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.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
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!
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