Edison, New Jersey [20 May 2011]
Jun. 4th, 2011 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mcgillianaireAccording to Wikipedia, "Edison is one of the more diverse townships in New Jersey. It and the surrounding communities of Middlesex County are commonly known throughout the state and the New York metro area as being one of the region's main centers of Asian American cultural diversity." This is borne out in the demographics with 44% of the population classified as White and 43% as Asian. It's a pilgrimage for Indians in America.
Some of the following pics were taken with my sister's new retro-styled Micro Four Thirds camera, the Olympus PEN E-PL1. Can you guess which ones?
This is no joke and is a real movie. It won Best Film at the London Asian Film Festival and released in theatres on May 6. It marketed itself as "The Year's Other Big Wedding!" You can read more about it here.
The township voted to rename itself after the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison in 1954. Also on the ballot was a failed proposal to rename the community's name to Nixon.
According to our friends who live in a nearby town, Edison used to be very dirty but they've cleaned up their act apparently.
This picture doesn't really do justice to it but believe me when I say that New Jersey deserves its Garden State nickname. Few flowers but a continuous carpet of green grass and tall trees.
I was shocked to see so many dosa/South Indian restaurants on a single road in America. We couldn't find Dosa Grill so we settled for brunch at this place instead.
We had a tasty meal as I tried capsicum aka green/bell pepper masala dosa for the first time. The people running the place spoke Tamil and Telugu so it was certainly authentic, a key ingredient to eating success.
Our friends brought us here for "chaat" (savoury snacks, typically served at road-side tracks from stalls or carts in India).
Inside was a typical paan cubicle, like the ones you'd find back in India. Dad and I bought a few. Paan is a South and Southeast Asian tradition of chewing betel leaf (Piper betle) with areca nut and slaked lime paste. They are chewed as a palate cleanser, a breath freshener, and for digestive purposes. It is offered to guests and visitors as a sign of hospitality (after meals at both personal and social occasions) and at social events.
A colourful array of ingredients inside the "paanwallahs" cubicle.
Some of the following pics were taken with my sister's new retro-styled Micro Four Thirds camera, the Olympus PEN E-PL1. Can you guess which ones?
This is no joke and is a real movie. It won Best Film at the London Asian Film Festival and released in theatres on May 6. It marketed itself as "The Year's Other Big Wedding!" You can read more about it here.
The township voted to rename itself after the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison in 1954. Also on the ballot was a failed proposal to rename the community's name to Nixon.
According to our friends who live in a nearby town, Edison used to be very dirty but they've cleaned up their act apparently.
This picture doesn't really do justice to it but believe me when I say that New Jersey deserves its Garden State nickname. Few flowers but a continuous carpet of green grass and tall trees.
I was shocked to see so many dosa/South Indian restaurants on a single road in America. We couldn't find Dosa Grill so we settled for brunch at this place instead.
We had a tasty meal as I tried capsicum aka green/bell pepper masala dosa for the first time. The people running the place spoke Tamil and Telugu so it was certainly authentic, a key ingredient to eating success.
Our friends brought us here for "chaat" (savoury snacks, typically served at road-side tracks from stalls or carts in India).
Inside was a typical paan cubicle, like the ones you'd find back in India. Dad and I bought a few. Paan is a South and Southeast Asian tradition of chewing betel leaf (Piper betle) with areca nut and slaked lime paste. They are chewed as a palate cleanser, a breath freshener, and for digestive purposes. It is offered to guests and visitors as a sign of hospitality (after meals at both personal and social occasions) and at social events.
A colourful array of ingredients inside the "paanwallahs" cubicle.
