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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Big Fish...

So,

I went trotting down to Galle Naval base tagging the hubby along, groggy since it was early Sunday morning at 6.15, with the hopes of at least catching a glimpse of the big fish of the ocean.,I was pre-warned that it was sometimes elusive. so we set off on a 5 hour journey.

Thank heavens I used a little bit of common sense and took a pill to keep nausea at bay. As it was not easy trying to dodge your way from vomit-attack(s) from kids and mommies alike after guzzling down a "light breakfast" that the navy was good enough to provide the passengers with.

However it was all worth the bobbing up and down  as we came head on across an entire school of dolphins... AMEH-ZZING!!!


A lot more bobbing later the captain announced we were 27km's away from the shore, which was fine by me. 2000m depth however got my head screaming "HOLY CRAP I CAN'T SWIM!!!" rocking too and fro we waited with keep enthusiasm in the hot sun for it to come out... and from far away a spray of water caught everyone's attention. The whales have come to say hello.... I was almost in tears....


Got me thinking...The whale is truly endangered however the ant is doing just fine... we need to do something about that!!! starting with maybe getting out of their ocean, and changing the shipping line traffic to start with!!! As quite a few whales have died getting entangled on the ships propellers!!! 




 How to see the whales, you can either 
call  - 0777323050 
mail - slnwhalewatching@gmail.com
or check the website - www.whalewatching.navy.lk/

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its 3500 per person (local) and $100 for a foreigner national

some would say that this isn't the best way to see the as it gets scared for the noise of the engine of the big ship/liner/cruise that the navy uses but I wouldn't agree. as the trawler boats looked quite scary as it looked like it would topple. 

But try it out!!! amazing AMAZING AAAMZING thing, the memories of which will last you for the rest of your life!!! (Keep your fingers crossed)

Monday, January 28, 2013

Pink soup

Hello there!!!

So post-marraige has been blissful. The first few weeks saw me calling Mom and Doodle for the simplest recipies such as Onion Sambol because truthfully, I have been pampered all my life and never had to cook for myself or anyone ever. The funniest thing is, after the question "How's married life?", the next thing any Sri Lankan newlywed would be asked is, "Sooo....are you cooking?"... This irked me after a few months because its as if the man would die of hunger just because his mother's cooking wasn't at hand.

Geez. Give me a break.

Anyway, I digress. I am a happy recipe-book-buyer, and happened to come across a book called "Mmm...soups" at Arpico. After browsing through it, I was seriously face-palming myself at how frikking EASY making soups were. Seriously..if I had known this before...I'd be making soups all my life!!!

Anyway...so I made a few soups for a few months, inventive as I went along. One evening, I realized we had a whole beetroot left behind in the fridge and decided to make it into soup without telling Beetroot (Husband now affectionately called Beetroot from here onwards)...because he HATES beetroot for some odd reason.

Luckily, as Beet hungout in his man-cave (his TV/ surround sound/ Xbox room), I quickly whipped up the beet soup and added some leftover fish to make it a little more nuitrious.

NOTE TO SELF: NEVER add the fish with skin ON, into soup. Results may vary but my wonderful beet soup definitely had a weird fishy aftertaste.

Let me quickly share the recipie -

Take the beet, wash and cut into smallish square. Potatoes/ celery/ carrots can also be added as wished. Add some olive oil into a deep pan, add onions, garlic and let it sweat on low heat. Must sweat, not go brown. Add beet and other veggies, stir it a bit and let it be. Add stock. (I used diluted Ma's chicken stock power - but I fancy real stock must be much better)... Add the fish and let it boil, them simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the soup is amulgamated, sieve it, take off any fish bones, puree the vegetables and add back into the soup, add some milk or cream and serve.

For Dee's sexy croutons

Add olive oil into a flat pan, brown some squares of bread on it.

Serve soup into a bowl, add bread and top with a little grated cheese.

Serve to unsuspecting beet-hating Beet and watch in glee.

Beet liked the soup quite a bit and was pleasantly amused at the colour too. I must say this is one of my favorite soups to make and the colour is pretty rad too.

 
Happy cooking!