Quick and easy-to-make fried Tofu in ginger that is not only delicious, but also healthy and vegetarian.
Recipe ingredients:
- 3 Tbsp. peanut oil
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 2 Tbsp. ginger, grated
- 1 1/2 cup Tofu, diced
- 3 Tbsp. Soya sauce
- Garnish of choice – Cilantro, Dill, Lime
- Salt and pepper to taste
Chop your ingredients
Firm Soy Tofu cut into 1 cm thick slices
Heat peanut oil and stir fry green onions, ginger and garlic.
Add Tofu and fry for few minutes. Then add Soya sauce and turn down the heat
Fry to desired level, flip, remove and soak excess oil with a tissue paper
Serve!
Sprinkle some salt and fresh ground pepper and squeeze some lemon. Add garnish (I used Coriander, Dill and Tomato.) I like my stuff deep fried (as you can see.) Since there was some extra oil in the pan, I friend some almonds and spinach in it. I love fried almonds. I also had some red kidney beans (rajmah from yesterday), Rye bread and lemon tea. That was my dinner for last night. 
Give it a try, and let me know how it worked for you. 
The other day I was seated in a bus, listening to music and reading a book. Like any other regular person, I didn’t know who was sitting next to me. I only looked around when my neighbor nudged me gently.
“Hi! Sorry, You got time?” It was an elderly lady.
(Translation: You got time? = What is the time? I have no idea why people use this phrase.)
“Yeah, sure.” I told her the time and got back to my reading.
“You know, one of these days I am going to have a heart attack and fall on the street and nobody’s gonna notice.”
(HUH! I couldn’t believe she was actually talking to me. Wearing headphones is as good as putting up a huge ‘Do not disturb’ sign.)
I acknowledged hearing that and got back to my book.
“The other day I was walking and I needed to ask someone for directions but I looked around, everyone was wearing earphones. I felt like I am walking alone in the city. There wasn’t anybody I could talk to.”
Although irritated, now I was very curious to hear her. Removing my headphones, I asked, “Why not?”
“You know, everyone is in their own world, nobody wants to talk and if they are wearing earphones, I don’t want to interrupt and annoy them.”
(Except that she did that to me just a minute ago. Nevermind.)
“What if an ice block is falling on the sidewalk? If I see, I will shout for the next person but its useless because he is wearing earphones.”
(During winter, snow accumulates on top of windows, turns into ice and crashes on the pavement below. It is hazardous indeed.)
“I just wished people listened to me. I’m glad you did, sorry to bother you, you seemed like a nice guy.”
“Uh, thanks.” I got off at my stop, shaken with the problem of the aged and unable to fully understand what just happened.
What do you think?
- She is an old lady. Probably she doesn’t have anyone to talk to.
- She is used to being ignored by others.
- She wasn’t interested in knowing the time. She simply wanted to talk to someone.
There are so many problems in our society. Some visible, most invisible.
I am back in Toronto. Home sweet home.
Right from the time I exited the самолёт (समल्योत = aircraft) to the time I arrived home (90 minutes), I must have received 12 Thankyou’s and 5 Sorry’s, approximately. Quickly I panicked to restore my North American ‘polite’ avatar which I had, after intensely painful efforts, buried for over 3 months. This avatar had a nasty habit of sneaking up in unexpected places when I was in India or even Russia – leading to embarrassing situations – usually causing me to apologise for being ‘polite’ in the American way, which again was met with glares and a sympathetic ‘oh, the poor boy is Americanized’ look.
I was walking in the very crowded Moscow metro when the tip of my wrist brushed against the tip of a woman’s handbag who whizzed ahead of me. Like any normal person in Toronto would, I thought she was rude for not apologising to me but nevertheless I said by reflex, “I’m sorry, извиненте!” (इझविनीच)
The huge lady turned around, stopped and giving me a look said, “что?” (श्तो = what?)
I laughed inside my head, said “ничего” (निचीवो = nothing) to her and left.
I spent many hours explaining to both, Americans and Indians, what the American ‘polite’ manners mean. The Americans don’t understand why Indians never seem to thank or apologise (one survey even put Mumbai as least polite city in the world – imagine!) and the Indians don’t understand why critical words like Sorry and Thankyou are treated like commodity and used hundred times a day. Well, cultural differences are so beautiful and I discovered that in spite of living in India for first 25 years of my life, I could not, after just 2 years in Canada, switch to a different culture in an instant. Predictably, it will take me some time to get used to thanking and apologising hundred times a day here too.
Moscow from the sky
My Аэрофлот (ऐरोफ्लोट Aeroflot) flight flew from Mumbai to Moscow, change plane, Moscow to Toronto. Aeroflot served me BEEF in my Hindu meal (will make a post with pictures on my travel blog), they are known to flatly refuse to serve plain Water (which is what Indians drink), served a drink called “chai” which they think is tea (well it is Russian tea), their flight was 4 (FOUR) hours late and their seats are designed for discomfort. Yet, I flew them because I had to go to Moscow and the ticket cost was too good to be true. I discovered that the airhostess had a bias against, well, Russians and non-Russian-looking-but-Russian-speaking people like me on one side compared to other non-Russian-looking-and-no-Russian-speaking people on the other. boooo. Nevertheless I found this international discrimination less insulting than what happens in Mumbai between different ethnic groups ironically belonging to the same country…
As the flight landed, I was deeply touched to see the passengers clap as a ‘thank you’ to the pilot.
“Nyet nyet” my neighbor said wisely, “They clap to thank God that the plane has finally landed. It’s Aeroflot, Russian airline!”
View from my window
I was finally glad to be home. Toronto looks beautiful, wrapped in a blanket of snow and occasionally glittering with a scarlet glow from the rays of the sun. I tried to sleep, but I was still tuned to IST. Still I tried to get into my bed and catch some sleep something that was difficult to get without the familiar barking of street dogs…
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