Before starting your volunteering gig, it is necessary to determine what will be most sustainable, beneficial and ethical. There are some answers that you need to know.

• What is the right age?

The minimum age for a volunteer is 18 years. There are opportunities available right through retirement.

• Where to volunteer?

You should choose a place where you feel a personal connection to. You can read case-studies online and blogs written by volunteers. Some good sources are Lonely Planet, Go Overseas and International Forum for Volunteering in Development.

• What Should Be Duration of Volunteering

Generally, the more you volunteer, the better it is. Short-term volunteering is not good for communities and most experts in volunteering suggest that the minimum duration should be one month.

• How To Find An Organization You Can Trust

Volunteering abroad is offered by different kinds of organizations. An organization can be for profit and not for profit. When choosing a company, you should choose the one that is transparent about its partners and specifies what exactly you will do. You can do your own research on above mentioned sites.

May H.

Jumping into the list of 21^st century food fads, alongside cupcakes, frozen yogurt and milk tea—would most probably have to be the Chocolate Mug Cake—a dessert concocted and cooked in a ceramic mug.

After the Mug Cake’s recipe circulated around social media networking sites such as Tumblr, Youtube and Facebook— people across the globe have been posting videos and sharing pictures of the instant dessert. Some have even created their own variations—adding in fruits or whipped cream for a quick, gourmet fix.

Well, don’t expect it to be as light as fluffy as an ordinary chocolate cake—although it is moist enough to pass off as one. It’s the perfect dessert for people who have no time or budget to go out and get a dessert. The Chocolate Mug Cake is quick and effortless to make, and it requires only a few ingredients—making it easy on the pocket.

Now all you need is spoon to dig into your chocolate-y dessert—and a napkin to wipe the crumbs off your lips! 

CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

• 4 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons melted butter or oil
• 1 large mug

Add the dry ingredients to your mug and mix well to avoid pockets of uncooked flour later on. Pour in the oil or melted butter and the milk and stir. Microwave it for 3 minutes in a 1000w oven, or 4 minutes in a 700w oven. If the cake rises up to the top, don’t worry—it will collapse once you take it out of the microwave. Dig in and enjoy!

(Source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IyvpGZbkwgI/UA7wU23rehI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/EwfNQhHfgnw/s1600/chocolate-mug-cake-2.jpg)

Culinary Shockers:

Five weird dishes from across the globe

May Heasse

Why don’t we take a break from the pasta, the chicken and the pizza—and start with a plate of duck embryos, smelly fish heads and sheep heads? Here’s a list of the weirdest food in the world, guaranteed to get you hungry, or the other way around

Lutefisk

A Norwegian dish made from cod soaked in Lye. First, it is soaked in cold water for five to six days (with the water changed daily), and then soaked into an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for two days (Take note, Lye is used in oven cleaners and drain openers). It is then soaked again in water, steamed and served.

Balut

Balut is a popular street-staple in the Philippines. It is a fertilized duck egg, steamed and eaten straight from the shell.

Stinkheads

This is a dish that was invented by the Yup’ik Eskimos, made as a rite of passage for foreigners who claim to know about their culture. It is made from a salmon head that is buried underground for the summer—it is then dug up and eaten.

Pacha

A dish originating from Iraq, it is the whole head of a sheep boiled in a broth consisting of its own stomach. It is served with pickled vegetables.

Casu Marzu

A dish from Sardinia, It is basically sheep-milk cheese infested with fly larvae. Yes, the maggots are part of the dish—and people claim it to be creamy and tangy.

Img source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dHqcNMdghs8/TNex3feVB6I/AAAAAAAAAGE/WKuiUGHy4ZM/s1600/balot_by_queijokuki.jpg

Masquerade is a play at least 185 years old, yet with as much significance now as it did back when it was written. Often called a Russian Othello, the play examines human motivations in all their guises – love, pride, jealousy and many more. With this and his two other plays, Menschen und Leidenschaften and A Strange Man, Lermontov became a strong influence on and herald of the Romantic school in Russia.

The play is about Yevgeny Arbenin, a young Russian nobleman, who wants to be independent of his circumstances. However, due to a series of misunderstandings he believes that his wife has been unfaithful and fatally poisons her. After finding out that she was, in fact, innocent, Arbenin goes insane.

The play follows the familiar path of love, jealousy and pride. However, throughout the drama the character motivations are many-layered. Arbenin alone is not held responsible for his deed, although his crime is the greatest and so is his punishment. The masks the other characters wear to protect themselves and their interests don’t hinder and sometimes help the delusions Arbenin labours under.

D. Nuragani