First, the fun stuff:
I don't have a huge history with Indian food. When I was a grad student, I was a TA for an Indian guy and he treated us (me and the other TA) out to Indian food because he didn't have a car and couldn't get to the restaurant. I don't have a lot of clear food memories, except for the bread and that everything had a flavorful sauce. I think I had dinner at a Pakistani place with friends at the last math meetings (San Francisco).
For the next cooking experiment, we're going to be trying to make Indian food. For inspiration and ingredients, we found an Indian market and went exploring. These were the ready-to-eat foods that we bought. Now, it's worth noting that trying to imagine "Indian cuisine" based on snacks is like trying to base "American cuisine" based on a Twinkie. So these things are just random food bits that we got to enjoy.
Aloo Masala - Aloo is "potato" and "masala" is just a generic name for a spice mix. I guess the American equivalent would be something like "chili powder" which is one of a number of mixtures of seasonings and spices. And that pretty much sums up that snack. The potatoes were cut a little thicker, so that the texture wasn't quite as crisp as our potato chips, almost like a non-puffy pork rind. There was some heat in those chips, but it sneaks up on you after you swallow.
The drink container on the far left was a smoothie. It tasted okay (but I have no idea what the flavor is), but I was caught off guard by the texture. It was much more yogurt-y than smoothie-y. I looked it up later (lassi) and discovered that the reason for this is that this is a yogurt-based drink. I got this one (khua) because I didn't know what it was. In fact, I still don't know what it is.
The line-up of sodas ranged from interesting to refreshing to weird. The sodas were generally less carbonated than American sodas, so the flavors came through a little more strongly.
The tamarind drink was pretty interesting. I don't know the flavor of tamarind on its own, so as far as I know, that's what tamarind actually tastes like. (That could be making a mistake like thinking that grape soda tastes like grape. The good news is that I also bought some tamarind paste, so I'll soon know for sure.) It was a primarily sweet flavor, but with a sour note right at the end. I looked up tamarind in "On Food and Cooking" and apparently, tamarind is used in worchestershire sauce.
That's the only one for which I feel like having an extended commentary. The one on the far left was "Ice Cream Soda" and I don't remember anything about it. Ginger beer wasn't actually beer, but more like ginger ale (but with extra ginger). The lime drink was tasty, the coconut juice tasted like coconut, and the one on the far end was a basil soda... I think. That one was really odd.
At the front left is a candy. The texture is a little crumbly and slightly chalky in the mouth, but it smooths out quickly. I don't remember the taste being anything interesting. And I don't remember what it was called.
The front right is a chickpea flour dessert called bundi ladoo. I looked up a couple recipes for it, and apparently it's created by making a bunch of little fried dough pieces and then mashing those all together into a large mass of pieces (this would explain the crumbly texture, and why it was so oily on the inside). After the dough is fried, they are soaked in a simple flavored syrup (which explain why it's so sweet).
I think I would visit that market again, just for fun. But perhaps the next time around I'll look for more of the savory food options. There was a "brain masala mix" and "liver masala mix" that caught my attention...
Classes have launched this year without anything of interest. Everything feels basically routine at this point. But I got an email today and I have three meetings in two days regarding the upcoming math remediation pilot that we're going to run. I also received an email from then-Provost-now-President encouraging me to move forward with this and to find the right place to present it. I've also emailed someone regarding a session at the upcoming joint meetings (New Orleans) where it might be appropriate to make such a presentation. So that's still charging ahead.
It's rather scary for me because I'm not going to get results for at least another year and a half (if there are positive results to be had), which means I'm going to be spending much of my time leading up to tenure focused on this particular project. If all goes well, it's a big win for me. But if not, I might be scrambling a bit leading right up to that tenure decision trying to get more positive things in my file.
I completed reading Axiom (Bill Hybels), and this is the first book on my list. The book consists of 70-something leadership maxims (I don't like calling them axioms because of my mathematical inclinations), and each maxim is accompanied by some reflections or examples of their application. I'm also about 75-100 pages into "The Divine Conspiracy" (Dallas Willard) which is a more dense read on spiritual development.
Church stuff is once again going crazy. The candidate that we had withdrew from candidacy, but it all went down in an unusual way. We went from what appeared to be a productive and confidence-building Q&A session on August 8 to we-may-not-see-him-again on August 15. There were lots of things that I read in Axiom that I wish our church leaders understood.
I know that this has left a lot of people completely unsure about what's going to happen in the future. I also get the impression that the leadership is just as lost. I've said this in the past, but it's important I say it again. I'm not directly blaming the leadership for these things. I don't doubt for a moment that their heart is in it and that they are doing their best. However, organizational leadership is more than passion. It requires a specific set of skills and knowledge about how organizations behave, and I'm just not convinced that they have a sufficient background in these things to take something that's in bad shape and fix it. They have been put in a position where failure is the most probable outcome, and all that's happening is that they are succumbing to that outcome.
I don't know when we will have another candidate (third time's a charm?), but whoever he is, he had better have a good mind for leadership structures and systems, otherwise it is highly likely that things will continue to be more of the same.
But even with all of these struggles going on, our small group is going strong and increasing in number. And we're drawing in more and more people who are leaders in some form at the church. I don't think there's a single person who is able to actively attend that group who is not serving at some capacity at church (or has served very recently). It's a strange juxtaposition of images.
Because of this, I vacillate between feeling positive and negative about the church. On the one hand, I see things falling apart all over the place. There are huge problems that need to be addressed if things will be set free to move forward. But on the other hand, I'm watching an authentic community growing organically right in the middle of it, and the right types of people are there, fighting to get things to move forward. There's definitely something about that picture that is keeping me looking ahead in the church instead of heading for the door (at least for now). So I guess I'm going to keep on waiting to see what will happen.
