Author: manuscrypts

  • Kinara

    North Indian cuisine that’s apparently part of a famous chain in Singapore. Thanks to globalisation, we only have to travel down the Intermediate Ring Road to check it out. Loved the irony 🙂 It’s located right next to Tangerine, our favourite sizzler joint, and opposite South Indies. Here’s a map. Parking for 2 wheelers is easy, and I think they offer valet services for the additional wheels.

    The decor is quite good, a haveli style door, a chandelier, knickknacks including a silver color Buddha smiling away peacefully. They have a buffet for lunch, I think for Rs.250, so one section is almost devoted to it. There are comfortable, tucked-away tables, but they are for 4-6 people.

    The menu is seemingly expansive. You can take a look below. (click to enlarge) Enough choices for the vegetarians, and options of chicken, mutton and seafood for the non vegetarians.

    From all of that, we chose to start with the Tandoori Murgh Chaat. Although it had its fair share of vegetables – cucumber, tomato and potato, there was still enough meat in it for us to like it. The mint chutney that came along with the complimentary papads was phenomenal and served as good company for the chaat’s excellent masala too. So, this one is worth a try.

    For the main course, we asked for a Kinara Khaas Murgh and a Dum Shikampuri Kofta. The latter was not available, so we shifted to a Bhuna Ghosht. To go along with that, a Warqi Paratha and a Kashmiri Naan.

    Of all the dishes, only the chicken was worth a shout out, despite it being very similar to the regular Kadai Chicken. The mutton was more bones and pickled onions than anything else, and the ginger juliennes were missing, much like their more famous namesake. The Warqi paratha was a hardly disguised Lachcha Paratha and the Kashmiri Naan disappointed too. The quantities were sufficient for 2 people, so no complaints on that score. The service took an exceptionally long time and the food really wasn’t worth the wait.

    All of the above cost us just over Rs.900. Meanwhile, there’s something quite calming at this place. You’d have guessed by now that its not really the food. It was probably the music – old ghazals, or the lighting, but it was only the ambiance that made the wait for the food less painful. If the quality of food could match it, the place would really be worth a visit.

    Kinara, #305, 100 ft road, Indiranagar Ph: 43494349, 43494359

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • Speech Disorders

    Arundhati Roy’s ‘God of Small Things’ is a book I found underwhelming. It could’ve been my maturity as a reader, or the hype that surrounded the book then, but all said and done, Ms.Roy was not an author who influenced me. Unlike a certain Mr.Tharoor, an author I deeply admire, and whose books (mostly) have given a lot of perspective, even the works of fiction.

    But when he had this to say about Roy – commenting that she’d gone too far to the left and her writing about Gandhians with guns, I wasn’t sure whether I could agree, and I asked on Twitter (not to him) whether his stance is necessitated by his political affiliations. A feeling that was mirrored when I read this post by Anil Thakraney. To give you a background on Anil, I think his insightful (inciteful isn’t a word, or it would’ve fitted well too) articles and interviews are amazing, and his posts often find resonance with me, because the issues he talks about and the way he talks about them gives  abundant perspective. I don’t think Anil is compelled by any external force, a possibility that can’t be ruled out in the case of Tharoor. And so I wondered, why I wasn’t in agreement.

    Could I’ve been possibly influenced by her articles on tribals that were written a year back – Outlook (which caused the first wave of outrage) and Washington Post (about the outrage) or even this excellent post titled “The Economics, Politics and Ethics of non violence” or just the history. It was human, and I could identify with the view on  the human sacrifices that are made for the sake of progress. A purely bystander perspective.

    Or did it only play a marginal role when I considered Roy’s latest remarks on Kashmir? How can you be objective when on one side, she writes a moving article on why young boys are pelting stones and on the other side, you have almost an entire nation outraged? It doesn’t help that its fashionable to hate Roy, and even more fashionable to support her.

    So in the end, I’d go beyond the freedom of speech debates and the notional boundaries. I only say notional because, if we look at a larger timeframe, the transience of these boundaries will be more evident. Empires of the past, in their time, would have thought that their boundaries were unassailable, even by time. But they are history. One of the ideas that have remained unchallenged for long is that of the nation state, maybe its time that came up for an overhaul.

    A mass of humanity that make up a nation state makes laws that are agreeable to the majority. That’s the way civil societies have been built. The fun part is that, in most cases, the majority are mere bystanders with a notional stake. So at some point, the minority is pushed to such an edge that they’re forced to retaliate. What is only an inconvenience to the majority is a matter of survival and basic rights for the minority.

    And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.

    (Alice’s restaurant by Arlo Guthrie)

    Meanwhile, for some, these boundaries might be sacrosanct, some might believe that Roy is doing it just for the popularity. But, even from the armchair, the hurt sentiments of the first and the (alleged wrong) intention of the second pale when compared to the human condition.

    until next time, longish posts are charged with sedation? 😉

    PS: Found later that Shoma Choudhury has articulated this well

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuXFIfb7cnY

  • Truffles Ice & Spice – Koramangala

    D was inclined to have a steak, I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted pasta, chocolate is always interesting for both, I didn’t want to ride far, and we didn’t want to pay more on account of a fine dining tag. Usually, Boca Grande is where all these coincide, but we’d been there only a few weeks back, and that’s when we figured there’s an Ice & Spice in Koramangala!

    Its unfortunately not the easiest place to find. If you know Taste of Rampur, go down that road further, and you’ll find Ice & Spice on the right. This is the road that joins 1st A Cross Road (which has everything from Ping to Golmaal Paratha to Tunday Kababi, Empire, Sufi etc) and the service road diagonally opposite Forum (by the side of Monday to Sunday after Raheja Arcade). If you’re on 1st A Cross, take the left at Desmonds. (the one after Jyoti Nivas) Hope that makes it easier. Parking shouldn’t be too difficult, especially for 2 wheelers. Besides there’s a huge parking lot just nearby.

    Its an absolute hangout ambiance and the sight of chocolate (lots of it) is welcoming! The stone seats are quite okay once you get used to them. Of course, for the kids who regularly frequent this place, it wouldn’t be a discomfort at all! Yesterday they were playing Xmas carols. 🙂

    On to the menu. In addition to the regular menu, (below, click to enlarge) they also have an additional menu now. That one has a couple of soups, salads and starters and more than a dozen main course dishes including more pasta, steaks and even some Oriental dishes.

    Just as I’d feared, all previous half decisions went for a toss and we set about ordering random things. A soup to start with – Asparagus & Cheese soup, from the additional menu. D ordered a Chicken Merango, I asked for an oriental item from the additional menu – Chicken Tom Kha Pha (sic). Greedy that we were, we also ordered coffee so that we wouldn’t convince ourselves to drop it later. D ordered a Hazelnut Coffee and I asked for a Turkish coffee (with English Toffee and whipped cream). That last addition did backfire as they brought the coffee first! Partly our fault, we should have ordered it only after the meal. To get over the ‘gloom’, we asked for a ‘Tons of Fun Burger’.

    The coffee looked on as we started with the soup, which turned out to be delicious. I didn’t even miss the chicken, (I prefer all soups with chicken, unless there’s chocolate in it) since those little cheese dollops  more than made up for it. This one is highly recommended. The ‘tons of fun’ burger came next. We had asked for the chicken patty option, and it also had chicken salami and egg. Yes, there were vegetables taking up precious real estate too. Sigh. This was really good too, though slightly pricey for its size (I’ve been spoiled by the Peppa Zzing guys)

    I’m only familiar with the white Tom Kha soup, so we sized each other up before getting fully acquainted. In addition to the red chillies base, it also had green chillies. The coconut milk flavour was almost lost amidst all this. It tended towards salty and was quite spicy, but the basil rice helped balance it. Loved the shiitake mushrooms. So, worth a shot if you’re in the mood for this kind of food. D always gets lucky with her selections and the Merango was no exception. Velvety smooth, and excellent herb rice too.

    The coffee was reasonably good, but the flipside was that there was absolutely no space for dessert. But we are not to be outdone! The Oreo cheesecake and the Ferrero Rocher cake wait in the fridge for the rendezvous tonight!

    ALL of that cost us Rs.825. This now becomes our go-t0 place in Koramangala when we don’t want to spend time on deciding where to go, but need to be assured of good food and lots of chocolate. Except for the minor coffee fiasco, the service is prompt and helpful.

    Truffles Ice & Spice, #28, 4th B Cross, 5th Block, Koramangala Ph: 41466565, 41536565

    Menu at Zomato

  • A small matter of life and death

    There’s this wonderful scene in ‘The Hurt Locker’ in which James talks to his baby son who is fully engrossed in playing with his toys

    You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You love your pajamas. You love everything, don’t ya? Yea. But you know what, buddy? As you get older… some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you’ll realize it’s just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And the older you get, the fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it’s only one or two things. With me, I think it’s one.

    Its probably a generalisation, but I’m sure many people can identify with that. Figuring out at some point, that all the things and people they cherished, or they themselves, have moved on. In fact, there are many who might be even more unfortunate and realise that have nothing to love, going through the motions of life, as a job to be finished. But it could be even worse.

    Quite a morbid line of thought, but one that I felt compelled to share, because it made me think about so many things we take for granted. Sometime back, I had written about the ‘alone’ people I see in many places. Well, there’s another kind of people I have seen – sometimes during daily commute, at other times, when I travel.

    The kind of people who make me wonder what it is that makes them hold on to their life. The easiest example I could give are the beggars – no, not the ‘professional’ ones who haunt our traffic signals, but the ones that frequent obscure places, where there’s hardly a chance of them getting anything, the ones who don’t even ask. They sometimes look too old or invalid to move out of there. There are other examples too, ones that need not be at such levels of despair, but you probably get the drift.

    So what makes them plod on? A hope that things will become better? A dogged belief in the sanctity of life? A dull notion that life has to be lived on unto its natural conclusion? Or maybe they are in a state where they’re okay with what they’ve to live with or what life will dish out next? Or maybe they’re afraid that the experience after death will be worse.

    I’ll end where I started from – ‘The Hurt Locker’. To quote James again ‘Everyone’s a coward about something.‘ Sometimes it’s life, and sometimes it’s death.

    until next time, alive and clicking 🙂

  • Vembanad

    The review first appeared in Bangalore Mirror. This is a retelling that appears here after much delay. I do have a reason for it – was traveling, but it also matches Vembanad’s generic theme of delaying everything.

    Vembanad, the kaayal, would conjure up a host of beautiful images for those who have been there – Mallus or otherwise. For the former, the streaming images might also have a soundtrack. I’m way under equipped to review it, so I was happy to review a restaurant named after this famous Kerala ‘watermark’. Vembanad is part of The Paul Hotel, a luxury five star hotel on the Intermediate Ring Road, near Mother Earth. Here’s a map. The signboards are pretty helpful. It’s a fine dining restaurant that claims to specialise in southern seafood cuisine, but though the coastal slant is evident in the menu, the focus is clearly on Kerala dishes.

    I usually don’t make a mention of the guests here, but making an exception this time for Bijoy Venugopal, whose humour  helped us tide over the long waiting time, and little Mythili, my other guests’ child, who semmed to have a love for pappadams that I completely identified with. 🙂

    Vembanad’s dĂ©cor is quite classy, and the furniture does lend a Kerala touch in an elegant manner. The walls are adorned with interesting curios. A comfortable setting, but I wonder if I missed anything because of the really dim lighting. A couple at another table was using their mobile flashlights to read the menu and later, the bill.

    If you’re the kind who unabashedly likes coastal food, you would appreciate the menu. The starters section makes this point quite clearly with its complete lack of fowl play. The vegetarians are reasonably well looked after and have no cause to complain. The Koondhal Varattiyathu (squid) had an awesome pepper masala that made it an excellent starter. The Meen Nirachathu – seared fish with a raw mango stuffing was just about okay. The crispy Parippu (dal) Vadas were good too, though you would find the price hard to digest.

    The main course section makes a show of ducking the sea of issues and providing some other relief in the form of beef and chicken.  The Kozhi (chicken) Mappas, a classic Syrian Christian preparation with coriander and a mild coconut flavour, and the Pachakari (vegetable) Kurma, saved the main course. The appams were fantastic, though the delays meant that we were forced to ask Eppam?! (when) Cold appams are never a good deal and thanks to delays, that was exactly what happened.  The Beef coconut fry, which is quite a holy cow in Kerala cuisine, proved really disappointing, and some portions were undercooked. We agreed with Bijoy when he said that it would require quite a meen chef to serve an underwhelming Fish Moilee, but the hardly-there coconut milk ensured just that. The desserts left a lot to be desired. The Ela Ada (coconut jaggery filling inside rice dough and cooked in banana leaves) wasn’t sweet enough and the Parippu Payasam failed to deliver too.

    While coastal cuisine is arguably a good hook, what sinks it is the inordinate amount of time taken to serve the food! “Oh fish” would be an apt expression for our experience. Mythili practically slept off on a hungry stomach. The starters were taking a really long time and when I enquired, I was told that they had forgotten to pass the order on, but If i was okay, they could serve the main course dishes! Bijoy aptly described the service time as ‘meenwhile’, a fishy unit that included the time taken to bring the catch from the Vembanad lake. The waiter was definitely helpful and even suggested dishes, but that hardly solved the other weighty service issues.

    In terms of cost, we Malayalis would pronounce it ‘coastly’, and deservedly so. A seafood starter, two non veg main course dishes with appams/ Kerala Parathas and a dessert would set you back by Rs.1500.

    For some reason, if you happen to have a (mostly) Kerala coastal cuisine craving and want it delivered in a star hotel setting, you might consider the place. Otherwise, the city provides enough options to have equally (if not more) tasty food at a fraction of the price. Hardly anything can be worth the wait we endured!

    Vembanad, The Paul, 139/28, Domlur Layout, Off Intermediate Ring Road, Bangalore – 71. Tel: 40477777

    Menu at Zomato