Harissa – Only In The Winter
Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by David in Blog, Food/Drink, Kashmir, Winter
Winter in Kashmir provides an opportunity to enjoy harissa, a unique Kashmiri dish. Harissa is only made during the cold winter months, and it usually is found early in the morning in little cafes packed with men enjoying this special food. Women also enjoy it as families occasionally prepare and serve it in their homes.
Harissa is somewhat hard to describe. It’s basically meat (mutton) cooked for a long time and then pulled off the bone. This very soft meat is then mixed with some uncooked rice, water, and spices. The mixture is stirred and stirred until it becomes mushy and smooth. To serve, hot oil is poured on top and then you scoop it up with fresh bread from the bakery.
If you’re visiting Kashmir in the wintertime you should definitely ask a local to take you to a harissa shop as it’s a fun experience only found in this time of year.
Earlier this month I went with a Kashmiri friend to a popular harissa shop in the old city near the shrine of Shah Hamdan. My photos didn’t turn out too great as the shop was a little steamy and my camera lens got fogged up, but here are some pics plus an extra one I took a while back at a neighbor’s house.
Don’t Tear It Down!
Posted on 24. Jan, 2010 by David in Blog, Books, Culture, Kashmir
Before leaving Kashmir recently I stopped by the office of the J&K chapter of Intach to gather some info related to heritage walks in the old city area of Srinagar. While there I checked out an interesting book called “Don’t Tear It Down! Preserving the Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture of Kashmir” by Rudolph Langenbach.
The book argues that the older, traditional design of many Kashmiri homes and buildings is much more resistant to falling apart from earthquakes than most of the more “modern” buildings being built in place of the older ones. There are several fascinating pictures in the book illustrating this point.
This is a great book for those interested in architecture, especially as it relates to areas prone to earthquakes. For other tourists to Kashmir the book may be interesting just to see some of the old photos from the Srinagar area compared to today.
You find the book online at various places, including amazon.com, and on this website as an e-book.
Kashmiri Kahwa Chai Recipe
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by David in Blog, Food/Drink, Kashmir
A while back I had written about the different types of chai people in Kashmir drink. One of them was Kahwa, sometimes called Kashmiri chai.
As a further resource for you avid chai drinkers out there, here’s a Kahwa recipe written up by my wife.
Boil 4 cups of water with green cardamom (3-4 pods, cracked), cinnamon stick (1/2 inch piece), and 2 tablespoons sugar for 5-10 minutes or until fragrant. Take off heat and add 3 teaspoons loose green tea and cover for 1-2 mins – just until color turns slightly darker. Strain and serve with slivered almonds in bottom of cup and sugar to taste (no milk).
For saffron Kahwa, instead of adding green tea use 2-3 strands of saffron and cover for 2-3 mins or until color turns golden. Strain and serve with slivered almonds and sugar to taste (no milk).
Making Kahwa is an art so experiment with amounts of spices until you come up with your favorite way to make it. You may like certain spices stronger or more/less sugar, and color is also important. Saffron Kahwa has the golden color so depending on the quality and source of the saffron you may need more/less or longer time covered. Regular Kahwa is usually not too dark in color and especially not too brown from cinnamon so experiment to see how adjusting the cinnamon affects color. If color is too dark, try adding a drop of lemon juice (a trick I learned from a Kashmiri friend).
Enjoy!
Top 6 Things To Do When Delayed At The Delhi Airport
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by David in Airport, Blog, Delhi, Tips, Travel
January can be a bad month for fog at the New Delhi airport, causing all kinds of flight delays. Last week my family and I ended up being in the international airport from midnight until 9am due to a 7 (!!) hour delay from heavy fog. Ahh, family fun, especially with a 15 month old!
So after that experience, here’s a quick list of the top 6 things you can do to kill time when delayed at the New Delhi international airport:
6. Take advantage of the free wifi to get online and email/blog/tweet/facebook your friends or family to tell them you’ll be late but not to worry because you have this top 6 list.
5. People watch and try to guess what countries all the various people in the airport are from without knowing what flight they’re waiting to get on. See if your guess is right if they approach you to ask why you’re staring at them.
4. Check out the departures screen and see if you can correctly identify the countries for each of the destination cities listed. If you’re a geography expert, then the additional options are guessing the time zone and longitude/latitude of the destination cities.
3. Count how many times an airline announces the “last and final” departure announcement for a flight to see which airline is the biggest offender of this loudspeaker abuse.
2. When an airline repeatedly pages someone’s name to come and board their flight that is departing, try to find that person or try to convince the airline staff to leave without them.
1. When the above options have been exhausted and you’re still waiting, go to Cafe Ritazza in the waiting area and buy yourself one of the jumbo super-sized Toblerone bars they sell. Chocolate makes everything seem better.
New Delhi Airport Post Office
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by David in Airport, Blog, Delhi, Tips
Recently I was flying out of the New Delhi international airport and saw something I hadn’t noticed before – a post office.
If you still need to mail some postcards or letters out to friends and family, or even if you have extra bags and want to ship them home this little post office can take of that for you. You can call the office on this number, 011 25652323, if you need any further information on their services at the airport.
The post office is somewhat obscure, so to find it head all the way to the left in the area where the various airline check-in counters are. It’s before you go through immigration. There’s a section of shops near the end on the left side, and the post office is at the back of this section.
Update August 2010: With the opening of the new Terminal 3 at the Delhi airport, there no longer appears to be a post office at the international terminal. Will keep you posted here if that changes.
Lumen Dei Tibet x 2
Posted on 06. Jan, 2010 by David in Blog, Lumen Dei, Photography, Tours
Lumen Dei keeps getting bigger. I’m excited to announce that we have not just 1, but 2 more Lumen Dei photo tours for 2010!
Both tours will be held in an amazing new location for Lumen Dei – the Tibetan Plateau – via a partnership with Plateau Photo Tours. These guys really match up well with our philosophy/style for the Lumen Dei tours and will do an excellent job running these tours.
The first offering will be Lumen Dei Tibet: The Heart of Kham, from June 18th-29th, and featuring Matt Brandon as the photo workshop leader/instructor. More details and online application can be found here. Spaces are limited to 9 participants.
The second option will be Lumen Dei Tibet: Yushu Horse Festival, from July 20th-30th, and featuring David duChemin as the photo workshop leader/instructor. More details and online application can be found here. Spaces are limited to 9 participants.
We’ll be handling the bookings and payments for these two tours, so send us an email for any questions related to that. For other questions about these tours please email Plateau Photo Tours. Also, please note that they’ll be off email for the next 5-7 days as they’re off scouting out further details for both tours, but can be back in touch with you soon after that.
Changes for Indian Tourist Visas
Posted on 28. Dec, 2009 by David in Blog, News, Travel
India has recently made a key change to their tourist visa policy, namely that travelers holding tourist visas who are departing India cannot return to India for 2 months without being granted special permission.
Various news sources indicate that these new policy changes are still being worked out and are not being implemented consistently throughout India. For example, there seems to be some confusion whether the new policy only applies to long-term (5, 10 year) tourist visa holders or all tourist visas including ones for only 6 months. The Times of India recently had this article indicating the new restrictions may be eased for certain tourists.
US citizens are encouraged to check out the Warden messages from the US Embassy in New Delhi for further announcements from them regarding these new visa policy changes. You can find the Warden messages HERE.
Announcing Lumen Dei Kumbh Mela 2010
Posted on 21. Dec, 2009 by David in Blog, Lumen Dei, News, Photography, Tours
We’re now accepting applications for the Lumen Dei Kumbh Mela Photo Workshop and Tour. Details and application can be found HERE.
Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to experience Delhi, Varanasi, and the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar with lead photographers Matt Brandon and Gavin Gough. The next Kumbh Mela won’t take place until 2013, so sign up soon if you’d like to come.
Another Lumen Dei for 2010 Is In the Works
Posted on 10. Dec, 2009 by David in Blog, Lumen Dei, Photography, Tours
I’ve been busy this week working out details on an exciting new Lumen Dei photo tour we hope to run in April 2010. This one won’t be in Kashmir or Ladakh, but will go through Delhi, Varanasi, and then Haridwar for the massive Kumbh Mela pilgrimage.
There are still some things to polish up with the details and logistics, but I hope to be announcing the full details in the next week or two. In addition to being a totally new location for Lumen Dei, we’re excited about adding a new lead photographer – Gavin Gough. You can learn more about Gavin at his newly redesigned website, www.gavingough.com.
Joining Gavin as a lead photographer for this tour will be one of Lumen Dei’s co-founders, Matt Brandon. And if you don’t know Matt by now, you can check him out at www.thedigitaltrekker.com.
Stay tuned for news on this second Lumen Dei tour for 2010.
Lumen Dei Kashmir & Ladakh is Full
Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by David in Blog, Kashmir, Lumen Dei, Photography, Tours
In keeping up with the popularity of the 2009 Lumen Dei photo tour, Lumen Dei Kashmir & Ladakh 2010 reached the full number of applicants in a mere four days. Wow, I’ll do business any day with Matt Brandon and David duChemin, our wonderful lead photographers for the tour!
If you missed out, well, we’re still keeping the applications open for a waiting list in case one of the original 8 participants needs to cancel. In fact, last year we had two participants who needed to cancel but we were able to quickly fill those spots due to others who had expressed interest in joining.
So if you’re interested in being on a waiting list for Lumen Dei Kashmir & Ladakh, go ahead and fill out the online application. Once we receive it we’ll let you know your place in line.
Update: the name of this Lumen Dei tour has been revised since we now are offering a second one in 2010 for the Kumbh Mela in April.
