Month: August 2010

  • 13 Spices

    I really would find it difficult to name that many, but hey, its the name of a new restaurant in Koramangala that serves Indian, Chinese and a bit of Continental. Its located right next to erm, Chandni Chowk – yup, that’s in Koramangala too, before Sony World, when coming from the NGV/Forum side. 😀 (map) Parking is not much of a problem, mostly because of Chandni Chowk’s ample resources.

    We reached there by around 7.45, and in about half an hour, the place was full. The ambiance is quite interesting, because its as though they had lounge/fine dining in mind – colours, furniture, decor, and then realised that it’d be a more regular restaurant. So its now brightly lit, with a red/white/black decor and decent use of the available small space, though the wall to wall cushioned seating means that the space between tables is minimal.

    Though the menu has three cuisine options, its not really exhaustive on any front, but having said that, it does offer a lot of options in the Indian and Chinese portions. The former has half a dozen veg starters, more than double that in the non veg section (chicken, mutton, fish and prawns), plenty of gravy options in veg and non-veg and biriyani/roti/naan/kulcha to go with it. The Chinese section has soups, starters and about half a dozen options each in veg and non veg dishes, and rice/noodles. The Continental part consists of a few salad and pasta options. Its closer to ‘also there’ than a specialty, at least in terms of number options. We decided to go with the Indian part, the soup being the only exception – to keep the Chinese happy.

    The Lemon Coriander soup was delicious, but I think they should have one of those ‘red-colour-chilli warnings’ for unsuspecting folk. Actually for the suspecting folk too – I, for example,  have this very silly habit of adding pepper before I have even tasted it. You’ll like this one if you like your soups really spicy. The coriander part was slightly subdued though, and a chilli flavour somehow dominated, I thought. But I’d still recommend it, just don’t take the name seriously.

    Next, we tried the Malai Machili tikka. This one gets very high marks for presentation. The fish is Hamoor (Arabian Fish – Hamour says the web) and it did seem marginally different from my other fishy acquaintances. The cream marinade was really good, and the only suggestion I’d make is to have a stronger mint chutney to go with it, so that it can complement the dish better.

    We started the main course with a Murg Khandari, an onion and chilli kulcha, and a masala kulcha. We chose the chicken dish because its description claimed a unique mix- pomegranate juice, curd, brown onion paste, and tomato puree. It proved to be unique in taste too – tangy with a sweet kick in the end, thanks to the pomegranate seed, I think. The masala kulcha was decent, but the other one barely had any chillies, so wasn’t much fun.

    Though the portion sizes were quite decent, we were still hungry, and decided to try the second chicken dish we had noted earlier – Murg Badam Pasanda, with a cheese kulcha. Calories be damned. The Badam pasand was creamy and finger-licking good in that slightly sweet way that white gravies have (though this one is more yellow). The kulcha was only just about okay though. In between we also had a regular lassi because though there was  a mango lassi listed, we were told that it was (canned) juice based, not fresh. The lassi was topped with badam and had what we thought was a vanilla essence flavour. Slightly thin for our liking, but reasonable enough. We skipped desserts since the options were the usual ice cream based suspects.

    The service is very prompt, and though we thought our second chicken dish would take time (since we placed the order much later), they actually got it soon enough for the meal to be seamless – surprising because the crowd had picked up by then. The place is quite small – enough for you to see what people at most of the other tables are eating, but despite that constraint, they have done a decent job. All of the above cost us less than Rs.700. So its definitely worth a visit, for good food and excellent service.

    13 Spices, #898, 80ft Main Road, 6th Block, Koramangala. Ph: 40953881

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • Back to eternity

    Despite being a Star Trek fan, I happen to think that Time is the final frontier, at least in the horizon that I can see. I find it quite intriguing that, though it might be looked on as a tool for tracking, I can perhaps not account for most of my lifetime. I don’t mean the large picture, I haven’t lost it totally yet, but specific minutes. Take for example, the last hour and account for all the thoughts that rushed in. I would find it difficult.

    If you close your eyes, and allow your breath to be the only meter, the perspective of time undergoes a shift. Meditate a bit, and its easy to see. Easy to see that even the measurement of time – years to seconds and beyond is our  construct. But it is so ubiquitous and enmeshed in our lives that it seems as though it is a constant and only we change. It requires dramatic events for us to pause and note the passage of time. Kahlil Gibran has said, ‘Perhaps time’s definition of coal is the diamond”

    Meanwhile, I wonder if all the information about those unaccounted for minutes is stored somewhere in my brain, and is just not deemed enough to be of any priority for me, and hence seems inaccessible. The tools that consume me these days – most specifically Twitter, and more recently, Foursquare, also help me keep track of what I’ve been up to, and when it works the same way for everyone is when there is an information deluge, and that seems to be something we find difficult to handle. Something that we have discussed before. There is a toon I found (here) that correctly describes the way a lot of us seem to be functioning now

    Clipboard01

    And in another example of how man is shaping his own evolution, I read about companies like Lifenaut, which  ultimately aim to create humanoid robots powered by a backup of the original human’s brain. (via @pkaroshi) The first step is to create a digitised version – an avatar, and give it enough data for it to mimic the original human. It makes me wonder whether we will be able to create ‘consciousness’.

    And that makes me think a bit more – by the time, we are technologically advanced to create it, will we have forgotten what consciousness is? Which also begs the question whether we have ever understood it at all, when we are not even mindful of the minutes of our lives? How does one define it? So many reactions which seem pre-programmed when one thinks of it, actions and reactions more out of habit than any conscious choice being exercised.

    So yes, with all of the work happening at a rapid pace, (do read) I think its more ‘when’ than ‘if’ – that we will become immortal, and time, from a future point of view, will become immaterial, because the future will be infinite. But we still may not be able to undo what we did a minute back. Where does that leave us? To quote Pico Iyer (from Abandon) “God has to be understood in the context of everything that is not Him”. But that is a different discussion, I guess. Its only that with every advancement that humanity makes, and in that process also usurps things once attributed to divinity, I begin to wonder where that leaves our versions of God?

    until next time, time.ly links 🙂

    PS. I tweeted sometime back, even if you never read an Asimov work, or never plan to, this is one that you should read. The Last Question.

  • Hairsay

    So, the Old Spice man  increased the sales of the product. Now we can renew the debate on the efficacy of social media on the bottom line. We obviously won’t ask for correlation data. 🙂 The other side effect is that every brand manager will now want to replicate it – especially the viral and the ROI. Quite like a poster child (in India) of an era gone by – Sunsilk’s GangofGirls, which at that point had made many a  brand manager experimenting with digital media tell their agency “I want one too”. Damn virals work at meta levels!!

    I recently read Kapil Ohri’s article on afaqs, on the site’s makeover – the shift from blogs and gangs to trends and forums and the ‘mandatory’ buttons – Facebook and Twitter. Its early days, so it’d be unfair to make a comment on the numbers, even if they were to be considered a parameter of success/ failure. But while, on buttons, I think YouTube videos would’ve been a help. More on that in a bit. A revamped GoG, and the Pantene vs Dove war for hairspace being fought offline and on blogs (Karthik, L Bhat) gives me enough food for thought.. and opinion.

    Sunsilk Gang of Girls: GoG could have (like an industry person commented on the afaqs post) integrated Facebook in a much better way. Check out what Levi’s has done at their online store. Instead of separate registrations and profile, Facebook’s plugins could make life easier for the user and automatically bring in the ‘gangs’. It could get them to pull their own photos from Facebook for the ‘Makeover Machine’, suggest it to friends, and so on. Or build a Twitter app that uses the display picture. It could have perhaps thought bigger and had their ambassador (Priyanka Chopra?) interact with the users through her own identities on these platforms. Or used a location based tool like Foursquare (or FB Pages or later Google Places) to start building a resource for salons and tips at each place (think of a Burrp! for salons), maybe in sync with a YouTube channel for tips.

    Pantene: Good Morning! They obviously missed a little thing when they didn’t pay attention to the pwnage of DNA at the hands of the Times Group during the former’s launch campaign in Mumbai back in 2005 (?), or the more recent Airtel- Reliance DTH fun. Not to mention the cliche that after a certain point, the only person who gets teased is the brand manager. Ok, I won’t overstate, but c’mon this is a real-time era AND they did walk into a Dovetailed ambush. Since the internet already has made them un-mysterious (thanks for that info, Karthik), maybe Pantene should have just added those FB page and Twitter links to their mass media communication, and solved the mystery immediately online. Mind you, thanks to our dismal internet penetration, they could still demystify it again on mass media, later, after perhaps, adding the content from their online and offline activities. (think non market research agency 80%) That way, there would’ve been at least some buffer against a Dove’s sneak attack. Arguable, but possible.

    Dove: All of us should take the time and remember the controversy over the ‘campaign for real beauty’. But hey, they saw an opportunity and used it. Effects on long term goals are again arguable.

    A little note on ‘low involvement’. I wrote about brands, content and new media platforms in the last post, in the context of the Old Spice campaign, and also mentioned the importance of ‘intent’ and setting objectives. Once the ‘why’ is done, the relevant crowd can be identified, along with the platforms and activation strategies – ‘(to) who’, where and what. (Read Rohit Awasthi’s comment on Karthik’s first post) When the ‘right’ content is pitched to the ‘right’ people at the ‘right’ time (and the ‘right’ platform too), very few categories are low involvement.  (read Naina’s comment on that post) And that’s the beauty of the web in general, and the tools that social media have provided marketers. Old Spice could be seen as low involvement too, until they did this campaign.

    But having mostly seen communication as advertising (except arguably PR), creating content for social platforms is in itself quite a challenge for brand managers. Even if they were to  view ‘social’ as ‘media’, it requires a complete realignment of how media and content strategy is done, mostly because the mechanics of distribution are completely different. At a fundamental level, brands are dependent on users of platforms to create a buzz, and money doesn’t always work. At this point, tools can help with the ‘time’ (including location and other contexts) and ‘people’ (interest), and the way it works, if the ‘content’ is done right, people will get other people.

    Therefore brand managers need to make a more diligent effort. The fragmentation of traditional media does not seem to have made much of an impact on the costs involved in using them as distribution channels. So when ‘social media’  presents ‘free’ channels, brand managers see a value proposition and jump right in with a TVC and or/other weapons of mass mediocrity. Brands, I believe, need to invest a bit more on who they’re trying to reach, and then invest some more on building content and designing networks and constructs (irrespective of platform) that will drive the crowd to interact with the content and share it more. Content and people that will drive more connections, and help meet everyone’s objectives.

    But yes, until Augmented Reality allows me to scan a shampoo and tell me how many of my friends liked it, and think I should use it, (though my hair won’t last that long 😐 ) lets keep playing all the shampoo games we can play. 🙂 And while on using social platforms purely with a sales objective, I’m reminded of how Grandma uses her laptop. (vid below) Can it be used for those purposes? Of course! But is that its best case use? We can argue 😉

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg6emajJmEo

    until next time, sometimes brand strategies can be real poo!!

  • The Grill House

    Okay, so we’ve been fans of Tangerine and have thus managed to avoid The Grill House in Indiranagar, despite its reputation. But now that The Grill House had opened a new outlet in Ulsoor, we thought we could get away with a lesser sense of betrayal. 🙂

    The new place is on Bhaskaran/Gurudwara Road, right after the Ulsoor Road- Bazaar Street junction after The Park Hotel, when coming from MG Road/Old Madras Road. This map should help you. Parking is quite easy for 2 wheelers, the more well wheeled kind might find it a tad more difficult.

    The restaurant is on the busy main road, but manages very well to keep the noise out. That helped when the live gig was happening. Though the lighting is dim, the ambiance is still pleasant, with comfortable seating options and a  Tex Mex decor, including a few cacti, and cowboy hats. (though ahem, they did seem the kind that is sold at traffic junctions) Before the live music started, there was some decent music playing too. We got in by around 7.30 and by 8, the place seemed to have filled up, but they have two floors, though we were informed that the ground floor had to be full before they opened up the top floor. Hmm. But hey, food, that’s what matters. You can take a look at the menu here – 1, 2 ,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Watch out for the very interesting quotes.

    CIMG1277

    We decided to give the ‘cream’ a break and started with a Jamaican Chicken soup, that was supposed to “remind you of your grand mother’s cooking”. Strangely in spite of the name and the description, the soup reminded me of Chinese gravies. But its still a good thin soup, especially if you like it spicy and peppery.

    CIMG1278

    Next up was the BBQ Chicken Wings, “crispy fried chicken wings served with BBQ sauce”. This was strictly okay, and I had much higher hopes for the sauce. There are plenty of choices, so you might want to try something else.

    For the main course, since there were many more red meat options than I usually encounter, I decided on a ‘Steak Mardigras’, “Grilled steak topped with black and white mushrooms, sauteed onion, bell pepper and mashed potatoes” and D asked for a Mexican Hot Chicken, “Chicken Breast grilled and served with hot mexican sauce and tex-mex rice”. We both asked for sizzler versions.

    CIMG1284 All steaks are served with rice and mashed potatoes and you can trade one for an extra portion of the other, in case you have a preference. And that, on the left is the ‘mardigras’, and it was thankfully ‘well done’, just as I had asked. The sauce was very unique – tangy, with loads of mushrooms, and complemented the taste of the meat very well. The bell pepper presentation seemed to be a tribute to the FIFA champions, but never mind. 🙂

    CIMG1282D’s dish, as usual, turned out to be more photogenic, and you can see me going green in the background. The sauce in this one too proved to be very tasty – spicy and tangy, with the gherkin giving it a nice ‘kick’, though D did borrow my extra helping of mushroom sauce.

    The portions sizes are quite deceptive, they don’t look like they’ll give you a full tummy, but you end up with exactly that. They bring around the dessert options on a plate, and though the mousse looked very good, and the ‘Better than sex’ chocolate seemed rich enough and out to prove a point, we had to pass.

    All of the above cost us Rs.950. The service is decent, though there was an inordinate delay for the billing – apparently the credit card line wasn’t working. In essence, its definitely worth a visit when you’re in the mood for a good steak, and especially if you’re a red meat fan. Its an even battle with Tangerine, one that in my mind, it only narrowly loses, simply because of the more exciting choices at Tangerine. 🙂

    Menu at Zomato