Enjoy the Festival of Lights!

The must-visit Map Room

During our trip last week to St. Louis, one of our best finds is The Map Room in the Benton Park neighborhood. We came across this place through a search for desserts on Yelp! For once, I was glad that Ethiopian restaurants don't serve desserts, and to please my sweet tooth, we ended up in this quaint place. The Map Room is special in so many ways - their extensive yet inexpensive menu offers a range of pastries (all made by local small businesses), coffees ~ that you can spike with your favorite liqueur, and alcoholic drinks.

Michelle, the owner is so friendly and full of contagious enthusiasm. She has converted an old meat factory - which you cannot even guess unless you pay attention to the pictures or talk to her - into a wonderful place that we ended up visiting three times in 4 days! The theme reflects the name and has a charming international flair to it ~ music from different countries on different days of the week, international movies on Saturday nights in the courtyard, and their drink selection is also based on this theme. Michelle is hoping to have their pastries reigned in to reflect country specials soon.

They have a variety of games and Shankar and I ended up playing cards while sharing some apple Sangria.

The Caribbean Mango Pie was seasonal and I was so happy to have the last piece of the day! The fancy chocolate pastry is actually chocolate ganache on an almond macaroon, dipped in milk chocolate. (There was also a dark-chocolate version of this). I cannot get enough of this little delight. We even brought some home, along with a couple of Budapest torte. The next day, we also played scrabble while enjoying pear sangria and a carrot cup cake. If I lived in St. Louis, you know where to find me!

Monday Morning Blues

Wishing I were someplace warm, by the ocean, and without the ton of stuff I gotta be doing :)

These are a couple of the Galápagos Sea Lion (Zalophus wollebaeki), from the Rabida Island south of Santiago. Picture taken in June 2005.

Nikko's Bathtime

Nikko - our Jenday Conure, loves his bath. He usually takes bath in his drinking water, but if we notice he is getting ready for one, we give him a pie plate with cold water and he goes crazy. This was his fun time from two weeks back, on his adoption day! You can click on the picture to view a larger image.

Gateway Arch in St. Louis

We are in St. Louis for the week, and we have been to the arch twice already! Here are some night shots of this magnificent structure. Hopefully I will get to see it again during the day, when it is not dreary and raining, before we leave the city on Friday.

Hiking @ Pope Farm Park

On Sunday evening, Shankar and I went on a Moon viewing / hiking to Pope Farm Park in the Town of Middleton outside Madison. This was a trip organize by the Madison Outdoor Meetup group. This park, of about 105 acres was converted from farmland to what it is today - woodlands and prairies, with beautiful views & highlighting the geology & Native American history of the area. To me, one of the really wonderful aspects of this park is that they have fourth grade students volunteer to collect seeds from the prairie plants and plant them in other places in the park during the fall and spring. We didn't get to see the moon that night , but it was nice to see some friends, and walk a hiking trail at night.

Abstract Floral

This is an abstract of a Peonia that bloomed at our Owen house last summer. If I were to participate in this photography contest, I think I would photoshop this image further :)

Dal Makhani

I made this Dal Makhani when we were in Oshkosh, a few months back. This recipe does not use the traditional dals used in the dish. Instead, I used whole moong beans and adzuki beans (if you look closely, you can see the green and red beans). This is a simple dish to make and I think one can use any variety of beans for this wonderful dish. All you need are beans, tomatoes (puree preferred), onions, ginger, garlic, green chilies, garam masala, butter, cream and garnish - cumin & cilantro.

The beans have to be soaked in water for a few hours to fasten cooking. I use a pressure cooker and to the soaked beans added the paste of ginger, garlic, green chilies and some garam masala. Once the bean were cooked, I added the tomato puree, the diced onions and let it cook for a few minutes. Topped it off with roasted black cumin, mixed some cream, added a spoon of butter. Served with cilantro sprinkled on top! And don't forget the salt - as per your taste :)