Author: manuscrypts

  • Monkey Bar

    Bangalore’s first Gastropub has been a hot topic of discussions for quite a while now, so we thought we’d monkey around a bit too. We used the now standard replacement for Saturday dinners at ‘hot’ properties, and dropped in on a Sunday afternoon.

    In case you remember Taipan (no branches) on the Richmond Road – Wood Street junction, it’s gone! And Monkey stands in its place. The road is a one way and you’d have to approach it from the Brigade Road end or do a right-left-left from Richmond Road via Castle Street. The map is here. Parking on the street, so park where you get space, and don’t wait till you see the place!

    The place was packed when we got there, and we thought we’d have to wait, but we realised that if you dig deeper, you’re bound to be rewarded. The basement has, in addition to a few tables, a pool table and Foosball. The posters, a story continued from the dining area above, are quirky and fun and have advertisements, movies and so on. The soundtrack is awesome and every alternate song was a favourite – Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Free Fallin’, Iris, One of Us, and so on.

    It’s a gastropub, so we had reasons for looking forward to the food. The menu doesn’t disappoint, it’s completely about monkeying around with dishes, and those small plates, though they take it literally, ensures that you are spoilt for choice.

    There was a Tom Yum soup around, so we had to have the chicken version. Spicy, flavourful and a perfect appetiser. In terms of solid food, we started with the Chilli brain and the Tiger Beef. The brain dish consists if 3 cutlets, and if you’re really a spice fiend, you’d only be just okay with it. The ace in the sleeve though, is the bottle of Blair’s Jolokia on the table. From the time that D discovered it, our spice wants were taken care of. The Tiger Beef didn’t need any external help though, with chilli paste, galangal, lemon and peppers. The bowl was small, but this one is highly recommended.

     

    We debated whether we should try another starter, but in the end, the combination of burger + chocolate won out. The Brownie Cookie Shake reminded me of the Horlicks/Maltova chocolate versions, and was quite thick, though not as much as say, the Chocolate Room ones. The price is comparable, but the quantity is lesser. The MoBar burger, has bacon, so we pardoned the Rs.440 price tag. French fries come in a cone and the arrangement is quite cute. For desserts, we had the Chocolate XS Cake, though D wasn’t convinced of the flourless part. I was too busy gobbling it up and the ice cream with it. We’ll go back for some of those main course dishes that we simply must try out.

    The service is helpful, but don’t expect an eat-and-dash experience. It is laid back, and by design. The food does take time to appear, but is usually worth it. With the charges and taxes, the bill came to just over Rs.1650. Drop in for a menu that’s completely different from what you get elsewhere in Beantown. Eat, drink and if in the mood, play ball downstairs. 🙂

    Monkey Bar, 14/1 Krishna Manere, Wood Street, Ashok Nagar Phone: 080 41116878/9

  • The Age of Reasoning…

    Lay in drafts for over 2.5 years, waiting for its time. Saw it, and decided there was a reason to post it now, though I couldn’t see it. 🙂

    An interesting discussion over coffee – of why I couldn’t blow away the Bangalore Metro bridge if I so desired. No, neither smoking, nor alcohol is allowed in that cafe. 🙂 We discussed how much we really wanted things to happen, our priorities, of visualising the end result, whether it happens whether or not we work for it and so on.

    And somewhere in between,  it struck me that I was being pulled in two directions, or rather two ways in which I approach situations –

    Everything happens for a reason.

    Everything happens for a reasoning.

    Ignoring the rationalising, I have always been doing the latter, though I have always been pulled towards the former. But I wonder, are they mutually exclusive? And then I remembered a post from years back –  “Keep Walking“. Can ‘searching’ and ‘finding’ find parallels in reason and reasoning, or in religion and science, or in faith and logic?

    The entire line of thought is perhaps a stepping stone to a more basic question of how much of what happens to me is in my control. All? None? Somewhere in between? 🙂 And while on that, I couldn’t help remember that great line SwB wrote in his new year post sometime back. “When you decide to take charge of your own destiny you better be damn sure you’re up to the job.” The answer, I think, is right there. 🙂

    until next time, …”and I guess that’s why they call him the Blues” 🙂

  • Bear with me, Mother – Memoirs and Stories

    MT Vasudevan Nair

    “Bear with me, mother” is a collection of memoirs and short stories from arguably the finest writer that Kerala has ever produced – MT Vasudevan Nair. The book has 16 memoir pieces and half that number of stories.

    Though its against the flow of the book, it might be a good idea to read the stories before the memoirs. This is because many of the stories have a touch of autobiography/ reality in them, and it might take away a little from the stories of you read them second.

    The memoirs work amazingly well because it takes the reader back in time. Even for a Keralite like me, it seemed like a different culture. Temple festivals replete with folk arts, ten days of Onam celebrations, communities which hadn’t split into religion based factions all point to a Kerala that was markedly different, and this was only a few decades back. The change is visible in geography too, as the author agonises over the fate that befell the Nila river.

    The author walks the journey of his life with us, with anecdotes from his school and college life as well as his early working days. In them, we can see many characters that made it to his fictional works too.

    The stories offer excellent glimpses of the author’s craft, and works like ‘The Soul of Darkness’ will stay with you for a long time. In yet others like ‘Firecrackers’, ‘Karkitakam’, and ‘Elder Sister: Oppol’ we see the world through the eyes of an innocent child. It is amazing how even in the translation, I could imagine what the original Malayalam words must have been and marvel at the wordcraft.

  • Rise!

    It is difficult to make the last part of a trilogy when the first two have set sky-high expectations and one managed to create a larger than life character that would probably have to be one of the best in films, ever, if not THE best. But it had to me made, and 99% would like it. And there would be a 1% hating it – either because they hate crowds, or because their stance would stand out amidst the idol worship. This also includes the .01% for whom this film – objectively and for genuine reasons known to them – didn’t work. I haven’t seen any reviews in this category yet.

    So this is just a thank you note to Nolan and his team, for scripting a trilogy that took Batman out of the “Holy atomic pile, Batman!” and the more recent caricature versions to a status deserving of years of comics. For making an intelligent movie with neat hat tips to earlier villains. For wonderful visuals that let me ignore the small doses of incredulousness in the plot. For providing an awesome closure even while throwing a line of hope.

    But most importantly, for putting together a perspective on morality and the idea of justice, pursuing these themes consistently across the three movies, using characters with different worldviews, backgrounds and thinking as well as modern issues such as economic crisis and terrorism to add layers to it – the affluent Wayne/Batman can afford a moral compass and changes his path from revenge to justice, Selena/Catwoman doesn’t have that luxury but also seeks a more just balance, Bane is radical and seeks an entire wipe out, the Joker was unpredictable with seemingly no plans except chaos and showing the moral decline of society – even the white knight Harvey Dent, Ra’s-Al-Ghul abhors any sort of weakness in the delivery of justice. All have their own notions of justice, fairness and the institutions of society, institutions we have chosen but whose tools have been subverted, whose rules we try to live by have slowly become unfair and shackles those who desire justice. And thus, for the idea of the Batman as a symbol for those good people who restore our faith in humanity with their actions – “Anyone can be a hero. Even a man who put a coat around a young boy’s shoulders to let him know the world hadn’t ended”, and as an ideal.

    until next time, thus spake a fanboy 🙂

    Bonus read: Nolan’s goodbye letter to Batman

  • California Pizza Kitchen

    We decided to give Keramangala a break and limit our weekend outings to Indiranagar in May, considering that the latter had suddenly begun aping the former in terms of restaurants popping up all over the place. That’s how we landed up at California Pizza Kitchen, located in that stretch between 12th Main and CMH Road junctions on 100 feet Road, where it seems all the action is happening. (map) There’s valet parking and enough place for 2 wheelers too.

    The ambiance is very pizzeria like, and not really fine dining. But it’s neat, classy and was actually near-full when we got there at about 7.30. A little later, we could see people waiting too. But the service is fast, so even if you don’t reserve, you probably wouldn’t have to wait long.

    The menu at Zomato is almost complete – the only thing it’s missing is the smoothies section. We started with an Adobe Chicken Chowder, that came to us almost as soon as we ordered it! The tortilla strips added excellent texture to the thick creamy soup, which which was quite awesome – wild rice, cilantro, corn, though we did miss the green chillies. But the pepper on the table made up for that very well.

    For the main course, we ordered the Original BBQ Chicken, with a smoked bacon add-on and a thin crust, which costs Rs.20 more. I would’ve liked the BBQ sauce to be more dominant, specially because the onion and the unevenly spread cilantro are all-too familiar flavours. But it was a reasonably good pizza. The other dish we tried was the Southwestern Chipotle Fettuccine. A wonderful spicy, creamy dish, from which the only thing we’d have like to remove would be the black beans, which seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. We had just enough space to accommodate the Chocolate Banana Smoothie, which used regular cream that added a unique flavour to the mix.

     

    Overall, the experience was quite good, though pricing is definitely on the higher side – all the above with service charges and taxes came to over Rs.1600, not exactly what you’d expect from the friendly neighbourhood pizza joint. So long as you keep that in mind, and are fine with moderate portion sizes, you should be fine.

    California Pizza Kitchen, 284, Ground Floor, 100 feet Road, Indiranagar Ph: 64048888