Foodie!

When i was moving to Bangalore, the most prized possessions of my luggage were the gas stove, rice cooker and utensils that i had got from home. Apart from shifting base and starting work, the next most exciting thing for me was to set up the kitchen, experiment with cooking and also trying out food at different eat outs.
After being astounded by the prices on the menu in the various restaurants i visited and being not-so-happy about the taste, I have resorted to eating out only once a while when some place is very highly recommended.
These days, whenever my flat mates and i feel like eating something, we generally google the recipe or call back home to find out how it is made and then start work in the kitchen. Since cafeteria food is plain boring, lunch is also cooked and gets packed in the ubiquitous tupperware boxes. Of course, half of our ideas for the lunch box are borrowed from the friend whose mom packs delicious sabjis to go with his chapathis and paratha each day.
With so much cooking happening, the three of us at home end up spending half of our non office hours cooking and exchanging notes in the kitchen, over a steaming pot. Whether it is a full meal or just a cup of adrak ki chai, the pleasure of eating stuff that is a result of one's own effort is simply unmatched(even when it turns out not-so-great sometimes). So we thought we should start a food blog( here we go! Don't we have enough of them already?! Maybe yes, but we need to document our culinary achievements somewhere! ;) ).
Perfecting the art of cooking is a process that takes years. We are just starting off. And as long as i am, i will cook. And as long as cooking happens, i will post. Here is hoping that the blog is a document of our progress as cookers( that's what we like to call ourselves ;) ) And also hoping that the three many cooks don't end up spoiling the broth.

Phir Mile Sur? Nah!

I am a big fan of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. I remember watching it on DD as a kid and singing along with it, making up lyrics in the languages that i did not know. When i heard that it was going to be remade with the current actors, musicians and sportspersons, i was thrilled. This was last week. I have waited one whole week for its Republic Day launch. And in the meantime, i have watched its making on Youtube, told about it to friends, and when they asked if it was going to be on DD again, i said, No. Its on Zoom- isko dekho. ;)So i wake up early today morning to watch it on Zoom. It started off well with A R Rahman and Big B. But yes, like all remakes, as it progressed, it was disappointing. Despite the fresh faces and all the hype, it did not work for me. And this is why:

• My personal grievance is that Hrithik was not featured in the video.
• It failed to hold my attention after the first time. My dad asks me halfway through the video- is it a one hour program?
• Suriya and Vikram should have in the same frame when the Tamizh bit came on. And what happened to Kamal Hassan?
• Where are the cricketers?
• The diversity came across very well with the multifarious actors but i failed to see the unity.
• I could see that people on screen were acting in most parts. The effortlessness on screen that was in the original was missing. It looked like it was more about looking good than being a part of a national integration video.
• Among the over-actors are Priyanka Chopra, Shahid and Deepika. The leggy Deepika, for God's sake looked like she dropped in directly after shooting for some ad! And you could have given the remix of Bakhuda Tumhi ho as playback for Shahid's part and not known that he was actually crooning mile sur into the mike!

But it also worked for me in bits-

• Salman Khan with the deaf and mute kids. It was really touching.
• The bit with Shobhana and Shaimak Davar doing some sort of jugalbandi.
• Atul and Sonali Kulkarni- they looked real.
• Amir Khan's taare zameen par inspired part.
• Sivamani drumming by the lakeside.
• The last part of the video with the sports persons- that was when i could actually see this feeling of National integration and pride of being Indian on screen. Thats perhaps because they were not acting!
  

The original had some really memorable parts:

• The mahout on the elephant during the malayalam playback.
• Amitabh, Jeetendra and Mithun, arm in arm, singing Mile Sur like they meant it.
• Shabani Azmi's part. Where do we have actors like her these days?!

The older version, like most people are saying now, is untouchable. It is simple, charming and works because it has real people. This one is more bollywood centric, glamorous and a poorer cousin of the original. It so totally proved that Zoom TV is behind its making! Isko dekho par without any expectation!

PS: Bad day for me. Nadal pulled out of the Australian Open. Was hoping for a Nadal- Federer final!

Ooty- Sidewalk Cafe

Ever since i watched the Ooty episode of Highway On My Plate(HOMP), i have wanted to go
there for the sole purpose of eating at the places that were featured on the show.
Last weekend provided the perfect opportunity. It had been two weeks since work resumed after the shutdown and we badly wanted to get away someplace. Ended up rounding up a bunch
of people- friends, friends of friends and off we went to Ooty.


First stop was at Pykara and we stopped at one of the home made chocolate stores to pick up
an assortment of chocolates, tea and essential oils.
A long road trip from Mysore to Ooty and the walk at Pykara got us all hungry and we knew
where to go for brunch- The Sidewalk cafe. However, we could make only by lunch time and we settled down to order some pizzas that they are famous for.

After placing our order for the pizzas and sizzlers we asked their manager if we could take a peek at their famous firewood oven. The genial manager let us into the place where they baked the pizzas and let us all help the chef with the making and baking. And not only that, each of us was allowed to don the chef's hat, turn by turn and we posed away merrily for pictures!

The pizzas came out of the oven nice and hot( They had to.After all, we had helped them make it) and we wolfed down the Sidewalk specialty pizza, a spinach pizza called Popeye
something and a jain pizza. The sizzler had the yummiest and creamiest pasta that i had eaten till date.

The place has some really nice desserts on offer too. Not only that, you can also take your pick at some of their tasty chocolates- run and raisins, walnuts, almonds, cashewnuts and the like.

Sidewalk cafe is a laid back and warm place. I was delighted to see framed, old coca-cola
print advertisements adorning the walls. The baking place is modeled like a bar where you
can sit around on barstools and watch your pizza getting done. Apparently, the place gets really crowded during the evenings. Since we made it slightly early for lunch, we missed the rush. It
allowed us to sit back and enjoy the lunch at leisure. At the end of it, i knew that it was
one more name added to my satisfied-after-eating-here list. Seems the place has become more famous after it was featured on HOMP. I am gonna recommend it to all of you too. Do not miss it if you visit Ooty.

A heavy lunch and then it was time for shopping at Charring Cross- more chocolates,plants and woolens. Eating and shopping- the ultimate indulgence during an outing! :)

So much so,that we forgot that there were other places to cover before we headed back to
Mysore. Somehow wrapped up all the places before sundown and headed back. Spotted elephants on the way, in the bandipur forest, quietly grazing at night.
It was a single day out to Ooty but i got back with my batteries charged. And each time one of the plants from back there flowers, it is going to remind me of the trip and bring a smile on my face.

My year end lists

I love lists. Like Alan Harper of two and half men, i make lists for almost everything. Shopping, packing for travel, movies to watch, restaurants to try out and so on. With the year drawing to an end, we've got every Tom, Dick and Harry with an audience or readership coming out with lists- best movies, best songs, best moments of 2009 and so on. So i was like, what about my best and worst lists?; they should go up in the blog. Hence this post. Only that, i don't exactly have a big list for everything. Maybe i'll just list out the best and the worst of a few things that really stayed on in my mind. :) I don't expect anybody to agree with them coz i have this eccentric taste sometimes:)
So here goes a few of my personal year's bests-worsts and expectations from the next year.

Best movie of 2009: Wake Up Sid. Loved Ranbir in the movie. ( I so wish Hritik was featured in a full fledged role in some movie. This would have totally gone to him! )

Best song: A tie between Chor Bazaari, Ikatara and Dhan te dan.

Best book: Or books. The Twilight series. Call me a hapless romantic, but i totally loved the series!

Best TV show: Highway On my plate on NDTV good times.

Most entertaining show: Rakhi ka swayamwar. People who watched it will agree with me. Maybe bigG boss was a serious competitor, but i was not blessed enough to follow the show and its kamaal ke characters.

Cutest tv actor: Josh Radnor of How i met your mother.

Most unwanted death on tv: Michael Scofield of Prison Break. Did the man have to be killed?

Worst movie of the year: From the ones that i watched, I must say What's your Rashee. Its one thing to overact. But in 12 roles?! No thank you.

Most adorable movie character: Russell from Up.

Most overrated restaurant: For me, it would be Rajdhani. I know that it has been around for a while, but i discovered it only this year. After reading rave reviews about their authentic vegetarian food and all, i probably had really high expectations. The food wasn't great. And blame it on my inability to gorge down food, I don't think i got value for even half of the 300 bucks that i spent on the thali.

Best ad: The docomo train advertisement.

Best moment: When i finished my last exam of the 8th semester.

Most exciting moment: It was the day my first salary was credited into my account. The cell phones of most of the people around me went off with salary update messages and i could see this smile wave spreading across.

Other random things:

1. Loved the Crest edition that Times of India came up with.
2. Booster Jus simply robs people of their money.
3. Malleshwaram and Jayanagar offer some of the best places to eat in Bangalore.
4. We should have more radio stations playing Hindi and English music. Whats the point in having so many stations when all of them are playing the same kannada songs over and over again!!
   
5. It is great to have friends from college in the same office and having one of your best friends for a room mate. Saves the trouble of getting used to and adjusted to the person.
   
6. Shopping is really fun when you go swiping your card. Its only when the bills are checked that the guilt really starts!
   
7. Almost all the nice guys are taken. Really!
   
8. Two States was probably one of the most widely read books of the year. I saw almost everyone around me reading the book.
9. It is great that there is a McD in almost all prominent shopping places. Don't really cre about the taste or calories as long as i get the energy to keep me going ;).
   
10. It is so funny that one can't remember much from the first half of the year when making lists such as this!

Anyway, here's my wishlist for 2010:

1. Slightly less clutter in the city. Wish something could be done about the traffic in Bangalore. I am sick and tired of travelling for almost 2 hours to reach Majestic from work every friday.
2. More restaurants serving a good vegetarian fare.
3. Autodrivers asking for not more than 20 bucks for minimum distance.
4. Stores giving a small cashback to people getting their own bag. It is high time something is done about the plastic bag menace.
   
5. Quality movies being released. Especially in the regional languages. I can't think of many good movies with big stars in Tamil and Telugu being released this year.

Well,perhaps there are more, but i can't remember any right now. Tonight will be spent ruminating over the year and going over its pluses and minuses. Then there is also a big list of resolutions to be made. Phew! Ushering in a new year does take some effort. Anyway, 2009 was great for me and am hoping the next year will be better still. Hope your new year brings you loads of smiles and success. Happy New year!

The week that was

The previous week has been one helluva eventful week for me. It started with a trip to M.G Road one evening in search of books and magazines. Found an alleyway where a nice gentleman was selling old magazines and novels. The stacks and stacks of readers digests evoked fond memories from school when i used to read them during boring classes. I picked up a few for as less as 15-20 rupees a piece depending on the year of publication. From there, i headed to Bookworm where i lost track of time, going through a multitude of books, some new, some yellowed, but each one of them shouting out at me to buy them. I had an eye on the Ayn Rand collection but the price was a turn off. So i settled for a good copy of Gone with the Wind and a few Enid Blytons for sister dear.
It was while i was at Bookworm that i heard about the Bangalore Book Festival. Told about it to a few friends and all of them jumped at the idea of going there. So off i went on Wednesday to palace grounds with a bunch of friends and loads of cash. And oh my god! My two eyes and three hours of time were not enough to take in the stuff on display there. After a lot of searching and sorting, i bought 7 second hand books- an Irving Wallace, David Baldacci, 2 Agatha Christies, Michael Crichton, a chic lit book by an unknown author and the Kishore Biyani book- It happened in India. All this for just 490 bucks, without burning a hole in my wallet. If only i had more time I'd have emptied it for sure! The Wodehouse and Stephanie Meyer collection cost a bomb, so i have to be satisfied with the pictures only here :).


Thursday came and we restless souls were on our feet again, this time for a movie- APKGK. The reviews looked okay, but what the hell, when there is Ranbir Kapoor in it, i can watch any movie ;).Left work early that day to catch the early evening show at Innovative Multiplex. The movie turned out to be really silly but have i laughed till my sides ached or what! I was laughing more at the movie than with the movie. But Ranbir's performance was top notch and comic timing was brilliant. Go watch it at least once. For me, for 100 bucks at Innovative, it was a great deal!


Skipped going home this weekend. Instead, went to the Groundnut Mela in Basavangudi. The whole of the bull temple road was filled with stalls selling not only groundnuts but a variety of fare that made it look like a village fair.

I realized what the charm of the Old Bangalore areas was all about. With rows of stalls displaying colorful stuff, my camera had a gala time. To satisfy the appetite that we had worked from all of that walking, we had the North Karnataka spread at Kamat Buglerock. I can say that this was by far among the most gratifying meals that i had in Bangalore. The violinists playing classical music in the backdrop was an added plus! The only thing i did not do was probably wipe my banana leaf clean ;). A nice ending to a memorable week. I now know that roaming the malls is not the only option to pass time here. There is absolutely no dearth for avenues and options in Bangalore to go all out and spend money and time :).

Hurrah to long weekends!

It has been a more month since i moved to Bangalore and i can't get myself to believe how quickly time flies! And how dramatically my life has changed in such a short span of time! Though my favorite hobby still remains watching movies, i hardly spend time doing it anymore, coz i don't get that kind of time. And also that there has hasn't been a great movie that's released recently! Instead, i spend my time planning for the day- what to study, what to cook, shopping, playing scrabble and singing with my friends i share the flat with ( I really don't know how else to refer to them! Flat mates sounds so impersonal! I guess i'll call them G and J henceforth).

I've also learnt the art of giving my parents an account of the whole day over the phone. Initially, it felt weird, going through my day's activities with them and asking them to do the same. I left out most of the things, did not know what to mention and what to leave out. A typical conversation would involve what i had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the highpoint of the day and plans for the next day. It would never occur to me that they needed more details than that so as to differentiate the day from that previous one! Now, i remember to go through little things like some joke that happened at the office, the effort that went into dishing out a meal, a recipe that turned out bad, some new food joint we discovered or a new place that we found to shop at.

The whole transition thing did not really take that long. During college, everyday was like a day off. I did not have to apply my head unless there was a test and i could spend all my time day dreaming, chilling out with friends or sleeping. Not so anymore! I don't have the luxury of sleeping late on weekdays anymore. Every morning is a running race. If only i could give up on that extra ten minutes of sleep after the alarm goes off! But i am certain that running like this each morning can surely help me knock off a few pounds ;).

On the bright side, i have come to value the weekends even more. I so look forward to coming home during weekends, getting pampered by my parents, quarelling with my sis to reclaim all my stuff that she's taken over, going on a ride and sleeping till late. My mom feels for me that i don't get to watch TV in Bangalore and i get to keep the remote whenever i am home. Yay! I never got to do that before since my parents would get so annoyed with my frequent channel-changing.

Once back in Bangalore, each day is spent waiting for friday to arrive. It is not so difficult anymore! And the three consecutive long weekends surely help! I am so loving it!

New beginnings

I have known this was coming, all along. For i spent the whole of the last month preparing for this day- buying stuff, getting documents ready, packing, you get the drill. The packing happened with a great deal of excitement, so much that mother dearest was under the impression that i could not wait to leave home. Somehow, i did not even feel a twinge of sadness when i went for one last time to the college to collect some certificates.
But today, as i put the last of my things into the suitcase, there is this queasy feeling in my stomach. I have never been away from home for long. This morning, i got up knowing that i won't be sleeping in that bed for hours together anymore! Seemed like the whole house was spinning around me! (Perhaps it was nausea but i am not exaggerating! ) To clear my head, i went for one last ride on the empty streets of Mysore and cried my way back home. Maybe i will get busy with my life in Bangalore to mull over this, maybe not. But today morning, i am not exactly a happy girl. I don't want to leave home! Only consolation is that i have the task of setting up a new home with friends and new experiences to look forward to. There are hopes and aspirations that life at the workplace will be challenging and fun. In the past, i have spoken at school and college about farewells being a mixture of happiness and sadness, but today i felt the full force of the feeling for the very first time! Saying goodbye is really hard. This is how i am possibly meant to feel. And the feeling might just fade away as time progresses. So bring on the wings, i am probably ready to fly!