Thoughts

When life gives you an easel and just a charcoal, do you sulk that you don't have color? no you just start a lovely charcoal painting.

Loppable bites: cheese: part 2

Ok, so just after I posted my adventure and the visceral need to cut one "leetle" piece of jarlesberg, I realized that soon it was going to get over, leaving me with no cheese to lop. This strong affinity to cheese makes me wonder, if I was a mouse in last birth. Last birth or not, this birth, till I am in US, I will surely try as many of vegetarian cheeses as possible. Though I feel like jerry mouse when I reach cheese section, I keep in mind, both quantity and cost factor, especially when I try a new cheese. A bit discriminating, I am yet to try blue cheese (gorgonzola included). Maybe in future I will be more gutsy. Digressions aside, so with weekly shopping, I found an affordable slim rectangle of muenster and another one of Monterrey jack. Monterrey jack is reliable since I have had his sexier brother pepper jack but muenster I was not so sure. I always have a tendency of finishing the dangerous first. and so I tore open the fat transparent vacuum pack to cut a piece back and carefully resealing it ( nothing can be as bad as freeze dried cheese). and I tasted it. Though it is rind washed, the cheese I had in hand was not very salty which at times a cheddar can be, a smooth taste, mild (lucky me) and elastic, it tasted clean and yum. In short I liked it. This cheese is made from pasteurized cows milk and can range from smooth and mild, to downright pungent. I am happy I tasted a mild one. Another cows milk that I had tasted long ago and which I just love is boursin. a nutty, paste like, spreadable cheese that is just out of the world.


The next block to attack will surely be Monterrey jack, though the next grocery visit may surely see fresh mozzarella in olive oil. lets see. as of now, a cold lop of muenster or remaining jarlesberg is all I need and then Monterrey jack is of course in queue.

Loppable bites: cheese: part 1

One of the things being in US has given me is inexhaustible access to some of the best tastes in cheese.


Though I love cheeses. I have a few allergens. One is paying huge sum for small unknown hunk which may or may not taste good and another is existence of animal coagulant or rennet in cheese. Luckily for me, even if a cheese is cut to smaller buyable wedges or pieces, the wedges have ingredients listed on them. I know I maybe compromising on taste and originality. But who cares, I am neither a connoisseur nor someone an expert or someone like a chef or food writer who maybe caught for not being authentic.


Goat cheese and feta have always been my first love. While feta is salty and a little hard (blame it on storing it in brine), goat cheese has that crumbly, milky , sweetish quality that tastes a little bit like "chenna" (not paneer please). it is and will be my always go to cheese. This prompted me to try a small medallion of chevre with herbs. Unfortunately I didn't smell any special taste of herbs though the cheese itself was absolutely loppable with a roti roll or spreadable on khakra (I am off from bread since a long time with pizza being a lovely exception). I incidentally also tried chavrie (just like chevre in plastic pyramid).


The taste of parmesan is a lovely hard and salty shard and even if there is more pecorino in the parmesan-pecorino mix that I get from trader joes, parmesan stands out.


A few days back I got a wedge of jarlesberg. A mild cow milk, semi hard cheese from Norway. Whenever I am unsure of how to use it, I try a cheese naked. With no roti, or khakra or roll to help. The first taste was so so for me. Felt like milder version of parmesan but the taste grew on me. I now lop it just like that as a snack, just like I did of cubes of pepper jack for sale. Pepper jack I liked for many reasons. Its soft creaminess absolutely enhanced by specs of jalapeños and red peppers. Monterary jack still remains to be tried and so many others.


This maybe a ruse but I don't know but I feel cheese as the only daily calcium intake I have as I don't have milk (except for tea) and milk products otherwise. Cheese seems to be the only way I can have some calcium in my body. hehe. This description will ofcourse continue with other new additions and tastings.

Some unexpected nice movies on netflix:2: Patrick

Another movie, which I thought would be a welcome change from forensic files and reruns of some Korean or Taiwanese daily soaps was "Patrick".


We meet Sarah Francis as she’s being dumped by the guy she just moved in with. A member of a very patronizing, unemotionally supportive family, at least to her, Sarah is viewed by them as a slacker without direction, some of which may be true. After all, her sister is married with kiddies and is a practicing attorney. Sarah, on the other hand, wants to be a teacher and will begin her new job soon, if she can figure out how to get there on time.

Further complicating the picture is the recent death of her granny who has willed her her beloved pooch, Patrick. Not only does Sarah not care for dogs, but her lease forbids them; and she’s about to start a new job. Why granny thought Sarah should be the one to care for a dog, well, Sarah can’t fathom the answer, an answer that it is instantly clear to the audience. It will force Sarah out of herself, get her outdoors, have her make new acquaintances and learn to problem solve. And there you have the film in a nutshell.

Laden with pleasant, stereotypic characters, there isn’t a twist or turn that you don’t see coming long before Sarah. She meets a couple of promising young men in the park while walking the dog; she manages the difficult English class to which she’s assigned, even getting them to pay attention to Jane Eyre, and finds herself along the way. There you have it and all because of a little dog.

Beattie Edmondson, Sarah, is cute, pert, awkward (in a forced sort of way – watch her run), and winning. Her love interests, Ed Skrein, the self-absorbed vet, and Tom Bennett, the regular fella with complications, do the best they can with what they’ve been afforded.


There were two scenes that made me feel good inside. A scene where the pug forgets the cat (who made him lose first) and runs after sarah's trace and the scene where Sarah drops in exertion and he nudges his legs, later licking her face.


A predictable story and predictable end but made my self a promise that day. I will surely have my own pug one day maybe a cat and pug. I don't know. Dog for sure.

Some unexpected nice movies on netflix:1: Despite everything

Netflix has become my  go to entertainment whenever I have time and that is very often. the time to kill till pilla is back home which is solid 3.5 hours. leaving aside currently the antibiotics induced sleep, I have become a premature hag, complete with greying hair and early onset of insomnia which I have knowledge runs in my family. This makes me avoid 1/2 hour nap in afternoon and get up an hour or hour and a half sometimes before alarm. To actually get to sleep as soon as I hit the bed is really bliss but non napping in the afternoon really helps. At such times Netflix comes to rescure. sometimes an interesting documentary or sometimes a subtitled film really marks a fun run. and this movie was one of them.
 The movie is based on how four sisters (Sara, Claudia, Sophia and Lucia) bond and come together after their mother dies, in search of the men who fathered each of them.
An obvious end to the movie etc, but what struck to me was absolute humor in almost all the scenes and though you feel that the sister's individual stories (except Sara) would have been good, an overall package is really funny.
Studying French and love for a good (even if subtitled ) movie, and a chance clicking brought me to this laugh a riot. a definitely one time must see.