Month: March 2014

  • The Tao Terraces

    The Tao Terraces has been on my radar ever since this one once commented that they serve a good Khow Suey. On the Diwali weekend, (yes, I know!) we decided to get out of our regular gastroturf i.e. Koramangala/Indiranagar and head to 1 MG, (map) which to me is the new UB City in terms of #posh. The experience at Blimey wasn’t really fantastic, and since then I tend to look at the entire mall with suspicion. But go there we did.

    We chose the seating on the ground floor, by the little pool, partly because we’d read that they only served a limited menu in the lounge on the second floor. (though when we asked whether this was true, the service staff said this was only true for the starters, and anything in the main course could be ordered upstairs as well) The seating is comfortable, and this section is dimly lit with a lot of Buddhist/South East Asian decor elements. The music is generic lounge and the overall effect is quite soothing.

    On a whim, we skipped the Dim Sum and appetisers and asked for the Spicy Tuna Maki roll, but since that wasn’t available, decided to go for the Nigiri Sushi. (salmon) On a relative scale, we’re sushi n00bs, (both of us have always felt some kind of a strange revulsion!) and didn’t really have a benchmark to compare against. I experimented with the Wasabi paste and soy sauce and found my preferred combination in the third and final attempt. I liked the texture of the fish and the overall dish and am emboldened enough to keep experimenting. We’d also asked for the Laska Lemak Malaya (Chicken) soup. Spicy, tangy, with tofu and chicken, this was probably the best dish of the day. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

    For the main course, we predictably asked for the “khau-swe” and since both of us were reasonably hungry also ordered a Wok Tossed Smoked pork and Jasmine Rice to go with it. The Burmese dish was reasonably good, though a tad too heavy for my liking. Also, the coconut flavour seemed to have come from a packet. The pork dish was quite salty with a standard smoked smell that even the jasmine rice couldn’t neutralise.

    We would’ve loved to try out the Kafir Lime Tiramisu and the Wasabi Ice Cream but we were too stuffed! In all, except for the soup, it was an average meal that cost us a bit over Rs.2400. The service was reasonably prompt, though they always had an ‘are you sure’ expression on their faces.

    collage1

    The Tao Terraces, 5th Floor, 1 MG Mall Ph: 9986988444

  • A new medium

    I haven’t taken you outside of the blog in a while, but here goes.

    LinkedIn recently opened up its publishing platform, and since it’s a contextually relevant platform to publish my ‘work’ posts, I was immediately interested. Thanks to Gautam, I discovered this link, applied, and soon got publishing rights. It was a harder task to write something though! I have finally managed something that is a differently framed version of concepts that I have written on the blog already. Do take a look here.

  • The Fiction Collection 2 (Penguin)

    This book was a little ‘Inception’ of time travel. It’s been 6.5 years since it was published and commemorates 20 years of Penguin in India. It consists of excerpts from the many works the publishing house has brought out, many of them from several years back. There were a few from books I had already read, a few by authors whose other works I was familiar with, and then there were authors and works I had never even heard of – and that’s why reading this was a wonderful experience – like rediscovering a few old friends and making new ones. 🙂

    In a few of them, I did miss the larger context, but those were a rare few. There are a few translated works too, and I was surprised by the justice they seemed to do to the original work – ‘after the hanging’ by OV Vijayan being a perfect example. The other interesting part was reading a different rendition of something I had read earlier – Indu Sundaresan’s ‘the twentieth wife’ on Mehrunnisa and Salim (the early part of which I could associate thanks to Alex Rutherford’s “Empire of the Moghul”) or Khushwant Singh’s ‘delhi’ (‘nihal singh’ is set during the first war of independence and some of the events I remember from William Dalrymple’s “The Last Mughal”)

    My other favourites included works that gave a glimpse of places as they once were – Bombay in Eunice de Souza’s “dangerlok”, (a wonderful piece of work) Delhi in Navtej Sarna’s “We weren’t lovers like that” and more tragic ones like Punjab in Neel Kamal Puri’s ‘death toll’ and Kerala in Jaishree Misra’s ‘from ancient promises’.

    The best part is that with more than 50 different works, you are practically guaranteed to find many glimpses that you’d like and might make you want to explore the canvas further. It also took me to a different era of story telling – before IITs, IIMs, call centres, urban angst with corporate backgrounds and cliched marital ‘crises’, packaged mythology and such. For all of these reasons, a must read.

  • A mind beyond auto pilot

    The world we create for ourselves, as I wrote a fortnight back, is a filtered version of all the stimuli we encounter. As we grow older, our stream of consciousness gets more populated because of our experiences and we automatically try to find patterns. That’s the brain’s basic learning process which helps us to navigate stimuli. The world though, does become complex, the navigation more difficult, and that’s probably how we slip into auto pilot.

    We think we’re conscious of the things we do, and we are, at a superficial level, but are we really mindful? The simple experiment to do, and I think I’ve written this earlier, is to re-imagine the last hour of your life. How many actions you can remember is probably an indicator of mindfulness. There’s no question that the auto pilot is useful, but I doubt we’re in actual control of the takeover, and that’s where the problem is. Our decisions and our actions become mechanical, and even when they’re not, they’re dictated by filters designed by the auto pilot.

    mindfulness2

    (via)

    But I think there is hope. One of the best 2014 trend reports I’ve seen – by Zambezi – has ‘Mindful Society’ as its first trend. While that is more a take on digital devices and our time spent on them, the JWT trend forecast has ‘Mindful Living’ as their final trend, and talks about a growing interest to experience everything in a more present, conscious way. I also think that we might have unwittingly figured out a way to start out on this. One of the hottest trends this year is the quantified self – self knowledge through numbers – it encourages people to monitor all aspects of their physical, emotional, cognitive, social, domestic and working lives. (via)

    At this point, it is more focused on the physiological aspects, and there will most likely be a deluge of devices, services and allied products that would be an end in itself. However, it is also possible that we will truly understand our body, as numbers show the impact of our behaviour and consumption, and as a result, we’ll become more mindful in our actions. And maybe, just maybe, once we’re done with that, we’ll begin trying to do the same for our mind, and the decisions it makes. It’s difficult to imagine how that will work out, I agree, but hey, even five years back, did you think something you wear on your wrist could give you analytics on your sleep patterns?

    until next time, a qualified self 🙂

  • bon South

    Five years have passed since we visited the first version of bon South, in Koramangala. bon South had soon shifted to Malleswaram, and the original location now houses Prost, I think. The new version of bon South is where Ping (#youremember) used to be – the one way from Intermediate Ring Road towards Jyothi Nivas. (map) They have valet parking.

    We went there for lunch on a Sunday, and think we were lucky to get a table without reservation. The place was packed! They seemed to have learnt from the earlier experience – there was no cold welcome towel and there is a clear shift from extravagance to value for money. They only have a buffet (menu) – different rates for weekdays/weekends and veg/non veg. Special rates for kids. Smart. They seem to have more space than Ping used to, and while the flooring and walls seem to have been left unchanged (from the previous owner – some multi cuisine placeholder) they have added some decor elements that lend a touch of authenticity to the theme. The old fashioned light shades deserve a mention here.

    The live counter items are served on the table along with the choice of welcome drink. (beer/bottled drinks/kokum juice/buttermilk/mocktail of the day) D chose the mocktail which turned out to be a fruit punch, and I had a buttermilk. The fruit punch was strawberry heavy and just okay. The buttermilk was cold but a bit diluted and wasn’t the spicy kind I prefer. The menu differed a bit from what we’d seen on Zomato. The pick of the starters for me would be the podi idly – small, soft, spicy! This would be closely followed by the spicy grilled chicken and the thair (curd) vada. The mutton patties, the steamed fish (raw mango  flavoured and served in a banana leaf) and the uthapizza (I’m calling it that because it was an uthappam served in a pizza-like slice) were also very good. The corn, and the glazed pineapple were decent. The not-so-good items were the paneer, prawns (both were bland) and the veg patties.

    collage1

    The main course is the traditional buffet style – you have to go to the food. 🙂 The photogenic pickle and podi spread grabs your attention before anything else. In the main course, we skipped the soup options (mutton stock, rasam) and began with the fish, mutton and chicken (all gravies) The appam/porotta/dosa/podi dosa will be brought to the table after you tell them what you’d prefer. A good idea would be to order this just before you pick up the dishes. The fish turned out to be quite bland and D didn’t like the crab masala she’d picked up. The chicken and mutton were both curry leaves based, but differed in taste. I thought the mutton was really good and D favoured the chicken. The appams were very good, as were the podi dosas. (I’d gladly pay for that podi if they’re selling it!) The Kerala Porotta and the dosa were decent enough. In the next round, we tried the chicken biryani, which wasn’t that great. There are enough veg options, it’s just that we skipped them – except for the stew, which was really good.

    collage2

    We barely had space for desserts but bravely soldiered on. The elaneer payasam is magic and a must try. I had 2 mini glasses. D loved the jalebis as well. The phirni, pastry, pradhaman, jamun and rasagullas were standard fare. We were too stuffed for the gola! 🙁 The meal ended with a filter coffee.

    collage3

    It cost us Rs.1200 including service charge and taxes. I think that’s excellent value for money, especially given the location. The service deserves a special mention – enthusiastic, pleasant and prompt! I’d definitely drop in again.

    bon South, 130, 1st Cross, 5th Block, (behind Sukh Sagar) Koramangala Ph: 2552 6362 / 6363