When we were in China, our guide remarked that she previously used to work with Chinese groups but that she much preferred dealing with foreign tourists like ourselves. She said that Chinese sightseers were very demanding and out to squeeze as much sightseeing as they could into one day. As a result, she said she had to [...]
Archive for March, 2007
Changing Perspectives on Travel
Posted in Travel on March 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Bargaining
Posted in Travel on March 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A friend who is vacationing in Southeast Asia e-mailed me from Hoi An , Vietnam where he is staying at a 3 star hotel. His hotel room is airconditioned and has a toilet with hot water and shower and cable TV. The buffet breakfast ( included in the room rate) includes four types of fruits, pancakes, [...]
Hot on the Trail of Hainan Chicken Rice
Posted in Food on March 26, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Working in Lower Manhattan for the better part of thirty years, I used to walk to China town for lunch two or three times a week. One afternoon, questing for a new eatery, my friend Ramesh and I found ourselves on the outskirts of Chinatown near the Manhattan Bridge. We were passing a basement dive, a dingy [...]
Flour Babies
Posted in American Scene, Observations on March 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Have you heard of flour babies ?
I hadn’t either until last week when I spoke to a youngster, a 11th grader who goes to school locally. As part of her Human Development class, she and her classmates were required to dress up a bag of flour as a baby and take care of it as [...]
Sportsmanship II…. Off the Field
Posted in Sports on March 21, 2007 | 1 Comment »
In 1936, Berlin, the site of the Olympic Games, was bristling with Nazism. Red and black swastikas were flying everywhere and brownshirted storm troopers were goose stepping down the streets as Adolf Hitler postured and harangued while pushing his Nazi ideology. He had hoped that German athletes would validate his theories of Aryan superiority but [...]
Sportsmanship I….(on the field)
Posted in Observations, Sports on March 20, 2007 | 2 Comments »
At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the two favorites in the long jump event were Jesse Owens (USA) and Carl Ludwig ‘ Luz’ Long (Germany).In the preliminary round, Luz Long easily qualified for the final , breaking the Olympic Record in the process. Owens, however, stepped on the hashmark and fouled his first two jumps; one more [...]
Indian Restaurants: Dabbawalla
Posted in Food on March 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Indian eateries in the New York City of the early seventies, were amateur affairs characterised by greasy, too-spicy food, surly waiters and shabby decor. The dishes listed on the menu were Mughlai / North Indian ( lamb dopiaza, chicken jalfarezi, tandoori chicken,biriyani etc.) indifferently executed by cooks who were almost all Bangladeshi. Patrons were mostly Indian students and [...]
Really Fresh Fish
Posted in Food, Travel on March 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
When it comes to fish, the fresher the better and the Japanese it, seems, will go to great lengths to ensure that their fish is really fresh.(According to a story I read on the Web) the waters near Japan have long since been fished out and fishing boats have had to venture farther and farther from shore. In [...]
Cricket in the West Indies & A Chance Encounter
Posted in Observations, Sports on March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The Cricket World Cup, which is contested once every 4 years, is being held in the West Indies this year. According to the news dispatches,Sunday’s opening ceremony in Jamaica got the tournament off to a fabulous start. After the fireworks off the field, there were some fireworks on the cricket pitch as the Windies won the opening match [...]
English Beer
Posted in Food, Travel on March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
” Oh, to be in England
Now that Spring is here
Oh, to be in England
Drinking English beer
D-r-i-n-k-i-n-g English beer”.
I was reminded of this ditty by two things. 1) Spring seems to have arrived . 2) a little squib in Gourmet magazine saying that sailors in the English navy in 16th century got beer rations amounting to 10 pints [...]
