Year: 2013

  • Kakori Kababs & Curries

    The search for Talaash tickets (yes, we do have a massive backlog on the blog 😀 ) ended at Gopalan Cinemas. We thought this was a good enough excuse to check out the restaurant scene in JP Nagar. From the various options that Zomato gave us, we zeroed in on Kakori Kababs & Curries. You can find the map and menu at Zomato. The map was perfect and the place wasn’t difficult to find at all. They have valet parking for 4 wheelers and suficient space for 2 wheelers right in front of the restaurant.

    When we arrived, we were only the second group there. The place had a <insert dimming Instagram filter> effect to it, almost like a place that was taking its baby steps towards disrepair. But we found a comfortable table, I asked for a Breezer (they only had orange and cranberry) and D wanted to try a Blush. 😀 For starters, we wanted to check out the Kakori Kabab, but that was unavailable! So we decided to go for our second preference – Murg ka Soola. The Blush, it seems, had all the  promised ingredients – strawberry, guava, cranberry etc, and was quite good from the way D was slurping. The Soola was quite spicy thanks to the ground chillies, and though the cinnamon wasn’t really present, we really liked the dish.

    For the main course, we asked for a Murg Dil Bahar and a Meat Beliram, and to go with it, a Kakori Naan and a Chilli Olive Naan, and later, a Butter Tandoori Roti. The Murg Dil Bahar was a rich creamy gravy and the mutton dish was well cooked with a mildly spicy gravy. We enjoyed both and the breads were subtle enough to complement the dishes very well.

    By the time we left, all the tables were taken, and there were 2-3 groups waiting outside! Judging by the food we got, worth the wait in that part of town, I’d say. All of the above cost us just under Rs.1400. The service was prompt. But what I really really enjoyed was the instrumental music – 90s Bollywood – Sainik, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na, Damini, Imtihaan. AWESOME. 🙂

    Kakori Kababs, 9A, 24th Main, 6th Phase, JP Nagar, Ph: 65705588

  • Filipinotes – Days 6,7

    ….continued from Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5

    Waking up at 5 AM during a vacation. Check. Ok, 5.10. We left the hotel a little after 5.30 for our flight at 7.50. Coco Huts had cost us 10800 pesos, and was totally worth it. Very helpful staff! This time the flight was from the Caticlan airport, 45 minutes – 1 hour away. The transfer crew thankfully were more helpful with the baggage, and we even had the van all to ourselves. At the Caticlan jetty, we had to pay porters about 20 pesos per bag/per shore to get it into the boat and out, but it’s worth it from experience! From the jetty, we were taken to the airport, and had to pay airport fees of 200 pesos each. But it’s a nice, small, clean airport and there’s WiFi. The Cebu flight was on time and we reached Manila around 9.

    We realised when we landed that the hotel had arranged transport for us from Terminal 1! We boarded the transfer bus to Terminal 1, and it promptly broke down on the way! Thankfully, we were picked up immediately by another bus and dropped at Terminal 3 departure. We made our way to Arrivals and tried to find the taxi counter where our transfer to the hotel had been booked. The folks there studied the mail print out with a reverence and attention that made it seem like an archaeological specimen! Turned out English was a forgotten language there, so they pieced together letters and formed words, then tried to understand the sentences that resulted. We repeatedly kept saying Nissan and even stood in front of that specific counter but they waved us into silence as they studied the manuscript! The girl at the Nissan counter continued giving her undivided attention to her chewing gum. No multitasking, no sir! Half an hour later, they had reached line 6 where Nissan appeared, and the girl was summoned to take care of us. She wasn’t convinced, but spat out the gum and proceeded to her next task with the enthusiasm that our nation’s leader displays before giving a speech.

    The car took another 15 minutes to get to us, and from there we took an hour to get to Casa Bocobo. It cost us 600 pesos, and much cheaper that the 1000 peso options we were given by other airport taxis. We suspected that metered taxis would have been cheaper. At Casa Bocobo, we were told that check in time was 2 PM, and the earliest time we could be given a room was 12 PM – checkout time. We spent the next two hours staring at various available walls. While D sulked, I was busy multitasking – the combination of a lack of breakfast and the early wake up provided me some material to start a headache.

    We stubbornly decided to have a meal only at SM Mall of Asia, our destination for the day. At 12.30, we were taken to our room, and I discovered that I would need an adaptor to charge anything here! We quickly freshened up and took a cab to the mall, 250 pesos and about 20 minutes away. After getting there, and discovering that reading about the 4th largest mall in the world and understanding its ramifications were two different things, we realised that there was no way we’d be able to cover it in a day! We surveyed the lunch options and decided to go multi-cuisine at Pho Hoa. After a quick but excellent meal Pho, Kungpao chicken, Brochette, mango juice and Black Jelly drink and 855 pesos later, D was heady with the prospects of the massive shopping time ahead of her, and my headache gave a me a welcome message!

    The interactive maps at the mall were helpful but upside down and we spent quality time getting lost, but since we weren’t looking for anything specific, it was okay and we kept discovering new avenues and shops! I found an old favourite that had disappeared from India – Springfield! There was also a smaller version of ODEL in Lanka, and we rued the fact that we had already picked up stuff for everyone! This place is obviously a shopper’s paradise, and I frequently wanted to ask D if she needed tissues to stem the salivation. Across the road was the bay, and at about 5.45 we made our way there to watch the sunset. The promenade was alive with crowds, kids playing and mime acts! The mall had a huge number of options that allowed us to watch the bay as we had dinner. After inspecting the options, we chose Abe where we tried Manok sa Luyang Dilaw, chicken in coconut milk, and Betute, farm frogs filled with minced pork. 🙂 D was queasy about the latter when she ordered and kept asking if they’d be fried, but I saw none of that later as she crunched away the dead frog’s legs! 😀 Rice and beer and sangria followed. The bay view was beautiful, and the meal cost us  1100 pesos. Worth it, and the only thing that spoiled it a bit was my nagging headache. The taxi back cost us 300 pesos, we gave 50 extra because the driver was a sweet old man, who looked like he could survive in Bangalore traffic. 🙂

    Back at the room, I asked for an adaptor – unfortunately not available, and confirmed our taxi for the airport, thankfully available. Thus ended Day 6, our last night in the Philippines.

    Day 7

    The plan was to visit a nearby mall. We had given our breakfast preferences the night before and quickly consumed that in the restaurant. The adaptor was finally available as well!

    Robinson Mall happened to be a really short walk away, and on hindsight, we should have just lunched here the previous day! The shopping options were quite good as well, and we bought more here, despite having less than 2 hours. This has become a ritual, the last day frenzy and the rush to the airport. We reached Casa Bocobo just in time. We had already paid the 2500 pesos due. Stuffed the new acquisitions into the bag and hoped into the cab which was waiting. 650 pesos took us to the airport. We changed currency from the one option available. This airport is an 80s style one and doesn’t really have options to do anything much. The Malaysian Airlines flight to KL was delayed after we boarded and some fidgeting later we were on our way. This one didn’t have screens, so we were a bit bored. At KL, we were back in the familiar corridor and killed time (with the help of chocolate drinks at Old Town and currency exchanges involving amounts less than $10 😀 ) before the flight to Bangalore! Four hours later and the last 15 minutes of Life of PI and 3 episodes of Big Bang Theory later, we were in Bangalore. After the sloooooow motion Immigration queue, and a Meru, we were finally home!

    I loved Philippines more than Bali and Cambodia – Palawan for its beauty and balance with nature, Boracay for the sunsets and the buzz, and Manila for just being an awesome city to look at and be at. Thailand is probably close in terms of mind space. Philippines had everything we wanted in a vacation, and is relatively less touristy. It was well worth the visa headache, which involved us submitting everything we had except my dad’s horoscope and property documents, and cost us Rs.3500 each! The trip cost us about Rs.1.9 lakhs with flight tickets (including within the country) at about a lakh, staying options at around Rs.4ooo, meals at about Rs.1500 each and shopping of course! In essence, ranks right up there in terms of journeys, and highly recommended! 🙂

    The End

  • The more things change….

    Just a couple of weeks back, I’d written about influence and context, and last week the twitterverse had some excitement delivered courtesy Disney. I couldn’t experience it first hand, but got quite a lot of perspective thanks to Karthik’s post and the comments that followed.

    Personally, instances such as Disney serve as a great filter for keeping track of the trust quotient. I don’t expect agencies/brands/celebrities to be unbiased or disclose, but once upon a time, it was natural for regular twitterati to do that. But times have changed, and all of this is personal philosophy, so I’ll move on.

    On hindsight, and when comparing the patterns of evolution of traditional and social media, the current scenario seems inevitable! Platform – Community – Audience -Brand – Ads (hashtags) – and when ads became noise, brands differentiate by bringing in a fresh voice. (celebrities/micro celebrities) Where we are now is with an army of mini TOIs, relatively more genuine-sounding, and significantly less costly. There are quirks, of course. For instance, brands don’t have to pay the platform to be present, and can incentivise the community to provide publicity. On the flip side, brands are also ‘being held to ransom’ (previous post) by ‘influencers’ and we’ll probably see guns for hire being used by rival brands pretty soon. [Just last week, we saw a tweet from a person working at a competitor stating that she liked shopping at Myntra. One of the various scenarios we considered was a #conspiracytheory – that the moment we used the tweet in some way, the person would prove to be a non-employee and we’d be accused of playing dirty]

    At one point, I really thought (or hoped) social would be new wine, but it has more or less ended up a new bottle. If we continue the evolution pattern, the future is easy to imagine. Context will disappear, and noise will magnify, until the next disruption. But I still have some hope, because the nature of the platforms (and the tools that are getting built) are such that a user can, at least to an extent, mould it according to the way in which he wants to consume it.

    That does take me back to what I said in the last post – people will actively build their own trusted sources. And the real opportunity for brands is still to become a trusted source. Yes, I do think it’s possible, and we have a relaunched buzzword on cue – social business. In fact, there are probably brands doing it already, spending resources to build the foundations so that the hashtag (or its equivalent in the future) is not manufactured for its own sake, but is organically and genuinely built by contextually relevant influencers who can be publicly rewarded for helping the brand meet its business objectives.

    But wait, that was where social platforms started too. Which leads me to wonder if the future of brands and media will always work in cycles, and end up near square one!

    until next time, the more they remain the same…

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  • Filipinotes – Day 5

    ….continued from Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

    Another lazy day had been unplanned. The only planning as usual were the meal spots. For breakfast, D had identified a crepes joint called Ti Braz nearby, which also had other breakfast options. Though the beach view was awesome, we chose to sit inside, and were served a pretty mediocre breakfast for 820 pesos. Back at the hotel, we asked for a spa session, which had been advertised in the room in the form of a brochure. That was confirmed for later in the day. Since we were to leave early the next day, we also asked them to check with the guys who were supposed to drop us at the airport on when we’d have to leave. We wandered about all morning, tasting a Boracay version of a breezer, (chocolate flavour dominated) shopping, and as per plan dropped in at Mesa (part of the Boracay Regency) which had a ‘modern Filipino’ cuisine….and WiFi 🙂 After sadly learning that the Ostrich meat wasn’t available, we had a Tilapia simmered with mustasa and gata (mustard and coconut) that seemed like a stew, beef cooked two ways (crispy and saucy) and a  laing fried rice. The fish was almost like a stew with mustard leaves and quite good. The crispy beef was bland but the saucy one made up for it. The Laing fried rice has pork in it. Enough said. Washed down with Rum-Coke. A fine meal at 1275 pesos.

    We slowly walked back to the hotel, a short walk away, and got to know that the spa appointment was at 4, and we’d be picked up the next day at 5! :O A nap later, we learnt that the spa would be coming to us! The mobile massage squad did their job in the room itself! Cost us 700 pesos (for two) and worth it! Massage services are the only ones giving food outlets a run for their money in Boracay. Across the beach front, you will be accosted by those advertising massages, or adventure stuff. I slept off and missed the sunset but D managed to catch it, though she said it wasn’t as beautiful as the previous day.

    Dinner was planned at Jony’s, in the extended Station 1 section. We had actually thought of having lunch here, but then flipped the plan. That turned out to be a good idea. This was a quieter area, and we could watch the sea peacefully. We had catfish, a chicken preparation inspired by the Chinese, and plain rice. D ordered a Mango-Pineapple shake that turned out to be better than her ex-favourite Jonah’s! Inspired me to try a mango shake as well, and it was really good. A perfect last meal at Boracay – 1129 pesos. We talked about the shops we’d seen that seemed to have been started in the 80s, and wondered what kind of adventurers had made their way to Philippines then. I remembered reading Alexander Frater’s “Chasing the monsoon” and the feel of India in the late 80s it gave. That’s one of the reasons I blog – years later, I hope someone, from all of this, would be able to get a glimpse of how the world was, and how a life was lived. A page across time. 🙂

    We slowly walked back to the hotel, and received a message that the pick up was at 5.30. I hoped I’d be able to keep a promise to myself to avoid early morning adventures during vacations! Thus ended Day 5.

  • Filipinotes – Day 4

    continued from Days 1, 2, 3..

    For the first time during the vacation, the morning dawned like one! We’d slept listening to live music and woke up after 9! Though Coco Huts gave a 20% off on breakfast at their Army-Navy restaurant in the premises, we decided to explore a bit. Beach facing options were the focus, and we found Cafe del Mar a hundred metres down. D, as usual, managed to pick up an awesome Chef’s special omelette while I got more standard fare! Couldn’t complain though, especially given the awesome view and a bill of 540 pesos. The table number was 21. #youremember We’d been told that since the heater in the room hadn’t been fixed, they’d be shifting us to the family room. They did that soon as we got back from breakfast. This one was spread across 2 levels (and a mezzanine one in between)  and could accommodate about 6 people! We were requested to use only the lower floor and the balcony. Fair request. Like all rooms, this one too was all wood, and had a verandah facing the beach.

    We hadn’t made any specific plans for Boracay in terms of what are called ‘activities’. The only planning we did was figuring out the places to eat at! D Mall featured a lot in our research, and on our way the previous night we’d seen it on the road and thought it was a bit away. But on the beach, it seemed much nearer. It’s just off the beach and the first horizontally spread out mall I’d seen. 🙂 As if the eating options on the beach weren’t enough, this one had many as well, along with shopping options! But D had one destination in mind – Jonah’s Milkshakes, and she claimed to have seen it on the road the previous night. After getting on to the road we ambled a bit before realising that we should probably ask someone. Turned out that it was right after the spot where we’d been dropped the previous night! My turn to look at D accusingly! Our mango and mango-pineapple shakes were delivered in bottles, and proved to be a task to finish, though it was good! We shopped a bit, seeing Gandhi in the strangest of places, and a restaurant called The Hobbit House (turned out that they had one in Manila as well) where they employed midgets as servers, before dropping the stuff at the room and heading out for lunch.

    A Thai option was available in the form of Saneh Thai, where we planned a light lunch of Tom Kha soup and a Chicken Satay (because nothing else was available) I also asked for a ‘Rhum Coke’, (not a spelling error) perfect for a balmy afternoon. Cost us 850 pesos. After another round of trinket shopping, we thought we’d explore the area a bit more. We went further along the beachfront (to the left of our hotel) and marked options for future meals. One of the places that did give that was the Coco Cafe, where we had some nice coffee and great WiFi for 305 pesos. 😉

    Once we got back to the hotel, I also found spots that gave me access to their internet, which had proved elusive the day before. After a brief rest, we got out to catch the sunset. Turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever seen. There were boys doing sand art, and when we clicked pics, they politely asked for money. 🙂

    After some more sunset clicking, we walked to the ‘right side’ of our hotel and were almost deceived that we were at one end. But we could proceed along the beach and discovered there was a quieter area with restaurants beyond. Again, we mistakenly thought this would be Station 2 or 3. Boracay has 3 Stations – 1,2,3 in descending order of ‘happening’ quotient. 🙂 Our hotel was at Station 1 and it turned out that this quieter area was actually an extension of 1. Tito’s, a stone’s throw away from our hotel, where we hadn’t been able to get a table the previous night, was kinder at 7.30 and Absinthe, and Sisig were consumed, along with some great music. Some tummy space had been reserved because we wanted to try out the Mati Chocolate Sin at Zuzuni, right next to our hotel, a dish recommended across the web! The day before we had reached the place pretty late and they had claimed they were about to shut shop. The dish turned out to be quite good (chocolate usually is!) and together, the dinner cost us 980 pesos. I quite cheaply hung around just outside Coco Cafe, and browsed the web even as D browsed fish stalls!

    Back in the room, live music could still be heard, and I slept in the comfort that the next day could be another late start! Thus ended Day 4.