Top 10 Foods of 2010

Huffington Post:
By: Endless Simmer 
Posted: December 28, 2010 


Huffington Post, lists the top 10 foods of 2010 in this article.A great and interesting list: from Fried Peanut Butter, Banana and Bourbon Sandwich, North American Sushi, Burrato (Mozzarella ) , Chicken tenders and avocado sauce, Malaysian BBQ , Pie Shake ( Pie and Ice cream ) , KFC fried chicken, Smoked meat with cheese curds and gravy,and at the top : Fried Beer.


Check them out! The photos look very delicious! :)


Toast for a new food experience .
And Happy New  Year 2011 :)

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods

  I chose this poem by the British poet Lord Byron. He was  famous  for his romanticism and  his satire Don Juan! But, here is one of the poems that i like from his writings . Enjoy it!


There is a pleasure in the pathless woods
From Childe Harold, Canto iv, Verse 178

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,  

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more,

From these our interviews, in which I steal

From all I may be, or have been before,

To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.



Inspired and Retired (Food Markets)

Though there are plenty of striking books that I have read and are beyond doubt considered an inspiration for me in food writing.

But there is one particular book .

It is not a narrative, nor an autobiography, neither a coaching book.

Food Markets of the World , is a book with an idiosyncratic adventure, that takes us to  60 different markets around the world. Markets that span from   from the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, to the olive vats of Palermo, to the markets of the south of France, and to the Amish markets of Pennsylvania

The book entices all our senses as we flip through the pictures Nelli Sheffer took and through the description of the prominent food critic Mimi Sheraton.

Mimi Sheraton  makes us feel that we are really roaming these markets with her, choosing the herbs, picking the exquisite vegetables, buying those spices,  bargaining over those fresh fish with the sellers .Indeed, a cultural and historical experience that encourages us to visit these traditional markets  and explore somehow their secrets. Mimi also provides us with recipes and information of some exclusive local foods of these markets.

Nelli Sheffer's  eccentric photographs cannot , but  make these markets alive . The lure of each  place is seen  in the book, such as the  Delhi spice vendor asleep among overflowing sacks of fiery red chilies and heaps of burnished orange turmeric.

Nevertheless, many critized this book as it lacks so much information and it is not really satisfying in terms of its writing and that the photos weren’t alluring to some readers.

It got a rating 3/5  from goodreads website.

However, personally, i consider this book inspired me to start this whole photoblogging activity. So, I took few photos of some of the three markets i visited  so far and i will be posting them separately later. 

And perhaps, when I am retired  or hopefully before, I will inaugurate in this voyage to visit the local markets of each country in the world, because it is these places you learn the essence of authentic and traditional foods. And It is that such places, that teach you the nativity of the land , and the folklore of the locals.

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(This photo is the property of the Publisher of the Book)

Publisher Notes:
In Food Markets of the World, noted author and food critic Mimi Sheraton conducts an international tour through a full itinerary of marketplaces, introducing each region and sharing recipes, market lore, and colorful anecdotes about local culinary traditions. And photographer Nelli Sheffer has traveled the globe to capture in stunning images the spice merchants of Delhi, the floating vegetable stalls of the Mekong Delta, the olive vats of Palermo, the Amish farmers of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and more. Included are markets in China, Egypt, Brazil, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Tanzania, the United States, and Vietnam.
Published October 1997 by Harry N Abrams

more details... ISBN 0810911841 (ISBN13: 9780810911840)

Not Playing the Game

I came lately across a very interesting quote from the famous  Irish playwright :"George Bernard Shaw". I enjoy his writings, his plays, his sarcasm and his unique sense of humor. This post  I sn't intended to talk about him, though I had a flicker of hesitation to delete what was on my mind to blog, and write about Shaw and his  achievements. Indeed, he is my idol in sarcasm and play writing. But I think i will keep a special post for him later.

Back to the subject, the quote was  : " The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time."

That was a really motivational quote for me to write in my blog further about my personal experiences, believes and thoughts. While some of my friends encourage me to detach my personal life from my blog, and others advised me to make it more professional i,e more about my career ( like those blogs that aim on marketing a service or a product). Frankly,  I told them I dont like their advise. I like my blog the way it is; delicate, with my thoughts, and my individualism in it. It is not being egoistic. It is being distinctive.

And from being distinctive, you can explore the world around you with non-conformance.  And thus, you can eventually write about this world. Shaw is right. His quote falls perfectly in the realm of what I want to reach by writing these posts in my blog.

“Not playing the game”, in the blogging aspect , is what may help me reach my ultimate goals.

A Summarized Script for writing a Research… .in Love.

The Scientist:
A scientist I am; always yearning for an answer. Longing to unravel all the ambiguity that surrounds me.
All because curiosity churns my stomach like someone who swallowed a pebble and can’t get it out.

A scientist I am in love. Constantly craving for an explanation of my feelings towards you. "What is love? Why do I love? And most importantly why do I love you in particular?"
It is not curiosity this time. It is something beyond it, something even harder to get it out because it is not just my stomach that aches; it is also my mind, and my soul.
Something which is not just physical, not even notional, but metaphysical – something beyond human senses or feelings, beyond what can be established by scientists.

Perhaps I am becoming a mad scientist. I don’t want to. And to avoid reaching this phase, a scientist got to do what a scientist got to do: experiment, try, and test to get a viable proof, maybe not a proof to the world, but merely to him.

Albeit, no matter how much I designed and tried, the scientist in me is a human afterall.
So, I fell in the cracks of randomness, clumsy experiments, uncertainties and jumbled proofs, that one experience when in love.
But I am an unwavering tenacious scientist. I never give up.

So, I went to proceed with my subject. However, this time it was you.

My Favorite Recipe

This recipe holds some wisdom in it, it is a short poem made by the famous American Poet Langston Hughes, titled " What happens to a dream deferred"?
I recall that I was in grade 7 when i  heard his poem for the first time . My english teacher was reading it and I immediately and  memorized it . ( Not that it is short :P) . From that time till now ( 9 years almost) ,  I enjoy reading it over and over again every time I feel like I am  losing sight and hope of my dreams. I consider this poem as a great recipe to make you struggle and not give up on your dreams , otherwise they will "explode " at some point of your life.




Langston is right. Dreams can never be lost. They are just postponed, deferred.


So"What happens to a Dream Deferred?"

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode? 
Langston Hughes

Though  Each word in this poem has a meaning , whether the raisin, the sun, or the meat . Everyone one  can associate these things that Langston mentioned to something in his/her life . But According to Langston, the main reason behind the poem was his urge to let the world  fight racial discrimination at the times it was prevailing in the U.S.A, and  his dream was  that the Black people get their rights and live equally with other people after  centuries of struggle.