Santa and his baubles!

So christmas came and went. Mine was white, food filled as always and perfect. 2009 wraps to an end and when I look back at this year, I will think of it as filled to the brim. I did a lot this year and I hope 2010 continues in this trend.
I hope the new year brings you what you seek, and on that note I leave you with santa and his baubles!

Diwali

Diwali this year was all about:

- Food; we had a delicious menu of kalmi kabab, channa puri, maa ki dal, malai kabab, samosas, matri, kachoris, assorted sinful Indian sweets.It was a meal that will make me pay in inches.

- Friends old and new; Diwali started with four friends and then ended up with ten, all the more fun, noise and chatter.

-Firecrackers; it was a small display but it was entertaining, reminiscent of childhood pattakas, we had sparklers, dodgy chakras that had a mind of their own and noisy colourful rockets. It was just the right amount for the small patio space and we didn't have the bobbies knocking on the door.

- Tea lights; they were in every little diya I owned and they were oh-so-pretty.

- Rangoli; I couldn't source powder this year so I used flowers and the artistic input of my bil to end up with a pretty little mango design.

- Dressing up; yes we went the whole hog and it was lovely. All the girls dressed up in their Indian kurtas and jhumkas and the boys did their part too. It was the last touch to a good evening.

- Teen patti and charades; in true Diwali tradition we played teen patti (a form of Indian poker). We then moved on to charades to end the evening. It was a riot and we laughed the night away.

- Thumma; much of the Diwali menu this year was thanks to Thumma. If you haven't seen this Andhra gem, google "vah re vah "and try some of his recipes. He is entertaining at the very least and his recipes are all spot on.

This year we had a gathering of so many different people, old friends without whom the food would have never materialised, new friends without whom the evening would not have been as much fun. Here's wishing you all a Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year

Green Fingers

I have a little outdoor space (patio) in my apartment and I have always wanted to grow a vegetable patch and a little tropical urban garden. I love plants in urban spaces, it softens harsh architecture and generally brings a little cheer to a drab place. Everyone at work has been bringing in apples and berries from their gardens, all this has made me want to get into this very British past time. However, I also have a previous history of killing house plants. Sigh!.

So despite lofty aspirations of a tropical paradise in my little patio, I decided to start on a small scale, with a few veggies, that can grow indoor and survive the fast approaching autumn and winter months.

A few weeks ago I set of to homebase and picked up a few seeds, a germinator box, some compost and pots. I spent an entire Sunday afternoon planting my herbs, in the germinator box and re- potting my old house plants that looked close to death. If I can nurture this lot for a few months without too many disasters I will venture into increasing my brood of plants.

As the weeks passed my little seeds grew into shoots, stems and leaves. I now have a thriving box of basil, spinach, chillies, carrot and coriander saplings that will shortly need potting. Lets hope my fingers are slowly turning green.If they do the next step will be guerilla gardening.

Mid- August Lunch

This bank holiday weekend we decided to take it easy, put our feet up and spend a little us time together. S had already charted out our itinerary for the day. So Saturday morning was spent heading into London. I stopped at Heal's to pick up a very cute little 2 person tea pot with an infuser. As I am the only one in our household of two that drinks tea, this was perfectly sized for my daily cuppa. I picked a bright red one and used it over the weekend to have real adrak chai, complete with tea leaves that I picked up from Bombay.


After a quick lunch at Benito's we headed to the Renoir at Brunswick Square, to catch the Mid- August Lunch (Pranzo di Ferragosto) . This sweet Italian film is actor/director Gianni Di Gregorio's debut film. He plays the role of a cash-strapped son, looking after his ageing mother in Trastavere, a suburb of Rome. Over a 24 hour period, he is coerced into taking on temporary care of three more elderly women. The movie is an observation into the care of the elderly with a little charm and wit. It is an effortless 75 minute journey into the life of three elderly woman who bicker over television rights but over a period of two days become friends. They bond over Gianni's patiently prepared food, palm reading and life in general. Gianni is an inherent soft-hearted rogue whose cure to every problem in his life is a swig of Chablis. I left the movie with a little grin inside me.

We spent the evening by Vauxhall at the Riverside pub. It is located at a beautiful spot by the river bank at St George's Wharf looking across Vauxhall bridge. The buildings by this pub, however, are an eyesore. They are stern, lifeless and almost cardboard-box like in their appearance. Not one of my favourite developments in this city.

As the evening passed we were both quite famished and headed to Myungga at Soho for dinner. This little restaurant churns out delicious Korean fare. We had some yummy Khimchi- pickled cabbage with chilli and I tried some Gui twigim- deep fried oysters, which were not to my taste. For our mains we went straight to the barbecue menu and had Bulgogi- marinated beef strips and Jumul luk- sliced tenderloin seasoned with sesame oil and garlic. Both our mains were delicious, what I loved about this meal is the little grill on our table, and the fact that our meal was cooked in front of me. It's a smaller version of a Mongolian barbecue. It was plenty of theatre, but I loved it.



We walked all the way back to Victoria, taking in the sights and sounds of London on a Saturday night. It had been a day well spent.

Girls about Town

Spent last Saturday catching up with some girlfriends in different parts of town. You have to love an all girls meet-up, add some good food and a nice restaurant to the equation and it adds up to a whole load of fun .
We decided to meet up at The roof terrace gardens at Babylon for a late lunch. Now I had heard good things about this restaurant especially the location.

I was not disappointed the location is stunning, perched a 100 feet above Kensington high street this restaurant is situated above a terrace garden complete with a small pond and orange flamingos.This beautiful exotic garden is spread over 1.5 acres of the roof terrace with a Spanish, Tudor and English woodland section. There was a wedding party in process when we arrived and so we could not explore the gardens which was disappointing but we got to sit above it in the outdoor section of their restaurant.

The menu is classic British fare which changes with seasons, which initially got me skeptical.The food was pricey but as we had settled for the set menu it was more reasonable. The food was surprisingly delicious but there's nothing classic British about it. I had a delicious black truffle risotto, followed by a perfectly baked sea bass and rum cake to satiate that sweet tooth of mine. The service was impeccable, we were seated inside but on requesting them for outdoor seats we were accommodated. To compensate for their reasonably priced set menu the cocktails are priced on the higher side. We had mojitos which were not up to scratch but the mango margaritas were delicious. It was an afternoon well spent, we all had a good laugh while watching a wedding party taking place in the gardens below.The sun was bathing us on this perfect august day. We were pampered by our attentive staff inspite of two small accidents involving spilt food. We left feeling well fed and well cared for.



After this lovely meal with the girls I headed out to watch Kaminey (Bollywood Flick) with another friend at the Trocadero. Thanks to the temperamental tube service from Kensington I reached a little late and the theatre was packed. We got seats quite close to the screen which was a bummer,the movie was what I would call Eh!. It was watchable, some of the songs were great,the camera work was stylish and tarantinoesque at moments,but it was still eh!

We then headed out to Benito's Hat a small Mexican joint at Goodge Street.The weather was perfect and London was bustling so we decided to leg it to Goodge street. Benito's was a small colourful place with minimal seating. We settled for burritos which were very generously sized and at 5£ a piece very generously priced.We had steak marinated in chipotle chillies and chicken burritos packed with rice, refried beans,cheese, salsa verde and guacamole. The food tasted as good as it looked, we sat for hours working our way through their generous portions,catching up on life in general.

I enjoyed the conversation as much as my meals through this day. It was all about us girls we moaned, laughed, gossiped , exchanged interesting blogs, promised to make this a monthly event and generally acted silly at moments. I got to try two completely different restaurants and some great food. Sometimes a girl just wants to have fun!

Supercool !!

I have just blogged some of the backlog that should have been posted a month ago. I'm back after a month long vacation, well rested and all. It feels good to be back home. While your sifting through the many posts I hope to write this week ( I have the week off before I start work) , catch this absolutely awesome supecool wedding entrance video. These guys just make me smile :)

Cupcakes and Anniversaries

On June 16'Th S and I crossed the 7 year mark without an itch in site. It doesn't feel like 7 years. Possibly because our first 3 years were spent more like students living together. What can I say, so far the rides been awesome and I know it can only get better. I took the afternoon off on June 16'th and headed out to finish some last minute shopping before leaving for India. We had not planned on doing anything special as our social calender was booked for the next 4 days and I just could not eat out anymore my stomach was on strike. I called S to tell him I was going to lounge about at home. The closet romantic that he is, he took the afternoon off and surprised me while I was grocery shopping. He had a little bag of cupcakes from Bea's . We headed home on a working weekday to spend the afternoon together a guilty pleasure, while devouring some delicious cupcakes.

Sabbatical

It has finally ended. Nearly 4 years at my current employer has come to an end. We don't part on unhappy terms, I love the people I work with. I am going to miss them dearly but it is time to move on. They gave me a lovely sending off. Mr W and all my girls from work made me a farewell decay monster cake with rotting teeth and all. This is probably one of the sweetest gifts I have ever received . I now leave for Bombay in a day and am going to enjoy 4 blissful weeks of unemployment. There is much catching up to do and I have so many blog posts lined up in my head but there has been no time. I am not complaining I like my full life.

Gastrocnemius Workout

Lulworth Cove

We spent this bank holiday generally lazing and then recovering from a long trek in Dorset. I have recently reconnected with my old tuition friend. She is quite the traveller and is a very outdoor physically fit individual. S had mentioned our previous rambling expeditions in Dorset to her and she was quite enthusiastic about trying another day trek . So we decided to go down to Dorset again. I have blogged about the Jurassic coastline previously and it is gorgeous. We have a standard path that we frequent which is rated as moderately difficult. Now I mentioned this at work to Mr W and he suggested we try the walk along Lulworth cove. He promised me it was not too strenuous and the views were well worth it. So I pestered S into trying this walk even though the websites had rated it as difficult. Silly me.

We reached Dorset after a 3 hour drive on Sunday morning. The weather was gorgeous and everyone south of Surrey seemed to have got the same idea as us. Head to Dorset. After a long drive involving discussions on work, economic crisis, country ratings ( both S and tuition friend are economists) we finally reached our destination with my bladder reaching bursting point. It was packed. I was quite certain now this walk would feel more like a pilgrimage given the vast number of cars and people at Lulworth. Boy was I mistaken.

Audience along the way

The walking path was a killer. It was strenuous from the word go. We choose to walk along the coastline as the views were truly spectacular. Most of the walking paths were uphill and the gradient increased as we progressed. We walked 7 miles which is not much but it took us 3 hours given the gradients. After crossing the first gradient most of the crowd gave up. There were many small pebbled beaches along the way which was where most people were headed. We trudged on.

Durdle Door

Tuition friend like a true pro came with a customised 3 litre water bag with an interesting large straw contraption to keep her hydrated and dry fruits for the walk. I came with chutney sandwiches, minimal water, mango juice, cherries and bananas, most of which was left in the car as S refused to carry that much weight up hill. I groaned and moaned through most of the ascents but the views at the end made it worth the pain. The high point actually managing to finish the 7 mile walk. It felt like an achievement. Lulworth cove is truly spectacular, choose a sunny weekend and head out for the perfect gastrocnemius workout.

Alive and kicking!

While I dust off the cobwebs on this page I realised I have neglected it for over a month! Ennui has taken over me. I am just plain bored with blogging. I think its because I haven't figured out what I want this blog to be. I want it to be a reflection of my life but that's too personal to bare to all and sundry. I want it to be a catalogue of all my culinary adventures but I don't quite have the skill or motivation to pen it down. I want it to be a diary where I record events I want to share but as I start typing down my thoughts I am constantly chopping down words/events as some things are better left unsaid. All this leaves me with little to say. So now after a month of blogging abstinence I have collected enough fodder for a few posts. May be that's what this blog will be, an irregular record of my thoughts.

Things that have changed in my life.

I am moving on, I leave my present job on June 19'th. Shortly after this I am off to India for 4 weeks, to attend the much awaited family wedding and generally spend some much needed TLC time with the parents. I start my new job in August so this allows me a gap of over a month after spending 4 years of working as a GDP.

I have now shifted my career path to a large extent. I am either nuts or its the ennui at work, especially with my current corporate employer. I am not a fan of corporate dental bodies, I agree dentistry is a business but it's also a service and if the only thing that drives you is profit it's a dreary job. I now move into community dentistry. After 4 years of being a self employed general dental practitioner, my view of NHS general dentistry is a tad jaded. I move onto full time employment where the work load will be less target driven or income driven where I hope to learn and make a difference or at the very least try something new. If it all goes pear shaped its back to GDP work at worst so I have nothing to lose. In case you haven't realised by now, I am just convincing myself this move will be good.

I will miss the people I work with, some of my amusing adorable patients, general dental work, my Mondays off (sob!) and the proximity between work and home.

I am excited about my new place of work, my clinical head ( she grilled me during my interview but she seems sufficiently motivated to encourage me to try new things in time) learning new skills, driving to work ( yes its still a thrill) and my fabulous new surgery.

I got my driving license I am legal to drive so keep off the roads.

I have seen a lot of turmoil in family and friends lives this past month. Its been painful for both me and them. I hope things settle down for all involved.

I have had a serious wake up call with regards to my health and my general out look on life. Its too short to worry about what the world thinks, to fret over petty matters. If you have your health in order everything else can be worked on. Its the basic building block and I need to get mine in order. As for life, its been good in most respects. I have people that care about me around me I could not ask for more. Life is like a tree the dead wood slowly gets cut off for there is no other way to survive and thrive.

I have been very lucky my profession allows me so many choices while other people are losing their jobs or having difficulty finding employment. People always need their teeth fixed, thankfully!

I have spent a lot of time with different people, friends and family this month. I made an interesting blog friend shes been trying to get me to train for a marathon in September but that deserves a separate blog post. I met up with an old tuition friend. We last saw each other in 1997! Yes, in India you have tuition friends, we got friendly on the bus journey into our tuition class, she was in the genius section, I was in the average one, but somehow our paths crossed in the accounts section. I spent a lot of time with my anchors from dental school, they keep me sane and are basically family. I spent time with a little pumpkin who like her mother has her finger on the pulse of baby fashion. Its been a good socialising month.

So those are life's updates in bits and pieces. I have also kept my stomach busy with many new places visited, new recipes experimented on friends . While all this was happening I also notched up another year. Yes and I'm still alive and kicking.

Chutney Mary

Chutney Mary is the first love-child of the Panjabi sisters of Masala Zone, Veeraswamy and Amaya fame. I first came across this restaurant thanks to a passionate foodie blogger, Lulu. Since then, I have frequented this gem in Chelsea with family and friends. It never fails to please.

My favourite meal at this restaurant is their Sunday lunch. At 22 pounds per person, which includes a starter, main course and dessert, it's very reasonably priced. They used to have a limited set menu for these lunches but thanks to the recession they have become more generous with their choices. Now you can choose from their entire à la Carte menu. The setting is beautiful. It has a glass conservatory at the centre of a non descript building and the stylish decor and the strategically placed beautiful foliage gives it a warm relaxed feeling. They usually have live jazz music on Sunday which sets the mood for a relaxed lunch.

Saffron Chicken Tikka

Dabba Ghosht

Yam Tikki with Blueberry Chutney

Vegetarian Thali

Sea Bass in Mustard, Mangalorean Prawn curry, Goan green chicken curry

Their food, like their setting, are like individual pieces of art. It tastes as good as it looks. I know I will be back for many more lazy Sunday lunches here. Are you tempted?

Chocolate tart with coffee icecream

Mango Panna Cotta

Sita Sings the Blues

This clip has been doing the rounds now for a while. I picked up on Nina Paley through Sepia Mutiny a few years ago when she first started her illustrations on the Ramayana. I love her buxom Sita set against Annette Hanshaw's angelic voice. If you want to catch this imaginative take on the Ramayana on big screen, head to Watermans at Brentford this Sunday. The Tongues on Fire Asian film festival is screening this little gem, details can be obtained from their website.
If you cannot make it to Watermans you can catch the entire movie here.

Help Gaurav

Gaurav is my sil A's batchmate from B- school. He has been diagnosed with AML ( a type of blood cancer). He needs financial help for his treatment. If you think you can help, go to

www. helpgaurav.com

If you cannot help, you can pray for him and his family. Sending all your positive vibes to Gaurav.

Monday musings

I spent last Monday getting up at an unearthly hour and tagging along with S into the city. I usually wake up at an unearthly hour to get ready for my driving lesson but this monday I had to apply for a schengen visa. Inspite of leaving early I had a long queue of approximately 30 people ahead of me waiting to apply for their visas. After a considerable wait I was done with my work and I was suitably famished. I called S and tempted him with dosa at selfridges. I had heard about the Indian spread at their garden cafe food hall a year ago, but we some how never managed to try it. I browsed around oxford street while S made his way to join me from chancery lane. It took us a while to figure out the garden cafe was on the upper most floor but we finally managed to get there. The food spread was decent, they had masala dosa/chicken dosa/ channa masala/ fresh naan straight off the tandoor/biryani/veg/nonveg thali. I settled for the chicken thali and S decided on a masala dosa.


The masala dosa was very generously sized and accompanied with sambhar and chutney. The thali had the customary raita, pickle, chicken curry, paneer, kali dal, rice and fresh warm naans. The meal as a whole was decent, the sambhar and chutney were terrible, stay away, the dosa was decent. The thali was great except for the paneer. I love these quick lunches with S in the city on my days off. It breaks up the day and gives me company for a few short hours. I'm enjoying mondays off while they last.

Grooming Primates on Facebook.

I have been neglecting this blog again while I facebook, twitter, read other blogs, read books and generally lead a normal life. It's amazing the number of social networking sites and tools that have developed now, to eat into our time. Most of us utilise some or all of them (as in my case).

Why do we use them?

Out of the 201 odd "friends" on my list, 15-20 of them are actual friends or family members that matter. They know my number or email id and really do not need a social networking site to keep in touch. In fact, some of my close friends have boycotted facebook and stuck to the old fashioned email/phone. They find the entire social networking scene extremely intrusive in their private life. They do not wish to see other peoples' holiday photographs with pets, housekeeper and child in tow. They do not wish to broadcast their life to all and sundry on their 200 odd list. They do not wish to receive a status update when some one farts.

When I skim through my facebook there are many people who I barely know or do not wish to know. People who now can see the comings and goings of my life thanks to access to my private wall conversations etc. Its the same with twitter and to a certain extent with blogs as well although I feel I have more control over these two, I cannot control what photos I am tagged in or what people say on my wall. I can delete posts or tags but that would be bad facebook etiquette, or would it?

The entire process of social networking according to the Economist magazine is an exercise in primate grooming. Have a read of the bits that I thought were quite interesting or click on the link for the entire article.

From the Economist Article :


THAT Facebook, Twitter and other online social networks will increase the size of human social groups is an obvious hypothesis, given that they reduce a lot of the friction and cost involved in keeping in touch with other people. Once you join and gather your “friends” online, you can share in their lives as recorded by photographs, “status updates” and other titbits, and, with your permission, they can share in yours. Additional friends are free, so why not say the more the merrier

But perhaps additional friends are not free. Primatologists call at least some of the things that happen on social networks “grooming”. In the wild, grooming is time-consuming and here computerisation certainly helps. But keeping track of who to groom—and why—demands quite a bit of mental computation. You need to remember who is allied with, hostile to, or lusts after whom, and act accordingly. Several years ago, therefore, Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist who now works at Oxford University, concluded that the cognitive power of the brain limits the size of the social network that an individual of any given species can develop. Extrapolating from the brain sizes and social networks of apes, Dr Dunbar suggested that the size of the human brain allows stable networks of about 148. Rounded to 150, this has become famous as “the Dunbar number”.

What also struck Dr Marlow, however, was that the number of people on an individual’s friend list with whom he (or she) frequently interacts is remarkably small and stable. The more “active” or intimate the interaction, the smaller and more stable the group.

Thus an average man—one with 120 friends—generally responds to the postings of only seven of those friends by leaving comments on the posting individual’s photos, status messages or “wall”. An average woman is slightly more sociable, responding to ten. When it comes to two-way communication such as e-mails or chats, the average man interacts with only four people and the average woman with six. Among those Facebook users with 500 friends, these numbers are somewhat higher, but not hugely so. Men leave comments for 17 friends, women for 26. Men communicate with ten, women with 16.

What mainly goes up, therefore, is not the core network but the number of casual contacts that people track more passively. This corroborates Dr Marsden’s ideas about core networks, since even those Facebook users with the most friends communicate only with a relatively small number of them.

Put differently, people who are members of online social networks are not so much “networking” as they are “broadcasting their lives to an outer tier of acquaintances who aren’t necessarily inside the Dunbar circle,” says Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a polling organisation. Humans may be advertising themselves more efficiently. But they still have the same small circles of intimacy as ever.

After quite a bit of social networking I have to agree with this article, my list of friends is a farce. I have 15, maybe 20, people on my list that really matter. I have at times updated my status with useless junk. I enjoy catching up with friends' lives but I can do that through email with more privacy and with my close friends and family that is what I do. So facebook is just filled with primates broadcasting their lives to their second tier friends, and I get a large number of these useless broadcasts. So why do I continue...I guess I'm still grooming eh?

Chaddi luvin

This valentines day don't get your knickers in a twist over the sri ram sena. Show these morons some pink chaddi luvin.

Sigh!

I opened the freezer this evening to see what I could find to fill this empty belly of mine. This is what I found.



A bowl of snow.

Me: Umm...I can see a bowl of snow in our freezer
S: Yes.
Me: What? Why? How?
S: It snows like this every 18 years...* sheepish grin*
Me: sigh...

Kati roll

Kati roll is a kind of street fast food popular in Calcutta. In Bombay, we call kati rolls frankies. Aga brothers in colaba always served up a mean frankie. I was quite excited to hear we finally got a branch of Kati Roll in central London. I've already had a taste of their food in New York and it was a nice spicy quick bite. Frankies aka kati rolls are basically parathas fried on a tava with ghee/oil, this may or may not have an egg added onto it depending on your preference. This is then stuffed with beef/chicken tikka/ shammi kebab/ potatoes /paneer. This stuffing is marinated in spices and garnished with red onions and lime juice. This is Indian street food at its best.
Last Monday after meeting S for a quick pint at the charming grand old Cittie of York in Holborn, we headed of to Kati Roll on Poland street. The place was empty on a Monday evening, the gentleman at the counter yanked up the volume on the desi music once he saw us. The bright orange walls plastered with large old hindi movie posters added to the ambience of this little box. We had a chicken tikka roll and a shami kebab roll. The tikka roll was very ordinary, the chicken was rubbery and a let down. The shami kebab roll was yum and we had specifically asked him to make it spicy. It was a decent quick meal and didn't quite break our pockets.

Did I love Kati Roll ? Well, given that I have not found another option in london, I will go back. I can go back and have the shami kebab rolls very happily as long as I remember to tell him to crank up the spices. The veggie options- aloo masala rolls were tried out by a friend this weekend and were honestly quite bland. There is potential in this little box serving rolls they just need to get their spices right. I cannot rave about it but I would go back for a quick meal.

Snowed in!

Last night and this morning while everyone slept, there were two strange brown people doing the rounds of our neighbourhood making foot prints in the snow. For both of us, this is the first time we have ever seen so much snow, 10 inches of snow fell overnight. It was simply spectacular. It's truly amazing how this powdery cotton white dusting makes everything look so magical.

The Universe is smiling on me and my own

I do most of my blogging on Mondays as its my day off. Its my end to the long weekend where I collect my thoughts, finish my paperwork, catch up with family and friends on the phone and generally laze about. I have decided to make this day a bit more efficient by going into the city for half the day and doing something interesting. I haven't yet decided what that will be for today hopefully by the time I reach the end of this blog post I would have made that choice.
This post is basically just a big shout out to the universe to say thank you. Its been smiling on me this past week, work has been steady. I have booked up my driving lessons, so I'm working my way up on the new year wish list. My MJDF portfolio has been partially finished and signed off, I have been slaving over this folder for 3 months attending a course after work every Thursday and its finally paid off. The biggest news though is my SIL ( sis- in -law) A has found her lobster.

This means I have six months to prepare myself for the wedding. So I will basically be starving for the next few months to fit into the role of the sexy sister in law. I am looking forward to the excitement and madness that comes along with any wedding in the family. The general good spirit,mehndi, clothes, drama, and unadulterated happiness for those who partake in it. This is the first family wedding that I will be attending after mine and I am going to enjoy every minute.
I look forward to meeting the new addition to our family, K who has given A a skip in her beat. I hope the universe smiles on these two lobsters constantly.

P.S. I have settled on an afternoon at the National Potrait Gallery for now. They have a constable and Leibovitz collection, the things I do to keep my mondays interesting...

Antidote to Monday morning blues

Imagine heading into work on a monday morning and being greeted with this, the ultimate pick- me- up via dulwichmum

Salaam Bombay

I reached bombay with mixed feelings, my grandad had passed away a week before I arrived. I had been looking forward to this visit for months but I now felt unsure of what I should feel. All of that disappeared on reaching home, one look at my mum made me realise things were ok. We wept and went through all of apuppas last moments but somehow it was comforting to be able to talk about it, to let it out.

So much has changed in my city, so much construction everywhere, so much unruly crazy traffic, so much new wealth, so much potential. All this intense construction but not a thought has been given to the infrastructure needed to cope with this increase in population, especially in south Bombay. I don't want to moan about my first love so I will concentrate on the fun bits during my vacation.

No visit to Bombay is complete without a pilgrimage to Mondy's, that was done thanks to friends who called us just as we were about to hit the sack and blackmailed us into getting our arses there. It was worth it, it was a fun chilled night and I didn't get to go back to mondys again after that night. The joint has gentrified! It used to be the place to go to for a pitcher of Kingfisher on a hot afternoon, you sit on those old wooden tables with checkered table cloth with a noisy fan above you and play your favourite numbers on the jukebox while being served by an irritated waiter in non- descript clothes. Now you get wine along with your pitcher, there's air conditioning and the waiters are all dressed in similar uniforms lacking personality. Somethings stay the same though, the jukebox still eats your coins and skips your numbers and the murals on the wall by mario miranda always make me smile.

My favourite place during this trip was the Dome at the intercontinental on marine drive. The terrace bar is a location worth visiting. You get a birds eye view of the queens necklace and the entire lenght of marine drive from NCPA upto walkeshwar at the other end. Its stunning location and Mediterranean white decor creates the perfect mood for an early evening drink or late dinner. We met friends there for drinks on a friday night but I was advised the food menu is nothing to write home about so we made dinner reservations at Joss. The kebab corner housed within the intercontinental is a better option for a meal. I know I will return to the dome just to soak into that breath taking view. The other nice thing I noticed was that most of the patrons were not just hitting puberty unlike a lot of other lounge bars in Bombay. I think a 4000 rupee steep bill for drinks only, may be whats keeping the teeny bopper brigade dressed in strings away and hallelujah to that.

Joss set in Kala ghoda is the brainchild of Farrookh Khambata and describes itself as a modern far eastern restaurant. They have an interesting sushi menu and the big favourite is the miso encrusted chilean sea bass. For dessert I stuck to the joss hot kalhua souffle which is their signature dessert, you need to place the order 30 mins prior to consumption. My friend decided to experiment with a really interesting dessert called a strawberry chocolate sushi made with chocolate maki rolls served with kiwi wasabi and a blueberry shoyu dipping sauce. It was such a beautiful delicious dish and the Kiwi puree had just a dash of wasabi.



The food scene in Bombay is alive vibrant and growing with each passing day. There is so much potential to experiment and there is money and interest in food in the city for this industry to flourish albeit a little slowly now that the recession has set in there too.

Warm chocolate Mud pie and Blueberry cheesecake at Moshe's

I was good during my recent visit I didn't splurge on unnecessary shoes and bags, I shopped with prudence and my only splurge was a zardosi embroidered clutch. A girls allowed a few luxuries in life. My favourite quick shopping joint is Bombay stores.



So much has not changed in bombay, my building still puts up christmas lights and decorates the gardens. The old timers in the building still expect you to visit them for chai and biscuits. The house is still very noisy each morning as every walla in the city comes visiting, from the doodhwalla ( milkman), kachrawalli ( garbage collector) dhobiwalla ( laundry man) sabji walla ( grocer) the list is endless. Bombay stores still stiches my school uniforms. Celejor still makes the best ever almond chocolate pastry and Camy makes malai sandwiches that make my heart sing. Its still a nightmare to drive to the suburbs it took us 2 and half hours to bandra from colaba I am sure a local train is a more sensible mode of transport. Formal evening trousers are still called ladies fancy pants and my watchman still calls me be baby at the ripe old age of 30.




This vacation was every thing a trip back home should be, we were pampered well fed and spoilt rotten by both sets of parents. Friends and family showered us with attention and the food and weather was all good. You can't ask for much more can you?

New beginnings

A new year beckons new beginnings. I am back after a long and relaxing trip to Bombay I will gloat about all my culinary escapades in another post.
I hope and wish for many things like most new years.I have decided not to be greedy and edited my long list of hopes and wishes down to the following.

I hope this year brings the world a little bit more stability financially and politically .
I hope my digits work harder on this blog and the universe gives me more time to work on it.
I hope to shed the unnecessary kilograms I carry as an appendage this year.
I hope to finally get my driving license ( its high time).
I hope to travel to strange and mysterious lands.
I hope to choose my friends more wisely and hold on to the ones I never worked hard to get.
I hope to find many more culinary delights in this beautiful city.
I hope to find more time to read.
I hope to make changes I have been avoiding.

I wish this year brings my family, friends and their new born babies much joy, luck and good health.
I wish my hair would stop greying so blooming fast.
I wish I could see Adele and cold play live.
I wish traffic in Bombay would get better.
I wish for a warm long beautiful British summer.
I wish my course work would end its such a bore.
I wish to learn to be more patient.

So here's wishing you and all you hold dear a hopeful 2009.