Eating Indian in Temecula

Richard had new glasses made at Costco and he discussed restaurants with the Indian woman serving him. She mentioned "Mantra" stating that it was far and away the best Indian restaurant in Temecula. She had a dot, he thought -  she ought to know. The only other locals we've tried are "A Taste of India" and "The Blue Peacock".

We frequented Taste of India for several years while our Swiss friends were living in Fallbrook. It was a favorite of theirs. Service completely fell apart over the past few years. We'd often be the only people in the place and have to wake up the patriarch who manned the front door and cash register, by pulling on his sleeve or banging on his pagari turban to ask for a water refill. After the third visit with this kind of unapologetic and appalling service, we gave up. It was right about then they combined their Indian grocery/video rental with the restaurant so any trace of ambiance evaporated. Don't get me wrong, I love joints and often it's in just such quirky spots you find really interesting food and service. Not here. We tried The Blue Peacock several times and never had a decent dish, but enjoyed the non-stop Bollywood movies on their flat screens, the cheerful service and complimentary candy coated anise seed at the front door. Once when I ordered to-go they included a cupful of the seeds they knew I loved. After two or three visits, the mediocre food couldn't compensate for the other pluses.  

As we pulled up to Mantra, we noticed the neon "massage" sign on an adjacent building. Residing just under the upstairs massage parlor is some kind of church. An interesting juxtaposition and I wonder who was there first - or if they're operated by the same people?  If you're hankering for Indian food, spiritual awakening and a rubdown, you only have to park once.

Mantra has an undistinguished interior, but the seats are comfortable and noise level tolerable. There's a long buffet set-up running down one wall. Try to ignore all that gleaming stainless steel, so cold and unwelcoming. The deadly empty Indian restaurant buffet has a morgue-like ambiance that I'm sure doesn't register negatively with the operators. They see and hear the cash register ringing - and I understand for their Indian clientele it is strictly de rigeur.  The music cranks up as the restaurant fills and can be annoying if the place is busy. Fortunately they have booths and Richard and I can sit comfortably side by side which means we can converse while we eat. So often not the case.

The menu is pretty typical Indian fare and we order the standard items. You can review the menu at their lively web site:

Mantra Restaurants

A complimentary basket of papadum(?) with three sauces comes first to keep you amused while you decide on your order. The three sauces are delicious: a chutney, a mint/cilantro/vinegar and a very hot chili sauce. We start with garlic naan and usually have some sort of chicken - tandoori or last time chicken in coconut sauce or a fish curry. The vegetable korma here is outstanding. Basmati rice pilaf is just OK. Another must for us is the panek paneer. All dishes can be ordered mild, medium, spicy. The servings are small but we always end up with to-go boxes which are mostly left-over sauce; we can usually eke out a second semi-Indian meal by using the sauces on whatever we eat the next day.

Service is very good. The waiter remembered us on our second or third visit and we had a warm welcome. They're unafraid to make recommendations and have steered us to a new dish or two and we've enjoyed them all. In fact we've never had a disappointment. At door exit, they offer the healthier plain anise seed/ rock sugar combo - not bad, but in my opinion, they don't hold a candle to the candied version. One tablespoon of this stuff does the flavor/heat abatement trick and provides toothpick challenges for hours ahead.

Pricing is fair; there's a nominal selection of wines but skip these and have a beer - there's a small selection including KingFisher which I like because of the name and the label...the beer is barely OK. (I know this is silly but it's the same process I apply to picking horses at the race track). Or choose or one of their delicious lassi's. Richard ordered the mango flavor last time and it was divine.

 

Fruit Bats in Sydney

Travel Notes: December 2010

"What was that?" we asked Robert as we stood in the dark outside their house on the surburban Sydney street. The air moved rapidly across our heads and we could hear a swooshing sound echoing back and forth, at first quite loud, then diminishing and finally disappearing at the end of the road. "Ah...the fruit bats", he replied casually, "They shit all over the cars." It was an everyday nuisance for him but a wonder for us.

Bird Park Bali

We'd seen these creatures in Bird Parks most recently in Bali. They're impressively huge, looking almost like trash bags slung over the trees. Also known as Old World Bats, Flying Foxes or my favorite - Megabats. The largest reach 16" in length, attain a wing span of 4.9 feet and can weigh as much as 2.2 pounds. 

They get your attention as they fly overhead and I'm sure inspire some colorful curses when cars get splattered.  

March Gardening

Thrills in the garden today from head...

to toe. 85 degrees.

This is the tree I look at most often..

The ground cover is in full bloom.

Fair to medium crop this year.

A geranium rescued from an overgrown planter box.

We have 1000's of nasturtiums on the property

Fruit and blossoms together at this time of year

The view my favorite avocado tree has of the house

The chair I'd like to sit on but never seem to have the time.

Succulent composition.

Lipstick plant with lipsticks blooming.

Two Hats

From the LA magazine, full of practical fashion tips - here are two hats perfect for lunches out in Fallbrook. The black pointy one will go well with my black jeans and sweat shirt and I love the way the little beige one balances on the edge of the head. It could almost be a kind of jaunty chef's toque. Not only fashionable but comfortable I'm sure. Watch for my new look at our Fallbrook fashion hot spots like La Caseta or El Jardin.

My Piano Tells All

Here I am in my home for a dozen years.

 

Two very nice men came to take me to my new home the other day. I've been in the same place for a dozen years and since the books all found new homes, I've been lonely.  I was so worried about the trip. But it took the fellows only about 10 minutes to get me ready.  I liked the way they wrapped me up and strapped me together so I'd be safe on the ride - I'm a little arthritic and big bumps would be hard to take.  I didn't like having my legs screwed off! 


The two guys have worked together for 30 years and still like each other enough to play golf on their days off. I heard them say that during these recessionary years their business has dropped to only 15 stops a day. At their peak, they did 25 stops each day - a stop being to pick up or deliver a piano. Most of their day is spent traveling to each stop in the cab of the truck together amiably passing the time.

I got a little dizzy when they tipped me over.

They're taking my legs off!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's my ride!

And away we go!

Bye bye house. It was great to experience a trip up 

 

the walkway. 

Looks like I'll be riding first class. 

 

 

 

As we were leaving town I saw this terrible truck ahead of us. All that poor stuff was sloppily piled in the back - not even a bungee cord to hold it all down. Only one tail light was shining back at us - it was really unsafe. I had a terrible thought that a piano might be riding underneath all that junk!!! The poor thing.  

What if there's a piano in there???

L.A. Times - An Avocado Hummus Recipe

 L.A. Times relaunched it's magazine today. A recipe by Jeff Cerciello for Avocado Hummus from the Farmshop restaurant in Santa Monica is included. The article is called "Nigella Seed".

Avocado Hummus
Garlic confit
Juice of 2 lemons, separated
2 tbsps Dijon mustard
2 cups drained chickpeas
6 tbsps tahini
1 1/2 cup olive oil (cups?)
1/2 cup ice
3 ripe avocados (seed and peel? Why not California avocados?)
Salt to taste
Pomegranate seeds


Place confit, mustard and juice of 1 lemon in processor. Season with salt and pulse until smooth. Add chickpeas and puree, drizzling in the tahini. Add ice and 1 cup of oil. Taste, then move to a bowl. 
Without cleaning processor, add avocado and remaining lemon juice. Puree, drizzling in remaining 1/2 cup oil and salt to taste. Fold avocado puree into chickpea puree and stir. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, oil, salt and nigella seeds. 


Garlic Confit
4 cloves peeled garlic
1/2 cup canola oil
Add garlic and oil to a small pot and simmer gently until tender.
_________________________________________________
Jeff is no doubt a fabulous chef - his credentials are impeccable. In my experience, chefs are not usually writers - the recipe writing task goes to a minion who should attend to the p's and q's. Chef's think certain steps in the creation of a recipe are simply common sense and therefore don't mention them...or they use techniques that may be practical in a restaurant kitchen but not in the average consumer kitchen.

In this case, Jeff has been poorly served in my opinion. The recipe could be improved. First of all, the ingredients are not listed in the order used which is a basic rule in the recipe writing world. The article is called "Nigella Seed" but they don't even list this item in the ingredient list, only as a garnish in the instructions. Why call the garlic/oil a confit and scare away the average home cook? How much does it make? Why do they use ice in this recipe? If it's served and consumed immediately, the ice would serve to chill everything and might be OK in a restaurant, but if you make it ahead of time as a consumer would, or it sits for any length of time my guess is that the ice will melt and separate out. Why do you have to use canola oil with the garlic when the rest of the recipe calls for olive oil. You must tell people to seed and peel avocados even though it's so obvious to those of us who eat them regularly. If you state that one mixture should be folded into another, you generally are trying to preserved aeration and integrity of each mixture, yet combine them. That's enough - stirring afterwards would negate the gentle action of folding. Can you keep this overnight refrigerated?
How about the nutrition info which is required all almost everything now. The L.A. Times could give a nod to California avocados unless they don't want to scare away another potential advertiser.

Why not name it after the restaurant? Should it be reduced in size to make it consumer friendly?

As to Nigella seed - I'm not familiar with it, but researching a little I find it variously described as tasting like oregano, onions, pepper, cardamom, cumin, sesame and with a bitter note. I do know that if you can find it in a spice section it will cost about $8.99. Would you want to use it? or substitute something else? Perhpas the article shouldn't have been titled Nigella Seed...maybe hummus? or better yet, avocados?  

Here's a possible re-write before testing. You may think it's better or worse - there's a lot of variations in style out there.

Farmshop Avocado Hummus
Makes (?) 5 cups

4 cloves peeled garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons, separated
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon (?) salt
2 cups drained chickpeas
6 Tablespoons tahini
1 1/2 cups olive oil
3 ripe fresh California avocados, peeled and seeded
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
1 Tablespoon (?) nigella seeds*

Add garlic and oil to small pot and simmer gently until tender. Cool. Place in processor with juice of  1 lemon, mustard and salt. Pulse. Add chickpeas and puree, drizzling in the tahini followed by 1 cup of oil. Taste and add salt if necessary. Move to bowl. To processor, add avocado, remaining lemon juice and puree, drizzling in remaining 1/2 cup oil. Fold avocado puree into chickpea puree to combine. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, a sprinkle of salt and nigella* seeds. Refrigerate. Serve with flatbread, crackers or chips.
* Optional: A few twists of freshly ground black pepper or a sprinkle of black sesame seeds (for appearance)


I'll try it out on the book club on Wednesday - the big test.

Poetry for Book Club

For Book Club this month we're celebrating Beth's brother-in-law's poem publication "Bemidji Blues" in the prestigious Poetry magazine.  As a result, I have poetry on the brain and a $4.00 copy of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer translated into "modern English" by J. U. Nicolson with pen and ink illustrations by Rockwell Kent was a logical buy at the Bottom Shelf. The book was apparently passed over by Nancy.


One of the characters I remembered liking, the Cook, is described in this translated prologue as a grim figure from which Kent must have gotten this impression. I wouldn't want this chap to touch my food.

The Cook
"And he could roast and seethe and broil and fry,
And make a good thick soup, and bake a pie.
But very ill it was, it seemed to me
That on his shin a deadly sore had he..."

The actual Cook's Tale contains a description of a much more attractive person: 

"There lived a 'prentice, once, in our city,
And of the craft of victuallers was he;
Happy he was as a goldfinch in the glade,
Brown as a berry, short and thickly made,
With black hair that he combed right prettily.
He was as full of love, I may aver
As is a beehive full of honey sweet;
Well for the wench that with him chanced to meet. "
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who knew that "seethe" was actually a culinary term at one time? Wouldn't stove settings be infinitely more interesting with the addition of this temperature... say somewhere between "medium" and "high"?I love the sound of "seething" something until done. 


______________________________________________
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 25 October 1400), known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works, which include The Book of the Duchess, the House of Fame, the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde, he is best known today for The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.

This recipe appeared on my gmail page

yesterday when I checked my Spam

mailbox and scores high on the

terrible recipe list. Have you ever tried shredding

a can, excuse me "cn" of Spam? How about garnishing a

quiche with a whole cooked artichoke?

Title: CRICKET'S SPAM QUICHE
  Categories: Meats, Eggs
       Yield: 4 servings
  
       1 c  Coarsely chopped mushrooms
       5 T  Butter/margarine
       1 c  Finely crushed stone wheat
            -crackers
     1/4 c  Green onions, sliced
     1/4 c  Brown onions, chopped
     3/4 c  Monterey Jack cheese
     3/4 c  Medium Sharp Cheddar cheese,
            -grated
     3/4 c  Mozzarella cheese, grated
       1 c  Ricotta cheese
       4 ea Eggs
     1/4 t  Cayenne pepper
     1/4 t  Paprika
     1/4 c  Milk
       1 ea Cooked artichoke
     1/4 c  Green bell pepper, chopped
     1/4 c  Red bell pepper, chopped
       1 cn Spam, shredded
  

Hugo

Hugo is delightful. For all of you film buffs it's a must see. We saw it in 2D and I'd like to return for a repeat in 3D. The acting performances are good, the movie has a beautiful look and the score is excellent.

I was surprised to see this song posted on YouTube, but here it is. The French lyrics crawl below so you can work on your accent while singing along. 

 Coeur Volant

As we settled into our seats near the back of the theater, a older man came slowly up the stairs clutching a huge bag of popcorn to his chest. It must be some new sort of super-size thing; looked like a burlap bag. The man chose the seat directly in front of us and before he sat down, he gently placed the bag on the seat next to him. Clearly he AND the popcorn bag together would be too much for a single seat.  He pulled down the dividing arm rest between the seats and settled in with his enormous drink, a companion to the popcorn colossus. We expected someone to join him but sadly, nobody ever did. The popcorn apparently was his date for the evening. He proceeded to demolish the whole thing. We could see his silhouette against the screen - reach, grab a handful, reach, grab a handful - non-stop for two hours and 5 minutes.

As we left, we noticed a crumpled sweater in the empty popcorn's seat.  Had he wrapped it round the bag to keep it warm? Was there really a human date who changed her mind and left him only with her wrap and the popcorn?

We've seen people bringing all manner of food into movies recently - even containers of take-out Chinese food. The crumpling packaging is noisy and the aromas are distracting. I don't understand why people cannot refrain from eating for the duration of a film, usually 1 1/2 hours or 2 at the most.  And when did it get to be acceptable to hang your feet over the back of the chair in front? Everyone does it, young and old - standards of decent public behavior seem to have slipped down yet another notch.   

Memories of Honfleur

French Haystack

From my travel notes, October 2010. 

 

On the way to Honfleur in France, we passed a number of these fantastic haystacks. Haywalls would be a better description. They looked so conceptually Swiss, so orderly and single-purposed, not like the French at all. 

 

 

 

 

 

Honfleur harbor 

We stayed at the lovely La Cour Sainte Catherine which we discovered on the Slow Food website. It's a sort of BandB which grew from one building to another. Our attic room over the garage was charming, clean, quiet and comfortable. Breakfasts were excellent - hot, strong coffee and freshly baked bread served in the main house.

My French Canadian relatives departed France for Canada from Honfleur harbor which I'm sure looked much different four centuries ago. 

 

Richard opening the door. We did not ride up on that motorcycle.

Cour de Sainte Catherine Chat

Still life - October garden bounty at the hotel

The Bakery

 

Oldest house -Honfleur

 

That's Entertainment

 Cats lounging around.......until a mouse dropped into the solar tube!
That's Entertainment!

Tatts for Tunes

My piano is still on Craig's list and I got an offer this morning for a trade - my piano for their studio tattoo work. What would be an equal trade? Could I take my husband and get both our scrawny butts covered with roses? Perhaps an avocado on each cheek? A bowl of guacamole on our tummies? Or something like these:

1/2 arm salad bowl









fishbortions photostream forearms



1. 

   Arty painting on forearm

   
   

   

   ncahosny.com On the side