“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
Tag: Travel
Armenian herbal tea
This would be chapter 3 of our series – ‘Culinary Experiences’ for journaling some of the best ambrosial culinary experiences, be it the finest cordon bleu delights of a master chef, cultural intricacies discovered in a bowl of an exquisite delicacy or a cheesy experimental simmer at our little kitchen, we are trying to scribe it here.
In July 2019, we tried a variant of Armenian tea. Herbal tea is very popular in Armenian culture. Mkhitar Heratsi, the founder of Armenian Classical medicine is known to have proposed different herbs for several common ailments. In some of his works highly revered in Armenian history, he has outlined recommendations on using rose, violet, lily, nunufar, sorrel, watercress, basil, asparagus, among wild plants capers and thyme to cure infectious-allergic diseases.
The tea we tasted was very subtle and had a herbal feel to it. We had it after a heavy meal and it felt very luscious on the taste buds. There’s a famous saying in Armenia – “The higher is the mountain the better the herbs are”. Armenia is known for its mountainous terrains and these herbs predominantly grow on hillsides and they are used extensively for tea. I could find lot of variants in Armenian markets with some of them being thyme, chamomile, pomegranate flower, and rosehip teas. They have a rich and profuse tea tradition rooting back to thousands of years.
Nthree
This is Ep 2 of our new series – ‘Culinary Experiences’ crafted with an unpresuming intention for journaling some of the best ambrosial culinary experiences, be it the finest cordon bleu delights of a master chef or a cheesy experimental simmer at our little kitchen, we are trying to scribe it here.
Although I had tried a takeaway before, this was my first experience visiting Nthree , a cozy cafe at University city, Sharjah. It’s a Kuwaiti restaurant managed by Chef Khaled Al-Saad.
They mostly serve Arabic food and have some Kuwaiti delicacies such as Al-Majabis, Mmoush, Educators, Mutabeed Zabeedi, and Al-Hamsat in their culinary arsenal, which we didn’t experiment with. We tried chicken machboos which has a slow-cooked chicken with sweet lentils and aromatic rice. We tasted Bechamel as well which is basically cheese with pasta, minced meat, and Béchamel sauce. A béchamel or white sauce is one of the classic French “mother sauces” that form the basis of much French cuisine. It’s used since the seventeenth century in French delicacies.
[ Location ]
Previous Eps.
A piece of happiness
kite sky.
A photograph of my father glancing at some kites on a clear sky, Quilon beach, circa 2014
Explore our photography themes.
keepsake.
From a souvenir shop in Istanbul, circa 2014.
Explore our photographic themes.
interpretive
A photograph of a world traveler that I took on a visit to Princess Islands in Istanbul. Remembering the words of Eliott Erwitt that “Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.” She was delightfully surprised at the seagull glancing at her through the ferry window. The year is 2014.
“ Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but black and white films still hold an affectionate place in my heart; they have an incomparable mystique and mood.”
― Ginger Rogers
stumble over pebbles.
These are some pebbles that I randomly glanced at Corbin’s Cove beach in Port Blair during a visit with Netta in 2018. It’s a beautiful palm-fringed beach with pleasant blue sea water and lush green coconut palms. They’re enriched with colorful corals and artful rockfaces at the peripheries. I have some vague recollections of an old post that I read on medium portal which spoke about the art of seeing beauty in the everyday. Pebbles purvey such thoughts on appreciating such beauties around us. The detailing and subtleties of these pebbles graciously nudge of themes in a philosophical context. As Emilie Cady puts it, ” Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains“.
“A rock, a large piece of rock weathers off a cliff and dives deep into a pool of gushing water. Back washed, It journeys roughly and knocks of other rocks, smashing through the waves as it loses itself in scattered pieces except for its core. That core travels far and wide, it coarsely gets ground by gravel pieces smaller than itself and bullied by boulders all of which it bears up as it withstands the pressure of a distant journey off the shore. At some point, it gets dry and it encounters mud, it gets smeared dirty but the mud doesn’t stick, the rain washes of the mud and it rolls off into the sand. It dances in the sand and dives into the bottom of the waves.
Rising like a phoenix through the ashes, it emerges polished, looking more beautiful than it did when it got edged of the cliff. It rises a pebble, smooth and sleek. Coveted by rocks starting their dive.
To be a pebble you have to run the turbulent tidal race.”
― Victor Manan Nyambala
dreaming beyond | fine art
An art piece inspired by a ferry ride through Buyukuda Island in Istanbul. It’s also called Princess Islands
the golden lamp.
Roman Payne famously told that sunrise is the most precious gold to be found on earth. It’s a luxury that every one of us can peek at regardless of where we are or who we are. Sunrise lighting is a miraculous golden lamp that can be used to paint anything to ecstasy. If we place mountains also in this frame, what you get is pure visual bliss. We had this short stop on the way to Wadi Al Helo from the Sharjah mainland in the UAE. Travelling and riding just before sunrise through the mountain footways would uncloak some of the best visual memories and awesomeness you’ve ever had.
“Life. This morning the sun made me adore it. It had, behind the dripping pine trees, the oriental brightness, orange and crimson, of a living being, a rose and an apple, in the physical and ideal fusion of a true and daily paradise.”
― Juan Ramón Jiménez, Time and Space: A Poetic Autobiography
“HEARTWORK
” Each day is born with a sunrise
and ends in a sunset, the same way we
open our eyes to see the light,
and close them to hear the dark.
You have no control over
how your story begins or ends.
But by now, you should know that
all things have an ending.
Every spark returns to darkness.
Every sound returns to silence.
And every flower returns to sleep
with the earth.
The journey of the sun
and the moon is predictable.
But yours,
is your ultimate
ART.”
―
“With a bound, the sun of a molten fiery red cam above the horizon, and immediately thousands of little birds sang out for joy, and a soft chorus of mysterious, glad murmurs came forth from the earth; the low whispering wind left its hiding-place among the clefts and hollows of the hills, and wandered among the rustling herbs and trees, waking the flower-buds to the life of another day.”
― Ruth
Membranes of Memories.
When we go somewhere, between all the rush and the hustle and bustle are those sweet little moments in time that’d be chiseled in our memories. I and Netta traveled to Al’ Ain and Ghubaiba (old city of Dubai) and I thought to extract some memorable frames into a short moving picture.
Music by Canadian Singer Dawud Wharnsby.
“The Remnants
We carry small membranes of memories
Within us
As do trees, flowers, stones,
All life force around us
Fragments of memories
Engraved in chips of iron, copper, silver…
Interlaced in the workings of men
Intertwined into the streets, buildings
The networks around us
Pathways between ages
Each carrying their
Remnants of the past”
― Maria Lehtman, The Dreaming Doors: Through the Soul Gateways