From the Desk of your PCA Team ....
On Wednesday, the PCA Tour of Besant Nagar took place to highlight the small community just on the South Side of the Adyar River that is home to many diverse sights: the Theosophical Society, whose famous member Annie Besant the area was named to the Ashtalakshmi Temple and Velankanni Church. The locality (nagar) houses many popular and varied restaurants like Murugan Idli (where you eat on a banana leaf), export surplus retail shops for clothes and nice places to buy home goods. Sixteen adventurous AISC parents ventured out to visit the Ashtalakshmi Temple to learn a bit about Hinduism and mythology, the rituals of temples and receive the good energies of the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi. This temple is dedicated to Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu, the Protector of the world acc
ording Hinduism, and is constructed in the shape of the holy Hindu symbol OM. It contains 8 forms of the Goddess representing 8 types of wealth: prosperity, good health, knowledge, strength, progeny, and power etc…We toured the temple, participated in receiving the holy water, blessings, and red kum kum, accepted the aromatic sandalwood paste and lite ghee (clarified butter) lamps to bring wealth into our homes. As we negotiated the steps to each different Lakshmi we got a beautiful view of the Bay of Bengal Coastline under the warm heat of the mid-day sun.
After the group was filled spiritually, it was on to fill stomachs at Murugan Idli . A landmark in this area known for their fluffy idlis (rice/lentil cakes), thin crispy dosas (rice crepes), onion filled vadai (fried dumplings) and sweet rice pudding (sakarai pongal). Parents tasted at least 4 dipping chutneys (coconut, tomato, cilantro and mint) along with hot Sambar (lentil stew) to go with lunch. All of this wonderful food was served traditionally on a banana leaf.
The tour concluded with a way to fill our creative appetite by visiting the Kalashretha Foundation where the National Silk Exhibition is taking place until February 22nd. This exhibition highlights art, crafts, saris, textiles, antique brass household vessels, Indian pickles, and even a variety of natural digestives (to prevent tummy upsets). Kalakshretha is an 80- year old Indian classical dance school founded by Rukmini Arundale that also contains a block-printing unit and hosts exhibitions to support weavers and other crafts people. This school brings students from around the world to study and see Indian classical dance performances. Appetites satisfied we headed back home.
If you would like to see more pictures, please click on this sentence.
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PCA Tour of Besant Nagar
- Ashtalakshmi Temple-Murgan Idli-Kalakshretra Foundation –Silk Exhibition February 17 2016
On Wednesday, the PCA Tour of Besant Nagar took place to highlight the small community just on the South Side of the Adyar River that is home to many diverse sights: the Theosophical Society, whose famous member Annie Besant the area was named to the Ashtalakshmi Temple and Velankanni Church. The locality (nagar) houses many popular and varied restaurants like Murugan Idli (where you eat on a banana leaf), export surplus retail shops for clothes and nice places to buy home goods. Sixteen adventurous AISC parents ventured out to visit the Ashtalakshmi Temple to learn a bit about Hinduism and mythology, the rituals of temples and receive the good energies of the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi. This temple is dedicated to Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu, the Protector of the world acc
After the group was filled spiritually, it was on to fill stomachs at Murugan Idli . A landmark in this area known for their fluffy idlis (rice/lentil cakes), thin crispy dosas (rice crepes), onion filled vadai (fried dumplings) and sweet rice pudding (sakarai pongal). Parents tasted at least 4 dipping chutneys (coconut, tomato, cilantro and mint) along with hot Sambar (lentil stew) to go with lunch. All of this wonderful food was served traditionally on a banana leaf.
The tour concluded with a way to fill our creative appetite by visiting the Kalashretha Foundation where the National Silk Exhibition is taking place until February 22nd. This exhibition highlights art, crafts, saris, textiles, antique brass household vessels, Indian pickles, and even a variety of natural digestives (to prevent tummy upsets). Kalakshretha is an 80- year old Indian classical dance school founded by Rukmini Arundale that also contains a block-printing unit and hosts exhibitions to support weavers and other crafts people. This school brings students from around the world to study and see Indian classical dance performances. Appetites satisfied we headed back home.
If you would like to see more pictures, please click on this sentence.
Signing off for this week.......
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Upcoming Events
February 25, 2016 - Westin Hotel - Cooking Demo - Arabic Cooking
Events Around Town
Tickets for the event are Rs.100, which can be bought at the door. The event begin at 4:00 p.m. onwards. We look forward to seeing you all.
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Connect Magazine
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PCA Ball Date Change
We have had to change the PCA ball from April 9th to May 7, 2016. We have had to do so for the following reasons:
1) we needed a location which could house up to 350+ persons as this is the 20th anniversary ball. Thus we look forward to even more participation this year.
2) we needed something which fit into a budget of rs.3500-3800/ticket for food.
3) we wanted a place that gave us either liquor in the meal price, or was going to give us good pricing for drinks overall.
4) we needed a place that gave us a good selection of food.
Given these requirements, our teams did a lot of research collecting different price quotations from multiple hotels. Two hotels only give us the space - Leela and ITC. For our original date, April 9, 2016, ITC was booked. We approached Leela and got a price that was well out of our budget. Thus we approached ITC, and got a price, which fulfilled all of the requirements, but a month later. Thus as a group of nearly 30 persons, we decided that we will choose ITC on May 7th.
We look for you all to join us for the PCA BALL on May 7, 2016.
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day
2) http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/india/vasant-panchami
February 25, 2016 - Westin Hotel - Cooking Demo - Arabic Cooking
Events Around Town
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Connect Magazine
AISConnect magazine comes out in the month of April this year. It is a magazine created by the parent community for the parent community. If you have an interest in writing, editing, creating layouts for this magazine, please email us at pca@aisch.org.
Junior Master Chef
Objective: The idea is to create a Junior Master Chef for Chennai whose model can be recreated and reproduced year after year. This is a manner to create an avenue for children to learn different cooking techniques and enjoy the process of cooking. These skills will also teach kids different food palates such that they can appreciate foods from different regions of the world.
Background: We would like to give children the opportunity to cook with culinary masters in their respective fields, so that children can learn a range of techniques. With each technique, a master can expand on it, which the children can begin to understand which they can incorporate into their lives. The different cooking techniques would be:
There are three types of cooking methods to remember:
1) Dry-heat Cooking Method
2) Moist-heat Cooking Method
3) Combination Cooking Method
Foods can be cooked in air, fat, water or steam. That's it. When we say that, we're talking about the mediums required to transfer heat to your foods. Convection, conduction, and radiation.
Dry-Heat Cooking
Dry-heat cooking methods are those that utilize air or fat. These are broiling, roasting, grilling, baking, sautéing, pan-frying and deep-fat frying. Foods cooked using this method have a rich flavor due to the caramelization and browning of the foods.
Moist-Heat Cooking
Moist-heat cooking uses water or steam. They include poaching, boiling, steaming and simmering. We use moist-heat cooking to emphasize the natural flavor in foods.
Combination Cooking
Combination cooking are methods that incorporate both dry- and moist-heat cooking. The two most important methods are braising and stewing.
Braising, 50% submerged and 50% exposed, is a combination cooking method. 1
Training:
Children, who wish to take part in the competition, need not have any cooking skills. They children will be taught the skills necessary for the competition. There will be classes given over weekends in different hotels across Chennai. Children with their parents’ permission will declare their desire to take part of the competition. After declaration, parents of the children will be responsible to sign up their children in a minimum of five (5) classes up to the full course of technique classes given to children. Each class will have a base cost of Rs.1000/person. (Note: Children as well as their parents can take part of the class. The cost will be the same for both the parent and the child for each class.) After each class, there will be lunch served for all attending. Payment for technique classes will have to be done before classes begin. It cannot be done the day or week of the class. This is a requirement, so that commitment to the hotel partners is known for advance. This is a must, which cannot be changed.
Showing interest for the competition can be done either at the beginning of the season, or up to the date of the 3rd class. Competitors cannot enter the competition after the 3rd class. This will give disadvantage to the child, which we strongly advise against.
There is an initial payment for taking part in the competition of Rs.1500. This will be collected by the AISC PCA. This will be utilized by the PCA for purposes of the competition.
Divisions: There are two divisions for the Junior Master Chef. The first division will be Junior, which will encompass ages 7-11 years. The second division will be Senior, which will encompass ages 12-18. Each division will be shown the different cooking techniques.
The Junior division will be tested on 3 main dishes in total. First the Junior division will be given two recipes to create two dishes, of which one will be a main course. The second time, the Junior division will be given a surprise set of items from which they will create a singular dish which can be an appetizer, main or dessert item of their choice.
The Senior division will be tested in 5 different dishes. The Senior division will be given three recipes to create three dishes which is an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert. The second time, the Seniors will be given a few sets of surprise items from which they will need to create two dishes. One can be an appetizer or a dessert and one will have to be a main course.
Competition:
Competition will be held over a two days over a Saturday and Sunday. Currently, we are looking at the dates of April 9th and April 10th. This may be updated to be in May 14 - 15, based on other variables.
We have limited seats, thus, please sign-up your child if they have interest. If your child is interested, please sign the up through this the link on this sentence.
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Event Change
PCA Ball Date Change
We have had to change the PCA ball from April 9th to May 7, 2016. We have had to do so for the following reasons:
1) we needed a location which could house up to 350+ persons as this is the 20th anniversary ball. Thus we look forward to even more participation this year.
2) we needed something which fit into a budget of rs.3500-3800/ticket for food.
3) we wanted a place that gave us either liquor in the meal price, or was going to give us good pricing for drinks overall.
4) we needed a place that gave us a good selection of food.
Given these requirements, our teams did a lot of research collecting different price quotations from multiple hotels. Two hotels only give us the space - Leela and ITC. For our original date, April 9, 2016, ITC was booked. We approached Leela and got a price that was well out of our budget. Thus we approached ITC, and got a price, which fulfilled all of the requirements, but a month later. Thus as a group of nearly 30 persons, we decided that we will choose ITC on May 7th.
We look for you all to join us for the PCA BALL on May 7, 2016.
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References
2) http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/india/vasant-panchami
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