Author: manuscrypts

  • Happy Father’s Day?

    until next time, a billion plus wishes 😉

  • Aaranya

    Aaranya is quite close to the heart, because it has been a place which we have frequented from the time we came to Bangalore, 5 years back. At one time, it used to be a neighbour and the constant source of takeaways/home deliveries, apart from a place to take relatives to, when they visited. It’s never given us a cause to complain. It’d been quite a while since the last visit, primarily because we shifted to the other side of town, but now that we’re back in koramanga, the connection has been recharged 🙂

    Its located in HSR Layout. When coming from the MG Road direction, take a left from under the Silk Board flyover, and after about 200m, you’ll see it on the left on the service road, opposite Fernhill Apartments. They’ve added parking space, so parking won’t be a problem.

    There are some three floors of dining space. Go to the top floor, a dimly lit breezy place. I’ve always wondered why they wouldn’t take off some of the vegetation, it would give a beautiful view. Possibly because ‘aaranya’ means garden? Anyway, the seating is great for largish groups, though they have some good 4 seater options too. If you go after say, 8.30, expect more of a wining crowd (though not the boisterous type) than a dining one.

    Since it was almost 9 by the time we got there, we had to wait for about 10 minutes before we got a table. We ordered a Cream of Chicken soup, and had to use quite some salt and pepper to get some flavor. But it was thick, and the adding is something we’re used to ;).

    For the main course, we ordered an Andhra Roast chicken (gravy), a Fish Tikka Masala, an onion kulcha, a butter naan, and a plain naan. The Andhra Roast chicken is quite a unique preparation, with the normal spicy flavour that you’d expect, and because the chicken is roasted, it gives a taste diferent from the regular chicken gravies. I’d recommend you try it out once. The Fish tikka masala was also good, but i think their Goan Fish Curry is a better bet. I was expecting the Kulcha to have a spicy Andhra twist, but it was quite normal 🙂

    Meanwhile, there are quite a lot of starters here, both fish and fowl, and they also serve Chinese, though I’ve not been adventurous enough to try it out. They also have a lot of ice cream options, and a few North indian dessert options too. Though we didn’t have any this time, the Gajar ka Halwa is quite good.

    All of the above cost us less than Rs.600, and we’ll be regular visitors, unless they do something really nasty to us 🙂

    Aaranya, Opp. fernhill apartments, HSR Layout, Ph- 41108346/7

  • Prisoners of birth?

    “They’re both oaks, even if they were planted in different forests. But then, m’lord, we all suffer in our different ways from being prisoners of birth.”, thus spoke a wonderful character called Mr. Munro in Jeffrey Archer’s ‘A Prisoner of Birth’. Profundity !
    I wonder how many of us are able to grow into oaks, irrespective of which forest we’re planted in. No doubt, a few do manage, but the majority live a life that derives a lot from the forest it grew up in. Getting set into patterns and stereotypes that somehow define us irrespective of what we are and what we attempt to be. From the name that reveals your nationality, religion, to the tags that make you middle class/ cosmopolitan/ south indian and everything in between.
    And by the time we pause for breath, and care to reflect on where we have reached, we can only wonder how life might have been different, if the settings chosen had been different. And sometimes we look around and end up thanking the higher power for the setting. The place, the time, the parents, the economic conditions which perhaps make up the where, when, who and what, but leaves us holding the one question that we’d love the answer to – why?

    until next time, the path to freedom…

  • Child Talk

    She had been visiting the park for years now, to watch the children play. So many years, that now some of the ‘children’ could be seen with toddlers oftheir own. And in the last couple of years, she’d made a new friend. A young girl, who also loved to watch the children play.
    There was something she wished to ask her new friend, she thought today would be a good day. So, after she came and they had dispensed with their usual small talk, she asked the girl about her plans to have children, now that it had been a few years since her marriage.
    “Well, tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine. Why didn’t you have any kids” asked the girl
    “My husband and i began seeing each other quite late, and by the time we married, we were too old to have children. So you see, we met too late. And that’s why i asked you, to advise you to not put it off for too long”, she said
    “Hmm, well, as you know, we met when we both were not even twenty. So its as though we have known each other forever, and know each other inside out. Perhaps that is the problem. You see, we’ve already started our divorce proceedings. Maybe we met too early”

    until next time, not just a matter of time

  • Tangerine

    The disclaimer is that this is by far our favourite sizzler joint in bangalore, and while the review might be dripping with this enthusiasm and affection, most of it is justified. 🙂

    Its located on 100 ft road In Indiranagar towards its Old Madras Road end, the place where the metro construction is happening. When coming from the CMH road side, you’ll find it on the left, after Domino’s Pizza, and in the same building as Cafe Beanstalk. Parking of 4 wheelers might be a small problem, you might have to walk a bit, but 2 wheeler parking can be found right in front.

    Its not usually very crowded till about 8.30, so you can choose to reserve accordingly. The windy outside we came in from prompted us to go for a soup rather than a starter, though there are enough options for the latter too. We ordered a Spicy Chicken and Corriander soup, and that’s how I now have a new favourite soup. Its a thick soup, and as the name goes, it is spicy and has chicken and corriander, but what brings in the real flavour are the green chillies and the coconut cream. Its absolutely scrumptious and highly recommended.

    The extensive menu spoils us for choice, as far as the main course goes. After rounds of discussion, we finally settled on a Chicken Torreon and a Sliced Chicken Citronelle. It has to be mentioned that there are some excellent options in fish, lamb and beef as well. The Chicken Torreon is diced chicken, done in a mexican style and served on a bed of rice. As with everything else I have eaten here, it has a unique flavour, this one, a tangy, spicy mix. The Sliced Chicken Citronelle is chicken in an unusual lemon, chilly and coconut milk sauce, and served on a bed of rice. This one would’ve been bland but the excellent sauce gives it an absolutely awesome flavor. Another absolute must have.

    The unfortunate part is that all of the above left us no room for dessert, for which again, there are lots of options. From an earlier visit, I’d recommend the beer mousse. Its not something I’ve seen anywhere else, and is worth a try.

    All of the above cost us about Rs.650, and its a no brainer that we’ll continue to be regular visitors here. 🙂

    Menu at Zomato