#mangolimag

The desire to escape and explore new latitudes is innate in the human being. And what happens if you are stuck for more than a year, with a very limited liberty to move, affecting your right to consciously choose when and where to travel?

In most of our countries we are used to take weekend breaks, to go on holiday in winter and in the summer, to visit a friend in a different city or country, to meet our relatives living far away. 

Pandemic has taught us to make the most of each and every moment and has undoubtedly left us even a strong need and wish to travel the world, forgetting about our consuming and compulsory new daily routine. 

We travel to discover a new culture, to meet new people, to learn about the past and treasure diverse heritage, often returning with a new inner identity, enriched by the recent experiences our trip has brought.

In the current situation, with very limited opportunities to plan far in advance and even less security to be able to move due to the ever-changing Covid-19 scenarios all over, we may feel very happy to travel only in spirit or through a movie, a book, bringing us to imagine how we could fit in the featured geographical area.

Embodying a very curious soul, I cannot stop discovering, so I decided I would travel and welcome different cultures through tasting other countries food, exposed to fully absorb the new flavours and habits while enjoying a meal and enriching the experience with a previous overview of the country or geographical area. Nowadays it is not very often you find enough information on the destination once at the restaurant. I would suggest to all restaurants featuring diverse cuisines to present patrons to their area with an introductory briefing of the country or region they represent, therefore becoming a destination ambassador not only for the food but also for the culture, habits, traditions, geography and history.

On my Delhi’s raids, some places have left a deeper root in myself. And the Hyatt Regency in New Delhi is among those ones, thanks to the people and its many restaurant options available. After few dinners at The China Kitchen, I decided that this restaurant brought me to truly discover the huge China, through its colourful vegetables on offer, many kinds of dim sums, a wide selection of rice and, as a signature dish, the Peking duck – shao yazi. This is the reason why I decided this place deserves to become the best ambassador of its country in Delhi: the duck is slowly cooked to perfection in front of you, by a real Chinese Chef who elegantly moves behind the glass and in front of the brick oven where the honey coated whole duck is baked to become crunchy in the skin – the best part of this preparation – and remain tender inside.

What a surprise when this plate is brought to the table and served. All the steps respected, stuck to the glass wall, are sure to prepare your palate adventure and promise forgotten scents and new immersive flavours. The duck slices are brought to the table with some thin pancakes, green onion, plum sauce and fresh cucumber.

I was taken with imagination in Beijing, during the Imperial era, when this legendary recipe was served to emperors, rooting its secrets from the 5th century. I fully understand why, nowadays, the shao yazi has become the symbol of China and a favorite among dignitaries in the whole world. Not satisfied to have discovered a real Chinese address in town, I thought the team there must be really capable and well trained to propose other cuisines without mistakes.

With my family we decided for a staycation – in absence of other trips – and chose to stay at the hotel for one night to have the privilege of samplinganother address, a Middle Eastern restaurant featuring Levantine cuisine in India, the Syrah. Apart from all other hotel services and attractions, like the fitness, the spa, the swimming-pool, the salon and a most inviting garden, it truly seemed we travelled to another destination and decided this time we went back to Syria, one of the countries we loved the most on our roaring the world.

Syrah was indeed another fantastic experience, with comfortable tables outside and a mouth-watering menu, with ingredients and names reminding us of our time in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel.  No surprise to discover this place has recently won The Times of India Food and Nightlife award! It was so delicious and delicate, with very good service and gentle hands preparing the food, attached to the traditional flavours and evidently sourcing quality ingredients to confirm a real Levantine experience, as if in any of the previously mentioned countries.

Grateful for this new discovery, we felt a new gem had revealed in Delhi and we have started to spread the word among friends, keeping in mind as well another available option at the Hyatt Regency New Delhi, La Piazza restaurant featuring traditional Italian cuisine and one of the best tables for pastas and pizzas available in town. Here, a long rising of the dough grants the pizza a high digestibility. And we love and are frequent customers here too: this is the place to go if you are Italian in Delhi and feel melancholic about your country!

Spring’s miracle is an antidote to the optics and upticks, the R rates and the irates that abound. Covid a year in, and we are worn down, confused, complacent or just plain fatigued. It has been a twelve month which has brought so many to their knees and in other ways a reassessment, providing an opportunity to reflect and reset. Although there were those that say it was inevitable, many had not predicted this event, or indeed to what vast extent it floored us. It seems that financially rich nations are not immune – as the wealthiest nation on earth has shown.

An ineradicable sadness seems to sit like a pall over our plans and state of mind. Nature, in all her manifestations lifts this veil. Nature, and particularly Spring is grounding and elevating also, reminding us of the permanence of change, that the cycle is constantly turning week after week, season after season, year (however traumatic) after inexorable year.

Seeing snowdrops bursting forth reminds me of the strength and fragility of nature and the vulnerability and indomitability of the human condition. I was almost beside myself seeing them bloom in late January; even more so on the coldest of days viewing them from my window, occasionally still snugly tucked up in bed. The very ones I have captured in this week’s photo offering.

Snowdrops are such fascinating flowers. I rarely anthropomorphize anything but they do resemble shy adolescents hanging their heads, not wishing to be noticed. Nonetheless one cannot fail to see them, the white is so luminous and although they look almost sad, -their petals listing towards the ground, as if they should not be the announcers of Spring’s party -they cheer me up no end. More so, as living overseas for nearly 14 years, I have not seen snowdrops in the flesh, or the leaf, for that length of time.

The snowdrops were wise and foretold the heavy snowfall we recently experienced. I was saddened to think that their early blooming might be thwarted.  The daffodils also had just come into bud. I wandered, not as a lonely cloud, but as someone breathing in the sights and sounds of something so familiar, yet not experienced for so long. I need not have feared the flowers’ demise, as dainty as they look they are hardy and defied the snow’s assault to continue to bloom and delight. A month on they remain despite their deceiving delicacy. This simple inevitability of Nature’s resilience, of her beauty especially as the stark signs of Climate Change abound the world over, strikes a chord.

The bursting forth of life, almost cartoon like, that characterises Spring, is accentuated after the harshness of winter. Not merely the cold but the barren branches and leaf fall the frostiness and our enforced hibernation. Being in our caves has seemed ever more arduous in lockdown as the comforts of meeting others, hugging away the cold and seeing the (unmasked) smiles of loved ones are denied. To trudge through the deep mud of Winter might have been gruelling. Nature’s wonder has punctuated that on every single walk or adventure. I have marvelled at the skeletal silhouettes of trees, the hues of leaves against grass, the ever-changing skies. It has in the last few weeks, been a comfort to see so clearly that Spring is on her way.

The trumpeters of that have been the emerging Spring bulbs so delicate and defiant. Showing that you can’t judge a book by its cover or seemingly a flower by its petals. I found the notion gratifying. I also realised that it was only the second birthday that my son had spent in the country of his birth; his passport says one thing, but his life and experiences are much more diverse and that includes the seasons. He was due on Valentine’s Day but instead arrived on Carnival, Fat Tuesday to be exact. Fat Tuesday is the day preceding Ash Wednesday known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day in the UK always in February and February is England is cold.

The date could not be more appropriate as growing up in Brazil he spent his second birthday at Rio Carnival even being serenaded by a gaggle of beautiful girls on Sugar Loaf mountain. I recall friends of mine who were with us for Carnival saying “Where does he go from here?” Well, the answer that evening lay in the arms of a Samba Queen at the Sambadrome celebrations as she held him and told him how adorable he was- a veritable Carnival King!

As for the pancake part he loves to cook (and eat). So of course, two days after Valentine’s I served up pancakes (the crêpe kind as is traditional in England). In Delhi we have held his birthday parties at the British High Commission – full of fun and games and laughing children, not silver service butlers I hasten to add!

In lockdown birthdays are simpler affairs – no feathers, sequins and parades, no coats of arms of ghurkhas – nevertheless heartfelt (perhaps more so). He was thrilled with his pared down birthday celebration. A cake baked by his sister, parcels sent from friends and family, lots of chocolate (courtesy of his aunt, uncle and cousins, which he immediately shared) a sing a long with godparents, and even a recorded video message from his teacher in Delhi. Walks, talks and sunshine and aptly, for such a sunny Sonny Boy, the warmest day for 4 months or more. He is Nature loving and that fact alone made his day. Blue skies and a slight breeze -he said as we went for a precious excursion that it was his perfect weather. I uttered a silent prayer of thanks.

I guess that is it, to savour the here and now, where you are in place and time. The key being not to compare but finding great happiness in the smallest of things. He has that ability, and I am grateful for it.

February 2021 was a perfect ‘rectangular’ month, the first day of a 28 day month beginning on a Monday and ending on a Sunday. 4 of each of the 7 days of the week, last experienced in 2010 and next in 2027. As with so many myths circulating the airwaves people were heralding it as the only time in 823 years that this would occur. Not so and quite frankly we have had enough myths and social media strangeness to deal with.  Keep it simple, keep it real is a fine maxim. Thus, as an unusual February draws to a close, we march towards Spring and the blessings it bestows, wearing a layer or two less and a smile.