Milan-Singapore Trip

I had a conference trip to Milan this July and luckily the sun was out from 6 in the morning to 10 at night, which meant I could attend most of the talks from 10am to 5pm and still have enough time to go around. Here's a brief travelogue of my trip...

First things first, DO NOT get money converted at travelex Sydney - A**h****. They charge a big commission and give you a poor exchange rate. get it converted from singapore airport - zero commission and much better rate; or any global bank such as HSBC. also, in general, get it converted at destination airport rather than from where you leave.

I was staying in Hotel Atahotel FieraMilano (translated to "Fair market of Milan") next to Domodossola station, just one stop away from the city's central station of Cadorna (from where you also get the train to the airport). There were two problems with the hotel - costly internet and unfriendly staff (not explicitly rude, but kind of inhospitable); but if you are on your vacation and don't want to check the mail, and also don't give two dimes over the hotel staff, it's a good hotel to stay at, since it's reasonably priced (around 110AUD at current exchange rate for a double room), and is very close to central station.


As you walk out of the Cadorna station, you can see the dome of a castle nearby which is Castello Sforzesco. This was my favorite place on day one of the trip and remained that way at the end of it. The sheer enormity, design from a defensive perspective and solid construction is breath-taking. I especially loved the side towards built with huge cubical black stone that gave it strength. The strategic look-out points gave an early warning of potential attacks to the army. The central courtyard is huge! Perhaps it's the same as the combined area of two soccer fields.

Just outside you've got a newly constructed fountain area where you can cool down in summer as temperature there was 35 degree Celsius, a nice change from Sydney's winter. But sometimes it was too hot and the fountain in front of the castle and numerous taps around the city were always appreciated.

The best way to explore the city is by bus and trams. The tram was my preference between the two and you can take unlimited rides each day for a price of 3 euros (around 5 auds). This is much better than a daytripper in sydney. In fact, it's cheaper than a single one-way ticket from my place to the city in sydney! Unfortunately, this did not include the outer suburbs tickets which was 1.55 euro, still cheap from Australian perspective. The trains come every 3 mins during peak hours and 15 minutes during off peak hour. From my hotel to Cadorna, to Famgosta, to Assgao where the conference was held, it took me 40 minutes (including the two change overs) so I would say the transportation is very well connected. The food in Milan is awesome! The conference lunches were really nice with beautiful desserts.

From Cadorna, you can go to Duomo station which is the shopping center and also the location of "Duomo" cathedral itself. From the inside, it's pretty much like any other cathedral with glass paintings and other stuff, but from the outside it's spectacular with numerous "spikes" that are in fact 10-feet high statues of relevant people from history including kings, saints, priests, Jesus, and also Napolean Bonaparte, who ordered the completion of the Duomo around 1805. He was later crowned the King of Italy at Duomo. The art-work and attention to details on each pillar is unbelievable. Duomo also shows that say what you may, symmetry rules when it comes to architecture.



Next to Duomo is Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II - an eye-popping shopping center with a dazzling mosaic floor and statue engravings on the walls. And again, it is symmetric with four lanes going out of the shopping center. The aerial view will do better justice than my description. P.S. I hate the McD's there since it kind of diminishes the beauty of the place :(

Gunjan's brother, Mohit joined me on the fourth day of trip and we had a real good time watching "It's always sunny in philadelphia" in the morning at the hotel (the things you do when in Milan!) . We went to the castle once more and then to Sansiro stadium - the home of A C and Inter Milan. Visiting their gallery was a wonderful experience but the ground was disappointingly covered since U2 had a concert the night before. We took the tram around the city and headed off to Galleria where we bought ferrari stuff for Mohit and Gunjan.

From Milan, I headed off for Singapore and watched "Sunshine cleaning" in the flight, which I thought, was an excellent movie. Of course, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are both easy on the eye but for me the actor who plays their dad and the guy at the sanitation shop stole the show.

Kavita and Rahul generously hosted me in Singapore and they had a lovely house in Hougong. Singapore was still hot and humid with intermittent rains. Shopping is always the central attraction in Singapore in the absence (or lack) of waterfalls, treks, hills, castles, or cultural heritage. Unfortunately, the shopping center containing the shop I most wanted to visit was demolished and I dragged KR to a dozen shops making them walk a cumulative 16 kms in the process - apologies :(

We headed back home to prepare palak paneer and iranian zaafran rice for dinner, which was a success, if I may say so myself :p It was also really nice of Rahul to get me the Henry Jersey from Pattaya/Phuket while they were in Thailand in Dec 2007/ Jan 2008. I love it :)

From Singapore it was back to Sydney and it was pretty normal... except that I had a window sit with two "big" people next to me so I had to hold back on the coke :(

Grazie,
Gaurav

iranian zaafran rice

for the record, it's 2:40 am and I am watching tennis. don't know whether waking up all night watching tennis on tv and badminton on youtube worth it or not..... oh i know, it's not!

anyways, iranian zaafran rice recipe - (iranians please excuse me if i might have missed something and feel free to comment)

ingredients

long grain rice (basmati preferred) 500grams
salt 1/2 teaspoon
olive oil/ ghee (clarified butter) 30 grams
sultanas 50 grams
cashew 100 grams
potato 1 large
fried onions 100 grams
oh... and saffron 5 grams

1. wash rice in warm water to get rid of excess starch.
2. boil rice in a lot of water (about 3 litres) till it's about 75% done
3. drain water away and mix the oil/ ghee in the rice.
4. separate rice in two parts A and B. boil 20 ml of water and mix saffron to get the flavor in the water and mix this in part A.
5. line the base of a heavy base pot with 1 cm thick potato slices.
6. add water so that it covers the potatoes (50-100 ml should be sufficient).
7. put the rice (i like part A on one side and B on another) over the potatoes and spread the sultanas on top, close the pot with lid so that steam doesn't come out. Try to seal it as much as possible.
8. cook on LOWEST POSSIBLE HEAT for 30 mins.
9. add cashews and cook for another 15 mins.
10. garnish with the fried onions.
11. serve with yogurt and mutton curry - yummmm!

oooooh oooooh garnish with fresh pomegranate seeds if you can get your hands on them. divine!

lamb/goat curry recipe (longer cooking time)

Hi all,

I decided to digress from my standard goat/lamb curry recipe and try another recipe I heard about couple of months back instead. It's much easier than the previous recipe of mine and tastier as well, but here's the kicker - it WILL give you a heart attack eventually (man! am *I* good at promoting stuff!). Relax, just don't have it every other day - once a month, with a 10k run or a squash game every week, and you'd be fine.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
Lamb/ Mutton/ Beef curry pieces on the bone (1.5kg)
Oil (100ml)
Ghee (or butter) 50grams
onions 200grams
tomatoes 200grams
garlic paste 1 tablespoon
ginger paste 1 tablespoon
salt to taste
shaan meat masala (other meat masalas would do but I quite like shaan or badshah)
4 tablespoons
thick yoghurt 200grams
cumin 1 tablespoon
1 large cinnamon stick

at least one day before the cooking day, mix the meat, yoghurt, and 1 tablespoon of meat masala and leave in the fridge.

next day...

peel the onions, and blend onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger together. heat oil in a deep thick-base utensil and add the cumin seeds and cinnamon stick. when cumin turns darkish brown, turn heat to mid and add the onion-tomato paste. stir frequently (this paste might splatter so be a bit careful). After exactly 6.15239 minutes, add the remaining 3 tablespoons of meat masala and salt, and after exactly 1.111112 minutes, add the meat and turn heat high). Add the ghee/ oil. Toss frequently and after 5 minutes, cover with lid, turn heat to lowest possible, and cook covered for eternity (1.5 hours for chicken/ 2.5 hours for goat or mutton/ 3 hours for lamb or beef), stirring every 15-20 minutes. Option - for a soupier curry (I prefer the thicker version), you can dd 500 ml water half way through, turn heat high and when boil comes, turn heat to low and cook for the other half of the prescribed time. MMMMMMM lamb currrrry :p

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Will upload picture of the finished product soon - it's gorgeous ;-)
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As promised, uploading a picture :)