Where is your village?: February 2011

Today I accomplished something I have long dreamed of: cooking something delicious from scratch without any kind of recipe. The result was so lovely, I thought I would share it.

I think I shall call it Stir-Fried Tofu with Pumpkin and Broccoli. So here's how it goes:

-Ingredients-
¼ of a medium sized pumpkin, cubed (this is like 5 or 6 cups, I think)
1 head of broccoli
4 c tofu, cubed, or thereabouts
1 c cashews
½ tsp mustard seeds
2 tbs sesame seeds
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 itty-bitty onion, diced (this comes out to about 2 tbs of onion)
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs salt
2 tsp oregano
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of basil
olive oil
1 c noodles (I used some really fine Tibetan egg noodles, and the flavor was nice)

1. Heat some olive oil in your wok. As it's warming, throw in the sesame and mustard seeds and wait until they start to dance around in the oil and crackle. Then add the onion and garlic and fry them until they start to brown a little.
2. Add your tofu and fry that until it also starts to brown a bit. You have to do this first, otherwise it will fall apart all over the other ingredients. Once it has browned, add the pumpkin and broccoli.
3. Start boiling those noodles.
4. Keep frying the veggies and such until they start to get tender. Add the cashews, soy sauce, salt, oregano, thyme, and basil, then toss it around a bit more.
5. When the noodles are ready, toss them it with a bit more olive oil, then serve.

This is delicious and vegetarian, though unfortunately not vegan because of the egg noodles. You could probably find some vegan noodles and substitute those instead. This was largely an experiment of my kitchen with what I had lying around. I invite anyone to try this out and play with it, seeing how it can be improved upon.

And it's so colorful!

I am sorry about the long gap between blog entries. My motivation for blogging is slowly leeching away.

As many of you may know, I took another mandatory vacation, thanks to my visa, for two months or so. I began in Jaipur by visiting my cousin Laura, who was studying abroad there for the semester. After Jaipur, I fled India with my exit date deadline on my heels, and traveled in Malaysia and Singapore with my mother. We started in Kuala Lampur, then traveled up to Georgetown in Penang Island near the border with Thailand, spent a few luxurious days in a resort on Pangkor Island, then bused down to Singapore. We entitled our travels “Eat, Beach, Shop.”

From there, we parted ways, and I went to visit the Shansi fellows, Sarah and Julia, in Banda Ache. We were joined by Nicole, who was fleeing the ash of the eruptions of Mt. Marapi. Thanks to a Muslim holiday, the four of us and two more of their friends, we were able to spend almost a whole week on the nearby island of Sabang, snorkeling, eating, and lying in hammocks.

Due to some mishaps with a ferry, Julia and Sarah getting left behind on Sabang with their motorbikes, I wound up joining Nicole with some local NGO foreigners on an elephant safari. While I'm not sure exactly where we went, we 4-wheeled down along the western coast through deep, muddy unfinished roads to a jungle hut where Indonesian forest rangers used trained elephants to patrol the jungle for illegal activities.

After that and a bit more time in Banda Ache, I struck out on my own to another part of Sumatra. I flew to Medan, then caught a shared car to Lake Toba, an ancient volcanic caldera lake. It was beautiful and peaceful, and the local Batak people were wonderful. Sadly, tourism has all but dried up there. I ended my time in Indonesia in Ubud, Bali. There, I saw cultural music and dance shows every night, ate well, and was a general tourist. The day of my departure, however, I walked into a bed post and broke my little toe, giving me a bothersome limp for the rest of my travels.

From Bali, I flew to Sydney to meet my lovely friend Samantha, who I had studied together with (and appeared together on Japanese television with) in Osaka. I had a great time hanging out with her, exploring Sydney, and meeting her friends and family. Two days, when she was working, I joined up with some Chinese tour groups and got to see other parts of the area, including the Blue Mountains. Thanks to those tour groups, I started to forget that I was in an English speaking country.
Finally, my trip turned towards America. With a 4-hour layover in Fiji, greeted by a merry band of men in sarongs and tropical shirts playing and singing a welcoming song as we came off the plane, I headed for Los Angeles. I had a jet-lagged lay-over and spent two days following my Obie-friend Lisa around.

Then, after 16 months, I returned home for the first time. I saw friends, family, and all sorts of familiar sites that really warmed my heart. I had forgotten what it felt like to really truly feel comfortable in my surroundings. I admit, it was a bit hard to leave, but after new years, I did.

Now I'm back in India with less than three months left. I'm teaching another batch of English students and enjoying it just as much as ever.

To add a little more life to this overdue entry, I present a photo narrative: Jenna's travels, with animals.