hello peeps!
am back from a hectic work week in lucknow and ambala (to which place the title of this post refers)! heheh, coined that in a reply to mahaya's mail a while back, i like the sound of it- truly, it's a cruddy place!
but more on that later, personal update:
- had a couple of epiphanies over the week.
- have you heard 'i'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair'? well it's happened! hurrah and hallelujah! i've washed him off!
- was generally crabby and mean to my c'pokli babies last night- apology tendered here, but must also make the effort in letting each one know personally that i was a turd :(
by now, my dinner has congealed into a cold, sad mess- am off to sustain myself and contemplate the fine'ness that is me!
heh heh. g'nite.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Saturday, September 01, 2007
google me this
sigh.. this blogging biz'ness is a bit of a menace.
it is. well, if you're commitment-phobic like me anyway.
(it waxes & wanes from mild, to full-blown 'get-out-of-here!', depending on what i've taken up, and would now like to diss)
let's take this blog, my fence-sitting, ramble-spittoon; it niggles the back of my skull with its being, and gnaws me into worrying about it.
so here i am, on a fine saturday afternoon trying to figure out what to say to it.
right, life update!
(in my own random, terrible-memory assisted fashion)
1. back from jaipur
2. been doing some great eats, but i'm only going to give small shout-outs in this post to:
- flamboyente- the pretentiously-named, kinda over-priced, but for-all-that rather decent, pan-asian place that's opened in my office building (praise be!)
- moshe's- more more! been there twice after and have had a lovely time, both times
- fassos- in pune, didn't actually go there, but had excellent mutton-on-basmati (which is to say, NOT biriyani) delivered home and it rocked! and yes, i still have to try those boti-wraps.
- flags- again, the one in pune. and it was lovely, have now put the one in mumbai on my list of semi-swish, escape-from-office-pantry lunch places.
3. met up with a new friend whom i'd only been chatting with until that point, and spent a lovely saturday hanging out with him, and his friend
4. went away to pune to do some more hanging out with the afore-mentioned two new people. and again, it was great. blissed out and relaxing in the best way.
5. through all of this, have been nursing a debilitating and sense-numbing crush on an entirely unsuitable someone.
6. feeling vaguely bridget-jones'ish through it all without the silver lining of a colin firth-type waiting in the wings for me to get over my stupidity (er, not that the chap's an 'emotional fuckwit' or anything. actually, if i think of it, he's more colin firth than hugh grant- dammit!)
7. sigh, now spending my days sternly lecturing myself out of the silliness that has been my state of mind these past few months and into... dunno yet, a better place anyway.
which brings me to the things i've been doing/plan to do, to get to that better place.
- been hanging with my darlings in c'pok- sodab, jonty, kappu, sahu, beju, hugs galore!
- having looong phone calls with liz, my most-popo, to save what's left of my sanity and generally know that i'm worth much more than the rubbish i usually subject myself to.
- went away to pune to hang with thunk and mahaya; in a move that's a complete break from my otherwise hate-to-inflict-myself-upon-you, vaguely-awkward-around-new-people self.
- am buying a guitar! (and hoping deeply that the move does not fan the afore-mentioned p-h-o-b-i-a, plus my bloody finances have to allow for it)
- will continue to hang out more often with the FC crowd and improve my skills at MINGLING (slight shudder)
- desperately want to go home. be around the bright-green'ness that is kerala after the rains, while ignoring all the things that made me want to leave the place; meet with sangs over a coffee and dosa at BTH or sarovaram (braving god-awful traffic)
- must visit b'lore, many people there who make me very, very happy to be around.
- and lastly, must limit self-indulgent wallowing-type posts such as this to barest minimum.
yes this has probably been a really boring, gross-type read, but i had to do it; acknowledge messily one time that i've let things slide, and i hate myself for it.
it is. well, if you're commitment-phobic like me anyway.
(it waxes & wanes from mild, to full-blown 'get-out-of-here!', depending on what i've taken up, and would now like to diss)
let's take this blog, my fence-sitting, ramble-spittoon; it niggles the back of my skull with its being, and gnaws me into worrying about it.
so here i am, on a fine saturday afternoon trying to figure out what to say to it.
right, life update!
(in my own random, terrible-memory assisted fashion)
1. back from jaipur
2. been doing some great eats, but i'm only going to give small shout-outs in this post to:
- flamboyente- the pretentiously-named, kinda over-priced, but for-all-that rather decent, pan-asian place that's opened in my office building (praise be!)
- moshe's- more more! been there twice after and have had a lovely time, both times
- fassos- in pune, didn't actually go there, but had excellent mutton-on-basmati (which is to say, NOT biriyani) delivered home and it rocked! and yes, i still have to try those boti-wraps.
- flags- again, the one in pune. and it was lovely, have now put the one in mumbai on my list of semi-swish, escape-from-office-pantry lunch places.
3. met up with a new friend whom i'd only been chatting with until that point, and spent a lovely saturday hanging out with him, and his friend
4. went away to pune to do some more hanging out with the afore-mentioned two new people. and again, it was great. blissed out and relaxing in the best way.
5. through all of this, have been nursing a debilitating and sense-numbing crush on an entirely unsuitable someone.
6. feeling vaguely bridget-jones'ish through it all without the silver lining of a colin firth-type waiting in the wings for me to get over my stupidity (er, not that the chap's an 'emotional fuckwit' or anything. actually, if i think of it, he's more colin firth than hugh grant- dammit!)
7. sigh, now spending my days sternly lecturing myself out of the silliness that has been my state of mind these past few months and into... dunno yet, a better place anyway.
which brings me to the things i've been doing/plan to do, to get to that better place.
- been hanging with my darlings in c'pok- sodab, jonty, kappu, sahu, beju, hugs galore!
- having looong phone calls with liz, my most-popo, to save what's left of my sanity and generally know that i'm worth much more than the rubbish i usually subject myself to.
- went away to pune to hang with thunk and mahaya; in a move that's a complete break from my otherwise hate-to-inflict-myself-upon-you, vaguely-awkward-around-new-people self.
- am buying a guitar! (and hoping deeply that the move does not fan the afore-mentioned p-h-o-b-i-a, plus my bloody finances have to allow for it)
- will continue to hang out more often with the FC crowd and improve my skills at MINGLING (slight shudder)
- desperately want to go home. be around the bright-green'ness that is kerala after the rains, while ignoring all the things that made me want to leave the place; meet with sangs over a coffee and dosa at BTH or sarovaram (braving god-awful traffic)
- must visit b'lore, many people there who make me very, very happy to be around.
- and lastly, must limit self-indulgent wallowing-type posts such as this to barest minimum.
yes this has probably been a really boring, gross-type read, but i had to do it; acknowledge messily one time that i've let things slide, and i hate myself for it.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
point 5: more random yum
hmmm, i was in jaipur most of this week. and that visit threw up a number of nice food-type surprises. so here goes:
5.
radomly bought kachori. one word: excellent!
i was told later, to go to Rawat's and try the kachori there. they serve gol gappa too! which i SO miss in mumbai. and DON'T tell me mumbai does paani puri which the same thing; cause it ISN'T, you dumbass!!
the tragedy of it all though, was that when we did get around to going there, we were too full to even want to get out of the car!
sigh, i think the loss will haunt me forever. or, at least till i can go there again and remedy that bit of stoopidity! but seriously peeps, the street kachori rocks!
6.
radomly bought kulfi.
mmmm... milk... stupefying... creamy... bigger... better... than any i've had before.
i'm told ALL milk sweets in rajasthan are great. well, if the kalakand i picked up for friends atLNB Sweets later on in the trip are an indicator, that's SUPER TRUE!
7.
Chokhi Dhani!
yep, i managed a trip to THE place that pretty much everyone i mentioned my jaipur trip to insisted i visit.
it's a kitschy, resort'y place near sanganer about a half-hour drive from the city. they've created a faux village, with a bunch of stalls and open-air stages for dancers, a bhavishyavaani (those kooky machines), a palm reader, mehndi artist, maalishwala (tempting), puppet theatre, yada yada yada (you get the picture)
plastered mud, artfully painted walls, everyone's cheerful, the whole place is super-touristy... but the food!
at a 250/- cover charge (you need only pay a teeny fee for playing the stall games) it's a very worth-it experience.
eat sensibly. if you can. i dare you. 'nuff said!
8.
back in mumbai, the hunt for good food/better times continues... (yes, that was sad :p)
and we found it! ystdy, kalpu and i decided to check out Ivy, the Indage-owned wine bar at Worli on Annie Besant road.
the food's reasonably priced, and they do have an extensive menu. but who are we kidding? we went there to drink, and drink we did.
instead of chicken-shit'edly ordering by the glass, and then spending a lot more money in trying to reach our buzz-limits, we dove right in and ordered by the bottle (highly recommended, way more paisa-vasool)
now, neither of us know squat about wine. other than the fact that we like it, and we're willing to learn; by trying as much of it as we can. hah! or should i say hic!?
sure we could try and find someone who knows their shit, or at least pretends better than we do; but it's so much more fun with a chaddi-buddy :)
we went for a riviera pinot noir. i have NO CLUE whether it was good, or utter crap! we didn't hate it, it was very dry (which i'm fine with) and by the end of it, we were beautifully buzzed. which is THE spot you're aiming for on a sunday evening.
so as not to be total tankards, and get more wasted than we wanted to be, there were bites ordered too (lest you think we're complete lushes)
a couple of quiches, decent enough. a chicken & mayo sandwich, hefty and satisfying and a chocolate truffle (goopy, and therefore, good)
saap joined us in a bit, ordered a glassful of chantilli chenin blanc, sweet and served in a chilled glass. very pretty.
i've read other reivews praising the food at Ivy, and the table next to us had a bunch of owner/partner-types standing about sampling dish after dish, so i guess they do take stock of what they're shoving into our nose bags.
which can't be a bad thing, ever. do visit. it's a delight.
signing off. my posts invariably get too long for even me to read later. must learn the art of precis.
bye bye darlings, south-indian sastha-tikkau lunch awaits with friends in a short while.
long live the weekend!
and oh yeah,
Ivy: Annie Besant Road, Worli
snacks n tipple for 2 (and-a-half, cause saap joined late): Rs 900/-
5.
radomly bought kachori. one word: excellent!
i was told later, to go to Rawat's and try the kachori there. they serve gol gappa too! which i SO miss in mumbai. and DON'T tell me mumbai does paani puri which the same thing; cause it ISN'T, you dumbass!!
the tragedy of it all though, was that when we did get around to going there, we were too full to even want to get out of the car!
sigh, i think the loss will haunt me forever. or, at least till i can go there again and remedy that bit of stoopidity! but seriously peeps, the street kachori rocks!
6.
radomly bought kulfi.
mmmm... milk... stupefying... creamy... bigger... better... than any i've had before.
i'm told ALL milk sweets in rajasthan are great. well, if the kalakand i picked up for friends atLNB Sweets later on in the trip are an indicator, that's SUPER TRUE!
7.
Chokhi Dhani!
yep, i managed a trip to THE place that pretty much everyone i mentioned my jaipur trip to insisted i visit.
it's a kitschy, resort'y place near sanganer about a half-hour drive from the city. they've created a faux village, with a bunch of stalls and open-air stages for dancers, a bhavishyavaani (those kooky machines), a palm reader, mehndi artist, maalishwala (tempting), puppet theatre, yada yada yada (you get the picture)
plastered mud, artfully painted walls, everyone's cheerful, the whole place is super-touristy... but the food!
at a 250/- cover charge (you need only pay a teeny fee for playing the stall games) it's a very worth-it experience.
eat sensibly. if you can. i dare you. 'nuff said!
8.
back in mumbai, the hunt for good food/better times continues... (yes, that was sad :p)
and we found it! ystdy, kalpu and i decided to check out Ivy, the Indage-owned wine bar at Worli on Annie Besant road.
the food's reasonably priced, and they do have an extensive menu. but who are we kidding? we went there to drink, and drink we did.
instead of chicken-shit'edly ordering by the glass, and then spending a lot more money in trying to reach our buzz-limits, we dove right in and ordered by the bottle (highly recommended, way more paisa-vasool)
now, neither of us know squat about wine. other than the fact that we like it, and we're willing to learn; by trying as much of it as we can. hah! or should i say hic!?
sure we could try and find someone who knows their shit, or at least pretends better than we do; but it's so much more fun with a chaddi-buddy :)
we went for a riviera pinot noir. i have NO CLUE whether it was good, or utter crap! we didn't hate it, it was very dry (which i'm fine with) and by the end of it, we were beautifully buzzed. which is THE spot you're aiming for on a sunday evening.
so as not to be total tankards, and get more wasted than we wanted to be, there were bites ordered too (lest you think we're complete lushes)
a couple of quiches, decent enough. a chicken & mayo sandwich, hefty and satisfying and a chocolate truffle (goopy, and therefore, good)
saap joined us in a bit, ordered a glassful of chantilli chenin blanc, sweet and served in a chilled glass. very pretty.
i've read other reivews praising the food at Ivy, and the table next to us had a bunch of owner/partner-types standing about sampling dish after dish, so i guess they do take stock of what they're shoving into our nose bags.
which can't be a bad thing, ever. do visit. it's a delight.
signing off. my posts invariably get too long for even me to read later. must learn the art of precis.
bye bye darlings, south-indian sastha-tikkau lunch awaits with friends in a short while.
long live the weekend!
and oh yeah,
Ivy: Annie Besant Road, Worli
snacks n tipple for 2 (and-a-half, cause saap joined late): Rs 900/-
Saturday, July 14, 2007
what i've been eating when the steam-roller was taking a break
in the blur that has been my my life of late, a few food places and individual dishes stand out, here's the listing:
1.
masala prawns, made to order, at (of all places!) Hotel Rudra, Pune (don't ask me where it is, somewhere near Pimpri)
wierdly enough, you'd expect the average highway-hotel in India to serve up indifferent food, off an eclectic 'Indian-Chinese-Continental' menu. and it does. but here's the trick, go off the menu, and ask them to make simple stuff, ghar-ka-khaana, the way you like it (it helps if you have a big-chested booming voice, and a don't-fuck-with-me demeanour; my photographer had it in spades!)
almost every night we ate there, we had the same set of starters; excellent fish fingers (moistly-crumbly insides, and seasoned, crisp, crumb-fried outsides), and these prawns - de-veined, tossed in oil which has been heated with red chilli, curry leaves, a 'leeedle' crushed garlic, and then lightly salted. AND I MEAN TOSSED! only enough, to take away rawness and send the heat right through. perfect! you can lime'y them up if you like (i hate lime), and then have them all compete with your beer or whiskey under a cool, pune night-sky. which is exactly what we did.
2.
a good khichdi. fuck the menu! when in doubt, anywhere in middle India, order daal-khichdi. you CANNOT go wrong.
3.
some stuff at Banyan Tree, Worli/Prabhadevi: the chicken thingie i had, the 3-cheese pasta salad Jonty had, the goopy chocolate thing we dug into (was it mississippi mud-pie or death-by-chocolate?) was also luverly.
Jonty, jog my horrendous memory. as you can see, i recall the evening, mainly cause i was hanging out with you guys after such an age, but my dotard, sieve-like recollection has let all the other details get hazy. i didn't think the menu was consistently great, the service was kinda slow (and it was a slow night) but if you're at a loose end, and want a nice meal in a casual, yet not down-market place, go.
4.
another wierd entry: great chicken tikka at Geofferey's, who would have figured? but then, it's an upscale watering joint, so the fact that they have good starters, does stand to reason.
in an unrelated aside, that evening TOTALLY drove home the immense benefits of drinking GOOD HOOCH! i put away an astonishing amount of it that night (by my considerably-lessened standards)
Jack, on-the-rocks (SODA SUCKS, people!!! how DARE you!?!) less than 10, but only just; and i made it to work very respectably the next morning, with only the suggestion of a head-buzz. SUPER!!! YAAY!
5.
enough now... have marked this spot, No. 5.
shall get back to this list in a bit. gotta go now:
a. gotta pee
b. rejoin the human race
c. watch Ma make lunch (horrible, lazy-arsed, bitch me)
d. bathe myself (squeaky-clean, cucumber-soap smelling, swishy-haired me)
e. and perhaps, join the salivating multitudes thronging for the new Harry Potter flick today (yes, i'm a FAN, so shut your cake-hole if you're about to even THINK anything disparaging!)
to sign off, i plan to watch Shivaji tmrrw!!
hahahahahaha! am rolling about just imagining it.
let's hope Thallaiva Rajini lives up to the absurd hype!
Thallaiva Rajini Vaazhugge!
Thallaiva Rajini Vaazhugge!
Thallaiva Rajini Vaazhugge!
that's 'long live Rajini Leader!', for you cretin-types that didn't figure that out :p
1.
masala prawns, made to order, at (of all places!) Hotel Rudra, Pune (don't ask me where it is, somewhere near Pimpri)
wierdly enough, you'd expect the average highway-hotel in India to serve up indifferent food, off an eclectic 'Indian-Chinese-Continental' menu. and it does. but here's the trick, go off the menu, and ask them to make simple stuff, ghar-ka-khaana, the way you like it (it helps if you have a big-chested booming voice, and a don't-fuck-with-me demeanour; my photographer had it in spades!)
almost every night we ate there, we had the same set of starters; excellent fish fingers (moistly-crumbly insides, and seasoned, crisp, crumb-fried outsides), and these prawns - de-veined, tossed in oil which has been heated with red chilli, curry leaves, a 'leeedle' crushed garlic, and then lightly salted. AND I MEAN TOSSED! only enough, to take away rawness and send the heat right through. perfect! you can lime'y them up if you like (i hate lime), and then have them all compete with your beer or whiskey under a cool, pune night-sky. which is exactly what we did.
2.
a good khichdi. fuck the menu! when in doubt, anywhere in middle India, order daal-khichdi. you CANNOT go wrong.
3.
some stuff at Banyan Tree, Worli/Prabhadevi: the chicken thingie i had, the 3-cheese pasta salad Jonty had, the goopy chocolate thing we dug into (was it mississippi mud-pie or death-by-chocolate?) was also luverly.
Jonty, jog my horrendous memory. as you can see, i recall the evening, mainly cause i was hanging out with you guys after such an age, but my dotard, sieve-like recollection has let all the other details get hazy. i didn't think the menu was consistently great, the service was kinda slow (and it was a slow night) but if you're at a loose end, and want a nice meal in a casual, yet not down-market place, go.
4.
another wierd entry: great chicken tikka at Geofferey's, who would have figured? but then, it's an upscale watering joint, so the fact that they have good starters, does stand to reason.
in an unrelated aside, that evening TOTALLY drove home the immense benefits of drinking GOOD HOOCH! i put away an astonishing amount of it that night (by my considerably-lessened standards)
Jack, on-the-rocks (SODA SUCKS, people!!! how DARE you!?!) less than 10, but only just; and i made it to work very respectably the next morning, with only the suggestion of a head-buzz. SUPER!!! YAAY!
5.
enough now... have marked this spot, No. 5.
shall get back to this list in a bit. gotta go now:
a. gotta pee
b. rejoin the human race
c. watch Ma make lunch (horrible, lazy-arsed, bitch me)
d. bathe myself (squeaky-clean, cucumber-soap smelling, swishy-haired me)
e. and perhaps, join the salivating multitudes thronging for the new Harry Potter flick today (yes, i'm a FAN, so shut your cake-hole if you're about to even THINK anything disparaging!)
to sign off, i plan to watch Shivaji tmrrw!!
hahahahahaha! am rolling about just imagining it.
let's hope Thallaiva Rajini lives up to the absurd hype!
Thallaiva Rajini Vaazhugge!
Thallaiva Rajini Vaazhugge!
Thallaiva Rajini Vaazhugge!
that's 'long live Rajini Leader!', for you cretin-types that didn't figure that out :p
steam-rolled, cause i'm stoopid
it's official, i'm an ass.
an ass who lets life (more specifically, WORK!), stomp all over her, kick her about, spit on her, scuff her up and tan her into "sense"lessness and then leave her ogling at the sky wildly; while WORK! goes on its merry way, smoking a cigar and being its ballsy, smug self! bastard! and i use that in a non gender-specific way; WORK! is sometimes a man, sometimes a woman; akin to Desire from the 'Sandman' graphic novels.
as you can imagine, i have been masochistically rolling in it for some time now, deluding myself somewhere along the way, that i do this cause it's fun (duh! that's what masochism is, stoopid!)
yes, work's fun. tons of fun. and since mid-may, i have coordinated 3 still-shoots, one ad film shoot for 2 commercials and a couple of tactical print releases (which, are definitely NOT fun!) and there's still more in the offing.
the point though, is that i've let everything else slide. no swimming, barely any reading, no movies, minimal hanging out with my friends, and worst of all, my mom thinks i'm a stuck-up, anal, work-bitch. true Ma, i am.
and my love-life? or even the bonk-bulletin (two sometimes-separate, sometimes-entwining concepts)? puhleez! let's not even GO THERE!
so where's the respite? all i see is cloud, where-the-fuck is the lining? i'll take a lighter grey, we can chuck silver for now!
my new name for me: stoopid manilal
pull me out of the mire, my darlings, please!
an ass who lets life (more specifically, WORK!), stomp all over her, kick her about, spit on her, scuff her up and tan her into "sense"lessness and then leave her ogling at the sky wildly; while WORK! goes on its merry way, smoking a cigar and being its ballsy, smug self! bastard! and i use that in a non gender-specific way; WORK! is sometimes a man, sometimes a woman; akin to Desire from the 'Sandman' graphic novels.
as you can imagine, i have been masochistically rolling in it for some time now, deluding myself somewhere along the way, that i do this cause it's fun (duh! that's what masochism is, stoopid!)
yes, work's fun. tons of fun. and since mid-may, i have coordinated 3 still-shoots, one ad film shoot for 2 commercials and a couple of tactical print releases (which, are definitely NOT fun!) and there's still more in the offing.
the point though, is that i've let everything else slide. no swimming, barely any reading, no movies, minimal hanging out with my friends, and worst of all, my mom thinks i'm a stuck-up, anal, work-bitch. true Ma, i am.
and my love-life? or even the bonk-bulletin (two sometimes-separate, sometimes-entwining concepts)? puhleez! let's not even GO THERE!
so where's the respite? all i see is cloud, where-the-fuck is the lining? i'll take a lighter grey, we can chuck silver for now!
my new name for me: stoopid manilal
pull me out of the mire, my darlings, please!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
of tan-lines and the dirt beneath my toenails
aaaah! i'm home. after an AMAZING 2 weeks in Pune.
i find these stints reduce me to a spazzed-out, idiot-IQ'ed & saucer-eyed freak concerned only with where her next nap and meal are coming from, so i'll refrain from trying to post.
just a quick shout-out to all my loves. hola peeps, i'm back!
i find these stints reduce me to a spazzed-out, idiot-IQ'ed & saucer-eyed freak concerned only with where her next nap and meal are coming from, so i'll refrain from trying to post.
just a quick shout-out to all my loves. hola peeps, i'm back!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
have i told you lately, you're a dumbass
this title has NOTHING to do with the post.
sing the line to rod stewart's yucky best though, and it's hilarious. enough to lift me out of the sludgy 'i hate everybody, everything!'-mood that work has put me in today.
P.S. it's 10:30 p.m., and i'm in office (so much for the cushy life of The Client!)
am now in a tearing hurry, here's the afore-mentioned poem, another ode to pointless crushes.
sing the line to rod stewart's yucky best though, and it's hilarious. enough to lift me out of the sludgy 'i hate everybody, everything!'-mood that work has put me in today.
P.S. it's 10:30 p.m., and i'm in office (so much for the cushy life of The Client!)
am now in a tearing hurry, here's the afore-mentioned poem, another ode to pointless crushes.
another wasted sigh
the moles by your mouth,
two clichés on one face.
and shameless; in the way
they beckon me to stare.
it can’t be, your crooked teeth
within that lopsided grin,
for the sin you won't commit.
in music, so dated; and happy
in its own’ness.
my willing foolhardiness,
so ready for choppy seas.
It has to be me,
and my horrendous need
for brick walls to break against.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
in a futher nod to the fabulouness of my family tree
quick note: i have rewritten my previous posts to include the names of characters.
the end of the world (the bit my building stands on anyway)
hmmm, so hari boo'ed the pottery post. good call that. in a recent epiphany, i figured that i ONLY write when i'm miserable. which means, my writing's mostly sappy, drippy crap and represents only a small part of the fabulousness that is me (i know, modest to a fault!)
so it's back to talking about food, with bits of the life i live between meals thrown in for variety.
but first, yes, a little patch of the planet is coming undone. the flat above is undergoing an upheaval of half-huge proportions, and considering i'm still mildly spazzed out from the 2 weeks away from home, it's a bit much to take. pound pound pound pound!
food talk now. ma, beauty and i went out for japanese last night. after some debate, beauty wanted to repeat GCPC again, i insisted on trying something new for you and prevailed! yeah, i'm kinda selfless like that. preen preen!
so we landed up at Atria in worli to check out Origami. they serve japanese and thai food, and if that weren't random enough, the menu also features nasi goreng and other indonesian (?) staples on the last page, go figure! even before you get to the food, this fact alone should tip you off to a slightly casual 'they'll eat anything we throw at them' attitude, the kind i find epitomised by all the Blue- Foods restaurants i've tried (we're talking bombay blue, noodle bar, spaghetti kitchen) detractors can scream themselves blue, but i'm sticking to my guns on this one!
origami then. the interior's nice enough. although considering it cuts you off from the credit-card-high howling of shoppers/gawkers at the 4th floor food court just outside, it would be a blessing irrespective. on the whole though, the decor is text-book oriental with kitsch'y knick knacks that stick out sorely, and booze merchandise thrown about to further cement my para 2 notions (beauty's too- he came up with the blue foods comparison, and then it all fell into place)
we ordered, a sushi half platter, a soba noodle soup (1 by 3) with prawn tempura and ONE shiitake mushroom (!) and nasi goreng for ma (which was the one high point ALL of us dug into) i really shouldn't bother giving you my opinion on the food, i only know what i've read about japanese food, and i'm pretty sure this was NOT a definitive enough experience to comment on. for now it'll suffice to say, i'm not converting over to raw fish anytime soon!
the other eyebrow raiser is the pricing, it totally didn't make any sense. the japanese menu swings wildly between reasonable to 'what-the-fuck!', the thai menu and rest of it was way easier to stomach (i suspect, in more ways than just the pricing) which means a meal for two, with tipple could go anywhere from Rs. 1000/- to fuck-knows!
Origami, Atria mall, Worli
Verdict: if you do go, i had nothing to do with it!
plus points
- an extensive tipple menu- but only beauty drank, a kingfisher pint at that :(
- you can smoke with your meal- hurrah for that bit of non-nazism!
so it's back to talking about food, with bits of the life i live between meals thrown in for variety.
but first, yes, a little patch of the planet is coming undone. the flat above is undergoing an upheaval of half-huge proportions, and considering i'm still mildly spazzed out from the 2 weeks away from home, it's a bit much to take. pound pound pound pound!
food talk now. ma, beauty and i went out for japanese last night. after some debate, beauty wanted to repeat GCPC again, i insisted on trying something new for you and prevailed! yeah, i'm kinda selfless like that. preen preen!
so we landed up at Atria in worli to check out Origami. they serve japanese and thai food, and if that weren't random enough, the menu also features nasi goreng and other indonesian (?) staples on the last page, go figure! even before you get to the food, this fact alone should tip you off to a slightly casual 'they'll eat anything we throw at them' attitude, the kind i find epitomised by all the Blue- Foods restaurants i've tried (we're talking bombay blue, noodle bar, spaghetti kitchen) detractors can scream themselves blue, but i'm sticking to my guns on this one!
origami then. the interior's nice enough. although considering it cuts you off from the credit-card-high howling of shoppers/gawkers at the 4th floor food court just outside, it would be a blessing irrespective. on the whole though, the decor is text-book oriental with kitsch'y knick knacks that stick out sorely, and booze merchandise thrown about to further cement my para 2 notions (beauty's too- he came up with the blue foods comparison, and then it all fell into place)
we ordered, a sushi half platter, a soba noodle soup (1 by 3) with prawn tempura and ONE shiitake mushroom (!) and nasi goreng for ma (which was the one high point ALL of us dug into) i really shouldn't bother giving you my opinion on the food, i only know what i've read about japanese food, and i'm pretty sure this was NOT a definitive enough experience to comment on. for now it'll suffice to say, i'm not converting over to raw fish anytime soon!
the other eyebrow raiser is the pricing, it totally didn't make any sense. the japanese menu swings wildly between reasonable to 'what-the-fuck!', the thai menu and rest of it was way easier to stomach (i suspect, in more ways than just the pricing) which means a meal for two, with tipple could go anywhere from Rs. 1000/- to fuck-knows!
Origami, Atria mall, Worli
Verdict: if you do go, i had nothing to do with it!
plus points
- an extensive tipple menu- but only beauty drank, a kingfisher pint at that :(
- you can smoke with your meal- hurrah for that bit of non-nazism!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
sunburnt and achy-hearted
this post is mostly spurred by hari's shout-out- thank you stinky, i've mssed you too :p
am back from two weeks of Pune sun/rain, fun, hard work and heartache (more on the heartache later) was there on work (loads and loads of it) and will be back there and going to other places as well all through next month- so, posts will be few and far between. hopefully interesting food experiences should come of it all and merit some blabbering about here, so take heart my darlings!
the one new spot of personal growth that came of this last jaunt was that I wrote, after ages. yes O somewhat-suspecting, few-but-well-loved readers, i write. unstructured and mostly strenous poetry- but that's your call to take. this one's an oldie though, i can't summon up the mental effort to dig up my Pune poem and post it here. it's called 'for meerakutty' and here it is, in its 'Nth' re-written avatar- still not happy...
For Meerakutty
She will have hair that skips
to every step she takes;
getting in the way
of her penny-round eyes.
And her smile will reveal
milk-tooth-gaps
that tell their tales
in candy-red tongues.
She'll itch for make-up,
scarves, and all things pretty,
skim ponds for tadpoles
and flit with dragonflies.
Then, scabby knee'd, at close of day,
she'll crawl onto my lap,
into my dreams; and in sleep
our hair will entwine.
am back from two weeks of Pune sun/rain, fun, hard work and heartache (more on the heartache later) was there on work (loads and loads of it) and will be back there and going to other places as well all through next month- so, posts will be few and far between. hopefully interesting food experiences should come of it all and merit some blabbering about here, so take heart my darlings!
the one new spot of personal growth that came of this last jaunt was that I wrote, after ages. yes O somewhat-suspecting, few-but-well-loved readers, i write. unstructured and mostly strenous poetry- but that's your call to take. this one's an oldie though, i can't summon up the mental effort to dig up my Pune poem and post it here. it's called 'for meerakutty' and here it is, in its 'Nth' re-written avatar- still not happy...
For Meerakutty
She will have hair that skips
to every step she takes;
getting in the way
of her penny-round eyes.
And her smile will reveal
milk-tooth-gaps
that tell their tales
in candy-red tongues.
She'll itch for make-up,
scarves, and all things pretty,
skim ponds for tadpoles
and flit with dragonflies.
Then, scabby knee'd, at close of day,
she'll crawl onto my lap,
into my dreams; and in sleep
our hair will entwine.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
my downs demand appeasing
on that cryptic note, here's my post on the luverly flagship Moshe's at badhwar park (where the swish set would drive by with hands over noses. IF they had their windows down- it's a fishing village/slum, but more on that later perhaps)
so, on a weekday some time ago, finding myself in a deep funk and having a blah day at work, i decided to play hooky and visit Moshe's- named for Moshe Shek; who's something of a jamie oliver-type phenomenon in mumbai- a yummy chef that a bunch of peeps would want to get naked with. me? i don't know, i'd have to meet him to take that call.
so, off to Moshe's i went. cosy, wood-panelled, high-roofed (and housed in part of what once must have been, an astounding south bombay home) with tall windows and a feel of a quiet, natural gentility. except, that i was there on a friday afternoon and it was packed with office-goers, along with the few south mumbai perfumed swishies who we otherwise would never rub shoulders with.
i got a table for four, and then felt guily for being the only person at it because there was a waiting line for the place. but that lasted only for a bit, hell! i deserved me some goodness just then. on to the food though. i had a something to drink, don't remember what, a juice- ah yes, watermelon (dear god! this senility!) pretty nondescript, but lovely for the weather, and for the fact that i walked over! don't ask!
do go to Moshe's with company, it's a shame to be there alone and not have others from whose plates you could sample a wider variety of eats. i ordered a salad nicoise and a humus & chicken appetiser. sat back a bit anxiously (hooky guilt) and waited for what seemed like a long time (don't go if you've played truant and need to get back to work/deadline/crabby boss/angry significant other)
the food did arrive, and it was lovely. now, i've never had a great salad nicoise, so perhaps in Nice they'd bung in fresh anchovies and that would lift the dish to no end. but i know i loved the freshness of the the other ingredients. my humus dish was good too. i like humus, but the chicken mince'y accompaniment overpowered it a bit more than i would have cared for.
unfortunately, my meal there was all together too threadbare for this to be a rousing 'yaay! get your arse to Moshe's!' kind of review, but i suspect that's what i will say after a couple of more meals there (it's on my afore-mentioned list of swish work-lunch options)
Moshe's (and possibly Indigo, which i haven't visited yet) makes a great case for switching away from a lifestyle where entertaining myself is all about cheap hooch, greasy bar food or cheap takeaway. i mean, that food's great too, but i do feel it's time i upgraded to a more refined place in my life- where conversation gets more interesting (as opposed to slurry) helped along by attentively cooked food and good tipple.
Moshe's, Badhwar Park, Cuffe Parade
code: casual swish
meal for two (with tipple): Rs. 2500/- (my guess'timate)
so, on a weekday some time ago, finding myself in a deep funk and having a blah day at work, i decided to play hooky and visit Moshe's- named for Moshe Shek; who's something of a jamie oliver-type phenomenon in mumbai- a yummy chef that a bunch of peeps would want to get naked with. me? i don't know, i'd have to meet him to take that call.
so, off to Moshe's i went. cosy, wood-panelled, high-roofed (and housed in part of what once must have been, an astounding south bombay home) with tall windows and a feel of a quiet, natural gentility. except, that i was there on a friday afternoon and it was packed with office-goers, along with the few south mumbai perfumed swishies who we otherwise would never rub shoulders with.
i got a table for four, and then felt guily for being the only person at it because there was a waiting line for the place. but that lasted only for a bit, hell! i deserved me some goodness just then. on to the food though. i had a something to drink, don't remember what, a juice- ah yes, watermelon (dear god! this senility!) pretty nondescript, but lovely for the weather, and for the fact that i walked over! don't ask!
do go to Moshe's with company, it's a shame to be there alone and not have others from whose plates you could sample a wider variety of eats. i ordered a salad nicoise and a humus & chicken appetiser. sat back a bit anxiously (hooky guilt) and waited for what seemed like a long time (don't go if you've played truant and need to get back to work/deadline/crabby boss/angry significant other)
the food did arrive, and it was lovely. now, i've never had a great salad nicoise, so perhaps in Nice they'd bung in fresh anchovies and that would lift the dish to no end. but i know i loved the freshness of the the other ingredients. my humus dish was good too. i like humus, but the chicken mince'y accompaniment overpowered it a bit more than i would have cared for.
unfortunately, my meal there was all together too threadbare for this to be a rousing 'yaay! get your arse to Moshe's!' kind of review, but i suspect that's what i will say after a couple of more meals there (it's on my afore-mentioned list of swish work-lunch options)
Moshe's (and possibly Indigo, which i haven't visited yet) makes a great case for switching away from a lifestyle where entertaining myself is all about cheap hooch, greasy bar food or cheap takeaway. i mean, that food's great too, but i do feel it's time i upgraded to a more refined place in my life- where conversation gets more interesting (as opposed to slurry) helped along by attentively cooked food and good tipple.
Moshe's, Badhwar Park, Cuffe Parade
code: casual swish
meal for two (with tipple): Rs. 2500/- (my guess'timate)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
kitsch kulture
so, you're thinking, "shit! she's gone K ape-shit on us like ekta kapoor!" not a chance. but you can't help but think 'kitsch', 'konkan', and therefore, 'kulture', when you visit any of the Awchats' Mahim restaurants. Namely, 'Goa Portuguesa', 'Culture Curry' and 'Diva Maharashtracha'. I'd planned to treat my friends to dinner at 'Goa Portuguesa', reached there to find it full; walked on through into 'Culture Curry', and wound up choosing dinner off both menus. hooray integration!
The Awchats' third restaurant, Diva Maharashtracha, is a couple of doors away (haven't been there yet), while the other two share the same premises; hence the happy sampling from two of the kookiest-looking menus ever. The designs and dish names reference every sidey, happy-tacky, filmy bit of silliness from Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. And, if you're from around those parts, as i am, they're double the fun!
we love our tipple, and for this night, beauty stuck to his beers, sahu and i stuck to our large RCs (his on soda, mine on the rocks), sodab, kappu, fish and teju ordered wine (Riviera) and jonty had beer AND opted for, what has to be, one of the freshest-tasting cocktails i've ever tried- Lakewater Snake. yeah, you're thinking, 'what's with the name??' but it works! it's essentially a gin & tonic, crushed ice with strips of cucumber(!!) and a glazed cherry, topped with a couple of pudina leaves for garnish. 10 for drama, 8 for taste, 9 for making you go 'aaah, refreshing!' (cheesy, but true) and a 20 for living up to that name!
for eats, we ordered a happy melange of goan, mallu and andhra khaana and most of it was good- i won't say rocked, because authenticity is such a fluid, rooted-in-memory concept, 'rocked' can never be a universal adjective. that, and i am a fence-sitter. so yeah, the food's good, go! that's the highest praise you'll hear from me (unless i choose to describe home grub- then it's ROCK central!)
er, anyway, where was i? oooh, appams (very passable), prawn theeyal (blah prawns, half-decent theeyal) chilli-pork sausage (good), something xacuti, something cafreal (i've forgotten which was chicken, which was pork) squid, mussels... you get the idea. i liked what (my buddy) fish had, an Andhra dish, prawn royallu, i think. his dish had far fresher prawns and that went a long way in upping the taste factor that kappu's theeyal lacked.
at this point, i must give a shout out to the fabulous staff we had waiting on us. so it was a slow night, therefore attention, i can get. but these guys were SMILING! now by any standards, we're a raucous bunch, raising eyebrows all about with our loud talk, smoking and varying degrees of demandingness (is that a word!?) but at Goa-Culture-Portuguesa-Curry (hey! I was buzzed, two menus, two restaurants, two sets of differently-dressed staff serving me! of course it all blurred into one whee-happy giggle-fest!), the guys seemed to love each of us; separately, equally and as we were!
go there peeps! if an experience is a combination of many effects, i give GCPC a vibrant 10/10!
Goa Portuguesa/Culture Curry (or, GCPC, as i like to think of it), Mahim
code: casual-swish
meal for 8 (with lots of tipple): Rs. 6000/- ( you do the math!)
The Awchats' third restaurant, Diva Maharashtracha, is a couple of doors away (haven't been there yet), while the other two share the same premises; hence the happy sampling from two of the kookiest-looking menus ever. The designs and dish names reference every sidey, happy-tacky, filmy bit of silliness from Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. And, if you're from around those parts, as i am, they're double the fun!
we love our tipple, and for this night, beauty stuck to his beers, sahu and i stuck to our large RCs (his on soda, mine on the rocks), sodab, kappu, fish and teju ordered wine (Riviera) and jonty had beer AND opted for, what has to be, one of the freshest-tasting cocktails i've ever tried- Lakewater Snake. yeah, you're thinking, 'what's with the name??' but it works! it's essentially a gin & tonic, crushed ice with strips of cucumber(!!) and a glazed cherry, topped with a couple of pudina leaves for garnish. 10 for drama, 8 for taste, 9 for making you go 'aaah, refreshing!' (cheesy, but true) and a 20 for living up to that name!
for eats, we ordered a happy melange of goan, mallu and andhra khaana and most of it was good- i won't say rocked, because authenticity is such a fluid, rooted-in-memory concept, 'rocked' can never be a universal adjective. that, and i am a fence-sitter. so yeah, the food's good, go! that's the highest praise you'll hear from me (unless i choose to describe home grub- then it's ROCK central!)
er, anyway, where was i? oooh, appams (very passable), prawn theeyal (blah prawns, half-decent theeyal) chilli-pork sausage (good), something xacuti, something cafreal (i've forgotten which was chicken, which was pork) squid, mussels... you get the idea. i liked what (my buddy) fish had, an Andhra dish, prawn royallu, i think. his dish had far fresher prawns and that went a long way in upping the taste factor that kappu's theeyal lacked.
at this point, i must give a shout out to the fabulous staff we had waiting on us. so it was a slow night, therefore attention, i can get. but these guys were SMILING! now by any standards, we're a raucous bunch, raising eyebrows all about with our loud talk, smoking and varying degrees of demandingness (is that a word!?) but at Goa-Culture-Portuguesa-Curry (hey! I was buzzed, two menus, two restaurants, two sets of differently-dressed staff serving me! of course it all blurred into one whee-happy giggle-fest!), the guys seemed to love each of us; separately, equally and as we were!
go there peeps! if an experience is a combination of many effects, i give GCPC a vibrant 10/10!
Goa Portuguesa/Culture Curry (or, GCPC, as i like to think of it), Mahim
code: casual-swish
meal for 8 (with lots of tipple): Rs. 6000/- ( you do the math!)
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
we can't pack that for you ma'am
so D, Saddi and I went out for lunch the other day. to 'all stir fry', the nice chinese place in Gordon House (yes, she of 'polly-esther's' fame). and it was brill. the place is clean, pretty, has huge-ass mirrors and a plasma screen playing old bruce lee films on a loop(on mute, unfortunately)
Saddi got frisky and decided to opt for a kiwi daiquiri and i chose a mocktail, inexplicably called 'summer-freeze'. both suffered somewhat from the common curse of being too sweet, but i may be in a minority here in having that opinion (NOW see why i call myself a fence-sitter?!)
lunch at 'all stir fry' is an interesting experience, for the first timer, anyway. they have a make-your-own-wok option which i suspect a bunch of people pick for the drama of it. essentially, it's an orientalised version of kadhai-vegetables, and waaay prettier.
imagine a salad bar. meats (hallelujah! beef and pork too!) & seafood to one side (raw or semi-cooked), veggies- peppers, corn- baby and kernels, greens- broccoli, bok-choy, spinach, more. plus, the usual suspects- onion, & tomatoes, lying in wait next to paneer, tofu and a selection of noodles to the other side.
all waiting, misty-coolly, for you to come and bung them in your bowl, hand it over to a chef who stir fries the lot (in a suitably awesome, fire'y display of woksmanship) in a sauce of your picking. oh! and yeah, he's in a glass-enclosed booth with sliding doors; to keep the rest of your a.c.'d space from getting warm (lifestyles of the cool and comfortable)
right. i'll cut to the chase; no gastro-porning. the food was great. all the more fun for the novelty of it. we're gonna try their a la carte menu next time, and I have it on my list of semi-swish, accessible work-lunch places. although frankly, it's a crime to have to work afterwards :p
incidentally, here's a heads-up, you can't make a doggie-bag of your wok leftovers (i tried) logically, since you can make yourself an unlimited serving, they've cheapo-proofed themselves from people who'll order and cart away leftovers for non-paying, non-doggie others.
so, get there really hungry, or serve yourself sensibly. have fun!
all stir fry, gordon house, colaba
meal for two (with tipple) Rs. 2000/-
Saddi got frisky and decided to opt for a kiwi daiquiri and i chose a mocktail, inexplicably called 'summer-freeze'. both suffered somewhat from the common curse of being too sweet, but i may be in a minority here in having that opinion (NOW see why i call myself a fence-sitter?!)
lunch at 'all stir fry' is an interesting experience, for the first timer, anyway. they have a make-your-own-wok option which i suspect a bunch of people pick for the drama of it. essentially, it's an orientalised version of kadhai-vegetables, and waaay prettier.
imagine a salad bar. meats (hallelujah! beef and pork too!) & seafood to one side (raw or semi-cooked), veggies- peppers, corn- baby and kernels, greens- broccoli, bok-choy, spinach, more. plus, the usual suspects- onion, & tomatoes, lying in wait next to paneer, tofu and a selection of noodles to the other side.
all waiting, misty-coolly, for you to come and bung them in your bowl, hand it over to a chef who stir fries the lot (in a suitably awesome, fire'y display of woksmanship) in a sauce of your picking. oh! and yeah, he's in a glass-enclosed booth with sliding doors; to keep the rest of your a.c.'d space from getting warm (lifestyles of the cool and comfortable)
right. i'll cut to the chase; no gastro-porning. the food was great. all the more fun for the novelty of it. we're gonna try their a la carte menu next time, and I have it on my list of semi-swish, accessible work-lunch places. although frankly, it's a crime to have to work afterwards :p
incidentally, here's a heads-up, you can't make a doggie-bag of your wok leftovers (i tried) logically, since you can make yourself an unlimited serving, they've cheapo-proofed themselves from people who'll order and cart away leftovers for non-paying, non-doggie others.
so, get there really hungry, or serve yourself sensibly. have fun!
all stir fry, gordon house, colaba
meal for two (with tipple) Rs. 2000/-
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