Sunday, September 26, 2004
Eat Meat BOY!
We had planned a barbecue at Ashu's. We had been planning this for a while, but Ashu's family was observing a particular hindu tradition of being vegetarian for a couple of months. I cannot even dream of things like that. Gives me nausea thinking about it ;-)
We decided to get the stuff worked on, on Saturday. I headed out, bought some 16 kilos of chicken, which when cleaned turned out to be about 10 kilos. Then I picked up some vegetables, bread, condiments, chips, herbs etc.
I divided the chicken into 5 containers, and made five different marinades. Hickory smoked sauce with onion bits, barbecue sauce, coriander/mint sauce, malwani and honey/garlic. I wanted to eat the meat raw.... mmmmwaarrrrrggghhh ;-)
Turned out that, I needed help to pick everything up, so I called Ashu and he, very graciously dropped by and we loaded everything into an auto (Tricia had the car and I did not want to take the Optra) and took it to Ashu's. There we got a rousing welcome from Bruno.
It started drizzling as soon as we got there, so we decided to put a plastic sheet up to protect us from rain, which turned out to be a good idea. Ashu warned us that a coconut could fall any minute from the hundred trees he has in is garden. Later that evening, a coconut did fall, giving everybody a bloody start, but the sheet remained intact.
Sushil, Ashu and I picked up coal, ice and some drinks around his area. Sushil also gave me a Bhaskar update, which was quite interesting, but that is another story for another day... maybe.
Tricia and Afshan had come by that time. We started getting things in order. People started tricking in. We got the drinks ready. My razz-cocktail was appreciated, but the Cooch Behar was mostly rejected. This was a bit like a bloody mary, the difference being, that the Rum (not Vodka) has to be kept with a couple of red chillis in the freezer for a couple of days... I guess I made it a little too spicy, even by my standards :-)
KT and Ashu's dad got to the task of lighting the coal, took them a while. I did not let them onto my secret ;-) maybe next time...
Soon we got the meat on, by that time Rashmi and her posse had arrived, on girl even that the quintessential wallet chain. Everybody settled down and soon we ate at lot of meat, pulled legs, had people who hadn't showed up in a while (Rohan, Praveen, Abu etc) Mandar was curiously in Delhi as was Benny.... hmmm, ah well.
Venkat arrived a few hours later with a bruised body. He had fallen off his bike. He told me about it, but I was a buzzed and cannot recall the story. I remember he said that he hurt his hand, I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the accident. ;-) Bruce too came in a little late and got to assembling his barbecue almost immediatly. Now we had twice the capacity of meat grilling... fabulous!
Sushil picked up a fabulous 10 year old bottle of wine for Tricia and him, I had a glass too. It was excellent, I wasn't sure of the grape, but was nice and mellow like a Merlot. He also told me later that he was going home to pick up his Banjo... I was horrified. As always he was yankin' chains, he brought his guitar, which Stef promptly picked up and sang some crowd favourites and then Rashmi's friend also sang a few songs. The last song that Stef sang was full of innuendo :-)
All in all we had a grand time... Tricia and I left around 2am, I believe the rest of the boys helped Ashu clean up. We just got back and crashed. Before we left, Bruce, Ashu, KT and I divided up the meat. Left the bulk for the host.
The next day Shay, Pia and Vicky came over for a late lunch. We did a barbecue again and ate even more meat. I took lots of pictures of Shay. He was in a very good mood. Tricia and I headed off to "The Village" later. The movie was interesting in the first half. I guessed the ending quite early, so was bored in the second half. The movie did not quite live up to expectations. Lets see what "The Termial" is like.
We decided to get the stuff worked on, on Saturday. I headed out, bought some 16 kilos of chicken, which when cleaned turned out to be about 10 kilos. Then I picked up some vegetables, bread, condiments, chips, herbs etc.
I divided the chicken into 5 containers, and made five different marinades. Hickory smoked sauce with onion bits, barbecue sauce, coriander/mint sauce, malwani and honey/garlic. I wanted to eat the meat raw.... mmmmwaarrrrrggghhh ;-)
Turned out that, I needed help to pick everything up, so I called Ashu and he, very graciously dropped by and we loaded everything into an auto (Tricia had the car and I did not want to take the Optra) and took it to Ashu's. There we got a rousing welcome from Bruno.
It started drizzling as soon as we got there, so we decided to put a plastic sheet up to protect us from rain, which turned out to be a good idea. Ashu warned us that a coconut could fall any minute from the hundred trees he has in is garden. Later that evening, a coconut did fall, giving everybody a bloody start, but the sheet remained intact.
Sushil, Ashu and I picked up coal, ice and some drinks around his area. Sushil also gave me a Bhaskar update, which was quite interesting, but that is another story for another day... maybe.
Tricia and Afshan had come by that time. We started getting things in order. People started tricking in. We got the drinks ready. My razz-cocktail was appreciated, but the Cooch Behar was mostly rejected. This was a bit like a bloody mary, the difference being, that the Rum (not Vodka) has to be kept with a couple of red chillis in the freezer for a couple of days... I guess I made it a little too spicy, even by my standards :-)
KT and Ashu's dad got to the task of lighting the coal, took them a while. I did not let them onto my secret ;-) maybe next time...
Soon we got the meat on, by that time Rashmi and her posse had arrived, on girl even that the quintessential wallet chain. Everybody settled down and soon we ate at lot of meat, pulled legs, had people who hadn't showed up in a while (Rohan, Praveen, Abu etc) Mandar was curiously in Delhi as was Benny.... hmmm, ah well.
Venkat arrived a few hours later with a bruised body. He had fallen off his bike. He told me about it, but I was a buzzed and cannot recall the story. I remember he said that he hurt his hand, I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the accident. ;-) Bruce too came in a little late and got to assembling his barbecue almost immediatly. Now we had twice the capacity of meat grilling... fabulous!
Sushil picked up a fabulous 10 year old bottle of wine for Tricia and him, I had a glass too. It was excellent, I wasn't sure of the grape, but was nice and mellow like a Merlot. He also told me later that he was going home to pick up his Banjo... I was horrified. As always he was yankin' chains, he brought his guitar, which Stef promptly picked up and sang some crowd favourites and then Rashmi's friend also sang a few songs. The last song that Stef sang was full of innuendo :-)
All in all we had a grand time... Tricia and I left around 2am, I believe the rest of the boys helped Ashu clean up. We just got back and crashed. Before we left, Bruce, Ashu, KT and I divided up the meat. Left the bulk for the host.
The next day Shay, Pia and Vicky came over for a late lunch. We did a barbecue again and ate even more meat. I took lots of pictures of Shay. He was in a very good mood. Tricia and I headed off to "The Village" later. The movie was interesting in the first half. I guessed the ending quite early, so was bored in the second half. The movie did not quite live up to expectations. Lets see what "The Termial" is like.
