My yummy Tofu recipe - inspired by all of my Indian friends :)

Two things I miss about Dubai - Indian food and my friends - not necessarily in that order :-) Anyway, I decided to mess about in my gorgeous kitchen and came up with this recipe that reminds me of both.

Spicy Tofu - Indian Style

Serves 6 (can be halved quite easily - but I'd say make the full amount of oil and use the extra on something else - I'm sure there are other foods this will work with. Try mushrooms.)

Ingredients

·         2 teaspoons paprika

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         ½ teaspoon ground cumin

·         ½ teaspoon ground coriander

·         ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

·         4 tablespoons vegetable oil (I usually use sunflower oil)

·         1 tablespoon minced garlic

·         1 tablespoon lime juice

·         2 packs of tofu – extra firm if you can get it

·          ⅔ cup low fat plain yogurt

·         Sliced spring onions to garnish

Method

1.      Mix paprika, cumin, coriander, turmeric and ½ teaspoon of salt in a small bowl.Then gently fry the garlic in oil, add the spices and cook it all together for a minute or so and enjoy the yummy smells. Don't burn it - if you do, throw it out and start again.

2.      Drain the tofu and slice each block into 6 slices. Dry them with kitchen paper.

3.   Using about 1/2 the oil, brush it over the tofu slices. Don't get this stuff on your clothes. Turmeric stains are horrible!

4.      Heat a griddle pan (you know, the ones with ridges) on a medium-high heat. Fry the tofu until it has grill marks on one side, then turn it over – it takes about 2 – 3 minutes each side.

5.   While the tofu is cooking, mix the rest of the spiced oil in with the yoghurt.

6.     Eat the tofu with the sauce, topped with thin slices of spring onion.  If you like it, you can use fresh coriander. Cherry tomatoes go well with it too and make the plate look pretty.

An update - I've moved to Prague!

Well, after a long absence I have returned to the screen of my blog. A word of explanation for my silence. I've been busy moving. The dream of a 'real' life in Europe is, I trust, going to become my reality. I have moved to Prague, got myself connected, and am embarking on new adventures.

But first, some musings on my final hours in Dubai ...

Last Day in Dubai

As ever, Dubai gave me memorable experiences right until the last moment.

I was reminded of Dubai-Sharjah traffic. I hadn’t been on this road for many years because of the traffic. I had completely forgotten how ghastly it can be. And on my last day I battled with it twice.

Rude taxi drivers – I know most of the taxi drivers are fantastic. But there are the bad ones, and two of my last three taxi rides involved these. First a taxi driver who gets a flat tire, on a road with no other taxis, and who refuses to contact his company and get them to send someone. A second taxi arrives and stops. I ask, hopefully, can you take me? No, of course not. He’s helping the one with the flat tyre. Have these people never heard of customers? Are we not how they make their money? A bit of help would have gone a long way. But none was forthcoming, so my wallet remained firmly shut.

Then there was the ‘moaning’ taxi driver on the way to the airport. The traffic is so bad. These signals cause the bad traffic. A woman who lives over there didn’t pay the fare yesterday. I have visited twice asking for the money but she just tells me to come back. Last time I went she didn’t open the door. (It’s not that these aren’t legitimate moans. The traffic was bad, the woman who didn’t pay her fare unspeakable – but I just want to relax and get to the airport.)

Of course, it’s my last time leaving Dubai and I have excess luggage. 20 kilos of the stuff. Here was a bright point in my leaving. I still had to pay it all but a lovely man took pity on me and I only paid for 14 kilos. Of course, being Emirates, this is still an extortionate amount, but it was all stuff I need.

I look out of my window now and see green, I see uncongested roads. And what’s that I hear? A car horn? No, not a car horn to be heard. I’ve got a lot to do before I truly feel I belong here, and I probably won’t end my days here. But it’s nice to call Prague home.

Stepping out ...

I'm not good at making choices. Sometimes in my life there has only been one thing on a menu, only one suitable place, only one unmissable movie. Now as I work through my year of living differently, I find choices abound - and it can be tough to make a decision.

Take tonight for instance. It's a long weekend. No work tomorrow. And I've decided to meet up with a friend and go out. But where should we go? Do we want to go to Neos on the sixty somethingth floor, of perhaps something a bit closer to the ground, should we go somewhere by the beach, or somewhere that has dancing ...?

Too many choices. Stepping out is hard. But I'm going. We've got as far as arranging where to meet and at what time. The adventure begins. Where to next ... I'll keep you posted. Maybe ;)

Predictive Text Analysis - WTF?

It's all about prediction, but this post isn't about horoscopes. I want to rant a little about an analytical technique used by organisations - predictive text analysis. An odd subject you might think. But I'm fired up to write about it because I've just seen it used so, so badly, by the bank I use - Mashreq.

Mashreq recently 'enhanced' their online banking system - and it was, of course, all for the customers. Or so they say ...

So I visited the new portal and found that if I wanted to pay a bill or transfer money to anyone in my existing beneficiary list I had to reactivate the beneficiary. Problem is, I have to do this one by one and each involves at least four steps involving security questions, mobile phones and codes.

I sent them an email suggesting that this was not ideal and this is where things became very strange. The response I received from them:

Mashreq`s response to your Feedback REF-xxxxxx is as follows:
We sincerely thank you for taking out time and writing to us. You are one of our esteemed customers and it is a privilege to be of service to you. We would like to take this opportunity to assure you that your feedback is of prime importance to us as it provides us with an opportunity to not only assess, but to also improve our service standards. We value your relationship with the bank immensely and assure you that we will make every effort to give you the best banking experience. Please to advise you that for the security of the customer accounts and credit cards the feature for adding the beneficiary on Mashreq online has been introduced. For any further assistance, please feel free to email us or contact our 24 hrs. Direct Banking Centre on 04-4244444 to speak to a Personal Banking Advisor.
If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to write back.
Thank you for banking with Mashreq.
Regards,
Mashreq
http://www.mashreqbank.com/
Please note this is a system generated email do not reply to this message.


(The emphasis is mine.)

The beneficiary process has been there for years - I've been using it for years. And I appreciate it. What I don't appreciate is Mashreq not addressing my issue - which is that the process to reactivate them is cumbersome and that it has to be done one at a time.

And what I really don't appreciate is being reassured about my value as a customer when they can't even be bothered to read complaint emails and rely on inadequate implementation of predictive text analysis, and then tell me it's a system generated email and not to respond.

Way to go Mashreq ... I took time out to write. If you're not going to take time out to read at least make sure you predictive text analysis system is good enough!

Just listen ...

This morning I was watching a webcast about selling stuff on the internet (stuff being the technical term for anything that people want to sell, from content to services to tangible processes). One sentence resonated, staying with me throughout the day.

"When was the last time you spoke to a customer without trying to sell them something?"

Every week I receive one or two sales calls - in Dubai these are usually from banks or financial advisers. More often than not they launch into a prepared script about their product. They haven't asked me what I need, let alone taken the time to establish that I need anything at all. They pitch their product or service as though whatever they are offering is something everyone will want, regardless of their individual differences. My credit card requirements as a single woman of a certain age will be the same as those of a 20-seomthing who's just left home. Or so they seem to think.

They deliver their pitch in such a way that you know the clock is ticking. You can almost hear the voices in their heads:
- Should I give up now?
- Was that a flicker of interest?
- Maybe she's worth another 30 seconds before I decide to hang up and try the next call.

Yet, when someone does stop and listen to us, when someone asks what we want or need and then waits for the answer, and listens to it, most of us feel far happier about spending the time talking to them, and are probably more open to buying whatever they have to sell.

If you're in sales, give it a try. Ask one good question (a nice open ended question designed to give them scope to talk) and then listen. If you must make a noise, make sure you're encouraging them to keep speaking. About what they want, about what they need.

Give it a go. I'm sure you'll discover that you understand their needs more deeply - and when that happens, then you can think about maybe selling. Get used to this process, use it a few times, build up a relationship with your prospect. When you make the investment you will reap the financial rewards.