Year: 2010

  • Tunday Kababi

    The reviews that I had read in the last couple of weeks had ensured that before this Sunday I’d have a go at Tunday. 🙂 It helped that the place is in Koramangala, on the same road as Ping, Empire, Paramount etc, in the same building as Lazeez. (map) Parking is not very easy for four wheelers, but you should just about manage. Tunday is spread across two floors, and at about 9.30 pm on Saturday was quite crowded. Thankfully, we found a place on the first floor.

    Tunday is a famous import from Lucknow, and apparently is the first franchise outside of the place, though it seems the cooks and spices have been brought down. According to Amit Akali’s review in Bangalore Mirror (disclosure: yep, I work in the Times Group 🙂 ), legend has it that the mutton kabab was created specially for a Lucknowi nobleman who had lost his teeth but not his appetite for kababs. Also Tunday gets its name from tunda,a slang for a one armed man. You can read more here. So, keep that in mind and when you’re here, and so pehle aap ek plate Mutton Tunday kabab order karo please. 🙂

    We did, and though we had no train to catch, it was brought in a few minutes. A plate has 4 pieces and from what we ate, I’m convinced that the toothless nobleman would’ve had no trouble at all with the kabab. The phrase ‘melt in the mouth’ is a cliche for kababs, but I’m guessing this one  is a good candidate to have started it. Its awesome and I insist you try it. (a good time to mention that if you’re a veggie,you’ll perhaps feel as much a sense of belonging here as Sarah Palin in a geography quiz) Meanwhile, the menu is as simple as it can get, as you can see here

    tunday

    (click for a larger image)

    After the splendid kabab, we moved on to a Shahi Murg Masala and a couple of Tunday’s parathas. The paratha is perhaps the most unique one I’ve had. It is crispy yet soft. Do give it a try. The Shahi Murg Masala was another good choice, and though the portion was not really that large (had only one chicken piece, though a large one at that) it was delicious. Spicy too, and there was some flavour that I couldn’t quite place, though it did remind me of saffron. (but it wasn’t saffron)

    The next round consisted of a mutton biriyani and a chicken korma. The mutton biriyani was fantastic, and unlike the ones we regularly have, it was not very oily. Of the whole lot, the korma was perhaps the only one that wasn’t really stellar. But it was in the company of legends, so one can’t really blame it. By the time we finished all this, we were stuffed, and so the Awadhi kheer had to be left for another day.

    Now, this is by no stretch of imagination, a fine dining place. No A/c, the tables are just about clean, the chairs aren’t so lucky, and they won’t bring the handwash apparatus to your table. 🙂 The service is chaotic, we even contemplated joining our table with the adjacent couple, since there were at least a couple of mixed up orders. But you really wouldn’t pay attention because of the speed at which the food arrives and of course, the food itself. Besides the guys are really pleasant in spite of the furious pace, and the earnestness wins you over. So, think of it as though you’re at home, roll up your sleeves, and get to work on the part that matters – the food. 🙂

    All of the above cost us just less than Rs.450, that was after reminding them that they hadn’t billed one item. 🙂 The portions are not large, but the good part, therefore, is that you can try different dishes. 🙂 You should definitely try the place out.

    Tunday Kababi, KHB Colony, 5th Block, Koramangala Ph: 9448083030

    Menu at Zomato

  • Brands and consumer social influence

    Sometime back, I had read a post on Inquisitr very interestingly titled “Let’s bring some reality to this social media game“. Although my expectation of reality was slightly different from what the post delivered, I still found it a good read because it dealt with an issue that I have thought about several times. We even discussed it in the comments section of a post that (among other things) brought up the Kiruba-Cleartrip incident from last year.  In my personal blog, I’d written about the ‘clique friendly web‘ in a tangential context – of bloggers with fan clubs perhaps losing objectivity and not tolerating a difference of opinion. The question, meanwhile, is really quite simple – should companies on social media sites give differential treatment to customers basis their ‘social influence’.

    A few weeks back, I saw a post on Jeremiah’s blog which dealt with the same subject. His point – “Just as companies factor in value of a customers celebrity status, buying power or customer loyalty –companies must factor in social influence or put themselves at risk.” He has even created a matrix that shows 4 phases of  incorporating social influence and the pros and cons of each phase. He has factored in both absolute and relative influence (influence in context of a brand/company’s domain)

    Let me try a context for this. Very simplistically put, I’ve always seen the consumer generated media as part of a media long tail. The traditional media is in the head, aggregators including Google, FB, Twitter are also there now, followed by forums/discussion boards, influential blogs and then the individual accounts. So consider this perspective. Brands have always given preferential treatment to MSM simply because they reach a mass. And let’s just say not just in terms of using them for communication, but the overall experience for their representatives. With the rise of the web and a new set of aggregators gaining prominence, brands have tried to evolve processes for the system – from SEO/M to blogger outreach to presence on Social Media. Yes, processes do help, but..

    With search engines including real time updates in their results – Google even outlines how its Twitter algorithm works, brands now not only have to listen, but also work out the way to handle all the messages being thrown at them, because they’d be deemed unresponsive otherwise. The phrase “there’s no dipping your toe in social media” comes to mind. So, should there be differential treatment?

    At this point, I know most companies would do exactly that, but I wonder if they’d then be just trading one set of media for another. I’ve seen many cases where a tweet from a relatively unknown (in my circles) person gets RTed and becomes a raging fire. It is perhaps easier to assign a process basis categories of social influence, but I think, unlike the structured media that has been dominant before, this is a web – of human connections, which is  more difficult to fathom, and have ways of inorganic spread that are no way close to measurement, yet. If indeed, there is a process to be set up, perhaps it should be more internal than external – involving different functional groups capable of thinking and reacting to specific domains and contexts. With services like Twitter planning on multiple identities within the same handle, perhaps the old fundamental social media approach of people to people might help debunk what I am also inclined to believe – “socializing cannot scale“

    until next time, weighing scales 🙂

    PS: If I consider posts on both blogs, this one happens to be #1000 🙂

  • Waking Life?

    (not really to do with that excellent film)

    All good things have a season finale, and when it happens to be the last season, the event becomes all the more poignant. Boston Legal has been my favourite show for a while now, and I am a huge fan of Alan Shore‘s sense of fairness. And while the description is tossed around a lot, there really can only be one Denny Crane. True, the last season was lesser than a shadow of the earlier ones, however it still didn’t take away much from the series. But yes, case closed.

    Which brings me to what I shall now be doing on weekdays 10 PM.Yes, I could read more or browse more, but when one has been following a show for quite a while, one does feel a sense of emptiness. It led me to think about how a life is spent nowadays. Sometime back I had wondered whether everyone’s life would be ‘interesting’ if it were to be fitted into a 2.5- 3 hour movie. Interesting relative to the daily routine that a typical life follows. Yes, the ‘different’ vacations included. And yes yes, there are those who lead an interesting life 24×365, ‘it depends’ blah blah, let’s forget all that, let’s say I’m talking about mine. Subjective, and at least a few others I know of.

    So, typically, there’s a routine, work, dinner, television/internet, weekends, shopping, cinema etc… How many of these are conscious choices and how many happen by default? Not the conscious choice of choosing say ‘Lost’ over ‘Ugly Betty’, but at least a couple of levels above that to say watching television vs going for a walk. Does the former happen by default,unless of course a health scare suddenly makes you stop, think, and take a re-look at perspectives, and therefore go for a walk?

    So far, I will have to admit that mine happens by default. And what typically happens is that when a template is broken, like in this case, there is a sense of ‘boredom’ till a replacement is found. On twitter, these days, I find a lot of versions of the “I’m bored” tweet in my stream. It made me wonder about how we really spend our time, about multitasking. Heh.  About incomplete experiences. As real time and technology advances are made at dizzying spaces, I think the templates are being formed faster and the dependence on them becoming stronger. Even at this stage, the differences between the tail and the dog are blurring. What really matters to me – the experience, the sharing of the experience, filling up waking hours, racing with time to complete x tasks in y time? What is the driver? Damn, its not even a who.

    So I stepped back and asked why it was so? Is it because I never thought about it that way? Is it because it is easier to make a template and follow? Oh yes, switching on the telly, or playing around on FB is definitely is easier than figuring out what one wants, how one wants to spend one’s time, and other such difficult questions. These require an effort,  not just in thought but in deed (eg.trying out an interest like the ‘learning how to play the guitar’ route) and answers to tougher questions in the background. Or then again, is it because of a fascination, a way of living vicariously through the real and fictional characters – on the net and television? Or to ensure that there is no time left for such thoughts, because I know they’re difficult ones? I think a bit of each, and anything else you’d like to add?

    And so, is it possible to make conscious choices every moment? Would that be the best way to fully live a life? I wonder what it would do to ‘expectations’ though – set me free or get amplified, for isn’t each expectation derived from a previous direct or indirect experience? But that can be dealt with later, for now, the idea, to use Mo’s words is to (edited) a wee bit “devour every little bit of whatever is on your platter”, and yes, I need to consciously decide what’s on the platter.

    until next time, crouching potato 🙂

  • 64

    is not just a number. And though I’m not aware of any deep significance that say, a 42 is privileged to have, it happens to be the name of a ‘bistro bar’ in Koramangala. 64 is located diagonally opposite Jukebox. (map) Let me warn you that traffic in this area is an absolute pain, so you might be better off leaving your vehicle at the Bosch parking space (take the left turn opposite Star on Hosur Road) which is relatively free during weekends, and walking up the rest of the way.

    64 has a mix of seating options spread across the first and second floor of what appears to be a house converted into its current usage. But this actually works in its favor. The cuisine is predominantly continental with just some lip service paid to a couple of other cuisines. You can have a look at the menu here. (and thank Roopashree)

    The menu offers quite a few options for vegetarians also, and within non veg, you can choose from chicken, fish, lamb and prawns. Since we couldn’t find a thick soup in the menu, we’d almost decided on a starter, but a casual enquiry resulted in us ordering a cream based chicken and mushroom soup, which isn’t on the menu. The chicken was added on our request, that was nice of them. 🙂 The soup turned out to be slightly less thicker than we’d have liked, but the creamy, peppery flavour was good enough for us to be largely satisfied.

    For the main course, we chose to ignore the pasta options. D ordered a ‘Chicken Piccata’ and I asked for a ‘Stuffed Chicken Pockets’. We both chose rice (over bread), and that didn’t disappoint. The sauces used in both dishes were excellent, though the chicken could’ve been a little more tender. The Chicken Piccata has a mushroom-pepper sauce, which went very well with the rice. The chicken pockets were indeed stuffed, but possibly could’ve been a little less bland. Thankfully, the tangy sauce covered up for it. The portions will not be sufficient if you’re really hungry and I’d recommend a starter if you’re planning to make a full meal of it in 64. Since we had other plans for desserts (that Crepe Connection refuses to let go of its stranglehold) we skipped that bit here.

    64 is closed on Mondays. It offers a Sunday special breakfast and lunch menu, which sounded (and I’ve heard good things about it too) quite sumptuous. There is also a ‘corporate lunch’ on weekdays, in which you can make your own salad, pasta and also includes a soup and dessert too.

    While the food is quite good, what really works for this place is the ambiance. While it did help that we landed up early (7.30 PM), there is something definitely relaxing about the place. It is really unhurried as its brochure suggests. No live acts on the day we visited, but with ‘The Killers’ and ‘Coldplay’, I couldn’t really complain. 🙂 Even though it is in a part of Koramangala where the traffic can be absolutely maddening (even to watch) the place manages to let you wath the world rush by, in peace, with some excellent service and a really soothing design and ambiance. Make sure you drop in. (if you need just desserts, there’s always Corner House right around the corner 😉 )

    64, 1st Main, 7th Block, Koramangala Ph: 9241734704

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • Where are you @ ?

    It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write about a shiny new toy here, but I believe we now have a service that can break the stranglehold of the holy trinity of Facebook, Google, Twitter – on this blog. 🙂 Say hi to Foursquare. Towards the second half of last year is when it was hailed by many, including Mashable, Scoble as the ‘next Twitter’/ bigger than Twitter. No, you don’t need to contradict that, that’s been done too.

    Though I created an account a while back, I started using it actively last week.  So what do I do on Foursquare? Well, I add places, check-in to places that have already been added by others, leave tips for people (no, not the waiters) and get points for doing all this. The places getting added are most usually F&B establishments, though that’s really up to you, because I’ve seen someone adding their own home too. Oh well. If you happen to check in many times, you get to be mayor of the place, until someone knocks you off. The guy who’s added his home, he happens to be mayor of his own home. 🙂 So, yes, it also works as a game, and you can import your friends from other networks. Status updating on Twitter and Facebook are also possible. Considering that I have more than 80 restaurant reviews on my other blog, I think Foursquare and I will get along just fine. 🙂

    When I first checked in, I was reminded of Twitter back in 2007. There will obviously be more features built in, it will evolve, just like Twitter has. Location based marketing is only beginning. But unlike Twitter’s cycle, things are faster now. Foursquare already has brand engagement and perhaps even revenue plans. I’d written earlier on Pepsi using Foursquare to fund Camp Interactive. Adage recently had a very good article on potential Foursquare revenue models, with separate working models for small local businesses, brands with retail chains and large multinational brands like Pepsi. Businesses are already testing out coupons based on preferences, for customers in the locality. Many places have Mayor specials. No, Barista, MG Road, Bangalore, obviously doesn’t have one.

    In addition to the obvious models, Foursquare has also signed deals with HBO (for a new series called How to make it in America) , Warner (for the new movie Valentine’s Day) , the History channel etc, complete with tips and badges. The other interesting tie-up is with Zagat, a food and restaurant review site, part of which is a  weekly ‘Meet the Mayor’ guide. This is more experimenting than what poor Twitter had in its first couple of years, I’d say.

    Foursquare already has a lot of competition – from Google Latitude Buzz to Loopt, MyTown, Gowalla etc. Loopt recently launched the LooptCard, which lets mobile consumers avail of offers, coupons and discounts by checking-in to spots. Gowalla recently opened up their API, and a report earlier stated that MyTown had surged past both Foursquare and Gowalla.  Foursquare’s traffic has tripled in the last 2 months, but there’s more competition too – Yelp recently started mobile check ins, which is not really great news for players like Foursquare because of Yelp’s existing audience. Twitter has made its move on Local, starting with trends, and will surely expand in that domain. Google Buzz connects to Google Maps Place Pages and being a part of GMail, already has a huge user base!! (Read more about the implications here, here and here) And then of course, is the new 800 pound gorilla in everything social – Facebook. With more than 1.5 million local business listings, they are bound to make a play in local soon. In India, I wonder if one of my favourite services, Burrp, will make a game out of it.

    Its amazing how the more things change, the more they remain the same. We’re now back to ‘Location, Location, Location’, but with the new layers of social, and behaviour added. 🙂

    until next time, keep reading, maybe I’ll be handing out special Mayor invites soon :p