rantlust

Posted by meerkat on August 27th 2007 in Food & Wine, Trivia, USA
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When I read about the deep fried Pepsi, I could not believe my eyes. I have heard of deep fried snickers, oreos, reese’s peanut butter cups, cakes and what not. How does one deep fry pepsi?

Here is a snippet from the NY Times article,

“Jeremy Orme, who runs Fried Creations, the home of the Combo Plate, introduced a new item at this year’s fair: deep-fried Pepsi. He rolls out his Pepsi-based dough, dips it in a batter made with Pepsi and deep-fries it for 90 seconds. His oil, made of soybeans, is trans-fat free as required, and on the front of his booth he has posted a local newspaper’s account about the fair’s trans-fat ban”

Notice that it is deep fried for sure, but it is trans fat free. So, no guilt involved, even if you have to get yourself an all new wardrobe after the fair.

While on the topic of deep fried everything, I read that French fries are not really French. It is supposedly a Belgian marvel and the French stands for the type of the cut, which means to cut in thin, long strips. I guess a lot of time was wasted after 9/11 renaming French fries and French toast(which is also not French) to Freedom fries and Freedom Toast.

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Posted by meerkat on August 14th 2007 in Farmers Market, Trivia
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I always used to wonder why Americans call an eggplant an eggplant.The word eggplant never made me think of the huge purple squash like vegetable that I see at the supermarkets, it sounded hideous and smelly. Then I came across bell peppers. Americans must be on to something. Call the vegetables just how they look. Still, an eggplant was a little confusing as it did not look exactly like an egg and was not a good fit for a vegetable I like to call brinjal or aubergine, they sound real nice and yum like I want to make it for dinner tonight.

The words eggplant and bell pepper always reminded me of the word bootstrapping from my college days, where you reuse the few words of a language to write something else. I like a little more imaginative words like brinjal, aubergine(sounds like a pretty girl’s name), capsicum(I don’t want to go there). (Read more…)

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Posted by riyer on July 22nd 2007 in Health & Fitness, Outdoors, Roads, Sports, Trivia
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When I was studying for my BSc, undergrad to you ‘mericuns, my friends (a very colorful bunch - I must add) and I, had some hilarious - albeit crass, expressions. These were expressions you would dub as “poly” (i.e foul) in kannada and they indeed were, but I am convinced that we made some of these up on the fly. One that I had reason to remember yesterday is “niN tHeega karGathe” ( i.e. arse will dissolve or reduce). Another Hindi expression also came to mind yesterday- “gaanD phategi” less chemical than the Kannada expression and a tad more pathological, it simply means “arse will rip”.

Why was I remembering these yesterday? Actually I can Google map the exact spot at which I remembered these expressions..but I am getting ahead of my story. Over the last 10 years, every year, I have set myself a physically challenging goal to accomplish. There were a couple of trips up Mt. Whitney, a few up Half Dome, and a few backpacking trips etc. Most of these goals I successfully accomplished but there have been a few failures, the most notable one being Mt. Dana. A few frequently tell the story of my stupidity that cost me the mountain, but I attribute it to chivalry (yes, it is not dead, long live and all that rot). Turns out I gave my gloves to someone and as I continued my way up the summit, the wind-chill was so brutal it was dangerous to continue which forced me to turn around.

This year has been like none other. I started off in May by doing a 3 day backpacking trip along the Lost coast (will do it again, anytime). Ran a 10K and next week is the opportunity to go back to Mt Dana - (I have given adequate caution to my hiking partner about warm clothing and gloves). I have been telling my buddies that given my fitness this year I will whistle my way to the top of this 13,500 feet mountain. We start hiking at Tioga pass (which is at 9000+ ft). It looks simple but the wind-chill and the elements make it one of the toughest mountains I have hiked.
(Read more…)

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Posted by riyer on July 15th 2007 in Humor, Journalism, Trivia
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Rejection and the regret letters that are associated with them are mostly stock letters, mundane and very boring. I have received my share of them - yes there was a time before email when companies would write you a formal letter rejecting your application and offer regrets.

My wife collected all the rejection letters she received as an aspiring letter and made artwork out of it. It spells out the simple word WRITER with a montage of all the regret letters. By the time you get to the final R, it is a montage of “congratulations” and “acceptance”

Today I came across a wonderful rejection of a rejection letter. Here it is. Enjoy.

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Posted by riyer on July 15th 2007 in Food & Wine, Society, Trivia, World
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To me the idea of eating Foie Gras made me wince, but then what do I know, I am a pesca-vegetarian.

Now I learn of “kopi luwak” - Enjoying coffee, made from beans that have been harvested from the dung of a civet. There is no accounting of taste, I tell you. I can understand the dung beetle having to do its thing, but we are people - accused frequently of being civilized. Do we really have to? Not being a coffee connoisseur, you can be assured that this is one coffee I will not taste.

BTW: The LA times has a story on this $600 a pound “ugh!”.

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Posted by anupcs on July 08th 2007 in Geography, History, India, Society, Trivia, World
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I still don’t know what the real purpose of this exercise was but the new seven wonders of the world has been announced (on 7/7/07 no less) and they are:

1. Chichén Itzá, Mexico
2. Christ the Redeemer, Brazil
3. The Great Wall of China
4. Machu Picchu, Peru
5. Petra, Jordan
6. The Colloseum, Italy
7. The Taj Mahal, India

I have visited the first three and don’t know why the Christ statue is in this list. It’s definitely awe inspiring but surely there are more impressive “wonders” to put on this list in its stead? Angkor Wat? The Acropolis? The pyramids of Giza? In any case, I don’t think we can limit the wonders of the world to merely seven. It might have made sense in the ancient times but not now.

Curiously enough, I haven’t been to the Taj Mahal just yet.

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Posted by eugenia on April 21st 2006 in Random, Trivia
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Some completely useless but true facts. Good for trivia nuts.

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Posted by anupcs on April 04th 2006 in Games, Tests, Trivia
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Time for a productivity enhancer.

How smart are you? Are you sick of the morons who claim to be members of MENSA? Are you tired of MENSA itself? Then do I have an alternate intelligence test for you or what? If you are acronym-challenged (whatever that means) then this is not for you but give it a go otherwise. When you are done with Part 1, go for the more non-biased (culturally speaking) Part 2. I have only done the first part so far.

[Thanks to my (not so) genial professor, at a class I am currently taking, for these links]

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