Alexandre le Grand VS les éléphants

 Photo prise dans un livre d'histoire sur la Grèce et Rome, un cadeau de mes parents que j'ai dévoré durant mon enfance. Vous voyez ici une représentation très dramatique de la campagne indienne d'Alexandre le Grand. Je la partage parce qu'enfant, elle m'a fait une forte impression. L'illustration, je veux dire, pas la campagne indienne en elle-même. Mais on croirait y être.

Kukri (word of the day)

As I blogged last Saturday, I am reading Fight Write, by Carla Hoch and it made me wonder about weapons in crime fiction and thrillers in general, particularly signature weapons, either for heroes or villains. There is a small entry about the kukri, an Indian knife that is sometimes seen as just a variant of the machete and not a distinct weapon itself. I am no expert, so I cannot comment too much about it, but I do find the kukri to have a very distinctive shape and look, so it is easily identifiable. All knives are lethal, however this one looks even more lethal than others. It is just very impressive, yet elegant in an exotic way, and I am wondering if it would suit more a hero or a villain. Be that as it may, kukri is the word of the day.

Indian pizza?

This week at work, the girls downstairs (the employees on ground floor are all female, so we call them "the girls downstairs") decided to have pizza. I still have no idea what was the special occasion. I generally don't have special treats unless it's Friday. I had pizza from a local cheap pizza joint. There were not many that inspired me in the menu, so I chose a "tandoori pizza". In other words, this is what pizza would be if Indians had invented the dish. Basically, pizza with chicken and Indian spices. It also had hot pepper and onions. It was spicy. I felt my belly ache all afternoon. Thankfully I only chose a medium size pizza and asked for no side dishes. I enjoy a bit of proper junk food from time to time and this certainly was the proper stuff (see picture), but this was a bit much for me. And I have never been all that keen on fusion cuisine.

Des enfants et des tigres

Faisons encore un peu dans la vie des bêtes. Lors la première soirée de notre visite à Totnes dans le Devon, il y avait une parade avec des chars allégoriques, pour je ne sais trop quelle raison. Notamment, ce char qui représentait l'Inde (non, je ne vais pas parler de notre PM folklorique quétaine dans ce billet!). Avec filles en sari pas indiennes pour deux sous et des statues de tigres grandeur nature. Si jamais on retourne à Totnes, j'espère qu'on pourra le voir encore. Car récemment, notre petit loup est allé dans une classe d'art plastique pour bambins où ils ont fait comme activité un collage avec un tigre. Ça ressemble pas mal au contenu du char. Mon fils aimant beaucoup (mais vraiment beaucoup) les félins, c'est un tableau qui touche ses sensibilités. Peut-être que je devrais appeler petit loup petit tigre, au fait.

"Indian Sandalwood" or the exotic aftershave

Since I am in the UK, I had to change aftershave, as the one I used to buy back in Montreal is not sold anywhere here (I generally buy local, see). So last year, I found out in John Lewis an aftershave from Crabtree & Evelyn called Indian Sandalwood. I have no idea what's so special about Indian sandalwood, but I thought it smelled nice enough and there is an elephant on the label of the bottle. Like one carrying people and cargo. I guess the elephant is meant to carry sandalwood. I wonder if I was not a sucker for a clever marketing ploy and I just chose the aftershave for its label.

Of beers and curries

I do not follow this British Friday tradition religiously, but sometimes we do have as our Friday meal a curry. This was the case tonight. I just poured some cheap curry sauce in a pan with Quorn chicken (my wife being vegetarian) and some vegs. I like making curries as they are dead easy for the lazy chef (like myself). But cheap and easy curry or not, having a curry it means I had to accompany it with a proper beer: something that fits a curry but that actually has flavour. In Indian restaurants, all they seem to offer is overpriced lagers. So instead, I had this beer from Mark & Spencer. It is a pale ale, but the kind of beer that goes with a curry, or so they say. It was an ok beer, easy to drink and all. But I hope I can find a darker ale that would suit spicy food next time. Well, at least it was not a lager.

"What's the blandest thing on the menu?"

It's Friday, so I thought I would upload here a sketch from Goodness Gracious Me. I know very little about them, but I know this sketch, which is hilarious. If you ever witnessed the less than savory behaviour of some intoxicated English people drunken on a Friday night, more particularly in Indian restaurants, something that shocked me when I first came here, you can see how authentic this is. In a reverse way, of course.

Un curry

Il y a des repas où parfois je mange de l'indien. Ca m'arrive rarement maintenant et la plupart du temps c'est ici en Angleterre, parce que des restaurants indiens il y en a treize à la douzaine. Cela dit, surprise, surprise, le dernier curry indien que j'ai mangé c'était à Montréal, avec mon plus jeune frère. L'autre particularité c'est que c'est lui qui l'avait cuisiné. Mon petit frère fait très bien les currys, il a appris grâce notamment à un livre que je lui ai acheté. Vous trouverez à votre droite la photo du plat mijotant.