benhider.com/blog

There is something that makes me giggle about this website that turns seemingly normal pictures into hungry monsters. I am not sure that it is as much the idea, and certainly not the quality of the images, but more this statement posted below every photo and what that sounds like when sitting at your desk in an office at 1am.

“If you’re not saying ‘Om Nom Nom Nom’ out loud at the same time as looking at these pictures then you’re doing it wrong.”

We love having friends who work at this amazing coffee shop which is based in Ithaca but has two stores in NYC now. They have good email promotions where they give you a big discount, the last one gave us 50% off, and we ordered 10lbs of coffee. This month (expires July 4) they are offering 25% off any internet order if you type in JUN0825 at the end of the order. The “Cup of Excellence” coffees are normally my favorites, but they are all good. The manager of the Brooklyn branch, Mike White, has a blog here. Generally all of the reviews of the place have been amazing, although they have got the occasional bad review based on service at the Brooklyn branch, which I have to admit is often deserved. Service aside, the coffee is excellent and we often order their amazing cappuccino’s or the old drink a “mad cupid” which is espresso, half and half and some ‘lovin’ syrup (an undisclosed flavor of Monin syrup).

I didn’t remember taking this photo on June 10 at Peter Luger’s. I took Amanda there on our first anniversary dinner. We had to book 2 months early to secure a table which gave me plenty of time in India to dream about the night. It is the brightest steakhouse I have ever been in and sometimes has the worst service. We had an amazing time, ordering the bacon appetizer and having steak, creamed spinach and homefries with our porterhouse steak. I’ve just read an older James Frey book, “My Friend Leonard” where they feast on a similar meal throughout the book. Not an amazing read, but a good follow up to his first novel/autobiography “A million little pieces.”

We booked Peter Luger Steakhouse a few months ago, and I was dreaming about the steak for my entire trip. It was a great meal and a really nice (maybe not romantic) place to celebrate our first year of marriage.

Amanda eating a Porterhouse at Peter Luger

Stella enjoying the bone

Louise enjoying the bone

Varanasi had little to offer in good local food. I did have the best Tuna sandwich I have had for a while and an amazing ‘English Breakfast’ both at the Open Hand Cafe. The temperature was so high that my appetite wasn’t in full force, and the few nice restaurants were shut due to the lack of foreigners. It presented a good opportunity to dive into some street food (or more aptly, the Indian Railway food). The only safe food to eat on the street is deep fried and tends to be made of potatoes and lots of chili and pepper. Below are what they call Pakora, a word used to describe any deep fried vegetable (or meat if it is Non-Veg Pakora - definitely not safe street food!)

I didn’t eat dinner on the train, partly due to the heat, but also because I was reading so much, and the vile ‘burpfart’ family around me put me off my food. When breakfast came, the cunning food-wallah handed me two packets and charged me for both, I didn’t know they would both be the same, so didn’t say anything. They came neatly wrapped and consisted of two slices of the most pathetic bread (as most of Indias sliced bread is) and two fried, peppery potato products. The heartburn came on a tad slower than the pakora.

To prove my environmental awareness and true concern for the pollution of the wonderful mother Ganga, I made sure that my water consumption was moderate over the 3 days.

Of course, everyone reads the news paper differently. My friend Hunty would always read the Times of India backwards, starting at sports. I tend to skip through most of the national politics to the international section. Now that I am in a hotel with air conditioning and a TV, I have been jumping between CNN and BBC. Three stories caught my attention today and are influenced by the jobs I have had and where I am from.

My Wireimage and Tibetan interest led me to Sharon Stone’s comments this week at Amfar in Cannes. It seems that she thinks that due to the Chinese human rights violation in Tibet, she thinks that the eathquake in Chengdu is due to bad karma. I especially liked how she called H.H. the Dalai Lama a “very good friend.” The full story can be read here. To simplify how people feel about the situation in Tibet she is quoted as saying “I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else.” If only a little kindness could solve all the worlds problems!

To show some interests a little closer to home and also with a more serious Getty slant, I have been following the Gujjar protests that now have seeped into New Delhi. I have missed any travel through the affected region, and hopefully will continue to do so. Interestingly, the Gujjars actually want to have their caste lowered so that they can have access to more government jobs. It seems that the Indian government offers certain amounts of these jobs to lower castes, and the Gujjars current status excludes them from those possibilities. The Times of India article adds some more details here.

Finally, as I have met a few Koreans this trip, and also know a few back in New York, I followed the US beef story in Korea. South Korea had banned US beef 5 years ago due to the export of some beef infected with ‘mad cow.’ The South Korean government has lifted the ban even though continued protests have been held. The BBC tells more here. What I enjoyed the most about this story, is that although the government has confirmed a lift of the ban sue to the safety of the meat, the Koreans continue protesting due to the safety of street food. The report on CCN said that in fact the peoples main concern was with the parts of the animal that Americans don’t eat that carry more of the disease. If Koreans would just stop eating the intestines, then a large part of the risk would disappear. As a solution to this, many road side vendors have turned to pig intestines instead. Having seen how many pigs in Asia sit at the base of toilets to eat human excrement, I can’t imagine that their intestines are much cleaner than a cows (especially as they never proven there to be any link between BSE and CJD).

Asif (Royal Asian Arts, McLeod Ganj) invited me over to his new house for dinner. It turned into lunch, much internet and computer training, endless talks about the prophet Mohammad and an excellent chicken dinner. I don’t actually have any pictures of the meal itself, as I ate with my hands and didn’t want to slime my camera, but I did go to the chicken hut to get our Halal chickens. I would not recommend doing this directly before eating them, as I personally needed some time to forget about the ordeal before I chowed down on the tasty beasts.　My favourite part of the meals were the raw onions with salt and chili paste that accompanied both lunch and dinner. The kids seemed to enjoy watching me gasp for air between the spices and eating so clumsily with my fingers.

Here I am with Asif and his family before dinner。His wife Iffat was alot friendlier than she looks in this photo

After the break, there are more gruesome images, but here is the butcher and his cheeky little grin. This was after the first chicken and before the second.

Here are the more gruesome images after the break

Pages: 1 2

I feel I have been in India long enough to start missing certain foods. Coffee is always high on that list, and thankfully McLeod Ganj has caught up with Delhi, and is serving good espresso in some places. This small cafe just before the ‘chocolate log’ even had the coolest milk jug ever. I didn’t trust them with a cappuccino, and as milk is nearly always served hot in India (even on cornflakes in the middle of summer) I got milk on the side.

And below is some proof that I will never rise to fame as a food photographer, and certainly would never even want to try. Food and jewelry photography are an art in themselves. Kakeage-Egg Don is my favourite Japanese dish ever, aside from Sushi, which I am sure America has bastardised. It would benefit from some meat, but they are a vegearian restaurant, so it will have to do. It is vegetable tempura, with sticky rice, an egg over it all and some kind of oyster sauce. To the left is Miso Soup and some kind of pickled vegetable with sesame seeds. It is really delicious and dare I saw even a little healthy, the trouble is I have never seen it on a menu outside of this small Himalayan restaurant. (It tastes much better than it looks)