Chinese meal was something taste buds demanded to mark the end of this bank holiday weekend. So we decided to try out the ‘My Asia’ Chinese restaurant in Northallerton! Guess this was the only one restaurant left to try out in the high street as this one always gave the impression of a not so great place. When we decided to try our luck last night we were quite surprised and impressed by the standard of the place. The ambience was great inside and so was the quality of the products! Infact the service was great too unlike some of the Chinese places where we are expected to finish off in a hurry.
Yeah, you get for what you pay; the place is expensive! But didn’t complain much as we both enjoyed whatever we ordered. As always I had my doubts on quantity while ordering but struggled to finish off the mains after starters; so desert was sacrificed! Then comes the bumper, fortune cookies! I was seeing it for the first time and was not particularly interested, just wanted to pay and get off. SreeRaj opened his cookie and it said, "You will make many changes before settling down satisfactorily!”. And we we got interested; SreeRaj knew there was a story behind fortune cookies and asked the customer service girl about it. She said, “ No story!”. Guess she has a bit of language problem. We left the story thingy there and now I wanted to open mine though didn’t want to have it as I was so full. There comes mine ,” You will be graced by the presence of a loved one soon!”. I was like, “Woah! This is good”. Now I wanted to try it out and it tasted good too – fat free, vanilla flavour plain flour simple cookie!
We were both happy with our fortune cookies!!! And then I badly wanted to know what the story behind this is. Here it goes (from a piece of google search)
“For many centuries the Chinese have marked special occasions and festival times such as harvest and New Year with the giving and receiving of Moon Cakes these were made from Lotus Nut Paste.
During the 13th and 14th centuries China was occupied by the Mongols. When plans were made in Peking for a popular uprising to oust the invaders, much thought was given how news of the date of the uprising could be circulated without alerting the Mongols.
The story goes that the Mongols had no taste for Lotus Nut Paste and so the Chinese hid the message containing the date in the middle of their Moon Cakes replacing the yolk with secret messages. Patriotic revolutionary, Chu Yuan Chang took on the disguise of a Taoist priest and entered occupied walled cities handing out Moon Cakes. These were the instructions to co-ordinate the uprising which successfully formed the basis of the Ming Dynasty.
Thus the tradition of giving cakes with messages was born and became a popular way of expressing wishes of goodwill or good fortune on an important occasion.
The origins of the Fortune Cookie as we know it today were laid down by the Chinese 49'ers who worked on the building of the great American railways through the Sierra Nevada into California.
Work was very hard and pleasures were few in isolated camps, those hard workers had only biscuits with happy messages inside, to exchange at the Moon festival instead of traditional cakes with happy messages, thus the FORTUNE COOKIE was born. This became something of a cottage industry and as the Chinese settled in San Francisco after the railway and the Gold boom the custom continued. Today it is almost impossible to have a Chinese meal in America and Canada without finishing with a Fortune Cookie.
More and more businesses and even governments are having promotional messages printed on the opposite side to the fortune. The HONG KONG police used them in anti - drugs campaigns and the US followed.
The first automated production of Fortune Cookies took place in America in 1964 before that they were made by hand. In recent years fully automated facilities have been set up in the UK to produce Fortune Cookies that are now gaining increasing popularity in Chinese restaurants and Take-Aways across the U.K. and Europe”
Interesting!!! A good selling point too – fortune wrapped in a piece of paper! Who wouldn’t like to see pleasing things like this though you believe in it or not!
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Travelling alone :(
Travelling is fun for me if I have the right company. I have always enjoyed travelling with family and friends whether it is a fully planned trip or an instant idea. Both has its own charm. Start of a drive in the morning and randomly pick a place which you want to visit or see with your better half – its simply wonderful! If you get your friends joining in for this it is even better. With not much expectation but with great pleasure you set off for it. And then you have the full planned itinerary ones which you have dreamt, planned and the much awaited ones. With high expectations you set off for it and needless to say most of the times the outcome is pleasurable.
No matter how good the travel or destination is (even if it is going back home) I don’t enjoy travelling alone. And I am not good at travelling alone. Let it be airports, train stations, buses, even walking distances I hate travelling alone. Even for my up and down train journeys I long for company. It is relatively a better journey as I know clearly where I am supposed to reach as it is a routine and the route has a ‘feel at home’ feeling by now. Otherwise travelling alone gives me a lot of stress most of the times. Having real poor direction sense things get messed up a good amount of time. And again I hate to manage the sign posts, directions and anything of that sort on my own. I know I am pampered! Then again if the journey involves any waits where I have to kill time on my own, my frustration goes up and high and it is at its worst if I cannot get connected to the world! Less luggage more comfort logo adds onto it. Even if it’s a trolley bag I feel I am in pain. The bottom line is travelling alone is a pain!
No matter how good the travel or destination is (even if it is going back home) I don’t enjoy travelling alone. And I am not good at travelling alone. Let it be airports, train stations, buses, even walking distances I hate travelling alone. Even for my up and down train journeys I long for company. It is relatively a better journey as I know clearly where I am supposed to reach as it is a routine and the route has a ‘feel at home’ feeling by now. Otherwise travelling alone gives me a lot of stress most of the times. Having real poor direction sense things get messed up a good amount of time. And again I hate to manage the sign posts, directions and anything of that sort on my own. I know I am pampered! Then again if the journey involves any waits where I have to kill time on my own, my frustration goes up and high and it is at its worst if I cannot get connected to the world! Less luggage more comfort logo adds onto it. Even if it’s a trolley bag I feel I am in pain. The bottom line is travelling alone is a pain!
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Four more weeks to go at work before a break!!! In fact a long break.
Guess I have been working continuously for four years and the longest break I had got in between would be of two months during the marriage. Straight to University from there! And then started work before the course finished. Now looking back at it, things were hectic though it kept me occupied all the while with not much time to complain. Anyway, I am really looking forward to the break now.
The past months had been absolutely busy with so many trips, Sruthi fifth annual event and with not one spare weekend to wind off. But then I guess it was enjoyable to a great extent. Met a lot of new people, got more time with friends, got lots of shopping done and so on.
The Fort William trip was AMAZING. Absolutely fell in love with the place!!! And it was a perfect holiday, didn’t want to come back. My initial feel about the holiday wasn’t great as I expected the 6+ hours drive would kill me. But to my surprise I enjoyed every bit of the drive (for a change!) and didn’t even doze off once. You don’t want to miss anything on the sides I guess, that picturesque it is. The lively Oban Marina and drive arounds nearby make it perfect destination to for all sorts of people I guess – panoramic as well activity oriented from walks to scuba diving!
Now with the start of May you feel more at ease as you are spoilt with two bank holidays. One is already down and you get more and more reluctant to get up on Tuesday mornings to start the working week. However, the weather has not changed much in North Yorkshire as I am still on my winter jacket (may be its just me). But occasionally you get sunny days too. The next long weekend is already blocked with a walk organised in the Dales with some friends (a BIG group in fact) followed by a BBQ. And I am sure I will need the next two days for rest after this! And then I will be left with just another 1 week before I leave. God, time does fly!
The to-do list for me just goes on and on and the deadlines are in four weeks time. All four weekends are already blocked as you tend not to miss anyone/anything during this time. Maximum catch ups with people!
The next scary thingy is on swine flu! I tend to suspect on myself all those symptoms I get to hear on various illnesses. Now that I have a cold that’s been running for a while I wanted to check if its swine flu. But I am sure it is not; but I wanted to check. My next air travel is in five weeks time to India, I just hope the viruses would be settled by then. Today in office, there is a notice put up in rest rooms, ‘If u feel sick, please be at home! Don’t pass on the germs!’ How true and I highly appreciate the idea.
Guess I have been working continuously for four years and the longest break I had got in between would be of two months during the marriage. Straight to University from there! And then started work before the course finished. Now looking back at it, things were hectic though it kept me occupied all the while with not much time to complain. Anyway, I am really looking forward to the break now.
The past months had been absolutely busy with so many trips, Sruthi fifth annual event and with not one spare weekend to wind off. But then I guess it was enjoyable to a great extent. Met a lot of new people, got more time with friends, got lots of shopping done and so on.
The Fort William trip was AMAZING. Absolutely fell in love with the place!!! And it was a perfect holiday, didn’t want to come back. My initial feel about the holiday wasn’t great as I expected the 6+ hours drive would kill me. But to my surprise I enjoyed every bit of the drive (for a change!) and didn’t even doze off once. You don’t want to miss anything on the sides I guess, that picturesque it is. The lively Oban Marina and drive arounds nearby make it perfect destination to for all sorts of people I guess – panoramic as well activity oriented from walks to scuba diving!
Now with the start of May you feel more at ease as you are spoilt with two bank holidays. One is already down and you get more and more reluctant to get up on Tuesday mornings to start the working week. However, the weather has not changed much in North Yorkshire as I am still on my winter jacket (may be its just me). But occasionally you get sunny days too. The next long weekend is already blocked with a walk organised in the Dales with some friends (a BIG group in fact) followed by a BBQ. And I am sure I will need the next two days for rest after this! And then I will be left with just another 1 week before I leave. God, time does fly!
The to-do list for me just goes on and on and the deadlines are in four weeks time. All four weekends are already blocked as you tend not to miss anyone/anything during this time. Maximum catch ups with people!
The next scary thingy is on swine flu! I tend to suspect on myself all those symptoms I get to hear on various illnesses. Now that I have a cold that’s been running for a while I wanted to check if its swine flu. But I am sure it is not; but I wanted to check. My next air travel is in five weeks time to India, I just hope the viruses would be settled by then. Today in office, there is a notice put up in rest rooms, ‘If u feel sick, please be at home! Don’t pass on the germs!’ How true and I highly appreciate the idea.
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