Stereotype

Lately, courtesy 'facebook' I have come across numerous stand-up comedy videos where the act is centered around stereotyping nationalities, colour, religion, professions etc. One of the very first I saw was of Russel Peter a Canadian-Indian who managed to crack the audience up with his imitation and interpretation of the stereotyping Indians face in Canada. He didn't mind using himself as the butt of these jokes and I was slightly surprised at how he could joke about things so close to home. But then I came across more comedians from various 'coloured' parts of the world making fun of going through additional security checks, being addressed rudely and being the keepers of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) with panache. Middle Eastern comedians keen on showing to the world that their world is no longer Alladin's Arabia, Africans going beyond Rap about their accent and Indian crowds cheering to jokes about their children excelling at schools.

Quite unexpectedly I too, saw the humour and the purpose behind these shows. The genuine eagerness to show the rest of the world hidden facets of these 'infamous' countries. I was all for the cause eventually. And then I came across a news piece accompanied by a disturbing video of 2 teenagers being beaten to death in Pakistan while being watched by police. There were people who made videos, but none to stop the killing. Ironically, just before that I was watching a talk by Maz Jobrani (TED Talks) who with his group is on a mission to present to the world the positives of Middle East and is effectively leading a crusade against stereotyping.

Even though, I try my best to not to classify people because of their colour, geography or religion I found it really difficult to resist the mob-mentality of brutality being nurtured at our door step. In the 21st century, if an entire city did nothing but watch 2 young men being beaten to death in the most barabaric fashion and later hung as if dead animals, I could not but make generalisations. Apart from civilians who preferred making videos to post on youtube, there were armed policemen who simply took the 'best view' positions around the scene. If the police force of a country does not seem to think it was their duty to stop the violence what can one expect from the people at large?
And I am not talking about individuals, or even a dozen, there was a mob almost the size of a cinema audience. Not one of them felt the urge to stop it??

I may take a step back from my mental refinement, but very unfortunately it really made me re-think about the origins of stereotypes and that of 'popular belief'. Kudos to people like Maz Jobrani but incidents like this just keep letting them down. Again and again, breathing life to more security checks and more mistrust.

English Pancakes

Mostly when I cook, it is on an impulse - not of eating or hunger but of trying it out and being able to do something that I have not done before. That is why I find cooking for meals so boring - same old menu repeated over the week with slight variations. It is just not motivating enough for me to get myself to the kitchen to cook something which I already know exactly how it would turn out.


Crepe and Pancakes share almost the same batter in terms of ingredients. Whilst Crepes are said to be French, Pancakes are more English traditionally and lately American. But for political reasons and 'FOOD HONOURS' neither side would concede to this :D
Last month (when it was summer [sigh!]) I had gone to Brighton, a beach city along the SE coast of England. It is famous for it's full-of-amusement piers. There I had a super quick crepe recipe which just lingered on at the back of my mind.

The mystery batter was spread over a non-stick pan thinned out with a ladle, with a little amount of butter round the circle. It was left to brown for 20-30 sec only on one side. Then folded into halves still on the pan to make a quarter. Inside this cone/quarter we could fill chocolate syrup, whipped cream, bananas or even savoury ingredients such as minced meat.

The simplicity and taste of it made sure it appeared on my things-to-try-to-cook list. And the fact that this weekend, I had almost 2 pints of milk to use by this Monday finally resulted in the experiment ;)
I made mine without any egg, adding half a teaspoon of baking soda as a replacement (to give the fluffy texture).

Some of them did stick to the pan but eventually they started to come off smooth :) I cant wait to get to the market for some double cream (gluttony!!)and try the beach recipe by my window from where I see not much water down below but lots of watery clouds above! (After all, its English August)

Choco Chips Cookies

So this is cooking :)
I made a batch of almost 4 dozen, and they were gone before the week ended!
Looking forward to bake some to take home.