Train related pics from Sweden

Finally, I managed to get some pics of trains / sites in Sweden. Here they are:

Stockholm Centralen station	A long-distance SJ train passes over a high viaduct close to Södertälje Syd
An empty SL local train rake waits at Södertälje Centrum for departure to Gnesta	The 08:05 SL local arrives at Södertälje Centrum to take daily commuters to Märsta via Stockholm Centralen. Commuters unhurriedly board the SL local at Södertälje Centrum
A very sleek-looking SL local arrives from the Stockholm side to Södertälje Centrum	A close-up of the SL local

Good to be back in India...

Last week I returned to India after about 7 weeks of stay in freezing Sweden. Of course, over that period, one did tend to get used to the cold. I had made a mental list of food items to be eaten...all those that were missed during my stay in Sweden.

But it is so unusually hot in Mumbai that it feels like going from the deep freezer straight to the oven. But that is life...the grass always seems to be greener on the other side!

A good replacement for chappatis...

One common food problem outside India is to make or find suitable chappatis. Making it takes time and a lot of practice; getting it is difficult.

The usual way out is to buy soft tortillas. But these are white in color, and made from maida. They do not taste like chappatis, but its still a good start. I remember some enthusiastic days when these were deep fried, and called "bathuras" to be had with chhole.

Then, I remember my Boston days way back in 1996. I used to stay in a small town called Waltham. Every weekend I would travel down to Cambridge to an Indian shop that would sell semi-frozen chappatis. They did taste quite good, and relieved the monotony from rice and bread.

Getting it in the USA is not surprising, since there is such a large Indian population there. Getting this readymade chapati stuff in Sweden was beyond my imagination. So, I had begun to go back to the maida soft tortillas.

Then, came that amazing "discovery": whole-wheat tortillas. The Mexican answer to chappatis, I guess. These make an almost perfect replacement for chappatis. If one can forget the fact that they contain some preservatives (the ones with names like "E520"), then these are a very good option.

Here is a photograph from my apartment kitchen starring a packet of whole-wheat tortillas next to the standard aloo-cauliflower combination (without onions / garlic).

Work, work, and more work...

Its a pity that work is taking away all the time. At the workplace, I have a lovely view of 2 railway lines passing a few kilometres away. One is used for the local Sotckholm (SL) traffic, whereas the other line, is on a high viaduct (remember Konkan railway?), and caters to the long distance traffic (SJ). Numerous trains pass around each day, including goods trains carrying ship containers. There are even double decker trains with a dull grey livery. Every now and then, a WAG7 like locomotive hauls some passenger trains. At other times, a WDS4-type shunter (similar to the ones at CLA and BA), is seen hauling a small goods train.

Its a pity that its been 4 weeks at the workplace, and I have not a picture of a train / loco to share. Hopefully, in the next few weeks...

Rawa, at last...

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was dying to get my hands on rawa.

Finally, after searching many English to Swedish online dictionaries, found out that rawa (semolina) is called "Mannagryn" in Swedish. Sounding it off to the Swedish guys at the workplace confirmed that it is indeed the same thing we were looking for, and that it is readily available at the local grocers'.



Yesterday, I finally found it lying on the shelves among the other "flour" items. Today's breakfast was thus "vegetable upma". And, it did seem to relieve the monotony of having bread for breakfast each morning.

The routine stuff...

Nothing new, except the routine stuff. I have now fairly settled down to a routine in Sweden, and counting the weeks for the return to India. As usual, the thing I miss the most is the food. However, with a good supply of masalas and spices from India, at least there is the good fortune of cooking several things Indian.

The usual disasters happened: In a non-English-speaking country, such things are bound to happen. It was difficult to know one thing from the other in the supermarkets / grocery stores. Luckily, we learn by experience...so the mistakes are not repeated. At this stage, it seems that the thing I need most is "besan" (gram flour), "rava" (semolina), and "sabudana". These things could have added more variety to the things one can prepare.

The very first mistake was in the choice of milk. It was not very clear what was milk, since in the milk section, most products included "mjölk" (pronounced, "myolk") in the name of the products. So, there was "Filmjölk", "Mellanmjölk", "Mjölk", etc. I chose "Filmjölk" by just a random guess. It turned out to be something else.

The next challenge was to get curds (also known as "yogurt" in some parts). Purchased something that was labelled an "yogurt", but turned out that it was not suitable for cooking. It wasn't the Indian curd that we are used to. It had a very thin texture, and felt very slimy like mucous.

The very recent mistake included buying 2 packets of something that looked like rawa. Since "vit" was included in the name, it somehow conveyed the feeling that it was something from wheat. Wrong choice. Turned out that "vitlök pulverized" is "garlic power". While I tried preparing "upma" from it, the result was a very salty thing that resembled upma, but tasted of nothing but strong garlic. No wonder it was kept in the spices section.

The best thing to do is probably to ask around, but not many locals would know what "gram flour" is, and while we did take advice from the locals about curds, it turned out to be not what we were used to in India.