A very merry Christmas to one and all!
The Portmanteau team is all decked in red for edition 10. It's been a long, testing year for everyone across the world and we hope that Portmanteau at the very least has been inspiring you to look forward to all the great adventures that lie in store for you in the future.
For our feature this month, we decide to pay tribute to a man whose legacy will echo through the streets of Argentina and indeed the world, for generations to come. Diego Maradona was truly a shining inspiration for the world of football. We head to the realm of the Seven Sisters on our quest to find new food and talk about Axone, that pungent and umami filled goodness that more people really need to experience. Our travel record features indie music from the Indian heartland; you'll be surprised at how talented India's local musicians really are!
We hope you enjoy this edition of Portmanteau, and sincerely thank everyone for sticking with us these past editions. Now don a Santa's hat as our Owl has, and dive in!
Sharing the mutual love for travel!
Ashish
A deep dive into a story that's arcane, thoughtful, and sometimes humorous!
One man that changed the face of sports forever. Rest In Peace, Diego Maradona.
A talent scout for local football clubs was perusing the grounds looking for a young player to join the local Argentinian junior football club when he chanced upon a boy of eight doing something truly unique with a football, dribbling like a god.
Remember when all you needed for travel were a packed bag and a free mind?
“Of all the specific liberties which may come into mind when we hear the word ‘freedom’”, philosopher Hannah Arendt once wrote, the “freedom of movement is historically the oldest and also the most elementary.”
Travel for Taste
A Christmas classic, a laughter riot from the American west and a dark comedy involving some Axone.
A classic Seth MacFarlane movie, A Million Ways to Die in the West is a star-studded western comedy, the likes of which you would never have seen. A complete suspension of reality, well at least our reality of today, superbly caricatured characters relating the stories, deconstructing the romanticism of the Wild West of yesteryears.
Mild-mannered sheep farmer Albert Stark (Seth MacFarlane) is certain the Western frontier is out to kill him. He loses his girlfriend, Louise (Amanda Seyfried), to the town's most successful businessman. However, a beautiful, pistol-packing woman named Anna (Charlize Theron) rides into town and helps Albert find his inner courage.
A series of four movies, Home Alone is our must-watch holiday movie marathon. All set with a similar backstory in which a particularly creative and naughty child accidentally gets left behind home alone for the year-end vacation and inadvertently becomes the protagonist of an adventure.
A quintessential, evil vs good story, retold in the funniest physical comedy, with laughter induced stomach cramps with no hope for immunity no matter how many times you are exposed to it, Home Alone is the ideal choice for a family movie with all generations of the family or if you are locked home alone.
A Netflix original released in 2019 is a comedy with a message, humanely and hilariously laying bare the many travails of migrant populations across the world, some within their own country. A wedding party planning is a backdrop to this wonderful story of aspirations, hardships, intolerance and celebrations amidst it all.
A bunch of friends from Nagaland decide to cook Axone, the pungent and bitter, fermented soybean dish, a celebratory accompaniment for all occasions, trying to recreate something of their mountain home in the flats of Delhi. What ensues is a laughter riot but with a deep message that is designed to make you think, an acquired taste for most these days.
The Northern Lights at the Arctic circle have a sibling down south. Read more about the less popular Southern Lights, and why they're improbable.
Did you know owls have binocular vision? Makes it easier to spot whoever has been stealing my Christmas cookies.
The Northeast of India reveres this pungent bean paste. Find out why.
1. Wash the soya beans and soak it for about 20-30 mins
2. Cook it in a pressure cooker, then strain it dry
3. Then pound the soyabean to make it into a paste (as shown in photo)
4. Wrap portions of the pounded soyabean paste in leaves (sycamore leaves) and place it over a fireplace for 2 nights. You can also sundry for about 3-4 days.
5. This paste will last for months. You can keep it on top of the fireplace or an airtight container in the fridge
Recipe brought to you by Roots and Leisure.
10 artists with a completely unique signature tone and rhythm to get you grooving, enchant your ears or just become the perfect backdrop to work!
Puzzles to get your neurons firing.
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