Here I am

Real Food

2011-08-07T21:47:00.000+08:00

I think I first heard about 'Real Food - Cafe, Grocer, Books' in a vegetarian group meet up list. Since then, I have been wanting to visit the place. On saturday, I finally did. Located in the basement of Central Mall at Clarke Quay, it took some searching amongst the different outlets before we could locate it.

Orders were quickly placed. While waiting for the food to arrive, we looked around the place. Within the restaurant, they have a huge bookshelf with many books amongst which, some were about healthy eating and living. Its the kind of a place where you can pick up a book to give you some company while you eat your meal.

Oh, they also have magazines if that is more of what you would rather read over a meal :P

Brushcetta with grilled Zucchini and Pesto

Spinach tomato spaghetti

Blueberries and Banana French toast

The food was very tasty. The bread was perfectly toasted. The pasta was cooked perfect. And the crumbles of feta cheese over the pasta -Yum! The French toast didn't have an eggy taste either. I think maybe it was the banana which masked the eggy flavour.

I will definitely be coming back for more. There were so many interesting items that I want to try out. Only vegetarians will understand how relieving it can be to visit a restaurant (in a meat loving country) and be able to order anything on the menu!

Oh, cost wise I felt it was quite reasonable. For the items the two of us had ordered (and some coffee), we paid about 35 bucks.

They also have lots of organic products on sale. Do check them out!

Gym tales

2010-04-30T23:11:00.001+08:00

Do you guys remember in F.R.I.E.N.D.S when Chandler wants to quit the gym? And they bring out Maria?

I am so screwed!

PS: I don't intend to quit gymming/exercising. I just want to shift to one which is not as expensive as the current one.

The Flyin' Bread

2010-03-28T21:16:00.001+08:00

The Flyin' Bread is a nice and cosy eatery located in the basement 3 of Somerset 313 (one of the newest malls in Singapore), right above Somerset MRT, on the very popular Orchard Road. Although they don't provide any seating, patrons are free to use tables and chairs conveniently located around the eatery.

Our visit to The Flyin' Bread was decided very suddenly, when we were wondering where to eat before we headed out to watch "Up In The Air". Initially, we didn't even have any plans of featuring this on Foodie Express, but we all liked the food so much and its been a while since all the core Foodie Express foodies met up to explore restaurants.

They are mainly a take-out eatery and serve up some fantastic rolls. While most of the rolls are non-vegetarian, they do have a paneer (cottage cheese) roll and I think a mushroom based roll too. Oh, they also serve some refreshing fruit smoothies.

Between the five of us, we ordered a variety of paneer, egg and chicken rolls. The rolls come in three sizes - Small, Medium and Large. Small rolls have one kebab stuffed inside the roomali rotis (flour tortillas which are soft and thin as a handkerchief), where as the medium one have two and large ones have three.

Since its a completely open kitchen, we can see the chef making the rotis. He even does the trick of flinging the dough into the air and then catching it.

I ordered a paneer medium roll along with a mango smoothie and had a very memorable next 5 minutes relishing both the items. The roll as such was very very tasty with a hint of Indian flavour in the stuffing. Even though I had two kebabs inside the roll, I didn't feel it to be heavy. Quite a light but satisfying meal.

The food and the drinks can either be ordered separately or as a combo meal, which definitely works out to a dollar or two cheaper. Price wise, if you order the combo, it will cost you about 7 to 8 dollars. Definitely value for money. I will definitely return back. My only grouse is that there were just two vegetarian options - paneer and mushroom. I just wish they had a couple of more. Maybe corn, potato, etc..

All photos are courtesy of the owners, who very graciously let me use their photos. Since this was not a pre-planned Foodie Express outing, I hadn't taken my camera.

Shorry Shorry!

2010-03-18T00:11:00.002+08:00

Presenting my current obsession -

I am kind of hooked onto Korean music since the past couple of days. Must ask my Korean colleague for some nice songs.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

2010-02-06T19:26:00.001+08:00

This video seems to be the most talked/circulated about, this Chinese New Year season!

Its so damn funny. Its a pity that I cannot understand the lyrics. Any kind soul out there wants to translate it for me?

Obsession of the month...

2010-01-31T14:37:00.000+08:00

is this song -

The first time I heard it and was LOLing about "ni woofer tu meri,meri, mein tera amplifier". But then, the song slowly crept into my mind and now refuses to get out. Not that I am complaining

Bali - 3

2009-12-26T20:25:00.000+08:00

Parts 1 and 2 be found here and here.

The rest of the second day was spent in visiting a couple of temples and watching a performance of the Kecak dance. The first temple we visited was the Goa Gajah temple. Goa means cave and Gajah means elephant. So, it translates to Elephant Cave. There are carvings on many menacing looking creatures at the entrance of the cave and one of them is believed to be that of an elephant. Hence the name - Elephant Cave.

Like most temples in Bali, one has to be dressed in a traditional sarong (a wrap around) to enter the cave so as to respect the religious sentiments. Everyone is provided with a sarong at the entrance (which is included in the 10000 rupiah entrance fee), which has to be returned later. It is said that this temple was built more than 700 years ago but was discovered only in the 1920's. At the entrance of the cave, one can see many pieces of ruins arranged in a small field. The local guide told us that this was from the entrance of the cave, which was damaged due to an earthquake. One can also find huge pieces from a status of Buddha nearby, which is also believed to have been destroyed by an earthquake.

We then went to visit another temple, but I have completely forgotten its name. You see, temples are generally not high on my 'must-see-things' list when I am on a holiday. But, then again each of the temple we visited had this serene atmosphere, where one feels that he/she can think in peace. A place where one can contemplate on his/her life without getting distracted by the trivialities of everyday life. I don't know how most temples manage to have that atmosphere.

By now, it had started getting dark and we ended our sight-seeing day by watching a performance of the kecak dance performed at one of the local institutions. The speciality of this dance performance is that they don't use any musical instruments. Instead the entire background music is provided by the chants of many men, who seemed to chant many variations of the sound 'cak'. The dance is actually a musical drama which depicts some of the prominent scenes from the Ramayana. Now, the Ramayana is not new to Indians and hence we were able to understand what is happening. We were also provided with brochures which explained the scenes which were being enacted for the benefit of the non-hindu or a non-Indian audience. There was even a fire dance, where one of the dancers danced on a burning dry coconut skins. That kind of freaked me out a bit. Just imagine, this guy does it almost every day.

The day ended with a hearty dinner at this restaurant called Simpang Cafe, which is located quite close to where we were staying. Infact, we ended up going there for dinner on both the nights we stayed at Bali. Not only did they serve fantastic food, they had a vegetarian menu. They did great with the vegetarian versions on Nasi Goreng and Mee Goreng. One word - YUM! My dinner there on both days were accompanied with a glass of orange juice. I was pleasantly surprised that the orange juice tasted a bit different from what we generally have here in Singapore. It was like they had added some special/exotic herb to the juice. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My friend told me later that it was the natural taste of the oranges grown in that region and that no herb was added to the juice as such. It was fantastic! One should definitely try out a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice in Bali. The dinner marked the end of a hectic day for me. While my friends continued partying at one of the clubs, I retired early to catchup on some much needed sleep. It was bliss.

The next day was spent shopping for souvenirs and getting a relaxing massage at one of the massage parlours around the hotel. Like I had mentioned in my first post on Bali, Jln Legian is a great place to stroll around and shop. Lovely stuff!

I will definitely visit Bali again to look at many places which I missed out on during this holiday due to lack of time. On my list are the black sandy beaches in the north of Bali and the towering Gunung Agung.

Bali - 2

2009-12-13T17:22:00.002+08:00

Part 1 of the series can be found here.

While the day was spent in a quiet way, we all decided to make the night a happening one. Plans were promptly made to check out the club(s). My friend, who had visited Bali previously suggested that we had to visit Kudeta. But we couldn't get reservations since it was a weekend I guess. So we went to checkout the other places. As long as I got to drink alcohol, be a bit high and there is good music and company around, I didn't care where we went to :P

Looks like Bali has some of the most hip and happening nightlife and restaurants in south east Asia. They are all so chic and classy that its quite easy to get mesmerized. I just couldn't get enough of such places and was quite in awe! Not that Singapore doesn't have such places, but I had never imagined Bali would be that way. Not that I am complaining. I have always been a sucker for class and sophistication ;)

After partying most of the night away, I woke up quite sleepy-eyed. But there was no time to go back to bed. I was in Bali for just about three days and there was no way I was going to spend it sleeping in a hotel room. After a nice and refreshing breakfast, it was time to hit the road and soak in the other sights that Bali had to offer.

We had engaged a driver and a car to show us around and hence didn't bother to find out about the public transport options available. We started off with a visit to Sanur beach, which was just about ok. The beach seemed to be quite shallow and it looked like one could walk quite a bit into the sea with the water level still below the knees. But, the beach offered nice views of flights approaching a landing at the Ngurah Rai International airport.

It was quite a hot day and we were more than happy to get back into the cool confines of our car and proceed to our next destination - Ubud. Enroute, we stopped at a Batik art centre, where we could see the local crasftmen making Batik prints. I was under the impression that batik was an exclusive Indian art, but apparently its not. A quick look at the wikipedia entry on Batik tells that it is extensively practiced in Indonesia too. The Batik art centre even had a huge showroom adjoining where one could buy shirts and other items of clothing with batik prints.

We stopped for lunch at this wonderful restaurant called as Adia Asri. Oh, what a fantastic place with a fantastic view and serving up some fantastic fare. YUM YUM YUMMY! They even had a separte Vegetarian section in the menu. I think I almost jumped up and down with joy.

Whenever I visit a new place, I always do some research beforehand on the different types of food available there, the specialties, exotic stuff. But, somehow on this trip, I was not at all excited about the food. Probably because I knew that there would hardly be any vegetarian options other than gado-gado perhaps. Again, I was pleasantly surprised. Every restaurant we went to happily obliged us when asked for vegetarian versions. One more thing which I noticed was the way in which food was presented. Almost in every place, it was neatly arranged and so visually appealing. Perfect!

Karala Special

Ubud is the cultural capital of Bali. I believe there are quite a few museums but we didn't visit them. We spent most of our time looking around Puri Saren Ubud or the Ubud Palace. It was a cute and charming place. Somehow, I had a very relaxed feeling when I was around the palace. While my friends we busy taking snaps, I was quite content with observing the palace through my own eyes (Ah! The advantages of not taking a camera). I don't know much about the history of this palace, but we were told that some people still reside in the palace. Wow! Imagine that. It would be so lovely to stay there.

And oh! We also happened to meet a very very friendly and adorable dog, who seemed to enjoy all the attention that the visitors were bestowing upon him/her. Awwww! I think I almost dissolved into a puddle. If ever in my life I have a dog (maybe I should, Hmmmmm....), I want him/her to be just as friendly as this dog. I had always been scared of dogs my entire life, but ever since this happened, I have developed a soft corner for them.

We later visited the market situated next to the palace. It was a typical touristy market selling many souvenirs and other such stuff. It was very reminiscent of India with prices being quoted more than double. Significant bargaining is expected.

More in the next post.

All photos are by Srivats.

Bali - 1

2009-11-29T23:53:00.002+08:00

Ah! Bali. How do I even start writing about my whirlwind trip to the charming island? A place which is special to me now, for various reasons.

I have been meaning to visit Bali from almost the time I came to Singapore. I had heard much about its beauty, exotic locales and the beautiful people. Needless to say, I was itching to see for myself this paradise, which conveniently is just a 2.5 hour flight from Singapore. Its things like these, which makes me feel very happy about staying in Singapore. Singapore is located in such a strategic location in South-east asia that any place is just a short flight away. You name it - Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong & China. Even the western parts of Australia also for that matter. Strong presence of three budget airlines - AirAsia, Tiger and JetStar serving most of these destinations ensures that it is not hard to clinch a good deal on the airfare from Singapore.

So when my friend sent me an message informing me of 70 dollar (all inclusive) return fare to Bali, I jumped at the chance and booked tickets almost immediately. Initially I was a bit apprehensive about going on a trip with people whom I did not know all that well, but then isn't that how friendship grows from a formal "Hello! How are you?" to a casual "Stop eating me head you ass!" :P Anyway, I am so glad I did go on the trip.

I love traveling with AirAsia. I haven't had any problems with them so far and I think the combination of Red with Black upholstery inside the cabin looks very classy. Yes, that is how I choose which airline I want to travel with - choice of colours :P

Anyway, I am digressing. Lets get back to Bali. It looks like the runway of Ngurah Rai international airport at Bali has actually been built on reclaimed land. The runway almost entirely juts out into the sea. So, when our flight was approaching the landing, it looked like we were going to land right over the water. Its just at the last moment, I spotted the tarmac below. Perfect landing. The buildings of the airport have been built in the typical Balinese architecture. Infact most of the houses and old buildings in Bali have a conical roof. A unique thing I noticed about these conical roofs is that the base of all these cones were squares. I hardly ever spotted a rectangle. Err.... I just reread what I have written and it sounds so geeky. No wonder things like this happen.

Indians are eligible for an on arrival visa to enter Indonesia. I was already mentally prepared for long queues at the immigration. Surprisingly it was super fast and very efficient. Btw, do you people know what is the coolest thing in the whole wide world? Its the automatic immigration machines at Changi airport. Oh dear lord! God bless Changi airport and Singapore. It took me less than 10 seconds to clear immigration.

We had already booked our accommodation. Our hotel was very conveniently located along Jln Legian, which has shops and restaurants on either sides, is a very charming place. It has many famous brands lined up alongside quaint little shops selling artifacts and other cutesy stuff. I would personally love to walk along Jln Legian on a day just randomly looking around and wandering around such shops at my own pace. Perfect for a relaxed day with nice weather. Speaking of weather, Bali has a very tropical climate and is quite hot during the daytime. But the humidity is much less when compared to Singapore.

The first day was spent just roaming around our hotel, visiting the beach and restaurants. Actually, Bali is a great place for surfing. One will find lots of people doing that. Kuta beach is the place to be to see people surfing. Infact, many famous surfing brands have a presence in Kuta/Legian.

More in the next post. In the meanwhile, here is a teaser.

Do it NOW!

2009-11-29T18:32:00.003+08:00

Alright, all you men out there, who have *never* got their hair shampooed and blow dried at a salon, raise your hands.

Let me count how many hands are raised. I can see atleast 5. Now, go do it. Yes, go get your hair shampooed and blow dried at a salon convenient to you. You need to know how it feels.

I just got it done and I feel lighter than air and pampered to the core! Ah! What a relaxed feeling it is.

Singapore.... Yea.... whatever!

2009-11-22T21:12:00.002+08:00

Sigh! The vacation got over so soon! I wanted to be in Bali for some more time. Its such a beautiful and charming place.

I am definitely going there again! And this time I am gonna spend more time there and see as much as possible.

Bali.. Yeeeeeeeeeah!!

2009-11-20T09:07:00.000+08:00

Am off to Bali for a much needed vacation. Will be back soon!

I promise to blog about the trip. Incase, I don't, please feel free to kick my ass!

A Simple Equation

2009-10-27T22:10:00.004+08:00

Healthy dinner at Subway + Peach flavoured frozen yoghurt with fresh mango topping + aimless walking along the exotic aisles of Cold storage = One happy boy :D :D :D

Cold Storage is a fantasy land for me!! I will get lost and drift to my happy place when I am there. The rest of the world ceases to exist! Infact, my ex had gotten quite jealous that I seemed more excited at cold storage than on our dates. LOL!!

A sure shot way to make me happy (especially if I am angry with you) - Drop me of at Cold Storage and come and pick me up after a couple of hours :D Importantly, pay for whatever I purchase there.

The nicknames

2009-10-12T23:32:00.001+08:00

Recently I started thinking about the different nicknames that are usually associated with me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have so many nicknames. In an effort that I don't forget them (and that I need to update my blog more regularly), here they are and the story behind them.

1. Pizzadude - My online name. I didn't come up with this name actually. Instead, it was coined by a close friend of mine, after he discovered my LOVE for pizzas. I don't think he even remembers that he coined this name. Pills, thanks so much for inspiring my online identity.

2. Chinnu - My family calls me by this name. Soon my friends caught on to this and I am now frequently referred by this name.

3. Chinoto - Coined by Sri, my ex-flatmate. He saw the name on the drinks menu at Pasta Fresca and became obsessed with it and started referring to me that way. Now, the other ex-flatmate also refers to me by this name.

4. Thai-chi - Again coined by Sri, after he discovered my unconditional love for Thai food!

5. Aloo Bhujia ~~Controller~~ Confiscator Dude (ABCD) - Coined by Shub. Story here.

6. Aloobun Dude - Coined by Shub after I made here jealous by eating aloo bun (got by ex-flatmate from Bangalore) and not giving it to her.

7. Thames - Coined by Sumanthe, after noticing my supposedly angrezi behaviour/mannerisms.

8. Thudson - Coined by Viv. During dinner one day, my friends were referring to me as Thames as usual. I opined that since I prefer US to UK, I should be called as Hudson. This prompted Viv to refer to me as Thud-son, with a resounding thud on my back!

9. Joey - Coined by Sash, after the character of Joey Tribbiani from F.R.I.E.N.D.S., when she found out about my love for pizzas and food and for typical Joey like behaviour.

10. Veshtiman - Story here.

The Shantamma Parvatamma Chronicles

2009-10-10T17:47:00.003+08:00

It all started more than a year ago. One evening, I had finished cooking dinner quite early. While waiting for my flatmates to arrive, Shub happened to call. During the course of our conversation, I happened to tell her how convenient it is to cook with the microwave oven, how I finished cooking much sooner than I had expected to, how it avoids mess and clutter and how I will end up washing less vessels. I went on and on, which prompted her to say that I sound like a housewife. She then proceeded to ask me, in typical Bangalore fashion - Yen ri Shantamma? Adige aaytha?

Subsequently, we would get into this Shantamma mode every now and then and end up amusing ourselves silly. That's when it struck us - lets make this a feature on our blogs - The Shantamma Parvatamma Chronicles, henceforth referred to as TSPC. Their character sketches are here.

So, the other day, Shub remarked that I looked quite thin of late and then proceeded to ask me -

Yen ri shantamma phull figure-aa? ;)

Howdri Parvatamma. Eegina kaaladalli figure-gigure irbeku. Illa andre yaaru tirugkooda nodalla. ;)

Hoon kanri. Namm yajmanru, marathon geerathon antha shanivaara aadre oadakke hogtaare. Adu alde neenu baare baare antha tale tinn taare. Saakaagbittide nange!

Nimm yejamanru bidre. Phull popular aagbitidare. Hudugiru alde hudugurugu kooda phull interest avarabagge. Nimm friendu, hindinbeedi Meenu-akka, avarannu hogalidde hogaliddu.

Howdu. Naanu kooda adeno koodlu kappu maadodikke DYE antha yeno sigothe antharalla..adu talege hachhc bekaa nodtideeni... naan avra ajji antha tilkobaardu nodi jana!

Howdu howdu. DYE hachikolli. Reshme sereenu utkoli. Talege swalpa mallige hoovu mudukoli. Phull lakshanavaagi kaanteera.

Tip-taap kaan bekri naanu. Bob cut maadsi dye hachkondu heng kaantheeni noodi. Aa pakkada mane mahaaalakshmige phull hotte uribeku!

Tequila Blue

2009-09-27T22:22:00.000+08:00

I don't know what exactly about Mexican food excites me. Maybe its the flavour or the vibrant colours or many vegetarian options. Or maybe its a mix of all these things. So, its high time that I feature a Mexican restaurant in FoodieExpress. Presenting, ladies and gentlemen, the latest discovery by our resident consultant, Ms. Sayesha - Tequila Blue. Its situated at Changi Village, very close to the Changi ferry terminal and the Changi Bus terminal.

My all time favourite Mexican place in Singapore is Cafe Iguana. Well, Cafe Iguana now has a competitor. After my visit to Tequila Blue, its has definitely been added to my favourites list. Not only was the food great, but they had a wide variety of veggie options.

They had quite an interesting ambience. Check out this hilarious poster that we saw at the entrance.

They even had a foosball table, where we played a few games. Needless to say, I lost hopelessly. I still need to get hang of that game. Also noticed was a pedestal kind of thing, where had kept many bottles of tequila. It resembled the typical positioning of gods as depicted in a bollywood movie. Haha! Well, some people consider tequila as god. :P

We quickly placed an order for a jug of mango margherita, a plate of Nachos Grande, Quesadilla and Jalapeno Rellenos. While we were waiting for the food to arrive, I was experimenting with my friend's new DSLR camera, doing random photography and also taking pictures in the manual mode. It was nice fun. I liked this particular photo very much.

Ofcourse, I also loved the photo I took of all of us, but I cannot post that here, else we will be hounded by the paparazzi on Singapore streets. LOL!

Mango Margherita

Our food arrived shortly. First came the Nachos, followed by the Quesadilla and Jalapeno Rellenos. They dishes were lovely and I had to quickly take a few pictures before my friends attacked the food. My yelling at them to not touch the food before I can take pictures does not seem to have its desired effect anymore. Here are a couple of pictures that I managed to take before we devoured the food.

Nachos Grande

Jalapeno Rellenos

Quesadilla

For the main course, the vegetarian items ordered were a Veg Burrito, Veg Enchilada and a Veg burger. They quickly found their way to our table. I had more time to take pictures though as my friends were busy devouring the appetizers.

Enchillada

Burrito

Veg Burger

The food was quite good overall and I would definitely recommend this place to people. The dinner and drinks can be followed by a leisurely walk on Changi beach situated nearby. If you like to watch planes land and take off, Changi beach is one of the places to be. Great views of all sorts of flights landing and taking off at the ever busy Changi airport.

The bill came to about 150 bucks for 5 of us, which makes it about 30 bucks per head. Quite affordable by Singapore standards. This restaurant was good value for money. If you are in or around Changi and looking for a place to eat, do consider visiting this place. You won't go back disappointed.

Woods Bio Marché

2009-09-21T13:48:00.003+08:00

Presenting the next installment in Foodie Express - Woods Bio Marché. This post is for all those people who tell that we visit restaurants in the east only. This particular restaurant is in the north. About 350 km north of Singapore to be precise. In Kuala Lumpur. I had clearly mentioned that Foodie Express will be sort of a vegetarian's guide to Singapore restaurants. But then, rules are meant to be broken :P And we sort of got carried away. Hehe!

We happened to come across this restaurant purely by chance. On our recent road trip to KL, we were walking around the Bukit Bintang area looking for a place to eat, when we chanced upon this place serving organic, vegetarian and vegan food. My curiosity was certainly piqued. A quick look at the menu and we found ourselves inside the restaurant, ready to order.

The place served mainly vegetarian/vegan versions of local dishes such as Nasi Lemak, Noodle soup apart from a couple of Western items. They had quite an interesting and colourful menu. Also mentioned on the menu, under each dish was its health value, like Anti-oxidant, Stamina, Relaxation etc.

It is such a relief to go to an all vegetarian restaurant. The knowledge that I can order anything from the menu is like a major high in itself. I will usually be found asking the waiter/waitress if a particular dish can be made vegetarian. But this, was something lovely.

As usual, I was confused on what to order. I am generally the last to decide. So, while my friends waited patiently, I zeroed in on Dumpling Soup. Orders were also placed for a Fusion Nasi Lemak set, Nonya curry somen (noodles) and a soyabean burger. While we were waiting for food to arrive, we indulged in some mindless chit-chat, people watching and random photography.

The items arrived one by one. First came the Nasi Lemak set.

followed by the Nonya curry somen,

dumpling soup

and finally the burger

I think the highlight of the entire meal was Nasi Lemak. It was very very tasty. It came along with a side of some chopped vegetables, roasted peanuts and some sambal paste. Yummy!

The dumpling soup was quite good too. The stuffing has coarsely powdered peanuts mixed along with it, which gave the dish a very interesting twist. Soft(the covering) and crunchy(due to the peanuts).

The noodles in Nonya curry was great, especially the veggies. Not overpowering like some curries generally are.

The burger was just about ok. Not particularly a big fan of the mock meat patty.

They even had vegan coffee (I am guessing made with soy milk), but I wasn't in an adventurous mood. So didn't try it. Somehow, I am not all that adventurous when it comes to coffee. There is just one or two ways in which I like my coffee and I don't prefer it having any other way.

I would definitely visit this place again. Now that I think of my visit to this place, I feel that I didn't spend enough time there to completely soak in the place or try out a few more dishes. Like my visit isn't complete or there are some loose ends which need to be tied.

I personally felt that the prices were quite cheap compared to Singapore standards. We paid about 56 Ringgits for the entire meal for 5 people, which comes to about 23 Singapore dollars. Holy Cow! That is incredibly inexpensive. We would have probably spent 60-70 dollars minimum at such a restaurant in Singapore.

You can read more about them here.

TWO

2009-09-14T20:19:00.005+08:00

I am wondering what to write in this post. A post which marks my completion of 2 years in Singapore. 2 years of living by myself. Being at a loss of words made me take a look at the post I wrote 1 year ago.

Yes, I am still very happy about all the things that I have mentioned in that post. Each time I travel on the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, from where I can view the entire Marina Bay area, it fills me with a sense of pride that I live here. And every single time, I still gawk at the skyscrapers and the view like I haven't seen it before in my life.

It feels like the past one year has flown by so fast. Maybe because a lot has happened in my life in the past one year - Traveling, friends, shifting homes, the beach, hour long commutes to work, taking a big decision, surprise birthday parties, getting into a relationship, getting out of a relationship, etc. I am glad about every thing that has happened - the good ones and the not so good ones. It gives me the feeling and the high of living my life on my own terms and being responsible for it.

Cheesecakes on the house to all the readers. Its time for some celebration! And a biiiiiig and tiiiight hug to a big bunch of people. You know who you are.

Well....

2009-09-09T22:04:00.005+08:00

Pizzadude decides to go for a swim in the evening.

Pizzadude feels very sleepy through the course of the day.

Pizzadude thinks of canceling the swimming plans and heading back home and going to bed early.

Pizzadude says "Yeah right! As if he will sleep early".

Pizzadude overcomes laziness and decides to stick to his swimming plans.

Pizzadude goes swimming at a pool near his office.

Pizzadude doesn't like the pool. He is used to the usual pool near his house.

Pizzadude swims for about 45 mins.

Pizzadude is tired and very thirsty.

Pizzadude is happy with the workout and all the extra-calories he burned (which he had accumulated by eating cookies and chocolate cake in the morning).

Pizzadude decides to treat himself to a nice and healthy dinner at Subway.

Pizzadude goes to the nearest mall.

Pizzadude gets distracted by all the restaurants.

Pizzadude almost walks into a Japanese restaurant, but then decides against it when he realizes that they don't have any vegetarian food.

Pizzadude decides to check out the Kopitiam (local food court).

Pizzadude is amazed at the variety and wonders why he never came here before.

Pizzadude spots a vegetarian stall and almost jumps up and down in joy. He then realizes that doing so does not go well with his sophisticated and dignified image and is not good on his knees. So, he just sports an angelic smile.

Pizzadude spots noodle soup on their menu. Its called Lor Mee.

Pizzadude is all excited and places an order for it.

Pizzadude waits eagerly for the dish to arrive. Filmfare magazine and some eye-candy nearby gives him company.

Pizzadude is not very impressed with the way it looks.

Pizzadude realizes to his horror that it is laden with oil and soy sauce.

Pizzadude does not like the taste so much.

Pizzadude manages to almost finish the dish as he does not like to waste food.

Pizzadude realizes that he just undid the effects of his evening swim.

Pizzadude feels bloated and fat.

Pizzadude thunks head against the table.

Pizzadude resolves to head to the nearest Subway outlet after his swim from next time.

Equality

2009-09-03T21:49:00.003+08:00

Recently, I came across this video on youtube. I didn't realize what was happening in the video initially, but then when I reached the end and realized what it was about, I was at a loss of words. It is so well done and conveys the message extremely well.

Thanks Sumanth for the link.

2009-07-21T10:10:00.000+08:00

It all started when I first heard this song and saw its trailer on youtube.

Pretty soon, I was addicted to it. The song just wouldn't get out of my head. It was driving me nuts and nothing seemed to be working. So, I tweeted about it asking for help. He promptly suggested that I listen to this song.

That was it! I was addicted again and how! It was driving me nuts even more. I was standing at the bus stop and going "Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby". I was doing some serious coding and the next thing I know, I am humming "Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby". It was worse then the previous one!

So, I had to get re-addicted to the first song to get over my addiction to the this song. Whew!

I am ok now :)

Naive

2009-06-15T21:39:00.000+08:00

I just don't know how to start describing this restaurant - Naive. Oh! I was so taken in by it. You know, when one is looking forward to something for a long time and when that something actually happens and it turns out to be just as amazing as one had expected it, if not better - that is exactly how our visit to Naive unfolded. It was a long pending visit, which when we finally visited, matched up exactly to how I had expected it to be.

Situated on East coast road, opposite to Katong Mall, the restaurant cannot be missed. I particularly liked their name board done up in black and white.

And while we are on the topic of the location of the restaurant, most of the posts on FoodieExpress so far have concentrated on restaurants in the eastern part of Singapore. That is mainly because we stay in the east and there are many restaurants that are yet to be explored here. That is one of the main reasons I shifted to the east :P Although I would like to mention that we are willing the travel the entire country in search of restaurants which serve up good vegetarian fare. If you know restaurants in the north, north-east or the west which meets this need and is non-Indian(preferably), do leave a comment and we will try to visit place and blog about it!

Okay, back to Naive. I am feeling a bit lazy and at a loss of words to compose this post. So, I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

The owners have a nice vision for their restaurant as can be seen from this picture and I was quite impressed.

The cover page of the menu.

I generally like ~~glancing though~~ reading the menu. I usually take my own sweet time to do that, like I am studying for an exam. After studying the menu, I am invariably confused on what to order because there will be atleast four or five items which I would want to try but I cannot, since I have a small appetite (being a foodie is not exactly about the quantity. Its about quality and variety!). So I generally bully my friends into ordering what I want and ~~yell at~~ politely remind them, if they touch the dish before I can take a photo of it :P

The drinks menu had interesting names for the drinks on offer.

We ordered the Passion of Life

and the Sour Power

But, Passion of Life tasted more sour than Sour power. LOL! While both the drinks were quite good, I liked Sour Power better!

Before the start of every meal, they have a Japanese inspired "Bloss" ceremony during which the diners are provided with a mortar and a pestle, which they use to grind some toasted sesame seeds, which can be sprinkled over the meal later.

Sayesha partaking in the "bloss" ceremony.

For starters, we ordered Penang Rendang along with some steamed buns which were very soft.

You can either tear a piece of the buns and dip it in the gravy and eat it or you could stuff the bread with the gravy(like a pita bread) and eat it.

We also ordered a plate of Mega Mini Mushroom, which is the recommended dish. And boy! We were so enamoured by this dish that we promptly ordered another plate of it. The dish comprised of succellent Lingzhi mushrooms fried and then mixed with a spicy szechuan sauce. Oh! It was very tasty. This is definitely one of the must have items at Naive.

Moving on, we ordered Wolfberry soup, Tom yam soup and a Organic mushroom miso soup! The soups were very well done. I personally liked the Wolfberry soup and it has a very comforting feel to it. Like being wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold day!

For the main course, we ordered a few bowls of Olive rice (creatively named as Oliver Twist on the menu) and a bowl of brown rice along with "Spice of Life" and a plate of Sambal Broccoli respectively. Spice of Life comprised of vegetables which were sauteed in a spicy kongpo sauce. The sauce was quite similar in taste to the sauce in Mega mini mushroom dish. Nevertheless, it was quite good and went along very well with the Olive rice.

The Sambal Brocolli was quite good too!

One might notice (especially an Indian customer) that the vegetables in most dishes are quite raw. Infact, that is a very common complaint that I have heard from fellow Indian colleagues and friends. They feel that the vegetables are not cooked at all and that is one of the main reasons why they dont like eating the local food. As Indians, we are so used to eating dishes where the vegetable have been cooked tender along wth the spices in such a way that the flavour of the spices are more prominent than that flavour of the vegetable. This is not the case with many south east Asian dishes as is explained in this post.

Moving along to the dessert, we noticed that they don't have anything specifically mentioned on the menu. But, they do serve a dessert of the day. On the day we went, the desserts on offer were a pumpkin based item and a pear based item. We ordered the latter and this is what we got -

It was maily boiled pears along with some chinese almonds served in a mildly flavoured broth. We didn't like it so much. Maybe we should have ordered the pumpkin dessert.

Dinner costed us about 140 bucks for six of us, which boils down to about 22 buck per head. Not at all expensive considering and is definitely worth a visit. I am surely going to visit this place again!

Naive
99, East coast Road
Singapore - 428795
www.naivecompany.com

Check and mate!

2009-05-31T15:53:00.003+08:00

A fire (of revenge) had been ignited within me ever since this happened a year ago. And now, I can say that I have taken my revenge. Details are here.

Badle ki jo jawalamukhi bhadak rahi thi, woh apne anjaam ko pahunch gayi. Haye! Dil ko thandak pahunch gayi.

:D :D :D

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe

2009-05-26T22:28:00.000+08:00

Another restaurant which is very close to my heart is Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe (XWHKC). It is no wonder that it had to figure in FoodieExpress. This place came into focus from the time Sash was raving about the Iced lychee tea and the glasses they were served in. Another dish which pushed this restaurant onto our foodie express list was '/\'. Patience my dear readers. You will find out what '/\' is soon. After all we have to save the best for the last ;)

XWHKC have a couple of branches around the country. We chose to visit the one in Siglap since its the one closest to our homes. Located at the junction of East coast road and Upper east coast road, it is quite easy to find. Siglap is full of restaurants and XWHKC is one among them.

The place is nicely done up and has a chic ambience. They even have booths. Although, it required some amount of squeezing oneself between other tables to reach them. But once reached, one can park one's ass comfortably and look forward to a nice meal.

As their name suggests they serve food local to Macau, Shanghai and Hong Kong(I can't wait to go there) and do have a few vegetarian options. But I guess one has to be able to eat non-vegetarian food (also known as food here in Singapore) to enjoy most of the dishes. Amongst the common veggie items, one item which stood out was the Papaya soup. I hadn't heard of it before and was quite eager to try it. It comes in a huge bowl with vegetables, a cob of corn and a few huge chunks of papaya in a white coloured broth with ramen noodles inside. I have a soft corner in my heart for noodle soups. So its no wonder that I enjoyed the dish. Although, I felt it was slightly bland for my taste. The other dishes ordered were a baked veggie lasagne, a curry maggi dish and a chicken dish. Good food. Very fast and efficient service.

Oh! I forgot to talk about the drinks. Two items which must not be missed are the iced lychee tea and a cold Ying Yang. Many would have had the iced lychee tea, so am not going to describe it. But, many may not have had a Ying Yang. Before telling you what it is, I think you must know that it tastes delicious and is very refreshing. It has to be had cold and in a special steel tumbler that they serve it in, which I guess may be characteristic of Hong Kong.

Ying Yang is actually a mixture of Coffee and Tea! Weird combination no? But, trust me, it doesn't taste weird at all. After you take a sip, it is the flavour of the tea which hits you first. The coffee flavour hits you later once you have almost swallowed it. Since it is served cold, it can very refreshing on a hot day and still keep you alert at the same time. Both the flavours are not very intense. Very pleasant. This is my favourite drink at the restaurant!

And now, let me present to you the highlight of of the meal - the '/\'

Yes, its a mountain of shaved ice on a bed of mango pieces with mango sauce/puree dripping from its sides and a scoop of mango ice-cream on top. Mango lovers, this is a treat for you. One word to describe it -YUMTASTIC!!

It cost us about 80 dollars and we were totally 5 people. But, let me tell you that a couple of us hardly ate anything. So on an average, it might cost you about 20-25 dollars per head. Worth it!

Bangalored!

2009-05-19T21:33:00.002+08:00

It was just about three months since my last visit to India. But then on the night of 8th May, I found myself back at the swanky Bengaluru International Airport. After all, it was my yaar's wedding. And since both of them are close to me, it was inevitable that I had to attend the wedding. A bunch of other close friends also joined the dulha and me, and we flew down together from the hot and sweltering Singapore to the hot and happening Bangalore.

Now, when Viv is around, Dumbcharades are all the more fun. After some non-family friendly enactment in the plane, I was successfully able to decipher which hindi movie title Viv was trying to mime. It was Saajan Bin Suhaagan. Oh! How we laughed. I think Sash will put up an entire post on that. You will have to wait till then for the details. Ahem!

We had exactly 7 days in Bangalore and most plans were already made. The plans mainly comprised of food places that we must all eat at :P Sash had already mentioned that she would be quite happy if she got her daily dose of road side pani puri. Food street was one of the highlights of the trip. We ate so much there. Urv and Ved had joined us and all of us hogged as if we hadn't eaten in days. We started off with dose, followed by holige, jaljeera flavoured with kalakhatta, gobi manchurian, pani puri and ended the meal with some butter-gulkan. What a meal that was!

Then came the wedding and it was another eat session. Viv did proper justice to the food and even the cooks at the wedding seemed very pleased with him. I don't think he ever said no whenever he was asked for second helpings. Apart from eating, we also managed to enjoy and take part in the wedding festivities. It was quite sometime since I had been to a traditional tam-brahm wedding. What made it even more special was that it was two of our close friends getting married.

Post wedding, we went on a small trip along with newly married couple. Sumanth has promised us that he would show us around rural Mangalore and also take us to visit a few of his relatives. Morning coffee and tea was at relative-1's house. Breakfast was at relative-2's house and lunch was at relative-3's house. We ate and we ate and we ate. And just when we thought we couldn't eat anymore, we ate again. It was exhausting!! Sash even said that she wouldn't eat pani puri that day :O The amount we have eaten in that one week in India, we wouldn't have eaten the same in two weeks in Singapore. Now that we are back in Singapore, we have to exercise with a revenge.

It was one heck of a memorable trip and it all seems like it got over too soon. Trips to India are always special and close to heart. This was my second trip in this year and I don't know when I will be visiting next. Maybe in the end of this year. Or maybe not.

The Animal

2009-05-09T12:32:00.008+08:00

We have all had instances where we hear the lyrics of a song or a dialogue in a movie incorrectly. Some of them sound silly, some are hilarious, some are ridiculous and then there are the ones that sound downright embarassing. Let me tell you about one such embarrassing goof-up by yours truly!

You may have watched the hindi movie Aitraaz. Its a Indianized version of the english movie Disclosure. Anyway, there is this scene in the movie where Priyanka Chopra is trying to seduce Akshay Kumar (and is almost succeeding). At this precise moment she utters a dialogue in a very husky voice.

What she says: Show me you are an animal Raj, show me you are an animal.

What I hear: Show me your animal Raj, show me your animal.

My reaction: WHAT??!!! :O Did she actually say that?? She calls 'it' an animal?? How how... corny, kiddish and ridiculous. How did PC even agree to mouth such a dialogue and who even wrote that dialogue??? Yikes!!!

Hey! In my defense, the audio wasn't very clear and her voice was all husky.

Looking for Flatmates

2009-04-28T00:25:00.002+08:00

Remember this post? Go on, read it and come back.

Now that you are back, I am sure you would have noticed easily how much I have gushed about the apartment and my excitement to move into that house.

Well, my dear friends, I am renting out two rooms in the wonderful apartment described in the post above. If any of the readers are looking out for renting out a room, please email me at pizzadudeblogs at gmail dot com and I will get back to you.

Ek jaam, dosti ke naam

2009-04-24T19:19:00.003+08:00

A close friend of mine emailed me recently saying -

Hellooo! When are u updating ur blog magga? I know u are too busy dating around and sleeping around, but there's life beyond that too :D

After recovering from the trauma of being referred to as 'magga' *GASP* (will save that for another post), I remembered that the proper reaction to such an email would be to say - Jeeeeeeeeeeez!

*GULP*

Yes, my dear friend, its been a while since I blogged. The lack of inclination/interest has made me neglect my blog for so long. But, now that you have emailed me and asking me why I haven't blogged, here I am, blogging. This one's for you.

Dear V,

I had never thought that you and I would end up as such good friends, considering the scenario we met in. But, now that we are, I couldn't be happier. Its been a great 3 years knowing you.

I cherish all the wonderful moments that we have spent together. Eating out, talking nonsense, gossiping, shameless leg pulling, exchanging gyaan, shopping, confiding in and speaking direct dil se. Thanks for being there when I needed your support and I will be there when you need mine.

Being the F.R.I.E.N.D.S fanatic that I am, I cannot help but recall this song at this moment -

Here's to a great friendship
*clink*

Cheers,
PizzaDude.

Gurkha Palace

2009-03-15T19:13:00.000+08:00

This month's halt on FoodieExpress started off with "Gurkha Palace", a place serving authentic Nepalese and north Indian food. A friend of mine had been raving about the momo's served there and so we decided to check it out.

The restaurant is situated bang in the middle of Little India, along Chander road (its Chandler minus 'l', for people like me who struggle to remember the name). Take the second right while walking along Race course road (from Little India MRT) and then left. Walk down this road till you come across the restaurant to your left. Also note a ridiculous sign "Hurry! Hurry! Fish head curry" in front of one the restaurants along this road. Jeeeez!

The restaurant was a bit small and we had to squeeze a bit amongst the other tables to get to our table. The walls are adorned with pictures and Nepalese handicrafts. It had a very homely feel to it. Once I sat down at the table, I felt very comfortable in the surroundings although the restaurant was quite packed. We also happened to bump into two friends of ours, Sri and Appu at the restaurant. This came as a very pleasant surprise and they joined us for dinner. After all, the more the merrier.

The menu was very very similar to a north Indian menu and many of the items were quite familiar. When we quizzed the manager about the difference in the two cuisines, he opinioned that while the north Indian dishes were quite creamy and made use of more spices, the Nepali dishes were less creamier and made use of some different spice and were more subtle.

We started off with a some Mix pakoras, Veg momos and kukhara momos (chicken). While, I thoroughly enjoyed the pakoras (they were light and not oily), the momos were just about ok. Looks like it was an off day. These came with some green and red chutney, which went very well with the dishes.

Since, we wanted to taste some unique dishes, we ordered things whose names werent familiar. On second thought, we must have asked the waiter for recommendations. Vegetarian items on the main course comprised of Aloo Dum(marinated potatoes cooked in Nepali spices, onion and tomato), Mismas tarkari(Mix vegetables cooked in Nepali spices) and Simi Tama(Steamed kidney beans and bamboo shoots cooked in tomato and yoghurt) along with Naan. I liked the food. It was quite light and flavoured in a subtle manner. Like I said before, it had a very homely feel. The best part was that I didn't feel like I had eaten a godown of spices, unlike in some Indian restaurants. My only grouse was that the quantities served weren't very large. Could have easily finished a couple of side-dishes by myself if very hungry.

Aloo Dum and Mismas Tarkari

SimiTama along with a basket of Naan

I would definitely come back here. Like I said before, very light food and a homely feeling. And quite away from the maddening crowds of Little India on a weekend. We paid about S$15 per head for the meal, which comprised of starters, main course and tea. Very cost effective in my opinion. We didn't try the dessert section though, but will definitely do so on our next visit.

Speaking of tea, check out this funny description of Himalayan tea in the menu -

Hehehe!

Should you visit? I would say Yes! But my friends were a bit skeptical. Shub felt that the food was slightly bland and so-so. Sash did not find it all that great and was of the opinion that same food would be much better at other restaurants in the country. Sumanth felt the place was very cost effective. Only Viv echoed my opinion.

So, I would suggest that if you are around in the area, do visit the place.

Blooie's

2009-02-06T19:54:00.004+08:00

This restaurant was the second stop on the Foodie Express and was suggested by our resident consultant, Sayesha. Situated in a quintessentially very residential neighbourhood along Jln Tua Kong, it is a place to visit to have some American styled food in the eastern part of Singapore. To reach Blooies, take a left from East coast road after Siglap Road along Jln Tua Kong and drive for about 300 to 400 metres. Initially it appears as if the road leads to a dead end very soon. But, be patient and take the road. Very soon you will arrive at a set of shops, which appears like a garage (or was it a garage?). Amidst this setup, you will be greeted by the brightly lit neon signs of Blooies.

This restaurant has been started by an Canadian expat and is named after his pet dog. Infact their logo is the profile view of a dogs face. The place has got a very relaxed atmosphere with soft music being played in the background. Add in the backdrop of the quiet neighbourhood and we have a very nice and chilled out place to hang out at. They even have a pool table. The walls are almost covered with photos of people who have visited this place. I don't know if they are celebrities and didn't bother to investigate. But to my amateur eye, they looked like common people who had come there to generally chill out. Oh! Checkout the poster stuck in the restroom.

LOL!

Their happy hours are till 8pm, during which there is 20% waiver on all alocholic beverages. Trying to make maximum use of this, we ordered the first round of drinks. Blooies (their signature drink), Kamikaze, Lychee Martini and a jug of beer soon arrived at our table. Excluding the Lychee Martini (which was more like lychee juice), the other drinks were very good. Would easily be rated as 4 on a scale of 1 to 5. Being a sucker for citrus drinks, I found the Kamikaze (which contained lime) very refreshing. Although, am a tad bit disappointed with the quantity of the drinks served. I was expecting slightly more quantity. So, what to do when this happens? Order another round of drinks! This time, Long Island Iced Tea, Woo Woo and a Mai Tai arrived at the table.

The hilariously named Woo Woo!

They have a decent vegetarian selection as is obvious from an entire page from their menu which is dedicated to vegetarians. Impressive stuff!

We started the meal with some Jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese and deep fried. The Jalapenos were so spicy. The dish in itself wasn't great though. It was just fine. The same item at Cha Cha Cha (that deserves an entire post) or El Patio are much better. We also ordered Quesadilla (mozzarella and cheddar cheese between two tortilla's along with salsa, guacamole and sour cream) which was totally YUMMY! A must have at this restaurant.

Main course comprised of a Mushroom burger, Veggie Sandwich, Pasta Primavera, Chicken burger which were all quite good. I was super excited because they had a vegetarian burger! I was quite curious as to what kind of patty will come along with the burger. It turned out that the patty was just a huge roasted portobello mushroom. I have had a love-hate relationship with this mushroom. I love the taste but kind of detest the smell. Thankfully, it turned out to be love this time and boy, was I glad or what!! Check out the burger -

The veggie sandwich

The service was very fast. Quite impressive. Although it must be noted that the place was not very crowded. In my opinion, this is a lovely place to hangout and spend a time on a sunday evening.

Cost wise, this restaurant is on the expensive side. An average of 45-50 bucks per head (drinks and desserts included). You won't be disappointed though.

You can checkout their official website here.

Foodie Express

2009-01-23T17:45:00.001+08:00

Being a vegetarian in Singapore is not an easy task if you must know. Not only is there a lack of places serving vegetarian food, even if we do find one, it will invariably be an Indian food stall. Now, I do not belong to that set of Indians who insist on eating only Indian food wherever they go. I have seen people pass comments like - Lets go to a place where we can eat a real lunch. Bah! If you ask me, we must try to eat as many varieties of food as possible. Infact, a visit to a place will not be complete without sampling the local cuisine.

Many of us chose to remain or turn into a vegetarian for various reasons. I happen to be one among such people. So, to make life a tad bit easier for people on the lookout for vegetarian food in Singapore and who don't want to stick to just Indian food, let me present to you a set of restaurants serving vegetarian fare among others in a series of posts spanning over a year.

A bunch of friends(Shub, Sash, Viv and Sumanth) and I, have decided to visit atleast two new restaurants every month. I will be reviewing each restaurant on my blog (accompanied with photos) and may also recommend a couple of drinks/dishes which have to be tried out at that particular restaurant. Needless to say, all the restaurants that I review will have a couple of vegetarian dishes. In the process, I hope to take you all on a veggies-guide-to-food-in-Singapore tour through my blog. All such posts will be tagged under 'Foodie Express' and can be viewed by selecting it under the "Tags" section.

Watch this space for reviews and our experiences at "Siem Reap 1" and "Blooies" this month.

Uh Oh!

2009-01-17T19:01:00.003+08:00

So the other day, I was chatting with a Filipino colleague(FC) of mine who had just returned from a long holiday in Philippines.

PD - Hey! How was the trip back home?
FC - It was great! Had lots of fun.
PD - Nice to know. You must cribbing to be back at work after the fabulous holiday.
FC - Yeah! Waiting eagerly for the Chinese New Year holidays.
PD - Oh! Planning one more trip back home?
FC - Yeah!!! But not to Manila. This time I am going to a resort.
PD - Cool!! Which one?
FC - Boracay. Its a beach resort.
PD - Oh! I vaguely remember hearing about it.
FC - Ok.
PD - Is is one those place having white sandy beaches? I love such places.
FC - Yes!
PD - I must plan a trip to Phillippines sometime. Looks like it also has its fair share of white sandy beaches.
FC - You should. It does have some great places.
PD - So what all can you do at Boracay?
FC - The place has got a great nightlife. Bars, clubs, discos.
PD - Oh! I see.
FC - But YOU can also spend your time reading over there.

What the..??!!! Is that what people think of me as? A geek. A GEEK! Oh dear lord!

Thank you!

2009-01-04T14:50:00.002+08:00

Urv has bestowed upon me this and this award. Thanks Urv! I feel honoured and flattered. This is the first time I have been given an award in the blogworld.

In other news, Does anyone remember this ad ?

Courtesy: Mugitaz

My favourite part is at the end when the frog goes "We meeth again darlingaay? Whatre doing?" Just can't stop laughing. Did you people know that the guy who plays the role of the king is Vinay Pathak? Whoa!

Eastward bound

2008-12-28T18:00:00.004+08:00

Have you ever had the feeling where you set your eyes on something for the first time and fell in love then and there? I had the exact same feeling when I first saw this area of Singapore. That was more than a year ago. During the course of the year, this love and fascination was strengthened considerably due to my frequent visits to this area. Somehow or the other, I would end up going there almost every weekend. The fact that I used to reside on the opposite end of the country didn't deter me at all.

Ever since I confessed my fascination to the place, she has been telling me to move there at every single oppourtunity which presented itself. Given the fact that the area has an abundance of restaurants, it is of no wonder that I would gush about it whenever I went there. The best part of the place was its proximity to the beach. Just a short 15 min walk away. I have always loved the beach and can spend the whole day next to it. Staying in a place like that where I can wake up early on a sunday morning(Stop that eye rolling! I can get up early if I want to!!!), take a brisk walk to the beach, spend some time sitting next to the shore and head back home after breakfast (Yes, I wholeheartedly believe than an outing is not complete until I eat outside) has always been a dream.

So, a couple of months back, we started searching for a house in this area (which is in the east). Looking through classifieds, calling up agents, viewing houses kept us kind of busy is the last one month (and that is NOT the reason I have blogged less. I was just plain lazy). And then the whole "love at first sight" happened again when we saw a lovely apartment. We decided to rent out the place almost immediately and were doing bhangra or to be more specific, we were going Tanah Merah Tanah Merah (my friends had become more obsessed about it than I was, Buhahahaha!!) in our heads. But the owner decided to think about our offer and told us that he would tell us the outcome by noon the next day. We were a bundle of nerves by noon next day and were literally jumping with anticipation each time the phone rang or a message was received. Finally, after many such 'false jumpings', we finally got the good news. It was such a relief. We couldn't wait to move in.

The much awaited day came and we moved in amidst much excitement. It took a couple of days to sink in that we live in the east now. Now that it has, here is a list of things which explains why the new house rocks and why we are so head-over-heels in love with it.

The beach is just a 20 min walk
The whole set of restaurants that I spoke about earlier is just a short 5 min bus ride away.
Changi airport is just a 10 min taxi ride away. Yipeeee!!! No more of the hour long journeys to receive/drop friends/family at the airport.
The new house is clearly the best house compared to all the ones that I have stayed in all my life.
It is huge with plently of light and air.
My room had got huge windows. The absence of building next to ours ensures that we don't peep into other houses and vice-versa
From the dining room and my room windows, I can see flights approach a landing. Just a couple of days back, I saw the A380 approach a landing. Wow!
The lady at the western stall in the food court nearby asked me if I wanted "Veggie burger" when I ordered a "Chicken Burger without the chicken patty but with a hash brown". I think I almost cried!
There is an Indian shop nearby who sells fresh coriander amongst other Indian items. This came as a very pleasant surprise. I don't have to frequent trips to Mustafa Centre.
We finally made this a reality.

Whacked out!

2008-11-10T22:17:00.004+08:00

There is a MRT station in Singapore called Tanah Merah. Whenever I hear that name, I feel like putting both my hands up in the air and rotating my palms like I am screwing a light bulb into place. No, seriously!

Am a total whacko! I know.

The Music Tag

2008-11-03T21:44:00.004+08:00

Urv has "tagged" me with a music related tag (Actually, he hadn't. When I saw the tag on his blog, I jumped up and down three times screaming "I wanna do this tag! I wanna do this tag! I wanna do this tag!". The dude had no other option but to tag me. Hehehe!)

Here are the rules -
1. Put your music player on Shuffle mode
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer
3. Write the song name no matter what
4. After you've answered all of the questions, tag 5 other people and let them know they've been tagged.

If someone says "Is this okay", you say?
Chori chori chori chori dil le gaya haio rabba haio rabba le gaya

What would best describe your personality?
Pappu can't dance saala! (I really cannot dance)

What do you like in a guy/girl?
Keh doon tumhe, yaa chup rahoon, dil mein mere kya hai

How do you feel today?
Tu mere samne, mein tere samne, tujko dekhoon ke pyaar karoon

What is your life's purpose?
Tauba tauba ishq mein kariya (Hahahaha!)

What do your friends think of you?
Chak de chak de chak de chak de saare ghum

What do you think of your parents?
Zehreelay zehreelay, kaale neele peele (OH GOD! Noooooooooooo)

What do you think about very often?
Adaa aaye haaye adaa hosh udaaye adaa karde deewana (*wink*)

What is 2+2?
Jaane tu meri kya hai

What do you think of your best friend?
Sunnewaalon, sune aisa bhi hota hai, dil deta hai jo, woh jaan bhi khota hai

What do you think of the person you like?
Dil kya kehta hai mera kya mein bataoon, tum yeh samjhoge mein pagal hoon

What is your life story?
Yeh, tumhari meri baatein hameshaa yoon hi chalti rahe (talk about stability)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Dhoom tana tadum tananana dhoom tana tadum tananana dhoom tanaa (Errr... Aren't I supposed to be grown up by now? No, I don't have any intentions of becoming a dancer)

What do you think of when you see the person you like?
Yeh ishq haai, jannat dikhaye

What do your parents think of you?
Meri laundry ka ek bill, ek aadhi padhi novel

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Hanging with the girls in the weekend, trying to have a laugh and a good time. Why you calling me and stressing?

What will they play at your funeral?
Tu tu hai wohi, dil ne jise apna kaha, tu hai jahan, mein hoon wahan, ab to yeh jeena tere bin hai sazaa (Oh! I am so flattered)

What is your hobby/interest?
Tu bole glass aadha khali, mein boloon aadha bhara (Hahaha! That makes me look like a alcoholic, doesn't it?)

What is your biggest secret?
Aaoge jab tum mere saajna angnaa phool khilega

What do you think of your friends?
Kabhi kabhi Aditi zindagi mein yunhi koi apna lagta hai

What should you post this as?
Chala chala chala, mera jadoo chala. Hua hua hua, kuch toh mujhko hua (Try to take a guess which movie this song is from)

What do you think about this tag?
Maahive mohabbataan sachiyaan

There, am all done with the tag. I would like to tag Sash. She has a very impressive music collection btw. And also Pixie, who loves to do tags :P

Also coming up next is an account of my recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Yet another holiday...

2008-10-23T06:46:00.003+08:00

I am of to Vietnam and Cambodia for a long pending holiday! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! I have been :D :D :D since the past couple of days. Will be back in a week. Till then, all you children behave ok? ok.

The friends I have...

2008-10-11T19:50:00.002+08:00

Presenting, exhibit 'A' - Shu-bhe-ray

Me: Yen re, tiffin-giffin aayitha? (Had tiffin-giffin?)
Shub: Tiffin aayithu, giffin aagilla. (Ate tiffin, but not giffin)
Me: Yaak ree? (Why not?)
Shub: Ghee illa maneli. (No ghee at home)

Yes, I know you all want to give her one whack on the head! Don't worry, I will do so on all your behalf!

Oh! This post was taking revenge for this post.

One Year Later....

2008-09-16T20:40:00.000+08:00

14 September 2007. I landed in Singapore to start a new life. For the first time in my life I was going to be staying by myself. I was going be leading the kind of life that I was dreaming of for quite a while. With lots of hopes, excitement, travel, the feeling of not knowing how I will cope up by myself. Far away from familiar surroundings, family and close friends. Not that I didn't have close friends here, but you get what I mean.

It has turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. The freedom that I have, to do what I want and at whatever time I want is one of the things that I am most thankful for(apart from cheesecake). From loafing around the town at 1am, cooking exotic looking stuff, looking around for amazing places to eat, shopping to my hearts content, loads of oppourtunity and like minded company for traveling to new places, stress free commuting around the country, hurting my leg and not being able to walk around, coping up with the change in working style, to watching almost every hindi movie released here. One heck of an experience it has been.

I still feel the same way about this country as I did when I first came here. It still takes my breath away. Although, one thing that I miss is the feeling of anxiety and awe. The first month here was full of the unfamiliarity feeling that I get when I go to a new place. The excitement in discovering something new, the feeling of how I am going to cope up with this change in environment. Add to it the awe of everything around me, from sexy roads, disciplined traffic, absence of horns, to an extremely well organized system. Now that it has been a year, the anxiety and awe are hardly present. I miss that!

A big shoutout to all my friends here without whom, my life here would never have been as interesting and fun as it currently is.

Oh! Today is the third birthday of my blog. 3 years and 100 posts. Hoping to increase that number and the frequency of my blogging in the coming year. Did I just see someone roll their eyes?

The 'S' factor

2008-08-24T20:10:00.002+08:00

Recently while talking to a friend of mine, I realized that, all the people with whom we used to pull her leg with had their names starting with the letter 'S'. Another friend joined us and I also realized that many of the people she had fancied(that I know of) had their names starting with the letter 'S'. I was laughing in my head at this phenomena and was wondering whether they find out the persons name, and start to fancy them only if it starts with 'S'. I was thoroughly amused. And that is when it struck me! All the people whom I had fancied when I was in college had their names starting with 'S'. Holy Cow! :O

What is with this 'S' phenomenon? I mean, are all people whose name starts with 'S' very fanciable? I don't even know if that is a word (Dear Editor, Help!), but you get the meaning right? Is it because the words 'Sexy', 'Sophisticated', 'Smart', 'Stylish', 'Successful' start with 'S'?

How many people have you fancied whose names started with the letter 'S' ?

PS: This is the 100th post! A century! Yaay!!! :D

Tagged!!!

2008-08-14T21:00:00.002+08:00

Urv has tagged me with the Unspectacular Quirk tag. Here are the rules of the tag followed by my quirks.

Rules -

Link the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules on your blog.
Tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers' blog, letting them know that they have been tagged.

Quirks -

I get royally bugged when I see e-mails/text messages which start with the word "hai". Its "Hi" for godsake!! Aaargh! Don't ever expect me to reply, if I ever get a message starting with that non-word.
When ever I keep money in my wallet, all the notes have to arranged from the highest to the lowest value and kept with the front facing upwards and upright. Also, the notes cannot be folded over the edges. Else, I don't get sleep at night.
When I wear lenses, I have to first put the lenses on for the left eye and then followed by the lens for the right eye. I never wear otherwise.
I hate it when I see travel bags with airplane baggage tags still on even after a couple of moths of undergoing the journey. YOU, yes YOU, remove that SQ airline tag from your bag. I know it is still there.
I just cannot work on the PC with more than 5-6 windows in the task bar. I get very disoriented.
Whenever I go to a restaurant, I always study the menu and take my own sweet time for that. Once I am done, I am very confused on what I want to eat.

There, I am all done :D

I have no idea whom to tag as the people whom I would have probably tagged have already done this tag.

My Favourite Restaurants

2008-07-20T17:36:00.004+08:00

Visiting Singapore and don't know where you will get vegetarian food ? Cannot decide where to go for dinner ? Well, let me help you. Listed down are some of my favourite restaurants in Singapore.

Modestos
An italian restaurant. Had blogged about it earlier here. My first love (if I can call it that) in Singapore.
www.modestos.com.sg

Marche
Awesome food and amazing Swiss market theme. I just LOVED it! And they have hot cross buns!

Lemon Grass
They best Thai food that I have eaten outside Thailand! I just cannot wait to go there again.
www.lemongrass.com.sg

Bread Talk
Oh! Its a treat for bread lovers! I was so taken in when I saw this place the first time and two and half years down the line, I still feel the same way. I literally drool whenever I pass in front of their outlets!

Cafe Iguana
The best Mexican food that I have had in Singapore. Overlooking the river and situated in the very happening Clarke Quay, its a must visit. Very colourful paper napkins. I just don't feel like using them.
www.cafeiguana.com

The Soup Spoon
Wonderful soups which you can make a complete meal out of. For the vegetarians they have the following soups - Roasted pumpkin (highly recommended), Meatless minestone, Tangy tomato and Mushroom. Also worth trying is their mezze platter!
www.thesoupspoon.com

Cafe LeCaire
Yummy Mediterranean food! The 'babaghanush' in particular requires special mention. Did you know they make them from eggplants ? I had no idea!! :O
ww.cafelecaire.com

Green Connection @ Melleos place
Chinese vegetarian food. Lots of emphasis on organic ingredients and healthy food. Just the place to visit for all those people who are vegetarians but would like to try some local food!
www.melleosplace.com

Guilty of Shopping ?

2008-07-15T23:13:00.002+08:00

Have you ever shopped a lot and felt guilty about it later ? Have you ever accompanied a friend on their shopping trip and ended up spending more than him/her ? If so, then welcome to my club!!

Its not the first time that such a thing has happened to me. A couple of years back, I accompanied a friend who wanted to buy a pair of pants for his birthday. I had absolutely no intentions of shopping and tagged along as I didn't have anything else to do. I ended up spending four times more than him. As much fun it was when I went on that impromptu buying spree, I felt quite guilty later on buying clothes that I really didn't need at that moment. But it looks like I hadn't learnt anything from that. Fast forward to last Saturday. I accompanied Shub, who wanted to do some shopping at Vivocity (one of the mega malls in Singapore). In the end, I spent five times than more than what she did.

Whoever said that "Shopping is a national pastime in Singapore", knew what they were talking about. Visit any mall in Singapore in a weekend night and its gonna be crowded, inspite of the fact that there are a lot of malls. Its so easy to get tempted to buy something. Most of the stores have some sale or the other going on. Its sometimes hard to not give into the temptation. So, that brings us to the question - How do we overcome this feeling of guilt ?

Well, I happened to have realized a very simple method for not feeling guilty after an impromptu shopping spree. It is specially designed for people who use credit cards a lot and get a heart attack when they see their credit card statement at the end of the month. Yes, you can now shop guilt free.

So this is how it works - While making a credit card payment before its due date, you "accidentally" pay more. For ex, as per your card statement, you have to pay 600 dollars. You "accidentally" pay 1000 dollars. Note the emphasis on accidentally. As you have paid more, nothing can be done about it other than - YES! Shopping. There is nothing to feel guilty about spending 400 dollars as it is already pre-paid. And your statement for the next month will say zero dollars. Brilliant no ? *wink*

The inspiration for this idea is my dear friend Shub, who by mistake (an honest mistake, not an "accident") made payment for her credit card twice! Way to go woman! Now go and shop all you want! Are you asking me what I want as a gift ? One iPod Shuffle will do ;)

I can't think of a title for this

2008-06-14T20:42:00.004+08:00

I just finished watching Jab We Met (for the third time) and I like it even better than the last time I saw it. In particular, I just love the scenes in the movie where Geet makes Aditya to burn the photo of his ex-girlfriend to help him get over her and later when Aditya makes Geet call up her ex-boyfriend and hurl abuses at him. Such kiddish behaviour, but it so works! Its so amazing that such a silly thing can actually make us feel better.

Talking of silly things, I did one such a thing today and I feel like I have conquered everest! As I had previously mentioned, it is a bit hard to find vegetarian food in Singapore. Everyday when we go out for lunch, I see most of the people eating a kind of noodle soup. Given my love for trying out new things, I so want to eat that. One major problem though. None of the places serve it veg. Its mainly a non-veg dish. Damn! Every afternoon, I look fondly at the dish wondering where I can have something like that without turning into a non-vegetarian. And then it struck me!! I can very well make it at home. It is one of the simplest dishes to make. Just boil the veggies and noodles (I used spaghetti) together and Voila!, the dish is ready. It was such a contented feeling! It was like telling "So you think only you can eat it and I can't. Look what I cooked. Hah!!!". The PizzaDude has the last laugh!!! Buhahahahaha!!

See, such a silly thing and it makes me feel like I have overcome a big obstacle. It was totally one of those feel-good moments.

PS: Yes, I realize that the first and second paragraphs are not exactly related. I sat down to write a very meaningful post and how awesome I think the movie is. But, somehow it ended up with food. :D

Thank God for Thai Food

2008-06-08T15:31:00.002+08:00

YUM!!!

Period.

Just Wondering

2008-05-25T19:57:00.000+08:00

Of late I have started to wonder, if we get along great with a friend of ours and have similar tastes and interests, should we start considering this person as someone more than a friend ? You know, like a possibility of having a romantic relationship with them. At least this is what certain friends of mine have conveyed to me. While many have been teasing me about it, one of them actually sat me down and asked me to seriously consider the girl in question as a prospective life partner.

I don't understand one thing. Just because we get along quite well and have similar tastes and interests, why should we immediately start thinking about starting a romantic relationship with other? I mean, come-on isn't there something called as being good friends? Can't two people of opposite sex who have similar tastes and interests, be just good friends and remain as that? Why should every great non-romantic friendship be thought up as a romantic relationship down the line? It invariably happens that way. It makes me wonder - Don't we want to have friends who like to do the same things as us? Just because the said friend is of an opposite sex, why should they be considered as prospective date?

Neither Bollywood or Hollywood seems to believe so :)

A Grand Welcome

2008-05-10T14:53:00.005+08:00

What do you do when a bunch of evil and scheming friends embarrass you when you come out of the arrival lounge of the airport, with something like this -

Yes people, yours truly was one such victim. You can read about it here and here.

I now declare full revenge on the brains behind this operation! YEAH!

Breakfast Buffet at Bossotel Inn

2008-04-11T18:24:00.001+08:00

HOLY SHIT!!!! I have never had such an amazing breakfast buffet in my life. There was so much of variety and such yummy food. Whew!!! If we could marry a breakfast buffet, I would have then and there!!

During my recent tour to Bangkok along with Shub, Viv and Sayesha, we stayed at the Bossotel Inn. While booking, we had noticed that breakfast was included in the room rates. We had thought that it would mainly be bread, cornflakes, milk and juice. Neither of us were even remotely prepared for the variety which was available at the buffet! The weird part was it wasn't even Thai food (of which I have become a huge fan). It was plain and simple continental breakfast. All of us had eaten those items quite frequently before. But, we still drooled and hogged at the food like we hadn't eaten in days!!

Without much delay, let me present to you the items which were available for consumption -

Fresh Vegetable salad with four dressings - Vinaigrette, French Vinaigrette, Cream and Thousand Island
Plain fruit salad
Yogurt - plain and strawberry flavoured
Dried and candied fruit as topping for the yogurt
Chopped almonds as topping for the yogurt
Cut fruits - Pomelo, Pineapple, Papaya and MANGO!!!!
Baked goodies - Butter Croissant, Danish Pastry and such stuff
4-5 varieties of bread
Coconut jam, guava jam and orange marmalade
Four varieties of cereal - Fruit loops, Muesli and corn flakes (plain and chocolate flavoured)
Vegetables in sauce
Pasta (Spaghetti and tomato sauce)
Sausages
Bacon
Freshly prepared Omelette
Grilled Vegetables
Coffee, Tea and Milk (the choco-latte was very good)

I think when we saw this spread on the first day, we must have sat for atleast 2 hours at the table, eating and chit-chatting. After sometime, we were so stuffed but still couldn't help going in for another serving. During my second helping (or was it the third?), I was busy loading up my plate with some cut fruits when Shub comes to me with what looked like a cup of hot steaming tomato soup. I was quite surprised that I hadn't noticed it during my initial rounds (Yes, at a buffet I always do a survey of what all items are on offer before starting to eat). Although, I generally don't do soups at buffets, I was very much tempted to have tomato soup as it had been quite a while since I had eaten it. Although it turned out that it wasn't tomato soup, but tea. Yes, I believe some special Thai red tea. Shub, somehow didn't seem very impressed with the taste.

If you are planning to visit Bangkok and generally like a continental breakfast, I seriously suggest that you have breakfast at Bossotel Inn. The breakfast is not just for the guests staying at the hotel. I think the hotel was charging about 220 Baht for the breakfast. I say it is totally worth it.

Photos by Sayesha.

Bangkok at a glance

2008-03-25T22:29:00.007+08:00

Its just like any other city in India. Only the language and the faces of people are different
Lovely temples. "Wat Arun" (Temple of the Dawn) in particular was awesome!
The sunrise and sunset happens on the same time as in India unlike Singapore. In Singapore the sun rises at 7 and sets around 19.15-19.30, confusing me many a time.
Thai food is my new favourite! It has such an amazing flavour. My mouth is watering thinking about it. You can read more here and I will be putting up an entire post on the lovely breakfast we had at the hotel.
I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of finding vegetarian food. Although most of the dishes were not vegetarian, the chefs were more than willing to make them with only vegetarian ingredients. They also easily understood what is meant by vegetarian unlike Singapore and Malaysia where vegetarian food is apparently not referred to as normal food :O
I have no idea where we get Indian food in Bangkok. Didn't even bother finding out! To all those people who say non-Indian food is bland and does not have any flavour, I have only one thing to say - Go to Thailand and eat Thai food. Ofcourse, its just called food there :P
Was not at all impressed with the new Suvarnabhumi International airport. It was quite crowded. Changi International airport is way better in my opinion.
The dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya river is a must do!
So is shopping at the Chatuchak weekend market.
Errr... was that a wooden dildo that they were selling in one of the roadside stalls ?
Massage parlours are almost everywhere.
Multi coloured taxis. I could spot green, pink, red, orange and blue coloured ones.
The MRT, Skytrain and the river taxis are the fastest means of transport.
Traveling by the BTS sky train is not exactly cheap.
They have two-wheelers which serve also as public transport (speaking in a broad sense). You engage one of the riders and he drops you where ever you want to go. Ofcourse, you have to pay :P Such riders can be easily spotted wearing an orange sleeveless jacket.
There are so many westerns touring Thailand. I had no idea it was that popular. I saw more Americans/Europeans that what I see in Singapore.

I shall leave you with this picture as a preview to what is coming up next.

Is the keyboard wet already ? *wink*

The Big Bang

2008-03-21T14:21:00.003+08:00

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! Off to Bangkok! :D

Tagged with Crazy 8's

2008-03-12T20:15:00.004+08:00

Pixie has tagged me with the Crazy 8's tag and here are the answers -
(Some of the titles do not have 8 items under them as I could not think of so many of them)

8 Things I am passionate about
Food
Travelling
F.R.I.E.N.D.S
Trains
Hindi movies

8 Things I want to do before I die
Drive a train
Skydive
Visit New York City
Visit Australia
Visit Europe
Learn Spanish
Learn to swim
Be able to play a musical instrument

8 Things I say often
Had blogged about it recently

8 Books I've read recently
The Kiterunner
The Fountainhead (not completed)
Atlas Shrugged (not completed)
Neither here nor there (not completed)
Lexicon of Pasta

8 songs I could listen to over and over
Title track of Kal Ho Naa Ho
Its the time to Disco from Kal Ho Naa Ho
Tumse Hi from Jab We Met
Sawan Barse Tarse Dil from Dahek
Bulla Ke Jaana by Rabbi Shergill
Zara Zara from Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein

8 Things that attract me to my best friends
Patience
A good conversation
Similar wavelengths
A good sense of humour
Gossip ;)
Love for food and travel

People interested to take up the tag are welcome!

Marché

2008-02-09T12:06:00.000+08:00

Marché is a restaurant in Singapore which has a local Swiss market theme. Its a lovely place and is the first time I am seeing something of this sort. Thanks to her for introducing me to this place.

The entire restaurant comprises of many stalls which are selling different types of typical Swiss food. They have bakery items, salad bar, Crepes, Pasta, Rösti, soup, drinks and lots of other things whose names I don't remembers. Even the waitresses are dressed like typical Swiss villagers. As soon as we enter the restaurant, the person at the counter gives a card to every one. Any purchases made from the different stalls are directly billed to the card. When we leave the restaurant, the card has to be surrendered and the amount billed to the card has to be paid. No hassles of paying separately at each counter. I felt it was a lovely concept. Must make a note of this.

The restaurant was so colourful and had ample amount of sunlight streaming in through its glass walled exteriors. Eating in this kind of atmosphere makes me feel very energized and not just because of the food. Its like a reassurance that I am eating food made from the freshest of ingredients. When I was in India and used to see food related shows, the cook used to always exclaim about using the freshest of fruits and vegetables. Some shows even used to show the cook/host going fruit/vegetable shopping to the local farmers market. I used to wonder, what the fuss was all about. Why all this fuss about fresh ingredients? Come on, we used to have fresh fruits and vegetables being sold almost everywhere, even on carts in front if our houses. After coming to Singapore, I can understand the "fuss" about buying fresh fruits and vegetables. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not telling that we get stale items at shops/supermarkets over here. Almost everything is imported. So the chances are very high that the fruits and vegetables that we pick may not have been plucked a couple of days back.

Anyway, where were we ? Oh rite, Marché. I started my lunch with a hot cross bun and a mango-strawberry smoothie. I finally ate a hot cross bun. Does anyone remember the nursery rhyme - Hot Cross Buns ?? I used to always wonder what it was and where it was available in India. Someow I forgot about it after nursery. I remembered it only when I saw it at Marché. It was so soft to eat with a slight sweet taste. Shub got a salad and a Rösti along with some sour cream. The Rösti tasted quite ok. It was made of shredded boiled potatoes roasted in a shallow pan. I am not a huge fan of potatoes. So the dish did not have a big impact on me. The salad was yummy though.

For the main course, I had a banana-mango Crêpe. It was amazing to watch the assistant prepare the Crêpe. She first poured some batter on a huge heated flat plate and then spread it using a T shaped instrument. She just placed the T shaped instrument on the batter and just rotated it few times. The result - an evenly spread out pancake. She then proceeded to put some chopped bananas and mangoes on the crêpe (just like the way the potato-onion palya is placed on a masala dosa) and folded the crêpe like a cone and gave it to me. I poured ample amount of chocolate sauce and a white coloured sauce (whose name I forgot) on it and sprinkled a generous helping of some raw sugar. came back to my seat with a cat-who-just-ate-the-cream expression. Heh! It tasted absolutely lovely but was quite messy to eat.

In the end, I was totally bowled over by the place. The best part was that it did not turn out to be very expensive. Will definitely go there again. Mr. HDS, you will totally love this place. A good reason for you to come to Singapore :P

Marché Restaurant, Level 3, Vivocity, Singapore.

Regularly Spoken

2008-02-06T19:40:00.000+08:00

1. Oh my god! :O
2. Holy cow!
3. Yaaay!!!
4. What the .. ???
5. Holy cow!!
6. Hees :D
7. :)
8. Holy cow!!!
9. Shit!
10. Dudes...
11. I'm so bored.
12. I am hungry.
13. Holy cow!
14. Chalo, lets go.
15. Awesome!

Read this

2008-01-20T11:49:00.000+08:00

I can very well relate to this post. Very well written and echoes my thoughts.

Modestos

2008-01-15T20:47:00.000+08:00

Its an Italian restaurant at Vivocity, here in Singapore. Shub and I had discovered this restaurant during one of our aimless walking around in Vivocity. They had advertized themselves as serving wood fired pizzas. Somehow we were not able to go there at that time, but did end up going recently.

It is said that "The first impression is the best impression". It so holds true for this restaurant. What happened that it left such an impression on me, you ask? Let me tell you. Point by point.

1. They had a separate menu (and I might say with quite a variety of choice) for VEGETARIANS!!!! Yipppeeeee!!!!! Its not that easy to find veg food in Singapore, unless you are around Little India. We do have restaurants in other areas which cater to the vegetarian crowd, but not in abundance. Also, it was not just a couple of items. They had veg dishes in the entire range, be it Anti-pasti (Appetizer), Insalata (Salad), Zuppe (Soup), Pasta, Pizza or Dolci (Desserts). YUM!

2. The restaurant is right next to the waterfront. So you can look across the strait towards Sentosa Island while you dine (if you choose to sit out that is).

3. They were extremely fast in the service. Our food was on the table within 5 minutes of placing the order.

4. They had an actual illustration of the size of the pizza in the menu. Invariably, the pizzerias convey information in terms of size like 7", 10", etc... While this is technically correct, it is of little help to customers who are wondering how many pizzas to order. By actually showing the customer the size of the pizza (albeit by an illustration), it makes life much easier and there are less chances of the customers ordering more than they can eat.

The fourth point is my favourite! Wow! Why hadn't it occurred it to they others ??

If you live in Singapore or are visiting, do go there. You can check them out online here. Also, checkout the vegetarian menu available online.

Wondering out loud

2008-01-12T11:16:00.000+08:00

So, the other day a couple of friends of mine and I had been to the blood bank to donate blood. As part of the procedure we were supposed to answer a questionnaire which had questions about any illness, previous blood transfusion history, sex life, AIDS awareness etc, etc.. Once we complete the questionnaire, a doctor/counsellor reviews it in front of us by asking us the same question in person.

During the course of this review, the doctor/counsellor asked me if I was married. When I replied in negative, she immediately responded by saying that we could skip the section about the sex life as I was not married. I was taken a back a bit by this considering that this is Singapore (which happens to be one of the highly westernized countries in Asia).

I still wonder why! :-?

During the course of the blood donation there seemed to be some problem with my blood and it was flowing at a very slow pace I believe. Due to this and some other medical stuff which does not make sense to me, a bruise appeared at the spot where the needle was inserted. It became purple ans was slightly paining. So they gave me an ointment to apply everyday. After a couple of days I had totally forgotten about it, when I got a call from the blood bank inquiring about the bruise and if I was ok. That was so sweet of them to do that!! Had such a warm feeling after that. Its so nice of them to care so much. I'm impressed.

Bollywood Calling

2007-12-21T10:02:00.000+08:00

Ever since I came to Singapore, I have realized that I have become totally crazy about Bollywood. I was a big fan when I was in India too, but had not realized that I was so crazy. I seem to know so much trivia about it that it totally amazed me :O Add to it the number of hindi movies that I have seen ever since I came here. Im sure I would not have seen so many movies had I been in India. I wonder why this is so ? Maybe its my way of missing India. Could be.

BOLLYWOOD ZINDABAD!!

My Life in Singapore

2007-11-24T17:52:00.000+08:00

It is just the way I had hoped it would be. I am so glad I took up the oppourtunity and came here. Staying by myself, experimenting with cooking, exploring the city during weekends, jogging and staying fit and travelling around are some of the things that keep me occupied (apart from my job ofcourse). I am just enjoying every moment of it.

This is the first time in my life that I am staying so far away from family. I am sure this is going to be one heck of an experience. There are definitely lots of things that I will discover about myself, which inturn leads to a better understanding of myself and people in general.

Things that I am currently in awe of -

1) The National Library. The buildings are so swanky and elegant looking, it is hard to believe that it is a public library. You actually would want to go and spend the whole day there reading. Adding to it is the lovely cafe attached. Just perfect for a rainy weekend afternoon.

2) The Roads.

3) The huge supermarkets and the variety of stuff available. I generally end up spending more time and money than intended when I go there. :))

4) The amazing variety of fancy looking restaurants here serving up some lovely fare.

Things that I miss most from back home -

1) Family and close friends

2) Chaat. *drool*

3) Not being bombarded with Bollywood information. I have to make an effort to look up for it on the internet :( I have absolutely no idea what Abhi-Ash have been upto lately. Not that I was very concerned about it, but being continously bombarded with their whereabouts while in India it feels like there is a void, now that I am not being bombarded :))

One more thing that has made my life much easier over here is the presence of some good friends. Thanks to her (and also her), loafing around the country has never been so much fun. I just cannot wait to try out all the food places which are begging for our attention.

Eeeks!!!

2007-11-17T18:56:00.000+08:00

Missed it! Missed it! Missed it!! Damn!

I cannot believe I forgot about it! It was my two year blogaversary on Sep 18. HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to my Blog :D :D :D

PS: Blogging from a cafe on a cool MacBook. I have been wanting to do that ever since I came here.

Its Waffle Time

2007-10-04T22:09:00.000+08:00

I have always had a soft corner in my heart for waffles. This was my favourite place in Bangalore for waffles. Ever since I shifted to Singapore, I had not eaten waffles. So, on my way back home today evening, I happened to chance upon a place selling waffle cakes. I promptly went and stood in the queue (Yes, there was queue for that too) to purchase one. The almost 10 min wait in the queue was totally worth it. They have about 10 different flavours with prices ranging from 1$ to 1.8$. They also let you mix and match flavours. I chose a Butter Maple syrup flavour which cost me 1.5$.

The waffles were round in shape (maybe about 7 inch in diameter) and much softer than the ones I have had in Bangalore. I could see the assistant preparing the waffle right in front of me. Once the waffle had roasted sufficiently, she picked it out of the mould and spread it on the table in front of her. She then proceeded to slather a generous helping of butter on the waffle followed by maple syrup. The waffle was then folded over in half, put in a small brown paper bag and handed over to me. As the waffle was quite hot, the butter started to melt and mixed with the maple syrup. I took a bite of the waffle cake and was it amazing or what!!! The taste of the mildly salted melting butter along with the sweetness of the maple syrup was so delicious. I had such a warm glow on my face during the entire time. I felt just like how a kid feels when he/she gets a lollipop and eats it while walking back home holding their father's hand :D

My goal now is to try out all the flavours on the menu. Definitely one flavour per week. Then I shall mix and match some flavours for the added taste.

Anyone wants to join ?

Quitting my first job

2007-09-20T22:33:00.000+08:00

Quitting my previous job was such a wierd experience. That was my first job after college and I was at it for almost 4 years. It just feels so wierd to say 'ex-office', 'ex-colleagues', etc. When I came out of my office (oops... ex-office) building on the last day, that's when it actually struck me that I may never step foot inside that building again, never sit at my cubicle again, may never work with the set of people or never work in front of my office PC. Oh!! My Office PC!! I so miss that amazing, superfast and sleek piece of electronics! I so hope the PC at my new office is going be the similar or better :) It was quite a sentimental drive back home from office on that day.

There are so many things that I miss about my ex-job. In particular, I really miss the post lunch walk session with M, having coffee/tea on terrace and doing general yakkity-yak with H, playing the fool along with A, D and G, technical and time-pass discussions with my ex-team members N, C, S and Y. Oh! I am so gonna miss you people and the familiar and comfortable things.

Here's a toast for all the wonderful things that have happened in my life in the last four years after I joined my first job and more than that for meeting and interacting with all the amazing people during the course of those four years.

*clink*

Atithi Devo Bhava

2007-09-11T00:58:00.000+08:00

Okay! For all of you who were wondering where I had vanished to, I was busy with loads of stuff. I have shifted my house, quit my job and also went for a trek in the Himalayas. Lots to blog about, but so little time to do so. Right now, I shall leave you guys with a guest post from Shub:

Dearest PizzaDude,

So, when you asked me to do a guest post the other day, I readily agreed, but had no clue what to write! Probably a month later I decided what I wanted to write about, well vague idea, and today I decided to type it down!

In exactly four days, you'll land in Singapore! To start a life that I know you've been dreaming of for a while now. The living on your own, cooking (what-looks-like) exotic stuff (if it doesn't end up in the sink :P), exploring new restaurants and cuisines - oh wait, you do that all the time - and the loads of time for yourself that you'll come to enjoy. I'm sure you'll cherish the experience - like I told you a few days back, I miss that feeling I had when I had just moved in here. You know, that slight anxiety, at how you're gonna cope, the general awe at everything around you*, the little spring in your step since you're gonna be living ON YOUR OWN for the first time, the overall novelty of the experience. You'll definitely love it. Soak in every minute of it.

And yes, we shall go to Bar None again and look for that cute waitress and you CAN say the ridiculously overenthusiastic "Oh HIIIIII!" again. :D This time of course, I'll look away and pretend like I don't know you. Actually that's favourable to you as well. You wouldn't want her to think you're taken or something would you?! Muahahaha!

I'm totally looking forward to try out the zillions of restaurants that are begging to be tried out here, go loafing around generally and yes some cheesecake too! And going looonnng walks after pigging out! Talking nonsense and laughing our heads off at jokes that don't remotely qualify as funny.

Here's to new experiences and good times! And to a great friendship! *Clink*

Love,
Shub

*Just don't start staring at pretty girls passing by while I'm taking a pic and trying to get you to look at the camera, okay? That's almost as bad as the Bar None type embarrassment! :p

Idhar Chala Mein Udhar Chala

2007-07-31T00:00:00.000+08:00

Traveling around is one of the things that I love to do. Exploring new places, seeing different and lovely sights and eating new stuff is something which gives me an all time high! So, when I saw this tag on this post, I decided to tag myself :D

As per the tag, I have to list down three destinations from the list of the new wonders of the world that I would like to visit and also the ones that I have visited so far.

So, Here we go......

List of places among the Seven Wonders of the world that I have visited -

1. Taj Mahal, India

Visited the Taj, when I had gone for trek around Dalhousie about 1.5 years back. Also took photo sitting on the marble bench infront of the Taj. Apparently it is a very famous spot to take your picture with the Taj in the background. I was also very lucky to have seen the Taj just before and after the sunset. It was lovely!!

List of three places among the Seven Wonders of the world that I would like to visit -

1. Machu Pichu, Peru

As per wikipedia, this ancient and deserted city is referred to as the "The Lost City of the Incas". I would love to visit this place and check out the amazing architecture. The location and the breathtaking scenary around is tempting enough to plan a trip to this place.

2. Christ Redeemer, Brazil

The view from the top and Rio De Janerio are reasons enough. I don't think I have to elaborate on this.

Well, just interested in the above two for now.

Apart from these places, I would also love to visit these places -

1. Bora Bora

The white sandy beaches just look so inviting. I want to go there now! Total bliss. Just sitting on these beaches and sipping on some orange juice sounds so relaxing and refreshing.

2. New York City

Very curious about what the fuss is all about this city. Watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S, few episodes of Sex and the City, Kal Ho Naa Ho and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna are reasons enough.

3. The Grand Canyon

I am an ardent admirer of nature and would love to visit these natural wonders known for their sheer size and landsape. In particular, I want to stand on the newly constructed Grand Canyon Skywalk and view the canyon.

4. Kenya

Aah! The thrill of visiting a wildlife sanctuary and where else but in the place where it all started - AFRICA!!!

5. Lakshadweep

Once again, the white sandy beaches. Plus it is much closer to home and a cheaper option than going to Bora Bora ;)

6. Greece

I have heard a lot about their culture and very curious to check the place out. Once again, the many secluded white sandy beaches are a huge attraction for me.

7. Switzerland

The Alps, the picturesque European countryside, the view from the train and Snow! Thank you very much Mr. Yash Chopra.

That's all I can think of right now. In return, I am tagging Pills (who, btw is one heck of a travel companion. We had a blast on our previous trip together), Amaunet and of course Shub!

Also, inviting applications for a travel-mate who is equally enthu about visiting all of the above places :D

Hee Hee

2007-07-14T13:54:00.000+08:00

Got this in a forward.

I can so empathise with this guy!

This and That

2007-07-09T19:08:00.000+08:00

My favourite food (Pizza) + My favourite show (F.R.I.E.N.D.S) + One of my favourite people (G) came together last evening. We had such a great time! It was just great to catch up with each other after a long time and do what we do best. Yes, Talk and Talk!

**************

People of marriageable age should take a good look at themselves before they have expectations about their prospective bride/groom. After all, appearances do matter in arranged marriages.

**************

I always get confused when I have to send a "bus card" of person A to person B through SMS. Do I first 'Select' Person A on my contacts list, go to 'Send Bus. card' and then key in the number of Person B or should I do it the other way around ? I have done it a couple of times before. But, each time I have to do it, I still get confused :-?

**************

Why on earth do they air toilet cleaner ads on TV during dinner time, when a majority of people like me are in front on the TV while having dinner ? All of them have this before-after theme. Who in their sane mind would want to look at a dirty commode ?? YUCK!!!!

Err...

2007-06-18T19:29:00.000+08:00

I recently got this forward which has two pictures of complicated looking electrical wire connections and asking the readers to apply KCL and KVL to the seemingly very complicated network. These were the pictures of the entangled wires.

Err.. Is it wierd that I know how to solve it ? Actually, it is not as complicated as it looks. It is quite straight forward actually.

I am such a geek.

Answers - Eight Truths and a Lie

2007-06-09T20:52:00.000+08:00

Okay, here is the answer and some details about the previous post of mine. I could have just given out the answer in the comment section of the previous post itself, but drawing some inspiration from Sayesha's post I thought let me go into the details :)

1. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a railway engine driver. I think the correct term for that profession is "Engineer". I did become an Engineer, but in a totally different domain.
This one is so very TRUE. I have always been fascinated by trains and been wanting to drive one since I was a kid. I just don't know how to make it happen. As far as I know, the railways have very strict rules about who all are allowed inside the cabin of a railway engine.

2. I am not very fond of my real name. I prefer having a common name than an uncommon name.
Again TRUE. I have always preferred having a common name. When I was a kid, it used to be so embarassing when I used to go to my friends houses and I had to repeat my name atleast twice before my friends parents could get what it was :( Yeah, I know that was a long time ago. The thought is still there though!

3. When I was 19 years old, I got rejected at a blood donation camp because I was quite below the eligible weight limit of 50 Kgs.
Very much TRUE. There was a blood donation camp at college when I was in the first year of engineering. I filled up the required form and went upto the doctor. He took some of my details and made me stand on the weighing machine. The scale read 46 Kgs (with me in a jeans and sports shoes). He immediately (in a loud voice) told me that I was not eligible as I was below the weight limit and made two huge cross marks on my sheet. Everyone around were staring and my friends were howling with laughter.

4. I think people who write with their left hand are quite cool.
TRUE. No logical reason for this.

5. When I was in high school, I thought that babies are conceived when the guy ties the mangalsutra around the girl's neck during the marriage.
FALSE. Lets just say that I was quite "educated" when I was in high school. It was friend of mine who thought the above when he was in school. I had laughed till my stomach hurt when I came to know about it.

6. I think cockroaches are extremely gross. Infact, they kind of freak me out.
TRUE. Roaches are one such tribe that I just cannot tolerate! Ask her.

7. I love spending time at the beach! Infact, my ideal house will be next to a beach, with my room balcony overlooking the ocean.
TRUE. I am a beach lover and would prefer going to a beach even in the middle of the scorching summer. There is nothig more calming then lyng on the beach with a cool drink in the hand and staring at the expanse of water while pondering about life and other stuff that matter. Or taking a nap :)

8. I am quite shy around strangers and it takes me sometime to get comfortable with them around.
TRUE. Some people who know me very well may find this hard to believe, but it is true. Try remembering the first couple of times you met me (in a group) and how quiet I was.

9. I have never been to any live concert inspite of so many of them happening in Bangalore.
TRUE. I am so embarassed to even say this. The thing is I don't follow English music very much. I am more of a bollywood banda! Its a pity that we dont have any bollywood stars performing in Bangalore. Shah Rukh Khan did perform here once but I was not able to attend it that time and I still have not forgiven myself for it!

Eight Truths and a Lie

2007-06-05T16:37:00.000+08:00

Pixie has tagged me! I am supposed to make a list of 9 things about me which people are not very familiar with. Only 8 of them are true. The readers will have to guess which one is not true. So, here is my list -

1. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a railway engine driver. I think the correct term for that profession is "Engineer". I did become an Engineer, but in a totally different domain.

2. I am not very fond of my real name. I prefer having a common name than an uncommon name.

3. When I was 19 years old, I got rejected at a blood donation camp because I was quite below the eligible weight limit of 50 Kgs.

4. I think people who write with their left hand are quite cool.

5. When I was in high school, I thought that babies are conceived when the guy ties the mangalsutra around the girl's neck during the marriage.

6. I think cockroaches are extremely gross. Infact, they kind of freak me out.

7. I love spending time at the beach! Infact, my ideal house will be next to a beach, with my room balcony overlooking the ocean.

8. I am quite shy around strangers and it takes me sometime to get comfortable with them around.

9. I have never been to any live concert inspite of so many of them happening in Bangalore.

Go ahead, take a guess :)

I tag dannyboy!

Answering the Call

2007-05-23T16:35:00.000+08:00

I was in the restroom at office, when I heard a cellphone ring. I started to wonder who this bloke was who carried his cellphone into a stall inside the loo. I did not have to wonder much, as he answered the phone call and I immediately recognized him by his voice.

How can someone talk on the phone while taking care of their "business" ? Answering both the nature and telephone call at the same time is so wierd. Imagine the reaction of the person on the other end of the line if he/she realises it! Yuck! If it were me at the other end, I would be completely grossed out and would disconnect the call immediately.

Now, don't tell me that there aren't any chances of the person on the other end of the line realizing it. If a cellphone can transmit voices, it can very well transmit other sounds too, duh! Thank God, that a cell phone cannot transmit smells!

Anisuthide Yaako Indu - Translation

2007-05-17T16:28:00.000+08:00

A look at the hit counters on my blog made me realize the amount of people who are searching for a Kannada to English translation of the song "Anisuthide Yaako Indu" from the Kannada movie Mungaaru MaLe. So, here is an attempt to translate the song to English. But, I would like to mention that the essence of the original song is not there in the translated version.

This translation is specifically dedicated to that one particular soul who googled for "May I get the english translation of Anisuthide". Never before have I heard of anyone being so polite to a search engine :))

Anisuthide yaako indu, neenenay nannavaLendu
maayada lokadinda, nanagaagi bandavaLendu
Aaaha yentha madhuraa yaathane
kollu hudugi ommay nanna, haagay summanay

There is a feeling at this instant, which makes me wonder, whether are you the one for me ?
Are you the one, who has descended from the land of illusion just for me?
Oh! It is such a pleasurable sensation.
Come on girl, let me be in this feeling forever.

Suriyuva soneyu suuside ninnaday parimaLa
Inyaara kanasalu, neenu hoedaray taLamaLa
PoorNa chandira rajaa haakida ninneya mogavanu kanDa kshaNa
naa khydi neene seremanay
tappi nanna appiko ommay, haagay summanay
Anisuthide yaako indu........

This drizzle is dripping with your fragrance.
Your presence in someone else's dream makes me very restless
The full moon went on a holiday after setting sight on you face
Girl, I am the prisoner in the prison of your love
Give me a hug atleast once, just like that.

TutigaLa hoovali, aaDada maatina sihiyide
manasina puTadali kevala ninnaday sahi ide
haNeyali bareyada ninna hesara hrudayadi naane korediruvay
ninagunTe idara kalpanay ?
nanna hesara koogay ommay haagay summanay

There is the sweetness of the unspoken words on your soft lips
My mind/heart is filled with you
Although you are not in my destiny, I have carved your name in my heart/mind
Oh Girl, are you aware of this ?
Call out my name atleast once, Just like that!

Anisuthide yaako indu, neenene nannavaLendu
maayada lokadinda, nanagaagi bandavaLendu
aaaha yentha madhuraa yaathane
kollu hudugi omme nanna haagay summanay

There is a feeling at this instant, which makes me wonder whether are you the one for me ?
Are you the one who has descended from the land of illusion just for ?
Oh! It is such a pleasurable sensation.
Come on girl, let me be forever in this feeling.

As I mentioned before, the translated version does not have the essence of the original. You must know kannada to completely understand the essence and to feel the soul of this song. The best part about the song is its simplicity and straight from the heart feeling. Hats off to the lyricist, Jayanth Kaykani for coming up with this awesome song, the music director, Mano Murthy for composing the music and the playback singer, Sonu Nigam for rendering it in such a way that it conveys the emotion behind it extremely well!

Local Exotic Sweet

2007-05-10T02:05:00.000+08:00

The title sounds contradictory, doesn't it ? But, by the end of the post you will understand.

I am talking about a sweet called as "GiNNu" in kannada. It is one among my favourite sweets and it is made from cow's milk. But, it cannot be made from milk that is got everyday. The milk has to be obtained from the cow just after it has given birth to a calf. Only the milk got in the first two/three milkings will be suitable to make GiNNu. I am not sure why, but I am guessing that it has got something to do with the consistency of the milk.

You can call it a local sweet because apparently not many people have heard about it. Many of my friends (from different parts of India) at work did not know that something of this sort existed. Hardly one or two among my friends knew about it. It can also be called as exotic as it is not available at any sweet shop because, the main ingredient is not readily available. Its not like a Gulab Jamun or a Jalebi that I can purchase and eat whenever I want. Infact, I have eaten it just twice in my entire life - the first time being about 14 years back and the second time being today. I had gone for the house warming ceremony of a colleague and it was served there. I was extremely surprised to see it there. I am still quite shocked as to how the catering agency managed to procure enough numbers of it to serve to around 50+ people.

Ginnu looks like a cream coloured jelly and has the same consistency but it is not translucent as a jelly generally is. It is made by mixing the milk with sugar and cooking it in a pressure cooker and then flavouring it with elaichi. I am guessing it can be made is some other ways too, but this is the only one I am aware of. It tastes very much like thickened sweetened milk and just melts in your mouth.

Do try it out, if you do get an oppourtunity. Regarding its availability, ask those people who have cows in their house. They might be able to provide you with the sweet. But do keep in mind that by using that milk for making a sweet, you are denying the newborn calf its food.

Not Again!

2007-04-17T20:58:00.000+08:00

I saw the trailer/song of the movie Ta Ra Rum Pum on TV and realised that it is one more movie which is based in New York City. There was Kal Ho Na Ho, Jaaneman, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and now Ta Ra Rum Pum. What's with this "Big Apple" addiction that Bollywood had gotten into ? Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against NYC. Infact, it is one of the cities in the world that I want to visit desperately having heard and seen lots about it (thanks to Hollywood and American TV).

Btw, you should listen to the song "Hey Shona" from the same movie. I totally loved it :)

Cheese and its kind

2007-04-14T21:47:00.000+08:00

There is a dog in our street (lets call her Cheese) and she has delivered a litter of puppies in our back yard. There are 7 of them and you should hear them trying to make some sound with their extremely feeble voices. They look so adorable and tiny. Infact, they cant even walk. All of them will be lying like a pile of stones against their mother's body. I tried to take a photo of them, but have not been able to get a good shot. They are all piled up in one corner behind a tree. Cheese is apparently very very comfortable with me and my family and is hardly bothered by our presence. It has become a daily ritual for me to give her bread and milk.

I have always wanted to have pets at home. My parents though are quite against it for two reasons -

Its not good to keep any animal bound or tied. They should be let free.
They will have do all the taking care part of it. I will be excited for a few days, but then due to other constraints like time and effort, I would soon lose interest.

I do agree with them now, but as kids it was a different story. No amount of reasoning could convince me or my brother. Then my mom got a super-duper idea and told us that its either the "Pet" or us. Promptly, my brother and I shut up and have not raised that topic ever since. But, to till this day I wish I could have a pet without feeling guilty that I am curbing its freedom. Infact, an ideal pet would be a baby elephant. Yes, you read it right, A BABY ELEPHANT!. Ever since I saw some on NGC, I want to have one around me and in my house. Oookay, you can stop laughing now :P

Btw, what do you guys think I should name the puppies ? Mozzarella, Riccotta, Feta, Parmesan, Gouda, Cottage, etc.. :))

VC, I Love You

2007-04-10T18:56:00.000+08:00

I really do and I am saying so from the bottom of my heart. I am sure anyone who has used MSVC debugger will agree with me whole heartedly. It is such a pleasure using it. Makes work a lot simpler and faster. For someone who has been using a debugger to debug an embedded application or firmware, using VC is like a walk in the clouds!

Embers @ Nandana Grand

2007-03-23T17:16:00.000+08:00

A very impromptu decision to go out for lunch led us to Embers @ Nandana Grand in Koramangala. The catch phrase of this restaurant is "Global Cuisine" and hence I was quite skeptical about how good the food is going to be. I generally feel that many of these multi-cuisine places tend to screw up some cuisines and have had many practical experiences as proof of this. It is much better at times to find a niche and stick to it. In other words, its not gonna suffice if you are "Jack of all trades". You need to be a master of at least one of them.

Coming back to the review, all the items turned out to be surprisingly quite good at the buffet lunch. They had a good spread comprising of Chinese, Italian (just one dish), North and South Indian dishes in this lunch buffet priced at Rs 149 + taxes. We started of with "Cream of Spinach" soup, which was quite well done and was served at the right consistency and temperature. This was followed by a generous helping of Babycorn manchurian (they called it Shanghai Babycorn). I totally loved the manchurian. The taste was just how I expect a manchurian to taste i.e., not too much of ginger-garlic-soy sauce masala.

There were three salads. One was the regular green salad. The second one was a mixed vegetable salad in a nice vinegar based dressing. The third one was a pineapple-paneer salad of which I ate only the pineapple :D I am somehow not a huge fan of Paneer. I prefer Cheese :D

For the main course, there was Penne in a vegetable and cream sauce and again it was the just the way I like my Pasta to be. Among the north-indian stuff, there were Aloo mutter and Dal fry. Both were very well done. There were two non-veg gravies also. Rotis were served directly at your table and were soft and warm. Among the rice items, there was Chicken Biryani, Vegetable Schezuan Fried rice, Plain rice along with Rasam and Curds. Accompaniments like papads were also present.

Dessert comprised of a yummy tasting carrot halwa and fruit salad. Needless to say, all the items on the menu were very well done. Of course, I cannot give first hand opinion of the non-veg dishes as I am a vegetarian, but my friend did say that the non-veg dishes were quite good too.

Should you go there? YES! A perfect place to take a foreign dignitary for lunch as the food was not very spicy and there was just the perfect amount of variety among the Indian fare.

PS: Almost forgot to mention. Another "My kinda restaurant".

(Don't) Picture This

2007-03-13T20:07:00.000+08:00

Time : Around 6.30 am
Location : Somewhere enroute to Hyderabad
In : Train

I wake up to a beautiful morning with a nice breeze blowing in from the window. I think "Wow! It feels so nice to wake up early in the morning and watch the country side go by. Oh! Just in time for Sunrise. God knows when was the last time I saw the sun rise!! Hmmmm...."

Then, the inevitable happens. (Warning: Read ahead only at your risk) I see a half naked man in the fields doing err.... his business.

Ewwwwwwwwwww!!!! Why god Why ??????

PS: Had been on a trip to Hyderabad over the weekend. Post coming up if I am not feeling lazy to type :)

A familiar feeling

2007-03-08T16:43:00.000+08:00

You think its been 3-4 years. Things would have changed. I would have moved on. Those feelings would have gone by now. But hey, What do you know ?!! When I saw her recently, all I could think of was "God! She is so Beautiful!". She still manages to make my heart beat faster. I just could not help but admire her.

I feel that everyone sub-consciously has a mental image of what their perfect woman/man should look like. Many might be aware of it and some may not be. When we actually meet someone who matches this image, the infatuation just happens. In my case, I dont think I will be able to get over it any time in the near future (I have had this infatuation from the past 7.5 years). I am not repenting or anything of that sort. I am very much aware of the practicalities of life and enjoying my life at present very much. But, each time I see her, she just takes my breath away!!

I so relate to this song right now -
Anisuthide Yaako Indu
Neenene Nannavalendu
Maayada lokadinda
Nanagaagi bandavalendu
Aahaa yentha madhuraa yaathane..

I dont want to translate the above lines to English as I dont think I will do a good job of the translation and it wont be able to capture the meaning of this song as intended. So, the readers of my blog who don't understand Kannada, Please Excuse :)

Indi Joe - 2

2007-03-01T20:27:00.000+08:00

I had been to Indi Joe for lunch today and I came back feeling so satisfied. It never fails to satisfy my foodie brain. I am so thankful that this restaurant exists in Bangalore! Incase, you have not yet realized, it is among my favourite restaurant in Bangalore.

Mungaaru MaLe

2007-02-23T16:29:00.000+08:00

Finally!!! A decent kannada movie with dignified kannada being spoken!

I had heard a lot about this movie and watched it on tuesday evening. Its a simple love story with just the right amount of characters. No extra characters in the movie for the purpose of comedy. The photography(or is it cinematography ?) is amazing! Very scenic locations, all within Karnataka. No songs or sequences being shot abroad. The best part of the movie for me was the way in which Kannada was spoken. It was so dignified and cultured. Generally, among the kannada movies being released of late, the style in which the language is spoken is so crass and pathetic. It actually hurts me to hear my language being spoken that way. In this aspect, this movie delighted me to the core. Would definitely love to watch the movie again to hear such nice kannada :)

Mungaaru MaLe means "pre-monsoon rains". The entire story takes place over a period of 8-9 days in the pre-monsoon season. Set mainly is Madikeri, the story revolves around Pritham (played by Ganesh) and his love for Nandini (played by Sanjana). It has just the right amount of emotional drama without being over dramatic/melodramatic.

The scenic locations and cinematography are the things to lookout for. Truly spectacular. The music is also very good. The songs and the lyrics are straight from the heart and describes the feelings very very well. Must hear songs are "Anisuthide Yaako Indu", "Onde Ondu Saari" and "Kunidu Kunidu Baare".

Go watch the movie if you are a ardent kannada movie fan. It is a breath of fresh air amongst the typical remakes and gangster movies.

Ha Ha Ha

2007-02-20T16:14:00.000+08:00

Last week, when I went to the salon for a haircut, I saw that they had renovated the place. The old salon was gone and in its place stood two salons - one for the men and the other for the ladies. Any guess what they had named the two salons ?

The men's salon was called as "Abhishek Men's Salon" while the ladies salon was called as "Aishwarya Ladies Beauty Parlour" :O For a second I did not know what to say and then I burst out laughing loudly on the road :)) Jesus christ!! People and their thoughts!! They had even put up posters of the stars on the respective salon doors.

A Typical Conversation

2007-02-10T01:12:00.000+08:00

This is how a typical conversation between Shub and me goes.....

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From: PizzaDude
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 2:50 PM
To: Shub
Subject: foodies delight ...

I bet u didnt know abt this!!!
B-)

http://www.tastespotting.com/page/7

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From: Shub
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 2:54 PM
To: PizzaDude
Subject: Re: foodies delight ...

nooooooooooo!
looks awesommmmmmmmmmmmmme! :D
happy now? :P
I've decided I'm gonna make something special every weekend...starting this weekend...wanna start baking! :)
wish you were here to taste the stuff ! :D

--------------------------------------------------
From: PizzaDude
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:02 PM
To: Shub
Subject: Re: foodies delight ...

Buhahahahahahahaha.. :P

Total drool material.. That too we now have 17 inch LCD monitors in office.. every photo at the site looks equally big and much more droolicious :D

All the best with ur baking adventures.. keep me updated.. what r u planning to start with ? I so wish I was there to taste all the stuff... kinda reminds me one of the episode from "Joey" where he is judging the lasagna made by one of the characters in the show :D

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From: Shub
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:06 PM
To: PizzaDude
Subject: Re: foodies delight ...

planning to start with carrot cake ( remember the one we ate at coffee bean? Yumm :D )
I also have a 17 inch lcd monitor!:D

Did I tell you I made lasagna once about 3 months back?! turned out quite nice...should try it again!

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From: PizzaDude
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:16 PM
To: Shub
Subject: Re: foodies delight ...

The only thing I remember eating at Coffe bean was the "Apple Cinnamon cheesecake".. the rest is a blur... Did we eat the carrot cake the first or the second time ? I think it was the first time.. I was too overwhelmed by the cheesecake to rememeber anything else... Oooookay, now I want to eat that cheesecake.. Waaaaah! :'(

u remember the photo I took @ coffee bean in holland village where I posed next to the array of baked goodies.. reminds me of photographs people take standing next to famous tourist spots/monuments... =))

You made lasagna ????? Wow!!! sounds def interesting... We both should be apartment mates.... you cook and I taste and vice-versa :D Am jus thnkg how mast it would be.. hee hee... We will be two fat people in no time at all.. hey wait a min.. we would be exercising buddies too then... rememeber the friday-lunch-is-a-treat-by-person-who-does-not-go-to-gym-ateast-4-times-a-week rule ? And how I used to lose almost every other week...

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From: Shub
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:24 PM
To: PizzaDude
Subject: Re: foodies delight ...

yeah chinnu totally! we'd be great as flatmates! Totally on the eating and working out part! wah how cool taht would be! :D
first time at coffee bean : cheesecake and thousand layer choc cake!( can't forget that!)
2nd time mushroom quiche and carrot cake!! aaahhhhh! :D
how can YOU forget such stuff?! SHAME on you! an insult to the food if you ask me :P

--------------------------------------------------
From: PizzaDude
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:32 PM
To: Shub
Subject: Re: foodies delight ...

Like I told you, I was toooooo overwhelmed by the cheese cake to remember anything else... Btw, the second time, we also had another cheesecake.. I think it was a blueberry one.. Oh yeah!! I now rememeber the chocolate cake.. and also that cheese and tomato sandwich we had at boat quay.... and then we had gone to Lau Pa Sat for dinner... dutta n danny had some meal combination, while we had a mango ice-kachang and a banana split... we took photos too.... see.... I rememeber B-)

--------------------------------------------------
From: Shub
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:33 PM
To: PizzaDude
Subject: Re: foodies delight ...

yeah yeah ! :) By the way remember your BLOG? POST then! :P
I just did :D

And that is why this post came into existence :D

Taam falafels

2007-01-12T16:33:00.000+08:00

By now, the regular readers of my blog must have realized how much I like to try out different kinds of food and visiting new restaurants. The restaurant I visited recently as part of my new-year-resolution to visit-many-more-new-restaurants is called "Taam Falafels". I spotted this place quite some time ago and was dying to go there. And the day finally arrived recently and man, was I thrilled!!! :D

The restaurant is set in a quiet part of residential Koramangala. Its on the first floor in a corner building, with the front done completely in Glass. This lets in ample amount of sunlight, giving the whole place a fresh and cheerful feeling. The place is done in the shades of Yellow and Green which further add to that bright atmosphere. At tables next to the glass wall, you can enjoy your Mediterranean meal while basking in the glory of the sun on a bright sunny afternoon.

This is a completely vegetarian place. The main item in the menu is obviously Falafels, accompanied by pita breads and hummus. They did have many dishes, but the prominent items in almost all the dishes were the ones mentioned before. I ordered a "Vegetarian Platter" which consisted of eight different kinds of salads, two pita breads, two falafels, hummus, some vegetables and an assortment of 6-7 chutneys and dips. The salads and the accompanied dressings were really good. The pita bread was extremely soft and were a treat to eat. I also liked the hummus and Falafels, but since this was my first time in a Mediterranean restaurant, I cannot comment on its authenticity. But I totally enjoyed the food. In fact, I felt that the meal was quite healthy too as not much oil was used in the preparation.

Apart from the meal combinations, you can also have some individual items, pita bread sandwiches, juices, coffee, etc... Nice place I must say, but maybe a bit expensive. On considering the locality it is situated in, it seems quite obvious to be priced on the higher side. A complete meal for two may cost you about Rs. 350. A nice break from the regular grind of Roti-Curry or Rice-Dal.

Ta`am falafel, #565, 4th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore-560034
Ph: 41469595, 41169868

Crazy Kiya Re

2006-12-12T16:07:00.000+08:00

I always wonder why is it that I start liking songs much more only after I see the video. :-?

I had purchased the audio CD of Dhoom 2 about a month back and did not find the songs all that great or catchy. But after seeing the movie last weekend, I have not been able to get those songs out of my head.. Not that I am complaining (infact, I am playing them over and over on my PC). The song "Crazy Kiya Re" would be quite appropriate in describing the effect the songs have had on me since yesterday. This is not the first time that I have observed such a thing.

Has this happened to you too ?

Engaged

2006-12-11T12:18:00.000+08:00

I am not talking about myself, but about two close friends of mine. Both were my class mates in college and are now soon to be Mr and Mrs. I am feeling all god-fatherly about this latest turn of events. Its like their love blossomed right before your eyes and now it has grown and matured. Hee Hee. I am so happy for them!!

Before they officially told us about their relationship in college, a couple of us kind of knew that things were definitely going to happen between them. There are certain signs you see. Like going by themselves to the samosa stall during the break, the conversations between them in class.. and lots of such minute but very obvious behaviour patterns!!

So, come this weekend, Mr B and Ms R are all set to get offcially engaged! All the best you guys and a warm HUG to both of you.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S Contest -2

2006-11-28T16:33:00.000+08:00

Update: Answers Published!!

1. In the episode "The One That could have been - Parts 1 and 2", what was Phoebe's profession ?
Answer: Stock broker

2. Who were the nap partners ?
Answer: Joey and Ross.

3. Who plays the part on Chandler's Dad ?
Answer: Kathleen turner

4. Joey had an imaginary childhood friend called Maurice. What was his profession ?
Answer: Space Cowboy

5. "Well, if you cant talk dirty to me, how you gonna talk dirty to her ? Now tell me you want to caress my butt". Who tells this to whom ?
Answer: This is told by Joey to Ross. Ross is dating a girl who likes to talk dirty and Joey tells this when he is prepping up Ross for it.

6. What is Janice's full name ?
Answer: Janice Litman Goralnik née Hosenstein

7. What was Monica's nickname in High school ?
Answer: Big fat goalie

8. Which actor dated Jennifer Aniston on FRIENDS and also in real life ?
Answer: Tate Donovan, who played the character of Joshua Bergin. He was a client of hers at Bloomingdales. They dated for a couple of episodes on the show.

9. Ross and Monica used to take part in an annual Football match. What was it called ?
Answer: Geller-Bowl. This continued until one year Monica broke Ross' nose, and their parents forbade them from ever playing football again.

10. What was Ross's score in SAT ?
Answer: 1250 out of 1600. He tells that he got 1450, when Monica corrects him.

ISYS

2006-11-16T17:09:00.001+08:00

The first thing that struck me on entering this swanky and cosmopolitan restaurant at the President Hotel, Jayanagar is the colour Blue and the ambience. It reminded me of the restaurants at New York or LA which are generally shown on Discovery TLC. They serve Continental, Indian, Chinese and Thai cuisines and do a pretty good job in all of them. When we entered, we were promptly shown to a table. At that time, the restaurant was quite empty. It started filling up steadily and after an hour it was full with families, couples, kids and all variety.

We started of with some cocktails. I ordered a Mimosa (Orange juice and Red Wine). For my friend, the waiter suggested a "Jumaroo", which supposedly is the bartender's speciality. Curiosity got the better of us and we placed the order for it and it arrived soon with lots of drama. About 3 waiters came to prepare the drink while some 3 more waiters were around watching apart from the people seated around us. It is made from Orange Juice, Red wine and Blue Curacao. The waiter started off with orange juice in a wide mouthed glass. In another glass, he took the Blue Curacao and lighted it using a lighter. It started burning with a thin and almost invisible flame. He then placed a small pair of tongs over the glass containing orange juice, over which he placed two small inverted glasses. Over this he poured the slightly flaming Blue Curacao such that it gently falls onto the Orange juice without mixing with it. So, you have two layers of juice. The orange juice is at the bottom and the blue curacao on the top. He then took a glass of red wine and poured it over the orange juice + blue curacao from a height. The result - the wine went and sat at the bottom of the glass. So, we now have "Jumaroo" which contains three layers of liquid - blue curacao on top, orange juice in the middle and red wine at the bottom. How much do you think this costs ? Take a guess!!!

After relaxing over our respective cocktails and mocktails, we ordered soup and starters. I had a Gazpacho. Not very great. I have tasted better. Nothing exceptional of the other starters either. They were the regular indian stuff. Along with the starters, we got a complimentary bread basket. The bread was wonderful. Soft and sweet. The bowl in which the bread was served is worth mentioning. The bowl itself looks so eatable. Check out the picture below.

For the main course, Dutta and me shared an american chopsuey, while Dannyboy had a mutton biriyani. Both were quite good. I was quite satisfied with the food and the ambience. I must check out how good their continental stuff is.

One thing that bothered us was the noise. Once the restaurant got filled up, it became quite noisy. The music playing in the background was hardly heard and it did little to make the atmosphere more relaxed. But otherwise it is a nice place. Quite sophisticated and maybe quite ideal for a lovely and cosy date, barring the noise. Other thing that I observed was the wash basin in the restroom, or to be more accurate the absence of it. There was no basin under the tap. Under the tap, there was a slab of marble which was slightly slanted so that the water drains away. It was the first time I saw something of that sort in a restaurant in Bangalore.

Price wise, it was quite worth it. A lunch for three cost us about Rs 1200, with drinks. Quite reasonable by Bangalore standards. You should definitely check out this restaurant sometime.

ISYS, The President hotel, Jayanagar 3rd block, Bangalore.

Kannada Film Names

2006-11-08T13:08:00.000+08:00

This came to me as a forward and I must say, its one the hilarious forwards I have received.

After the huge success of kannada film MENTAL MANJA, people suggested the below names for the recent/upcoming kannada films..
Sentimental Seena
Nightout Nagamani
Loose Laila
Kari Basya
Kalla Narayana
Blade Baira
Dabba Rathni
Dicchi Suresha
90 Kumara
Kaddi Kallesha
Mental maja.. Daridra nanja
Tikkalu Timmanna
Tukaali tammanna
Dingchak Daamini

The last one was my favourite =))

Dharwad Trip

2006-11-06T13:05:00.001+08:00

There is some kind of thrill in deciding for a trip impromptu. I have always had loads of fun on trips decided like that. My Singapore trip was one such kind(although we decided and booked tickets one month before the actual date of departure, we decided on it, got leave and booked tickets in a day or two... you get the point?). Trip to Dharwad was also one such thing. Decided on it, booked tickets almost instantly and luckily even got confirmed tickets :D

It was supposed to be a two day trip, but eventually turned into a three day one. We left Bangalore on a saturday night and reached Dharwad on Sunday morning. The ongoing journey by train was very pleasant. Surprisingly, the train was quite empty. My friend, lets call him as 'S' and I were up quite late and were generally talking. The train was to reach dharwad at 6.45 am and since we were up quite late, were wondering if we would get up on time to get down at Dharwad. Nothing of that sort happenend though (it would have been fun if that would have happened). Woke up quite early and it was still dark outside. Saw the sunrise after a really loooooooooong time! God knows when was the last time I saw one. A friend (who also happens to be my colleague and boss) had come to receive us at the station and he took us to his home. It was such a pleasure to be out of Bangalore. The life there went on at its own pace and I was totally enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and lifestyle. Not that I hate the lifestyle in Bangalore, but everyone likes change every now and then.

I ate lots of new stuff. There is such a marked difference in the food between Bangalore-Mysore region and Hubli-Dharwad region, the latter being very much influenced by maharashtrian cuisine. Even Chaats also tasted quite different to the ones available in Bangalore. Enjoyed that too. :D

We visited quite a few places around. The first was a village called Saundatti. Its quite famous for the "Yellamma Temple" and also for the devadasi system. Nearby there is this dam on the Malaprabha river. Its built mainly for irrigation purposes. We visited it in the evening, just in time for sunset. Spent more than an hour over there taking photos and soaking up the serene environment around. The other major place we visited was the Magod Falls. Its about 80-100 kilometres from Dharwad. Its quite popular and I realised why after seeing it. The falls are extremely magnificent, cascading down in two stages. I dont know if there is path leading to the waterfall. The actual viewing spot is at a distance from the waterfall. The waterfall is amazing!!! I could not help but stare and be awed by the sheer power of water and the beauty of nature and forests around. The only sound was the roar of the waterfall. The photo below definitely does not do justice to the actual waterfall. It looks even more spectacular in real.

Learning to drive a Car

2006-11-04T21:07:00.000+08:00

Yup, that's what I have been trying to do since the last three days. Been planning to learn it from quite sometime. It materialized recently. Through the course of the classes, I realised that I am more scared of hitting someone on the road than on being hit by someone. Ofcourse this is even more compounded by my fear of huge vehicles on the road, the erractic bangalore traffic and the concern that I will cause a traffic jam!! Man, I have issues (read that as lots).

Plus, learning to drive a car apparently makes me very very thirsty!!