Anna Hazare new theme for Ganesh Chaturthi idols
31.08.11
They are planning to put on the market chakkara pongal, ven pongal, sambar rice and moong dal sundal to visitors. "Peas sundal is hackneyed so we decided to offer the costlier moong dal as it is a special moment," he said.
Police have allowed people to install Ganesha idols at 1,200 areas in the burgh and have deployed 10,000 personnel around the pandals.
In T Nagar, the heady odour of boondi (small, fried pakodi made from chickpea flour) engulfed Venkatanarayana Method as organisers put the final touches to a 15 ft idol made of the flavorous. "We used 1,008 kg of boondi and decked it up with cashews, raisins and dates," said V Santhanam, the co-ordiantor of the pandal.
A chef was brought in to do the boondi and workers created the idol at the venue over the last 10 days. "It price Rs 70,000. We are continuing with the tradition of using only natural resources to make the idol," said Santhanam. Last year, the matin was made of kozhukattas (sweet rice dumplings) and the year before of jaggery.
Source: Times of India
Maple Grands-pères for Grandparents Day
09.09.11
At the Adirondack Museum , where an demonstrate explained that they were made by French-Canadians in the logging camps. Recipes describe them as cushion dumplings or biscuit dough cooked in maple syrup—served annoyed, they must have made for good comfort
food after a day of hard labor. Variations may also embody blueberries, raisins, nuts or other ingredients.
Why they are called grandfathers is undistinguished, although a French-language website offers two possible explanations: The first, which sounds believable (if not so nice) is that they are so named because they are soft enough to be eaten even by elderly grandfathers who have misplaced their teeth. The other says that grandfathers cooked the dumplings because they were too old to “deliver the boiler room,” and were relegated to mixing the syrup. (Here my restricted French fails me: “supply the boiler reside” is the translation my French-English dictionary gives me, although I am wondering if it refers to stoking the fire for boiling maple sap during sugaring flavour.) In any case, that one’s not so nice either. Poor grandfathers. At least they got to make use of what sounds like a yummy—or, as the comments on one recipe area called it, “super délicieux”—afters.
Source: Smithsonian (blog)
In reality, Chinatown's Tao Ran Ju poached its dumpling 
