Telugu Stuff.com

The city of Baltimore is filled with museums, and due to the shipping industry, and the ship building industry that has supported this city for hundreds of years, many of those museums are located on, you guessed it…ships.  One such museum is located on the USCGC Taney, a ship that was originally built in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1930.  The end of this vessels career came in 1986, after fifty plus years of continued services.  Her last missions took place during the years between 1977 through 1986, when she carried out search and rescue missions as well as patrolling the waters of the Caribbean for drug runners, as well as training missions for the United States Coast Guard.  The largest drug bust in American history happened in 1985, when the crew of the Taney seized one hundred and sixty tons of marijuana.  Just one year following the ship was decommissioned in Virginia and donated to Baltimore in order to serve as a memorial to the maritime history and as a museum.

Many people choose a lunch time adventure at a Baltimore restaurant before heading out to the museum of the Taney and what better way to experience the ship, her historical duties and the city itself than to have some steamed crabs, and then head to the docks where those crabs are unloaded.  The Taney was first ported off the Hawaiian island of Honolulu.  Until the years of WWII the crew took her out in search of opium runners and on various search and rescue missions.  Often times the ship was used to run food and supplies to the American colonies living on the Line Islands.  Once the war started, the ship was fitted with guns and sonar equipment in order to locate enemy submarines.  The Taney fired at the attacking Japanese planes on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, and when the bombing subsided, took to patrolling the ocean waters for submarines.  The crews and the ship have had many years, many stories, and what may not be covered in the tour of the museum, you will definitely sense just by standing on the decks of this incredible vessel.

Last July, my boyfriend and I, when we were visiting London, bought tickets to the ‘Taste of London’, it’s a temporary foodie heavenly event held in Regent’s Park; if featured some of the best London restaurants, selling miniature portions of their signature dishes. We couldn’t wait to go, but the ‘Face of Ascot’ competition forced us to change our plans, so instead of heading to Regent’s Park from our London hotel to eat food and drink bubbly, we headed to the Royal Ascot, thankfully it was worth the trip.

Even though the Royal Ascot was worth the trip, that didn’t stop us from salivating about the ‘Taste of London’. Fortunately, we managed to exchange our tickets to Sunday! So, the next day, we headed to the park around noon and met up with a couple we had made friends with during our trip. We surveyed the scene, which turned out to be huge. The white tents, which were stretched out endlessly, emanated amazing smells for hot chocolate, to grilled meat, to roasted vegetables. There was bottomless champagne, cheese plates, Pimm’s and Lemonade, canapes, and too many wine tasting stalls.

We sat down on this very cushy sofa so we could take a respite and enjoy the perks of spending half our vacation money on this affair. Refreshed and ready for more food, we went back into the midst of excellent food. We tasted sea trout with cucumber and braised wild rabbit with bacon and fennel. We then sampled some broad-bean soup and chilled pea with prosciutto wrapped bread-sticks. At the next stall, we were served honey-drizzled courgette flowers loaded with Chevre. Our taste-buds have never been treated to such fantastic delights! Then right next to that stall, we were served French fries with some fantastic salt that they called ‘crazy salt’, we went crazy over the salt.

We left the ‘Taste of London’ five hours later. There were many restaurant booths that we just hadn’t had the chance to visit. Our taste-buds were so over stimulated and wanting more, but our stomachs were telling us to not even try one more bite. We decided that next year, we’ll have to attend both days!

Singapore has more to offer travelers now than ever before.  This extremely cosmopolitan city state has a rich local culture that draws on Malay, Indian, Chinese, Thai, and Japanese cultures, and it’s evident in the architecture, art, and certainly in the food.  Because of its high population of Indian residents, there are some truly fantastic Indian restaurants in Singapore.  One of the finest ways to spend an evening, in fact, is to taste some of the delicacies in town, and then prepare to check out the local culture.  It may take awhile, however, to get over the amazing taste sensations, because the sensibility toward cuisine is very highly developed here, and in the Indian community, there is a fantastic sense for combining traditions of cooking with innovations in a marvelous way.

There is always something grand going on in town, every night of the year, and it’s always difficult to make a choice for what’s the best event.  The truth is, there is probably no wrong choices, as each performance or gallery opening or concert has something elegant to offer any traveler.  You’ll also be meeting some of the locals, who will undoubtedly have some excellent recommendations of their own.  If you have an ear for Carnatic music, however, you’re certainly in luck, as there is a great deal of interest in Indian music here.  There are also splendid teachers, and among these is T.R. Sundaresan.  He teaches the art of the mridangam in Singapore, and helps students to master this complex percussive art.

The instrument itself is like a clay drum, and in fact, the earlier versions of it were made of clay, and it’s played on the floor.  Finger strokes play complex mathematical patterns, and the sound is stunning.  It’s a very difficult instrument, too, and takes a lot of endurance, but this did not hinder Sunderesan from breaking the world record for non-stop playing recently, when he played for over 42 hours.  You might not see that while you’re in town, but you’ll hear splendid sounds nonetheless.

We do love to travel! Any extra money we have, we spend on airplane tickets, rental cars, hotels and anything else concerning travelling. We virtually own nothing at the moment, which we also love. Oh, I almost forgot, we do own an old Honda, which my grandparents have been kind enough to keep for us while we gallivant around the world.

Last week, we were in Singapore and Cambodia. Both are the most amazing adventures we’ve ever experienced. In Singapore, we love just how diverse the place is: Chinese, Arabs, Malaysians, and Indians. The Western communities live peacefully among each other. It helps that Singapore is a thriving city, a wealthy city, which helps with keeping its people happy.

We stayed with some friends from our college day and while we were there, we got to experience the actual Singapore with longtime Singaporeans. Although, we did do the touristy thing too, like visiting the temples, eating at one of the best Chinese restaurants in Chinatown and we visited museums. One of the best museums is the Asian Civilization Museum. It’s to date, the best I’ve experienced. Oh and yes, we did the ultimate touristy thing by doing the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. It was great and it’s one of the best zoos I’ve visited.

After a few days of drinking and eating way too much, we thought we’d better get some exercise. Luckily, my college friend knows all the perfect hiking spots in Singapore. She took me to the MacRitchie National Park. What a great hike. It was really beautiful, tropical and it has its own rain forest. We could hear the wild animals all around us, and we were only moments away from the city center!

It was a shame to be leaving Singapore and leaving our old college friends, but leave we must, and on to Cambodia. That trip should be the most interesting, since we don’t know a sole and we don’t speak the language. Wish us well.

For a cooking choice that’s healthy and stylish, outdoor kitchens are a wonderful alternative to the way we think about meals.  The taste of food on the grill is undoubtedly one of the finest, and spending more time outdoors is a good way to relax and reduce stress.  It also hearkens back to something more primal, where the idea of hot flame and fresh meat wake up an unusually potent hunger.  It’s a hunger that will be easily satisfied, too, when you start to see how easy it is to make fantastic dishes with your own grill.  Our barbecue islands have fantastic set-ups, with design and taste accompanying their remarkable engineering.

They truly are splendid in design, and there are many choices to suit your own style and budget.  Once you begin working with your grill, you’ll see how easy it is to make sensational new meals for the important people in your life.  And you might start to notice some unusual changes, where you start to daydream about different taste combinations.  Your way home from work might be filled with a new anticipation.  And who knows?  Perhaps after a couple weeks of eating nothing but grilled sirloin, roasted lamb, and salmon, you might be in the mood to try an actual hot dog on your grill.

It doesn’t get more elemental than that, and it’s often a serious pleasure to find out that those simple things still hold their weight in gold.  There are a number of splendid brands of gourmet hot dogs, but you might want to relive a summer memory with the cheapest in town.  Cooking a hot dog until it’s done is a very easy thing after you’ve mastered pork tenderloin, so there’s no worry about calculations, and certainly not marinades.  However, you might decide to put a little something extra into it while the grill is hot, and grilled onions go with nearly everything that’s basic in the world.  Or, grilling some vidalia onions to make a relish can be a delightful touch, but that might be getting a little too complex for a primal hot dog daydream.

There’s a thrill about outdoor grills that’s almost impossible to describe, but that everybody understands.  It has something to do with the way the smell wakes up old memories of summer, and it’s also a reminder that the best of summer is yet to come.  You don’t have to wait for the warmer weather to use your grill, however, since they can be used during every season.  It may take a little finessing if you live with the more arctic winters, but the results are certainly worth it.  Cooking turkey, beef for those hearty stews, or just adding a little barbecue flavor to perk up the cold months are all possibilities that are open to you when you start cooking outdoors.

It’s always an incredible learning experience, too.  You’ll pick up all sorts of little tricks and techniques, and after a while you might become a true fanatic.  It’s hard not to, when the outdoor kitchen can make life taste so good.  Every great outdoor chef has their secret marinade techniques, and it sounds tricky at first, but doesn’t take very long to master.  You can try a host of different combinations to make for extremely tasty treats, and the marinate can add to the flavor of the meal in spectacular ways.  Most meats take very well to sauces, and soaking them overnight can add amazing flavors that really permeate the natural juiciness.

Wet marinades are the most common, and barbecue sauces almost always have a vinegar base that really works well with the meats.  There are also dry marinades that can help enhance the flavors in more subtle ways.  Adding just the right combination of herbs and seasonings is an art, and it’s one that has to be mastered through practice.  But you and your friends will love your practice, and there will undoubtedly be many successes that will give them meals they will never forget.