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48 Hours in Udaipur, Rajasthan – Day 2
7 Mar2010
Continued from Day 1.
Day 2
10:30 PM
The Spice Box offers a great introductory Indian cooking class (also featured in the Lonely Planet) where the cooking instructor, Shakti Singh, explains the basics of curries used in most Indian dishes in a very lively and amusing manner. He makes up for his grammatically incorrect English in the jokes and amusing delivery of the class. I am psyched to try what I’ve learned in this class so expect to see some recipes on this blog soon as I experiment with these new techniques. Call in advance in order to reserve a space on for his class as they tend to sell out quickly. Towards the end of the class you also get to eat your creations (for better or worse) and enjoy other dishes prepared by the class staff.
2 PM
After lunch head over to the Bagore Ki Haveli which is an old mansion in the Rajasthani sense. Haveli’s are mini-palaces or mansions built by the wealthy that have some amazing architecture. Bagore Ki Haveli sits on the banks of the Pichola lake and has been converted into a museum that gives you a glimpse of the lives the rich and famous led in the eighteenth century. Do not miss the world’s largest turban on display here in a glass case. After taking a tour of the haveli, you can walk down to the banks of the lake and see how life in this city centers around this lake; from local fishermen fishing, to people bathing, to women doing their laundry by the lake bank.
Rajasthan is known for its miniature paintings – finely detailed water based paintings or illustrations developed during the mughal empire. You will see these paintings for sale at virtually any store in Udaipur as they are popular souvenirs for tourists. In Udaipur, there are a few places where you can even take miniature painting classes and create your own little illustrations on silk. Classes are usually an hour long and it is recommended to call in advance to select a time.
6 PM
Relax at the Sunset View Cafe in the City Palace. Here you can enjoy a chilled Kingfisher beer while taking in a beautiful serene sunset over the Aravali Hills and Pichola lake. A splendid way to unwind after a somewhat educational day.
8 PM
After enjoying a Rajasthani sunset, head over to Udaivillas for dinner. This lavish hotel, built on land leased from the king, does an oustanding job of making you believe you have been transported back in time as royalty in this land of kings. The outdoor restaurant here is right on the banks of the lake with a beautiful view of the City Palace and Lake Palace. Enjoy a great Rajasthani and Mughlai feast under the stars as you are entertained by live Rajasthani music and dance.
For more pictures of this trip check out my flickr set.
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48 Hours in Udaipur, Rajasthan – Day 1
4 Mar2010
Udaipur is a beautiful little city tucked away in the southern part of Rajasthan, India. The state of Rajasthan is well known for its exquisite architecture, abundant forts and palaces, unique history and brilliant colors. The historical old city of Udaipur, often referred to as the City of Lakes due to the predominance of a few large lakes in its landscape, has a pastel palette that contrasts nicely with the immensely colorful dresses and accessories worn by the locals. Due to a drought that has lasted for 2 years now, the lakes aren’t at the same levels they used to be but still add a lot of character and beauty to this picturesque city.
- Image via Wikipedia
Day 1
10:00 AM
The City Palace: This enormous pastel yellow palace is the city’s primary palace that was inhabited by the many kings who ruled here for centuries and a section of it is still used as a residence for the current King (now just a figure head). A large part of the palace has been converted into a museum allowing visitors to examine closely the insides of the palace and its beautiful architecture. The exquisite detail that you see in every pillar, courtyard and baclony is jaw dropping and to know that it was all built by hand centuries ago is unfthomable. You can catch amazing views of the entire city of Udaipur from parts of the palace. This can be a crowded destination so I recommend visiting the palace on a weekday if possible.
Just outside the City Palace is a beautiful marble temple called the Jagdish temple. This temple erected in honor of the hindu god Vishnu, has intricate carvings all around its outer walls and soars 79 feet high. Inside the main structure is a large paryer area with idols of the Gods in the front (common to all hindu temples) and if you are lucky you can catch a puja or prayer in progress. During the puja, many elderly women from the city gather here in beautifully colored saris, singing bhajans or religious songs.
1:00 PM
Get a bite to eat at any of the roof top restaurants in the old city. Enjoy some traditional Mughlai or Rajasthani food while taking in a view of the city from above. A few places to check out are Ambrani and Savage Garden.
3:00 PM
Once you’re done with lunch, head on over to the maze of streets in this ancient city and get lost shopping the colorful stores that line them. Here you will find anything from beautiful hand-made wall tapestries to Rajasthani miniature paintings (intricate hand made paintings made on silk), from ornate jewelery to bright and vibrant shoes. You can spend a whole day enjoying all that these little stores have to offer. A tip to the inexperienced – make sure to bargain everything as store owners usually quote a starting price of 2-3x what they might be willing to sell at.
9:00 PM
After resting for a couple of hours, head over to Jagat Niwas Palace for a romantic dining experience under the stars, enjoying a view of the Lake Palace and its surroundings. Be sure to call in advance and make reservations as this restaurant can get crowded. The fish here is known to be excellent and is caught locally from the lake.
Click here for Day 2.
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- In: Travels
- Tags: 48 hours, City Palace, india, Lake Palace, rajasthan, udaipur
Making empanadas
20 Feb2010
Inspired by the recent empanadas class, we set out to create our own empanadas. I use the word we very loosely in this context as it was really ML doing all the cooking and me hovering around the kitchen. Surprisingly we remembered most of the recipe (had to look up a few minor things) and they came out delicious as well.
The dough:
In a large glass bowl, beat an egg and add 1/2 cup of cold water. Slowly mix in 3 cups of all purpose flour (whole wheat if you like), 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of butter/shortening to create the dough (a pastry blender works well for this purpose). Once the flour is mixed, kneed the dough on a lightly floured surface such as your kitchen counter top (after its been cleaned). Wrap this in plastic wrap and store in your refrigerator until we are done making the filling. You can also freeze it at this point if you are not planning to use it all.
The filling:
Heat a 12″ skillet with some olive oil. Finely chop a medium white onion and toss it into the skillet with a pinch of salt (this accelerates the cooking time for the onions and helps them become transparent). Add in 1 red bell pepper chopped into small pieces. Toss in 1 lb of ground beef stirring often to break up the meat in the skillet. Add about a 2 tablespoons of cumin, 1 teaspoon of paprika, 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook until the beef has been cooked all the way through.
The tapas:
Taking small 1/2″ spheres from the dough, flatten them out into circles using a rolling pin on the same surface you were using before. Add more flour to keep the dough from sticking to the surface and your hands. Getting them into respectable circles takes a bit of practice but they don’t have to be perfect.
Scoop up enough of the filling and place on one side of the circle. Gently fold the other half of the circle over the filling and using wet fingers seal the dough shut. You want to use the right amount of filling here so that the empanadas are meaty and not doughy and at the same time not too much where it becomes difficult to enclose inside the dough. You can use the tip of the fork to create small cuts at the sealed edges of the semi circle to create a pattern. Repeat this until you’ve used up all the filling or dough – whichever happens to be the limited factor.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Carefully place the stuffed tapas in a baking tray and brush them with some egg white – this gives them a glisten when cooked. Place the tray in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes until they are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool before serving.
The aji:
To accompany the empanadas we made a spicy Colombian dipping sauce called aji. In a blender, add one large tomato (halved), 1 cup of green onions, 1/2 cup of cilantro, a 1/4 cup of vinegar and a pinch of salt. Add in some green chillies or Tobasco sauce to your desired spice level. Squeeze in 1 lemon and mix. Add more salt to taste.
Recommended wine pairing: Malbec or Torrontes.
- In: Food
Thoughts on Google Buzz
12 Feb2010
- Image by Máximo Gómez Santos via Flickr
Google’s latest foray into social media has caused quite a bit of buzz. Having played with it for the past couple days I thought I’d put my thoughts in writing.
Firstly, this is obviously Google’s attempt to get on the hyperlocal, micro-blogging bandwagon in the same vein as Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook. Having said that, there a few things I like and dislike about the service.
I actually like the Gmail integration – its not very obtrusive and I find myself clicking on the Buzz tab several times a day while looking at my inbox. This is sure to get people participating (even those who never use Twitter or Foursquare but are on Gmail) I am also pretty impressed with the mobile integration within the google.com mobile site. The foursquare-esque ability to communicate my location (with a very accurate list of near by locations and businesses) is awesome – easy to use and nicely integrated with the iPhone experience since its there each time I open my browser. To make the experience tighter, they should also integrate it into the Maps application which I assume will be in the next iPhone OS version. Buzz also easily lets you pull data feeds from twitter, blogger, tumblr, etc which is nice and am hoping for a push service as well and integration with Facebook at some point.
Searching on buzz (in Gmail) is also pretty easy and well integrated. I can not only search my own buzz feed by the entire public feed without leaving my inbox!
I am also impressed by their roll out strategy and how they seeded the service. Seeding my followers with the most frequently used list of contacts and pulling other public data from GChat away messages and Google Reader comments is pretty cool. I am sure there are people for whom this backfired but I think overall this was a great way to “bootstrap” the service and get people participating before they participate.
I also glanced at the Buzz API that was released at the same time and love how open (read: anti-Facebook) it is. This will surely help in its adoption and scale as they are taking a paragraph right out of Twitter’s success story.
Now for things I don’t like about Buzz, and there aren’t too many. For starters the name could have been a bit more creative, but then again Google isn’t quite known for creative product names (Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Chat etc). It’s also a bit too tightly integrated with my online identity (being tied to my email account) which makes it difficult for businesses/startups to participate in it – some of the heaviest users on Twitter. This would mean creating a common email account first for everyone in a business to access the service. Not a huge deal, but surely unnecessary.
All in all, I think its Google’s first great approach to social media. Let’s see if it fares better than OpenSocial.
Update: There’s been quite a lot of backlash lately on Buzz’s roll out and Google has made a public apology for all the privacy issues that occurred due to this roll out.
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- In: Technology
- Tags: google buzz, review
Let it snow…
10 Feb2010
After missing 18″ of snow last weekend by about 99 miles, we’ve got another blizzard on our hands – and this time NYC’s not so lucky. These are views from my backyard.
- In: Random