The hotels out of the city are lovely, peaceful and romantic..unless you are going with a huge gang of people...thats a different story. Below are the hotels which are on my 'want to stay' list for my next few visits back to Sri Lanka, not in any particular order.
hotels 'most wanted' list: sri lanka
I'm not much a fan of Colombo 'city' life, I prefer to visit hotels outside of town...to get away from the hustle and bustle of trishaws/buses/cars literally jumping from one lane to another. People say, '..if you learn to drive in Sri Lanka, you can drive anywhere in the world'....but they say that about India and Pakistan also...
haute caftans
I ♥heart ♥heart ♥heart moroccan caftans especially the couture ones with lots of delicate fabrics, intricate embroideries and gorgeous embellishments.
This one is my favorite....love the pink, lace, belt...love it all!!
(images: caftan.me, marocfashion.canalblog.com)
{ 1974 } A chaotic year
I've got in possession, a 'photocopied photocopy' copy of a Pakistan cookbook, Joy of Cooking in Pakistan by Zainab Currimbhoy (6th edn, 1974) - given to me by my MIL, she got her copy from a cooking seminar. Varieties include Pakistani, European, Chinese, Burmese, Irani and Parsi recipes.
I lurrrrrve cookbooks, I really do. Just skimming through the pages, looking at mouthwatering pictures and cooking up a storm in my head.
Now, in the 5th edn (1971) it had 132 pages of cookery, whereas, the photocopied 6th edn which I currently hold has 44 pages wth 145 recipes. In my one, there is no table of contents or index...so I can't really see what is meant to be there. But one thing for sure, 1) this cooking seminar sucks, if they are only giving 1/3 of a cookbook or 2) the person who photocopied the original book is just a pure lazya$$.
Getting to the point, this is the mostest unorganised and collated cookbook (or book for that matter) EVER!!!! I'm no professional editor or writer but this is one heck of a messy cookbook. I literally have to go through all the pages to find a recipe. For example, I was looking for an (Atta) Chapatti recipe to make for lunch...skimmed through 44 pages to find 3 recipes - puri, potato puri and parathas. Not to mention, the recipes are neither in alphabetical, categorical or topical order - it's desserts, curries, soup, pastries etc all jumbled up.
Here's an example of the exact recipe order from pages 1-10:
❀scotch eggs
❀lemon meringue pie
❀short pastry for the meringue pie
❀fish baskets
❀check cake
❀boti kabab
❀walnut chocolate cake
❀fish in banana leaves
❀chocolate eclairs
❀chocolate icing
❀chicken pie
❀white sauce
❀walnut fudge
❀cheese balls
❀peach trifle
❀sweet & sour prawns
❀fish pie
❀coconut macarooms (yes, macarooms)
❀fruit cake
❀ginger snaps
❀dahiwada
❀puri
❀sweet chutney
❀falooda
❀ice cream
❀syrup
❀fish mayonnaise
❀mayonnaise sauce
❀mixed grill
❀orange jelly
❀sandwich loaf
❀chutney
❀guava jelly
❀guava cheese
❀cheese souffle
❀gulab jamun
❀chicken corn soup
The writer claims, "If you are trying to interest the teenagers in cooking, the practical and easy to prepare dishes will help hold their interest" and "...with easy to prepare deserts to impress your friends and guests". Imagine preparing a desert..... (-_-)"
Here's an extract - recipe for kofta curry:
p.s. Does anyone know the amount of onions to use? cinimam(?!?)? pepper? garlic? green chillies? haldi? chilly powder? I certainly don't...
If I was a teenager going through that recipe, I would made a paruppu mess of that kofta curry.
I don't know much about Pakistan history, so according to my trusty wikipedia source....only two events occurred in 1974 - 1) a massive and violent Anti-Ahmadiyya movement was instigated by the Islamist group Jamaat-i-Islami resulting in many casualties of Ahmadiya Muslim Community members and destruction to Ahmadiyya property; and 2) Pakistan recognised Bangladesh, three years after the secession of East Pakistan. In 1973, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave up his post as Pakistan's president to become their prime minister instead.
So anyway, Pakistan was going through some hard times but that doesn't give anyone an excuse to gather recipes and randomly bind pages and turn it into a so called 'cook book' to impress guests and hold interests of teenagers....
Oh..Good luck and enjoy the recipe!
hydroponically cute
Baby grobals, the brain-child of Treg Bradley and designed by industrial designer, Karim Rashid. These adorable self-watering plant pots are for those who love green around the house but not the daily watering. With a unique watering system, grobal draws water and nutrients from the reservoir into the grobal soil. You can check the grobal water level through the water level indicator and refill through the nutriport (the circle on the pot) when needed. Depending on the plant, you only need to add water every 3-4 weeks!!
I want to get me some of those cute bubblegum pink baby grobals. Watering once a month is just too easy.
nostalgic honey joys
After many, many, many years (more than a decade), I indulged in some honey joys - an Australian all-time favorite. It brought back memories of my childhood, school fêtes and birthdays. I remember making this for the first time in primary school in home ec and waiting to divulge in this crunchy and sticky goodness! Makes me homesick.
Extremely simple and quick recipe.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
4 cups cornflakes
Method
Preheat oven to 150C.
In a saucepan, melt sugar, butter and honey and bring to a boil.
Remove saucepan from heat.
Add cornflakes into saucepan and mix gently with sugar mixture, until everything is evenly coated. Spoon mixture into paper cake cases or patty pan.
Place in oven, bake for 10 minutes.
Allow to cool before eating.
Makes 20-25.
I used mini cake cases and also regular sized ones. Above are the mini ones.
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