Author: manuscrypts

  • Gramin

    Gramin will go down in archives as the first veg restaurant to written about on this blog. Before going further, let me reassure readers that I’m too chicken to go veg, this is just an aberration caused by super villainess D, who, with a malicious smile, ignored her bitter half ,  and chose the weekend’s dining spot.

    Gramin is located in Raheja Arcade. This is on the road that goes from Forum to National Games Village. When coming from the MG Road direction, it’d be best to take a left after the Tata Indicom office, and then, at the very end get on the road leading towards Forum. Raheja Arcade will then fall on the left, just before the Forum junction, and you can find parking on the service lane right after the building.

    Gramin gets quite crowded after about 7.45, so unless you want to wait, its best to get there before that. It has two floors – ground and mezzanine, and the decor matches the ‘gramin’ theme of the place. Compact seating arrangements, I prefer the mezz floor.

    We started with a Banjara Paneer Tikka starter. There were only two soup options, but that was compensated by lots of starter options. The tikka was not too spicy and came with an amazing chutney. We also had a masala butter milk and a sweet lassi. I had wanted a kala khatta but they had run out of it. The lassi was very sweet and thick, thoroughly enjoyable. The buttermilk was quite spicy, but if spice is what you want, then I’d recommend the Hari mirch soda, its quite awesome.

    The starter had about 6 pieces and so we only ordered a single dish for the main course. That was the paneer onion chatka and it was a reasonably good choice, though i liked the bhurji we’ve had earlier, better. To go with that, we ordered a butter methi roti, and a stuffed kulcha. The kulcha was a bit burnt, but the methi roti was quite good, with quite a large quantity of butter.

    And thus ended the sabzi outing. It cost us just over Rs.300. Gramin is a must try for all veggie Bangaloreans, they serve some excellent food. Its okay for the non veggies to give in once in a while too. We shall meat again soon! 😉

    Gramin, 20-21, Raheja Arcade, Koramangala 7th Block. Ph: 41104104

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • Ends and beginnings

    Work took me someplace where I normally wouldn’t be found – an AOL (Art Of Living) discourse. While I have nothing against those who choose that path, I don’t see myself there. Standing there, as a non participant while a few thousand listened and performed yoga, I thought I got a few pointers to what made them a part of this movement. One was a feeling of belonging to a community that had the same wavelength and subscribed to the same thought processes and the other was a meaning, a purpose that the movement gave to their life.

    Since it was an official event, I got dropped back at home, and in the process got to do something that i rarely get to do – forget the road, the traffic and the world ahead and soak in the effect of humanity passing by. I don’t know if you enjoy what could be uncharitably labelled gawking, but if you pause and consider that each face, and each expression contains a story, maybe you’d enjoy it like you do.

    I passed Resthouse Road on the way, and saw Pecos and Guzzler’s Inn, not places I frequent, but places that are ‘tagged’ in my memories of Bangalore from the time I came here. As i proceeded down Brigade Road, i also saw the signage of Vaayu, a lounge bar, and thought I could see a difference in the crowd that each catered to. I realised that after a while, after a few generations had passed, Bangalore’s character most likely wouldn’t include Pecos, although we would, in our denial of mortality, not think of it that way now.

    I reached home, and after the obligatory channel flipping settled down to Rocky Balboa, the comfort of a ‘seen before many times’ movie that will let your thoughts drift and you still wouldn’t feel left out. I never thought I’d quote from a Rocky movie, but it seemed to fit in

    Ya know they always say if you live in one place long enough, you are that place.

    It stuck to me when I watched Delhi 6 the next evening. An old woman comes back to her country-city-locality to die in peace, in a place that she’s familiar and comfortable with, and finds that the place has remained unchanged, but the people haven’t. And it took me back to this post that I had written a while back – on Cochin and the cosmopolitan place it was becoming.

    So, where will I be comfortable finally – Bangalore, where I have now spent 6 years (almost to the day) and where I will (at some point in time) have lived long enough to ‘be the place’, Cochin, which I refuse to let go of, whose memories I guard like a treasure- the chaotic, humid, gets-on-your-nerves place that I consider my home, or someplace new that the cosmos has in store for me. A place which gives me a sense of belonging. A set of people who matter to me and who I matter to. And that’s where this stream of consciousness ends.

    The cosmos is listening. From the list of 143 songs in the list, on ‘shuffle’ mode, it has suddenly chosen Daughtry’s Home.

    until next time, are we on the same home page? 🙂

  • Technorati

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  • By Design

    “Your people will judge you on what you build, not what you destroy”, said the  US President. But sometimes, to create, one had to destroy – for instance, his blog’s old design. Now came the difficult part. He hoped that in the two most important sections, there’d still be something good enough to write – Home, About.

    until next time, whatcha think of the revamp? 🙂

  • Khansama

    Khansama – The Royal India Master Chef is a BJN Group endeavour at UB City Mall. The theme is royalty, and it serves a mix of cusines, though skewed towards North indian dishes.

    The mall also hosts Shiro (Lounge), Oakroom (multi cusine), Ecstasy (desserts/cafe), The Tasty Tangles (Oriental), Rajdhani (that thali has been on the pending list for a while now!!) ..quite an elaborate food court…  So, maybe you could go a bit early and figure out what gastronomic mood you’re in. We, however, reserved in advance, and were quite surprised to see a few tables occupied by 7.30. Maybe they all wanted to get back in time for Juno. 🙂

    The ambience is quite befitting the royal theme the restaurant has. Massive portraits, swords, assorted mounted animal heads :D, and a few guns thrown in too on the walls. The lighting has been done well too, not too dimly lit, and not too bright either, enhancing the effects of the entire setting.

    We started with a ‘Dhuanr Murgh Tikka’ starter. That’s “succulent and creamy pieces of chicken infused with italian smoked mozzarella”. It was quite good, and went well with the chilly sauce. D liked the mint sauce though she rated it a bit lower than the one in Copper Chimney. There are quite a few options in veg and non veg, the seafood starters are costly though. If you’re the soup kind, there are quite a few choices on that front too.

    For the main course, we ordered a Kofta Zartaari (“paneer, potato dumplings done the zartaari style), a Murgh Darbari (“an affable combo of spring chicken and eggs in a silky smooth gravy”), and to go with that a portion of Punjabi Zaituni Naan (“traditional flour bread – baked in the tandoor with black and stuffed green olives, basted with light spanish olive oil” – its not boneless). We were told that the chicken dish would be a bit sweet, but the kofta would provide the spice. It turned out almost the opposite, with the Kofta gravy being a tad sweet (but the Kofta itself a bit spicy) and the chicken dish  being mildly spicy. The bread was quite awesome, one portion has two naans, but quite small, so we ordered a Lal Mirch paratha too. Good stuff, which (thankfully?) didn’t reach the levels of our hari mirch adventure at Heera Panna. The menu offers quite a lot of choices, some even from South Indian cuisine, since the theme is more royalty than any geographic area. (though the menu has only sher shah suri and the Mughals) 🙂

    There were a few dessert options, but we were too stuffed to try any, but quite likely the next time. The service is quite good, and the wet towel was really refreshing. Except for perhaps one odd occasion, the BJN restaurants have always delivered on the food quality, though I keep making digs at their snobbery efforts 🙂

    The cutlery is also a bit unique and I loved the goblet though it was a bit heavy. By the time we left – around 8.30, the place was quite crowded. And uncharacteristically, they even gave us some good meetha paan in the end. (have seen only the paid version in other BJN group restautants). All of the above cost us just over Rs.1150 (inclusive of a 10% service charge and taxes). Great food and a good ambience, I’d recommend checking it out.

    Khansama, 2nd Floor, UB City Mall, #24, Vittal Mallya Road. Tel 41114499

    Photos at Zomato