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Welcome to Our Tiny Blue Planet. It’s the only one we have. In our posts we look at our environment, travel, and food through the lens of change – both how change has occurred and how we must manage change so we can continue to enjoy the benefits of this tiny blue planet. To navigate this site there are three drop-down menus for Environment, Travel and Food respectively. Within each of these categories (in the menus) you will find a diverse range of topics (or recipes in the case of Food) on our core focus areas.
We will also be posting photographs from our travels in the Gallery area.
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- Thambapanni, Serendib, Taprobane, Ceylon and Sri Lanka Part I: Arrival & the CitiesAlthough I was born in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), I have spent less than a quarter of my life on the island so each time I visit I try and explore from the perspective of a foreigner. This is easier than you’d think because my Sinhalese is sufficiently weak that I hesitate to use it in public. Sri Lanka is a small Island, but it has an an elevation range from sea level along the coast to just over…
- Azerbaijani Cheese & Herb GutabAzerbaijani Cheese & Herb stuffed flatbread Located geographically at the intersection of Europe to the west and Asia to the east, Azerbaijan has a colorful and delicious cuisine with mediterranean and Persian (Iranian) influences. Although it is considered a landlocked country, with no border with a sea or ocean, it does border the Caspian Sea (actually a lake with saline water) and access to the sea is possible from the Volga River and the Don River via the Volga-Don canal….
- Sri Lankan Cabbage Mallung(Gova Mallung) Growing up in Sri Lanka in the 1960’s & 1970’s we rarely ate raw greens. Lettuce was uncommon – at least partly because (at the time) uncooked greens were considered a health risk for food-borne diseases such as salmonella, listeria and cyclospora. When lettuce was served my mom would first get it soaked and washed in an anti-bacterial dip! Food-borne pathogens can still be a problem, even in the US, as evidenced by several recent food poisoning outbreaks….
- What is Global Climate Change?If this is the first you are hearing about global climate change, I will assume that you, like Rip Van Winkle, have been in a deep sleep for the past 20 years. It is one of the major topics of discussion worldwide (climate change that is, not RVW) – when people are not talking about Covid-19 or all the bogus “cures” or the equally bogus fears about getting vaccinated. I will address Covid-19 in another post – for now it’s all…
- Science SkepticismThe moral of this post is: beware of where you get your information from and be careful how you use it. If a life-form from another planet were to land on earth today they would likely be surprised (and dismayed?) at the division among the dominant species on the planet. Religion, language, ethnicity, politics … so many reasons to divide ourselves even though our similarities outweigh our differences. Somehow, humans find it easier to see why we are different, rather than…
- Potato Curry (not spicy)Ala Kiri Hodhi Sri Lankan cuisine has a reputation for being spicy and chilie-hot. The reality is that there are spicy/hot dishes and there are also many dishes that are not spicy and with little or no chilie-heat. When eating Lankan food we mix bits of spicy and non-spicy with the carbohydrate (usually rice, string hoppers, etc.) and pop it in our mouth. By serving individual dishes with their own unique flavors, for example potatoes in one dish, lentils in…
- Lentil & Bacon MulligatawnyThe mulligatawny I remember from childhood was a watery but heavily pepper-spiced broth that was used to moisten the main starch component of dinner – rice or string hoppers (indiappa). It had the effect of wetting the rice and whetting the appetite. It also made me cough and sputter when the black pepper seared the back of my throat as the first spoonful went down. Later, as a grad student in England, I discovered a recipe for a mulligatawny that…
- Rome, the Eternal CityIt is still difficult to think of traveling, what with the Covid-19 virus mutating into even more easily transmissible forms. The continued reluctance of some to taking even simple precautions to curtail the spread of the virus is dragging out the pandemic-related restrictions way beyond what should have been its lifespan. So, to remind myself of happier times, I’m dredging up memories from past travels. This time revisiting Italy – specifically the Eternal City, Rome. The story of Romulus and…
- Not my Mama’s LasagnaThe first dish I learned to make was, strangely enough, Lasagna. Sri Lanka (or Ceylon as it was known then) in the late 1960’s early 70’s was under the yoke of the near-communist regime of Sirimavo Bandaranaike (the first elected female leader of a nation worldwide). Imports were banned, and food was rationed so we Ceylonese had to be creative in how we used the resources available. When we could get cheese it was the canned variety, tomato sauces and…
- Who Causes Global Climate Change? You & I.A popular English proverb states: You can’t have your cake and eat it too. At this time it looks like most of the worlds people are trying to prove the proverb to be false. I stick by the proverb, I am certain we can’t keep the cake and eat it – but by the time the majority of the earths population figures this out, it may be too late. Take the case of Washington State in the US. A staunchly…
- Environment, Travel & Food In A Time Of ChangeLike it or not, the world changed in 2020/21. Lots of little changes – smart phones with cameras connected to social media in everyone’s hands, changing global climate, civil unrest, drought, floods,…and other changes gathering for several years and in 2020 Covid 19 finally pushed us over the edge. It has happened before and it will happen again, perhaps with different causes. Living through this step-change also showed us the variety of response to change. From acceptance and embracing change…
- Festive Yellow RiceRice, Oryza sativa, is the second most widely grown and eaten grain worldwide. Over 3.5 billion people consider rice a staple. Basmati, Jasmine, Arborio, Carnaroli, are just some of the rice varieties but are there lots more varieties that most people don’t know of. Worldwide there are over 40,000 varieties – each with its distinctive flavor and properties. Some rice varieties are associated with specific techniques. Examples include Carnaroli rice used for Italian risotto and the Sushi rice used for…
- A week in Paris on the SeineAs vaccination to protect ourselves from Covid-19 start to take hold, although very slowly in some places, we can start to think of traveling again. I am fortunate to have visited Paris (France, not its namesake in Texas) on a couple of occasions. Before the onset of Covid-19, Paris was the second most visited city in the world. It is also the second most expensive city in the world. My first visit to France was in the late 1980’s while…
- Our planet and its environmentEnvironment. One word but with so many different meanings to different people. Many seem to interpret the word as referring only to the natural world or nature; while others ascribe it to particular settings – school environment, work environment, home environment and so on. For this blog I use a very inclusive definition. Our environment is everything that surrounds us – on earth and beyond! Just to be clear, I don’t mean the afterlife. By beyond I mean the stars…
- Sri Lankan Dry Beef CurryWhile Chicken and Fish are widely eaten, Beef & Pork are less widely eaten in Sri Lanka largely due to religious sensibilities. Many Buddhists are vegetarian or eat fish but abstaining from beef is not universal. This fragrant and tasty curry made with beef and served “dry” (no sauce) has long been a favorite at my table. It also tastes good with pork. I was attempting to make a traditional Sri Lankan beef curry with lots of gravy but forgot…
- Sri Lankan Red Chicken CurryThe spice blend used for this recipe is called “Badapu thuna paha” in Sinhalese, which translates to “roasted three five”. Presumably the original spice blends had either three or five spices but my blend has eight ingredients. Thuna-paha is a generic name for spice blends and each cook may have a different blend for each type of meat . Feel free to modify the blend to your taste! In the ingredients I specify Ceylon Cinnamon. Ceylon was the colonial name…
- South Asian CuisineIn our future blogs we will delve into foods from a variety of countries. For me, having being given the honor to write the first food-related blog, it is appropriate that I begin with some recipes from the country of my birth. Sri Lanka. Although I have lived outside Sri Lanka for most of my life I still yearn for the flavors of Lankan cuisine. Other cuisine from mainland South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) is similar, but also quite different. …
- Preparing for TravelTravel expands the mind, or so the saying goes. The world has been in various stages of lockdown and the freedom to travel where and when you want is still emerging from the shadows of Covid-19. We will be posting on some of our favorite travel destinations in the posts below but here are some tips to help you prepare for travel when it finally opens up again. Identification for travel within your country Do you know the identification requirements…