The specific implementation of chutney that I refer to in this post is the chutney sandwich, which is, well, a sandwich made using chutney. Found at road-side stands and street vendors all over India (note: maybe not – this might only be a Gujrati thing?), this sandwich consists merely of a dab of butter and a layer of chutney spread over the bread, with cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions in the middle. The chutney used in this sandwich is a green one made by combining cilantro & lemon (for a kind of refreshing flavor), chili peppers (for kick), peanuts (no clue why – maybe thickness?), salt, pepper, and water. That’s it. Both the chutney and the sandwich itself are delightfully simple, but incredibly delicious.

My family, like many other Indian families I know, has imported this dish (if you can call it that) and make these sandwiches fairly regularly. I’m not sure why exactly – my best guess is that it combines some of the authenticity and culture of our origins with the hassle-free preparation and cleanup of a sandwich. Either way, I’ve eaten a lot of these things in my life. Some of my best memories are making these sandwiches with my family on lazy weekend afternoons, and it’s still a meal we all eat together at least once whenever I visit home. Over the years, we’ve added jalapenos & pepper jack cheese as ingredients and started toasting the sandwiches, but the basic elements have always remained pure. My mom makes the chutney herself, and a few years ago, taught me how to make it myself.

That’s right. I can make my own chutney. Fuck yeah.

The chutney sandwich has gotten me through many a meal in my life. In college and grad school, chutney sandwiches let me keep meal costs down and bar tabs up. And it continues to be a tasty, cost-effective dish in my current post-grad funemployed state (read: cheap meal when I lack a steady paycheck).

Last night I set out to prepare myself a couple of chutney sandwiches (yes I can put two down in one sitting) for dinner. I went through the standard motions, slicing the veggies and pre-heating the toaster oven. It was when I reached back into the refrigerator that my world of chutney sandwiches got flipped upside down.

For there, sitting next to the tupperware of home-made chutney, was a small little take-out condiment container holding a side of volcano sauce I had brought home from Taco Bell the day before.

Could I do it?

Could I take one of my most beloved meals of all time and alter it so dramatically?

Could I replace culture, tradition, and self-made greatness with mass-produced, unknown-ingrediented, bright orange goop?

Could I take the chutney sandwich – a staple of my existence – and make it a Volcano Sandwich?

You bet your ass I could. And let me tell you, it was one of the greatest sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.

The world has changed, people. The world has changed.

I wanted to write a blog post going into more detail about the service, why/how I built it, etc. But given that this slice of the internet has been more about my personal non-tech adventures, I decided against posting the whole thing here and instead put a post up on tumblr.

Check out the post over on tumblr if you’re interested in some of the techy/geeky things I’m doing with my life.

And if you’re not interested in that sort of thing, carry on and check back in here later.

P.S. I’m wrestling with how to manage my online presence and balance some more techy things I want to write about with the more silly and more personal anecdotes that you’ve spent six (SIX!) years getting used to here. Keep them separate, or bring them together? What goes where? Thoughts?

Remember when I wrote this post? That post – though only a mere five pages back in the archives – was also so long ago.

So long ago, in fact, that it is not even accurate anymore. Because two years have gone by since that post, meaning I’ve not only completed my MBA, but have changed so much in life that I must now declare in a slightly-modified-to-reflect-its-belatedness reference to that other post:

Internet, I have left Chicago.

About a month ago (after graduating), I sold the last of my furniture, packed up a couple of suitcases, threw them in my car, and drove off into the afternoon sun. A few hours later, I had to stop to take a nap on the side of the road in Illinois because the audiobook for The Girl With The Dragon Tatto was *that* boring. (By the way, I think “Stieg Larrson” is Swedish for “DUDE. GET. TO. THE. POINT.”) But eventually – six days, 2900 miles, 2 national parks, 3 hangovers, one hour-and-a-half pit stop in Vegas, one LA celebrity sighting, and around 17 visits to roadside Taco Bells later – I reached what would be my final destination and new home.

Internet, I am in San Francisco.

As one friend so glamorously puts it, I’m “chasing fame and fortune in Silicon Valley.” More simply, I’m trying to fulfill my geeky, techy interests. And since the Bay Area offers a vibrant technology scene, it seemed pretty logical for me to relocate here. (Also there’s a lot of burritos. And we all know how much I like a lot of burritos.)

This last month has been nothing short of amazing. Although I’ve been couch-surfing and job-hunting since I got here, I’ve also been exploring what this city has to offer. I’ve gone hiking a few times, been down to the beach, gone wine-tasting, went to alcatraz, and even jumped out of a plane. While many of those things probably deserve posts of their own, I’ll just go ahead and focus on the future. </cop-out>

It’s safe to say I love it here and you’ll very likely be hearing more from me soon.

Here’s the latest – a ‘trailer’ created for this year’s Follies show that parodies that Hangover and TNDC (a weekly Thursday bar tradition).

My appearance is brief. Some might call me an extra, but since I have a speaking role and am listed in the credits, I like to think of it as a celebrity cameo.

What you’re looking at is one of the greatest mustaches ever created in the history of the universe ever.

It’s not every day that someone is able to rock something so glorious. You either have to be a trust fund hipster with a fixie, a really old guy who’s equal parts awesome and crazy, OR a narcissistic late twenty-something in graduate school with too much facial hair and time on his hands.

For those not in the know, I’ve had a full beard for about two and a half years. Not a nasty unkempt beard, mind you, but rather neatly trimmed full facial coverage. It’s become a part of my persona and (I think) I look better with it – even now I look back at pre-beard pictures and cringe in horror. My friends at school have literally never seen me without it, so when I was asked to enter in a charity mustache contest organized by some of my classmates, I initially declined. One night at a bar was not worth the week of awkwardness before the beard grew back.

But then I realized that I was in a fairly risk-free environment (how much does a week of looking weird matter when you’re in grad school?). Also, the combination of being Indian (read: hairier than average) and having a full beard to start with meant I’d be at a significant advantage over clean-shaven, less hair-blessed classmates working with spring break growth. Plus there was a strong to quite strong chance I’d grow it back before even leaving the bar. I was in.

Despite not trimming for nearly two weeks, giving myself a healthy and irritating amount of hair, I was not sure what design to try to pull off. The final idea came from my roommate Dave, who gave me the idea while grabbing beers a mere hours before the event. We left the bar to head home – I was going to try to carve it myself – when Dave suggested I pop into a barbershop we were passing to see if they could help. That would prove to be a wise decision.

I could not have asked for a more amazing mustache shaping experience. Tiffany at Urban Joe proved to be a willing and enthusiastic artist. Though she had never had a customer with a request like mine, within seconds she was giggling with excitement and ready to get to work.After taking some ‘before’ pictures, she sketched out the design on my face with a makeup pencil. Next, she used a pair of fine scissors to start etching out the design. She had made no more than 3 brief cuts when – in a move that was both hilarious and nerve-wracking – she pivoted my chair away from the mirror so that I could not witness any of the progress.

The next 45 minutes were painful! Tiffany continued etching the design, pausing only to laugh hysterically or suggest ideas for the ends of the curls and the sideburns. Her excitement was contagious, and I gave her the freedom to run with whatever ideas she had. I still hadn’t seen any of the progress. The clippers came out and she worked meticulously to trim out the non-stache areas. The other barbers started taking more notice; they too laughed and said it was awesome. The other customers laughed and smiled at me too. People walking by on the street slowed down and stared as they passed the shop. I still had no clue what it looked like.

Finally, she was done. The other barbers crowded around as she slowly spun my chair back toward the mirror. My jaw dropped. I was blown away. After laughing for 10 minutes, we took ‘after’ pics and I gave her a 67% tip. I was cracking up the whole way home.

We headed over to the event shortly afterward. The premise was simple: all contestants were given a nametag, and all of the ladies were given little stars to use as votes. If they liked your stache, they gave you a sticker.

This is the first picture of me from the night. Note the name tag and star.

This is a picture much later in the night. The organizers had to give me a second name tag.

So did I win? OF COURSE I WON. Look at that thing!

The event was on Wednesday night, and I decided to rock the stache for a victory lap through Thursday. I spent most of the day on campus drawing stares, compliments, and a “That is something special…” from a professor.

That evening, I was approached on the street by Nick Gerber, a professional photographer, who took the amazing picture you see above. Later that night, I had two more random strangers ask for pictures with it. The attention whore that I am, I decided that I would keep it through the weekend. And while it made certain activities a little creepy – like getting an oil change – it made others like going to the bar a LOT more fun. Though, sadly, I got more fist pounds and high fives (~1200) from dudes than I did smooches (0) from the ladies.

The real world returned after the weekend, so I finally trimmed the stache off on Monday. (Random benefit: because I kept it on so long, the non-stache areas actually grew back significantly, meaning I could just trim down to a short length all around and never actually go clean shaven…Yay hairiness!). I was sad to see it go, and can’t wait till I can do something equally ridiculous again.

In a way, I miss the thing, and I’ve taken to fondly staring at pictures of it (not really, but yes kind of). So I created a gallery to keep track of pictures (that I actually know about). Check out more if its awesomeness here!

January Wedding – Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

I’m still reeling from the Avett Brothers show I went to on Sunday night. I was so happy when they played this song, which is one of my favorites off their most recent album. I love that it’s just so simple, catchy and optimistic. Makes me want to have a January wedding and have this be our first dance. (But for now, I should probably just be worrying about getting a date in March.)

a) Have an obsession to try all web services/social media tools out there,
b) Have a lifelong mission to acquire the username ‘amishshah’ in as many places as possible, and
c) Need a place to post things that fall between 140-character tweets and long-form blog posts,

I have started using tumblr. You can find my tumblelog at amishshah.tumblr.com.

From time to time, I may cross-post things but hopefully this will be another mostly-boring, occasionally-entertaining perspective on my life. Or something.

In still pictures, however, I look awesome. And even more awesome.

You can see the full set (400+ pics) here

Our first day out, we took a glacier cruise out of Whittier. This was one of the 26 glaciers we saw. Our boat hung around this one for about 45 minutes to see if it would calve (break off chunks of ice). Sadly, we heard cracks but saw nothing.

On our ride back in, a school of dol-porpoises (I think that’s what they were called?) came and swam next to, in front of, and in between the hulls of our boat.

Blessed with unbelievably clear skies visible from Anchorage, we made a 3-hour drive to Talkeetna to go flightseeing through Denali national park. We boarded a little 10-seater prop plane and flew right up to and around Denali (the mountain, also known as Mt McKinley) and the surrounding range and glaciers. Remember the scene in The Simpsons Movie when the family arrives in Alaska and Homer thinks he’s looking at a poster when in fact he’s just looking out his window? This was exactly like that. One of the most unforgettable moments of my life.

Only in Alaska can you be looking down at ice masses hundreds of years old one minute, then swimming in a lake the next. After flightseeing, we swung by Jake’s uncle’s cabin, a cozy little place on a lake in the middle of nowhere. It was bizarrely warm, and after a few snacks and beverages, we decided to head out on the lake. Jake’s uncle towed Sarah, Dave and me on a tube around the lake and, well, had a lot of fun with us.

On another day in the trip, we donned outdoor gear, backpacks, helmets and cramp-ons for our boots and hiked the Mac glacier.

Unfortunately I was not able to get any pictures of one of our activities that week: pack-rafting. The nature of the activity – a short hike, blowing up a small inflatable raft, and individually rafting down a river fed by a melting glacier – did not lend itself to carrying around an expensive camera. However, it was (mostly) a fun thing to do. I say mostly because my waterproof pants turned out to be anything but, and therefore 3 hours in I was very cold, shriveled, and miserable.

Towards the end of our trip, we took an 11-mile hike in the mountains to a small lake. It was a fun, relaxing (relative to everything else we’d done) way to spend the afternoon and wind down the trip.

Again, check out more pics here. We had an amazing time in Alaska and I encourage everyone to go there. I can’t wait to go back.

Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell

Because the joke in my most recent blog post is still fresh, I’m posting this song recently revealed to me by my none other than my roommate Noah.  He claims he’s a music expert and has shared a lot of stuff with me lately.  Just when I think he couldn’t possibly be any more wrong about good music, he goes and emails me something like this and TOTALLY REDEEMS HIMSELF.