sartoric

Okay. Dinner at Surgaru Spot, a vegetarian restaurant opposite the Hotel du Parc in the French quarter of Pondicherry. We had tender pulak pooris which came with a veggie dal mix and spicy tomato chutney, then gobi & aloo takatin, yellow dal masala fry and basmati rice. This was delicious and cheap at INR 360 for two. Find it at 12 Jawahalal Nehru St Pondicherry. A local market on the road between Pondicherry and Chidabaram in Tamil Nadu state.

We're 50 something Aussies who enjoy travelling, eating, cooking, markets, kitchen shops, cooking utensils, animals & plants (often food related), architecture & photography (both kitchens and food) and exploring different cultures (of which food is a big part). The trip was January 14 - February 6, it was just marvellous. My favourite meal is now masala dosa with sambar, I had many. Here's some highlights of the food. A late afternoon snack of Sichuan pepper squid was washed down with a beer at the Ajantha Seaview Hotel on the promenade in Pondicherry. It's a colonial building with a first floor terrace overlooking the colourful display of women in their finest, and the Bay of Bengal. We're here on a Monday public holiday for the Pongal festival, a four day celebration of the harvest, with many different ceremonies and traditions. A visual bonus, cows (and sometimes goats) get their horns painted and wear flower garlands or other decorations.

Just back from three weeks in India, and all I can manage is pizza delivery. The pizza was pretty good despite the poor photo. Some South Indian feast photos coming soon....

That's funny, they did give us a fork, and it was still unnerving. A few days ago we shared thalis with a 60 year old guide we had hired. He had food up to the third knuckle on all fingers....here's the meal. Incredibly cheap, about $5 for three of us.

Chicken (and egg) biriyani with eggplant kaikeri and cucumber raita. Preceded by vegetable samosa. In Tanjore southern India.

A traditional Chettinad thali at Chindarabam Villas. Served on a banana leaf, eight kinds of vegetables, a whole fish, chicken in gravy, three rices, pappad, chutney, pickles, soup in a silver cup. Four waiters, (for two of us) who watched us eat, standing directly in front of us, maybe a meter away.

Idly and poori with left to right coconut chutney, mint chutney, tomato chutney, bhaji and sambar.. ..in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. He who must be fed is a champion, cold roast chicken and veg for lunch two days in a row, plus I suspect a midnight snack or two and the chicken is virtually gone. We have a friend house and dog sitting, so she can deal with the rest. This time tomorrow I should be 3 hours into a flight to Singapore, then on to India. I hope to post some food photos !

Antipasto, the cheese is Maasdam, there's ham, salami, chicken (of course), dolmades and Cabernet paste.

Apologies to the hosting team for enabling some off topic discussion. Maybe I'm doing exactly that again, but...... What would you do with leftover roast chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and a big bag of baby spinach ? Assume I've got everything imaginable in my pantry. Hit me quick.

Yesterday I cooked dinner for six, but four of them didn't show up. I just don't get millennials. So they had car troubles, that's fair enough, but they also had four phones, and couldn't see a reason to contact me, apart from the original "I don't think we can make it" message ? Can't respond to my text message or phone calls, yeah, great. I had to call their father (another city, another state, several thousand kilometres away) to find out what's going on... It doesn't help that we're going away for a month in two days time. Lots of uneaten food equals happy dogs I suppose. I still don't get millennials. Dinner was roast chicken with potatoes and baby carrots. There would have been other things if the millennials had made it, but I had lost interest by then. Sorry for the rant.

South Australian whiting, seasoned flour, pan fried in butter. With some squid, Shelby fries and salad.

Scotch fillet steaks, potato slabs, mushrooms, asparaguys and salad.

Ham bone soup with yellow split peas. Relish and cheddar toasties....

Ham and potato bake with a wild rocket, peach and walnut salad, plus toast.

Felafels with minty pea & yoghurt sauce.

A feast from the Middle East. Roasted garlic hummus with vegetable crudités, beef and sweet potato tagine with harissa, and herby couscous.

Sundowners with a few friends. Pigs in a blanket with minty pea dip and tomato relish. Ham croquettes with mango relish dip. Antipasto platter.

Lemon garlic chicken loosely from the NYT website. We really liked this. Served with mashed potatoes, green beans and toast.

Spicy Korean pork stew with potatoes. Served with steamed rice and garlic spinach.

Turkey congee. I made stock with the carcass of our roasted turkey Trev and a few slices of ginger. The congee is dressed with ham shreds, fried shallots and a splash of soy. It was smooth.

Too hot to cook much, so here's a ham, cheese and red onion toasted sandwich with blue cheese butter, plus a little tomato chutney.

I kept up the fine Australian traditions of "what can I be arsed with" and "really, it's just another day". So, there was a ham and cheese sandwich. I don't want to raise culinary expectations too early in the year.

Me too.

So I bought this half leg of beechwood smoked ham thinking I'd glaze and bake it, serve with potato gratin yada yada. The heat of yesterday killed any idea of turning on the oven, so Mr Ham just got sliced and served with cold stuff. I did make a potato salad..... Happy 2017 to all.