DesiReflections

मुसाफ़िर हूँ यारों : Rock Away Beach Oregon It is an awesome place where the mountains meet the sea and nature at its way. It is up to you how much you are willing to explore, it is a real  wonder of nature, dive into adventure, check out local shops which stood tall from last 80 to 90 years, have a great meal, occasional whistle of steam engine passing through the area,  perfect place to relax and rejuvenate . Yes, I am here and hear the ocean, smell the sea, feel the breeze — Too poetic too romantic, it is a place to catch a dream!

Three days back, I was at Jeni’s Splendid ice cream shop at Howell Mill Road, Atlanta. The shop is known for the unusual flavors normally not available at other ice cream shops or brands. Long queue in front of this shop reminded me of Natural Icecream place at Juhu where we stood for more than an hour to get our Custard Apple ice cream during early nineties. What is so special with Jeni’s Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams is an artisan ice cream company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with national distribution. It is known for its creative flavors and its high-quality ingredients, has been featured nation wide in the press as an artisan ice cream maker. Just read the name of few flavors to have an idea of what kind of experiment these people do with your ice cream scoop: Lemon , Blueberry and Parfait Pint Lemon Buttermilk frozen Yogurt Almond Milk Cortado Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate Bangkok Peanut Brambleberry Crisp Brown Butter Almond Brittle Riesling Poached ...

We have heard a lot about Gluten - a kind of protein found in wheat and certain other cereals regarded as a villain, responsible for wide spread inflammation in the body. Western countries, especially America spend billions of dollar on gluten free diets in an effort to protect health.  But Dr. Steven R  Gundry, Director, International Heart and Lung Institute, Palm Springs, California feels that in this process we miss the real cause of problem. He says that gluten is just one variety of a common and highly toxic plant based protein called lectin. Lectins are found not only in grains like wheat but also in the gluten free foods, most of us commonly regard as healthy, including many fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and conventional dairy products. Such proteins are found in the seeds, grains, skins, rinds and leaves of plants from predators, that includes humans also. Once consumed, they incite a kind of chemical  warfare in our bodies, causing inflammatory reactions th...

There is lot of Gyan spread on WhatsApp and Facebook on what to eat and what not t eat to stay healthy and free from diseases. Going through that, we sometime feel guilty for what we are eating ! We  largely  believe  that whole grains are healthy food. But it is worth recalling that a few thousand years ago, once grinding technology made it possible to remove fibrous parts of wheat and other grains, the riches opted for the white bread. They relegated whole grains such as brown rice and brown bread made whole grains to peasants and poor people. The whole idea to refine grains was that it go easy on the gut, as well as to make bread whiter. But the rich did not know that whole grains are considerably higher in lectin content than grains that have been stripped of their fiber, which explains why they were easier on the tummies. In fact Greeks and Romans even debated over which country has the whitest wheat and Egyptian was winner. In India people were habitual of eat...

Wine Nama             -pradeep Gupta जब कुछ   भी  न   कह सकें अल्फाज हमारे                वाइन का ग्लास छलका दे  वो भाव हमारे  I am writing this piece while sitting in Chateau St Michelle in Woodenville Washington.I have just completed a guided tour of the winery. I loved wine but did not had intricate knowledge about the finer aspects. The reason is very simple. We, the Indians, are basically whisky guzzling people. India consumes more than 1.5 billion liters of whisky per   year. In fact, before opening up our economy to the outside world, most of the brands were bottling rum in the name of whisky as most of the whisky produced is made by blending spirit distilled from fermented molasses (similar to what western counties know as Rum) with either grain whisky (maize, wheat, rye or barley) or pre-blended Scotch whisky; it...