Indian sweets! Silver anyone?

You know where ever I have gone I always hear people make general statements about places they have never seen, or they only experience a tiny fraction of the place.

In Korea the latter is what you will find when you talk to most Koreans about places they visit. It goes something like this...Korean wishes to travel...gets a large group of his/her friends, or just signs up for a tour. They travel to...lets say Germany. Very few in the group can speak any passable English, or German but that is ok..the Guide can translate. 

They look around do the usual tourist things...taking pics and what not. But...it stops there. Usually Koreans prefer Korean food abroad, it is rare to find Koreans who are very adventurous...a former teacher Sue comes to mind. She is a bit encentric, warm hearted, but....the most adventurous of all of our Korean staff. She and others like her are rare. 

Going back to our tour group. They may try German food....but likely since it differs from Korean food...they will give it a thumbs down. Then run to a Korean resturant. This has caused a real market for opening Korean resturants in foriegn countries. 

I want to introduce you to Indian Sweets! In this small way we can educate ourselves so as not to think: India=curry.

One common factor..Abu, or Tatul please correct me here, is that most Indian sweets are made from milk. Cooked for varying lengths of time. Actually I ask Yogita to fill in more here, or Abu.

One thing I notice is that some sweets are actually covered in silver! Very thin sheets of silver. 

I have some pics.....now if you notice the orange sweet is made from flour, butter, lentils and sugar..it is the cheapest sweet in this shop. The black balls with silver on them....aahhh my favorite....well..one of my favorites...gulab jammun. This is made from milk....made into a dough, and put in a sweet and tasty sugar syrup.....it tastes sort of like...donughts.

Not all sweets are made from milk, or has milk as the main ingrediant, the silver covered bars are actually made from cashews that have been made into a paste. It tastes like a light peanut butter.

Well I hope yogita can jump in and clarify more.....i will post more pics of the sweets later today.

ok tata

Jeyo

Another Day......in Mother India

It has been really cool yesterday and today as well. I can say i'm not likeing it....yesterday we got a very good nights sleep. 

Today I am going to talk about a pet project that I have been undertaking for quite a few months. 

Thats is emulation! Basically you go on the net and download a program that mimicks a game console system. Then download the rom files (the actual games) and it is just like having a game console on your pc! Another thing is that most 2003-and on pc's have more than enough power to handle the emulation! 

As I am typing this I have a super nintendo Omorro and Mike remember Madden? I have 800 games for it as well.....

I also have a dreamcast console i only have 1 game for that.....marvel vs capcom 2....sweet game!

I also have an arcade emulator know as mame32 and hundreds of games for it...however a number of them are actually broken...and dont work.

I also have a n64 with 50 or more games on it....I love it!!!

Oh well...actually I started on this post yesterday but the power went....however blogger auto saves...so...i can finish it now!

Tata

Jeyo

India!

Thats right we have relocated to India, we will be here for some time.
Leaving Korea took alot of time, and even getting properly settled will take about 2-3 weeks more.
India is hot...but it is very similar to Philly's humid summer. Actually now that we are in the Monsoon season
it is much cooler.....with....ALOT of rain. Once again similar to South Korea in Gunsan. However, other parts of India see a ALOT more rain than we do.

We are going to heading to Mumbai in about 3-4 weeks....ugh many delays due to banking things.

One thing I can really say that I have noticed here is a lax almost lazy attidude that people take when it comes to paper work. I mean government employees! The typical day for them is like this....they generally start at 10-10:30am and finish around 3pm. We saw it today as we were getting work done at the bank. They ran out of new account application forms on the second floor (first floor in India...brings back memories of England....Ground floor would be the first floor).

So the officer handling our case does this: First thoughly checks his desk, then walks around aimlessly then tells us "Please come back tomorrow". LOL I mean dude go downstairs and get some fresh copies. I will search online and see if I can download the form from the banks website. 

Oh another thing....money talks in India. Offer 20 more rupees for this or that...people will go out thier way to help you. This goes for many different things.

Food: awesome!!! I love mutton....once again brings memories of England, when I would eat mutton in the mess hall of Hulme Hall. There are too many things to list when it comes to food...lets just say....stop thinking Indian food is all about curry. It is much more than that. Just like Korean food is not all about kimchi, or American food is not only fastfood...LOL trying to convince my business students otherwise was so difficult. 

Lucknow is a dirty city. No shortcuts there....plain and simple...dirty. People throw garbage anywhere they want, whenever, whatever. Cow shit is well...common place. Remember Hindus worship the cow so....they roam the streets in these small herds. My greatest fear is having thier tail with cow shit smack against my face, as the cows and bulls swish thier tails back and forth swatting flies. 

I am not saying I do not like it...I love it here. The people are very polite and friendly. Life is so simple here. People just take it slow, and easy. I feel that in some ways Korea does not feel like a real country...or that it is a member of a global society. 

Koreans are daft when it comes to world events that are outside of Korea. I have lived in the States...heck I am American, and I realize there is a level of ignorance there. Korea....is off the charts!!!! People have no clue whats so ever. I mean well educated people. I would ask my students about world events, current events......90% of the time you get vague reponses, or they say "I dont care about that" or "That will have no impact on my life here". The question rising oil prices. Of course it was all bullshit. They would tell me in class...oh my goodness I can even take a vacation now. It has to hit them in the face for them to realize there is something going on. In India...it is quite different. Of the people that I have met, they ask intellegent questions, make statements which shows that they are not living in lu lu la la land (thanks Mrs. Kim I love that expression)

Anyways I am rambling..I will post only 1 picture..of Jeyo...LOL he is cute...you will love this pic!