Tomato Soup with Chunky Vegetables

Some time back when the price of tomatoes was high, I bought a box of tomato paste and stocked up my pantry. I tried to substitute fresh tomatoes with tomato paste in the Indian curries. It proved to be a bad idea. I turned out to the net seeking ideas to use the paste. Looks like soups are the best. Now I make soup with tomato base very often.

Moreys Seasoned Alaskan Salmon

Moreys Marinated Salmon, Baked
Lately I have been testing a few ready to eat or easy to cook products. I liked a few of them while many others did not appeal my taste. Peeking through the freezer section at Costco Warehouse I found Marinated Wild Alaskan Salmon by Moreys. I am hooked on to this product since few months now.

Vegetable Noodles for the Indian Republic Day

Jan 26, 1950 is a great day for Indian History. Its the day India went Republic and the constitution of India came into effect. My fellow blogger, Pooja with Creative Ideas has announced a Orange ,White & Green Theme of the week to commemorate the occasion. This is my contribution to the event.


Vegetable Noodles

When I read about the event, I was very enthusiastic and started searching all archives for photos with the Tiranga Theme. I found a couple of Interesting ones.

Biscuit Rotti (Mangalorean Kachori)

Biscuit Rotti, A Mangalorean Style Kachori with coconut filling
When I was a kid, eating in the restaurants was a luxury. I usually spent my summer holidays helping my Dad in his little shop. He would get some munchies from the near by Hotel Taj Mahal(thats how we would call restaurants back in India) or sometimes got it delivered by the catering boy. BiscuitambaDe, TairambaDe, Puri Bhaaji, GoLi bhaje and Biscuit Rotti were my favorite picks. Yeah I know, for many of you these names might sound alien. They are just the Mangalorean names for Urad vadas, Dahi vada, Maida bonda & Mangalorean Kachoris in the same order!

3 Things in my life - Meme

I first read the word Meme on a food blog few months back. The word was totally alien to me and did a quick search on my Word Web dictionary. It said "A cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behaviour) that is passed from one generation to another by non genetic means (as by imitation)". This was quite not clear for me. But I just didn't bother to find out more.

Few more days passed by and I happened to come across this "MeMe" word quite often, mostly in the food blogs. I still didnt bother about the word. But last week my blogger buddy Sangeeta posted a meme on her Ghar Ka Khana and tagged me for the meme. Now I had no option but to do a research on meme. The best explanation I found was in an article written by Brent Silby "What is a Meme?". Meme is ideas that flow from generation to generation, evolving and modifying as it passes from mind to mind.

This is a Meme that has been passed from blogger to blogger on 3 things in their lives and here is mine.

3 things that scare me
* Horror Movies
* Snakes
* Darkness

3 people that make me laugh
* My hubby Shiva
* My friends Anitha, Manisha & Seema
* My sisters & brothers

3 things I love
* My husband :)
* My Hometown Puttur
* My family

3 things I hate
* Liars
* Cold, I love summers
* Emotional drama on Karan Johan movies

3 things I don't Understand
* People eating gross things on Fear Factor
* How can people be so naive or good - family drama on Indian TV
* Why NRI kids dont speak mother tongue...err..may be I will know when I have my own

3 things on my desk
* My Computer
* My digital camera
* A bunch of pens & bundle of paper

3 things I am doing right now
* Writing this MeMe
* Eating til-gud from Sankranti
* Wondering whats the 3rd one?

3 things I want to do before I die
* Visit Taj mahal
* See my children grown up
* Own a house

3 things I can do
* Cook, I think so
* sew, manage to alter and mend dresses
* write software, well thats my profession

3 things I’d like to learn:
* Be calm and patient in life
* To pose for photograph
* Cook like my MIL

3 things I never want to listen to
* Anyone talking bad about me
* People abusing and calling names
* Noise

3 favorite foods
* Pathrode
* PattoLi
* Sevei

3 beverages that I drink regularly
* Water
* Tea
* Ginger Ale, my new addiction

3 TV shows I watched as a kid,
well..I didnt have a TV at home as a kid, so these are 3 things I watched a teenager
* Old hindi movies on Zee TV
* Campus - a serial on Zee about college life
* Antakshari

3 books I read as a kid
* Mahabharata by Amarchitra katha
* Kannada magazines
* Stories from the Text books

3 friends I want to tag for this MeMe
* Shilpa
* Dr. Sowmya
* GSB Konkani , not sure the person wants to reveal identity

Well, Now I know more about myself. Hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about me.

Kele Podi (Ripe Banana Fritters)

I love Thai food. When I first arrived in the USA, some of my cousins introduced me to the red and green Thai curries and since then I am hooked on to those. But I have not tried many of the Thai delicacies yet. Actually the Thai cuisine is very much close to the Konkani cuisine. We use bamboo shoots, jack fruits, bananas in the curries based with coconut sauce.

Karate Kismuri (Bitter Gourd Kosumbari)

Many of us hate Bitter Gourd, Karate in Konkani. But there are many recipes that hide the very bitter taste of it and turn it into an appetizing tasty dish.

I often make this Kosumbari with Bitter Gourd and coconut. Another recipe is the Bitter Gourd Rings which I posted in the past. I often make either of these for lunch along with rice and dal.

Surnali (Sweet Dosa or Konkani Pancakes)

Suranali is a Konkani version of Pancakes. It has sweet & tangy taste from the jaggery and the yogurt in it.

Surnali is my hubby's favorite breakfast item. I had never tried making Surnali all by myself before moving to US. My mom in law used to whip up perfect batter and she would make Surnali with delicious ghee and serve with a dollop of soft homemade butter, loNi in konkani. I tried to make Surnali a couple of times but mine came out flat and tasteless. Later I got some tips form my MIL to make a perfect Surnali. Here is the recipe for the perfect pancakes from the scratch.

Moroccan Lentil Soup to start the New Year 2007

This is my first post for the New Year 2007. Thanks to all my readers & fellow bloggers for the support and response shown in year 2006. Hope I will continue to keep you guys posted with more enthusiasm.



Sometime back I had posted the Spanish Lentil Soup and many of my readers liked it. But the recipe used bouillon cube instead of spices. Some of my readers are Vegetarians and its very hard to find a 100% vegetarian bouillon cube. So I did some research on the web and compiled this made from the scratch Moroccan Lentil Soup.