Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Gulab Jamun & a visit

Today was a day away from work. It was a bonus when the rain stopped and the sun tried to come out. My plans were not etched in stone and I was contemplating having a home-made breakfast of eggs and go out to find things to photograph. In other words, it would be a normal Saturday of being alone and trying to keep myself amused. Imagine my surprise when Mrs Skoot said she would join me for brunch, but where to go ? After driving around Richmond with no fixed destination we ended up at an East Indian Buffet

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it was one of those AYCE: All You Can Eat affairs where I normally have too many plates of filled to the brim food. Mrs Skoot wanted to have something with curry in it and I like butter Chicken . Here's what my plate looked like

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it was a little taste of everything "in moderation" and I didn't go back for seconds as I wanted to leave room for dessert. You would be proud of my newly found willpower. In days of yore, I would keep grabbing a new plate and they would have to roll me out . . . I went to look at the desserts which were trays of very colourful stuff

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I don't know what all this stuff was but I know that most East Indian desserts are on the sweet side. I was trying to limit my input but when I saw these . . .

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I knew that I was in heaven. I have had these before and I just love them. They are sort of like rumbabas, without the rum. I never knew what they were called but you can never have too many of these, they go down easy and fast

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(a whole tray of Gulab Jamun)

The balls have a cake texture and are sitting in a sweet, warm, honey-like syrup. I tried to exercise restraint, but with a tray full of these delicacies it was my purpose in life to put a "dent" in this supply

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These must be 100 calories each so I stopped at only four

After brunch the clouds appeared to be blowing away and the sun was trying to shine so we headed south towards Steveston in search of photos. We did stop at Finn Slough again and noticed the very high water levels. As we were driving along the Fraser River, the water came much closer to the road than normal. The piers are barely above the water level

As we got closer to our destination I thought it would be a good time to introduce Mrs Skoot to my new found friends, whom I met the last time I was here.

I found them at the same place as last time. It seems that they are always on their "break"

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The soft-spoken guy was still sitting on the bench, he must be the ringleader. The other guy standing on the right still didn't say much, but he asked me to stand beside him for another photo, while Mrs Skoot sat on quiet guy's lap

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Not to be outdone, the soft spoken guy wanted us to take another group photo with him in the middle

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by now it was getting late so we decided to stake out a spot along the river to watch the water flow by. It was a relaxing day to do nothing

7 comments:

  1. What a great day.

    East Indian Buffets are one of our favorites. We just had Indian food for lunch on Tuesday. It is too easy to eat too much. Everything is always so good. I like that they have a lot of veggie options. In Seattle we found an awesome East Indian brunch place when we were there in February when we delivered the TU to it's new owner.

    I like the pictures of you and Mrs. Skoot hanging out with your new friends. They seem so easy going - good listeners.

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  2. I kept waiting for the Hinterland Who's Who music and to see a beaver in your video.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-aoWSpFor0

    The Indian food certainly looks good and is some of my favorite ethnic food.

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  3. I don't think I've had Indian food, looks yummy. When it comes to dessert, too sweet is a positive in my book!

    I like the low angle of view on the video. So peaceful to sit by the water.

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  4. Woohoo! Such a peaceful day. And great to have some talking company. But I spy Mrs. Skoot's hand on the ringleaders knee. hehe

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  5. Nice! Another practice retirement day. I avoid buffets these days especially the AYCE variety. I love Indian food from any region. Looks like a wonderful day out and about but you may be hanging out with the wrong crowd. The next thing you know you'll be hanging around spending all day sitting on a bench...

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  6. Trobairitz:

    I thought of you when we were there. If I just ditched the chicken pieces it would have been vegan but I often don't know when to stop and eat too much. It's nice to have friends who listen and not talk too much

    Troubadour:

    We have a large east Indian community up here, lots of AYCE buffets with great (cheap) pricing

    BlueKat:

    I like sweets too but feel guilty with all those calories. when I saw the Gulab Jamun I knew I had to dig into those instead. As for the water view of the river, I was on the bank of the river, at water level just watching the gentle movements

    Steel Cupcake:

    Hmmm, hand on knee . . . I never noticed. I'll have to have a word with him

    RichardM:

    Precisely, you are so observant, another glimpse of retirement days to come. It's not so bad sitting on a bench somewhere but perhaps with more talkative friends. I also try to avoid AYCE but the trick is not to grab that second (or third) plate

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  7. Hey Bob,

    Great pictures as always. I like curry as well, but never actually been to an Indian restaurant.

    Watching the clip makes me sleep at this time of day, and it has much the same effect when I dooze off in front of the TV.

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