We food bloggers, those who practice Indian cuisine have our own language of ingredients and recipe names. Sometimes finding them on the web becomes difficult, you have to wade through page after page. Indian ingredients names can be last names of some people or an acronym of a software program. Oh, you will find all sorts of weird things with that name except of course what we are looking for. Google custom search engine, evil:) Goggle?s latest offering, really can help us out with the search. We can create our own search engines and can customize by including and excluding sites.
Very useful I thought, so created one for us, Indian food bloggers. The total number of sites came to about 95 (including Bawarchi) and I’m sure I’ve missed quite a few. Compared to when I started last year (only 3), this year has seen an incredible number of creative and talented Indian food bloggers and numerous regional recipes. With this engine we can search and find easily what we are looking for. Although the focus of the search is Indian food blogs, I haven?t excluded any sites, and you can search food blogs from all around the world easily from this search engine.
If you’d like to add custom search engine (Food Blog Search – India) to your site, here is the code: Copy and paste. Just replace “[” and “]” with “< " and ">” respectively.
(Elise of Simply Recipes has created one for all of us foodbloggers worldwide and the code for it is: here.)
Along with the custom search engine, for the community, I have also created a comprehensive list of all food blog sites practicing Indian cuisine, under the name of ‘Mahanandi’s Food Blog List’. Check it out.
If I have missed any, please let me know and I will add the sites to the list. Thanks.
Mahanandi is going to have its one millionth visitor today.
I began stat counting on June 2005, about one and half years ago and the number of visitors at that time was around 50 to 100 a day. Now Mahanandi is averaging about 5,000 to 6,000 visits and 14,000 to 16,000 page views a day and the number is constantly increasing. Reaching first million is a special benchmark in a blog’s history and the blog world ritual demands a post honoring the visitors who made it possible.
Thanks to all of you who have read and supported this site with words of encouragement and links. In return I want this post all about you, the visitors. You already know me through my posts and I would like to know you as well.
Who are you?
Where are you from?
Say hello and please feel free to share about yourself, your cooking interests – one sentence or one full page (forget about Mahanandi). This day is for you.
One of you going to be THE millionth visitor and for you, this special friendly rose.
Added on Nov 13:
Screen Captures
First of all, I want to thank you for saying hello and letting me know about you. It is humbling and overwhelming to see such a response from you all. Some of you are regulars like me hanging in the web world and some of you drop by occasionally. If I ever wonder who you are, the affectionate note you have left will be my handy reference guide to know more about you.
I remember reading, “Food is like music. The possibilities are endless, and the learning curve never ends. They both satisfy the soul and make us feel good to be alive.”
I am glad to be around a group of positive people who think alike. Thank you!
“Happiness isn’t good enough for me! I demand euphoria! That’s the difference between me and the rest of the world!”
– Vidya of Foodie Confidential from Tsuruoka, Yamagata, Japan.
“One of the big lessons, I have learned from my mum is not to have the ?it will do? attitude towards a given recipe. Don?t bother cooking a given dish if you don?t have the right ingredients.”
– Dilip of Garam Masala from London, UK.
Nursing student, mother, food blogger and she has a gorgeous kitchen
– from Newfoundland, Canada, Trupti of The Spice Who Loved Me
Ghutti coffee and more from Palo Alto, California – Alison of Full Tummy.
Weekend This & That ~ About “Mahanandi Selections”
I have been thinking of finding someways to support and pay for the expenses of my blog hosting lately. The cost of hosting is also increasing with the traffic that I get to this site. Opening a storefront using Amazon.com seemed like a reasonable opportunity to go with, without cluttering my blog space with generic google ads. Hence I started “Mahanandi Selections”.
Amazon.com would pay me a small commission for each purchase made through this store. If you have an account with Amazon and buying from there, I would like to ask you to go through my store to support Mahanandi. I’d only show limited selection (nine, 54 items) on my storefront, but you can also purchase anything available at Amazon.com through “Mahanandi Selections” either by using search button or sub categories.
My sincere request to all of you sending me emails and comments and also all the new visitors to “Mahanandi”, please note:
I don’t do:
Recipe requests, catering or plan your buffet/birthday party meals, teach cooking lessons. I love taking pictures of food and blogging about them. That’s about it for now.
I don’t do:
Link exchange.
Also note:
I try to cook with consciousness paying attention to the ingredients and the cooking process instead of acting like a zombie, when I am preparing my meals. Mainly because stovetop cooking is not an exact science, and I hate being a slave to measuring cups and spoons. Please note that the recipe and the measurements here on “Mahanandi” should be used as guidelines only.
Regarding comments on Mahanandi:
I treat Mahanandi as my home. and If you do not have the common courtesy to behave, then I won’t hesitate to remove your presence.
I have been receiving lot of spam comments and emails of this nature hence this post, which is long overdue, I think. I hope for your understanding. Thanks!
They want to bring something for you from Hyderabad.
What would you like to suggest?
Ask them to bring kaju sweet from the famous G.Pulla Reddy Sweets Shop for you.
That’s what we did. Our Maharashtrian friends from Houston made a visit to Hyderabad recently and this is what they brought us. Precious than gold and pure Andhra delight – this is a taste we crave during festival times, particularly during Dasera-Deepavali festival season.
Jumbo cashews gently fried in pure ghee and then cooked and coated with thin lace like golden jaggery syrup. No preservatives, no coloring agents, none of that artificial crap, so prevalent here, is added. Pure ingredients, simple age-old cooking techniques are used. The result is simply heaven like taste and aroma.
Trust me on this people: request, demand, harass or bribe, do whatever you have to do and make your friends bring this kaju sweet from Pulla Reddy Sweet Shop for you during their next Hyderabad visit. Little bit pricey but it is going to be the best sweets purchase you will ever make.
Disclaimer: We do not have any relations with Pulla Reddy Sweet Shop and they didn’t send us any free sweets to write this.:)
The reason for our move is Vijay has joined a full time master’s program at a university in Seattle. He accepted the admission, resigned his job at Boardman and found part time work. And the journey started again.
We sold most of our furniture and all the big appliances. We rented a ReloCube from U-Pack and packed all our remaining belongings to fit in the container. We paid a holding deposit for an apartment in Seattle near the university. We made lists of activities, booked hotels in advance, and took all the precautions to prepare for our journey. We choreographed the whole thing like these guys in the song, and then started cross-country travel in our car with our Kittaya.
“I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like,
and whoever beholds me shall like me.
I think whoever I see must be happy.”
That was our motto for our cross-country road trip. Except for a couple of minor missteps, our journey went just like we planned without any major hiccups or problems. We traveled 2652 miles from Boardman, Ohio to Seattle, Washington in 5 days. On average about 450 to 550 miles each day, from 7AM to 5PM with 2 or 3 breaks in-between. Our route was I-80 from Boardman to Chicago, and then I-90 straight to Seattle. We made overnight stops at Madison (Wisconsin), Sioux Falls (South Dakota), Sheridan (Montana) and Missoula (Wyoming) and on the fifth day at Bellevue (Washington), a Seattle suburb. After crossing Wisconsin, there were few cars on the road, no speed limit or proper rest areas (most of the drive) and the weather was clear without any rain. We got a glimpse of Badlands in South Dakota but we didn?t enter the park. We made stops at Corn Palace, a corny tourist place in South Dakota and then at Mount Rushmore. We also made plans to visit Yellowstone national park but we were too tired by day 4, didn’t have much enthusiasm left to visit that place, so we skipped it. They were all near to I-90.
Kittaya, the darling that he is also behaved well. This was the first time that he ever traveled such a long distance with us and we were unsure how he would behave. Before our journey we went to the vet for helpful suggestions (he prescribed sleeping pills) and also visited several kitty forums to know about kitty behavior during travel time. Just like they suggested, he was calm and cool during driving time, napping or watching the road and at night time at hotels, being the new place and all, he acted anxious, making rounds, sniffing the furniture etc. The sleeping medication the vet prescribed helped him to calm down. We were reluctant at first to medicate him but he and we couldn?t sleep and so we had to give him a pill. We thought it’s best for him and also for us to get a good night sleep rather than feel anxious and half-awake at night times. He did not take food or water; neither did he use his litter box when he was in the car, during travel times. But at hotels, he accepted his favorite treats, only few. As a result he lost some weight. Once we reached Seattle and moved into our apartment, he quickly recovered, gained all his weight back.
We wanted to get settled in Seattle as soon as possible. So, we paid a holding deposit for an apartment instead of paying for the hotel stay. If we had not liked the apartment, we would have lost the deposit. But we took the risk just for that ‘home sweet home’ feeling. Being the hi-tech city and all, the rents are quite high in Seattle, particularly in the neighborhood where we were looking for. Even at 1000 dollars a month, all we could get was a small studio of 500 square foot with a small balcony. Once we reached Seattle, we checked the place, found it decent enough and moved in immediately. That’s our “moving” story.
Although I was very much tempted to regale you all about how “Fabulous/Frustrating” our moving experience with up-to-the-minute updates and photo diaries, I had to restrain myself. Mainly because, we made our move and travel itself a first and foremost priority so that we could concentrate on our journey and reach the destination safe and sound without any hitches and glitches. Not only that, we had to update family and relatives about our whereabouts. They were very concerned about our cross-country journey. With the Internet and newspapers, they do read about the things going on here, the widespread no-reason shootings and violence etc., so we had to assure them every minute of our journey that we were safe. With all this, I didn’t had much energy left for other things. This was the main reason for me to stop all my blogging correspondence. I apologize for not replying to you all, the kind and concerned people who sent me emails during this time. I sincerely hope you would understand my situation and I thank you all wholeheartedly that took time to send your best wishes and good karma towards us. I greatly appreciate and cherish it! Thank you!
Here are some photos from our journey for you interested folks. Most of these are road signs, places name boards, empty roads and views of I-80 and I-90 from our car, the regular touristy snaps.
