Leg of lamb

I had a leg of lamb I managed to score from Wegman's.  What a boon to Brooklyn that store is.  Wide aisles, nice lighting and a BAR upstairs!  Someone was thinking when they were designing this store.

Marinade

1 large preserved lemon, peel, pulp, seeds and some of the brine

7 cloves of garlic peeled

3 small twigs of rosemary, stripped from stem

handful of fresh parsley

hot pepper flakes

olive oil

Blend all together until it makes a loose dressing.  Taste, if not what you want, doctor it up to your liking.

Choose a large covered pan that can fit the lamb comfortably in it without too much left over space.  Cut deep slits all over the lamb and slather on the marinade and poking it down into all the slits and nooks and crannies.  My leg came with a nice fat cap and was semi-boned and tied.  I didn't want to have to tie it up again, so I cut the slits around the strings and put it into the cavity where the femur used to be.  Sprinkle with ground pepper, no salt at this point, the lemons and brine will take care of that.

Let marinate for a couple of hours, or over night.

The Cook

Preheat oven to 300° F and put the covered lamb into the pot.  Add some white wine.  If you want, you can raise the lamb up on a rack or a bed of thickly sliced onions.  Check on it in about 1.5 hours.  I like my lamb leg well done, but lamb chops medium rare.  Don't be a hater.

white wine and/or chicken stock

2 large onions cut into 1/2" slices

Add onions to the pot now

Add more liquid if necessary.  Taste to see if you need any salt or other seasonings.  Cover again, and let ride for another hour or so.  Timing is until the leg is easily pierced with a fork without resistance.  

Check liquid level and remove lid, increase temp to 500° F to crisp up outside fat.  Alternately, you could blow torch it as well if you didn't want to worry about the oven.  You could also brown the top of the lamb at the outset of the cooking process.  Whatever floats your boat.

Nota bene:

This is not my usual lamb recipe.  It is just something I thought about trying and improvised 

Cleaning out the fridge stir fry

I do like stir fry dishes, they are quick, very flavorful and damn tasty.

In the fridge I had

1 sweet pepper
1/2 head of cabbage
a bunch of collard greens
cauliflower
broccoli
celery
green beans

In pantry I had

wood ear mushrooms
onions
pixian paste
dark soy
light soy
chinese black vinegar
shaoxing cooking wine
ginger
garlic
chili crisp, optional

Chopped all the veggies into bitesize pieces, soaked and chop the mushrooms and prepped, in little bowls,

1 inch peeled ginger piece, julienned
2 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1-2 T pixian paste
1 C chicken stock or water

Heat that wok or big fry pan with 1-2 T of oil up until it is hot.  Add ginger shreds then all chopped veggies including onions and mushrooms.  Stir fry for a few minutes to wilt veggies and give off their water.  Add the sliced garlic, stir into veggies.

Add pixian paste, a splash of dark soy, for color, a splash of light soy, for salt, a glug of shaoxing wine and a glug of the vinegar.

Taste for balance.  If veggies are still too crunchy, add a bit of the chicken stock and cover until veggies are a texture you like.

Add chili crisp, if wanted and serve over rice.  Depending on your veggie load, you may need to adjust the amount of liquids added so as not to braise the veggies.

Achari Chicken

This is one of my very favorite Indian dishes.  It is also known as chicken with pickling spices.

There are 3 distinct steps in this recipe, but each is simple once you have set out all of your various spices.

Marinade

1 lb or so chicken parts.  (I think dark meat works better)

1/2 t salt

1/2 t tumeric

1 t Kashmiri chili powder

1 t ginger/garlic paste  (equal parts finely minced garlic and ginger)

1/2 c yogurt, whipped with a fork

Combine all ingredients after chicken until well blended. Add chicken parts and mix well and marinate for at least 1 hour.

Spice Paste

1 t coriander seeds

1 t cumin seeds

1/2 t mustard seeds

1/2 fenegreek seeds

1/4 t nigella or black onion seeds

Toast in a dry skillet until fragrant, let cook and grind into a powder and set aside

Cooking

3 T neutral oil or ghee

1 large onion sliced

Cook in a pan (arge enough to hold onions AND chicken with room to spare) until brown and beginning to crisp up.  Go longer than you think, it is the brown-ness that gives depth to the finished product.

Add to browned onions

handful of curry leaves

1 T garlic/ginger paste

1/2 t tumeric

Now add chicken and stir in a small can of diced tomatoes (14 oz, max for 1 lb chicken).  Cover and cook on lower heat until chicken is semi-tender.  Uncover cook until the oil separates.

Add to chicken

1/2 t salt

the reserved spice powder

2.5 t Kashmiri chili powder

handful of chopped cilantro

handful of chopped mint leaves

about 2 c of water or chicken stock

Simmer until the chicken is tender and soft.  Add in either 1 t amchur powder or juice of 1 lemon

Serve with rice and a side vegetable.  

This will quickly become your go to Indian dish.  Once you have all the spices, it is very easy to make and doubles nicely as well.  Only caution is to taste your Kashmiri chili powder first, sometimes it is quite mild, other times very spicy.  If yours happens to be spice, cut back on it to your spice level, if you are a chili head, hey, go for it, just don't overwhelm the other spices.  This should have a kick, but also a well rounded undertone of sour and savory flavors.

Salmon with mushrooms and onions

I adore salmon, almost in any way it's prepared.  Lately, I have been pan searing it with either cajun spices, blackening spice, lemon pepper, or just plain salt and pepper.

The key to getting luscious silky salmon is to not over cook it.  I have it down by now, and if I am unsure, I use an instant thermometer into the thickest part of the flesh and look for about 122-125 deg F.  It will carry over and get up to about 128-130 which is perfectly medium rare.  Taking the salmon out at about 122 ensures that the proteins in the flesh don't weep out and turn milky and chunky.  Yeech.

I prepped the onions and sauteed them after cooking the mushrooms.  I deglazed with some white wine and chicken stock and declared dinner ready.

I opened a nice bottle of carignane, and enjoyed the meal

What to do with leftover chicken.....why, make a chicken pot pie without the pie

I had made some chicken stock the other day and was looking to give some of it to neighbors, when it became clear that they had all left for places outside of NYC!  So sad, with so many containers of stock too!

I took some of the lemon chicken from the other night along with the usual veggies for a stew: carrots, celery, onions, some collard greens, potatoes and the veggies from the roasted chicken.  I sweated the onions a bit, added garlic, salt, dried shallots, and lemon pepper.  Into the pot went the rest of the veggies and after they had wilted a bit, I deglazed with some white wine.  I reduced that and added chicken stock and chopped chicken. Put the lid on and let it bubble away.  I realized I didn't add any flour to the pan in order to thicken the liquid, it is a pot pie after all.  I took about 2 t of soft butter and 2 t of flour and mashed them together to create beurre manie.  I added bits of it to the pot and, voila, beautiful creamy surroundings for the veggies and meat.

Roast Lemon Chicken

I love roasting a chicken.  Especially now with a convection oven.  The skin comes out cracking and the flavor is divine.

I stumbled on a way to make chicken using preserved lemons, courtesy of Rich.  The pulp is scraped out and saved and the rind is cut up into 8 pieces.  Each piece goes under the skin of the chicken.  2 on each side of the breast, one each on the thigh and leg.  Oil the skin and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  (Don't neglect to salt and pepper the cavity.)   I usually don't truss a bird that isn't going to be on a rotisserie, so this babe is splayed out in the photo.

I took the preserved lemon pulp, along with 2 cloves of honey fermented garlic, olive oil, and some hot honey and blitzed it in a processor.  I tasted it, added some more salt and pepper and olive oil and
rubbed it all over a bunch of veggies that were going to be the rack that the chicken roasted on.

Here is the final product

You can see the triangles of the preserved lemon under the skin.  It was perfect in all ways possible!  So sorry to see that finished.

Here are the finished bed of veggies, you can pick out the potatoes, cauliflower, and peppers.  Perfectly tender, slightly lemony, and just what the doctor order in this dire times.

Long time, no cook! Instant pot lasagna

In these strange, strange times of pandemic and other weird stuff, I have re-found my blog and am going to try to get back into this.

With home self-isolation, I now have time to post things up with photos and commentary.

Let's start with March 30, 2020.

We were going to have a zoom lunch with Anna and Andy and their posse.  They live in England, so it was the only way to see them and get to talk to them and their friends.  The proposed menu was italian.

I have a couple of new toys, 2 instant pots, which I really like.  I decided to make lasagna in the 8 qt pot so I could use the air-fryer lid to brown the top after it cooked.

I used Ivy Manning's instant pot lasagna recipe and it worked out perfectly.  The recipe is available on line or in the cookbook, Instant Pot Italian.

The recipe is a good one.  I did have a bit of leakage of the tomato sauce that was easily stopped by a double layer of paper towels under a layer of foil on the bottom.  The top was layered with foil as well.  Pressure cooked for the recommended time, actually, a bit longer as it was a bigger spring form pan.

The texture was excellent and it held together really well.  It made a tremendous amount for 2 people, but we managed to eat it all over a couple of days.  

Random Thoughts from Bill's perspective

Greetings from a guest contributor …… (That's me, Bill !)

Reading Clarissa's blog causes me to reflect …… What is it about India that has me so intrigued?

Certainly, it is not the "major sites". They are frequently underwhelming and/or repetitive.

The temples are crazy neon smorgasbord of Indian gods, including the elephant – headed Ganesh…. but they tend to be remarkably similar after a while.

As an Anglophile, I adore the British Raj railway stations and government buildings… but, again, they are few and repetitive.

There is no Statute of Liberty, no Bourbon Street, no Chinatown, no Disneyland, no Grand boat rides, no Times Square or Piccadilly Circus, Louvre or Met Museums …… few “must– see” sights.

So what is it? It is the random, daily details that make the experience so compelling.

The appeal is the "small" sights.... the small, bare-bones, metal, kiddie carousel in the middle of the beach… that is powered by a hand crank…… and the proprietor waving you over for a ride.

The sport/thrill/aggravation of negotiating for an auto rickshaw ride … then sitting back during the scenic ride and realizing you've been arguing over ten cents!! And then the driver short - changing you at the end of the ride!!

Two proper traffic lanes filled five “lanes” of horn-honking car, motorcycle, moped, and auto – rickshaw traffic, moving at different speeds but somehow managing to flow smoothly.

Walking Bose Street in Chennai, navigating through old ladies selling garlands of flowers, honking motorcycles, the occasional cow, bizarre groupings of shops (car steering wheels, anybody?), occasional beggar, and more… an assault on all the senses of hearing, smell, and sight. Exhilarating!

Several times a day someone comes up to you and asks you, ”What is your country?”, followed sometimes by “What is your good name?” (the literal meaning of ”surname”!).  Always followed by, “what do you think of India?”. Then they walk away. Unlike Egypt, they are not trying to sell you anything.

It is the incredible variety of faces ….. easily 1/3 of the faces you see on the street  (any street, any time!) are etched with character worthy of a major photo on your wall.

Standing with my backpack on the platform in Delhi’s main railway station (previous trip), being bumped from behind, turning around, … it is a cow wandering on the platform. 

The doors in almost all railway cars are left wide open during the ride …  which makes sense, because they frequently don’t fully stop at the various stations. You sometimes need a running start to jump on board.  Hanging out the door with the wind in your face watching life go by is one of the highlights.

A place so intense that either you love it, you hate it, or have a love/hate relationship.  There is no ”It’s okay” middle ground.  Much like New York City… which explains why we live here !!

Random Post 2

By the time we were set to leave India, I had had enough of it.  Not that there was any one thing that weighed on my psyche, but the noise, dust, crowds, and the ever present tang of urine was beginning to take its toll on me.  I was happy to be at the airport and glad to get on our flight to the UK.  

As we spent time telling Anna and Andy about our trip, and filling in Lyn and Alan as well, I began to feel a bit nostalgic for the street scenes.  I commented to Anna, that when I next washed my hair, I'd be getting rid of the last of India.  That saddened me.

Bill has always said that as one takes a plane away from India, you start conversations with your seat mate and discuss how you were glad to see the end of your Indian experience.  As the plane nears its destination, however, you are starting to think about your next trip to the sub continent.  

It took more than a plane ride, but as I am writing this now, I am wistful about my time in Tamil Nadu.  In its totality, the trip was eye opening, breath taking, (both literal and figuratively) as well as a journey into a cuisine that I had familiarity but only with the North Indian foods.  My taste buds still long for Idli, Sambar, Dosa, and Dal Makhani.  I can keep these close to my heart by preparing them often, but my versions will not come with the noise, dust, crowds, tang, and cows that wander the streets in Tamil Nadu.

Perhaps I am ready to venture into northern India.  Only time will tell.  The calmness of the south was very soothing as were the gentle ways of the people that live there.  The chatter of car horns and motorbike horns were never in anger, but were notification that someone else was near by.  

I also miss the call to prayer that echoed 5 times a day in most of the towns and cities that we visited.  It served, for me, as a reminder that I should take out time to be thankful for the opportunities that I am lucky enough to have and take advantage of.  My life would not be this way but for Bill.  While it is not pray time, I want to thank him for his never ending generosity, kindness, and thoughtfulness.  I don't know where I would be without his mellowing influence. 

Saturday, Feb 10 and Sunday Feb 11

As our time in India is coming to a close, we are scrambling to get all of the "sights/sites" in before we leave on Feb. 11.

Today, we opted to go to Saint Thomas Cathedral which is the one on the eastern coast, as opposed to the one on the Mount.  

We wanted to take a suburban train again.   We trek to Egmont Station, buy our tickets and head over to platform 10.  To get to where we want to go, we need to take the train north 2 stops to change to the appropriate south bound train.  All goes well.  I'm in the ladies only car, and Bill is hanging out the door again.  

We spoke to the train station master before getting on the north bound train, and he said to cross over to the farthest platform to get the south bound train.  Which is exactly what we do.

After about 5 minutes, an announcement comes on that the south bound trains are being canceled until 4 pm.  Perfect.  We now need a plan B.  We exit the station and find a tuk tuk to take us to the Cathedral.

We are a bit confused because by now, we understand Chennai geography, and we seem to be heading in the wrong direction.  Perfect.  But, it does turn out that using maps.me we can see what the driver is doing and relax into the ride.  We go through neighborhoods that we have never been in or driven through.  I am enthralled by the street life.  

We get to the Cathedral.  It was founded by the Portuguese when they ruled south asia.  There is a large girl's school trip there at that moment.  We troop into the sanctuary after them.

This is the first time either Bill or I have seen a fully clothed Jesus on the cross.

A couple of young men took our photos in the choir chairs.  These were the MOST uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat on.  The arm rest, which our photographer insisted we put our arms on, were so high it was obviously not meant as an arm rest!  In India, you need to take off your footwear when entering holy places.  That's why we are without shoes or socks for that matter.

After visiting the sanctuary, and headed into the gift shop, because, what do kitsch hunters do?  Nada, there were no glow in the dark Jesus' or other such items.  Bill is regretting not buying the glow in the dark Mother Theresa at the other St. Thomas on the Mount.

We were told that there are only 3 churches on the spots where an apostle died, St. Peters at the Vatican, Campostelo in Spain, and this one.  There was a crypt/chapel across from the rear of the church that was more of a meditative place.  It was a long narrow space with pews on each side and a central aisle to the altar.  It was cool and quiet.  Much needed at this point in the day.

After we left the church, I was getting hangry, so what else is new???  Bill spied this Kati roll place.  In we went.  The rolls were quite tasty.  A kind of Indian burrito of sorts.  Stuffed with the veggie item of your choice.  I think it was opened recently and catered mostly to school kids and young people looking for a quick bite.  He offered us some homemade ice cream, it was paan flavored!  A strange taste sensation.  Sweet, savory, fennely/anise-y, and creamy.  

We wandered around a little bit longer and took a tuk tuk back to the Pandian Hotel.  We retired into the bar and had a couple of Kingfishers and, I believe, went up to bed as we had to catch a 7 am flight to London the next morning.  

In other posts I referred to the light switches in Indian hotel rooms.  Here is a picture of one.  Now, imagine another 3 or 4 of these multi-panels and you can see our problems.  No idea which switch turns on which light in the room.  The one you rock may not turn on any light in your room.

This panel was next to Bill's side of the bed.  The rheostat knobs controlled the speed of the two ceiling fans 

This panel was near the door to the room.  These rockers may turn on the bathroom, over bed lights, over head lights, lights over the mirror in the bathroom, etc.  No idea!

Another interesting quirk of Indian hotels was the toilet rolls.  They were miniscule.  Good for one go maybe 2.  

We didn't quite get it when we checked into hotels that the bellhop would ask how long we were staying, then return with 2, 3, or 4 rolls depending on the length of your stay.  Invariably, this would be insufficient and we would need to get more at some point.  Even rolls sold in stores were on the tiny side.  Must be an Indian thing.

We awoke at 3 am in order to be ready to get our 4:30am cab to the airport.  Cab ride was uneventful and we arrived at the airport just as the sun was starting to make its appearance.  At that hour, the airport was surprisingly busy.  I guess there were lots of international flights going out.

We checked in, found the gate, boarded, and landed at Heathrow around 2 pm GMT.  What a shock in terms of the weather:  rainy, cold, chilling.  No longer 80 F sunny and humid.  Could already feel my shoulders starting to lock up!  

We holed up at a Costa coffee in the airport drinking coffee trying to figure out how to get cash and which tube line/s we would take to get to Greenwich where our niece lived.

We arrived at Anna and Andy's beautiful apartment around 5:30 pm.  Let we go in reverse here.  We exited the tube station at North Greenwich and because we didn't have wifi, we needed a cab.  We find the black cab queue and got into the first one.  We take off, and are cruising around for what seemed to be too long a time.  The cabbie turns down Bannister (?) street and is driving back and forth looking for the address.  We finally ask him if he wouldn't mind calling Anna or Andy to find out where we should get out.  Back and forth we go again, and finally Bill says, we'll just get out and figure it out on foot.  We knew we were close.  We find the building, the entrance is off the street and just steps from the Thames Walk.  We ring the flat.....ring, ring, buzz, in we go into the lobby.  We walk over to the elevator lobby which is divided from the entrance by a door that needs to be buzzed in or you use a key fob.  Elevator door entrance locked.  Back to entrance buzzer, buzz, buzz, buzz, no response.  Another couple exits the building, and we dash into the lobby again.  Eventually, there is another couple going to the elevator.  We follow like sneak thieves.  We let them go up, and then realize that we need the key fob to use the elevator.  We didn't even know what floor their flat was on!

Bill exits and heads to the nearest pub to try to call Anna again.  He returns, no better luck.  So we head to that pub, the Pelton Arms, and sit down for a glass of wine and beer.  For us, it is about midnight and we still have these gigantic packs on our backs...  Andy arrives and is quite sheepish, as he said he never heard the door bell and had been waiting at home for our arrival.  We are so grateful, he came to the pub to rescue us!

Andy had thoughtfully prepared a beef stew for dinner and all was right with the world by the time Anna arrived home.

And thus ends our Indian adventures.

I was truly sorry to see it end.  

Friday Feb 9, Chennai

Soooo, we are back in Chennai and looking for things to see and do.  We settle on taking a suburban train a couple of stops and going up to Saint Thomas Mount to see the church and views.  This is reputed to be the site of St. Thomas' death.  What's confusing is that there are 2 St. Thomas churches that are relatively close to each other.  One in the southwestern suburbs (where we are going today) and one one the southeastern coast (we will hit that one later).

The train ride was quite uneventful.  We were able to get on and comfortably find room to stand.  Bill was soooo excited.  He loves Indian trains.  You can tell by his expression.

We hired a tuk tuk to take us up to the very top of St. Thomas Mount.  This was a very good thing because we just kept climbing up  and up in the little tuk tuk.  We swerved past a construction site that appeared to be laying piping below sidewalks and up against the businesses and homes.  Up we continued, going round and round until we finally reach a gate where the tuk tuk driver asks if he should wait, we say no because we didn't know how long we would be.  So off he goes, and we are hit up with a 10 rupee "parking" fee, even though we did not park.  It's India, Jake!  

Climbing up the hill we take in the vista over all of Chennai before us.  I did not realize that the city had so many parks and green areas.  There was a bit of a haze, but it did not obstruct the views.

It was a very hot day and I was desperately looking for a shady place.  On the campus of this shrine there was a gigantic banyan tree around which was built a circular bench.  There were many people taking advantage of the shade, and we sat and drank water for a while.  

I am not sure what I was expecting, I suppose a large church, instead, there was a small chapel which was AC'd.  YEAH!!!  Within the chapel were several stools and behind a glass barrier was an altar dedicated to St. Thomas.   The space was quiet and was truly a space for people to pray.

The little chapel, the item at the base of the altar in the middle of the floor is a bible in a stand.  People enter the chapel and will use it as they pray and then return it to the stand.

 Mother Theresa

Pope JP II

We wandered the grounds some more and found the "church".  It was a narrow space with pews on one side.  

As we left this space, we saw an ice cream stand and stopped to get some.  As we are unwrapping our cones, up walks a large cow.  

We finish our cones as the cow ambles off and we start to head down to the entrance gate.  We now realize that it is hot, really hot, and it is a very long walk down hill and around and around and tuk tuk regret sets in.  We see a driver waiting in the shade and I ask if he is available, no he is waiting for people who are in the cemetery.  Sigh, we continue down the hill.  Where the hill hits a main road, of sorts, we get a miracle.  A tuk tuk is running by and we flag him down and head to the train station.

We decide that we will take the train a couple of stops (2) to explore another area that Bill wants to visit.  I rode in the women only car and Bill got his hanging on the train fix.  We exited the train on to a street that was jammed with people.

You could hardly move and it did not let up.  On each side of the street were stores selling clothing, snacks, jewelry, all sorts of stuff with the wares spilling out into the cramped street and sidewalks.

This heaving mass did not let up when we found the main street.  About now, I am super crabby and really need to get something to eat, but of course, being hangry, I can't figure out that I am really, really hungry.  We are looking for a particular silk shop, and can't find it.  We go to a restaurant that is on the main drag.  It didn't have AC, but had powerful fans.  Didn't matter, I was happy.

The fascination for me was the table behind Bill.  2 men were sitting there.  The one man I could see was quite fancifully dressed.  A lush paisley printed nehru jacket with a red pocket square.  Around his neck was a large, heavy necklace with a medallion hanging from it.  On his right wrist was another large and flashy bracelet.  I then noticed his pants were bright red, matching his pocket square.  He was having an intense conversation with the other man, gesticulating and jangling his jewelry.  I thought that it looked like a lovers quarrel, but could not be sure.  Eventually, they got up to leave, and the red pants, were really like a longhi worn like pantaloons.  They were open around his shins and looked comfortable, but too heavy for the weather, especially when paired with that nehru jacket!  Taking a photo would have created an international incident, so I let it be!

After lunch, we went into several different silk shops as I was looking for some scarves.  It was like being in an episode of "Are You Being Served" as I would be escorted to a particular gentlemen at a particular counter.  He would then reach into a cabinet and pull out a box and would display the various scarves with a lackluster flourish.  The scarves were really beautiful and quite inexpensive. 

Under the flyover outside these shops was an impromptu bazaar.  Selling all sorts of things, socks, underwear, bracelets, hair ribbons, human hair hanks, sun glasses, etc.  We wandered around a bit and had a good laugh at some of the items.

We decide to head east to a particular cocktail bar.  Along the way, we thought that we would see another bazaar, but my guess was that the shops on either side of the road constituted a bazaar.  

One of the difficulties of navigating in India is that roads change names frequently and numbering on the road is not consistent.  We are trying to find this particular bar and we finally do, only to be told that it is not open yet.  Across the street was another bar.  We ran over there.  The name of this bar was 10 Downing, an homage to England, but it is not on Downing Street, or anything like England.  

We settle in and order our beers, we are told it is happy hour and that there is a special on beers, so we take advantage of that.  I start watching the TV which is just off to my left.  It was very difficult to follow.  I am used to the crawl on CNN or other stations, but India does it one better, well 3 or 4 times better.  The news reader is reduced to a smaller square and below her are not 1, not 2, but 3 crawls which have nothing to do with what she is reporting on.  On the right hand side of the screen is another information rectangle, I think it was either stock or weather.  I was so overwhelmed at trying to figure out which crawl related to the main story, I was getting a headache!  Decided to work on the puzzles in the newspaper.  I'm starting the suduko, and the waiter comes over and tells me that I have made a mistake.  I thought it was a bit cheeky, but then I see that he was correct.

About an hour or so later, we wander over to the original choice. The entrance is on the side of a hotel.  We go up 2 flights and find ourselves in an empty bar, well almost empty, there was one gentlemen in a booth.  We sit at the bar and decide on our drinks.  The bartender looked about 15, but made up for it with enthusiasm.  I ordered and pointed to the Manhattan cocktail.  Bill gets a beer.  I am watching the bartender start to make a cocktail.  There is vodka, and fruit juices, and assorted things going into the shaker....I'm thinking someone else, unseen, has ordered this.  It is with a bit of disappointment as he puts the drink in front of me.  He was so earnest, I couldn't say, dude, that's a cosmopolitan, not a manhattan.  I drank it.  

As the evening progresses, he is juggling limes then moves to empty beer bottles, and then beer bottles with shaker bottoms.  A floor show with our drinks.  Again, he was so earnest and clearly enjoying himself, we were charmed.  At one point, he offers Bill a taste of an Indian whiskey.  Bill declines, but I jump in and say, I'll try it.  He gives me a small taste, complimentary, ma'am.  It was really good.  It was Royal Challenge.  I had two additional shots.  Really, really tasty.  I subsequently found out has a rum base and only 12% is whiskey.  I was trying to find it on the web, no go.

We toddle off to the Pandian to sleep it off.  

Wednesday, November 1

Little did we realize that we were safer in Israel than in NYC.  We heard about the guy who drove into people on the bike lane and were shocked.  I began noticing how many soldiers there are around in the cities in Israel and just how many machine guns are casually strung from strong shoulders.  I felt safe, which was a strange realization as I don't like guns, and am deathly afraid of them.

We had 2 tours booked, one of Old Yafo and one of the history of Yafo.  The first tour started from the clock tower at 1, so we had a little bit of time to explore the Tel Aviv market.  See array of spices.

We walked back to the center of Yafo to catch the tour.  We started out winding our way along the cobbled streets, seeing sights that we had seen the day before and new ones.  We headed up the hill, winding up quaint narrow streets where people live.  We stopped outside one apartment built right into the wall which was opposite a crumbling wall and surrounded by art.  Turned out it was a famous artist and these were some of his work.  Art was a general thread through our visit thus far.  Art for art's sake, architecture, decorative

work, sly graffiti and posh art galleries.  In Tel Aviv, the art felt integral to the city, in Jerusalem, the art seemed more contrived and less organic.  Haifa, we will see later on was a further extension of art as breath.

At the top of the hill, was an old church and fantastic view of the Mediterranean Sea beyond.

The view from the top should not be missed.  It’s 180 degrees of sea splendor with skyline view of Tel Aviv to the north!  

After wandering down we came to a kiosk offering a free video of “Old Yafo”.  Inside was one of the guys we met from Sandemans in Jerusalem.  We went into the exhibit and watched a cheesy, tongue-in-cheek video about the roots of Yafo.  We wandered around the exhibit to see the artifacts on display and left.  

We headed off to a well reviewed restaurant across the square named __________.  We were “early”for dinner and without a reservation.  We were given a great table up against the window overlooking the water and the sunset.  Truly a beautiful sight. The meal was excellent.  Certainly worthy of its high ratings.

This was the view from our table.  These were __________ rocks, as legend goes, she was saved from certain death by ______________.

 Bill is looking happy as we look over the menu

We wandered back along the sea wall to our apt, and found this photo frame and couldn’t resist taking the touristic shot or two!

2/7 and 2/8 Wednesday and Thursday Madurai to Chennai - overnight train

Yahoo, Indian brekkies again.  This place, the PurpleTree, has only toasts as a Western breakfast, but they have wonderful idly and dosa as well as eggs on the Indian side.  At breakfast, we met two English women, Clare and Tricia, who were wondering how we got milk coffee and they just got black.  Bill explained to them that you had to ask for milk coffee, not coffee with milk.  Don’t know why it couldn’t be understood, but you were guaranteed to get black coffee if you asked the other way around.  

Ever helpful Bill, invited them over to the table so we could give them some hints about Madurai.  They got our Madurai chunks from Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, as we were heading back to Chennai at night.  We made plans to meet for dinner OR we would leave a note under their door regarding what might be different.

After breakfast, Bill and I just hung around the room reading, getting ourselves packed up and organized for our trip.  

We realized that meeting at 6 would be cutting our timetable a bit close as the train was earlier than we thought. We had assumed it was around 10, but it was 8:30.  We left a note under their door explaining that a 6 pm dinner would be too late, and we were heading over to the Chentoor around 4.

We packed up, checked out just before 4.  This is a good thing as the Chentoor doesn’t open their rooftop bar/restaurant before 4 pm.  I ordered the chicken coconut curry.  Really good.  Bill had mushroom 65 and some other paneer dish, which wasn’t very good.  Around 5:30 or 6 Tricia and Clare show up and we ask how their visit to the temple went.

Here is our last night selfie cast:  Bill, Clare, Tricia, and me.  These were two very intrepid ladies.  They were staying  in an AirBnB outside of Pondicherry and had come into Madurai to see the temple before heading back to Pondy.

This is the view from the Chentoor looking south.  There are rules in the city that nothing can be higher than the Temple.  Hence all the low rise buildings.

If you ever wondered what a sleeper train was like, worry no more.  

 The cabins have 2 “bunk” type beds on each side of the compartment.  With a small table between the 2 bottom beds.  You given sheets, blanket, pillows and a towel.  At the start of our journey, there were 3 of us in the cabin.  

Bill and the Indian gentlemen both took upper bunks, and I had a lower.  At this point in time, the 4th bunk was empty.  The 3of us sat around and talked before making up our beds and hitting the sack.  This guy worked for IBM and lived in NJ.  It was a pleasant discussion touching ever so briefly on local politics and not national.  He helped me pull the “bed” part down.  This was the seat back we were leaning on while we were talking.  I made the bed and hopped in.  I put my glasses on the little side table, in fact, you can see them in the photo.  Lights were turned out and we commenced to try to sleep.  The train never got up a steady rocking motion, it was a bit herky jerky and not very soothing.  

Around midnight, the compartment door opens and the conductor and another man are standing there.  The man asks if there is an unoccupied cabin that he can have.  The door closes.  A few minutes later, the door reopens and a man enters with luggage.  There is much bumping into things, expected, noise while you try to find space for your suitcase.  Perfectly reasonable.  Then he knocks into the little table and my glasses go flying across the floor.  He settles on his bed, pulls out his phone and proceeds to have a long conversation with someone at quite a loud volume.  It wasn’t a hi, I made it call, but a how you doing, hows the kids, what about grandma, etc.  (Of course, this is not the exact content of the call because I don’t speak Tamil.). It sure sounded like a mundane phone call that could have been made in the hallway.

We arrive in Chennai abound 5 am, and we sling on our packs and head to Hotel Pandian which was on Kennet Lane, which is directly across the street from Egmore station.  Perfect!  We check in, pay, and fall to sleep for a few hours.

Bill wakes up to get our laundry to the hotel in order for it be done within 24 hours.  

Our laundry list!  The hotel charges by the piece and we were so in need of clean clothes that we didn’t care what the price was.  

Around 9:30 we headed down to breakfast, which was included, and I got my idly on.  They also had vada and sambar.  I was so happy.  The coffee was milk coffee but presweetened and very sweet.  They served it in tiny espresso sized cups, so we were constantly at the coffee thermos filling our cups.  We met Lindsay, an intrepid English woman who has been on the road since June.  I couldn’t help but admire her gumption and fortitude.  Don’t know if I could do that.  She was spending 3 months in India and doing the entire country.  Good on her!

After breakfast we decided to get some culture and walked over to the Municipal Museum.  This museum is famous for its bronzes of gods and goddesses.  We breezed through that part being ignorant as well as overwhelmed with the sameness of the statuary.  As we left this part of the display were ran into a huge group of school kids on a school trip.  They were all trying to practice their English by yelling hello and shaking our hands.  We felt like rock starts, running down the rows of kids giving them hi 5’s or down low’s.  It made up for the lack of air conditioning.

We wandered into other parts of the museum and were fascinated by the skeletons of various animals and their comparative anatomy displays.  Mostly, the explanations were rather cursory and vague with very little detail.  In one case, the labeling of 2 North American species was incorrect.  They had labeled the raccoon as an opposum and visa versa.  I was particularly interested in their small mammal collection so I could try to figure out if indeed we saw a mongoose or an otter.  The collection was not that helpful.  The star of the day was the animated T-Rex display.  At certain times during the day the T-Rex starts to roar and move about.  a young boy, maybe 3 or 4, was there with his parents and it scared the piss out of him.  He ran away and was crying his eyes out.  The parents scooped him up and took him to a different part of the museum.  

The entire museum was sort of a hybridization of a natural history museum and an art gallery.  It was a great way to spend a sticky afternoon.

We wanted some sustenance and grabbed a tuk tuk to Amethyst, a combination floral shop, gift shop, and cafe.  We grabbed a table under a fan and ordered pizza and I ordered they special khao soy noodles, along with water.  We sat there a good long while reading and enjoying the beautiful surroundings.  The grounds were a lush oasis that you would never know you were in the middle of Chennai with roaring traffic just 100 feet away.   We ordered some masala chai, which we sadly let brew too long and tried drinking it without milk because we didn’t notice the pitcher on the table.  Let’s just say milk is important.

We left Amethyst and headed back to our hotel bar and headed up to our room.  Once upstairs, we received our laundry back.  It was amazing.  Each shirt was folded and between the front and back of the shirt was a half page of yesterdays newspaper to keep the shirt from shifting around.  We thought it was hysterical.

All our bits were compared to the list that Bill made and we fell immediately into the arms of Morpheus.