(Off-beat thoughts about life, humanity, issues etc. And food!)
Choco Bread P – U – Ding Ding recipe (That’s what I called it when I was little!)
4-6 slices of stale preferably brown bread
1/2 litre scalding hot milk plus ¼ cup warm milk
2 eggs beaten (optional)
Sugar to taste (If not using egg, use a tin of condensed milk for sweetness)
Lots and lots of raisins and walnuts
Some cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder
2 -3 tbsp coco powder or a slab of bittersweet/ semisweet cooking chocolate, melted
Break up the bread into bite size pieces in a microwave safe dish. Mix in the raisins and walnuts. Add the coco powder to the warm milk, and mix it with the hot milk. Alternatively, add the melted choco to the hot milk. Dissolve the sugar/ condensed milk in it. Add beaten eggs if using. Add cinnamon and nutmeg powder. Dump all this on the bread, let it soak it up for about 15 minutes to a half hour. Microwave on high for 3 minutes and then on 50% power for 4- 5 minutes more, 2 minutes at a time until the pudding is set. If you want to get some browning on top after microwaving it, you can bake in a 400 C oven for 8 to 10 min. Alternately, bake in a 350C oven for about 20 to 25 min until set.
Our first half-way across the world move
It all happened so fast, I was literally taken off my feet. Yes! Whipped into the air, over continents and oceans and bump! We landed in San Francisco, California. One of the best places to be in the USA. Circa November 1996.
“So, you are going to the States! What’ll it be like?” It’s the land that gave the world slavery as well as independence, Hollywood and Disneyland. To put it rather mildly, it’s like the earth being crammed into 7% of its total land area that is the USA. Coming from India, the orderliness of everything around me was eye-popping! Each thing had its own well-defined place – why, cars even had their own lanes! (To be honest, they do so in India too today, but back in 1996, things weren’t as organised.)
India is a mixture of various cultures, languages and is therefore made up of a comparatively strict social structure. When we first landed in the ‘land of plenty’, we were struck by the reckless abundance of the people living here. (Or so we thought.) Even at the airport. Yet after we actually touched down on the land that very kindly donated to the world its umpteen findings, (or, was the world merely copying it??) we were in no condition to enjoy the vast opulence and unique beauty of this generous land that we could see teeming around us – we were suffering from the condition that most people suffer when traveling halfway across the globe – jet-lag!! Well, after a couple of days, it slowly started to sink in. Fortunately we had a number of friends and relatives (who doesn’t??) willing to help us and thus started the search for a place to call our own.
And we got the second shock of our lives! The rents in Cupertino were sky-high! For a tiny one bedroom apartment, we had to shell out a grand every month! And this was way back in 1996. Putting down all our savings in the deposit, we booked ourselves a place in a complex where we had some close friends of ours also living. Having come fully armed with a working kitchen from India, getting started right off was no problem whatsoever. A quick trip to the nearest Target/ Walmart completed whatever else we might possibly need. In the ensuing weeks, some visits to a few garage sales and hey presto! We had a wonderful home set up just the way we wanted! Scouting garage sales and flea markets for any and every conceivable thing too was a novelty for us.
In the malls, supermarkets and apartment complexes, I could see people of different races (white, black, Hispanic, Asian and so on) speaking different languages. You could commonly hear various European languages like French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian and the large number of Asians here spoke their own respective tongues like Mandarin, Japanese and the too-numerous-to list Indian languages. In fact, a number of these communities were so large that they had their own supermarkets too. You were able to get any ingredient you might possibly need for any cuisine in the world! For the first time I was truly exposed to an International amalgamation of communities, where there was no stigma attached in belonging to any one race. Though having a degree from a fancy college helped, it was not a necessity. All that was required to succeed was determination and willingness to put in long hours of hard work.
The whole deal kind of worked for us. After an year, we moved to Colorado, where we lived for 6 years. We paid much lesser rents, made close friends (who have stayed close over all these years) and our family grew with our two kids being born there. 9 years in Pune (India) and a year and a half in England and we’re back living in Cupertino, paying those exorbitant rents all over again. Hmmm.
The Commodious Cook 