Category Archives: Here & There

We made it to Friday. Unfortunately some of us didn’t. Last night’s shooting in Dallas kept me up most night. We were out for dinner with V’s colleagues when messages from friends and family checking on us started coming in. That’s when we learnt about what was happening just over a mile away from where we were. Thankfully we were out of harm’s way and once home saw on the news the sad turn of events of last night. It was so surreal.

My heart goes out to the families of the cops who died last night. And it also goes out to the meaningless loss of lives the past few days at the hands of officers. Let’s not define the people who killed those cops by their race. Let’s not make the recent shooting undo the efforts of all the 1000s of people who came to protest for a very pressing cause #blacklivesmatter. And lets accept that there is a lack of accountability when it comes to mistreatment of people of certain races. While we live in a bubble and only acknowledge things that hit closer to home we turn a blind eye to so many acts of terrorism that keep happening elsewhere in the world, and also the killings of innocent black people in cop shootouts. When a white person goes shooting the judgement is made that the individual is crazy or deranged, or had some psychological issues. His character is judged. When a black person does such a thing, the whole race is maligned- the same goes for the muslim community. Why? Lets not judge the whole race/religion based on the actions of a single individual. I don’t do the “prayfor” hashtags because then I will be posting every other day. So while we pray for Dallas lets pray for the innocent blacks that keep losing their lives, that get heavier sentences because they are people of color, let’s also pray for Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Baghdad, Pakistan and everywhere else that innocent lives are lost due to misguided, lost, deranged people. Let’s pray for humanity and love and that it will triumph over hatred peacefully.

In tragedy, its always endearing to see people coming together, spreading hope. These Dallas chefs are doing what they know best- feeding people and some Dallas restaurants are serving free meals to police officers. One of my friends, Leah from Flicks and Food Dallas has compiled a list of restaurants that are offering FREE meals this weekend and some the whole of July. You can check the post here.

I had the following post typed up last night before the shootings happened. I couldn’t post it without first addressing what happened last night. And as cliche as it may sound, life has to go on and so I am continuing with the post initially planned.

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Tea is huge now. Even though as a kid I never enjoyed tea, I am now a big fan of it. And green tea is generally what I prefer, though, come winters, I don’t mind a cup of masala chai to warm my body.

A massive amount of tea is consumed each and every day in all corners of the world. Forget coffee — its production may be greater, but as a Springer study found three cups of tea are drunk for every cup of coffee, thus tea seems to be the preferred choice over a cup of java.

Not convinced? Consider this: according to a recently published infographic, 31% of people in the UK drink five or more cups of tea a day, with the large majority of tea drinkers having their first cup at the age of 5. That’s not all — the UK isn’t even among the top 3 tea-consuming countries in the world, as China, Turkey and Ireland are the biggest tea lovers in the world. And here I thought Indians would have made the top list. My family is big on tea and their day doesn’t begin if they haven’t sipped on at least two cups of tea before breakfast. The count is even more when the whole family is together.

While I generally drink my tea, lately I have seen recipes where tea isn’t just used as a beverage. Tea leaves themselves can be used for spice rubs on meat and poultry. Steep them in hot water and you have a brew for everything from soups and grain dishes to sauces and marinades.

Some people even swear by green tea facials, and many people have incorporated the leaves into moisturizing products by extracting its medicinal properties. Other than soothing sunburn and delaying the signs of aging, a simple green tea bag can even help treat nasty bug bites! I use my used cold tea bags to combat puffy eyes and it always works.

I am still experimenting with recipes using tea but for today, though, I will share some I found interesting and that you can try at home.

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If you are following my instagram, I mentioned about Dallas Box Co and how I would save my review for later since I had a not so good first time experience. I got my second box today and thought of sharing my thoughts.

Dallas Box Co. is a curated box of local Dallas businesses at your door step. Each month they send “exclusive goods, offers, and passes inside each box, as well as invitations to subscriber only events like happy hours and pub crawls” that are all local to Dallas.

I had some issues with my first box- super late delivery, unsealed box, my first email being overlooked (though later I got prompt responses for all my other mails), and non-delivery of certain products which they stated will come free with the box but did not (till date they have not addressed the points I raised regarding the screw up). Putting the last issue aside, I do like the concept of Dallas Box Co. and being new to Dallas, it is a nice way to get to know Dallas and local Dallas vendors. I loved all the products included in my first April Box.

Besides local food fare they send coupons to gym memberships, local restaurants and events, though some of the coupons, if I am being honest, feel like a bait. Its still a good deal but some of the coupons do require purchases for you to redeem them.

Having said that, if you want to try out new things each month and don’t mind spending a little extra to make the best use of your box, I would suggest trying out Dallas Box Co. Coupons and passes are a great incentive to visit a place and try their stuff out.

Overall, I think its an excellent idea and I see them getting better with each box. And you do get more than what you pay for. The boxes are priced at $29.95 and the total value of the contents in May’s box is $140 plus. This month’s contents include the following :

• Two tickets to Nasher Sculpture Centre ($20 value),
• Single Weekend Pass to Bulladora Music Experience ($99 value)
• Assorted Macarons Box from Savor Patisserie ($12 value)
• Evil Cowboy’s Ghost Hot Sauce ($8 on amazon.com)
• Pickles from T-Rex Pickles

If you are interested in trying Dallas Box Co, they have a promotion going on which give you $5 off your first box by using the code DBCINSTA. You can subscribe here.

Since this is my weekly post about all things Dallas (here’s a link to last week’s Eating Dallas post)- Have you made weekend plans yet? Is Taste Addison one of them? There is also the 26th Annual Asian Festival at Fair Park on Saturday, May 14th, in case that’s something you might be interested in. If you want to make the drive to Canton, tomorrow is the second and final day of the Annual Balloon Festival.

We are still unsure which way we are heading, and its going to be a tough decision. If you don’t have any of these on your list, but are looking for places to brunch or eat, here is my round up of some of the places we visited the days that went by (in case you are wondering, the list is not restricted to just last weekend’s food adventures!)

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