The $60 lunch

I am on a quest of my own not for the $1,000 genome and the 'X prize', but to see if I can make lunch for about 20 people for $60- the amount we have in our budget. I think I just did. I will double check my receipts but it is too late (at night) to do that now. The mango mousse is in the fridge- the various dishes are in the slow cookers and I hope it will be alright. Everything is vegetarian- so the mousse is setting, I hope, with agar. Don't worry it is not from the lab, but a Thai food brand. My experience with making gels did come into play. I made what think must have been an equivalent of a 40% gel and then stirred it into the mango etc. I usually use gelatin, but we all know where that comes from. Except the guy in Whole Foods, who was quite surprised when I enlightened him. I am happy with the channa masala and the raita. But both the vegetable curry and yellow dahl dish are new to me. And scaling up is hard.

Venkat and I listened the OSU students practice their talk. I was very impressed. Venkat has seen the slides from the Hyderabad and Madras groups and was likewise impressed with the material. So the last session holds lots of promise.

The only disappointment I envisage is my mousse not setting.