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!

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.

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)