india's where the heart is

india may be where the heart is, but it is also where the food is, the family is and the cows are. my extremely short stint was just enough time to party it up with my dad for his 60th bday, play party games with my 80+ yr old grandmoms and eat a lot of my favorite indian foods (and equal times using the bathroom).

my trip this time took me to the small city of nagpur where my dad's mom and two brothers live, smack dab in the middle of india. not much has changed since my last trip there over 6-7 years ago. the city has some significant significance for my family; my grandparents used to own a property right on the main street of nagpur as a summer house where my dad and his 3 brothers and 1 sister used to vacation growing up. it is also the house my grandmother lived in as she got older, and my immediately family used to visit as my sister and i grew up. not only was it centrally located, it had magical mazes of rooms and closets and rooftops for awesome games of hide and seek. it was also across the street from our fave "cream corner" where my cousins and i used to get a daily (if not doubly) mango ice cream treat. and as our reunions grew bigger, it was conveniently down the street from a host of nagpur's only hotels. several years ago, my grandmother sold the property to a big contractor who built a large complex on the land. and now there is coincidentally a family owned restaurant right where our living room used to be.

this trip, we stayed at my uncle's place, a few minutes outside the city proper. i got in super early on sunday morning, just in time to take a quick bucket bath and get ready for my dad's big birthday bash. aside from my one younger cousin studying in nagpur, i was the youngest attendee by about 30 years. which made it that much more fun and i got a lot of attention and love and first dibs on all buffet items :) one of the highlights was the pani puri and chaat stand which quickly became the crowd fave.

here's a pic of my parents having a special birthday dance and of course...the chaat corner

the coolest parents in the world doing a little dance

the chaat station - nom nom nom

after the party, we basically had a lot of time to hang out, walk around, eat, shop, eat, eat, eat, nap, have chai, etc. here are some snaps of the streets of nagpur

a cow

main street

here's also some pics of us shopping and my magnificent new year's eve with my grandmoms :)

the beautiful salesman modeling this beautiful sari that we did not purchase

the hats came out and bottles (of juice) were poppin! best new year's ever!

last but certainly not least, ended the trip with a spicy mcpaneer sammie. success!

overall a very short but heart-filled family reunion, from which i came back with mango candy, coconut biscuits, two rotis for the road and a load of mithai!

dubai dubai

this place is like no other. i mean, all of my favorites in one - cinnabon, pf changs, red lobster, cold stone, dean & deluca, magnolia's. haha ON TOP of that, there's clear blue sparkling waters, warm weather and middle eastern food. and a load of indian people. what is not to like...

hao and i went to dubai for his good college friend mahdi's wedding. we, along with a dozen other penn alum, attended their reception which boasted lots of rhythmic dancing, radiant faces and some sharply dressed sudanese men. aww yeah.

also two of my cousins and their wives happen to live in dubai so we had some built in tour guides. they graciously took hao, art and i around and showed us the must-sees of the city. most happened to be in or around a mall which pleased me for some reason. below is a snapshot of my short but sweet stay in dubai! will share hao's blog post when he's done to give you the full rundown!

ps. there are not many pics of food here because i was very ill the first two days in dubai and didnt eat much. but rest assured there was incredible food and it shall be captured by the wonders of hao's blog.

the quran and a prayer mat in our hotel room

almaz by momo moroccan restaurant hidden in harvey nichols in mall of emirates

hookah vendor at souk madinat

ski slopes at the mall of the emirates...nbd

a little camel racing to start the day

burj khalifa

delicious pine nut hummus, which i subsequently ordered at every meal following 

hao and i before the wedding

the handsome mahdi, beautiful iman and their fams

hao, the groom mahdi and art enjoying the dance floor

shikher, my cousin, and karam, his wife, on our first day of touring/eating

rohan and shilpy on my last day

thanksgiving, wo ai ni (iloveyou)

thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. this year was the first year i've ever missed thanksgiving at my parents' house - a big feast consisting of loads of family friends, elastic waistbands and, certainly not least forgotten, cajun deep fried turkey(s). i was pretty bummed to be missing it considering the assumed lack of great tgiving related foods here in shang but i was proven wrong that fine thursday evening!

luckily my boss and her hubby ilan (aka my second family) are also big on thanksgiving and had us over for a feast. hao had seen a facebook post from owner of madison restaurant austin hu that they were catering the holiday. so our boss ordered it and we had a delicious, traditional (better than expected) dinner!

i am so thankful for such a happy and healthy life, great family and friends and a happy, filled heart.

here are the pics of the food!!! so good!

the spread

the golden turkey - really tasty!!!!

true to tradition - sweet potatoes with raisins and marshmallows

creamy mashed potatoes - omg so good

green beans are always my fave!

felicia's homemade apple crumble with graham cracker crust!

hao's homemade pecan pie! soooooo good!

madison's pumpkin pie

hao chi ma?

hao chi ma? is it good? important question for eating and can be answered simply with 'hao chi' or 'bu hao chi'. gotta love this chinese language. some things are so simple, as they should be.

here is a photo recap of the past couple weeks post travels. not as glam as the longest post ever but something to tide you over while i experience more post-able shenanigans.

1. hao chi. hao's birthday, celebrity status. the theme was 'bowties and bandanas' though literally no one came through except hao :) delicious dinner at scarpetta (the shanghai version, not related to the conant ones, sadly).

happy birthday!

2. bu hao chi. the team and i went to beijing and tianjin for work a couple weeks ago. here are some shots from the famous wangfujing snack street! these things are crazy but i never saw a single person eating them...except the two bros on a college trip daring each other to eat one (never actually saw the consumption).

seahorse

starfish

large scorpions

roast pigeon?

 2 1/2. hao chi. on same beijing trip, we had a team dinner at da dong. after they skillfully carve your duck in front of you, the first bite you must eat is the skin dipped in some sugar. oh baby.

i will die for you

3. hao chi (well...hai keyi). in other, more delicious, news, some girls and i had brunch at a new place called Henkes. sub par service and pricey prices (just like the rest of the reel mall sans my one and only, reel kitchen) but the breakfast pizza was certainly a novel creation. regular pizza tastiness with pancetta and two cracked eggs. aside from the ubiquitous 'i wish bacon was crispier in china/why isn't it crispier in china/pork is everywhere can't you cook it a little longer' underlying feeling with every non-chinese meal, a cracked egg (or two) on pizza shall never be underestimated.

what's not to like?

 4. hao kan! dong tian lai le! winter is here! and it was time to get my shop on. to the left in that big ikea bag are my summer clothing donations and the line up of shopping bags that i'm gracefully trying to cover encompass my new winter wardrobe. including this fancy outfit...head to toe fuzzy. gap body pullover, fuzzy uniqlo leggings (yes like legit fuzzy) and uniqlo fuzzy house slippers. i hope it gets cold enough to wear this outfit because the last two nights i've been sweating my ass off in this. ha!

dong tian!

 5. HAO CHI! last but certainly not least. ive been on a cooking rant...(if three times makes a rant) and dessert surely counts! just like these saturday night s'mores i made in the handy dandy, gloriously global tool that rarely lets you down - yes, the microwave. ladies and gentleman, it's a smore. in china. [queue chorus] oohhh happpyy ddayyyyy. gooey milk chocolate, honey graham cracker and one air fluffed marshmallow. "eat me eat me" says the smore. i obliged.

my next post will be dedicated to my favorite holiday (except for all holidays involving gifts+parties) THANKSGIVING! 

longest post ever.

i'm bacckkk. what up.

you might call this long, is-she-still-alive hiatus unjustified and just plain inconsiderate. then you might recall that if i'm not blogging, i'm actually too busy frolicking the world to boast about it. and then you might sigh in relief that there is no update for you to read and be jealous of.

but i'm back. traveling and working and eating as much as i do takes its toll. thus i will condense the past 4 weeks of amazing discoveries and reunions to merely one really long blog post. :) 

1. laos

seriously underrated and i'm obsessed. the slow-paced, low-story, small-street city of vientiane was an instant refresher to the shanghai hustle and bustle. our cute boutique hotel, conveniently plopped in the middle of the quaint streets of this walking city, was the perfect oasis for a few nights and our complimentary breakfast and mosquito repellent definitely added memorable value. 

five words to describe laos: spiritual, unpretentious, delicious, relaxed and easy. 

five of the best things of laos: coconut biscuits (#1-3), laos coffee (e.g. wok roasted with condensed milk), mekong river fried fish

here are some fantastic pics courtesy of mr. wang:

 monks walking for evening prayer at the temple

small city streets

that mekong river fish nom nom nom

delicious food: roasted pigeon

all things coconut

kayaking in picturesque vang vieng

last meal: coconut sticky rice with mango

2. maui 

hard to say enough about maui so i'll just tell it with photos. aka it's almost 10 pm and i'm really tired. but yes, here are the highlights.

food
ziplining
sunrise at haleakala
road to hana
mama's fish house
eating it from some 2-3 foot waves
jaws (where the waves are 20 feet and surfers drop in from helicopter!)
breakfast buffet
pool bar and virgin pina coladas
spf 80
sea turtles
poke
waterfall hopping
da kitchen

five of the best things of maui: fish, fish with butter, sunrises and sunsets, macadamia+coconut, road to hana, da kitchen. oh wait, that's six.

we had some damn delicious food in maui but this was a fave. sesame miso glazed fresh catch of the day with caesar side salad. sounds silly. 

but for those of you that know me, i don't finish my food. this was serious. that's how good it was.

sunrise at haleakala

sunset at the hotel

sunset near lahaina

on the road to hana...bootiful!

waterfall numero uno: a nice cool dip

bamboo forest on the way to waterfall #71

which led to this! waterfall 71! amazing.

3. back to ny and the love is palpable. first stop, shwe's engagement partay!

shwe's happy day!! miss you devsies!

miss alex and annie 

(creepy) elmo

j chiang!

mr and mrs carlson! :O

great to see ted allen again...been awhile since my last episode of chopped ;)

small aside regarding the last pic...my sister has the coolest gig ever and writes the blog for the degustibus cooking school. which means i get the best perks ever! got to sit in on this cooking class and met ted and his man later. can't wait for your china visit guys! haha. if you live in ny or are in ny for a bit of time, you should absolutely check out the degustibus school for a fine fine 5 course meal, extensive cooking lessons and shooting the shit with some of the best chefs around.
https://degustibusnyc.nlcommerce.com/blog

OK so that's it. if you made it this far, i appreciate your loyalty and boredom. all in all a very very successful few weeks of traveling and food and eats and family and fun. what more can i ask for?

also check out hao's blog because it's way better than mine and way more thoughtful!!!!
http://houseofhaos.com/

this week: hao's birthday takes us to scarpetta (nom nom nom) and then hong kong for the weekend. im sure blog worthy things shall arise from said occasion.

off to nurture my food-baby!