wedding dawned with storm clounds shot through by sun rays. I suppose it would have been more convenient to have had bright sunshine, but the combination of newly-washed greenery, fall colors in the trees, and the sun glinting off raindrops was quite beautiful in its own right. We spent the morning bustling about with preparations, hair-dos and makeup, primping and pressing collars, and taking pictures. It was fun to be a bit player in it all and I hope I earned my keep as Ally's Girl Friday for the day. Ally looked beauteous in a strapless gown with lace overlay. I know that she was stressed getting ready, but it all came together and soon enough we were off to the church for the ceremony.

The wedding itself was beautiful and went off without a hitch. We had to jump a few rain puddles on our way in and out, but the ceremony was lovely, with many friends and family in attendance to celebrate Ally and Alexis wedding. We headed back to Domaine St. Chepy for the cocktail hour and reception. Apparently, in France, not everyone goes to the reception and it's common to invite your broader circle of friends just for cocktails and hors d' oeuvres. There were tasty snacks and plenty of champagne to go around for a couple of hours before the reception started in earnest.

The reception started with a conga line. You have to hand it to the French. They bring the party with them when they come. As Ally and Alexis entered the reception hall, everyone was on their feet, clapping, dancing and yes, conga-ing their backsides off. It was so much fun, and so great to see their marriage begin with such joy. We had a truly lovely dinner, complete with a cheese course of divine fromage. (I decided, when I grow up, I'm going to run away to the French countryside and become a cheese-maker). The wedding cake was a croque en bouche, profiteroles filled with cream, stacked in a tower and spun round with caramelized sugar - delicious. Alexis band played, Ally made a toast in French, and Alexi's mom threw a hip and beat me out in the game of musical chairs for single ladies. We were up dancing and drinking until well after 3am, crowing the night with the pot de chambre, a French wedding tradition where the bride and groom, and wedding guest still standing, are made to drink champagne and party leftovers from a communal bowl. It was a little gross, but most definitely a required right of passage. I headed for bed shortly after and left the wedding party to close the night down. So much fun....

The next day, we all sleepily had coffee and croissants before packing up and heading out. Alexis' mom threw a lunch at her house, so we all gathered there before heading off to the airport. For me, it was off to London and a day of work at our office there, before heading up to Leeds for a site visit. The airport shuffle to get there was impressive, but it was all worthwhile. What a lovely, lovely wedding.

My Favorite Delhi Restaurants - Big & Small

Roomate brunch at the Oberoi

From time to time, people ask me for restaurant recommendations in Delhi and the NCR. Delhi is an amazingly cosmopolitan city and, as a result, the food is fabulous. Here is a list of my favorites. If you find your way to Delhi, be sure to check some of them out. They range from 5-star hotels to roadside stands, but all of them are road-tested by me. Yum! It makes me hungry and nostalgic just thinking about it.

Alex & Austin at Karim's with the Tandoori Raan (leg of lamb)

Re-Entry Is a Little Bumpy Sometimes

For those of you who don't know, I'm baaaack!

I've been home now for almost exactly two weeks. It has been wonderful to see family and friends, to get settled into my house again, cuddle my pets, and enjoy my sunny-but-not-scorching home town. I suppose most things have gone well. I am happy to be back, and at least work-wise, so glad that everything worked out; I was beginning to get desperate. But, on the flip side, I do miss my Indian family, a ton.

I left my old HP laptop with the boys at the house, so Aarif checks in with me daily on gTalk. Manik took his tip money and bought a cell phone, so even he calls me from time to time. Sometimes the modern world is amazingly small, and it's both wonderful and creepy to be able to keep such close contact with them. People from the office ping me occasionally, when they're online late at night, so it's easy to stay in touch that way, and every now and again, I talk on the phone with Devindar.

Everyone has a different reaction when they leave home, and visiting India always makes it's own unique impression. I think most people are eager to leave the chaos and beauty of India, because it's overwhelming to many of us who weren't brought up in that type of culture. For me, it's the opposite. More than anything, since I've been back, I have this nagging fear that I'll lose what I learned in India, my Hindi will slip, my taste for the fiery spices will wane, my ability to understand (somewhat) and integrate into Indian culture will evaporate. I feel, sometimes, as if exiled. I think India somehow helped me develop another sense, an intuition or awareness that I'm desperate to hold on to. Or, perhaps it's the relationships with friends, colleagues...Somehow, I managed to feel that I belonged there, and I miss that. I seem to get particularly nostalgic on Sundays. Yesterday, I was running errands and shopping when I should have been unpacking boxes, and I found myself missing Devindar and having him along with me for the Delhi version of this Sunday ritual. I called him, just to say 'hi' and catch up on all of the news and notes from Gurgaon. The same thing happened last Sunday - maybe it always will.

My first week back at work, I ran into a colleague in the cafe who had also spent over a year in India. She asked me if I was glad to be back to American food and commented that she didn't think she'd had Indian food in the three plus years since she'd been back. While I understand the sentiment, that is not how I feel. Afraid that I might at some point, I went searching for a good Indian grocer and bought a full range of masalas, chili and cumin powder, green cardamom, dosa mix, my favorite Indian cookies "Nice Time", and some plaintain chips. A culinary cultural transfusion, performed right here in Sunnyvale. Now, I just have to use them; wish me luck.

You often hear Indians being nostalgic about their homeland, or pining for tastes and flavors that you can only get in India. That always seemed somewhat odd to me, or over-the-top, because especially in the polyglot Bay Area, we have almost everything. Now, though, I think I understand a little. It's not a rational thing. It's not that you can't get garam masala, or chicken tikka, or even alphonsus mangos. It's not that you won't hear Hindi spoken or meet Indians. It's the fear that you'll forget. Forget the tastes, the flavors, the smells, the history, the chaos, and the embraces of your family and friends. So, my American family will have to forgive me if I'm reluctant to stamp the Indian dust from my shoes, if the most natural response to a question still comes out as "ha," and if Sunday evenings make me a little sad from time to time.

The World According to US

The graphic above has been making the rounds with my peers here in India.  While it's mildly insulting, it also reflects some truisms about Americans and their world view.  Certainly, this is how we, and our egos, look from the vantage point of the second and third worlds and their burgeoning markets.  I particularly like the characterization of Canada as "uninhabited."  We discount, criminalize, and marginalize a lot of the world that we either don't understand or don't have time for.  Not that we're alone in this.  My colleague who sent this to me commented that she'd love to do one of these from India's perspective.  I suggested that she just change the labels and have a little fun, since she's very witty.  Her rejoinder was that she'd have to start from scratch because certainly the Indian subcontinent wasn't large enough, relative to the other countries, to reflect the local point of view.

If there's one thing that the past year-and-a-half has taught me, it's not to discount the nooks and crannies and huge-ass continents of the world that I haven't seen.  It doesn't take but one visit to Khajuraho, Amer, Chiang Mai, Darjeeling or Ladakh, to put you in awe of the world's natural wonders and myriad cultures in all their complexity.  I cannot imagine my life now without having seen some of these things, but save for this opportunity to live and work in India, it's very likely that I never would have laid eyes on much of what I've seen.  It's amazing how single decision points can shape you as a person.  I hope that I remember to never stop exploring, and that I instill this wanderlust in my family someday.  We must truly be citizens of the world; no one of us exists in isolation.  The sooner everyone figures this out, the better off we'll be.

Bangkok - A Whole Lotta Wat!

I learned never, ever take Shannon on a late night flight.  Pumpkin needs her beauty sleep and did NOT enjoy the 3 hour flight and choppy sleep we got at the airport and on board the plane.  Fortunately, we arrived at the lovely VIE Hotel and were able to immediately check in, clean up and get some rest.  Which we promptly did, sleeping until 1pm or so.  Shannon swears she tried to wake me multiple times, and it's all my fault, but I argue she was sleep-deprived and under-motivated when it came to getting me out of bed.  In any case, the extra half day I tried to get us by taking the red eye more or less got frittered away in our spacious, ultra-modern, and ultra-cool hotel room.  Anyway.... sometimes you just can't fight these things; in the interest of domestic happiness, we took a much-needed pit stop and had a really yummy Thai lunch.

Kind-of refreshed and ready, we headed out to hit the first of many, many Wats, or Buddhist temples.  Our first stop was Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  This was one of my favorite temples that we saw on our trip.  The Buddha is very impressive and the decorative arts on the temple are amazingly beautiful, but it was these things in combination with what Shannon and I ended up referring to as "temple+party" that really made the place come alive.  For some reason, the courtyard of the Wat was chock-a-block with food stalls, places to make offerings and buy incense, and monks chanting and singing.  Because the trappings of Thai Buddhism are quite ornate, colorful and shiny, the overall effect is one of a carnival.  It was great fun.  A place of worship like that would make you want to come every day.

After bowing to Buddha's mother-of-pearl toes, we made our way to Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn.  Situated on the riverbank, Wat Arun gives you a spectacular view of the city skyline and the traffic on the river...if you're willing to climb the super-steep steps to the top.  I thought of Mom, because all of the temples are covered with ornate mosaic work, some in colored mirrors, some in porcelain flowers and figures - it's a pique assiette paradise!  I took lots of pictures to inspire my favorite mosaic artist.  I almost wished she was there, but not quite...Bangkok might just be the hottest city I've visited to date.  By the time Shans and I climbed to the top of Wat Arun, we were literally watering, and the fun continued throughout our time in Thailand.  I'll definitely go back, but if I do, it will be wintertime.  

Hot and sapped by our brief adventures into the wat-age, Shans and I headed for air conditioning.  Bangkok has a number of huge shopping malls and entertainment complexes where people hang out in air-conditioned bliss.  We discovered MBK, and found our home away from home in Bangkok.  Their food court is huge and operates on this coupon system that makes it pretty easy to get amazing Thai food for super-cheap.  We gorged on green papaya salad, pad thai, and a few new delicacies like hoy tod, mussels cooked in a scrambled egg mixture with chili-garlic sauce...mmmm, mmm, good.  MBK is also knock-off paradise, so Shans and I got our fill of fake Nars, MAC, Ed Hardy and Burberry, as well as some ultra-cool Thai t-shirts for Dad.  And to top it all off....they had Starbuck's!  Does it get any better?

On day two, we headed to the Royal Palace compound and were immediately transported into the set of The King and I.  The temples and palace buildings are amazingly beautiful and shiny.  I don't know how much of the work is original anymore, as the buildings must take almost constant maintenance, but they're still beautiful.  Shannon was most chagrined because there's also a dress code, and somehow neither her capris, nor her cute-little-top made the chastity cut.  Thus, she enjoyed our tour in two extra layers of men's shirt and sarong - not exactly the stylish figure she's used to cutting - double thumbs down from the Shan-doggy.    

Our second stop was the Jim Thompson House museum.  An expat silk magnate who popularized the Thai silk industry, Thompson was also a collector of Thai architectural pieces and household goods.  After his mysterious disappearance in 1967 (foul play suspected), Thompson's house was turned into a museum, to compliment his very popular eponymous silk stores all over Thailand.  The tour of the house and gardens was interesting and a nice respite from the crowded city outside.  After the museum, we walked to MBK to cool off and complete our shopping, before heading back to VIE and hitting the pool + cocktails.  Now perhaps we lack imagination, or perhaps the heat was a legitimate excuse, but Shannon and I were of one mind when it came to evening plans, and room service won out over the hassle, heat and bother of going back out into the city.  We had a very nice meal with a bottle of wine, and hit the sack early, in preparation for our morning departure to Ko Phi Phi, by way of Phuket.