Ek Cup Tea!

Result of a sleepless night (or morning)...

2009-07-28T05:42:00.004-04:00

Here I am, up at this ungodly hour after a night of oil-burning and tea-guzzling. The windows are shut, the doors locked and the blinds drawn after a recent encounter with a thief. So I am not able to discern the usual twittering (the natural variety) activity that usually happens outside at this twilight hour. But I digress...
This time around, the puzzle might come across as a tough cryptic nut for the newly initiated. The gloves are off, people!
Enjoy... or not!

Promises kept and unkept.

2009-05-18T20:04:00.004-04:00

Wow! Just... wow! Talk about coming through with promises. My gratitude to a certain someone for the massive bump in the traffic. Now, it is my turn. Here are the solutions.
Across
Establish our identity by our nourishment. (2,3,4,2,3)
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT (straight clue)
Bread? Sounds more like the animal lovers' assoc. (4)
PITA (as it sounds like PETA)
Add a little something, something... (5,2)
SPICE UP
Org. of dark forecast. (3)
FDA
Between cooking and slicing of meat. (7)
RESTING (straight enough, I guess)
Investigate and learn. (9)
ASCERTAIN
Singular piece of unattainable fruit. (4,5)
SOUR GRAPE
Tuscan red wine. (7)
CHIANTI
'Bellissimo!', in 'Zakirese'! (3)
WAH
Creamy dessert! (7)
PUDDING
Adrak to Imli: ____ of Indian spices (1,2,1)
ATOI (Not very happy with either the clue or the phrase)
Cogitation with respect to consumption. (7,3,4)
THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Down
Alcoholic drink (4)
WINE
Olive oil that has never been kissed? (5-6)
EXTRA-VIRGIN
Wine or chicken meat type. (5)
WHITE
Choose. (5)
ELECT
Aloo curry and ____. (5,4)
PUFFY PURI (Reminds me of my high school Sunday afternoons)
Harshly critical cooking vessel? (3)
PAN (Two meanings of the same word)
In Italy, grasp a raging bull containing edible shoots from a plant. (8)
Asparagi (Italian for asparagus)
Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. (8)
RECREATE
Seasonal liquid or the ingredient that gives the local flavour to liquors? (6,5)
SPRING WATER (season = spring, liquid = water)
Persian beverage popular in the Indian City of Nawab. (5,4)
IRANI CHAI (of course!)
Spice or hair color or a horrible singer! (6)
GINGER
Dry fruit gone nuts and topsy turvy! (6)
WEHSAC (Cashew spelt the other way)
Jump or the soure of malt for beer it is! (3)
HOP (two meanings of the same word)
Related to sound. (5)
AUDIO
Entity in Methi 'n ginger. (5)
THING
Lassi or revenge best served ___. (4)
COLD

Hope the clues and solutions were clear. I have quite a lot of ideas for the next few puzzles. Stay tuned!
Oh, what was that? You like the banner picture, you say? You can direct your bouquets to this person.
Thanks Priya!

A puzzle of epic(urean) proportions.

2009-05-11T18:52:00.001-04:00

A dear friend promised that she will be graceful enough to link to my blog if I created a food themed crossword.
Being the traffic-whore that I am, here it is...
Add Salt To Taste...
Hope the hits come through.

Good? Hmph! The Best Friday ever.

2009-04-10T19:31:00.002-04:00

Like I promised earlier, here is more of a regular crossword.

Greetings from the Midwest.

2009-04-10T13:16:00.001-04:00

I am not sure if anyone is interested in getting acquainted with the inner workings of the process of crossword-creation. Like it or not, here is a peek.
Fill 'er up!
There are more puzzles and nuggets coming from this demented, ricotta-cheese brain of mine. You have been warned!
*EDIT: Anyone volunteering to frame clues for the words in this grid, will be awarded bonus points. Bonus bonus points for cryptic clues. Please, use the comments section for that.

Guess who (or what) is back...!

2008-05-04T03:29:00.001-04:00

Many cups of tea have been savored between this and the last entry of this blog. Cynics have even started wondering whether this blog has flat-lined. People who used to swear by the quality of content provided on this site, now have only vague and misty memories about it. There was a time when... well, you get the idea. Simply put, it has been quite sometime since there has been an entry on this blog. Mea culpa!
So without further doo-doo here is the straight version of this week's (month's?) puzzle.
Does that make the Cryptic version, which is coming up soon, gay? Something to think about, no?

More.

2008-02-10T07:46:00.001-05:00

At the outset, let me apologize for MIA last week. To make it up to you, here is a set that gave me great joy in making (even though, I am not too happy with the clues)! As you can see from the time of my posting, the better part of the weekend was spent on coming up with this set.
Hope you like it!
Oh, by the way, this week's puzzle does not have a theme as such.

So loo shuns!

2008-01-31T01:29:00.001-05:00

Here are the solutions to the cryptic clues.

"~=" represents an anagram/jumble.
"==" represents synonym (approximate)

Note, it arcs carelessly like a sword! (8)*
Note = MI + IT + ARCS, ~= SCIMITAR = kind of sword.

One less person of Spanish origin is an unwanted extra undergrowth. (7)*
Spanish origin = HISPANIC - I (one less) = HSPANIC ~= SPINACH = extra undergrowth (secondary meaning).

Trivial currency cannot buy this sweater! (8)
Trivial = MERE, currency = CASH, CASHMERE

Ha, kick out hundred trousers! (5)
HA, KICK - C (out hundred) = KHAKI

Aquatic plant around the eastern branch of mathematics. (7)
ALG {E. BR.} A

Decapitated citizen is in a peaceful state of mind. (3)
CITIZEN - CITI (head removed) = ZEN

Snake, tangled around a traffic deadlock sleeps in these. (7)~
ASP == snake, a traffic deadlock == A JAM, P{A JAM}AS

A variant is out! (6)*
is out == Not in. A VARIANT - IN ~= AVATAR (a variant).

The "Great Charter" is a fishing vessel without gravity! (9)*
The Great Charter == MAGNA CARTA - G (gravity) ~= CATAMARAN == fishing vessel

Endless chain of a hot beverage. (4)
CHAI (you know me...!)

Maybe, it is the destiny of a thousand kites. (6)
M KITES ~= KISMET == destiny

Strangely, his age is for a man's lighthearted entertainment. (6)
HIS AGE ~= GEISHA == man's lighthearted entertainment

A precept. (5)
precept == SUTRA

Market strange teetotallers asleep in bar. (6)
teetotallers == AA, asleep == Z, BA {Z AA} R == market

Chant in adamant rage! (6)
ada(MANT RA)ge => MANTRA == chant

It hung, go make it work zealously! (4, 2)~
hung go ~= GUNG HO == work zealously (close enough, I guess...)

Fifty thousand go backwards around you, a media person. (5)
L(fifty) GO M (thousand) around U (you)=> MOGUL

Dull aggregate of Chinese food items. (3, 3)
DIM SUM

Music for salvation! (7)
NIRVANA

Greg's wife is the divine law. (6)
DHARMA

Mark a strange consequence. (5)
MARK A ~= KARMA == consequence

A tree potted by a bison, perhaps. (6)
A BISON ~= BONSAI == potted tree

Good badge of rank is an aphrodisiac! (7)*
G(ood) ENSIGN (badge of rank) ~= GINSENG == aphrodisiac

An ascetic is a highly talented child without the Public Relations Dept. (4)~*
highly talented child == PRODIGY - PRD ~= YOGI == ascetic

Two vehicles flank a band of travellers. (7)
CAR{A}VAN == band of travellers

Not seen in Chinese energy! (3)
CHINESE - SEEN (not seen) == CHI

As promised, here is a list of people who solved most or all of the puzzle(s) and guessed the theme (not in any particular order):
Charbee, Pappu, Laddu, Durbha, Nandana, Sumi, Chinni, Vera, Nambu.

Thanks for all the feedback, people! Mucho appreciato.
Now, what I need from everyone is a bunch of ideas for the next theme. Please contribute and make this easier on me.

Come on in and get your fix!

2008-01-28T00:37:00.000-05:00

The (few) people have spoken! They need my puzzles to keep the wheels of their life from falling off, it seems. Please visit this page and read the comments I posted there before you dial yourself into the matrix. So here we go again.
http://ekcupt.googlepages.com/guess

Cryptic...

2008-01-20T02:56:00.000-05:00

For starters, here is something interesting...!
If there is any kind of response, I will keep this as a regular feature. If not, atleast I tried, huh?
Please be honest with your effort... or not!
So here goes.
http://ekcupt.googlepages.com/Movies.html

Blogging redux!

2008-01-16T20:24:00.000-05:00

Another one of my attempts at blogging...!
Lets see how long this one lasts. *sniff sniff*, I smell exasperation in the air....