Both Futo-maki and Ebi Travel Bugs have started their homeward journeys. Futo-maki (orange) has only moved about 22 miles, but into Tokyo and close to the Narita airport. Ebi (yellow) has moved 245 miles-directly away from California! I guess it’s still too close to call!

Earlier I loaded (with a lot of manual work) the movements of the Hufi Travel Bug into Google Earth to view them. Now there’s a "View in Google Earth" link which gets the raw data into KML format - though the formatting has lots to be desired. Some improvements I’d like to see:

1. Name each step the name of the cache, instead of the unfriendly code of the cache.
2. Don’t do two points for each cache (drop-off, pick-up), instead merge the log messages into a single point. It’s especially disconcerting since one of the points is at a (random?) offset from the other so they don’t visually overlap - but tweaking nice clean coordinates in this fashion isn’t likely to be viewed very positively by geocachers (who by definition value precision measurements).

I like turkey and all, but I also like cooking something a little more challenging. For several years now I’ve cooked an ethnic feast the day after Thanksgiving. It’s usually Indian, as it was again this year - I can’t resist dabbling in the alchemy of spices. I rationalize it as a tribute to the land Columbus was originally seeking.  I even found a local-ish source for fresh curry leaves: India Bazar Grocery in Folsom, about a half hour away.

Here’s the menu I prepared:

• Prawns with pomegranates: Prawns marinated in tomato paste, ground dried pomegranate seeds and other spices, and baked in foil packages with onion, cilantro, and fresh pomegranate seeds.
• Ooroomas Badun: A Sri-Lankan disk of pork chunks simmered in rich dark spices, curry leaves, and coconut milk.  Awesome!
• Saag Maas: Spinach with lamb chunks.  I added turnips (Charmaine Solomon’s Saag trick) to the recipe this year for the best results ever.
• Bhindi Masala: Okra and jalapenos in a dark, rather dry spicy sauce.
• Spicy Eggplant: Wedges of eggplant in a tomato-based sauce, prepared in the style of pickles but even tastier fresh.
• Dosas: Rice and dal crepes, filled with Potato Masala or chutneys, (or any of the other dishes, actually).
• Potato Masala: Mild potatoes in an onion, tamarind, and tumeric sauce. Actually I find Charmaine Solomon’s Gujharti Potatoes better - more tamarind plus some grated coconut give it a more interesting flavor.
• Naan Bread

Most of these recipes were from The Food of India, though the Ooroomas Badun was from Charmaine Solomon’s Complete Asian Cookbook.  Those two resources are certainly something to be grateful for!