Random things from this week

We've ordered pizza from Dominos for the kids this week, check out this tracker after you order online....

What are they carrying on that motorcycle, oh its a mirror, of course it is...

Oh and then on the way to somewhere in the car there were 5 random black cows running down the road.

My day of cooking lessons and learning recipes

I had a very full day of getting cooking lessons/recipes from two great families in our apartment complex. We have lots of snacks/treats and they each sent us home with samples of their family meals for the day to try (egg curry, drumstick (a vegetable) curry, dal, rice).

First we started off at a friend house making chikki. This is a jaggery syrup mixed with groundnuts (peanuts).  the key is getting the syrup to the right consistency before adding the freshly roasted peanuts.  Other chikki I have seen in stores have till (sesame seeds) in them too.

The larger pot is the jaggery syrup, the front one is for a veg curry. 

This is the end product, then you break it up. 

This is what the kitchen looked like. She had milk that she was making yogurt/curd and butter from, and check out all those tomatos. 

This is us with her maid who wanted a picture with the kids to send to her kids. 

This is the egg and potato curry they send us home with to try. YUM.

Then after some time at the pool we headed over to one of T's friends houses to learn to make laddos (from Chotto Bheem the Hindi cartoon the kids are obsessed with) and murkulu.

Here's me and T's friends Grandma making laddos.   This is the last step where we roll the laddos. You put Ghee (clarified butter) on your hands so the dough won't stick and you roll.

These are the end product, about 70 or so I think we made. 

 Here's some of the murkulu, they end up as savory crunchy treats. You make this dough, then it is pushed through a press into oil and fried.

okay I can't get this picture to turn correctly.
This shows the press , the dough and the oil pot. 

 

The finished product. 

These are the finished products for the day.....

Fun quotes of the day while we were at T's friends place.  I asked his mom (who provided me with lots of recipes to try) what the difference between a pickle and a chutney is (both are sauces). 

Her response: A pickle is like a husband and a chutney is like a boyfriend.  Pickles you can keep for a long time, but chutneys are only good for a day or two.  (Pickles are essentially sauces that are shelf stable for months)

High Tea at Falaknuma Palace

Today the kids and I along with a friend we met in Hyderabad (from Seattle) and her son ventured to Falaknuma Palace (currently operated by Taj Resorts/Hotels) for High Tea.  We had the choice of English or Indian, veg or non veg.   We choose English and non veg in hopes the kids would eat some of the goodies but my friend and I did enjoy some masala tea (chai tea).

We were treated to High Tea on the balcony of the Jade Room. The Nizam or the Prime Minister (I can't remember) loved Jade so there is a room painted a light green, with green furnishings and carpets. Very nice greens.  The balcony is the second floor in the picture below.

The kids looking out from the second floor balcony over Hyderabad. The Palace is situated up on a hilltop. 

Here are some pictures of our High Tea.

Our goodies. The green and chocolate cake at the bottom was EXCELLENT!

Enjoying our tea time!

Then we went and played with the canons at the front of the Palace.

This was K's reaction when she saw the horse drawn carriage pull up.  We didn't ride in it, but classic reaction.

 Oh did I forget to mention, we all went in our Indian clothes.

Happy Valentines Day from India

As I write this it is officially Valentines day here as its after midnight ( I guess I should go to bed!).

We made some rice krispie treats to give out today. I was looking to make something that did not involve an oven.  We found pink marshmallows and puffed rice (not rice krispies but they worked well).  We added some oreos (found the idea on pinterest) and chocolate chips, because after all chocolate is yummy.  Then used a heart cookie cutter.

Team 205 (K's class) was sweet enough to make her valentines cards and send them with Grandma when they came to visit. She'll be opening them tomorrow morning but she knows they're here. Here's a picture of them, her journal entry from earlier this week thanking her class and a little video message for them.  Thanks Team 205!

Here are the kids Valentines day morning, enjoying tender coconuts.

We went to see the Lego Movie at the mall on Wednesday (they do an intermission here part way through th movie -interesting). We gave the kids some small legos for valentines day and now all that is going through my head is the the song from the movie...

"everything is awesome, everything is awesome when you're part of a time"

Our nights out in Hyderabad

My parents left today to begin their two tours of Nepal and India.  They should have a great time and I look forward to meeting up with them in Delhi in two weeks to hear about it (and then fly home - booo).  Our time here is going much too quickly.  We leave our apartment for a four day trip around the golden triangle in 12 days. 

L and I were lucky enough to get a three nights out with my parents here to watch the kids. 

First night we went to dinner at Dialogue in the Dark. http://www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com/  There are several locations worldwide, one happens to be a the local mall here.  At our location you have dinner in complete darkness, and when they say complete they mean complete!!!  The waiters are blind and the idea is to experience what they do.  We had a choice of two different dinners, one was a combo plate and one was 4 courses that I think included soup, we chose the combo plate.  We were walked into the dark room L holding the shoulder of our guide and me holding L's shoulders.  For those of you who worked with us at camp, it was a giant trust exercise!  I'm not sure what the meals are in other Dialogue in the Darks around the world, but in Hyderabad its standard Indian cuisine, you choose veg or non-veg.  The meal consisted of rice, naan (or roti maybe), a veg curry, salad, and a fried veggie patty with a yogurt sauce.  So your spoon and fork aren't really the way to go here.  You really need to use your fingers, first to find out what's there and how its laid out on the plate and second to eat!  If you did this somewhere that had more finger foods, it might be easier but fingers it was to eat the rice. I ended up using my spoon at the end to eat the sauce with some rice in it.  Surprisingly, we didn't wear our meals!  Very interesting experience, worth a try if you've got one nearby. 

Second night out, we went to Falaknuma Palace.  It took 10 years to build (1884 - 1894) by the Prime Minister of Hyderabad, and then purchased from him by Nizam VI a few years later because he liked it so much.  The Taj resort chain now operates it (30 year lease from the Nizams).  So the reason we went... I met the lady that is currently their jazz singer, she's an expat from the UK, so we went to hear her sing. She's excellent.  (www.jazzykel.com) She joined us on the tour of the palace too, wow is that place beautiful.  There is a dining room that has a table that can seat 101 people, it is incredibly long! And apparently the acoustics are such that the two people at either end can hear each other speaking in a normal voice.  She sat and talked with us for a while, we told her the Parmesan cheese story (if you haven't read that one see the Groceries post from Jan 6, 2014), she the proceeded to work Kraft cheese into an Adele song. 

Third night out, we went shopping.  We both went looking for some traditional Indian attire. For those of you who know me, I'm not a fan of shopping, but this was okay.  We ended up both getting something at one store, which also had good stuff for kids.  They had to fix a seem on one of L's shirts so the kids and I went back the next day to pick it up and get stuff for them.  Then we ate at the mall, found a pub, ate some yummy pizza and had KingFischer Blue beer. 

Fourth night out, was me and the kids at the mall and in a rickshaw.  That was an adventure, we took a rickshaw to the mall, which isn't too far (4 km), but further and faster than we have gone in one yet.  So I get in and hold on to both kids tight.  T's comment partway through was this is fun, we're going so fast.  So we picked up outfits, played at the park at the mall, had dinner and came home, in a rickshaw (auto) again, this time in the dark.  Again the kids loved it. On the way back I was thinking, at home I wouldn't even think of driving the car without the kids clipped into their 5 point harnesses (T) or booster seat with seat belt (K), but somehow here, where the traffic is insane, I think its a good idea to take them for a ride in essentially an open sided trike with no seat belts.  And then I see a family of 5 on a motorcycle or a kid asleep on one, and I think they're probably safer in the auto rickshaw, and when in Rome...

Then when we got dropped off by the rickshaw at the apartment, we heard a lot of music, and noticed a parade (short) coming down the street. There were lots of drums, two camels and some colorful pillows (looked like) being carried over peoples heads under a colorful awning.  Never thought we'd see that tonight!

Charminar in Hyderabad

 We visited Charminar yesterday. Its one of the most famous structures in Hyderabad.  Its a four pillar/tower structure that was built in 1591 by Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, the fifth sultan of the Qutub Shahi dynasty of India. I realized I don't have an actual picture of the outside of it, but you can find it online easily.  Below are pictures of the inside. 

One of the arches. 

View of the inside of the from the ground. 

View across the inside from where you can climb up and walk around. 

I have read a few stories about why the sultan built Charminar. One was to honor his wife and another was to fulfill a promise made when praying to end a plague that was revenging the City.  There is a also rumor that he built a tunnel from here to Golconda fort, that would enable him to escape the fort if it was attacked. We heard that both here and at Golconda fort, although I have read they don't know where the tunnel is. 

The towers are almost 50 meters high and there are a 149 circular steps in each that can be climbed to read the viewing area at the top of the square structure.  We climbed them, with five adults and three kids ages 7, 6 and 3.  The steps were a little nerve racking on the way down. No railings!

The four sides of Charminar open into difference plazas that are bustling with activity. There is a road around the actual Charminar square.   Off to one side is a very large mosque.  In other directions you can see Golconda fort and Falaknuma Place both up on hills in the distance.  

Looking west from Charminar, this is the Laad Bazaar (talked about later in post).

A camel, because you just see some crazy things!

Mosque next to Charminar

Looking South from Charminar on the hill in the distance is Falaknuma Palace.   Look at the traffic, this is apparently before its busy!

We went with a friend who grew up and currently lives in Hyderabad and she advised that we should go before lunch (which by the way is late at like 2 pm) because it will be less crowded. HAHAHAHAHA Okay it might have been less crowded but less crowded still means dodging rickshaws, motorcycles, vendors and cards across three lanes (not defined lanes) of traffic to get into the square.  This was my parents first real adventure with the traffic, and to be honest we hadn't seen this much traffic in most of our visit.  Charminar is located in the old city portion of Hyderabad, which is even more chaotic then where we are staying. 

Snack time

So we walked through the Laad bazaar while we were in that area.  Did some shopping for things to take back home.  Our friend did the negotiating, made sure the price was fair, then we paid. Followed by a great Indian lunch and ice cream. 

Henna!

 I found out the ladies parlor in our apartment does henna. So I called and asked if they could do it. She said yes, and she even came to our apartment.  I thought it would be neat to do while my mom is here.  Traditionally only females (I think) get henna, but if K is doing it, then T wants to do it too.  Here are the pics. Not sure how long they will last, one person told me one week, another said 15 to 20 days.

We picked up some henna at the market today so we can try it at home too!

Our hands right after as they were drying.  The henna dries (like mud drying) and then flakes off.  We were supposed to wait till the next morning to wash it off, but most of it was gone by then. 

Here's T's 2 days later. K's is significantly faded, I think that's what 2 hours in the pool does!

Here's Mom's and mine two days later.