poutine and beaver tails

For anyone (mostly non-Canadians) who do not know what Poutine or Beavertails are... These are the most authentic Canadian junk food ever! It is not for those who are weak at heart or for anyone with a healthy meal plan.

Poutine - Deep-fried French fries, cheddar cheese curds and dark gravy (meat or mushroom-based). This is how the French Canadian invented it, and it is the most popular version you can find in Canada.

I have had only the Canadian version of poutine, but I have found from my research that many European countries have their own versions and so does Mexico. I was interested in finding out more, so I found that Italians use Bolognese sauce and sausages, Mexicans use jalapenos, beans and shredded cheddar cheese, British use curry gravy and shredded mozzarella, Greek use feta and Mediterranean vinigrette. I dont think Indians have come up with butter chicken or panner versions yet, but that would be an awesome invention!

Poutine is the ultimate comfort food for me, so much that I have started making it at home. I make myself feel better about it with the following arguments:

• I bake the potato fries, instead of deep frying
• Cheese curds have protein and calcium
• Potatoes have carbs, fibre, vitamins, etc

But then I overlook what the actual calorie count in a regular bowl of poutine (close to a 1000 calories):

Energy	927 kcal
Protein	24.82 g
Total lipid (fat)	49.63 g
Carbohydrate, by difference	97.96 g
Fiber, total dietary	6.5 g
Sugars, total	2.61 g
Calcium, Ca	392 mg
Iron, Fe	3.53 mg
Sodium, Na	1293 mg
Vitamin C	3.1 mg
Vitamin A, IU	653 IU
Fatty acids, total saturated	13.062 g
Cholesterol	59 mg

The truth hurts, but I often look the other way while gulping down the decadent poutine...hmmm...yum...

Beavertails

When I first had Beavertails, I didnt know what to expect! A mystery dough (I think it is just wheat flour) is stretched and deep-fried. Then they have the toppings - cinnamon and brown sugar or chocolate and banana, maple sugar icing, and much more. My favourite is the Classic Tail - cinnamon and brown sugar. It melts in your mouth...and kind of reminds you of a few Indian delicacies - Bhatura in Kerala, Maal pura in Sindhi, but that doesnt mean its the same, it is entirely a different taste. Just the dough ingredients and the deep frying may seem similar.

I dont think I can argue that there is a shred of nutrition in BeaverTails, except maybe the cinnamon - it is good for lowering cholesterol, regulating blood sugar, fighting cancer and many more reasons. The real calorie count on 1 Beavertail is here:

Calories	314	Sodium	303 mg
Total Fat	13 g	Potassium	0 mg
Saturated	4 g	Total Carbs	30 g
Polyunsaturated	0 g	Dietary Fiber	1 g
Monounsaturated	0 g	Sugars	15 g
Trans	0 g	Protein	3 g
Cholesterol	24 mg
Vitamin A	1%	Calcium	2%
Vitamin C	0%	Iron	6%

Now that I have given the pros and cons in my opinion, decide for yourself, which is your fave...

I am on a mission to find the best poutine in Ottawa, and I will come back with more info on that soon...

Petite, but still overweight?

Last night I met Mr. Shallow Hal. Anyone who doesnt know the reference, please look it up on wikipedia. I was having a conversation with this man, who seems like a sensitive, educated and civilized person, but he blew me away with his ignorance and stupidity.
I was mentioning how I feel like I need to start working out again and get fit. And he said, "Yes, you need to lose your belly, you are overweight." I was so shocked, that at irst I thought he was joking. But he wasnt, he really meant it. He thinks I am overweight and obese. I agree that I have a few pounds to lose, but I never thought of myself as an overweight and obese person.
I am 31, 5 foot and 3 inches tall, 60kgs - am I really overweight? So I looked up my BMI on this website  http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ and found that my BMI is normal. I am actually in the normal weight range, but then I am not a well-toned, six-pack ab kinda girl. I used to be 5 kgs lighter before I had my child, but now I do have more curves and rolls than before. I am well aware of that, but never have I been called overweight before. Since I am petite, yes my curves are more obvious, but that is no reason for a man to mention to a woman that she is overweight.
This made me think about 100s of women who are Bulimic and Anorexic. Peer pressure, societal pressure and most of all our own perception of our body has made us women extremely sensitive about our shape, size and weight. How can a man understand what a woman's body goes through during pregnancy and after delivery and how she struggles to reclaim a body that has changed shape forever.
I put on 30 pounds as part of normal, healthy pregnancy and within the first year of breastfeeding and light workout I lost 25 pounds. The last 10 pounds was really resilient and wouldnt budge. So I joined a boot camp for women, spring 2012 and it was so worth the money and pain. I lost 7 pounds and most of all 5 inches on my waist. I was ecstatic and trust me I flaunted my new lighter body. In the past few months, I have been unable to work out because of  some health issues, and I have packed on a few pounds. I have never been a person who diets, but I try to eat healthy and cut out my refined sugar intake. I will keep at it, but now I am worried that I am overweight, because a Shallow Hal told me so. How do I look past that person's judgement and do what is right for my body?
I dare you Hal put on 30 pounds, lose it and show me your six-pack body...I will apologize for writing about you.
I call out to all women who are struggling with their body image, please do not fall prey to men or women, who care more about your size and shape and less about who you are inside.
I am a strong, independent, modern woman and I will not apologize for being who I am. I might need to lose a few pounds, but I will not do it to impress someone like Hal. I will do it for me, for my self-worth, how dare you call me overweight?
 

My fave memories in the rain...

This morning Ottawa was hot, humid and muggy...reminded me of Alleppey for some reason...maybe it was the hot breeze with the promise of rain...

It is a nostalgic day...I try to place myself in various cities where I have lived like Alleppey, Trivandrum, Cochin, Bangalore and Ottawa...but when I try to remember which was my fave city, I just cant decide. I am wanderer by heart...I dont think I have one place where I will belong to geographically. Instead I would like to combine good memories of all these places and make one warm, fuzzy place in my mind, heart and soul that I think makes me feel like home.

I have always liked the rain...so much that I romanticize the rain like any monsoon-loving Indian...Bollywood always have at least one rain-romance-dance scene because it catches the fancy of us rain-lovers...Maybe we as Indians have been honed to romanticize the rain, because otherwise life would be difficult in the monsoon season.

One clear memory in my mind is having mango chaat (savoury snack made of rice puffs and fried chickpea-flour puffs) outside the Times of India office on M.G. Road in Bangalore one rainy afternoon with Smi. We were drenched, but that didnt stop us from having the delicious blend of chaat, sour green mangoes and spicy red chillies. Another time Chinmin and I were at Indian Coffee house on M.G. Road having strong South Indian filter coffee chatting and overlooking the bright pink bougainvilla blossoms across the street.

But the best memory ever is with my best friend Uma. We finished our computer lessons in Trivandrum and were supposed to go home, instead we walked almost 10 kms, just because it was raining and we were having the most amazing conversation. We were drenched, but we were laughing and people were staring at us...and the icing on the cake...we went to a cemetery after that...the cemetery was an impulsive decision...we walked in there to see how it would feel to go visit the dead. We both were Hindus and had never been to a funeral or a cemetery before, so we thought it would be a good idea to see, if there would be any paranormal things happening there or not...

We were blown away by how beautiful that cemetery was...Tall trees with white, purple and red flowers loomed above us like they were looking over us to keep us safe. The fallen flowers looked like a vibrant, plush rug against the black wet earth. We looked at the marble, granite and concrete tombstones...it was so quiet and peaceful to stand there, that we stayed for almost 30 minutes just enjoying the beautiful environment.

It was at that moment I realized that both Uma and I were different...we were not just normal Malayali girls from Trivandrum. Our lives were meant to be much more than the typical Malayali expectations...We were special...in our own way to make a mark in the world.

Finding myself

Its been a long time since I blogged, so today I decided I would write something...I was not sure what I wanted to write about, if I ever started a blog. Did I want to talk about my work, my life or my baby? Hmmm...I wish I was a little more egoistist, then I could I written about me, myself and Sree. Then I realized that I don't know enough about me, myself or Sree to write a blog...So I am going to see if I can find myself by writing down my thoughts.

I went to India in Feb 2011 for two months vacation. It was a vacation all right, but it also made me realize that I have no clue as to who I am. Ok wise-cracks...I know my name is Sreerekha, I am 30 years old...I am a journalist...I know who my mom, dad, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin , etc etc are...These are all things that define me as a person...But who the hell is Sreerekha?

Is she is the smart, pretty and cheerful woman as most people think she is? Or is she the cranky, cynical pessimist as her husband knows her as? Or is she the daydreaming, poetry-writing romantic that I know...So many sides and so many faces...maybe it is time to find the real me.

I considered maybe asking everyone who is close to me - what is that you think of me? what kind of person am I? I didnt ask, because I think I am too scared to know the truth. I rather make myself believe that I am Sreerekha 'Verma' happily married to A and has one adorable son with him. Can I be anything more than that? Is it wrong to want to be more than just someone's daughter, sister, friend, wife or mother?

The more I think about who I am, the more confused I am about me! How does one know? Is it my lack of confidence in myself that I am so torn and confused? Or is it that no one has ever asked me, not even me, who I am?

When I was in India, I went to my old room and I felt so strange...I didnt recognize the things in the room and I didnt know whos room it was...All I remembered was the smell of old books and naphthalene balls. My mom hadn't really change the room after I left the house, but still I didn't feel like it was my room...I felt like I was in a stranger's room and I was looking for clues as to what kind of person used to live there...

I am not sure if I lost myself when I moved to Canada, or if I didnt have an identity to begin with, so I have build up a new identity that is exclusive to my life in Ottawa. I am not even sure, if I am so happy about the new identity I have assumed, because if I was happy, I wouldnt be writing all this and making you go round in cirlces!

So the million dollar question is, how do I get to know the real me? Therapy? friends? family? Get high and talk to God? so many options that I know wouldn't work...

Why are we scared?

The other day I was walking down Metcalfe Street in front of the Ottawa Public Library, around 6p.m. or so. A jet plane flew by right above the street and for some reason I felt a chill in my spine and I almost ducked. I was embarassed with my needless reaction and wondered, why was I so scared?

I have not lived in a war zone or anything close to it. I have never seen a gun in my life, nor have I felt any danger close to a bomb or gun shot ever in my life. I did experience a harmless, but scary earthquake in 2004 in Bangalore. But thats pretty much the only danger I have ever felt. I should thank my stars for having a good, safe life. But coming back to 'fear factor'...

Three weeks ago, at like 2 a.m. my husband and I woke up to a POP...POP...and with my experience watching numerous movies, it sounded very much like gunshots. Trust me, I am not a paranoid person, but if something at night wakes my husband up, then there is something really going on...This noise definitely wasnt birds or animals or the furnace...so we waited to hear or see something outside...nothing...just the silent darkness before dawn...

Just to make sure, we were being good neighbours, we called the cops and told them we weren't sure what we heard, we definitely heard something unusual, so the cops drove by and they didn't see or find anything or anyone. It was scary...I dont know why, but its that sinking feeling you get and dont know how to shake it off...the same feeling you get when you are in a plane and there is bad turbulence...

So I began thinking about why I would be more scared now than ever about these things in Ottawa, one of the safest cities in North America, than when I lived in Bangalore, a city with one of the highest crime rates in India...

Some of my conclusions are:

Earlier, terror attacks targeted anyone who suppressed or oppressed... like in the saying "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"... It was about fighting for your rights or your life. Now terrorism has become all about killing innocent people. So naturally even if you haven't done anything wrong, you could be the victim of a terror attack. Talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time!

Secondly, tolerance for people, religion, politics, opinions etc has depleted considerably. Stress, recession, job lay-offs, abuse, sickness and much more has taken over mankind. No one is happy with what they have. Man/Woman seems to want more, and appreciate very little of what they have in their life.

I know we don't have any control of what the future holds for us, but how do we make sure that our children have a fear-free world? I had a wonderful childhood, carefree and joyous, do you think our future generations will be able to say the same?