Author: manuscrypts

  • Hunan

    Thanks to Chinese stalwarts around, and home delivery doses of Delicacy, Hunan has always been ignored. But a casual glance at the menu on Zomato and the spotting of some Thai fare meant that it was quickly chosen for dinner.

    Hunan is above Costa Coffee on 1st A Cross, the road that goes to Jyoti Nivas from 100 feet Road, Koramangala. (map) This is the area that has the maximum number of eating options per square km in Bangalore. Yes, not even Church Street can beat it. 2 wheeler parking is relatively simple, if you have a 4 wheeler, you should probably use the parking lot next to Empire unless you want to try your luck with basement parking.

    2 flights of stairs (there is a lift I read about but didn’t bother to find – probably from the basement) leads you to a cosy, well utilised space that does have the mandatory dose of red and the television, but also plays soothing music and has 3 tables that give you a street view. Yay! Two were already taken, but we were just in time for the third. The place is neat, exudes a charm and generally gives a feeling of being well run.

    We went in quite sure that we would start with the Tom Kha but got a googly in the form of a special menu that featured a Thai Chicken Coconut soup. It had all the usual suspects – galangal, lemon grass, chillies, and so we switched allegiance for the night. The addition was glass noodles. Fantastic soup, with rich coconut milk flavours. Slightly sweet, but a few chillies helped restore the balance. We didn’t miss the Tom Kha at all. Since we were satisfied with the Thai, we agreed to go ahead with the main course we had planned, but it was a combo dish – with rice – and we weren’t sure of the quantity. So we asked for a starter –  Chicken Red Dragon dumplings. Orange -red in colour, we got 10 momos with a good tomato-chilli sauce. The momos were excellent, mildly spicy and cooked really well.

     

    For the main course, we ordered the Kang Pet Gai – Thai red curry chicken. (comes with steamed rice) I must say that given the culinary strangeness in that part of the world, the word ‘Pet’ is not very reassuring. 😉 We also ordered a Roast Pork with Red and Green Chillies. The rice was sticky but that worked well with the curry. Again, the chicken curry was sweet, but we were saved by the spicy pork! All of this was exactly the right fit for our appetite, so we didn’t have space for desserts!

     

    Quite a good experience, and we’ll be sure to drop in again, because the menu does have much more. All of the above cost us just over Rs.1400.

    Hunan, 123, 1st Floor, 1st Main, JNC Road, 5th Block, Koramangala Ph: 9739130000

    PS: Happened to notice that Adaa has shut down! 🙁

  • Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

    William Dalrymple

    In his introduction to the book, William Dalrymple explains how he has tried to invert the travel writing style of the eighties, highlighting the subject and relegating the narrator and his journey to the shadows. And that’s how this book manages to be a set of nine mini-biographies that are linked by the book’s tagline – ‘In Search of the Sacred in Modern India’. Each ‘story’ not only manages to show the protagonist, his/her belief systems, trade/artform in the context of a region that’s rapidly changing the way it looks at religion, spirituality and the world in general, but also manages to trace its (artform/trade) evolution across the centuries of its existence, and the inividual’s outlook towards his own journey. In that sense, it is also my favourite kind of travel writing – across time.

    From Kerala to Dharmasala and Tarapith to Sehwan, the characters flow, and though all of them are interesting in their own way, my favourites were the ‘The Singer of Epics’ – the story of a bhopa in Rajasthan, and “The Monk’s Tale”, the story of a Buddhist monk who takes up arms against the Chinese, is then forced to fight for the Bangladeshis against Pakistan and finally spends his last years in Dharmasala atoning for his acts by hand printing prayer flags.

    The narrative and the prose make the book very accessible, and the only concern I had was whether the author had let romanticism affect the truth of the stories a tiny bit. A great read.

  • In Principle

    Stannis Baratheon is probably the least charismatic among the contenders in the Game of Thrones, but I have liked him for his stubborn, unwavering sense of duty and justice – even in those situations when a compromise might have helped him meet his objectives. Even his claim for the throne is not borne by desire, but by his belief that he is the rightful heir. I am on Part 2 of Book 3, so I have no idea how this is all going to pan out, or whether his character will change later, but for now I can relate to it, though in my daily existence, I’m not able to shake off the pragmatist in me many a time.

    That is also why I loved this Gaping Void poster, and identified with it immediately.

    As I’d written in the 1000th post in another context, perhaps the joy is in doing something because it is the right thing to do.

    until next time, first principles 🙂

  • The Egg Factory – JP Nagar

    It’d been a while since we went the eggstra mile for a meal. Since we had liked the St.Marks Road version quite a bit, it was an easy decision to make. The landmark, when you’re on Outer Ring Road (from Bannerghatta Road towards Kanakpura Road) is Mast Kalandar on your side of the road. Opposite that is an HPCL Petrol Pump. The Egg Factory is right next to Mast Kalandar. Sounds easy, we missed it! Had to call for directions, oh the shame for a guy! 😐 There is a parking lot adjacent to it too.

    We took one of the seats outside, not really facing the road – those were taken – but good enough for us. There was a notice on the door that said that they were short of staff and we should be patient in case there were minor delays. The menu continues to be the awesome instruction-manual style, though many items seem to have been added. Zomato has a menu, but it seems incomplete. We started with a Morning Burst, though it was just past noon. Being Sunday, I’m sure timings can be relaxed. 😀 Though there was a promise of orange, it was all Banana, but we didn’t really mind. The range of dishes on the menu ensured that there was a lot of debate before ordering.

    In the end, we asked for 3 items and had a fourth in mind in case we had any appetite left, after allocating space for a chocolate dessert we had spied. The Akoorie (Classic Parsi Scramble) arrived first, and was a pretty picture with Amul butter and Kissan packaging adding more colour. It was the right amount of ‘gooey’ for me, and just the exact amount of spice too! We accepted the Amul help, but didn’t need Kissan at all! The Huevos Supremo arrived even before we could finish this. This stuffed omelette with garlic bread combination had a superb tang to it and some chilies, and the brown sauce (baked beans in it too?) complemented it very well. The last to arrive was the Eggs & Mushroom Ragout Penne – the sauce was thick and creamy, a bit thicker than I’d have liked it, and quite bland. A dash of pepper helped. The 4 Chilli Omelette was what we had in mind, but we were too stuffed and the Choco-sin had to be consumed! That cylindrical awesomeness of mousse, cream and a crunchy, biscuit-y base turned out to be a great finish to a splendid meal.

     

     

    The bill came to just less than Rs.600 and was totally worth it! That delay they were talking about in the notice never really happened. The dishes arrived really fast! There are so many things to try here that we’ll definitely be back. I liked this outlet more than the St.Marks Road one mostly because the outdoor seating gave it an extra relaxed feel that specially works a charm on lazy Sundays.

    The Egg Factory, 288, Ground Floor, 15th Cross, 18th Main, Opposite HP Petrol Pump, 5th Phase, JP Nagar. Ph: 40124848

  • A larger plan

    Most of everyone who knows me would agree that I am a compulsive planner. This habit has been reinforced on several occasions when I have been better prepared than others in situations. However, I also believe that it is quite a trade-off – between the safety of knowing in advance what to expect and the thrill and joy of leaving oneself open to an experience. The middle path is quite difficult to achieve in this case.

    That was why I was very intrigued by the phrase – Negative Capability – the willingness to embrace uncertainty, live with mystery, and make peace with ambiguity. From experience, it is forced upon us too. The best laid plans can go awry often because even the best of minds cannot sometimes envision every possible scenario. That’s not the only time I have been humbled by the limitations of the human mind. From something as simple as understanding what’s really going on in another person’s mind (not to mention my own understanding of my mind) even as they tell you things to larger questions on purpose and destiny, we’d be fools to think that we can know the mechanism of everything around us.

    But as humanity progresses, is there a tendency to convert everything to science, or a skill/process that anyone so inclined can master? As we discover more, I wonder if there is a collective ego that develops and one that says we can understand and control everything around us. As a race, are we becoming increasingly intolerant towards uncertainty?

    But as this post says, the idea that the current version of our mind is only one step in evolution is very compelling. I wonder if, by increasingly closing our mind to uncertainty, we are moving in a direction opposite the one that will help us solve the greatest puzzle of it all – why are we here?

    until next time, what’s your plan?