Buy Custom Photo Sessions

Summer 2010

Summer 2010 was spent in Vienna, Austria, and Budapest, Hungary. It was so much fun! I've included a list of places and a Google map showing the positions of each, and some links to albums with pictures. 

Vienna

- Schonbrunn Palace

- Hofburg Palace

- Rathaus

- Mozarthaus (two of them, they play concerts)

- Plenty of beer gardens, e.g. Salm brau, 

- Great restaurants - e.g. Palais Coburg, Figlmuller, Plachutta

- Hotel Sacher, where Vivaldi stayed, and home of the famous Sacher Torte

- Demel, amazing pastries and amuse bouches, and a very good Sacher Torte too (they were sued by Hotel Sacher over the origin of the recipe)

A map showing travels in Vienna -> http://bit.ly/Vienna2010

Some pictures -> 

Vienna 1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=173663&id=687108872&l=d93836741f

Vienna 2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=174372&id=687108872&l=3427a84154

Budapest

- Svent Istvan Basilika - the St Stephen's Basilica

- Buda Palace

- Farmers Market

- Walking over the bridges, specially Chain Bridge

- Parliament - amazing Gothic structure

- Dining - don't miss Cafe Menza for amazing goose liver. 

A map showing travels in Budapest -> http://bit.ly/Budapest2010

Some pictures ->

Budapest 1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=175070&id=687108872&l=1216008f75

Budapest 2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=175415&id=687108872&l=1b07b2026b 

Amitava "Chats" Chatterjee

chatsphotogpilot@gmail.com

Sent from my iPad

Austrian Airlines Business Class: What great service

So, I've had the good fortune of having flown business class on several of the world's airlines, including Air France, All Nippon, American, British Airways, Continental, Delta, JAL, KLM, Singapore Airlines, United, and now for the first time, Austrian.

I've never ever had breakfast made to order. I've never seen a personal chef, smiling eagerly and able to fulfill my culinary desires at thirty nine thousand feet. I've never been given a selection of 10 Viennese Kaffehaus coffees to choose from. I've never tasted such good food, or had such wonderful desserts.

I firmly believe Austrian has the best business class I have ever experienced.
Sent from my iPad

Off to Vienna, with my personal chef

So, it is finally here and now it is time to fly to Vienna. More after landing!

Hola

Finally got around to fixing my blog. I intend blogging daily on vacation. Let's see what happens with that.

Sent from my iPad

Spices

My mom made me some chicken curry flavored with some of the best turmeric ever... fresh and so completely over the top delicious. Good fresh spices make a huge difference to food...

History of Spices (from my mom, Ranu Chatterjee)

Did you guys know that in the early days , black pepper was used as currency? It was as valuable as gold -- cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, cardamoms, cloves and turmeric were regularly bought by the Phoenicians and other traders -- all these spices were grown mostly in the south of India. Also,  --oh -- nutmeg and mace which are part of the same nut -mace is the outer orange strands,while nutmeg is the inner seed-- were also valued a lot for their flavour. A great favourite Bengali sweet called dourbesh--made of chickpea flour, fried in ghee, soaked in thick sugar syrup, then rolled in dry mild solids(powder) sprinkled with very finely ground nutmeg--we call nutmeg ''jaiphal'',and mace is ''javitri''--used to be made by my mother at home in Dehra Dun, where I grew up--she loved making all kinds of Bengali sweets and we all benefited by her expertise --there would be oodles of sweets for dessert or whenever we asked for them . The only rule was we would point out what we wanted to eat --and either she or one of my older sisters would serve the sweets -- she was very strict on hygiene and we --that is my siblings and I -- were not allowed to step in the pantry or ''bhandar"/store --if we were in school clothes. Wish my mum were alive --she could teach us to make so many good things to eat .---miss her so much . Sorry --got carried away by childhood memories. Love and hugs, Ma