A cup of Assam Tea

The sense, sensitivity, and sensibility, when comes together something awesome like AUrate New York happens. AUrate New York, a gold jewelry brand not only offers great style, the cause behind it is amazingly appreciative. It goes beyond just looks, by sourcing ethically and caring for the community.        Mother of two young children, who understands better than me, how book reading can help shape up children's thought process and knowledge. How wonderful to know that AUrate runs a program named ‘ A Book for Your Look ’ where every purchase of their jewelry goes towards donating a book to an economically underprivileged child.      As a blogger, I always give preference and love to promoting handloom and handmade. I feel lucky to come across jewelry like AUrate New York, which gives vital priority to sustainability and is also handmade in New York. You can read their story here .    As women o...

        When I am traveling or vacationing with family visiting new places, one thing we love to explore is the food culture of the place. You probably get to know it even better with their food culture. If you follow me or read my last post, you read about lake placid. This post is all about lake placid's food culture. Probably one post or one trip is not enough for exploring. Lake placid food is even better because you get to eat with a privilege of a lake view. Most restaurants in lake placid area are by the mirror lake. The Cottage The first day when we reached lake placid, it was already evening. After strolling for a bit we went for early dinner in the Cottage by the lake mirror. This restaurant is part of mirror lake inn. The cottage is more popular for lunch. We couldn't resist, at a first glance, after seeing The cottage at the heart of mirror lake. You get to see the best view of mirror lake from the cottage. Cozy, offbeat with American fair, live ...

As the summer is rendering into almost fall, I felt we have not been to anywhere lately. The daily grind is monotonous and needed an escape from the hustle and bustle. But, hubby has some important project going on and can't take more than a day off. Before sending back to school, we wanted to spend time with kids leisurely. Then on short notice, Lake Placid came to my mind. We had been to lake placid before but thought, with children, it would be amazing. We planned in a way that we reach lake placid by evening. After having early lunch at home, we started. When you travel, you usually want no rain, but that day it was pouring. In spite of that, we enjoyed the four-hour drive in light rain as it makes New England more charmer and fresher. After 3 hours of drive, we took a little break at Lake George. It was lovely to visit Lake George as well and by that time rain had stopped too. From there, it took us another one and a half hour to reach our destination, Lake Placid....

      I don't remember how the word tea entered into my life, perhaps even before my birth. When I was deciding on a name for my blog, the moment "A cup of Assam tea" came to my mind, it stuck firmly. You probably know, I originally come from Assam, India, where I was born and brought up till my 20 and moved to the USA 15 years back. Assam is the highest tea producing state in the world. My mom has a tea connection. Both my maternal grandfather and great-grandfather worked for Assam tea company, later my maternal uncle owned tea gardens. I grew up hearing those tea garden stories and tea tribe stories of struggle as a lullaby from my mother. Our ancestral house in Assam is in the midst of tea garden. Those memories of quaint lush green tea, I always carry within me, even after moving to the USA to stay with me forever. The smell of tea, the memory of those two leaves one bud tea, labors music during festival floating in the air and buzzing in the ear.   ...

      Felt like long that we have not dinner outed for as a family. Recently, if we were eating out it's always been take outs. We love to go out for eating as a family, sitting in a comfy place with the comfort of food sharing and conversing with each other. Because regular days are so busy and we always in a little hurry. On Friday nights a new place new food gives boost for a good relaxing weekend ahead. That’s why we always look forward to Fridays and is our favorite for dinner outings.       Zohara, the Mediterranean flare has been in my pending list for a little while now. Finally made it to Zohara, a comfort, complete, casual culinary tale. In the heart and hustle of blue back square, Zohar is casual, open modern kitchen and with a bunch of humble attentive staff and casual clean sitting. Just like its name, Zohara is a jewel in midst of blue back square. We started our day housemade lemonade with a mindful hint of mint flavor. As chi...

        I don't recall when exactly, but that time in the early 90s, there was one Indian TV drama series called Thoda sa Aasman"(A little bit of Sky). The series emphasized on women inner world, and her sensitivities. And the serial also portraited several different women from the various walks of life. Even when I was very young, the serial stayed with me, not sure because of the stories or because of the name of the series. I feel that life is always all about a little bit of earth and a little bit of sky. The earth keeps you grounded and real. On the other hand, sky adds color to your dreams and imagination. "Thoda        It's about six months now since I started my blog and three months now since I posted it public. It's an incredible feeling how you all responding to my blog. It feels amazing reading all your comments,  how you took time reading it and writing back to me, it means a lot.        This we...

      I grew up in the mid-80s and early 90s Assam, India where we celebrated our birthday parties with home made food even the cake was made by our moms. There was no elaborate decorations or video games or pizzas. However, our happiness or celebration was not any less than today's birthday. As every childhood has its own charming tale. Those were the days indeed.       In those times, the menus were fixed almost for every household. Crisp Luchi (fried dough) was a must have for a birthday or any other celebrations accompanied with green gram thick velvety gravy and succulent tomato chutney (bilahir tok). The other day my daughter completed five years. It was on a weekday, and we celebrated it at home, and on Saturday she is going have her actual birthday party with friends. I thought why not celebrate it in our old back home way, how we used to. Just like my mom, I made luchi and quintessential bilahir tok. They say, you re-live your childhood ...