Masters Graduation and Trip to Nor-Cal with Mom and Dad.

Graduation!!! yay yay!! well technically I graduated in December. Anyways mom and dad came to the US of A to see me walk for my graduation. Mom and Dad came to US on 10th of June(2014). This year is the 50th anniversary for UCI and President Obama was invited as the guest speaker. I guess Dad was most excited about this than me or mom :)

Since Obama was speaking to the whole school, we had 2 grad walks! One for the whole school(June 14th) and the second one was for Engineering alone(June 15th)

I always like it when pictures do the talking so I'll do just that.

So first off, here are some graduation pictures.

June 14th - Thanks to Sagar for taking some amazing shots :)

me, prith, ppr and ap walking in the chaos! initially around 15 of us started walking together but by the time we entered the stadium there were only 4 of us!! people went missing randomly. lol.

Some of the pics taken by Sagar. I've uploaded the once I like the most.  

Angels stadium Anaheim, although i would have liked it to be Dodgers stadium ;)

Obama addressing Class of 2014!

you can see the whole ceremony in the below link

July 14th UCI Commencement Ceremony.

Jump to 1:35:00 for Obama's Speech. 

Achi and Vikas wishing me!! Thanks Guys!

Pictures after the June 14th commencement ceremony! With Achi and Vikas. 

With Shashank(stunn) and Venkat aka yenkoo :)

June 15th commencement! (Engineering Commencement)

Stage is set!

Dean Washington speaking to the class of 2014

photo courtesy Shashank!

Sagar - Thanks :)

With Mom and Dad

with stunn and yenkoo!

With stunn doing the ZOT!

with vikas doing the ZOT!

The classic graduation photo + macy's bag :)

Pete the Anteater!

See the commencement ceremony in the link below. Skip to 17m7s to see me :)

June 15, 2014 UC Irvine Commencement - 9:00 AM

Moving on to the actual trip! 

I planned the trip for 4 days, I started at Irvine and went to Yosemite (day1), Mono lake and South lake Tahoe on day 2, San Francisco on day 3 and finally finished off with San Jose and 17 mile drive on day 4 before heading back home. 1300 Mile (2100 Km) road trip with mom and dad :) 

We started at 6am in the morning (June 16th) drove all the way to Yosemite. We went directly to Glacier point and Badger pass here are few pics from glacier point.

View from the Glacier point.

Mom and dad! 

mommy and me. 

 After visiting the glacier point we headed down to Oakhurst, I made a reservation in one of the RV camper-van. Mom and Dad liked the new experience.

Mom and Dad relaxing in the RV.

View of the RV (Night 1)

 Day 2:  We  made breakfast in the RV and later headed north into Yosemite. we stopped at couple of view points to take some photos.

Majestic Yosemite Falls (the tiny thing in the background)!! Its summer what do you expect!!

Mom and Dad in Yosemite Valley. 

On the road - Constant supply of food from the back. Perks of having Mom in the back seat!

Tioga Lake!

 After Tioga lake and Tioga pass we went to Mono lake! one of the largest shallow saline soda lake.

Mom and Dad in mono lake. 

Mono Lake. 

After seeing Mono lake we headed off to Lake Tahoe. The biggest fresh water lake in the US.

@ Lake Tahoe. 

Mommy dear - Bond, the names James Bond. 

We spent the night in south lake Tahoe in one of the casinos(Montbleu Resort and Casino) and later next day we headed off to San Francisco. we came in from the north so we saw the Golden Gate bridge first and later saw downtown San Francisco. Pictures, Pictures.... but first let me take a selfie!! lol!

Selfie with mom and dad @ golden gate!

Golden Gate!

Golden Gate!

After golden gate we went into the city and basically saw all the touristy spots - Lombard Street aka crooked street. 

At Pier 39, San Francisco Bay. 

Pier 39!

After pier 39 we walked and walked for miles to reach Ghirardelli Square.  I basically made my parents earn every ounce of that ice cream :D

Mommy and Daddy having a feast. 

After eating we left SF and headed to San Jose. we went to Venkat's place and spent some time in his house. Later in the night we went to Anjappar (one of the best birayani houses in US). Next day before heading home we went to the famous 17mile drive along the pacific coast. 

!7 mile drive. 

Came back home after the 17mile drive!! all in all it was an amazing trip and nice family holiday!

Booze Project!

Technically, The Alcohol Stove Project. I came across Tom Allen's website a couple of weeks ago <www(dot)tomsbiketrip(dot)com>. My jaws dropped, and I spent an entire day browsing his website. Basically, Tom's from England who's on a bicycle since 2006. He's traveled over 40 countries on 4 continents. The best thing about his adventure is, he doesn't know where he is going!! "You never know who you gonna meet, what you going to be eating. Do it, do this kind of trip, your life will never be the same again" he says in his movie -Janpar. Hope I get the nerve to do something like this :)

Anyways, digging deep in his website I found a DYI tutorial for an alcohol stove, and this blog post is about my own alcohol stove based on Tom Allen's idea.

I'll let the pictures do the talking..

Its an easy dyi stove, just find an empty soda/beer can and with the help of the can opener rip off the top. cut the can into two halves. Make combustion chambers for the top half with the help of a pocket knife. 

The top portion should look like the picture below. 

This is how the two halves should look like after the combustion chambers are made. 

Place the top half inside the bottom half, it should slide easily. Make a tiny hole with the help of a pin on top half like so.,

Your finished Stove should look like this. Buy medical alcohol from pharmacy, this is your fuel. 

Pour some into the stove and light it up. Your alcohol stove is ready.

This is me making pasta in my very own stove :D

Have a g'day! 

Culinary delights of Wimberley,Texas.

Texas is an amazing place, especially the country side. The place is very different and distinct from California! This distinction is mainly FOOD! Yes, of-course when you talk about Texas the first thing that comes to your mind is Cowboys and Wildcatters, but they no longer exist in great numbers.. Food is the only thing that is very distinct from rest of the states of USA. You can easily lay your hands on chicken-fried steak, a smoked brisket, a bowl of queso in any of the cities in TX. Wood smoked BBQ is a must eat when you are in TEXAS.

You gotta watch Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservation" Austin - episode to know what food in Texas is really about, here's the link if you haven't seen the episode <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKMJG4UJPU>

During the formula 1 weekend of 2013 me and three other friends stayed in Wimberley TX. We were looking for really good places to eat and our Airbnb host Amy suggested "The Leaning Pear", I did a quick google search and apparently this is the best place to eat in Wimberley and had amazing reviews. We immediately decided to give it a try.

It was 12 pm in the afternoon and we drove up to the restaurant and parking was nearly full, luckily we found a spot and walked in.

 The Leaning Pear

We went inside and the wait was almost 45 min to 60 min. We decided to wait and my god it was worth it!! I'll let the pictures do the talking and try not to make your mouth water ;)

Hassles of being a Veggie in Texas, Rohit and Venkat trying to find some veggie food :)

Me and Shashank started off with some lemonade, Rohit with iced tea and Vekat wanted to try something new and he ordered some interesting drink (I dont know the name) it turned out to be sparkling water..lol..

The Farmers' Market Wood-Fried Pizza (Daily special)

Corned Beef Reuben

  

The Crab Cake

Venkat with his Caprese Panini! 

All in all it was a very different yet an amazing experience!! 

If you are in/going to Wimberley then this is a must visit place!!

The leaning Pear - check!

Hope you guys liked this quick update!

Culinary delights of Temple Texas.

Temple whaaaa?? 

That’s right I never heard about this place! Thanks to our grumbling stomachs we had to take a detour to Temple TX and I’m so glad we did!!  Shashank, Venkat, Rohit and me were driving from Dallas to Austin on a hot and sunny Friday afternoon.

Venkat: aren’t you guys hungry?

Me: naaa…,

Shashank: hmmm kinda,

Rohit: (Thinking what to say)..,

Me: (self-realization) actually yeahJ,

Shashank: actually I’m super hungry,

Rohit: le nan makkalara nillisro ootake (guys stop the car for food)…

I immediately opened my trusted yelp app and started searching…. Saigon café came up as the most reviewed restaurant around Temple, we pulled over near the restaurant and didn’t like to ambiance; after a quick search on yelp, we found that Mee Mee’s authentic thai restaurant <http://www.yelp.com/biz/mee-mees-authentic-thai-cuisine-temple> is the second popular place around Temple, TX. It was about 2 mile drive from Saigon café; we pulled over near the restaurant and decided to give it a try. Our host was a very sweet lady, the restaurant was quite resalable and the food was really good.

we started off with tofu and some tea.

The food looked amazing and didn't let down on the taste.

Shashank's Veg - "Pad Thai"

Rohit with his "VEG" Noodles :)

My chicken Pad Ka Pow -  super spicy, our host warned me about the spice and I was like bring it on!!! it was an amazing dish. love to try it again. 

The food was super spicy and filling!! we couldn't walk after the meal :)

Venkat, Rohit, me and Shashank from L to R.

The food coma was at its peak after the meal. This is venkat trying not to fall and doze off :)

Hope you guys enjoyed this quick update!!

Eggs, Poached!

…..first we eat then we do everything else - M.F.K. Fisher (my all-time favorite food writer)….

Food is a core component of life. It gives us energy; it gathers us around a table and makes us social. I’ve been a foodie all my life – I should thank my parents for it, when I was kid my mom hated to cook and more often than not we ended up going to restaurants. As I grew older I visited more and more exotic restaurants (courtesy of Mr. Daya Shankar). After coming to US of A, going to restaurants became infrequent (courtesy: No ride). So I started to cook, taking pictures along the way!!

Most of the posts (Labeled Food) will be about my experiments in the kitchen! Hope you enjoy em!!

Eggs, Poached!

I was on the internet and I found this! I was bored to death, so I decided to try this recipe!!

It’s a bit of time consuming; however it’s worth the effort!

Pictures, pictures….

Take a plastic bag; smear the inner surface with olive oil, add an egg!!

Place these bags in boiling water and after approx. 15-20 min VOILÀ!!

Sprinkle salt and black pepper!! Yummm!!

hope you guys enjoyed this quick update!!

Chicken Tikka

…..first we eat then we do everything else - M.F.K. Fisher (my all-time favorite food writer)….

Food is a core component of life. It gives us energy; it gathers us around a table and makes us social. I’ve been a foodie all my life – I should thank my parents for it, when I was kid my mom hated to cook and more often than not we ended up going to restaurants. As I grew older I visited more and more exotic restaurants (courtesy of Mr. Daya Shankar). After coming to US of A, going to restaurants became infrequent (courtesy: No ride). So I started to cook, taking pictures along the way!!

Most of the posts (Labeled Food) will be about my experiments in the kitchen! Hope you enjoy em!!

Chicken Tikka J

Super easy recipe, preparation time is less than 5 min. all you need is 1-onion, 1-pepper, 1-tomato and of course chicken. As usual I’ll let the pictures do the talking! 

I bought this at wholesome choice next to my place and its super good. Cut chicken into 2 inch cubes and add the seasoning to it, also add couple of table spoons of yogurt and mix and mix!

Let this sit for couple of hours!! Smells soo goood!!

In the meantime cut onions, red pepper and tomatoes into cubes. Stick em to wood skewers and throw it in the oven and VOILÀ!!

hope you guys enjoyed this quick update!!