Month: May 2011

  • NH8

    This review was first published in Bangalore Mirror, and you are permitted to read further only if you promise not to LOL, because this happens to be a veg restaurant! Gasp! Those of my meat eating friends whose ribs aren’t being tickled and who can empathise, don’t worry, I compensated by refusing to meet vegetarians and following a meat-only diet during the rest of the weekend. 😉

    NH8 is on 80ft Road Indiranagar and this map should tell you how to get there. The Bata showroom above which it is located is a good landmark. While on maps, for the geographically challenged, the map on the restaurant’s signboard outside informs you that the National Highway 8 connects the country’s capital New Delhi with its financial capital Mumbai, and on its way passes the State capitals Gandhinagar and Jaipur. Ok, geography lesson over, now you can take your eyes off the road and focus on the gastronomic journey.

    The idea is to present the cuisine of the different cities traversed by the NH8 highway. The menu is still in the introductory stage, and they plan to add more options soon. For now, what is available is a thali with unlimited refills. From the tiny waiting area outside to the entire decor inside, a good attempt has been made to do justice to the geographical theme of the restaurant. Perhaps the only thing that sticks out is the gigantic TV screen, but then, that seems to be a hygiene item in restaurants now. The seating is of two kinds – low floor and regular, and the cushions are bright and comfortable. The staff also follow the theme with their colourful pagdis.

    The welcoming ‘Padharo Sa’ section with Chaanch and Jaljeera is followed by the savouries (Farsaan) that included the dhokla, Batata vada and Masala Bati among others. The main course (Aarogo Saa, Jeemo Saa, Rice) consists of gravies – dal, gatta, kadi and to go with it Naan, Roti and rice. There’s also a Moong Dal Khichdi and a variety of chutneys. The road ends with desserts in the form of burfi and Lapsi. There are more items on the thali on weekends as compared to weekdays. You can see the menu at Zomato.

    We started with the Paneer Kalimirch Tikka, and the Haryaali Aloo, both of which turned out to be excellent. Despite its companions being fancier, the Batata Vada was also appreciated. But the Khaman Dhokla was spongy enough but very dry. The line bewteen starter and main course is blurred since the items land on your plate at rapid speeds.

    The Dal-Bati was mildly spicy and good enough for multiple helpings. The Gujarati Kadi was sour, sweet and spicy and was much in demand. But clearly, the winner was the Jaipuri Gatta with its rich, thick and spicy gravy. The Gobi Masala turned out to be too spicy and lacking any other flavour. The Marwari Kadi was also too bland, and lacked the sour, tangy flavours associated with it. The Aloo Tamatar Rasawaala didn’t leave any good impressions either. Meanwhile, the Marwari Chaanch keeps you good company throughout the meal. Among the desserts, the Coconut Burfi was the pick of the lot. The Marwadi Lapsi, made of broken wheat, was found to be lapsing, quite a disappointment.

    The high speed delivery mechanism of one dish after another could overwhelm you, but if you let that pass, the service would rate as one of the best you’d have encountered. With smiling faces, they insist on serving you more and more and when you’re finished, pleasantly ask if everything was to your satisfaction. The finishing touch is in the form of the handwash, which moves away from the regular fingerbowl to a person pouring the water for you to wash your hands.

    The thali is priced at Rs.199 on weekdays and Rs.249 on weekends. (Fri-Sun) If you happen to be a vegetarian, this place is obviously worth a visit. Even if you’re not, drop in for a unique experience delivered in a most hospitable manner. The way to a man’s heart is a highway, and that’s not the ghee talking.

    NH8, 710, 3rd Floor, Above Bata Showroom, 80ft Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore – 560008. Ph: 42076575

  • EastforEaster: Day 3 – Bangkok

    Click here for Part 1 and Part 2

    It was a rainy morning when we left the lovely Siem Reap airport, made even more wonderful with free Wi fi. For some reason we didn’t have to pay the $25 tourist charge either. I am clearly a fan of this airport. We thanked our stars that we weren’t affected by the morning rains when we saw the faces of dejected tourists who had just landed.  Bangkok Airways, “Asia’s Boutique Airline” was indeed stylish and served us a good breakfast. (This was in addition to the breakfast at the hotel, but I’d always wanted to experience a double breakfast) Some good dining tips for Krabi were picked up from the in-flight magazine. We landed at Suvarnabhumi around noon and cleared immigration in a few minutes. This was an elegant, efficient airport, not as pretty as Siem Reap, but definitely more scalable. We picked a free Bangkok map (and airport map) and reached the public taxi counter where an uninterested aunty forced herself to fill a form and send us on.

    The taxi driver proved to us that all over the world, there are versions of the auto guys in Bangalore who give first time visitors a well metered city darshan. This was despite the city map and a Google Maps print with point to point directions (in Thai too). He pretended he had lost his way, called a friend to get directions and even tried to take us past our hotel before we opened the door and forced him to stop.

    The Tango Vibrant service apartments seemed a slightly grander version of the Ginger Hotels here. Despite being a self-help kind of set up, they provided excellent service and were an extremely helpful bunch of people.

    We had arranged our tour with  Absolute Bangkok Tours. Our guide was supposed to meet us at 1.30 and she landed right on time. In the hired car, she introduced herself and after being faced by blank stares and rapid blinking, told us we could call her Nikki. 🙂 Our first stop was the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha.

    The thing to remember here is that all that glitters ain’t what it’s supposed to be. That doesn’t make it look any less opulent though. Despite being a Mallu and being bombarded by gold ads all my adult life, this was something! Meanwhile, Bangkok continued our walk-in-progress theme and the Palace was just the start.

    The name of the king who built this is also borrowed from Indian royalty/ science fiction – Rama 1. The mural on the left is one from a long stretch that shows the Ramayana. Ravana continues his 4+4+2 head arrangement here too and this is the Rama-Ravana face off scene. (click to enlarge) There were some very interesting characters –  this one is half lion and half man, though an evil soul commented on Facebook that it was JLo. 😀

    There was Garuda doing one of his regular snake stunts. The gold rush continued with some porcelain and jade for relief. We also saw a model of Angkor Wat. And we walked on. While getting out, we saw a tourist being sent back for wearing shorts. 😀 You can hire clothes from across the street though.

    Despite the two breakfasts, we were hungry and went off to grab some street food near the Palace as we waited for the taxi. Pork, fish and mango for dessert. All absolutely awesome and only costing 20 baht each. The next stop was Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) which required a ferry crossing. We saw a monk who refused to endorse earthly signs even if they seemingly pointed in the right direction.

    Wat Arun is another beanstalk to be climbed and a pretty steep one at that. But as always, a good view awaits you. We also saw a few monks who reminded me of a soft drink commercial from years back. The colour of their robes and the drink in their hand is the indicator. 🙂 We crossed the river and proceeded to Wat Pho. Yes yes, I did ask D what for she was making me walk like this.

    Wat Pho is another walkathon. We saw the reclining Buddha and I wondered if he had taken a tour too. I vaguely remembered a story I’d read in Tinkle/ACK about a mouse (?) which had set out to find the tallest Buddha. I thought this Buddha featured in it. I tried to remember the story as D dropped 108 coins in 108 vessels kept by the Buddha’s side.

    There were also statues of Marco Polo – in what seemed like an extreme Chinese makeover, and another that seemed like Prabhudeva caught in one of his dance moves. The former is accurate and the latter was me seeing things because of excessive walking. But again, another place worth a visit for some beautiful Buddhas.

    If I had any hope that the walking had ended, D dashed it when she subtly indicated that there was a good view from the Golden Mount. The view was definitely neat, but it also meant that I began seeing stars early in the evening. That cafe there must be doing great business!

    Our penultimate stop for the day was the flower market. D was like a little kid who was seeing flowers for the first time. But I couldn’t really blame her – all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes and a bouquet’s worth of roses selling for 20 baht. Despite all the temptation, D didn’t ask me to buy her flowers. Mah wife is cool that way 🙂 Nikki seemed to be on a shopping spree though.

    We left for the last item on our agenda – the Chao Phraya dinner cruise. The sky seemed set for rain and we had about an hour to kill at the River City mall, where the pier was. As we sat inside the mall, too tired to walk, and munched away at the Foi Tong we’d bought earlier (vermicelli like dessert made from egg yolk), it started raining and continued as we got into the boat. We feared the worst. Dinner distracted us as soon as we boarded and we used regular buffet diversion techniques to manage the mobs at the counter. The crowd was a mix – from India, Middle East, Kenya, Bhutan and more, and in an attempt to please Indians, the lady massacred Bolo Ta Ra Ra and Munni!! Thankfully the skies cleared and we could enjoy the cruise despite not having ‘side-seats’. Our tuk tuk driver, on the way back to the hotel, an old man, turned out to be quite a speed demon. But it was a fun ride and looked forward to the shopping mania planned the next day.

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  • Weekly Top 5

    This week’s stories include Blackberry’s announcements at the World Conference – Playbook, NFC phones, Bing as default, Twitter statistics and third party ads, Facebook’s Social Deals and partnership with McAfee. Google Talk with video and voice and Google docs app for Android, YouTube’s expansion into Hollywood titles for rental, and a few Apple updates.

    [scribd id=54748243 key=key-29w7levc645b4k1p0d4g mode=list]

  • Evolution of Enterprise 2.0

    In the last post  – on defining social collaboration – I had also applied it in the context of social business. It was a brief mention and I did describe it as a utopian thought at this stage. However it reminded me of a debate late last year on Social Business and Enterprise 2.0, because ‘collaborative tools’ found mention then. The reasons for the debate notwithstanding, it was still interesting.

    It began with a post from Andrew McAfee, written in favor of Enterprise 2.0 and in which he pretty much called ‘social business’ geriatric. 🙂 Stowe Boyd shot back with this post, giving his definition of social business and insisting that the nomenclature was important.In keeping with my generally agreeable nature, I subscribe to parts of both thoughts. Social business as an idea is indeed old, but its adoption has been patchy at best. The ‘social’ tools of this era can enable greater, better and more consistent adoption, as there is indeed much potential for synthesis when people, processes and technology meet. Because of this, the manifestation of ‘social business’ would be new.

    But in my mind, there is quite a dichotomy between Social Business and Enterprise 2.0 anyway, primarily because of intent, and therefore the way they’re pitched as ideas. To use them interchangeably would be doing injustice to both. Enterprise 2.0 focuses on using social technologies to address the objectives of the organisation. But Social Business has a larger role and (for the purpose of a direct comparison) would involve setting organisational objectives with a social-societal perspective and a purpose that people can identify with. In Hugh MacLeod’s words, “the need to belong  to something that matters”.

    Is one better than the other? I don’t think so and it is perhaps not an apt comparison. Enterprise 2.0 is perhaps a better fit (relatively) to the current organisational frameworks, while Social Business is much more radical. But it is quite possible that over a period of time, an organisation that adopts Enterprise 2.0 will transform into a Social Business. As for social collaboration, it is a process that can fit well into both.

    until next time, a social enterprise 🙂

  • EastforEaster: Day 2 – Angkor Wat, Banteay Srei

    Click here for Part 1

    The highlight of the second day was supposed to be the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We set out at about 5.30 to catch the sun coming out. Apparently no one had informed the sun, so after a few teasers, it went back to snuggle among the clouds. Cheapo. An on-demand sun has a huge market in this side of the world, I tell ya. Breakfast happened right opposite the temple complex and was nothing worth writing about.

    We got back to walking mode as this was another huge temple complex that needed to be negotiated. We saw, for the first time, the version of Ravana in this part of the world – with a 4+4+2 head arrangement. (second pic – click to enlarge, you will see it towards the top right end)

    As per standard procedure, a climb was next on the agenda as we set about exploring the Angkor Wat temple. The view was quite rewarding and we got back down on the other side. Compared to the front, this was a very peaceful area and one could walk languidly taking in the crumbling remains of ancient buildings. The next destination was Banteay Srei and because of time constraints, we chose to travel the 37 km distance by car, rather than walk. 😉

    Banteay Srei has an infrastructure built for tourists and we landed there in time to witness a Japanese invasion! The crowds were really bad, I remembered the Bong crowd in Sikkim, this was a 10x international version. Arrgh! But the place is worth a visit because it’s markedly different from the Angkor style.

    On our way back, we dropped in at a couple of places – Pre-Rup and East Mebon. These two are quite similar and both involve climbs. From East Mebon, you can barely make out an Angkor Wat tower with your guide’s help. My suspicions were confirmed when the guide acknowledged that the king had bearers to carry him up and down these temples! Most of the royal names I heard sounded Indian, more specifically like the Travancore royalty – Jayavarman, Suryavarman…. Long before the gulf… you think?

    Exhausted, all I wanted to do was drop anchor somewhere. We asked to be taken to Pub Street for lunch and hogged at Easy Listening – Rice Loc Lak and a Khmer fried fish, the latter proving to be quite an interesting dish. We then went window shopping at the Old Market, where D once again practiced her bargaining skills. They would start at some outrageous price and then do a countdown as we started walking away. We also scouted for dinner options, and then another tuk tuk ride took us to the hotel.

    Our sunset plan from the previous day had been pushed by a day but we had time for a quick nap before the driver came to pick us up. We found a good place and settled down with the gin and sun. Sitting on the grass overlooking the reservoir, we waited for the sun to set as our tour guide spoke to us about his experiences during the Cambodian civil war, stories of the Killing Fields, and how his country was coping now. It fell in with my observations of the streets and life around. A country just beginning to find its feet after years of turmoil. I wondered whether this was how we were in the 50s and 60s, the big difference being technology. In the guide’s words “this is the age of scientists”. He had said this soon after he had met us and spoken about his desire to travel, and the opportunities these days but I figured this was what he had meant.

    We bid goodbye to our tour guide and asked the driver to drop us off at the New Market. Finally D decided to buy a few things in response to the ‘Want sumseeng’ (want something?) chants. The new market is quite peaceful and definitely less crowded, though the prices were lower than at the Old market. After we got out, I saw Batman and Spiderman tuk tuks but they were too fast for my camera. 🙁 I specially wanted one of the former to send to Batmania. As we walked around, we saw a couple of Indian restaurants and one which was definitely Mallu (though it offered North Indian cuisine too) with Kathakali and Ravi Varma paintings. After much deliberation, we chose Bopha Angkor over the Dead Fish Tower. An anniversary treat. 🙂 Bopha Angkor is quite stylish and we tried many things -the Amok Fish in coconut shell, a Khmer chicken curry and coconut crepes.

    Siem Reap is relatively a small place and four wheelers are few in number, but I could already see the beginning of tourism’s influence here, including the HRC tee our last tuk tuk driver wore. Past the river and the promenade and shops that were slowly closing down for the day, the tuk tuk took us back to our hotel, to spend our last night in the land of the Khmer.

    Notes and budgets

    Currency: All transactions are in $. Local currency is useful only for very low value transactions.

    Travel: Flights one way, would cost anywhere between 10-25 for 2 people, basis various factors – duration, time of year, when you’re booking etc. From May, the rains begin and go on till October. You could enter via Thailand too, wiki (link below) gives you an idea.

    Food: Plenty of interesting options, especially if you like seafood. Breakfast can be done within $5 and lunch/dinner for around $15.

    Tour: We used AboutAsia who gave us options of hotels to suit various budgets, tour plans etc along with a detailed pdf about the places to visit. Our cost for the tour services came to $310 (inclusive of hotel, driver, guide, entry fees) and we were quite happy with the service. However, it would obviously be cheaper if you booked a hotel, reached there, hired a tuk tuk and saw places basis a plan you made.

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    Resources: Wiki Travel, Travelfish, TripAdvisor