Murder Mystery Dinner Party Menu

I decided to host a Murder Mystery dinner party last Saturday. And I wanted to make some gold old fashioned American food. Being in India, I quickly realized that finding real custard ice cream, fudge, and other things was going to be a challenge. So I cooked all Saturday (and realistically, my housekeeper did all the main course dishes. Thank goodness for her!)
I decided to share my success. 1. I didn't kill anyone. 2. People actually cleaned their plates. So, for those foodies stuck in places with limited food variety available, please pay attention.

Appetizers: I made bacon wrapped prawns, a cheese platter, homemade French bread, and an olive/pickle tray. We discovered if you satay the prawns while wrapped in bacon, they obtain a level of deliciousness we didn't think was possible. (OMG bacon!) The cheeses were imported and expensive, but worth it. As were the olives. Check out Spencer's gourmet section, but watch expiration and import dates as the cheese will often be old. I used my fabulous new breadmaker to make the French bread. Highly recommend getting one!

Salad: This was simple. We cut up a bunch of fruit (any variety will do) early and made a sauce comprised of orange juice mixed with some sugar. Not only does it taste delicious, but it prevents the apples from turning brown. Cover and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Main Course: Baked chicken with mushroom gravy, wild rice, garlic and onion green beans. All made with local ingredients. The mushroom gravy had a splash of sweet white wine.

Dessert: I made home made vanilla ice cream using my friend's ice cream maker, home made kahlua fudge using my Grandma's recipe, and coffee with a little Bailey's Irish cream. Fudge is really easy to make if you have marshmallow fluff. Sounds a little weird, but it tastes delicious.

Hope this provides some inspiration for other foodies! We had a blast.

Photo Club

Three friends of mine and I decided to start a photo club. There are so many beautiful and poignant sights around India, especially Kolkata, that I want to capture before I leave. Above are three favorites that I took. The third was this elderly man sitting outside of his shop making a plastic based rope.

Victoria Memorial

Along with Flurrys, the Park Street Cemetery, and a few other places, one of the most iconic places in Kolkata is the Victoria Memorial. Already having visited approximately ten times, as every visitor has to go see it, I got the opportunity to walk around more than usual on my last visit. The photo above is of the Victoria Memorial, which was built in honor of Queen Victoria. There is a pretty cool museum that discusses Kolkata history with a focus on the British raj inside the memorial, but they don't allow any photos to be taken.
One of my favorite parts is seeing all of the tourists from around India who flock to the site and the young couples who have escaped into the peaceful grounds that surround the memorial. It's entertaining to count the number of teenagers holding hands, one of the few places they can spend time together away from family. I counted 30+ couples on my fifteen minute walk around the grounds.

Commit No Nuisance

You must have a healthy sense of the ridiculous in order to live in India. A hobby of mine whenever I'm walking around is to take photos of signs I think are hilarious. The "Commit No Nuisance" was spotted when I was walking from Park Street back towards Camac Street. The fuzzy one is the mudflap of a truck that pictures a boy peeing. Not sure why. Public urination is pretty common on the streets of Kolkata-- maybe that's it? There is also a matrimonial website ad. Because the first thing I want a guy to say to me is "Namashkar" (hello).

We Lost a Cricket Player. . . and other tales from Friday night

Some friends and I were invited to a reception last Friday in honor of the Irish and Dutch cricket players who had competed against each other during the World Cricket Tournament. I decided I needed a crash course in Cricket, which I failed miserably. We showed up in our nice cocktail dresses and entered the biggest crush and the most press I've seen in Kolkata.

We wandered to the bar, which was surrounded by very cute, very tall cricket players. I struck up a conversation with a couple of them, mainly them making fun of my drinking canned Guinness, and I introduced myself to one-- apparently the captain of the Irish cricket team. Found that out when he had to go up to make a speech. I also found out that bowlers had to be really tall (usually) while batters could really be any height. Go learning new things. . . awkwardly. :)

As the evening progressed, our group decided it would be a good idea to invite the cricketers out to one of the clubs we knew. Arriving en masse, we danced, and drank, and I realized that three inch heels were not meant to be worn for seven hours. There were three cricketers who arrived with us, and they were pretty good dancers. At the end of the evening, when we tried to collect everyone to go home, the personal security person of the cricketers started asking us, rather loudly, where the third cricketer was who had arrived with us. We weren't aware that we were supposed to be tracking them.

We looked everywhere, and we kind of expect to see some kind of news story, because, well, we apparently lost a cricketer that night. Whoops.

Shantiniketan

A few weeks ago I finally escaped from Kolkata to see some of the countryside. We went to Shantiniketan, which is best known for its university that was founded by famous Bengali poet and author of the Indian national anthem, Rabindranath Tagore.

After a 3.5 hour drive, we arrived and wandered through part of the university, where we found the building entirely made of stained glass above. It's supposed to be a gathering place for those of all religious and backgrounds. Even though it was deserted due to the university break (we went during the winter season), the colors and surrounding flowers were gorgeous.

There were still people walking around and shopping at the tourist stalls despite the school break. Many student groups and film makers were seeing the sites and snapping photos, taking in the museum and the peace that pervades the area around the university. There were no car horns, and you could hear the birds chirping in the trees.

Our last stop was in an NGO run village that sold goods made by local women's groups and meant to support them with living wages. We walked around the to back of the village where there were picnicking grounds. The final photo above was one of the scenes we saw.

After getting to see a little of the village, we had to head back to Kolkata, but I hope to make it out of the city again soon.

Confluence of Cultures

At 8am a group of us met our guide, Ifte from Calcutta Walks, who took us on their walk called the "Confluence of Cultures". Over the next 3.5 hours, we went from a Buddhist Temple, the Anglo-Indian part of Kolkata, a Muslim Mosque, a Jain Temple, a Hindu Temple, and a Jewish Synagogue. The photos above were a couple of the sites and people I saw while wandering through the streets.

Kolkata is a city of many different peoples. We wandered through tight passages through local markets, saw Chinatown, spoke with a couple of curious Burmese tourists, and got to see parts of local neighborhoods that I've never seen before.

When we stopped at Armenian church, which dates back to the 1600s, a lady stopped to speak with the group. She said that at one point there were more than 10,000 Aremenian families in Kolkata, but now there are about 58 and Aremenians from outside the city and country are recruited to come to the school. Even with dwindling numbers, the community keeps the language and culture alive through the church and school they run.

Ending our walk at a small neighborhood mosque, we stopped to sit and rest for a minute, and a local man stopped to tell us a little about his religion. After a short exchange with the group, he came up to my friend and me and asked me how old I was, if I was married, and why not. There are some things that are the same anywhere here as those are the three most common questions I get in India. :)