Artfront is now another blog that I am hosting powered by WordPress. It is an idea from a fellow ex uni class mate to put up an art show.  Picking up on the idea, we are taking the challenge of bringing our skills to raise funds through art shows across Europe. The mains aims are to develop and fund projects which will focus on children who have more challenges but fewer opportunities in life. We are thinking about children living in slum areas, orphans, children of prostitutes or children whose parents are addicted to drugs or alcohol anywhere in the world.

This a dream come true as an extension to my first experience in Delhi some 20 years ago. When I was a student at the Art institute there and had to work on a campaign on Child Labour and Prostitution. It took me to the streets of Old Delhi where I discovered a world of utter despair among an outer world of poverty. That of juvenile prostitution. Where I saw a child exchanging sexual favours for a small paper bag of street munchies. That was it. It got etched into my mind and heart. And I started understanding the meaning of poverty. This venture of ours is only a small extension of our limited powers of individuals who believe in a certain cause. That of children living in appalling conditions.

The course of my career took a positive turn at som epoint when I started working for UN agencies and traveling to post conflict areas acros the globe. Since, taking leisure moments to reflect upon some positive actions I can bring about in my daily life has allowed me to ‘rest’ my mind from unnecessary demands of the material world to a more peaceful one of contentment in the smaller joys of life.

This show will allow us to dwelve into our own persuits to make a practical contribution to a cause to help alleviate poverty hunger, war, conflict, sexual exploitation, abuse and psychological traumas.

Pl check our blog : www.artfront.wordpress.com or follow the link on the side bar.

I am a few days late to post this, but upon reflection, I think it is the right time to do so. As it is away from the main day when people have to remember about Aids, but doing so on a daily basis with enough awareness to protect oneself and support others who are affected by this terrible disease of the 21st century.

It reminds me of a recent conversation I had a few days ago with a friend. About a friend of hers who died from AIDS. And how the family was defensive about it and to protect their own position, told the rest of the world that their brother had cancer. Instead of accepting the idea of having Aids and the social stigmas that still keep growing each day in each community everywhere in the world.  In many societies, it is considered shameful to have AIDS…. It is OK to have cancer and die of it. I still cannot accep the candour and hypocrisy with which men behave towards their own loved ones when faced by this disease.

Anyway, I should carry on living my own little insignificant life thinking that somewhere, someone might be counting the numbers of months, days, hours, … minutes of life left to them. I should spare a thought to them now …. and at all times I can remember.

Amen.

Read more :

http://www.worldaidscampaign.org

Light.

Who can live without light ? Life giving and dispeller of darkness, light shines hope and love in our life, shows us our way.

While Divali is popularly known as the “festival of lights”, the most significant spiritual meaning is “the awareness of the inner light”.

Central to Hindu philosophy is the assertion that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the Atman. Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Deepavali is the celebration of this inner light, in particular the knowing of which outshines all darkness (removes all obstacles and dispels all ignorance), awakening the individual to one’s true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality. With the realization of the Atman comes universal compassion, love, and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher knowledge). This brings Ananda (inner joy or peace).

The gunas are the underlying forces or tendencies which one needs to have unaffected, direct relation with in order to find effectiveness and righteousness in life: they are lines of potential and illuminate thought and action, thus the inner meaning of Diwali being the festival of lights.

Deepavali celebrates this through festive fireworks, lights, flowers, sharing of sweets, and worship. While the story behind Dipavali varies from region to region, the essence is the same – to rejoice in the inner light (Atman) or the underlying reality of all things (Brahman).

May all living beings rejoice in peace, joy and light.

I am back to my beloved blog after spending some lovely holidays in France and Spain.

My first thought goes to the victims of the tsunami and earthquakes in SE ASia and the Pacific. Help is being brought to them, but we cannot deny the huge suffering and loss these people are facing.

On a more cheerful note, cannot feel more excited and pleased for Brazil to have won the official hosting of the next Olympics. It means a lot to this nation. A lot of dreams to a forgotten and struggling continent. And a lot of work waiting !

‘Action’ is the word of the day for my beginning of this season’s blogging …

Let’s get to work.

Time for a well deserved break.

Summer has been here for a while now, but it is only now that we are able to take our break. Looking forward to catch up with all the nice things that comes with going home. Plenty of sunshine is all we are wishing and hoping for. Not sure, knowing the UK and French Summers. Anyway, fingers crossed, we shall be balled.

I may share a ‘paquerette’ or two with some lazy cows in rural France, so blogging would not be on my finger tips. Explosion of themes and images will abound I am sure, hence loads to update my blog when I get back. Maybe, when I reach the metropolis, it will make sense to lighten the backlog.

Till, then all those who pass by this blog, thank you for taking time to read my ramblings. I appreciate your precious time and effort immensely.

Happy holidays !

Summer time joys in Hanoi are abundunt, one of them is enjoying fresh fruits, especially fresh coconut water !

The best thing about living in our new apartment is living next to shops serving fresh coconut water. It has become a regular treat to finish our weekend aftrnoons … or rather should I say, starting it. We take our jug to the shop ( street one ), and choose any big juicy coconut, the young Vietnamese girl swiftly chops it and pours the water and half the shells. In a few deft movements, she scrapes the young flesh and fills our tupperware with the sweet water. Happy ? Yes, we are indeed.

Back home, we either chill the flesh which dispappears in a flash while watching TV or is quickly ‘hidden’ away in the fridge, awaiting to be incorprated in some desserts.

Now, to extol the benefits of coconut water would not be enough, but all I can say is that nature made us a precious, delicious gift and each time it tastes heavenly  … be it in Hanoi, Mauritius, Rio, Bali or Bahamas !

For the info part :

Humans began in warm, tropical climes where coconuts proliferate, and they are the basic foundational human food (FHF) that is easily available to sustain life. All hunter-gather tribes utilize them fully, for food, clothing and housing. The coconut “water”, inside the nut, is sterile, and safer to drink than the often microbially-infested surface waters. The mineral profile of the coconut water (not coconut “milk”, which is made with pulp) is almost exactly the mineral electrolyte profile your cells need for health — potassium, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, manganese, copper along with vital amino acids. Although “fatty”, coconuts contain no cholesterol.

This largest-nut was truly a gift, and it’s calories enabled us to be satiated when there was largely only high water-content tropical fruits and difficult to find shell-fish or ocean fish. Fresh coconuts are an alkaline pH food, and so they can help combat the modern acid-producing life-style which eats away at your circulatory system and organs. Coconuts are also a high-fiber, low-glycemic food and they have a low carb profile along with their protein.Every ounce of shredded coconut contains about 5 grams of fiber. Your quota of fiber should aim to be around 30 – 35 grams, daily. Just about everyone loves the taste of coconut, too. It’s especially easy to use it for children. It’s important to know that there is a big difference between the nutrition of “old” brown coconuts and “young” green coconuts.Their jelly-like flesh is perfect for smoothies, puddings and just straight-from-the nut eating.

Coconut is a potent anti-viral food and it is proving to be helpful in combatting yeast-infections and the Epstein-Barr like virus which is associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, too. Lauric acid and caprylic acid are the most effective, active anti-virals. Coconut is also an important substitute for wheat flours in cooking for gluten-intolerant people who have Crohn’s disease, celiac or sprue. Organic, unrefined coconut oil is also very healthy to use for frying. Use just a bit. A little goes a long way, and as it is one of the highest-temperature stable oils, it is much better to use for these high-temperature cooking processes than lower temperature “unsaturated” oils, which de-nature in the frying zone and produce harmful products.

Other palm oils also supply medium-chain fatty acids, and are beneficial if naturally-processed and organic, although they are vegetarian “saturated” fats. The deep orange color of organic palm oil is naturally-occurring beta-carotene, and it’s a richer source than carrots. In the bottle, organic coconut fat should be fluffy-cloud white — yet be unbleached; if the room temperature is more than 76 degrees Fahrenheit, then coconut oil will be a clear liquid in its bottle. The extra-virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil’s medium-chain fatty-acids and the Omega-3 fats (in another article, soon) available from cold-water fish and hemp, can go a long way toward helping ameliorate diabetes. They offer the possibility of near-cure or cure of diabetes when in a co-ordinated plan.

Coconut products are usually room-temperature stable; this is true for coconut oil, tightly-closed dried coconut and unopened coconut water. Canned coconut milk and coconut-water should be refrigerated after opening, tightly-covered for a maximum of 4 days OR you can freeze them.

So, next time you see this humble nut, take a look again. I love it in all its forms and mostly on my skin !

Life for me without chillies is unthinkable.

I have chilli with almost everything I eat. The first item I ask at every restaurant is chilli …. freshly chopped if available.

Chilli is the next globally most recognisable food item after potatoes and pasta. Nowdays, with more research being done on this wonderful vegetable/fruit, more of its virtues are made known to the world. It is so potent for the immune system and for curing colds that it should become a daily prescibed item on the diet of all northern hemisphere inhabitants. Albeit to add some warmth to their cold ends, it would also lift their moods during the long Wintry days.

My favourite chilli remains the ones from Rodrigues, the sister island of Mauritius. It is the world’s smallest known chilli and yet very very fiery. So potent that it is pickled with lime and honey to ‘calm’ down its temper and made more amicable to our stomachs. I always carry my little bottle of ‘Piments Confits Rodrigues’ whereever I go. And when I visit my island, I pickle the chillies myself with Mum’s home grown lemongrass roots, lime and Bergamot leaves. Their flavour and taste is unlike anything I have seen or tasted in the vast chilli kindgom. But I cannot get them very often and eating them daily does mean the stock gets depleted very very quickly !

Each Summer. I make it a point to get them from Galeries Lafayette Gourmet, the only place in  France where I can get the Combava chilli paste from Reunion island and our beloved Rodrigues Chillies.  Now, I should mention that this addiction to chillies is not subjective. It is a trait familiar to many tropical islanders.  Yes, we drink loads of Rum too, but the chilli thing maybe a tightly kept secret. We are each an ‘afficionado’ in our own rights by the vast amount and variety of chillies we consume in all meals. Even the humble national snack is made of chillies, it is called ‘ gateaux piments’ meaning chilli bites. You get it ? ….On Reunion island, they are called ‘Bonbons piments’ which literally translates into chilli candies. They are not candies though … Gateaux Piments has become my darling’s favourite now and there’s not a month without a gateaux piments day with cold cold beer ! By the beach even better. Not a treat we can enjoy often.

freshly made gateaux piments

If you season your morning eggs with tabasco, add chili to your coffee and have no interest in having your dinner without red savina than you should make chili the next theme of your trip.

Start your spicy trip with Mexico and don’t worry about swine flu, after all, as a chilihead, you are safe – chili kills all sorts of germs.

Mexico

Chili for Mexicans is like wine for French or sushi for Japanese. In some ways it determines the culture of the country. Mexicans dry chili, marinate it, smoke it, stuff it, bake it or chop it up for salsa and, well, only God knows what else they do with it. Long before the Europeans arrived to the shores of America  Aztecs used to eat yellow and red chilies mixed with chocolate. Now it is trendy and gourmet to eat chilli laced chocolates. And funny enough the credit is given to some self promoting chocolatier for pinching  this thousands years old recipe from the Aztecs. Blame it on Western supremacy propaganda.

According to the estimates the Mexicans eat 6 kilo of fresh chilies and 0.5 kilo of dry chilies per capita per year which means that they eat more chilies than onions and tomatoes. Interesting fact is that one of the essentials elements that makes the kit of all Marines in the USA have a Tabasco bottle, probably to make the battlefield feel less drab ?. Anyway, to give such an honour and place to chillies is well note worthy.

The most popular Mexican dish with chilies is mole that can be prepared from four types of peppers: ancho, mulato, pasilla and chipotle (smoked jalapeno).  It is a sauce that can vary from the thick and black mole negro to bright and green mole verde infused with herbs.

The most known regions for mole are Puebla and Oaxaca . The latter is even called the Land of the Seven Moles where the sauce is wildly celebrated.

Chili stall in Mexico by drewleavy

Thailand

The Thai cuisine perfectly balance the five elementary tastes: sweet, spice, bitter, salty and sour. Off course there is lots of phrik (as Thais call chili) around so if you are the beginner in hot cuisine take it easy and give your stomach couple of days to accommodate. On each trip to Thailand, I get the birds eye chillies and pickle them in brine and lime. Reason – living in Hanoi currently sees my craving for chillies getting a cold shoulder when I go about the town looking for ‘hot’ chillies. No such thing here.

There are around 79 varieties of Thai peppers that range from very very hot phrik lueng to relatively mild phrik yuak and phrik chi fa . To have their food even hotter the Thais blended their recipes with the Indian curry powder that arrived to the Indochinese Peninsula hundreds years ago.  As a result one of the spiciest cuisines in the world has been created. Seeing the lovely red colour of oil floating in any gravy should not fool you. It is very hot and spicy, unlike the mild paprika that laces the Northern hemisphere dishes.

In this land of chili and curry anything can be spicy from salads and soups to desserts. The most popular among spicy ingredients are Thai curry pastes that are based on yellow, green or red chilies and a variety of other spices such as lemon grass, shallots, garlic, cumin and coriander.These pastes work with everything from meat dishes to vegetables, salads, soups and noodles.

It is useful to know a few phrases in Thai in order to control the amount of chili in your dish. If you want to burn your tongue immediately, ask for phet which means spicy hot. Phet nit noi is a little bit hot, mai phet is not hot. Be aware that what is a little bit spicy for Thai may be super duper spicy for you. Take my word for it !

Peru

To be Peruvian means to eat ají – Peruvian hot pepper. Every town in the country has its “picantaria” – the restaurant serving fiery food, whose name derives from Spanish word “picante”. The culture of chili has been celebrated for ages in Peru. The Incas used to freeze and dry ají to preserve it and add it to their dishes. In 19th century Friedrich von Humboldt wrote a political essay on the kingdom of New Spain, remarking that “The fruit of the chile is as indispensable to the native Peruvians as salt to the whites.” Living at such high altitudes certainly has meant that they have tamed and adopted certain ingredients that has helped them overcome al the discomforts that go with living in the mountains.

There are around 300 different chili peppers in Peru and thousands of dishes seasoned with ají . Not to get lost in the variety of Peruvian cuisine here are few popular dishes that guarantee the tears stream down your face while eating. A true opposite from the Thai chilli heat which sees your eyes popping wide from your sockets.

Ají de Gallina is a spicy chicken heated up by the Peruvian yellow chilies called ají amarillo . One pod of that pepper measure between 30,000 and 50,000 units of Scoville scale . It is also used for the preparation of the ceviche (or cebiche), the Peruvian national dish, which is cold raw seafood marinated in lemon juice, peppers and onions. The local legend says that one foreigner who tasted it gasped “son-of-a-bitch,” which Peruvians then adopted as “cebiche”.

Another worth trying dish is Papa la Huancaina – potatoes served with a special spicy sauce, olives, lettuce and egg.  You can’t leave Peru without trying Sacsayhuaman, the vodka made of rocoto peppers, passion fruit, sugar and cilantro, called Sexy Women for those who cannot pronounce the Peruvian name.

Ají shrub by José Bernardo

India

If you want to have your chili for breakfast, lunch and dinner you should head for India. The country is the largest global producer of hot peppers and the Indian town Guntur in Andhra Pradesh state hosts the biggest chili market in Asia. The town even gave its name to one of the peppers that are called Guntur Red .

Chili came to India with the Portuguese that traded the hot peppers from Lisbon in the 16th century. The chilies soon conquered the Indian dishes and were added to Indian masalas and chutneys. Garam masala which in Hindi means “warm spices” is a combination of spices that can vary from mild to eyes watering. Masala is a base for Indian curry – it is believed that the word is an anglicized version of Tamil kari which means “vegetables in sauce”.

One of the most fiery Indian dishes is Vindaloo curry that includes pork or chicken in sauce made of lots of dried chillies with garlic and vinegar. If it does not satisfy your chili demands try Tindaloo which is a hotter version of Vindaloo.  Undeniably the hottest curry in India and in the world is Phaal which include Bhut jolokia chili pepper, confirmed by the Guinness World Records as the most potent pepper on earth ( but honestly I think that the Rodriguan chilli beats it by far ! … bonnet or jalapenos are kids next to it )

Chasing chili does not end here. There are several other places in the world where hot peppers play the main role on the culinary stage. Check out spicy harissa in Tunisia, tajines in Egypt, the hot dishes of China, Jamaican jerk and kimchi the national dish of Korea. If you can’t travel to all these places, at least you know which nationality restaurant to pick for spicy dinner in your town. Choose any of them, but the lifeless paprika used in the Hungarian Goulash.

Next, I think I’m going to make my signature dessert this week end, dark chocolate mousse with cherry liqueur and … red chillies.

What say ?.