In the last eight years, I have successfully transitioned from crying at the sight of roadkill to casually commenting on it. Now when I see a dead deer or raccoon, I am thinking "Fresh Kill" or "Flat Meat" like I am about to pull over and decide which one to have for dinner! It still makes me queasy and I go quiet for a few minutes, but I think I am less sensitive to it now.

In some U.S. states it is legal and even encouraged to eat roadkill. Makes sense! Take just the fact that 1.5 million deer meet their end on the road every year in the US. It made me wonder if the homeless shelters could somehow take advantage of this ... perhaps with the help of the State Trooper Association or the Dept. of Transportation?

There are tons of recipe books and websites dedicated to roadkill --- deer, raccoon, skunk, moose, bear, wolf, dog, cat, rat, elk, armadillo, small and large birds, rabbit, turtle, kangaroo, opossums, some snakes and reptiles, and hold your breath... porcupine!

It was as though the entire zoo was let out on the road to be tattooed with tire threads! You could just look out your car window for some nature time (even if it is more morbid than seeing live ones behind bars)

A few years ago, we bumped into a very friendly couple in La Jolla in Sandiego who (apart from teaching us how to pronounce La Jolla) enlightened us on local culture... there was a whole assortment of facts peculiar only to san diego that we were happy to learn about... But related to roadkill, I remember being told that Roadkill Bingo was a popular game in the west coast. It is a nice way to kill time in long distance travel while encouraging kids to learn the animals of their natural habit.

Roadkill undoubtedly is a worldwide phenomenon (at least wherever there are roads with lots of traffic) There is clearly a lot of culture developed around it... For instance, I saw an interesting book that teaches you how to cook directly on a running car engine... I bet it was written by a very resourceful person who had a lot of experience making delicious meals out of fresh kill.

Having read Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil recently, I thought it was possible that roadkill art is popular with taxidermists. They could probably make a living by choosing to do just roadkill! So I went on a web search frenzy and found several sites full of roadkill art.




I also found lots of roadkill toys. Some look disgusting, or creatively mean-spirited, but there are a few that are actually not too bad. There is even a roadkilltoys.com (!)

About five years ago, Kraft Foods was forced to kill one of their gummy products. Their Trolli Road Kill Gummies were gummy-animals shaped like roadkill complete with tire threads. People thought it sent out a very bad message to kids. I wonder what that bad message was! Especially given that New Jersey, which strongly lobbied against this gummy actually lets you eat roadkill if you have a permit. Why then do they think it offensive to eat fake roadkill?

It is the equivalent of letting you eat a real human brain and banning the human brain shaped jello!

That also makes me wonder if there is protest against all other kinds of gross candy. I see several in candy stores. There are jello molds shaped like human body parts - heart, brain and intestines, candies shaped like eyeballs, sour gummies shaped like toilet plungers, bugs and worms, pigs pooping out candy. Is anyone protesting against them? (Not that I mind either way.)

One of my favor go-to comic books is Stone Soup's Road Kill for the Closet. FYI: It has nothing to do with roadkill. The comic is about a single mom bringing up her two kids. Living with her are also her mom and her recently-divorced sister who is in love with her neighbour! As simple as that. It is the most endearing comic I have read. Funny, heartening and absolutely lovable. Since the title has Road Kill on it, I thought now might be a perfect time to promote it. :)

I wonder if I might find this in my library: Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streets, and Highways

I am contributing to the million articles written by patients about weight gain from taking inhaled (like albuterol) and oral corticosteroids (like prednisone) for asthma. Stating the obvious, the side effects of these medications vary from person to person and also depend on the dosage and the length of time they are taken. If you've taken them long enough and have talked to a doctor, you know what they are and also know what to do to deal with them. I realize that being a patient does not in anyway qualify me as an expert on this subject, so doctors, please don't hate me for sharing my experience. :) Here, I only speak of what I do to lose weight after my treatment. Correct me if I am wrong.

Every year, I gain at least 20 lbs when I take my medications and I try not to lose sleep over looking full-faced! It takes a lot of convincing to tell myself that the weight gain is a fair sacrifice for mending my breathing. But, the good news is that the side effects of steroids is temporary and with diet and exercise the weight gain can be easily reversed in a few weeks time. I find that the best way to go about undoing the weight gain is to first understand what causes it. From reading online and talking to doctors, these seem to be some reasons why steroids cause weight gain:

One, that steroids cause sodium retention and potassium depletion in the body. The two together cause increased fluid retention (edema) and swelling. I have a swollen face, and fair amount of fluid retention in my legs. I have been told that restricting the amount of salt you take and having a diet that is rich in potassium can help reduce fluid retention.

Two, that steroids cause an increase in appetite. This, in my opinion is the real enemy. Now it is easy to say one should be careful about their food intake, but when you are ravenous and feel like you can eat an elephant alive, this idea of self-control seems impossible to follow and "hard to swallow". What makes it worse is, even after you are off medication, you still continue to remain a slave to this eating habit that you developed during your treatment and keep blaming the steroid for your vices! I can see that I am becoming one of those people who is eternally fixated on food (especially the rich/junk kind) and keep blaming the steroids for it.

Three, that steroids cause us to excuse ourselves from physical activity. A part of this excuse is valid of course. You can't possibly work out if your asthma is exercise-induced, or you are wheezing or coughing incessantly and are breathless all the time. Also, steroids cause high blood pressure, body pain, muscle and bone weakness, and decrease in stamina (especially long-term use). In my case, the real reason for lack of physical activity is lethargy. Being on steroids sounds like a convenient excuse not to exercise, but it really is not. Ironically, lack of exercise leads to obesity and obesity increases chances of asthma and asthma intern leads to obesity (through steroid intake).

Medics seem undecided on whether exercise helps with prevention of asthma or not. Some suggest that some kinds of exercises (like pranayama and buteyko) stretch the lungs and bronchial tubes, which may help reduce resistance to breathing and even encourage normal diaphragmatic breathing. Exercise also improves one's tolerance to physical exertion. That being said, sustained aerobic exercises might trigger an attack, so talk to your doctor on what might suit you best. It is generally advised that asthmatics should exercise towards the lower end of their target heart-rate. Here are some exercises listed in the order of "least to most-likely to induce asthma": swimming, walking, cycling, treadmill running, outdoor running!

To summarize: eating many small meals throughout the day, decreasing calorie intake, salt and sugar intake (sugar because steroids also increase blood-sugar level), increasing calcium and potassium in-take and exercising should do the trick.

I know that sounds like a lot... especially considering that this cycle repeats itself every year. But then again, looking good in a month’s time and for a good 10 months at a stretch is reward enough.

This post does not address other short and long term side effects of corticosteroids, which I might write about when they begin to bother me as much as weight gain currently is. But, I am off my steroids for this year (I hope!) and am getting ready for my workout. Wish me luck :)

There's about a 1000 calories in the veggie burrito I eat almost everyday. The good news is it has all the dietary fiber I need. The bad news is everything else that is not dietary fiber! :)

What does it say about me that my website received most hits when I was least active!

I am back from my vacation and feel a lot like Alice after her adventure in Wonderland, like Gulliver after his voyages through Liliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and Houyhnhmns, like Dorothy after her return from the Land of Oz.

For one thing, my monopoly board game came to life and in such style! We arrived in London on Christmas day and drove the night through eerily empty streets, all brightly illuminated with Christmas lights of all varieties. It resembled an impressively geared-up set just before a flamboyant musical is about to begin. And just like that, over the next few days, the curtains opened and the streets began to fill up with traffic, the sidewalks came alive with the hustle and bustle of a teeming metropolis, much like in Time Square on a bad day with no place to drive, park or walk!

Most people I met were dressed in colorful costumes of fantastical creatures, and did things like playing the violin while walking a tightrope, juggling five balls with their mouth, singing and dancing in the most evocative ways.

We sat through a glorious performance by the Belmont Ensemble of London in a beautiful baroque setting at St.Martin-in-the-Fields. The violinists played familiar yuletide masterpieces by Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Corelli, and Torelli.

Then one frosty morning, we witnessed Christmas Crackers, a very festive blend of acrobatics, comedy, music and burlesque in a vibrant setting at Shakespeare’s Globe. It was a bit like a Pantomime with actors walking amongst the audience, telling stories through jokes, songs and dances, mostly satirizing Shakespearean plays and Christmas carols.

We also watched a traditional Pantomime of Snow White and Seven Dwarfs in Manchester, with kids in the audience booing the horrible witch and cheering the Prince as he saves Snow White.

There was a beautiful jazz concert by the Scott Hamilton Quartet at the Jazz Club Soho.

The highlight was a dazzling Cirque du Soleil in the Royal Albert Hall. Every time, a winged creature gracefully tumbled from heaven onto earth, rotating, whirling, spinning, spiraling in unhumanlike ways, I lost my capacity to react.

It was very unlike what happened at Mathew Bourne’s Swan Lake ballet at Sadler’s Wells the night before. The dance sequences with the male swans were so graceful and emotive, that I could see myself drawn to their sensual beauty and physical expression like a moth to a flame. The intense scenes of romance were titillating, those of loneliness causing physical pain.

The concerts and shows are one side of London. There was a divine side to the city, with cathedrals and churches of beauty seemingly unmatched anywhere else in the world. We walked into Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and a small Anglican church, each time expecting to get out in a few minutes, only to be drawn to the extraordinary beauty of the sanctuary. The ambience stirred feelings of awe and wonder and we stayed on for a few hours. I have never thought myself religious, but how do I explain that transcendent joy I experienced when listening to the Evensong in this sacred setting. I saw myself crying my eyes out in what felt like an overwhelming feeling of religious guilt and love for God.

I have heard so much about the unthinkably old pubs in London, their architecture competing with their reputation, their beers with their character… we went to a few over-packed pubs that more than lived up to the buildup. I couldn’t also help admiring the contemporary ones, and some small street-corner locals. (To my beer-loving friends: I liked some of the well-hopped pale ales, but I still prefer to be “lager than life”). The coffee shops and bars were just as charming.

We did a few touristy things as well, including some guided tours through museums and such. When there was no guided tour, there was the distraction of very good company to keep us entertained. (It is never a good idea to go to museums with really good company… especially not in London where there are both buildings and artifacts in the buildings to admire!)

The (window) shopping experience was splendid… all those secondhand bookstores at Marylebone High Street and Charing Cross, toys at Hamleys, the vintage clothes at Seven dials, everything at Harrods, everything else at Westfields… the visits to American stores in London… the food... the south-asian food! It was a sensual feast, a tactile banquet... a very expensive sensual feast, an overpriced tactile banquet. :)

I am left feeling a yearning still. Like this was just a prelude to many more vacations. There seems to be so much to see and do in London and I haven’t even begun exploring. I feel like an actor in a musical who has been asked to wrap things up after the interval, without finishing my performance because I have already been singing and dancing too much! And when I am not feeling like the actor, I feel like the audience who is waiting for the actor to show up after the interval, only to find that the show has been declared over, because I have already been given my money's worth!

I think I most regret not watching Sherlock Holmes (the movie) in Baker’s Street. I also regret watching the New Years parade. It was a "profound" disappointment (profound because it brought to mind a lot of philosophical questions that I would much rather not think about!) ... But it was exciting to be in Covent Garden right where the My Fair Lady scene takes place, or Darcy’s home in Lyme Park, or the Poet's corner in Westminster Abbey … among other things.

Some of my most favorite people in the world, also the most talented people I know personally live in what is now one of my most favorite cities in the world. I have had extraordinary experiences with them… traveling with them; meeting their "famous" friends; pouring our hearts out; listening to them recite their poems, sing with the choir, play the piano and the guitar… It’s been one heck of an emotional (borderline melodramatic) and memorable trip.

We also went to Paris… which felt like the sequel to Alice in Wonderland. Through the Looking Glass?

It’s a long post in itself, but I just don’t have it in me to dash off some more … :)

But here's something that occurred to me. Why do people say the Brits and French are not friendly. I have had the most interesting conversations with complete strangers.... it's not quite my everyday experience in my talky adopted country even!

I am in a serenely happy state of mind, like I just came out of a long aromatic bath in an oversized tub. I am out the warm soapy water, have slipped into a comfortable shirt and pajamas and am ready to drift into a restful sleep. :)

There are a lot of things I learnt over the last few days that have brought me here.

Very recently, I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and a few books by Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food, Omnivore’s Dilemma and bits and pieces of The Botany of Desire. I then watched a film version of The Botany of Desire, followed by Food Inc, which features Pollan and Schlosser, and Super Size Me.

They all speak of what goes into the food we eat, where they come from, and how they affect our lives from every point of view that you can think of … imagine the good, bad and the ugly played out in a socio/political/economic/ethical/scientific/cultural/nutritional scenario with regards to food (!) The Botany of Desire even describes how human desires affect the plant life from the plants point of view. It takes examples of apples, tulip, marijuana, and potatoes to show us how these species have adapted over centuries to different environments all over world by manifesting themselves in hundreds of varieties that cater to our ever-changing desires of taste, beauty and experiences. What you take home from these books and films is an aspiration to contemplate our food choices in a less monotone way…

Tapi and I watch a lot of Food and Travel shows (apart from million other shows that keep us glued to the tube). The latest season of Top Chef was especially stimulating. It brought in some really gifted chefs who inspired a great deal of respect for the art. I speak especially of the four finalists who transformed the show from competition to purely display of talent.

This excessive food-related reading and watching is making me wonder if I am addicted to what Anthony Bourdain calls “food porn”. It is an unsettling feeling when your voyeuristic urges are given an unflattering label like that. I also think it simplifies the multitude of other satisfactions I derive from them. The entertainment is not just in the visual appeal or the urge to see talent, but also in the intellectual curiosity it satisfies! ... Am I saying I am a "food porn" addict and more?

Over the weekend I watched all ten episodes of “The Life of Mammals”. I don’t know how to talk about it without feeling like in saying more I am saying less. The dominant emotion I felt while watching the series was that of astonishment. I saw myself asking if these mammals really exist on this planet! If humans are the inferior mammal—if we are a much tinier blip in this series of blips in the universe than we thought we were. Moreover, within each episode Attenborough hurdles from continent to continent like a little girl hopping from one box to another on her chalk-drawn hopscotch court on the sidewalk! One minute he is inside a dark cave full of flesh eating maggots filming hibernating bats, and right after that he is hanging hundreds of feet above ground on a thin rope tied to a tall tree in a dense forest. And he does all that without looking muscly and athletic, but as strange as a flightless bird taking to the air with ease! His enthusiasm to share his discoveries is endearing and inspiring.

I thought The Life of Mammals was a revelation until I saw Attenborough in Paradise.

In early 19th century, Alfred Russel Wallace wrote a book called The Malay Archipelago about his first sighting of the birds of paradise. In it, he describes these birds as “the most beautiful, and most wonderful living things on the planet”, with illustrations of creatures of astounding beauty with structural features and plumage beyond anything imaginable. His description of the birds inspired an ambition in Attenborough to find them, only, there was little scientific evidence of their existence. Over the years, the birds of paradise took on an almost-mythical status, and were mostly talked about in speculation of what they may have looked like based on hearsay of local tribes or illustrations of artists. Many were even thought to be extinct. But, after six decades since reading the book, and trying to find them several times, Attenborough finally manages to fulfill his ambition through this film. What you see in this film is not just beauty, but a miraculous marvel that extends beyond the aesthetic! Their unique and elaborate courtship rituals, and their ability to impress their mates through careful planning is otherworldly!

Between the Botany of Desire that speaks of how plants take advantage of human desire to perpetuate themselves, and Attenborough in Paradise that looks at beautiful creatures living spectacular lives without the knowledge of humans, I have to wonder where we fit in this overall picture… Clearly we are looking less and less like we are in control of our environment and more and more like the environment is in control of us… and also like not everything on earth is made purely for our enjoyment. There seems to be beauty even where we cannot see it. Now, how does that sit with our swollen ego!

With that thought in mind, I am off to bed after that long, warm aromatic bath in my tub!

Indians might find this offensive, but I hope we can all secretly agree. We stink, and it’s not funny.

We smell of curry. Our houses smell of curry. Our clothes scream Udupi restaurant for hours after we have eaten there. It is ridiculous and embarrassing.

The thing that worries me most about cooking in my apartment now is suffusing it with curry smell again. It bothers me more than I enjoy it, so I certainly don’t want to put my neighbors through it. Some of the complaints online from people about Indians stinking up their corridors is heartbreaking. You read it and you feel for their suffering.

I found some websites with solutions to eliminating cooking odor. The one where you simmer water, vinegar and cloves for a few minutes sounds doable. I am going to try that one.

(I think my Asian neighbors in my previous apartment can use these as well)

http://www.indiacurry.com/faqhints/eliminatecurrysmell.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_114422_remove-cooking-odors.html

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/369532

http://moroccanfood.about.com/od/tipsandtechniques/a/remove_cooking_odors.htm

I was rather confounded by this logo I saw on a truck today. It needs a tagline that says "Bosom Threesome, Raring to Go!" or "Gleefully Happy to be Eaten"

Metropolitan brings to mind a book I read many months ago called "The Pig that wants to be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher". The book is full of introspective questions and thought experiments that are perfect for bathroom reading. It provoked a lot of inane Gedanken-like all-night discussions with friends. Here's a bit from the book.

After forty years of vegetarianism, Max Berger was about to sit down to a feast of pork sausages, crispy bacon and pan-fried chicken breast. Max had always missed the taste of meat, but his principles were stronger than his culinary cravings. But now he was able to eat meat with a clear conscience.

The sausages and bacon had come from a pig called Priscilla he had met the week before. The pig had been genetically engineered to be able to speak and, more importantly, to want to be eaten. Ending up on a human table was Priscilla’s lifetime ambition and she woke up on the day of her slaughter with a keen sense of anticipation. She had told all of this to Max just before rushing off to the comfortable and humane slaughterhouse. Having heard her story, Max thought it would be disrespectful not to eat her.

The chicken had come from a genetically modified bird which had been ‘decerebrated’. In other words, it lived the life of a vegetable, with no awareness of self, environment, pain or pleasure. Killing it was therefore no more barbarous than uprooting a carrot.

Yet as the plate was placed before him, Max felt a twinge of nausea. Was this just a reflex reaction, caused by a lifetime of vegetarianism? Or was it the physical sign of justifiable distress? Collecting himself, he picked up his knife and fork…

The author then rants on for a paragraph before referring to my most favorite book in the world.

What if we could create animals that had no interest in their own survival, simply because they had as little awareness as a carrot? How could it be wrong to deprive them of an existence they never knew they had? Or what if the animal actually wanted to be eaten, such as the bovine imagined by Douglas Adams in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe?

The protagonist of that novel, Arthur Dent, reconciled in horror at the suggestion, describing it as 'the most revolting thing I've ever heard'. Many would share his revulsion. But as Zaphod Beeblebrox objected to Dent, surely it's
'better than eating an animal that doesn't want to be eaten'? Dent's response seems to be no more than a version of the 'yuck factor' - the kind of instinctive recoil that people feel when confronted by something that doesn't seem natural, even if there are no moral problems with it. Organ transplants and blood transfusions seemed freakish when first conceived, but as we got used to both, the idea that they are morally wrong died out, apart from among a few religious sects.

People may talk about the dignity of the animals or of a respect for the natural order, but can we seriously suggest that the dignity of the chicken species is undermined by the creation of a decerebated version? Isn't Priscilla's death entirely dignified? And aren't even organic arable farmers, who have selected and bred varieties to grow on a mass scale, tampering with the natural order anyway? In short, is there any good reason why the vegetarian today should not share a table with Max just as soon as his menu becomes a reality?"

As I take one last lip-smackingly scrumptious bite of my KIND heaven, I am already feeling withdrawal! It's not until Saturday that I go to Whole Foods!

SIRC's Guide to Flirting: Do I need it? or Do I need it or what! :O

Footsie? ( or the feet under the table?)

Never! I abhor like how!!

Protean signals? (or casual touches, such as touching one's hair or gently touching a man's arm?)

My favorite. (although it is more like ruffling one's hair!)

Interpersonal distance?

Somewhere between the personal and intimate zones, (when it is not intimate that is! ... the lines get blurry sometimes)

Giggling (or laughing encouragingly as the slight hint of intimacy?)

I do all the time!

Smiling suggestively?

I prefer playing coy!

Sending notes, poems or small gifts?

Sometimes

Verbal Flirtiing?

Or what I have come to call (through my wide experience in this matter) - intellectual flirting! It's light-hearted flirtatious banter, where I play dumb and have the guy explain things to me, as I stare at him in flirtatious admiration - balancing the art of looking interested, while leading on when you have zoned out of the conversation is the toughest skill to acquire.

Turn Talking?

I never know when it is my turn to talk! Serious impairment that ruins the flow sometimes!

Flattery?

My most favorite!

Teasing?

More like getting teased ;)

Coyness, affectedly shy or modest, marked by cute, coquettish, or artful playfulness.

Sometimes I overdo!

Flirt by pointing, not with your finger, but with your body.

Do I?... or Do I do it or what! :O

Non-verbal leakage? (while we're busy controlling our words and faces, our real feelings 'leak out' in our posture)

Too much leaking happening ya! What to do!

Staging of chance encounters?

Seems to be the only thing I missed!

Married?

Very! Although I hurry past the flirting with him and get to the point!

All of the above with the spouse?

All that and more!

All of the above with others?

Almost! Can I also just say, I am super picky about who these "others" might be and love them to death!

"Research shows that men find it particularly difficult to interpret the more subtle cues in women's body-language, and tend to mistake friendliness for sexual interest."

absolutely you guys!!!

"Research has also shown that men have a tendency to mistake friendly behaviour for sexual flirting. This is not because they are stupid or deluded, but because they tend to see the world in more sexual terms than women. There is also evidence to suggest that women are naturally more socially skilled than men, better at interpreting people's behaviour and responding appropriately. Indeed, scientists have recently claimed that women have a special 'diplomacy gene' which men lack."

"Another problem is that in some rather Puritanical cultures, such as Britain and North America, flirting has acquired a bad name. Some of us have become so worried about causing offence or sending the wrong signals that we are in danger of losing our natural talent for playful, harmless flirtation."

Can someone please slap the initiator of facebook's "25 random things about yourself"?

This is my return gift to many people who have waited (im)patiently. It is not quite 25, but certainly entertaining I hope! But, if you MUST want one of those random facts about me, here's one:

I can never share a banana. I can't eat half a banana and save the other half for later. When I eat a banana, I neatly cut the stem with a knife, make four angular cuts to peel the skin and work my way down methodically! I could demonstrate this for you, except that bananas are best eaten in privacy! I don't like bananas in icecream, or doused in sauces and nuts. I love bananas with milk and sugar. I can enjoy a good banana milkshake, as long as I don't see it being made, unless I make it myself, in which case I chop the banana in perfect circles before dropping the banana into the processor. I don't have a problem with referring to the banana as "it". I am just being ridiculous.

I heard bananas can make you both constipated and have the squirts! I love bananas!

Making open declarations on my blog has helped me keep my resolutions (for the most part).

From now on I
Eat Right
Drink Less
Workout Daily

I have all these disparate thoughts about water swimming in my head right now, and strangely for reasons that have little to do with each other.

When it comes to truths about water, there are so many that had been shrouded from us for years. We have heard that nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding as water. We have seen that water is the matrix of life. But, there are elephants in the room that I hadn’t been introduced to until very recently. :)

For one thing, I had always assumed that if you add something to water, it is not water anymore. To me, water is a clear liquid with no taste, smell or color. This is what makes it fascinating. See, air has no taste, smell or color either, but that we can see the fluidity of water, moving, taking shape, and just being itself is beguiling to me. But, I am learning that there is such a thing as making this tasteless, odorless drink. The ingredients are naked to the human eye and indiscernible to our taste buds, but they exist and supposedly make water purer, even more colorless and odorless, but somehow tastier in the way only water can be tasty!

This is all very contradictory to how I have been perceiving water. I am now having to look at it not by what it is, but by what it has and does not have.

For instance, Sanfaustino makes a wicked mineral water drink that satisfies 80 percent of your daily calcium needs. But, making water is a very paradoxical term. It implies that you have taken something and changed it by adding or subtracting something from it. But, the water Sanfautisno sells, naturally has calcium in it. I am therefore forced to think of it as the soup in the stone soup story or the magnificent suit in the emperors new clothes story.

In the stone soup story, a group of hungry travelers who are refused food by the villagers decide to settle down at the village square for the night. They start a fire and begin to boil a pot of water and drop a large stone in it. It arouses the curiosity of a villager passing by. He asks them what they are doing, to which they reply “we are making the most delicious stone soup. It is almost done, but can use a little bit of garnish to improve the flavor”. The villager, eager to taste the soup, runs home and brings back his favorite seasoning and adds it to the soup. Soon, the travelers are joined by more and more curious villagers, each of whom drop in their favorite seasoning into the pot, until finally the soup is ready. The delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all!

Sanfaustino’s water is the water in the pot before it had been boiled. It naturally comes with a stone in it, which happens to be rich in calcium. In packaging the drink, Sanfaustino has essentially created a stone soup. But, since it has no added seasoning, you are left wondering if Sanfaustino is less the traveler making the soup, and more the swindler claiming to have designed the finest (nonexistent) suit for the emperor in Emperor's New Clothes! .

I have gone back and forth between
looking at all bottled waters as the stone soup - a catalyst to get you to drink what has always been good for you while making good money, and
feeling like the emperor dressed in mime, who loves his robe and flaunts it, only to find out later that he is naked!

As a result of working in a health organization, I am constantly made aware of the benefits of water by partnering companies selling water that is naturally high in calcium. I hate drinking water, and will take any added incentive to get it in my system. Unfortunately, the added incentive in this case does not change the taste of the drink for me. Still, I’d like to think I have found that space between regular water and vitamin enhanced drinks like Gatorade that are high in carbs and sugars. I may very well be the health conscientious market that Propel and Sanfaustino are targeting. :)

At one point I fancied those drinks that tasted exactly like water, but had the essence of some fruit in them. I didn’t quite like the bitter aftertaste, even though infinitesimally slight and subtle. But, if you want to be "with it", try the latest craze HINT – a premium essence water that comes in all sorts of natural fruity flavors. There’s another one I like, called O Infused Water, which is a snazzier version and even claims to "Energize" and "Vitalize" you among other things.

A few days ago, we were sitting in a Mediterranean hotel, when the waiter came up to us with a four-page menu for water, each with a fancy name and a little description on where it came from:

Wattwiller (France):
It means "village of water." So fabled is this delicacy, it is believed to have a soul. A look at Wattwiller's chemistry confirms anecdotal reverence. If you don't mind its faint salty aftertaste, this elite water delivers terrific Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphate, and Fluoride. It has a Nitrate level of ZERO!

Fonti Bauda (Italy):
Water sources Oligomineral Bauda stimulates digestion and may have a diuretic effect. Minimally mineral water and pure.

We picked one called

Acqua Panna (Italy):
It is harvested in Tuscanny Mt. Gazzaro. This wonderful treasure is loved by millions for its freshness, clarity, and neutral pH. No sodium.

Needless to say, the drink that arrived in a gorgeous bottle made me feel like the emperor (in the story)!

There was a wine list that came after that, and separate menus for each course, which is typically what my mind can assimilate, but the water menu left me bewildered for the rest of the night.

Now, I will be lying if I said I am oblivious to water being such a hyped up commodity. I am as much the guilty party as I am a victim of this new craze. When you work in a health organization, it is no surprise that water becomes a part of the healthy solution to any problem you have. But, even beyond that, on some subliminal level, I have been keeping track of all the water drinks that celebrities have been consuming. Madonna’s Voss Artesan Water, Kayne West’s Propel Fitness Water, Michael Jackson’s Evian and so on.

I find it very amusing that we are being persuaded to buy the two most vital elements that keep us alive – the air we breathe, the water we drink. It demonstrates the quirk of human fate! But, if I feel like breathing in pure air, and drinking pure water, there is neither gratis nor libre. Adam’s ale is up for sale!

Libre, I say because of all global conflicts over water. The Bechtels, Suezes, Veolio Environements of the world really raise questions about morality of commodifying water. I am less against privatization, and more concerned about the negative impact of it on the lives of people. There’s a worldwide crisis brewing over water, with 31 countries facing scarcity and over a billion people without access to drinking water. Our consumption of water has doubled in the last twenty years and at the same time, our resources are being polluted, and exploited for corporate interests. I was alarmed when I read that the world bank predicts that two thirds of the world’s population will suffer from the lack of clean drinking water by 2025.

We can already see corporations rushing to invest in water, like it is the new “oil”. There are people buying water rights, and such things as collecting rain water in a small cup during a downpour are being viewed as being in violation of privileges set-down by these companies.

In this context, is it surprising then that the hotel I went to has a water menu, or that there is a Colette in Europe, with an ultra chic water bar that serves over sixty types of water? There are over a thousand different consumer brands for bottled water being sold by over 500 companies in the US alone, that bring in billions of dollars annually. After carbonated drinks, water is the most purchased drink in the country. Alarmingly, even India has over 200 bottled water brands, most of which are produced locally. In fact, India’s bottled water companies too are cashing in on the nutritious value of water. Bisleri for instance sells water that is rich in minerals and calcium.

Back in the days, the choice in India used to be between good water and bad. There is municipal water, which is better than borewell water. Water tankers that were a step above, and bottled water that was either good or bad depending on how you want to feel about them. By choosing to buy water (or not) or do something with it like boiling or filtering it, you have made your “statement” on the water situation in your country! At home, we neither boiled nor filtered our water and drank it straight out of the tap. Mom’s side of the family on the other hand, exclusively drank bottled water even at home, which is very unusual by Indian standards, but they are as paranoid about health as my dad’s side is not!

My thoughts on water are not all related to water politics and fashion trends. Some are very random facts that I have been amassing and pondering over and some are quite ridiculous.

It occurred to me when watching mickey mouse on TV one day, that his head looks exactly like the water molecule. (I gather from google that this is heavily discussed, so I am not all that loopy) So now when I watch mickey mouse, I begin to imagine him becoming a water molecule moving around fluidly or a bubble floating listlessly in the air and then popping!

Today as I was walking home, I saw a cute baby on the road and as I was overflowing with feelings of love for her, I thought to myself “This stupid cute baby doesn’t even know that her body is 80% water. Where as mine is 60% water and the rest is all brain!” :D Fine, I am whackjob!

Drinking water makes me very uncomfortable. I feel queasy in my stomach and avoid it as much as I can, which has had some ill affects on my health, but there is one fact that blows my mind in a good way! Drinking too much water can lead to water intoxication! It dilutes the sodium level in the bloodstream and causes water imbalance in the brain. Take that you water drinkers!

There are always those odd statistics related to water floating in my head, mostly having to do with how much water there is and how much we need or consume. The most recent ones have been on how much water one needs to drink after a work-out or after sitting for an hour on a plane, or consuming an alcoholic or caffeinated drink. (the answer is between one to two cups)…....... and because Tapi religiously checks his weight everyday after he comes back from the gym, here’s a fact just for him “The weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from water, not from fat" Hah! :D

I leave with one question. What does it mean for us that water is present on the moon, in europa, or saturn’s enceladus apart from the possibility that there might me life on these planets. Can they be made fit for human habitation? There can't possibly be a more civilized race than humans in the universe no? :D

One more thought. The designs of snow crystals make beautiful diamond earrings :)

We have our very own Le Pain Quotidien in Bethesda now, on our new pedestrian street called "Bethesda Lane", which has awesome written all over it. I wish I took my camera with me yesterday. It's such a cosy little lane, with boutique stores on either side. I could spend all day in it! (On the other hand, Tapi thinks I can even spend hours in my local Patel store and not get bored)

There are some places that introduce themselves slowly, making their charms and allures known over time. And thus with Bethesda Lane, although visibly interesting as we walked past it, it never got the attention it deserved all these months. But, now I want to know everything about it. It’s a really cool space, and something about it makes you feel right at home. I took to it like flies to honey, seals to water, sheep to grass, frogs to lily pads... :)

If you haven't been to Le Pain Quotidien, I would highly recommend it, with a forewarning that the food is decadently delicious and "so not good for you", even though they will like you to think of it as "wholesome and nourishing". They have bakeries all over the world, and encourage communal dining, with a long table in the middle that you can sit around. However, we went a bit non-communal, and sat next to the window for the view of the outside. There's something about that place that makes you want to linger and graze for hours. We sank in our chairs, with the fireplace right behind us and talked for hours over really good Tartines and tea.

As I was just about to leave, I realized I had 8 cups of Lapsang Souchong; a whole plate of Aged Gruyere tartines topped with Mango, Cornichons, and Sundried-tomatoes; and half a plate of Honey-coated Ricotta and Fig Tartines with sprinkles of Tomatoes and Peppers. It was heavenly!

I tried to keep away from the takeaway counter, but it was hard not to notice all the cheese muffins, baguettes and the buttery madeleines, sitting there waiting to indulge you. I think I take comfort in knowing that I can go back whenever I want. I plan to attack the dessert section next.

Incidentally, I learnt that it is a "certified green restaurant" and follows a whole bunch of ecologically-minded practices. For instance, the communal table is made with reclaimed wood from vintage Belgian train cars (!). They use nontoxic cleaning solutions, which I believe is a huge achievement, and quite a challenge when it comes to keeping restaurant kitchens clean. And then there are the organic to-go-cups and spoons that disintegrate in 30 to 90 days, organic food that’s produced locally... they use sustainable seafood and free-range meats. They have free-trade coffee even!

I can see myself picking up their organic jams, tea and chocolates often! Even their bread is so firm and crusty. The story goes that their chef Alain Coumont was so unhappy with the bread that he began to make his own old-style daily bread using stone ground flour, natural levain and salt. Which, goes back to my recurring question - what made man complicate his life over the centuries and then simplify things all of a sudden. Take our sense of design for instance – we have gone from exceedingly ornate to the new minimalist "clean and simple" trend! (more on this later..)

I can’t end this post with anything but that the waiter was really cute! :)

Remember The HungerSite with a magic button that generates a cup of rice for the hungry for free? I always wondered if it was a prank. How could it be possible? But of course, it is. By clicking on the button, we are generating advertising revenue for their website, which makes it possible for them to donate a cup of rice to the hungry!

But even though the idea of helping without volunteering services or shelling a dime sounded good, it wasn't enough to make me do it. For some time, I set HungerSite as my homepage on the browser, and clicked on the button everyday before I did anything else. But soon, it got old. I didn't feel like it anymore. What was my cup of rice going to do!

Maybe I needed more value for the click, like a sack of rice instead of a cup. I most certainly needed something to boost my ego. I would have continued to click everyday if I had proof of people benefiting from it; if they met me in person or sent me a youtube video bowing down to me and saying Thank You. I needed something to tell me that I wasn't wasting my time. And not just that, I needed something to tell me that what they benefit from my click outweighs the effort it takes me to click everyday. Now, how is HungerSite supposed to do that? How much more easy can they make this process? They don't ask for money, they don't ask for services, not even time. All they want is a click a day.

Still, my homepage on the browser changed to Google. I went to The HungerSite only once in a while, when I felt philanthropic or guilty and now my visit is down to once every 6 months.

Over time, there were more click-to-donate sites on the web. In fact, this site called Daily Charity has a button that lets you donate to almost every click-to-donate site on the net in one go. So here's truly one site that does promise more value for a click. I can feed the hungry, stop breast cancer, plant more trees, increase illiteracy, prevent extinction of species … all in just one click.


Was that enough for me to do it? Not in the least bit. I needed more.

Recently, a friend's email to Free Rice roused my interest. It is a website with a vocabulary game. For every right answer to a vocabulary question, they donate 20 grains of rice to UN’s World Food Programme that distributes food in some of the world’s poorest countries.


Now, you may ask what English vocabulary and 20 grains of rice can do to the world. But I am told that they donate about 3,200,000,000 grains of rice (444445 cups of rice or 150000 pounds of rice or 7500 sacks of rice @ 20 lbs/sack) via this game every month.

What about English Vocabulary? They say, it will help you:

Formulate your ideas better
Write better papers, emails and business letters
Speak more precisely and persuasively
Comprehend more of what you read
Read faster because you comprehend better
Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
Perform better at job interviews and conferences
Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
Be more effective and successful at your job

Moreover the game is entertaining and has proved to be quite addictive so far. Tell me I fell for a marketing gimmick or that it is utterly disgusting that it took an entertaining game to provoke me to act, or even that what I am doing is not helping, but I just hope it sticks….. until something better comes my way that requires no clicking either. Some day, maybe fantasizing about a utopian world alone will do. But for now I will do good only if I am done good to!

About a month ago (if I haven’t mentioned it already) a few of us suffered from severe abdominal pain, an awful throbbing headache, nausea, diarrhea, and were clueless as to what was causing it. Food poisoning of course, but it lasted a week. For some time I thought I was the only one suffering from it, only to find later that there were so many other DC acquaintances suffering silently, or loudly enough but unlike me they were not actively seeking out poisoned companions. We began short-listing restaurants we may all have eaten in, but couldn’t find much commonality, except perhaps starbucks or subway.

A week later, I was in the metro reading the Express with a huge front page article about salmonella virus infecting tomatoes in the DC-metro area. Hundreds of people reported that week as suffering from food-poisoning. Tomatoes were pulled out of the market, restaurants and stores banned food with raw tomatoes (salsa, salads and the like), we dreaded even eating cooked ones. Only I know how much I missed my rasam.

It’s been six weeks since the FDA issued the tomato-warning. And now that it has been lifted and declared safe to eat, jalapenos and cilantro have decided to play host to salmonella. They too are being removed from the market and we won’t for a while crave spicy food or fresh herbs.

The Mexican restaurants must hate the virus as much as the virus loves the Mexican restaurants. What will they do without tomatoes, jalapenos and cilantro, I wonder. And how will I keep from cilantroizing my food?

I am not much of a trend analyst, but even with my limited pattern-finding knowledge, I can say with some certainty that if I were salmonella, I would be targeting corn next. My two cents!

But what is this salmonella? Is it the next bird flu or mad cow? Seeing as it has "salmon" in its name and we have covered the bird and animal species, are we going the aquatic-vertebrate way? I know I know. My humor to ones head is equivalent to salmonella to ones stomach! I hear the strain infecting the jalapeno is called “Salmonella Saintpaul” (!!!) whose genetic fingerprint has been identified in 43 states. I wonder what kind of damage Saintpaul is causing to farmers, what with the FDA gunning for them, and the people running away from their produce. How badly is it impacting them, I wonder. The nation’s tomato industry is said to have lost 100-million dollars and some say it may reach 250 million dollars soon. Yikes!

Tapi let me use his MBA brochure as a backdrop to take pictures of the Flake. =)

Try this one for some heavenly chocolate AWESOMENESS. :D Not knowing the name of the chocolate, I looked for it in every damn store in the US for years but found it only last month in a gourmet store selling awesome food products from all over the world. I have eaten at least 10 of these since. Cadbury's Flake is a UK product available only in two other countries - Australia and South Africa.

There's the Twirl, which may be available in India and the US, which too is a flaky chocolate, only with an added chocolate coating. It is not as satisfying at the Flake, but a make-do alternative if you can't find the latter.

I find that I have become very picky about my chocolates ever since I found that gourmet store on Rockville Pike. There's so much variety to choose from. And then, there is Whole Foods selling awesome organic dark chocolates, Harry and David's awesome chocolate covered raisins, and the Godiva and Lindt stores in the mall right next to my apartment selling candy fit for the Devil.

Back to Cadbury. Tapi bought me Cadbury Miniatures from London, which is an assortment of Cadbury chocolates. I find that Cadburys are a little too sweet for my taste, a quality they share with Hersheys, but these miniatures are a perfect size, making the sweetness enjoyable.

I was reading an article in BusinessWeek about soaring egg prices. The price of eggs went up by 40% in the last year because of high demand for speciality eggs from cage-free, organic, vegetarian hens. :-)

If you are interested in reading the article about the profiting egg market here is the link .

What baffled me was a picture they had of a hen next to an egg.


There is no way that THAT hen laid THAT egg unless it has killer abs of steel! If it did , I bet it was eggxhausting! :D

As always, this is just a start.

Appy:
For a long time, this was the “other” drink. I don’t think it had much of a fan following but we drank it once in a while, when we were in a mood for something like frooti but not quite. Is that the best way to put it?

Remember the rumor about Appy having pork in it? It is partly true. Most apple juice companies add some sort of animal-based enzyme to break down the apple’s cell wall and extract as much juice out of it as possible.

It does not say so in the ingredients list on the cover because the enzyme is broken down during the processing stage, and therefore does not have to be listed as an ingredient. But if you call the company and ask, they are usually required to tell you if they do or don’t. I haven’t asked, but some people obviously have. Try searching for “appy pork” on google.

The drink reminds me of summer and more specifically a picnic or a vacation with family.

Barcardi Rum:
Be, what you wanna be, taking things the way, they come,
Nothing is as nice as finding paradise and
Sippin' on Bacardi Rum.

I didn’t see myself ever having rum on the beach like those trendy bikini clad models in the ad, but it was such a fun song! It’s not the original obviously, but it represents Bacardi Rum to me. It’s also the first alcoholic drink I had in college. Does Channel [V] still have the Bacardi Blast show? It was that late night live entertainment show showcasing the hottest parties in town. It was fun watching random foreigners and very yuppy looking Indians swinging to some really groovy tunes.

Bajal
I used to drink this during my Summer and Christmas breaks every year in Manipal at a time when Coke and Pepsi were hard to get in smaller towns. It used to come in Cola, Orange and Lime flavors and was cheap enough that I was allowed to have one Bajal a day after I came back from the MIT swimming pool at 5 every evening.

Bisleri
The most popular bottled water brand in India, which became household name and synonymous with any spring or mineral bottled water in the country. At one point, it was an NRI-symbol, and the distinguishing factor between a resident and a foreign-returned indian, because they drank Bisleri even at home. Things have obviously changed now. When I visited India, I had no one walking behind me with a bisleri water bottle :-( To all Indians, it’s a must-buy when traveling by train. There’s always the obligatory discussion amongst passengers on how “even bisleri is not reliable” Still, we cling to it like our life depends on it.

Boost
Is NOT the secret of my energy. It may have been a healthier version of Bournvita, and may have even tasted the same, but that wasn’t enough to make me want to drink it. Brand loyalty came in the way. Boost is said to be the first HFD (whatever that means) to use celebrity endorsement to promote the energy benefit of malty drinks. Kapil Dev and Tendulkar on the screen saying "Boost is the secret of my energy... our energy" in my head is the grown up equivalent of "I'm a complan boy...and.. I'm a complan girl". I hear there are sweet shops in India selling Bosst barfis!

Bournvita
Yummy in powder form too! My brother was a Bournvita drinker and I alternated between cocoa and bournvita. I remember my grandmom making two glasses of bournvita every morning. She chilled one in the fridge for us to have in the evening and gave us the piping hot one in the morning. Those were good days. Sigh! They call it a chocolate drink, but it's more malty than chocolaty. I just learnt from wikipedia that Hritik Roshan attributed his superpowers to Bournvita in Koi Mil Gaya and it sequel Krish! I watched both films, but didn't know this until now. Intheresthing!

Brooke Bond Tea
Not my tea, but it’s THE tea brand in India. There’s Brooke Bond Taj Mahal with the famous tabla jugalbandhi ad in which Zakir Hussain plays the tabla with his dad and says “Wah! Taj, Wah!” in the end. Taj Mahal tea became synonymous with all tea bags in India. In fact, I don’t remember any other tea bag brand in the country. There’s Brooke Bond Red Label Tea for all the masala chai or adhrak tea drinkers and the 3 Roses tea, known for it’s perfect color, strength and aroma. Am I missing another one?

Bru Instant Coffee:
A strong instant coffee-chicory blend, perhaps closest to the authentic decoction coffee, but still not quite the same. I hear there is a Bru cappuccino endorsed by Karan Johar (!!!), which is supposed to be out of this world.

Cadbury Cocoa
Cocoa dissolved in a glass of hot or cold milk with two spoons of sugar, and some more cocoa powder sprinkled on top is the most heavenly drink in the whole wide universe. Even as I write this, I can feel the bitter power and the sweet hot chocolate milk in my mouth. Yum! There were other hot chocolate drinks in India, names of which I don’t remember that were quite good. Still this one was the best and had a more chocolaty taste to it.

Campa cola
I don’t remember what campacola used to taste like, but, had to mention it because it was the leading soft drink brand for a long time until Pepsi and Coke made it to the Indian market in the 90s.

Canada Dry
Not the regular club sodas or the ginger ales we see here. The one in India is quite lemony. Very much like the green bottle drinks. I don't remember if this too came in the same green bottle.

Citra
Super cooler! :) I totally forgot about this green bottled drink until Chris commented on this post and reminded me about it. It didn't have a personality of it's own, and was just the "other" green bottled drink, competing or should I say dwarfed by Sprint and later 7'up. Catchy ad jingle though! This was later replaced by Sprite, owned by the same guys. Sprite did quite well, at least almost as well as 7'up.

Complan
The complete planned food! Perhaps the most expensive milk drinks in India that came in every imaginable flavor possible. I remember eating it more than drinking it, especially the vanilla, chocolate and mango flavors. I remember my mom trying to synchronize my brother’s Farex flavor with my Complan flavor because both came in an abundance of varieties. I’m told Complan also came in Chicken, Vegetable, Oats and Beef flavors, but I don’t remember seeing them in the store.

Continental Coffee
Milder than the other instant coffees and also my favorite.

Double Seven
Don’t remember this drink at all. I’m guessing it was much before my lifetime, but definitely talked about a lot.

Dukes
All I know is that it is always mentioned together with double seven, when people get nostalgic about drinks from their past.

Frooti
The first Indian drink that I know of that came in those paper boxes. We were all so fascinated by it. It’s a sweeter, more diluted version of Maaza, and I never quite liked the taste, but loved the idea of drinking in those paper cans. At a time when the other sodas in glass bottles were not convenient to carry and weren’t even sold so that the bottles could be discarded after use, Frooti was the only thing people could buy to take to picnics or when traveling by trains. I have a lot of summer-time memories associated with frooti. Nothing specific, just that I drank a lot of it during summer.

Gold Spot
Gold spot the zing thing, gold spot!
The first orange sodas in the market. It apparently had a better following in smaller towns and rural areas than in big cities. Again, Im not a great fan of orange soda, although I used to drink it every once in a while. I hear collecting gold spot caps were quite a craze at one time and were traded for Jungle Book stickers. The gold spot adds too were quite funky and focused on the “latest craze” of the generation.

Horlicks
Didn’t like it, but believed that it was good for me when I was sick. I know I am not alone. No matter what milk energy drink people drink in their regular life, they (almost unwillingly) shift to horlicks for the few days that they are sick. And if that was their branding strategy, it worked very well. In fact, I hear Horlicks guaranteed a good nights sleep too, if drunk just before bedtime. Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t people who drink it on a regular basis, and as the company claims even “eat it”. Best part about the drink? The small horlicks lumps in the milk that don’t dissolve fully. I hear they sell horlicks disks in some places, I wonder if they taste like threptin biscuits. :D Also (from Wikipedia), The word Horlicks is now a
substitute for "bollocks".

The term was used in July 2003 by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw ("a complete Horlicks"[1]) to describe irregularities in the preparation and provenance of a dossier regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Kingfisher Beer
A monopoly in the Indian beer market for a long time until Budweiser and Carlsberg penetrated the market a few years go. It is still Asia’s most successful beer. I never had it while I was living in India, but now I do sometimes when I go to an Indian restaurant. Perhaps the only lager I can think of that gets me drunk quickly, but it is an uninteresting drink, malty with bitter hops and a very strong skunky smell. Come to think of it, it is the only Indian beer have had (not counting India Pale Ale, which is not Indian) , but I am always fascinated with Indian beer names, Kalyani Black Label, Soumitree, Haywards, Royal Challenge, Castle… all lagers.

Kissan Squash
Really like Kissan squash drinks. Especially the orange, lemon barley and lemon squash flavors. I am told the lemon barley squash drink is only for people with certain urinary problems. It still tasted good, bah!

Limca
Lime and Lemony Limca. Limca Limca!
Never liked the taste of limca. It has a very sharp, bitter aftertaste. As far as I am concerned it is the worst drink in the market, although I know a few loyal drinkers. I am told it's a huge hit with foreigners. May be because there is no limca equivalent in other countries. The closest that comes to it is Fresca, a better version if you ask me, sweeter and less fizzy. I read on Wikipedia that Limca has a slightly gingery taste to it, but I don’t remember it being gingery at all. But, despite the bad taste I sometimes drink Limca to assert loyalty to my country! :-) Limca also publishes the Limca Book of Records, which is the Guiness equivalent in India.

Lipton’s green label tea:
One of my favorite Indian Darjeeling teas that I grew up drinking. The long leaf blend is the finest I have seen in India and has a very distinct sweet aroma and a delicate taste that’s best relished with no milk or as little milk and sugar as possible. I know some people who have it with honey and lemon even, which is not too bad if you ask me.

Maaza
Taaza mango, maaza mango. Except fresh mango juice, this is the best mango drink I have had, hands down. Love it. Still buy it in the Indian store in the US.

Miranda
My mom’s favorite soda. Coicidentally, she calls my brothers house Miranda now because it is a combination of my brother and sister-in-laws names. Miranda took over gold spot’s popularity and was a sweeter and fizzier version. I didn't really care for the drink so much, except when I asn't in a mood for something as aerated as coke or 7'up even.

Mountain Dew
Do the Dew! Catering to young adventurous adults into extreme sports, this is the only drink I can think of that comes in a green bottle, but is not completely transparent. It's a semi-opaque cool green-yellow aerated lemon-lime drink. It comes in a ton of weird flavors in the US, and even have an online game on their website called Dewmocracy where poeple get to vote the next flavor of Mountain Dew, but in India there's just one Dew, their classic and their best.

Rasna
I love you Rasna! :-) The first thing that comes to mind is that very famous “Rasna hairstyle”, which became a huge craze thanks to that little cubby girl in the ad holding a glass of orange rasna. The drink was a little too sweet for my liking, but much to my annoyance, it was a favorite birthday parties for a long long time.

Soma juice
I remember a trip to Kakinada with my granddad in the car, when I slept on his lap all through the 6 hour journey, only getting up to have Soma Juice, whenever the car stopped for a break.

Sprint
I used to be fascinated by sprint’s green bottles. Always thought of it as a grown-ups drink, cos it was my dads favorite. So whenever I drank it, I felt grown up, like I was drinking something out of my league. Even as I think of it, I can feel that same emotion, that same sense of accomplishment that I felt back then while drinking a bottle of Sprint.

Sprite
It's not just the name that's similar, the taste, the look, the feel of it all is just like Sprint. The only things I can think of other than the cola drinks that are so similar are the eclair chocolates, one by cadbury and one by some random company.

7’up
Funny how all the green bottled drinks lined up under each other. Was it intentional? Nah! 7'up completely took over sprint's green-bottle monopoly with the help of a frizzy haired dude called Fido Dido. The Fido Dido stickers and wristbands became such a craze that we all obsessively collected those bottle caps and bartered some with friends to get our hands on them. Eventually, the spunky dude made it to lunch boxes and school bags, but luckily his hairstyle didn’t catch on.

Thums Up
Taste the thunder :-) My favorite cola drink, and very distinct from the other colas owing to the stronger, fizzier, and less sweet taste with a nutty flavor. Back in the days, when Coca Cola and Pepsi were still unheard of in India, the drink overshadowed a lot of it’s contemporaries like Campa cola, Double seven and Dukes. Interestingly, it was marketed as a manly drink, and was deliberately packaged in chafed up bottles. But THIS woman will drink it like nobodys business. :-) I almost certainly have a couple stocked in my fridge always. It’s best had with rum.

What do you do when your tea smells like the Thai food you microwaved before you boiled the water? =D

Breathe in deeply and then take a sip while you are breathing out.

I figured... most often than not... it's not the tea that smells bad, it's the hungry cup that on sponging up the drunken noodle or the red curry smells nasty! bah!

Here are eight steps to successfully eating a Kumquat, specially for my lovely blog readers. =)














We saw these in Whole Foods today and had to buy two boxes. These are my first kumquats, but Tapi has had them before, and thereupon came highly recommended!

Kumquats, called the "little gems of the citrus family". are really sweet grape-size oranges that you can pop into your mouth, skin included. They are interesting little fruits, delicious but each different from another. There were some that tasted exactly like oranges with a sweet fleshy pulp and a tart skin, and then some that tasted like oranges in reverse, with a sweet skin and a slightly tart pulp. Either way, the combination of sweet and tart together is quite something... succulent comes to mind, but unconventional and offbeat is what it really is.

I had some kumquats with figs, and feel like I have accidentally hit upon a heavenly combination. They really go well with each other. From what I learnt on the net, Kumquats and Figs are doublets that pair off and turn into rich sauces and jams. I even found a painting of them together. Now call that a bittersweet ending if you like, in this case, a bittersweet ending seems quite potent.

Speaking of bittersweet and ending, Kumquats court a lot of citrus fruits ad put new life in the form of
Limequats, (a cross between a lime and a kumquat)
Orangequats, (a cross between an orange and a kumquat)
and Calamondins, (a cross between a Tangerine and a kumquat)

There are also Loquats, who are not offsprings, but a distant relatives of the Kumquats, who share the same last name, which is the chinese word for orange.

I had been resisting the urge to write about tea for quite sometime. Forgive me if I’ve bored you with this post.

Ever since my brand new coughing ailment, my dependence on tea has quadrupled. When you are sick, you become aware of what you find most comforting. I have become very picky about what I eat and turn to comfort foods for consolation. Maybe, it is time for me to list my favorite comfort foods. I probably will soon. This one is about my favorite Earl Greys.

Even as I say Earl Grey, I can feel the piquant tea with its strong pleasant aroma of bergamot gracefully passing over my tongue.

I don’t often drink Earl Grey in loose format. My laziness deprives me of loose tea anyway, but the tea bags are quite refreshing. And if there is such a tea that lends itself well to tea bags, it is Earl Grey. Here are my favorites (not in any particular order).

Mighty Leaf: Organic Earl Grey

One of the smoother, less sharp Earl Greys I have had. I would recommend it to anyone who is not a big fan of the strong muskiness of bergamot. It’s elegant and definitely worth trying. The tea bags look lovely too. They are individually handcrafted, transparent biodegradable pouches that give you the feeling of drinking loose tea.

Note: I also recommend Mighty Leaf’s other tea pouches. Their loose teas are fantastic as well.

Harney and Sons: Winter White Earl Grey

Made with Chinese Mutan White Tea, it has a nice sweet taste to it. It’s not very astringent, but the medium intensity of bergamot gives it a rich fragrance. Again, like Mighty Tea, it comes in beautiful transparent sachets that look quite impressive.
I am yet to try Harney's stronger Earl Grey Supreme blend, which is part of their premium tea lineup, but, I’ve heard great things about it.

Note: I’ve tried some of Harney and Sons’ other classic teas and tea blends and really enjoyed them too.

Bistro Ceylon Tea: Black Tea Earl Grey

One of the richer Earl Greys I have had. It is a medium-bodied black tea, with a good amount of bergamot. It comes in a fascinating metal stick form, the theory being that normal filter paper used in other tea bags absorbs brewing colloids or flavor carriers from the tea, and cause a loss in quality and aroma. I drink my tea with a spoon of sugar, so the teastick makes a good stirrer as well :)

Note: The company also sells really cute sugar cubes and sticks . I bought the chocolate flavored ones and use them in coffees and hot chocolates.

Twinings: Earl Grey

One of my older favorites. It has a slight lemony aftertaste to it, which gives it a nice bright and refreshing taste. The bergamot is not overpowering. I only wish it looked as pretty as my other tea bags. The white filter paper is probably what causes the thin layer of white froth on top of the tea, but that doesn’t bother me. The taste is just delightful.

Note: If you like citrusy teas, try Lady Grey, which blends bergamot, lemon and orange in black tea and is sprinkled with corn flowers. It’s quite energizing.

Two Leaves and a Bud: Organic Earl Grey, Full-Leaf Ceylon Tea & Bergamot

The description on the box says "robust", but it is the lightest Earl Grey I have had so far. It is not in the least bit tangy, and has a certain floral fragrance to it, although it is supposed to have just Ceylon Black Tea and Bergamot. I really wonder how they manage that. Again, like most brands in this list, they come in transparent bio-degradable sachets and hold full leaves, which gives it the flavor of loose tea.




Tazo Earl Grey Tea

This is my fall back in Starbucks, when I am not in a mood for white chocolate mocha. I really like it. It's strong, it's robust and has a certain smokiness to it. Like Two Leaves and a Bud, this too has a nice floral fragrance, but has a a strong citrusy flavor in addition that makes it rich and wholesome. From experience, I have learnt not to brew it for too long. A few quick dips for 30 seconds should do.

Note: Tazo has one of the coolest websites I have seen. I go there often just to admire the design and have shared the link with a lot of my friends and colleagues. Also, try Tazo's assorted tea box. It has a good assortment of some of their classic premium teas blends. Finding a good assortment box is usually hard and disappointing, but Tazo plays it safe and sticks with the classics for most part.

Williamson Tea: Earl Grey Tea

For a tea that claims to have nothing but bergamot, it has a unique floral flavor and fragrance, but is so subtle that it only augments the taste of bergamot. I would almost consider renaming it white jasmine earl grey tea!

Note: I was in the kitchen making myself some tea, when my colleague commented that I have a "lovely perfume on me" and asked what it was. I said, I don't remember. Lacoste perhaps? And he said "oh no, wait. I think it is the tea you are drinking!"

I strongly recommend drinking Earl Greys hot and black, with a teaspoon of sugar if you like.. even with a slice of lemon. They say it’s splendid with milk and honey, but I am not a big fan.

I am told Earl Greys are often made with low quality black tea, because manufacturers believe that the strong flavor of bergamot masks the inadequacies of low quality tea. But, I find that a good grade tea makes a noticeable difference. To begin with, it has less tea detritus, or dust., which releases tannin (an astringent) quickly and makes the tea taste harsh. The material of the tea bag too impacts the taste. The regular white filter paper decreases the aroma and the quality. The silk and nylon bags help with a better brew quality. Enviromentalists prefer silk to nylon because of health and biodegradability issues.

If you love Earl Grey or any tea for that matter, check this website out. It has a plethora of information on Earl Grey, lots of tea reviews and recommendations of places to have tea in. It's awesome!

10 on the addiction-bliss scale? Without doubt!

These little pea-size dark chocolate balls are perfectly sized and detectable! =)

Tapi's colleague at work gifted us a box of the Twinings Cherry Black Tea. I have always associated cherry with tart medicine, like the paediatric cough syrups we grew up hating as kids.
Despite my aversion to cherry, I somehow find myself tasting a cherry something every now and then. Usually, it is a cherry chocolate in an assorted bag I buy once in a while. I avoid it for days until I have exhausted all other chocolates in the bag and then hesitantly eat it, half eschewing, half chewing and then concluding that "it was not THAT bad"
So when we got this blended tea gift, I was obviously disinclined to try it. I knew then that if I got around to drinking it, I would be savoring something really special. For one, it was not available anywhere in the world except in Disneyland, Florida. My obvious suspicion on hearing this fact was that it had something to do with the terrible taste of cherry and a majority of grownups in Disney are whacky anyway (consider just the fact that they think Disney is the ideal place to by tea). Then, the colleague who gifted us the box of tea said it was way better than any other blended tea she ever drank, and she herself is a connoiseur of blended teas. This fact alone made it tempting but it still deterred me from trying because I am generally skeptical of blended teas, except in loose form, unless it is cold or citric. That said, I must also admit that lately I have bumped into a lot of good herby green and black teas.
After much introspection, I decided to leap into the cherry breach and try this one. After all, I had nothing to lose!
So Tapi and I made ourselves a cup each and sat in the living room. The intense aroma of the tea, was quite unfavorable, it screamed cherry and Benadryl. At the count of three we had our first sip. I have to say, it is the BEST blended tea I have EVER tried. It is sweet, light and wonderful, and now with the cherry smell it has a playful quality (and THAT was totally unexpected).
I am now eager to try different versions and think I might be able to find a non-twinings brand and other loose tea forms of cherry tea that I might enjoy. I am aware that there is a good chance that I might not like them as much, but there is also a chance that I might find one that's truly gourmet!

What goes anywhere,

Is clean, crisp and smooth,

Unbreakable, squishable, stuffable, portable,

That can be enjoyed straight up

And is aged to perfection?

The $2 Pocket Shot , of course!

These are the small 50ML packets of Vodka, Tequila, Gin and Whiskey that fit in your pocket and travel with you wherever you are, whenever you want.

Jarrold Bachmann was inspired by workers in South Africa who celebrate their payday with small plastic sachets of crude alcohol.

“As someone who loves being outdoors, traveling and sports, I saw an opportunity to develop a product to fit my lifestyle and extend across all demographics from the older golfer to the Extreme Sport generation,” stated Bachmann. (from the Pocket Shot website)

Yup! I can see the boozed up sportsman perform his stunt quite satisfactorily. First, he will see double and then he will come apart!

Lo and behold, the fascinating tea stories that I came across in recent times. Many have been modified over the last 5000 years, but still hold true to the spirit of the stories as when they were first narrated.

Story 1: Daruma, also known as Buddha set out for a pleasant walk from India to China to visit the Shaolin temple. There he sat in front of the wall of enlightenment, unstirred for nine years, meditating and reflecting over all that he had witnessed during his journey.
One aberrant day, the unwavering spiritual leader forgot himself for a split of a second and fell asleep. When he woke up, he was filled with a sense of guilt and disgust and sliced off his eyelashes as a punishment for disregarding Dharma. All the while, his young disciple Quan Yin (Guanyin) observed this act of remorse, and cried where the eyelashes fell. This caused tea plants to grow over the lashes to remind disciples of the tough but fulfilling path to enlightenment. This was the birth of Oolong Tea.
(Coincidentally, the Japanese characters for tea leaf and eyelid are the same.)

Story 2: The disciple Quan Yin is also known as the Goddess of Mercy. On reaching enlightenment, she was honored with a temple in Fujian Shaxin. A huge iron statue was erected in her name. Over many centuries, the temple became dilapidated much to the discontent of her disciples. One such disciple was a poor tea grower who traveled to the province from a far away land. On seeing the pathetic condition of the temple, he decided to clean it everyday and burn some incense in the name of the Goddess. Pleased with the devotion and services rendered by the tea grower, Quan Yin appeared in his dream. She told him that there was a huge treasure awaiting him in a small cave behind the temple that he was to share with other disciples. The tea grower ran immediately to the cave and found a small tea shoot planted in the middle of a dark hole. Ecstatic, he gently picked up the shoot and over time grew the finest tea known to man, pure as the goddess and dark and smooth as her iron statue. He dried it in a stone wok until it smelt and tasted like the finest blossoms. Today we drink it as Ti Kuan Yin (Tea of Guan Yin)

Story 3: In another story about Oolong tea, a tea grower was drying his tealeaves after a good harvest. He loved to sing when he toiled hard and that made his work very pleasurable. He sang about his life, about nature and creation and then he sang the most beautiful verse about a black dragon called oolong. And just as he did, a huge black serpent appeared from nowhere and danced in front of him. Although the dance was like he had never seen before, the frightened tea grower fled for his life. Many days later, the he mustered some courage and returned to work. As luck would have it, he arrived at the most fragrant tea in the history of mankind. His leaves had oxidised perfectly. Unable to resist the temptation, he dropped some leaves in a cup of hot water. The leaves uncurled and little dragons came to life effusing fire and fragrance.

Story 4: Oolong tea had bene growing for quite some time by now, but the origin of name Oolong has been a source of many inspiring stories. Wu liang – the hunter, also known as Wu Long or Oolong stumbled on some tea shoots in a forest and was mesmerized by it’s soft green leaves. Just then, a beautiful deer passed right in front of him. He quickly got on to his horse and went in the direction of the deer. Many days after his successful hunt, he remembered the tea plant that he saw in the forest. By the time he arrived, the tea had started to oxidize. Oolong tried hard to revive the tea shoot. He soaked it in a porcelain jug of water. The water began to turn golden and the smell like blossoms. Out of curiosity, he decided to take a sip and stumbled on a drink like he never had before.

Some Almost True Stories:

Story 1: Many years ago, poor Japanese peasants loved drinking tea almost as much as I do today, but found it difficult to afford it in large quantities. So they mixed it with roasted rice and invented a flavorsome drink called Genmai Cha. I am told, it’s the preferred choice of tea today among the rich folk.

Story 2: In China, tea is most commonly known as "cha". Quite naturally, the Indians, Russians and Turkish who were introduced to tea by traders traveling along the silk road began to call it cha as well. However, in the 16th century Europeans began to buy their tea from a Fujian province in China, possibly the only place where “cha” was called “tey”. Thus the word “tea” from the Fukinese dialect became a more common name for this flavorsome drink.

Story 3: It is true that Marco Polo was a world-famous traveler, also one to be admired for all the rich cultures (including foods) that he introduced the world to. But, little did he know that he cornered himself into partial retraction when he wrote about his expedition to China. There he was, reflecting on China’s unique financial system, of their foliage and plumage and all the wonderful aspects of nature. Perplexingly, he missed mentioning some obvious facts about Chinese culture, that seem fundamental, like foot-binding and the widly popular drink of the 13th century, tea. Nearing death, a minister asked if he'd like to admit that his stories were false. Marco muttered, "I did not tell half of what I saw." And those were his last words.

Story 4: Charles Earl Grey, a handsome young Englishman traveled to China on official work. There he risked his life to save the drowning child of a Chinese noble. In return for his act of kindness, the mandarin presented him with the recipe for making this a very distinctive tea that later came to be known as Earl Grey. Today, it is one of the most popular tea drinks in the world. However, historians made some corrections to this version. Firstly, the Chinese have never been black tea drinkers, and were unlikely to have a recipe for Earl Grey to bestow on visitors. Secondly, Charles Earl Grey never set foot in China. Otherwise, the story is completely true. :-)
Earl Grey had a great penchant for tea, as did every other Englishman at that time. Tea was was treasured as a national "morale booster." In fact, in WWII, tea deliveries to Britain were so disrupted by the fighting that stocks of tea were dispersed to over 500 different locations all over England in order to better protect it from air raids by the Luftwaffe. It seems that they had their priorities straight: save the tea (oh yeah, and the Queen).

Story 5: I was particularly interested in how tea came to be produced in India. Naturally, as with all commodities in high demand, there was an interesting story to it too. The Europeans’ unquenchable thirst for tea increased it’s demand. Unfortunately, they were unable to find anything that the Chinese would trade tea for. With the Chinese closing the doors to the tea market, the British found no other option but to smuggle it to India. The weather being perfectly suited to grow this inexpensive crop, India began to develop as a major tea supplier. Because of tea’s addictive nature, it insured an endless demand of tea. Here it also needs to be mentioned that China had never developed black tea until this point. I don’t still know how India came to grow black tea, which is a more popular tea variety both in India as well as in England.

Story 6: Tea is to blame for a lot of things, but little does it occur to anyone that there is a frequent almost-daily activity, many times not involving tea that began as a tea drinker’s custom. By this I mean the concept of tipping waiters in restaurants. Supposedly, tipping was born in the tea gardens of England. Story has it that a small wooden box was placed on each table in the garden. The box was inscribed "To Insure Prompt Service" or TIPS for short. A coin dropped in the box usually assured prompt tea service; thus the custom of tipping was born. However, the word "tip" existed long before the first tea garden was ever established. Most obviously, this "tip" would not insure prompt service (unless tea at the time was dangerous), rather ensure prompt service... Another covert sabotage attempt by the coffee industry foiled.

My favorite tea links:
Tea Class - For the history of tea, including interesting facts and myths about tea and tea culture.
Tazo Tea - Just an awesome flash website
Tea Guide - For many FAQs
Tea Talk - To help you find tea rooms in your city
Wikipedia Tea For general info.

I stumbled on Clifton Fadiman when reading about food trivia. He is the one man who might have endorsed my opinion on food. Unfortunately he is not with us anymore. Before, I reveal more about his relation to these essays, I have to say that I am completely and terribly at loss for words when it comes to my favorite subject. Yet, this is my earnest attempt to address my views on the infamous issue – FOOD.

IF IT’S NOT CREAM ITS CHEESE

As a kid, I learnt about one kind of cheese that was to change my outlook on American life forever. KRAFT. Breakfast never came to me without the classic dialogue “Nothing in India is as appetizing as American food full of milk and cheese.” As such, I stumbled on a lot of things that were supposedly unavailable in India although I never stepped out of my country. I learnt to love spaghettis and soufflés and everything that was abundant in milk and cheese.
Naturally, I was tempted to believe that America, the land of opportunity was in fact a land of opportunity to load oneself on hunks of curdled varieties of milk.
This was a time when the internet was still off limits. Pedias came in the form of books and trivia knowledge was far from reachable. And yet, my love for all things American inspired me to find food trivia beyond satiable limits.
On the political front, I learnt the most curious question that tempted me into a life long career in politics. Charles de Gaulle once remarked about France, “How can you govern a nation that has 246 varieties of cheese?” Puzzling indeed.
On the economic front, I learnt that to make a pound of cheese, a cow must first eat three pounds of food. Not that man needed an excuse to be tempted by beef, but eating a well-milked cow is only viable, if not anything else.
And from a climatic perspective, I noted that Mariolles were so pungent that heat waves emanated from it.
Oddly, it is only today that I found one remark by an man unknown to me until now, in my most familiar area of insight- the news media. Late Clifton Fadiman, an intellectual host on the radio once said "Hmmm Cheese--milk's leap towards immortality.”
That said, this is about my leap towards immortality. To the world where cheese is abundant and mounting rapidly. Is it not natural for me to wonder what the “real” American food tastes like when its imitations in India were so succulent?
In the year 2003, I traveled to the United States with my husband. I was mostly frightened and slightly enthusiastic about living in a world where everything I loved was to be obtained easily and will no longer have to wait till a distant relative comes home one a year on visit.
On the way to the United States, we halted at the Amsterdam Airport. I was both tired and down in the mouth. And still, the Amsterdam airport is not one to be overlooked. My husband and I lugged our baggage around walked through an endless stretch of airport stores. Nothing caught my fancy as much as the cheese stores.
I grabbed boxes of fondue, parmegiano reggiano, fontina and gouda. If not for the lack of space in my hand baggage, my entry into a new country might have been a lot cheesier.
If there is anything that lived up the American dream, cheese it is. Only now, I look forward to traveling to countries of its original habitat –italy, france, germany, Greece, the middle-east, spain and africa. They all claim to be the originators of cheese.

WIKIPEDIA SAYS: The exact origins of cheesemaking are unknown, and estimates range from around 8000 BCE (when sheep were domesticated) to around 3000 BCE. Credit for the discovery most likely goes to nomadic Turkic tribes in Central Asia, around the same time that they developed yogurt, or to people in the Middle East. A common tale about the discovery of cheese tells of an Arab nomad carrying milk across the desert in a container made from an animal's stomach, only to discover the milk had been separated into curd and whey by the rennet from the stomach.
Folktales aside, cheese likely began as a way of preserving soured and curdled milk through pressing and salting, with rennet introduced later— perhaps when someone noticed that cheese made in an animal stomach produced more solid and better-textured curds. The earliest archaeological evidence of cheesemaking has been found in Egyptian tomb murals, dating to about 2300 BCE. The earliest cheeses would likely have been quite sour and salty, similar in texture to rustic cottage cheese or feta.
From the Middle East, basic cheesemaking found its way into Europe, where cooler climates meant less aggressive salting was needed for preservation. With moderate salt and acidity, the cheese became a suitable environment for a variety of beneficial microbes and molds, which are what give aged cheeses their pronounced and interesting flavors.

RECIPES: Place to start:

• http://www.ilovecheese.com
• http://www.cheese.com
• 
  NOTE: ALL SAID THE INDIAN PANEER IS BY FAR MY FAVORITE KIND OF CHEESE. TO BE BEATEN BY NOTHING BUT A BETTER VERSION OF THE SAME.

The world's going banana-rama-rama! I asked my husband why people dont sell tightly packaged individual bananas to prevent them from asploding, when he showed me this contraption.



Architect Paul Stremple, no doubt a creative genius, came up with the Banana Bunker, a product protecting banana's from bruising or turning black. Indeed, a brilliant and healthy solution that comes in many colors.


But no, thank you. I think I will take a smooshed banana over the one in a guard!

When Priti came to DC we had a few shots of a really good Canadian Vodka, which incidentally happens to be the world's only eco-friendly "luxury" vodka, also rated one of the finest.

Terms like "smooth" used with liquor is somewhat misleading. You would imagine that it rides down your throat like silk, but to me vodkas always sting as they go down, no matter how hard you try to sell it to me otherwise. I like that about it. But, there are different levels of stinging, and this one is most definitely the least demanding of my facial muscles and my throat.

Perhaps smooth has to do with the "effect" of the vodka as much as it has to do with the taste. Tapi's colleague from "Vodka land" once told us that it is the only drink that doesn't give you a hangover in the morning after, which explains how Russians are able to gulp it down during the day and go on with life. I believe him.

Going back to it's eco-friendliness (notwithstanding the destruction of the human liver and some brain cells), Vodka 360s commitment to the environment is admirable. It uses the most recycled material possible and is eco-friendly in every stage of distilling, packaging and marketing.

From an article I read recently:

The bottle, commonly reused by consumers for water and olive oil, is made from 85 percent recycled glass, giving each bottle a unique green hue. The label on the bottle is made with 100 percent post consumer paper with special water based inks that won't harm the environment; and the swing-top closure comes with a pre-paid envelope empowering Canadians to return it for reuse and have $1.00 donated to a local environmental organization.

The sustainability is also evident in the retail shipping cases which are 100 percent recycled, stable enough to support the weight of a full-grown man and the exact size of a standard storage box fitting file folders, magazines and other common storage items.

While everything outside the bottle promotes reusability, everything inside is about efficiency and quality. 360 Vodka boasts a state-of-the-art production process that is second to none in the industry and 200 percent more efficient than the conventional pot still method. Distilled four times using the column distillation process and filtered five times featuring a proprietary charcoal coconut filter system, the end result is a clean, silky smooth liquid, that competes with the world's finest vodkas.

By selecting the finest American grains grown less than 95 miles from the distillery, 360 Vodka also reduces fossil fuel consumption in transporting raw materials to the distillery. In addition, their marketing materials are all made with recycled paper and produced using the most ecologically friendly materials.

And for those unsure of the brand's commitment, the bottle showcases a regularly updated eco-audit that lists the benefits to the environment including the number of trees, energy, solid waste, water and greenhouse gasses that were saved at the time the label was printed.

"I genuinely believe 360 Vodka is a remarkable achievement and represents the kind of change we need in order to secure our ecosystem's future," added Pechar. "It truly is the evolution of vodka."

Web site: http://www.vodka360.com