Author: manuscrypts

  • Kobe Sizzlers – Koramangala

    And just as the summer ended its job for the year in Bangalore, and the monsoons set in, Koramangala found another way to sizzle. Kobe Sizzlers, which already has an outlet in Garuda Mall, has now opened shop in Koramangala. Its the building almost immediately after Java City. (map) Parking isn’t much of a problem. Maybe it was the weather, or the newness, or the brand name, but guessing from the crowd yesterday, you should either land early (like we did, at 7.30 pm) or reserve in advance. The other good part about being early was that we got the road facing seating option.

    Very comfortable seating and a pleasant ambiance. You can take a look at the entire menu here. Unlike my previous Kobe visit, I was well prepared this time (no heavy lunch). We also remembered we had brought the camera. We thought we’d start with a Scotch Broth, but were told it was mutton based, so settled for a Chicken Corn soup.

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    It isn’t as brown as it looks in the image, but after I added the pepper and the tomato chilly sauce, this color would’ve been justified. By itself, the corn flavour is dominant, hence the additions. A decent start.

    Though the number of sizzler options is high enough, the uniqueness quotient is lesser than our favourite sizzler joint in town – Tangerine, or even Yoko. But hey, so long as they serve it well. The vegetarians might have more options here, though. So D ordered a ‘Sizzling Chicken with pepper sauce’ and I opted for a Mixed Grill. D’s dish looked ‘prettier’, I thought.

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    I also thought the mixed grill scored on functionality though, helped by the fried egg.

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    The Mixed Grill has, in addition to the vegetable space wasters, lamb pieces, kidney, liver, mutton chop, sausages, and my tee served as excellent subtext, said D. 😐

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    The chicken dish was done well, and the pepper sauce complemented it well. The Mixed Grill required some help from the Worcestershire sauce, and I felt the original sauce’ consistency (in terms of the flavour) could’ve been better. It came out strongly in some places (and that was good) and barely made an impact in other places. Kidney, liver, its difficult to go wrong with those 😀  The meat was tender in the case of mutton chops as well as lamb pieces, which was a relief – I hate fighting for it. The French Fries (in both) deserve a special mention, very good stuff.

    Dessert options are the usual suspects, though they range from kulfis to apple pie. 🙂

    The service is quite prompt. All of the above cost us about Rs.850. So, I’d say, its definitely worth a visit, especially if you’re in Koramangala, where there are hardly any sizzler options.

    Kobe Sizzlers, 1st Cross, 5th Block, Koramangala, Ph: 41705608

  • Lost Shopping Destination

    L. I have loved Bollywood for a long long time. Though I’m more a fan of the ‘unBollywood ‘ movies (best represented by our poster child Abhay Deol)  these days, the first love retains its charm. I have written about this before, and am especially happy when I find others who share this interest – Mo, Meeta, TCP, and even Cyn, though elitist that she is, she  will never admit to watching the snake video multiple times.

    S. The interest, in my case, also extends to the fringe players in that field – remember Ramsay brothers, and that cool show called Toofan TV on Channel V, which was based on all the howlarious stuff that got made – desi Bond movies, snake movies, and yes, most importantly the sleaze genre, carefully camouflaged in horror/jungle  themes, and the resources for which were awfully scarce then. An era before computers, personal or otherwise.

    So, here I was, at our regular DVD shopping place – Temptation, on Church Street, and what do I see?

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    Golden oldies! Now the name made sense. Yeah, I know its all over the net now, and access is easy, but real shelf space!  And hey, mine is a generation before remote controls happened, you have no clue how difficult things were. S3x was a 3 letter word, and 4 letter words were only beginning to be formed, and we had to look away or were asked to go to another room, when some stuff did appear on screen! So you see, its easy to get emotional about such things!

    D. Refused to let me buy them. 😐 As a consolation, I got the Love,S3x,Dhoka DVD (priced at Rs. 69, kid you not) 😀  . 2 months later,  armed with a more fierce resolve, I arrived, and noticed that Temptation had given way to a computer games store.

    until next time, prnic healing 🙂

    PS. Other Temptations flourish on Church Street.

  • Khazana

    ..is relatively difficult to locate. As is obvious, the name really doesn’t help when one asks for directions. The first guy giggled, the second guy actually asked ‘Kitne ka hai?’ But like all good treasures its awesome when you’ve located it. So, Khazana is this little, but apparently very popular food joint in Richmond Town, that you must go to, when beef is the order of the day. The directions are actually pretty simple. When coming from the Koramangala direction on Hosur Road, take a left at the junction just before you hit Richmond Road. (i.e. the Fanoos junction). On this road, take the first left. After you’ve turned left and gone for about 50m, this road curves towards the left (there’s an electrical shop at the corner), but there is a tiny road that goes towards the right. Enter the road on the right, and you’ll find Khazana on the left. Yep, you guessed it, there was no signboard. 🙂

    Parking for two-wheelers is easy. Four wheelers can perhaps find a spot not-so-nearby. Definitely not on the same street, its way too narrow. Yo fancy car may not even enter it. 😀 The place has just over half a dozen tables, with functional furniture. This is not a fancy joint, you come here for the awesome food. Remember that. Okay.

    CIMG1202 Each table has a menu card pasted on the wall right next to it.(click for a larger image)

    We wanted to try out as many items as possible. The portion sizes helped. We thought it’d be better if we gave them a fair warning that we were on a mission, so we ordered everything at one go. We were warned that everything was ready, but we didn’t heed it. so in about 5 minutes, everything we asked for was on the table. The ‘delay’ must’ve been for the Kerala Paratha, which were freshly made.

    Confession: I took the camera to get a few pics – therestlessquill has been suggesting it for quite a while now). However the first five minutes after the food appeared went by in a blur. I remembered the camera only then, and it was too late. What remained wasn’t a pretty sight. 😀

    We started with the Button Kabab, which also turned out to be our favourite item. Beef kababs, perfectly pop-into-your-mouth sized. Good masala, slightly spicy, goes very well with erm, Coke. 🙂 We then moved on the Kerala Paratha, with Chicken Kali Mirchi and Phal (beef chops). The chicken dish was quite peppery, as the name suggested, and went well with the paratha. The phal meat was very good, didn’t require a chewing marathon at all, but I didn’t like the peppery dark green masala much. We then moved on the signature dish – the beef biriyani, with mince (Kheema) for company. The biriyani is relatively non-oily and once you’ve tried it, you’ll know why people visit the place just for this. Sacrilege, but I’d have liked it even better if the beef piece had some masala too. The rice did make up for it, and with the kheema (beef), made an excellent combination.  Both the items fall in the ‘must-have’ category. Note that we only ordered one plate of each, and shared. We wanted to try an Irani Roti too, but once we’d polished off the second plate of Button Kabab, it was an impossible task.

    The menu, you’ll notice, says “Almighty gave us exquisite things to eat. The least we do is prepare them well and serve them to you.” Now that’s a mission statement that has been followed thoroughly. All of the above cost us Rs.270. So make sure you skip a meal and drop in here, to meat your destiny!

    Khazana Food Paradise, #16, Aga Abdulla Street, Richmond Town, Bangalore – 560025

  • Process pool..

    “You’re such a hypocrite”, said D, as i drummed on the laptop impatiently willing the folder to open faster. Not getting the usual retort from me, she continued, “On one hand, you want to slow down life, and on the other hand, you want things to move real time fast” A valid point, but rather than hypocrisy, I’d prefer calling it a paradox. After all, who likes to be labeled a hypocrite? 😀  I wondered whether it is possible for the two to co-exist.

    There’s another tangential constant running debate in the household. It is again related to time and time saving. It is also related to the one above because it is to do with processes. The impatience above is because I know the comp can do it faster, having seen it done before. So if it is a process, i believe it should run that way and that fast (if not faster) always. Yes, I realise that’s a simplistic way of looking at it, and there are variables involved, but yet.

    Now this is something I carry outside the comp too. And so it is that when D is doing a chore, I immediately strive to enlighten her on the exact process to be followed for maximum efficiency. My logic is that if I have walked a certain path, and learned from it, I should bring her up to speed, so that she can build on it, rather than start from Step 1. D hates it, especially when I can remark that as a software professional, i can understand why she should absolutely abhor processes. Cheap thrill, you guessed! Meanwhile, it doesn’t help that sometimes D discovers more efficient means of doing the chores. I shall, of course, have my revenge soon, when I become a home maker and master that ancient mysterious art, that in spite of several examples to the contrary is still considered a playground dominated by women – cooking. 🙂

    And its not just D, I inflict this behaviour on poor unsuspecting folk who appear on my chat window and want to discuss things I would be interested in. Thanks to the blogs, it sometimes turns out to be something I have written about, and so I immediately share a link. Its a way of sharing my perspectives before we discuss the matter. I look forward to a time when i can do it in real conversations too. A ‘Matrix’ like USB port in your head, so that i can feed in the knowledge, and you can say ‘I know Jujitsu’ and factor in my arguments when we discuss. I believe this will save us both time. But of course, I’ve been warned by quite a few people that its positively rude, so these days I politely manage to repeat what I have written earlier.

    But now comes the clincher, I sometimes have a problem when someone does this to me. I irritably say “Let me do it myself/my way” and also add for good measure, “Don’t you have any respect for my subjective experience?”

    No, its not erm, hypocrisy, I still think its a paradox, or perhaps two ends of a spectrum. On one hand, processes  help crunch time and on the other, the subjective experience is important, and perhaps might help discover better ways. The choice, I guess, depends on the situation, our interest, and our intent. Or does it run deeper and tell us how we want our life to be? As Morpheus said in a different context “..there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path”

    until next time, don’t respond with links in comments!! :p

  • Golmaal Paratha

    No, I didn’t make that up. There is actually a restaurant in Koramangala by that name, a couple of buildings before Tunday Kababi, and almost immediately after Coconut Grove. (map) The bright green board is difficult to miss, parking isn’t too difficult. We got there by around 7.30 and were the first customers, but by the time we left, many more tables were filled up. The color theme inside the restaurant might make the non vegetarians and Martian paradnoids uneasy. If you are a super-heroes fan, you’d be pardoned for wondering if you’d stepped into the Green Lantern’s/ Riddler’s secret lair. People who’re fond of green might have to be restrained. Yep, it is that overwhelming! But non-green people, don’t worry, you can focus on the food.

    The menu has 99 items, and has been uploaded by the wonderful Roopashree, on Burrp. For once, the vegetarians have a clear advantage, while the non vegetarians have about a dozen choices. But to be honest, there are so many veg options that those with a less steely resolve might buckle. Greens, beans, chinese, cheese, pepper combinations, hot’n’spicy, ginger, corn, potato, green chutney – these are some of the few… sections! Yep, you read that right, you have choices within these!! Now, even with a dozen options, the non vegetarians might find it a little difficult to narrow down, and after a few rounds of discussion, we chose a Chicken Kadai Masala Paratha and a Mutton Pepper Masala Paratha. An entire page is devoted to drinks too – lassi, milk shake, butter milk, coolers, fresh juices, jaljeera.. So we also ended up ordering a Mango lassi and a Mint & Ginger Lime juice.

    The Mint & Ginger lime juice arrived first and was quite tasty though the mint overshadowed the ginger completely. The Mango lassi, we were quite sure was made of Slice (or some such) and not fresh mangoes, and that was quite a disappointment. We were told that the chicken paratha would take a while. There was heavy traffic, so it must’ve been difficult for it to cross the road. Ok, sorry 😀

    The parathas arrived a bit later, and no, they weren’t green :p . Each paratha comes in a thali-plate with curd, pickle, chana, onion and a couple of chutneys. The hot’n’sweet red chutney is quite good. I started with the mutton paratha, and it was quite spicy. It didn’t help that i decided to try out the chilly too. The pepper was a bit unevenly distributed and the salt was a shade above what was required. The chicken paratha was very good, though you should avoid it if you don’t like capsicum. Unlike the mutton, which was minced, this one even had tiny pieces of chicken, and was only moderately spicy. The parathas are much larger than the regular size, so unless you’ve been fasting all day or are especially aggressive with food, one should be adequate.

    The service is quite pleasant, they check if your paratha was good and also have a good feedback form. The first place where someone actually asked my opinion too. Usually they convey their opinion of me by giving  D the form and ignoring me. Here, they gave us two forms, and even ask about the music, which was quite decent. In my excitement, I forgot to add that one possible option they could add (they ask for that) was egg parathas.

    The meal cost us just below Rs.350. Drop in for a unique menu, and decent food at very reasonable prices.

    Golmaal Paratha, 1st A Cross Road, KHB Colony, 5th Block, Koramangala. Ph: 42085757

    PS. The place has WiFi, but requires a code.

    Menu at Zomato