Today was our home-setup-day… rented out a SUV, Saturn VUE from Nationals…went to Wal-Mart. What followed were the normal (expected) shopping scenes when 3 guys shop for cooking utensils and grocery… “Should we buy 3 frying pans and a round bottomed flask like cooking vessel or is it the other way?” “What should be the height of the frying pan? Suppose we cook some long wide vegetables, will the height of the pan be a problem?” “When we cook, should we be using plastic spoons or metal spoons?” “What kind of mat we put outside the toilet door? Is it kitchen mat or toilet mat?”
We could finish the stuff in around 2 hours at Wal-Mart. One thing which helped us to finish it so fast was the fact that I had prepared a detailed checklist of things to buy (which included just 2 items by the way, 1. utensils 2. grocery) which I forgot to take with me when I started in the morning. Once done with our utensils, bed and general shopping at Wal-Mart, we headed straight to Devon Street, which is kind of a mini India out here, for our grocery shopping. Thanks to google maps, we didn’t have any issues in finding our way.
Any Indian will feel right at home when he/she reaches Devon Street. Mughal-E-Sheriff restaurant, Naina sari shop, Bombay electricals, Shah’s jewelers… the place is full of Indian shops. You find people crisscrossing roads everywhere… We even found a Patel brothers eatery and an Udupi Restaurant there. More of typical guys-shopping-grocery scenes – “What daal do we use?” my roomie asked me holding three different varieties in his hand. Personally I am not a big fan of cooking my own food. The fact is I don’t know the art of cooking :_). {How many of you have met someone who has landed in the US of A without a single cooking utensil, a pack of curry masala or even a single bottle of pickle in his baggage? ;_) } I was just accompanying these guys in their shopping trip as a cart pusher… and in the middle of that, if he asks me what daal to use, what am I supposed to answer? Then they had this confusion as to how much onion/ginger to buy, how many tomatoes to pick… :_) one of em came back with 2 tomatoes and a bag full of ginger which was enuf to feed a battalion for a couple of months… we told him it would be better if we get it the other way arnd… then there was a confusion as to how many rice bags to pick.. my friend checked the weight of a single bag…unfortunately it was in pounds… we three engineers had a tough time converting pounds to KGs…then one of my friends attempted calculating the amount of rice needed for three people for a single serving and then multiplying it by the number of days in a week or some such number…seeing that all three of us were equally good/bad in maths, I suggested to pick 3 bags as a starting point, which was accepted happily by all…
When we went to pick up the car in the morning, the temperature outside was 2 degree Celsius… It was my foolishness to bank on the weather prediction (which said 10+ degrees) and venture out without even grabbing my jacket… anyways, the Saturn was comfortable and we had a nice day… :_)
Saturday, April 08, 2006
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18 comments:
"we three engineers had a tough time converting pounds to KGs…" ROFL
cute ur writing style has a quality than wants one to read thru ... nice updates..like reading ur blog...
glad to know boss is really enjoying the time in usa. great!
fun post!
was wondering if you get maggi there? :)
Thank God, like what you did here in Bangalore..
"Please gimme half kg stuna"
:-S
The art of naming anything the name of which you dont know as 'stuna' !!
see, I warned you not to get fooled by the weather here! you did not want to believe me :P
2 tomatoes and a bag full of ginger!! I'd like to see what you guys make out of this :))
kihen mat and toilet mat!
Ha ha ha.. welcome to America!
@Alexis Leon:
For a completely ‘organized’ and ‘systematic’ guy like me, even th thought of preparing a checklist is worth a mention … :_))
@shruti:
flattered and flattened ;_)) Thank you very much :_)) Its people like you who make me scribble all this junk and in turn bore you and others arnd :_))
@Mind Curry:
yes boss !!! ;_))
Shall convey my regards to her, when I meet Maggie ;_))
Man, why go for maggi, when burgers and subs and gyros and nachos and tacos and pizzas and pastas and what not are waiting for you :_))
@Rat:
That was a cool incident ;_))
For the others arnd, Sand and I prepared our shopping list and sent kiron shopping… we wanted to include a dustpan in the list… the name ‘dustpan’ just evaded both of us and finally we wrote Stuna – 1. Imagine kiron’s reaction when he found the fourth item in the list as Stuna – 1 :_)
@venus:
Well, to be frank, I just forgot… I will take a print out of your instructions and from now on follow them religiously… :_))
We finally got all the vegetables in the ‘required’ quantities… :_))
LOL :))
Friday evening I made a zip file with pictures of Frying Pan, Rolling Pin, Rolling Baord, Bowl etc and a MS Word Doc with recipes for a friend who was going out shopping to buy vessels so that he cook himself a meal. What a co incidence that you were on the same mission :))
Looks like you are settling down well. :)Can't wait to read more.
One small suggestion, get a small electric rice cooker if you haven't already. It will save you oodles of time waiting for all that rice you bought to cook. :))
You know, try out Grandma's Meen achar and even their veggie ones. They are awesome. I know a pala achayan will find it difficult to live without non veg essentials even though this is the season of Lent. ;)
And please be assured, Grandma is not paying me undisclosed amounts to endorse their product to nouveau cooks. :))
so geo is learnin cooking..!! great news..!i remember u tellin..'COOKINGO..? NJANO..?!ippum istham pole restaurants alle ollathu.. pinne kalyanam kazinjitu bharya cook cheyatte.. athinalle pennu kettunne?!!" ha..! ha..! so ur wife seems to be going to be the lucky one.. she can order u to make chicken curry and chicken roast..
:))
i wanted to see u cooking :p btw whom to defeat!
Good one, now waiting for the next post with cooking adventures..
btw, tharavaadu( Bommanahalli) misses you .. sob sob..
reminded me so much of my first shopping expedition...even after 3-4 years i was still calculationg weights in kilos...never could clearly estimate how much a pound of onions was!!!
devon street certainly is a landmark for indians...mallus actually pronounce it diwan street!!! did u go to the chicago lakefront...my cousin and i once got so drunk at night we carried chairs thru michigan avenue and aa lakefrontil irunne neram velippichu!!!
@silverine:
You sure are helping a lot of people… :_) why didn’t u send it to me as well… :_D
Btw, whatz a Rolling Pin? ;_)
@quills:
Yea yea… I’ve settled down… all it takes is a bed or a comforter…:_)
I guess my roomies are managing with a microwave… Granny’s pickle sounds yummy… :_) I simply love meen achaar….
Granny’s people asked you to put that disclaimer, so that it sounds natural? :_))
Btw, whatz lent? ;_)
@Anu Chechy:
ha ha ha…. U havnt read it correct… its my roomies…not me… :_))
I still continue to say “kalyanam kazinjitu bharya cook cheyatte.. athinalle pennu kettunne?!!"
>>so ur wife seems to be going to be the lucky one…
thank you thank you… I knew this… but thanks making it explicit…
@Jithu:
it’s the same story as we had it in Bombay… here also my roomies are good enuf to feed me :_D
@Anita:
keep waiting… :_))
u still go to Tharavadu? What abt ur dieting plans? ;_))
@Jiby:
I knew so many guys would be able to relate to that experience… :_D
I have been to the lakefront…millennium park…dockyard….navy peer….
Didmt know u were here…or u just came here to visit ur friend? Where were you?
rolling pin is used to parathify chapati mavu -- mansasilaayo? good luck settling down and stay warm.
Am shocked....Lent enthannenno???..evide aa Catechism book!!!!! :))
Thanu and Quills:
I know the meanings :_))
Was just trying to repeat the question :_))
athu sheri.. so you write "stuna" in the list only when I am going for shopping?? Ithu aneethiyaanu.. akramamaanu.. I still remember the confusion(mine and their's) when I ordered "stuna" from Shobha's super market. I had given them the list, so it took sometime for me to make out why they were scratching their head :D.
aaaavoooo...samadhanamayi. :))
Happy Easter by the way!
:)
naan ee post kore kaalam munpu kandathaa..appol thirakkilayondu comment cheyyan pattiyillarunnu. ippol bhayankara thirakku aanennu thonnunnallo! good luck with the project!
btw
U ve been tagged!
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