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I have installed wordpress and indend to migrate completely over to this blog very soon.

I am also procrastinating.

Posted by monica at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Some of you have heard me speak in loathing of the people who go to the organic farmer's market just to have an Organic Farmer's Market Experience (you may also catch these same people at Monmouth Coffee having a London Cafe Experience).

I feel like a hypocrite today because Tim and I had what can only be called a Farmer's Market Experience. Not only did we talk to the Ripple Farm guy about his cavalo nero kale, but we also talked jam and chutney with a lady from Marinas Organic Garden, right before buying a jar each of Damson Jam and Apple Chutney.

Stay tuned. Now that I have some yummy chutney, it's time to have a London Cheese Shop Experience.

Posted by monica at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

London is rife with Indian restaurants, but good ones are few and far between. How far? Try two tubes and a bus ride. But that didn't stop Tim and I from meeting a friend at Chai Pani near Marble Arch last night.

Chai Pani is the only restaurant in London to offer the cuisine of Marwar, a region of Rajasthan in western India. Happiness for me, the Marwari's are vegetarian, and they love their dal.

Their menu is huge, and somewhat uncomprehensible to us western folk: desert berries, bajra khichadi, kadhi, bitter goard. Almost everything is offered wheat-free or vegan, such as millet rotis, buckwheat flour pancakes, lentil dumplings... they even had a besan cheela!

We couldn't decide on any one dish, so we each ordered a thali, a selection of dishes served on a circular metal tray. Our thalis varied, but each featured a starter, subzi (curries), dal, roti (bread), rice, and mithaai (dessert).

My salad of whole wheat berries with tomatoes and a tangy dressing was simple, but satisfying. The soy yogurt raita (I requested a vegan thali) was surprisingly delicious. I eat soygurt on my muesli, but wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it with savory dishes. This raita was inspirational: a liberal dose of salt and spice masked the "soyness" of the yogurt. I ended up eating it with a spoon.

The stand-out dish was the dal: a simple but spicy (woefully small) bowl of heaven. I would have been very happy (and less poor) with a larger bowl of this and and a side of roti; everything else in the thali paled in comparison.

Some of our dishes were quite bizarre indeed. Tim was treated to some "desert berries", black stringy things that looked more like twigs and tasted less like food. For dessert, he received what looked like a bowl of brown sugar, along with some plain jaggery and another bowl of orange-colored sugar. My dessert seemed to be wheat mushed with water and sugar. Sugar sugar sugar. I didn't bother.

Accodring to their website, "Chai Pani" is a term denoting the offering of hospitality to guests in a sub continental home. If that's true, then Chani Pani the restaurant definitely lives up to its name. I'm pretty sure most of our dishes were made to order, and the staff are beyond polite. The owner/chef type lady came out while we were eating and asked how we enjoyed the food and inquired why I ordered a vegan thali (kind of weird, but okay).

So the food was pretty damn good and it was fun trying new things even if they were too weird to finish. The thing is, Chai Pani is crazy expensive for what you get. The bill came to almost £100 for our three thalis and three large beers. You can go to Govinda's in Soho and pay £4.50 for the same amount of food. You won't get beer or table service, but you do get damn good food that doesn't leave you in mourning when it's over. Same goes for Rasa, which is as far as I can tell the best vegetarian Indian restaurant in London.

I guess I need to lighten up and accept that London is really expensive and a $62 USD meal is just life as usual unless you get your meals at KFC or a kebab shop.

Posted by monica at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

P in the tub


Originally uploaded by damselfly58

Posted by monica at 04:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by monica at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've update the look and feel of the SmarterFitter Blog. It's first part of the site we’ve moved over to a new unified look with unified navigation. Check it out!

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Posted by monica at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The song 'Not Going Home' by The Elected is one of my favoritest discoveries of SXSW 2006. Today I happened upon their set Dec 5, 2005 set on Morning Becomes Eclectic and fell in love all over again.

The Elected is headed up by Blake Sennet, guitarist of Rilo Kiley, another band I have no exposure to but possibly should.

Yeah, I'm always a little late to catch on to good music. But usually I get there.

Have a listen. If you like what you hear, listen some more:

• The Elected's official website
• The Elected on Morning Becomes Eclectic
• 'Not Going Home' mp3 courtesy of SXSW.com
• 'Not Going Home' video on YouTube

Posted by monica at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have made our first profits on SmarterFitter: $0.09 off of a click-through ad on the blog! Very exciting.

Posted by monica at 05:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)