Jobless Picture Archive.

One from the archives, view it full size.

Am I a pervert or do people need to be more careful when choosing an email id?

"mopleeze.ho"

Week long post

Or a long weekly post. Apologies to all you fans for not posting but I've been busy with work (don't laugh!) and had internet issues at home. So couldn't post.

Gaga and Linus were visiting from Sunny, California this month and met them for dinner mid-week. Couldn't decide where to go and finally met them at Ebony where I noticed this for the first time.

Gender differential pricing. Do women eat less than men? Or is it some of that "It's wednesday, so women enter this club free" thinking?

We sat in one of those claustrophobic ante-rooms to the balcony for about 5 minutes and decided to go to Coconut Grove instead. No review, Dear Fan because I hadn't been to Coconut Grove before.

Republic Day was fun. Met Reach, Nunu and his cousins Boo and Montu (Bongs don't need blog-nicknames, their daak naams are enough) at Rex to watch Rang De Basanti. Nunu (don't ask Bongs what his nickname means) booked tickets over the phone and didn't show up on time to collect them. So there we were at 12 noon without tickets and only available tickets were at 630, front stall. We did buy those front stall tickets and decided to walk The Strip.

The cousins went back home to come back later in the evening, so Reach, Nunu and I meandered here and there and got to Inox, bought tickets to Wedding Crashers at 330-ish since we had so much time.

For want of any serious time-killing exercise, we checked out 'Scary House'. It wasn't so bad for 15 minutes of time-killing and 40 bucks. It's got some theme inside, "This house has the spirits of the former decapitated residents..." or some such thing. The Ushers inside wear long black coats and pull their fedoras low over their eyes. Some interesting animatronic stuff and all. 'B' for effort, 'B-' for execution and 'A-' for value-for-money.

Lunch at Indiana's. Ah, the mayonnaise. No review since it's been 5(?) years.

More walking was done and this was noticed.

This statue/sculpture outside the ING Vysya Corporate Office is called Crouching Lion. Maybe Ang Lee can make a sequel.

Both movies were quite good and fun was had.

Checked out the rehearsal of the Nostalgia Night at Bangalore Club (IJ hiding behind the drums). Heard this really old man belting it. Man could he sing! IJ gave Crew Passes to Z so B, Chamique and I did go for the Nostalgia Night and had a pretty good time even though I can't jive, waltz, cha-cha or anything, salsa classes notwithstanding.

Yesterday was Koshy's, walk near Ganja Park and dinner at the new and improved Mojo. Again, no real review. Asok and Dibyo put one pitcher and we ate dosas with Chicken Pulimunchi, Fish Curry and Chicken Curry while we debated the origins of the word 'curry'.

Went for dessert to Herbs & Spice to join Bangalore Bytes who eating dinner a couple of his friends. Young love, with affection displayed on them :-)

That, dear reader was a good part of last week in a blogpost.

Sunny's Revisited. 4.00/5.00

Went to Sunny’s for lunch on 29.01.06 and will have to upgrade their rating to a 4.00/5.00. It was a fabulous meal (no pictures unfortunately). We had a fried calamari (excellent, tender, not the tyre re-tread at most places, served with a piquant salasa), greek salad with feta (wonderful cheese, ask them to omit the cucumber), a seafood bouillabaisse (saffrony with a strong, but not overpowering, fish flavour and a generous serving of mussels, clams, prawn, fish and crab. Was served with bread and a interesting egg-based sauce (Hollandaise?) with saffron and herbs.), ham crepes (excellent, as always. Chose the cream sauce.), smoked salmon open faced sandwich (salmon was a tad salty but the capers and cream-cheese made it good to go.) served with the same fabulous potatoes and I had a Japanese fried chicken served with assorted greens in soy-sauce and sticky rice (was very good. And a wonderfully aged soy-sauce, which is rare to find.). Dessert was raspberry ice-cream, an almond praline ice-cream (I’d pay good money to buy it in take-away tubs), a frozen rum raisin chocolate fudge (potent. Lotsa rum. Great dessert too! Fudgy and chocolaty!) and a hazelnut meringue with chocolate (possibly the weakest dessert. It lacked character of taste and texture.) All in all, a great meal and outstanding value for money. I don’t know how he has kept standards this high over a 16-odd year period. Commendable!

Previously, Quick Lunch At Sunny

Allow Me To Digress...

Articulatory Loop has the best blonde joke ever.

Mainland China. 2.75/5.00

As MLA leaves for London on Sunday, we decided to grab dinner and catch up with news (gossip really.) He has this inexplicable love for Mainland China and no amount of cajoling (and offering to buy him dinner at Sichuan Court!) could change his mind. I’m no fan of Mainland China, from the uppity hostesses (do you have a reservation sir? No? Please wait till hell freezes over sir!) to the maitre d’ who believes you to be the prodigal-son-returned, I could go on...


Nonetheless, we sat and we ordered. I had a chicken and coriander thick soup that was tolerably edible, a Mongolian skewered lamb and Singapore chilli shrimps. The latter two were, in retrospect, the highlights of the meal. The lamb in particular was very good. Tender, not over cooked and the spicing was wonderful, primarily cracked black pepper. The shrimps weren’t too bad either, just a little lacking in imagination, with a little sesame oil and some peri peri they could have been memorable. As for the kimchi and the other nonsense on the table, they’re better off not serving it. The kimchi was horrid, it had been put to pickle a whole 30 minutes prior to their arrival on the table.

Our main course was a vegetable burnt garlic fried rice (horrid. The moment you say vegetarian it’s license for them to throw every known vegetable in. Corn? WTF? And where was the burnt garlic?), fish in Chinese parsley (damn. It tasted like methi fish, a naan would have accompanied it better than the rice.) and a tsing hoi chicken (once again, some dal makhani and a roomali roti would have been welcome.) I get Indian Chinese, I even like it but this Bhatinda Chinese is beyond me.

For dessert I was looking forward to the toffee walnuts with ice-cream but it wasn’t available (should have guessed by then!) last night and hence, we settled for date pancakes with ice-cream. They should have called it bastard-paper-dosa with anonymous-sickly-sweet-filling.

And then this insanity, a fsking sparkler. Happy Bur-Day to you too, can I get my sense of smell back now please? And my scarred retina?

The only reason I give it a 2.75 and not lower is because of the starters, which redeemed the meal. What is up with this place and why do people love it so? Try Silver Wok or Sichuan Court which are much better bets.

For The Glutton In You...

... foodstuffs of epic proportions!

Pictures From Garuda Mall/Inox.

Has anyone been to this "Horror House"? Does it live up to its disclaimer?
They had a bar at Inox! Serving whiskey!
And whiskey based cocktails! Reminded me of an Ogden Nash rhyme, "Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker."

On Onions & Root Vegetables.

I was eating a quick dinner [jilly jiken bonlass and flied lice from Beijing Express. It could have been worse.] at the Food Court in Garuda Mall when two boys, slightly the worse for drink, sat down next to me with a plate of pav bhaji and had a conversation in Hindi that went like this:

“Arre, will you eat onions tonight?”

“Yaar, we put alcohol na, might as well eat onions too!”

And off they went, digging in to the onions. I'm trying hard not to picture their mother lying in wait for them:

“Son, how could you? Onions?!”

I gathered they must be Jain. I wonder if there is an clandestine (underground?!) market for root vegetables in these communities...

Aleph, Recluse and I then sat through “Doom: The Movie.” We're suckers for bad movies and have made some memorable screw-ups but this was one for the record books. The video game was better. By miles.

Disclaimer: Recluse and Aleph had some role to play in my characterization of the mother and the root-vegetable-gray-market...

A Brief History of Restaurants

Read this over at Chocolate and Gold Coins (run by Michael Higgins) and thought it was an interesting read. The rest of the blog is very read-worthy too, it's part of my morning roundup.

A Brief History of Restaurants

Guns Come To Bangalore....

"Forest minister Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli's son Suryakanth Narayan Nagamarapalli was arrested on Monday by Cubbon Park police after he opened fire at a pub, 1912, on St Mark's Road at 2.30 am on Sunday."

Pretty sad that an innocent bystander was injured. Guess this also rules out 1912 staying open past 11:30.

More at ToI

Chennai And Back.

I had a friends wedding to attend in Chennai so a bunch of us decided to drive down from Bangalore.
The night before we had dessert at Hatworks Boulevard (the exact name eludes me.) and mine (chocolate something) included free butter paper which I was expected to eat, or so I was informed by the manager (it's butter paper sir! You can eat it! The last time at this joint I sent back my dessert as it was rotten and they very sweetly doggy-bagged it and charged me for it!).
A quick breakfast at Koshy's was the order of the day, iced tea (best in the world!), eggs, sausages and toast (all that buttery goodness...mmmmm....).
You can buy these sausages at Bangalore Ham shop but for some reason they taste vile when cooked at home.
Unfortunately for us, we chose to take Old Madras Road on the very day all that political natak was happening in Bangalore. So we had to turn back at Hosakote and take some cart track to Hosur Road. We lost a good two hours doing those 25 km. But we were greeted by this spanking 6-lane highway once we crossed over into TN. The roads in TN are awesome, just plain awesome. Bangalore has well and truly lost the race. To say nothing of their IT Parks and ....
As this road is part of the Golden Quadrilateral, you see some pretty freaky signs. Kolkatta had me thinking of Tangra and all that Chinese food, but we pressed on towards Madras.
A large portion of the drive is on toll roads (toll plaza above), the total cost is around Rs. 75 from Bangalore to Chennai. It makes for a great drive but I can't help thinking of all the villagers who now have this mammoth road through their back yard with no easy way across. Development be thy name!
Stopped at Vellore for a dosa, or more properly a dosai. The resteraunt had a waterfall and parrots behind a glass wall for the patrons to ogle at. Wierd that.
Pre-wedding lunch. Very very good but very very vegetarian.
Ditto.
Frozen Dotz! I love these. It's like ice-cream in the shape of little marbles.
Wedding day lunch at 9:30 AM? These Tam-Brahms! And the wedding started at 6:30 AM. Then the groom decided to go to Kashi or something of the sort....quite good fun. But lunch at 9:30 AM?!
The obligatory post-reception-night-club-party. Pasha at the Park. Don't think anybody left with the person they came with. Bloody insane. These Tam-Brahms are wild! Leather, boots, chains, some girl-on-girl action. This is the new Chennai. Suffice to say I was shocked and went in search of thair saadam.
The whole lot of us, girls and boys side went to Mahabalipuram. Some random "culture" shot this. Boooring.
We had lunch at Fishermans Cove and played cricket, volleyball, football and took rides on a catamaran.
Then we decided to stay on, invited the bride and groom and we had a blast of a party at Fishermans Cove. The remains are for all to see.
More of the same.
And the same...
Drove back on Sunday and were greeted by this wonderful vista. Though a second later I nearly ran over a scooterist on the wrong side of the road.

More food reviews once my system recovers...

Anonymous blogger no more

Starting with this post Opinionista decided to tell everyone that she quit her job at a New York law firm while shedding the anonymity and do something else.

And she's hawt, too!

Read her posts, funny and insightful and all that.

Restaurant Reviews via Rediff. Part II

Indijoe this time around. Let me know what you think.

More @ Rediff

Magnolia 2.10/5.00

Since V's wedding was in Bangalore, a sizeable portion of the family were here last week. One arm of the family went off to CBT and were in transit again in BLR on way back home to HYD.

And my parents and I were going out for dinner with that arm. I got to Forum (pre-arranged rendezvous) earlier than everyone else and was informed a table for 8 would take an hour at Sahib, Sindh, Sultan so phone calls were made and chosen modes of transport were redirected to Magnolia which was nearby and was quite a nice little place, at least from what I remembered.

When this restaurant opened, it was this lovely, charming place in a quiet lane in Koramangala - the Chinese and Thai food was great, the interiors were nice in pink and black. All very good.

I proclaim that we order Chinese as the Thai was not that great the last time I was here. And how do you think was the Chinese? It was a disaster.

Now getting on with it.

The vegetarians ordered some Veg Clear Soup. The rest of us ordered Chicken Wonton Soup. The wontons in the soup were rather small but made up for in number. The soup itself was dark, like mulligatawny and had little droplets of oil floating on it, like rasam.

Starters were Thai Chicken Satay and Veg Springrolls. The springrolls were alright, just a little overdone and the satay was burnt on the outside and just a little rubbery to chew.

When ordering for a largish table one goes with tried and tested dishes, yes? Thank you.

Veg Hakka noodles and Veg Fried rice were ordered with Chicken Hot Garlic and Baby Corn and Broccoli in Hot Garlic Sauce.

The rice and noodles were in the same league as the erstwhile Little Chef (yes, that of the Fiat car doors for tables).

The Chicken and the Baby Corn-Broccoli were nothing to write home about. Ironic that I'm writing about them on a blog.

Didn't bother with the desserts.

Cha Bar 3.75/5.00

I needed to get a haircut and since Alephs office is on the way I picked him up for a quick lunch at Cha Bar. This place always impresses me. They have, to the best of my knowledge, never had an off day and the consistency in quality of their food & drink is remarkable. (which is sourced from the Park.Hotel)

We both had a ham and cheese sandwich, grilled and on brown bread, (it was very, very good. Good quality ham which was paired with a very good cheese. Only drawbacks, when they say a ham & cheese sandwich, it’s just that. No mustard or any other condiments cohabit the innards. That and it was white bread. All the same, it is excellent.) a portion of fries, (best fries in town. Better than McD’s, KFC or anything else Bangalore has to offer.) while I had an iced-tea (not bad but Koshys the place to beat. They have the best iced-tea in the world, bar none. You agree? No?) and Aleph had a Chinese green tea that he said was good. (though unlike Infinitea they refuse to sell you any. Which might be a good thing, the last bag of tea at Infinitea cost me Rs. 600 per 100gms. Think about it, Rs. 6000 per kg of white tea which is actually hot water not tea!) We pretended to share a blueberry muffin for dessert but in reality, I ate it all. (the muffin used to be outstanding. It has now regressed to masquerading as a cup-cake with blueberry jam/preserve. Still, it does have them berries that I so love!)

Other good picks, their quiche, Kashmiri kawha and soy grilled chicken salad.

An excellent place for a working lunch or a quick bite or a cup of tea or to catch up with friends. Pity about the bookshop though, it’s an abomination.

Rants!

What's up with Hutch? They keep connecting me to random people and vice-versa. Though I have to admit I've made friends in Anatapur, Madivala and Goa this way. They ought to sell it as a service, make new friends, "Phone Pals". Oh, wait, that already exists, they of the heavy breathing sorts.

Another rant, the weather. WTF happened to winter? It's summer already? What's up weather gods?

Last rant, cricket. Can it get any more boooring?

/rant off

Sunday Night Revelry.

Mache leaves tomorrow. Hence, we drank.

Bye Mache, see you soon!

@ Bangalore Club

RR. 2.40/5.00

Gujju, Dilettante, Mache, a few friends and I decided to go to RR for dinner on Saturday night. Actually, it was Gujju’s idea, we wanted to go to Koshy’s.

RR was the first of the Andhra restarants in Bangalore, I can remember going there a good 15 years ago when it was a dark, grotto like place which had excellent food. While it is now a bright and cheerful restaurant the food quality has dropped precipitously.



We started with a prawn pepper fry (prawn? Where? What prawn? Unidentifiable. The only flavour was that of pepper.), mutton fry (it was goat not mutton. But the foreign-return types liked it. So-So.), a fish fry (it was fresh fish. That’s the best that could be said.) And Andhra chilly chicken (which was good, but nowhere near the best I’ve had.) The biryani was horrid. Too much tomato and the mutton was like retread rubber and, well lets just say it was quite an abomination. The ice-cream was, well it was cold.

Do yourself a favour, try Nagarjuna instead. Much much better food. Bheema is probably better than RR too, but not by much.

It’s sad to see a Bangalore icon fast approaching its nadir. Do the honourable thing sir, use the pearl handled revolver and put it out of its misery!

P.S. I meant to add, the next morning I was reminded of a famours Louisana hot sauce, it's called the "Screaming Sphincter".

Church Street. Nexus Of The Universe?

What's up with Church Street on Friday and Saturday night? Does every bar-crawler within a 10-kilometer radius congregate in search of food (cigarettes? liquor? love?). And what's up with all the firangis there?

The scene reminds me of Johnny Cash song, "…there were whackos and weirdoes and dingbats and dodoes and athletes and movie stars…there was leather and lace and every minority race… there were women who once did and some who still would…there were has-been's and would-be's and never-were's…paupers, punks and millionaires and me…I wish you could've been there well maybe you were.”

A Blue Bar Story...

Aleph, Recluse, Mache and I met up at Barista for a cup of coffee this evening and we got talking of bar stories from ye olde times. One that came up was of when Aleph, Jenx, Madjos, Paz, Nandi., Provo, yours truly and maybe one other person landed up at Blue Bar.

The story goes like this. There was a fashion show at the West End, some sunglass show (at night, go figure!), which featured Sunil Shetty, Salman Khan and most importantly, an open bar. So we decided to go and make full use of the open bar. As it turned out, they shut the bar when the show (!) started as none from the gathering was too keen on watching it. (didn't they figure? Bangalore, open bar vs. two celebrities. There could be only one winner...) Since we didn't fancy watching the entertainment we repaired to Blue Bar.

Now you have to understand that this is a pretty hard drinking lot, unofficial motto being “Drink what you want, drink what you're able. If you are drinking with me, you'll be under the table!” So we drank and we drank and we ate and drank some more. To add to the general commotion at the bar, the aforementioned celebrities turned up and kicked the party up a notch. It was getting pretty late so the general consensus was to leave. We asked for our cheque, and then asked again 20 minutes later and then again 30 minutes later. By this time we were well and truly pie-eyed and roiled. So Madjos decides that we leave without paying the tab. Needless to say, we accepted in a flash and proceeded to saunter out of the bar, into our cars and make a sedate getaway all the while feeling most pleased with our shenanigans.

Turns out, and I found out tonight (a good year and odd later...), Jenx was none too happy at our juvenile caper and made Aleph go back the next day and pay the tab. Which he did.

So all of you thus named, we owe Aleph some money! Ah! The good old times...

Secret Garden Cafe 3.10/5.00

Had some time to kill before a meeting and as I was in Ulsoor, popped by the Secret Garden Cafe for a quick bite. Late as it was, the only food on offer was a grilled panini sandwich with roast chicken, Mediterranean vegetables and cheese. So, I ordered that and a glass of iced tea.

S’wich wasn’t too bad, bread was most certainly from Daily Bread, cheese was definitely Nilgiris cheddar (which isn’t as mature as I like my cheddar, hmmm, well isn’t really cheddar but it does acceptably well in a grilled s’wich), the chicken was most certainly not roasted and since when did red and yellow bell peppers become the sole representatives of the Mediterranean? Plus, they seem to have a large stock of pesto in their fridge. A lighter touch on the pesto would be welcome. (Last week I had a lamb burger and that had pesto too. It could have been a nice combination but their heavy hand effectively doused all other flavours in that burger. The other options that were on the menu, penne with pesto, crepes with pesto and something else with pesto. Fsking pesto lovers.) The s’wich tasted fine, just too much of the pesto. On the upside, they are generous with the chicken. But the chips were characterless.

The salad had a lively vinaigrette-theme going for it and the cherry tomatoes were a welcome addition.

Oh, and the iced tea came out of a carton. Of this I am sure. (Rant: Why does Lipton iced tea, especially the peach flavour, smell and taste like shampoo?)

The place is a little sanctuary of calm and green in a hectic neighborhood. You can’t go there for the food but if you’re in the area and want to have a quick snack, it us an acceptable option.

Arabian Savoury 3.25/5.00

Muuna Bhai calls to say he received his long overdue paypacket and wants to eat out. He's been craving some hummus so we head to Zaks and as it was closed (so were all of the joints on St. John's road. Why?) head to Arabian Savoury where Dilettante joins us. I'm grateful to Dilettante for introducing me to the wonders of this place.

Clever people, the owners. Using Corelle means they have higher capital costs but lower running costs in terms of replacing breakages.

Essential drink here is called the "Cooler". Mint, lime, sugar, ice and water make for a very refreshing drink. It's fabulous in summer and goes really well with the food. You need to have at least two per person.

Hummus for Munnabhai. The chickpea paste isn't bad but the oil certainly isn't olive. All in all, goes well with the meal but not essential.

Something called a plate shawarma I think. Pretty much like a lamb donner kebab served with hummus, assorted vegetables and some white garlicy yoghurt over the top. Very tasty and lots of texture. Crisp vegetables, crunchy meat and the hummus paste.

Arabic style charcoal roasted chicken. Excellent. Much better than their grilled chicken. And not overcooked so the meast is tender and juicy with a wonderful charcoaly crust on the outside.

Super Kerala parotas to dunk in the hummus, wrap the plate shawarma around and eat the chicken with. Flaky, soft and hot. I think these are better than the ones at Imperial but don't say I told you that! (Tip: When in Kerala, don't ask for a Kerala parota, it's just a parota there. I've made a fool of myself more times than I'd care to remember!)

Pickled beetroot and Kashmiri chillies to go with the meal. I don't care for them but Dilettante does. Ask him why.

A picture of Dilettantes food oddities. No tomato, actually nothing that smells of tomato. Sauce is fine. He had the chicken version of the plate shawarma. That's another one, no red meat, unless it's bacon around a prawn.

Dessert was a Sharjah milkshake. Banana, vanilla (or apple?) ice cream and some chocolate sauce. Too bloody thick to drink with a straw and it conjures up horrid bukkake-flashbacks. It does taste bloody good though. (I think he said apple just to make 20 bucks of me. Dilettante will explain.)

Scraps? Leftovers? Fear not, organic trash disposal was around. Damn fat it was too.

Munnabhai, thanks for buying me dinner.

Also at Weekend Hedonism

English In India Today

This is from an article on Advani in the current issue of the India Today. Am I missing something, is it horribly muddled or are the nuances of the language passing me by altogether?

V and his girl

A few years ago when my cousin V was studying in Bangalore, he'd spend the odd weekend away from hostel over at my place. You know the type of things - chill with cousins, see some of the city that wasn't part of his classmates' normal hangouts, eat food that didn't have oil floating on the curries that was staple fare of the hostel mess. You get my drift.

Now during the time he'd spend at my place, he'd get phone calls (no prevalence of cell phones then) from his classmates who'd make some plans to meet up for lunch or a drink or whatever. Very often there was this girl, we'll call her D since this blog doesn't like real or full names, who'd call for him and they'd chat for a bit. All very well.

Towards the end of his 2 year course, his phone calls would with D would be longer and somewhat inaudible. So being the good cousin that I was, broached the topic,
"Dude, what's with you and her? Anything on?"

He said, "No man, she's just a friend. She's a nice person. The only one I can talk to about everything, I guess"
Only one??? :-D

So today, about 2 years after his Bangalore stay, V and D were married in a lovely ceremony at the ISKCON temple.

Well, I did have my money on it.

Congratulations man. All the best.

India Uncut On Food, Part II

Goval Mandi

Grasshopper 4.40/5.00

Jenx (and mother.), Aleph, Alu, Dilettante and I set out for dinner at Grasshopper last night.

I still remember the first time I went there, the road past IIM was desolate and in bad shape. This time, the road is still in pretty bad shape (but for a divider and signs touting "India’s First Public-Private Road Participation" which obviously went nowhere.) but there is development much further down the road. This does detract somewhat from the back-of-beyond charm that Grasshopper had but the food more than makes up for the ride there and back (which is an ordeal, given the mellow glow the meal induces!)

Right, on to the food then. A bottle of the Sula Merlot was ordered while the rest of us had ginger-lime sodas and one fresh-lime water. The ginger-lime was better than the one at Sunnys. The wine, by other accounts, was tolerable.

Grasshopper functions on a Table d'Hote [could very well be a Prix Fixe basis. Never did understand the distinction.] You call them a day in advance and tell them if you have any particular aversions or quirks as to what you will or will not eat and they prepare a 7-course meal accordingly. The first few times are exciting simply because you have no idea what you will be served. Unfortunately, they don’t refresh their menu as often as I’d like so you end up repeating courses over the span of several visits.

The first course was Indian figs baked with feta and basil. We’ve had it many times before and always enjoyed it. The sweetness of the figs interacts wonderfully with the richness of the cheese to produce an enjoyable composition that is enlivened by the sprig of basil.

The second course was young steamed asparagus served with butter, fried basil, lemon rind, freshly shaved parmesan and boiled quail eggs. This old favorite has been reworked by the addition of the quail eggs. The combination works very well, the tartness of the oil mellowing the richness of the cheese and butter while the fried basil leaves adds texture beyond that of the asparagus. The eggs are an interesting side that, to me, don’t add anything to the dish per se, but I like quail eggs and enjoyed them thoroughly with some fresh bread and the drippings of the sauce.

The third course was of sautéed prawn, large ones at that, with sesame, ginger and seaweed. Prawn features regularly on their menu and it’s a good thing it does. They obviously have a reliable supplier, whose name they refuse to share and they treat the prawn with care. Not overcooked, the spices are a nod to the orient and this is a great way to the break up the parade of nouvelle cuisine thus far and prepare for the next few courses. We enjoyed this one thoroughly.

Alu, who refuses to eat anything aquatic or amphibian, had to be content with some amuse bouche of mushroom pate with a zucchini garnish and served with a pomegranate jus. He seemed happy.

The fourth course was a salad. Pears, walnut, mixed greens, indian gooseberry with a blue cheese dressing! Inventive that, adding the gooseberry makes an ordinary Waldorf-esque salad special. Bursts of intense flavour that punctuates the occasional mouthful. The pears (or apples) and walnut are a classical mix and the addition of the blue cheese gives it a well-rounded richness and flavour. All in all, this salad is a worthy successor to their usual peanut-dressed one. It combines an array of flavours, textures and colors.


The fifth course was fish for us barring Alu who had to be content with some chicken. Sea bass that was lightly poached and served with basil-olive oil, capers, paprika and cherry tomatoes. Probably the weakest of the main courses, the fish was excellent, just that the combination lacked a certain oomph! I did enjoy it very much, such fresh fish cooked to perfection is hard to find. The basil olive is something I need to add to my cupboard, full of flavour and a nice green colour too!

Alu’s chicken was essentially a chicken breast stuffed with mushroom, grilled and served with a rather zesty mustard sauce. I tried a bit, his jootha fundas notwithstanding, and it was very good. The mustard had a Bengali touch to it, raw and fiery but capable of working with the other flavours on the plate.

For our sixth course, Dilettante was served the aforementioned chicken on a bed of parsley rice with oven-roasted potatoes and buttered runner beans.

Jenx’s mother had the same rice served with white beans and ricotta while the rest of us had the aforementioned rice and potatoes alongside grilled veal chops.

Dilettante liked his chicken, the rice with ricotta and beans was similarly appreciated and I devoured the veal chops. Tender and undercooked, just how I like my meat. The potatoes were excellent too, crisp skin on the outside and moist on the inside. They serve a similar veal chop but with a blue cheese and butter dressing. I think I prefer this version as it lets the flavour of the meat come through. A grand end to the main courses.

Dessert was a choice of lemon cheesecake with grape coulis, chocolate truffle with fresh strawberries, lemongrass ice-cream and fig and honey ice-cream. We skipped the lemon cheesecake as it has consistently been a let-down being a gelatinous flavorless blob. The truffle is a revelation, decadent and sinful, rich and heavy as lead. The fig and honey was, in comparison, mediocre but the lemon-grass ice cream is worth travelling for. It has one of the purest flavour notes I have tasted in a while and it breaks down on the tongue so well. Refreshing and cleansing while a tad exhilarating! However, if they ever offer you a basil ice-cream, do not hesitate and order two. I’ve only ever had it once and it remains elusive to this day. It was an unbelievably impressive dessert!

A few notes, they have upped the price from Rs. 900 to Rs. 1000 this year. Last year it went from Rs. 600 to Rs. 900. At Rs. 600 it was a steal. Even at Rs. 1000 its very good value for money. Do make reservations well in advance and let them know your preferences. Lastly, they have a very reasonable corkage fee of ~Rs. 300 per bottle. One word of advise, go easy on the bread (as good as it is.) or you'll end up rather full by the end of the meal.

Jobless in Pune

Jobless Pictures from 2 days ago.




This last one says Jeena yahan, marna yahan, kachra nahi phekna yahan. (You got to live here and die here, so don;t throw garbage here). Sung to the tune of the Raj Kapoor song.

Pune

It's strange how the Marathi pronunciation of Pune is. With the 'n' inflection, or is it a nasal sound, whatever - you get my drift...

Went to a meeting some 40 kms outside the city and got back to civilisation in the afternoon. Then went with colleague to Pune's MG Road, where Bangalore Bytes asked me to bring back Shrewsbury biscuits from Kayani Bakery.

Asked people for directions and walked some narrow, albeit clean, lanes to locate this Bakery.

It is this rather nondescript place with a shutter pulled down halfway to shield itself from the sunlight that we walked past completely.

Then walked across the road to this Irani cafe named Cafe Yezdan and had really, really milky tea. Guess 'special tea' means some serious amount of milk :-)

Baked Porn II

Thanks to Dilettante, I now have (in 30 minutes, it'll be had.) a box of Shrewsbury biscuits from Kayani Bakery in Pune. Danke dude!

Interesting factoid, they only use Amul butter and if it is not available, the don't make any biscuits.

Quick Lunch At Sunnys. 3.75/5.00

Met a few friends, some long lost, for a quick lunch at Sunnys. I should have known better and arrived a half hour past the appointed time but I hate being late, even notionally, and so Mache and I landed up a good 30 minutes before any one else did.

As I had to have a quick lunch and scoot (meeting you see.) I had a mushroom barley soup, a ham and cheese s'wich and some rasberry ice-cream for dessert. The soup was pretty good, though Mache opined that it looked like sambar, tasted much better though and actually looked like mulligatawny! The s'wich was pretty good too, a nice mature cheddar, great bread, a dressing that complimented the filling (english mustard, honey and something exasperatingly difficult to identify) of ham. Only issue was the ham, Danish pressed and tinned ham needs all the help it can get which the cheese and the dressing rescued quite well. The potato salad was le magnifique. New potatoes in a creamy mayo-type dressing with some parsley. The ice-cream was outstanding. Tart, not too sweet and creamy while the flavour of the rasberries shone through.

The others had a few starters, golden fried prawn (why oh why, might as well have been at Little Chef where the prices are cheaper and the portions more generous and it tastes about the same. A tartare sauce isn't wortha all that much.), lamb dumplings (ibid.) and some bruschetta with olive marinated vegetables (didn't try it, won't comment. Suffice to say it was vegetarian.)

I had a ginger-lime soda too, it's a nice change from the fresh-lime soda. Plus ginger is a wonderful digestive and easy on the stomach.

My all-time fav. Sunnys picks. Prawn cocktail, chicken liver pate, smoked salmon with cream cheese rolls, greek salad with feta, spanish fish soup, wild mushroom ravioli, crepes, seer fish anna, lamb chops, tournedos and the frozen rum raisin chocolate fudge. (And a hat tip to Chamique and the paris breast.)


Update: Sunny's Revisited. Rating upgraded to 4.00/5.00

Awesome Photoshop Picture

via BoingBoing and from Mason Inman's Blog

Dinner Tonight.

Same game, guess the location. Bonus points for joining us!

Biryani Time!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and all the yummy biryani that'll be sent my way. What is your favourite biryani? (And just to remind, Biryani Merchant is not an acceptable answer.)

I used to have a friend who had the most amazing biryani at her place. Pity we didn't stay in touch over the years.

Wedding Crashers

Rachel McAdams is hot, what? She has got this amazing neighbourhood-gal-like quality and is refreshingly imperfect but oh-so-wholesome.

And for our lady readers, may I present Mr. Owen Wilson. What's your take on him?

Not a bad movie too...

Indiauncut On Food

Amit Varma, who is in Pakistan currently covering the cricket matches, has posted a few food related entries. Head on over there and ogle at the pictures and words.

I think I may need to visit our neighbours to get at some of that outstanding looking food. (And I'm glad to see the Coca Cola is their drink of choice!)

Cooco's
Breadlike, After All

Legend of Sikandar Revisited.

Alu and me. A quick dinner before a movie. Seekh kebab, murg tikka something, galouti kebab, aloo took, dal sikandari and assorted rotis. I stand by my original rating, the food was excellent even though they were in the middle of a mad rush of customers. Kebabs were outstanding, rotis were great, though the dal is their weakest link. No shame in that, some of the best eateries fail on the dal.

Just for the record, we didn't make the movie.

Baked Porn!

And these are a few of my favourite things!

Dominos cookies, Trader Joe's ginger spice cookies, McVities milk chocolate and caramel digestives and Brownie Point walnut brownies (fresh off the plane from Mumbai!). Yummy!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a cup of coffee and OD on all of these goodies.

Stating The Obvious

The Revolt Of 2005

The cover story of the latest Outlook was on the rise in availability of regional food across India. It's a pretty decent read and hints of a slow demise in the “Tandoori, Mughalai, Chinese” variety of restaurants that coincides with a rise of niche eateries specializing in Bengali, Chettinad, Kerala etc. cuisines. On the whole, I'd agree with the trend they identify and welcome it. Too long have we put up with inauthentic garbage served simply for lack of choice.

My only grouse with the article was the list of eateries they have chosen for Bangalore. Apparently these symbolize this new culinary movement sweeping across the nation. For better or worse, here is the Bangalore list and my comments.

Katpadi Janction at Garuda Mall for Mudaliar food. Yes, that would be appropriate. Link this gastronomic movement with the mall movement. How could they overlook Annachi, reviewed below, Salem Kitchen in Indiranagar and Ponnuswamys on Residency Road? Was air-conditioning a prerequisite to be reviewed?

Unicorn on Infantry Road for Konkani food. This is, after all, an upmarket branch of Fishland in Gandhinagar. The food at Fishland is fresher, tastier, cheaper and has more attitude and charm than the sterile and aseptic interiors that Unicorn offers. Once again, were cushioned seats a prerequisite?

Halli Mane in Malleswaram. Never been there but heard good things about it from Dilettante.

Any opinions on the restaurants listed for other cities?

A Mouthful Of India @ Outlook

Restaurant Suggestions @ Outlook

Picture via outlookindia.com and (c) Sephi Bergerson.

Measure Your Attitudes

This is scary, revealing, frustrating and more.

Take these tests (start with the India-centric ones) when you have some time. Though I do harbour a sneaking suspiciosn that it has more to do with the test than the subject matter.

India-centric Tests
Implicit Main Page

Results were a bit worrying.

Restaurant Reviews via Rediff

Rediff have a semi-regular series of restaurant reviews, most of them featuring places in Bangalore. I've linked to the ones of interest to our *local* readers.

Chandni Chowk in Bangalore?
No time to cook?
Hot culinary spots in Bangalore
Will you do anything for good biryani?
The restaurant on the highway
Eating Out: Want a taste of home?
A culinary yatra of Bangalore
Bangalore: Great meals on lazy Sundays


Comments are welcome...

Soars vs. Sores

Saw this at Cricinfo today. Is he sore from soaring? Pretty daft, you'd think they'd proof-read!

The link is Ponting Sores To The Top

Guess The Locations...

... as the title goes. Winner gets to suggest a review they'd like to read.

Ghost In The Machine

Herbs & Spice 4.31/5.00

First, I'm not sure how to give points on these restaurant reviews that BB and I do except this rating indicates I really like this joint.

Herbs & Spice is tucked away in a quiet corner of Indiranagar, near Rashmi Eye Clinic and IBBC's Victory Grounds. No advertising at all, just word of mouth popularity over the last few years and a little confusion with names, what with the former Spice Garden on Whitefield Road deciding to call itself 'Herbs and Spices'.



2 gentlemen, Pankaj and Manjit run this restaurant - a lady used to be their partner when they started out, no news of her. It's menu is constantly changing, they always keep less than 20 items on the menu, which is written on a blackboard with chalk (so you can eat their cheese). Sorry, couldn't resist.

This is a view from their extended interiors meaning they doubled their seating to 10 tables!

Assorted breads are constantly replenished and they aren't stingy like Sunny's where you are billed for extra.

Soup was Cream of Broccoli which Girl from Oz, GFO for short and I shared. The soups are usually brilliant but since I'm not such a big fan of broccoli, I felt it wasn't that great but GFO loved it. The other soup on the menu was a tomato soup. Now tomato makes me gag.

This menu is small but does offer enough choice for most people. Now all of youm know how fussy I can be, this place still offers at least 2 entrees I can choose from.

Dinner was Fish Fillet with Olives and GFO ordered Penne with chicken, mushroom and sudried tomatoes.

The fish was just right, soaked in olive oil with a little chopped olives on the side and dressed ghaas-poos on the other side. Nice. Made nicer with a drop of squeezed lemon.

This combination of penne made me order the same dish in many other places, often with disastrous results. The creamy sauce the penne is soaked in is dee-lish. These guys are good.

Now desserts were the first reason I started coming to Herbs & Spice when I was a student and couldn't afford a full meal (which is not to say the desserts are cheap).

Walnut meringue was shared with the 2 little dessert forks. Don't see the Pavlova that often though. It was the most awesome thing I've ever had. Little slices of kiwi fruit and strawberry placed on half a slice of the meringue and cream. *sigh*

The fact remains, outside of the Casa Piccola chain and the 5star hotels we didn't have much of an option for Italian. Herbs & Spice was one of the first and remains amongst the best Italian/Continental restaurants in Bangalore.

The waiters are friendly and not snooty, even though it's a lot of fun trying to decipher what they are saying. The source of ingredients, I've been told by someone reliable, is the same in all the leading Italian restaurants in this city. Yet the prices in Herbs & Spice remain significantly lower.

Update (30 Jan 06): Bangalore Bytes was at Herbs & Spice with a couple of friends and I joined them in time for dessert. They weren't too happy with the food, complaining the quality went down and prices went up. Strange. In 3 weeks. Maybe it was an off day.Anyhow, was chatting with Mr. Bytes online and here are excerpts of the conversation. (Names changed to protect superhero identities).

Bangalore Bytes says:
dude, update the H&S post

Dilettante says:
what dyu want me to say?

Bangalore Bytes says:
that it was a disappointing meal. tasteless hot water for a consomme, over fried leather for fish, insipid pasta and no salt or herbs in anything. that and the abomination of the new bread basket,

Dilettante says:
hahahahahaha

Anyway, I had a good dinner 3 weeks ago.

Jobless Picture Of The Day

A mangled truck being towed, nay dragged, by a loaded LPG transporter. Road safety week special?

Annachi. 3.00/5.00

Alephnull called and said he was starving, I wasn't but that doesn't ever stop me. Picked him up and went to a new branch of Annachi* at Kammanhalli for lunch. I do like Chettinad food, (Ponnuswamy comes to mind.) and Annachi does a fair version of it.

I had an egg biryani, we shared some pepper fried prawns and some sort of sweet pongal for dessert. The biryani was mediocre, we fair suspect that they have a common rice base and add the meat/egg/veg. according to the order while the stand out feature was the fire extinguisher that was not served with it. Bloody screaming sphincter was it hot?! The prawns were great, superb even, fresh, not over cooked and of a size that was visible without magnifying aides. Dessert was good, if a tad too hot. They really need something frigid to salve our chilly-induced ageusia.

To be fair, their dinner menu is far more interesting. With stuffed parathas, kothu parathas, rabbit and quail (which I highly recommend!)

Go for the food, be prepared for the spice, order buttermilk on the side and a yoghurt/sugar combo for dessert. You should be ok.

*While this may, prima facie, seem to be in conflict with my aforementioned rules of restaurant reviews, it isn’t. I have been to Annachi more than once, just different branches and I have paid my bill on the heretofore-mentioned occasions. Just not this time. (Excuse maadi. I used to be a lawyer)

Imperial and Corner House Combo Meal. 4.25/5.00

Another night, another review. Think Mars vs. Venus, North vs. South and in Epicurean terms it boils down to…. Imperial vs. Empire. My vote, Imperial and this is where I dined, or rather gorged, last night. Alephnull, Karax and moi joining in the debauchery. A word of advice, if meat and unrestrained gluttony are a turn-off, stop reading…NOW!

Imperial is rumoured to have a menu, an extensive one too, but I have never seen it. Well, maybe once but I averted my gaze forthwith. It distracts from the task at hand. I tried the butter chicken once, last night in fact, and will never try it again. It would make a legion sardar cry…like colicky babies. I tried the biryani once, unrecognizable as biryani. Thus ended my experimentation.

On to dinner then; chicken kebab, ghee rice, special gravy, butter chicken, kerala parota, wheat parota, coin parota, special salad and fish fry. The kebabs are outstanding, they are fabulous and have been memorably so over the last 15 years that I have eaten them. They go best with ghee rice/kerala parota and some of the special gravy. And you have to wash it down with a Coke*, never a Pepsi (It cuts through the fat, honesty it does!) Point of note, you need to be a regular to get the special gravy and the special salad else its thinned-down-unidentifiable-gravy and cucumber for you. The kebab has many imitations, Empire comes closest but it does grill a better grilled chicken. The parotas are not the best example available in Bangalore, Arabian Savoury is better but doesn’t have the kebabs. The ghee rice (khushka) is probably the best of its type and so are the coin/wheat parotas. (actually Bombay Kebabs has a better wheat parota which goes well with their goat/cow udder kebab.) The fish fry is not too bad but I’ve only ever eaten it during Lent along with a roomali roti and paneer butter masala (Never. Ever. Again.) but I was asking for trouble by going there during the Lenten season. Beelzebub, away!

Other things that are a must try at Imperial, brain fry (outstanding! Think warm scrambled eggs with pepper and curry leaves.), teethar (for very very special customers only), egg mix kothu parota (if you’re ever in Madras, go to Blue Diamond on Poonamalle High Road and try their version. While you’re there, also try the ceylon egg and kheem parota, ghee parota, mutton korma and round it off with a peach melba. Exemplary! ) their fried chicken tikka, which is quite a mind-f**k and their dal fry (that and ghee rice is about the only things a vegetarian can eat).

Moreover, it is mandatory to finish the meal with a sulemani (proper form being not to stir the sugar that settles at the bottom. Speaking of tea, has anyone tried the cardomom-saffron-green tea served at Kashmiri carpet stores? And then there is Infinitea and Cha Bar and….some other time perhaps…)

We then rolled down Residency Road to Corner House and had two juniors (try the HCF with praline instead of the regular nuts.) and one vanilla chocolate chip ice-cream. Corner House is, like Imperial, the best ice-cream joint in the world except for the Cold Stone Creamery. As for your Nirula-loving freaks, it sucks b***s, big time. However, Corner House needs to take the "Brown Bomb" off their menu. It’s an unsightly name for ice-cream.

Imperial, through an object lens, serves some of the best food to be had anywhere in the world. The emphasis is on the food, ambience is tertiary. I work with many Japanese food technologists who absolutely adore the food and it is a mandatory stop when they are here. Why? It’s fresh and tasty beyond belief (Umami, its all about the umami). What more could one ask for?

Dang, it was some meal.

* In case you’re wondering, drinking/sipping/mentioning Pepsi constitutes grounds for the unceremonious precipitation (with due apologies to Chat!) from my gastronomist circle. Unless it’s Diet Pepsi, which is ok.

Popular media

There's this Kannada tabloid called 'Hi Bengaluru'. They are typical of a tabloid, sensationalist headlines and the like.

There is a photograph of Sonia (known only by her first name), the researcher who was injured in the IISc shootout.

The above headline says (across): Avanu Muslim (He's a Muslim),
and the banner: Bandavanu deiva sainika (God's soldiers have arrived).

This is our media with the abilities to sway popular opinion.

It's fucked up.

Blogworth

My blog is worth $3,387.24.
How much is your blog worth?

Wok After Wok, Dinner at Silver Wok. 3.50/5.00

Hello dear blog readers. One more dinner, one more review. So last night Dilettante, Alephnull, Mache and your favorite gourmet decided to go to Silver Wok for dinner. Since Mache is in India after a 4-year hiatus he wanted Indian Chinese and as Taipan (purveyor of the finest examples of Indian Chinese) was out of the question (Mache owns the place!) it was either Mainland China or Silver Wok. Dilettante maintains that MC is a far better restaurant, which might well be true, but it's too fancy for a guys night out.

Appetizer was bacon wrapped prawn which, as usual, were superb. Fresh, juicy large prawns (or shrimp, if you so please. There is no difference.) wrapped in salty, smoky bacon dipped in a tempura batter of sorts and fried. One word of warning, the use a toothpick to restrain the construct while frying, do remove it. And it is a giganta-normous portion! That and a chicken lung fung soup which was nice, though the use of coriander in place of chinese parsley always disconcerts.

Main course was an egg fried rice, chilly chicken (boneless!), schezwan prawn (ought to be sichuan and contain sichuan peppers, but no worries.), a chicken steamed rice (think kanji with veggies and meat) and a chicken hakka noodle. The rice was good, typical indian fried rice (try the malacca fried rice if you're in the mood for something different), the noodles had that smoked flavour that makes it Indian (although the chicken registered its strong protest at being kept in the refrigerator too long.), the chicken was good, though Alephnull turned up late and had to be content with Chilly Bell Peppers, the prawn was great (a hint of scallion and fresh prawn) and while I liked the chicken steamed rice, Dilettante wasn't so impressed.

I scream, you scream and some ice-cream (sorry!) for dessert and a few bottles of Dr. Mallya's finest rounded out the meal.

Pretty good meal though not the finest examples of Silver Wok's cuisine. My picks, pork momos, barbecue spare ribs, chicken with red and green peppers, lamb conjee and sunflower wontons.

Holla back with what you think of chinese and indian chinese food in namma bengaluru.

The Cute Factor.

Does this qualify as cute?


Jessie Cohen/Smithsonian National Zoo, via Reuters and NYT.

More @ NYT

Shampoo Can Be Dangerous

"Sanath was reaching for his shampoo when he slipped and fell in his bath" and dislocated his shoulder.

Does he even have hair?

More @ Cricinfo

Jobless Pictures

From Hyderabad, with love.

Legend of Sikandar 3.75/5.0

To kick off, I went to Legend of Sikandar last night with a few colleagues from work.

Getting to the restaurant is pretty messy, given that it is at Garuda Mall and moreover, last night was dance night or some such idiocy at the Mall. The place exudes a very intimate allure (bordering on adulterous, a lot like the vibe at Cinnamon) with the tables by the plate glass windows being the best in the house.

The liquor menu is well and good, nothing to get excited by and the best drink in the house is actually on the main menu, some concoction of oven roasted green mango that is thick, warm and tangy to the point of surprise.

The menu is a revelation; they’ve gone for the understated appeal of presenting only a few selections, which is something I appreciate. Appetizers were a lamb seekh kebab, which was, as with all of their food, generous (don’t, dear reader, believe that portion control was the highlight!) moist (how often one is served leather to chew on) and most importantly, restrained in spice to allow the flavour meat to stand out. A chicken noorani kebab that was good without really aspiring to the greatness of the seekh and an outstanding potato creation called aloo took. To be fair, the english translation was smashed potatoes, but this was so much more than that; pan-fried baby potatoes that were slow fried to allow a crust to form without the inside drying out and then lightly tamped to bring out the moisture and flavoured with a delicate spice blend that bordered on chaat but without the horrid hajmola flavour that would have destroyed it. An absolute marvel that, and this from me a carnivore.

Given the appetizers, the main course would really have to dazzle. Lamb shanks served with sheermal, (made the Samarkhand version look positively ordinary), chicken legs cooked in an almond paste (sinful, divine albeit chicken. Chicken ought to be a vegetable.), fish something or the other (the best that could be said about it was that it was fresh and not over cooked. Fish isn’t something that Alexander would have eaten and isn’t something I would have orderd, but Mr. Banerjeee decided otherwise and who am I to argue with a Bong over fish!), a house dal (not bad, yet monotonous. Best black dal in Bangalore? Aangan and Jamaavar.) and a yakhni mutton biriyani. The biryani was terrific. The lamb (couldn’t have been more than 24 weeks old) was fabulous, the flavours delicate and the whole thing had so much of a bouquet.

Dessert was a tad boring, an apricot trifle, (pass.), a kulfi with rose petals (not bad but clichéd.), and a baklava with ice-cream (the best of the lot.)

All in all, a great place to go to if you don’t mind dining in a mall.


Update
Legend of Sikandar Revisited

Calling All Gourmets, Gourmands and Gluttons.

Awright, so here's the thing, I've decided to start posting semi-regular food reviews.

My criteria for reviewing a place are:

1. I need to have visited at least twice,
2. Accompanied by at least one friend,
3. Eaten a starter, main course and desert, and
4. Paid my bill.

Comments are welcome!

That's A Big One!

No? ;-)

What Is Irony?

KFC offering miniature workout station toys along with their kiddy meals! That and a weightless machine.

You're going to need these after eating...must...control...the..urge...zinger...burg....*chomp*

Random Postings

Take a gander at this post on Arif's blog.

bad-bad-coldplay

"Un. Fucking. Believable. This is India, Virgin. INDIA. Piracy started here, dammit. You can’t play Nazi with India."

Heh!

Then walk on over to Wikimedia and watch in amazement as the NYC skyline loads.

NYC Skyline

Good Friends & Laughter

I managed to have a quiet new years eve celebration. A few friends, lots of booze (I did not indulge, but the coke was great!) and laughter. Couldn't have asked for a better beginning, or end. What did you do?

2006 here we come!