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Showing posts from December, 2011

Never too Busy to Care- Save our Strays!

About 2 years ago, I was on the road, on a date, coming back from a picnic spot near Electronic City. My date and I had just gone to some neat places that side of town, like the Central Jail, the Infosys building and the like. Just as we were talking about our day, we passed by a stray Daschund. It had all the marks of a well kept dog, lost on the road- a well maintained coat, stained with mud and pieces of what looked like straw. It had a pair of gigantic eyes, possibly larger than usual because of the trauma it'd endured recently. As we stopped close to it, I remember it looked with hope and then with fear as it took a few steps back. I wanted to scoop up the little fella, and take him away to an animal shelter, or better yet, home. I had a labrador, a year old, who was just recovering from a surgery. It pains me till now, to say it, but nothing came out of it. We'd stopped temporarily, and in all honesty, I lacked the courage of my conviction to do something for that dog. An

Toscano- A Review: Candle lit Bliss!

You know how we're all watching the Master Chef Master Class episode and they tell you how to "smoke a salmon"- Wood chips~really? or they say apple compote with raisins.. confit tomatoes, or goat cheese, feta cheese, ravioli, duck breast etc etc... And you know how the food looks so pretty and sometimes so structural that you watch Gary & the rest cut into it, and serve themselves and you wonder.. crap, did they get everything? Want an experience like that? Go to Toscanos. Located in UB City & in Forum Value Mall, this place is on the expensive side (we're talking Rs 1500 for 2, no drinks).. BUT worth the experience. The food is delicious and fresh. I tripped on the basil leaves served as garnish, not one stem out of place, or leaf damaged. Let me break up the meals... Dish 1: Tartare of Smoked Salmon Price: Rs 385 Rating: 5/5 Liked: Everything about it... firstly it's got so many things going on. The cold salmon, smoked & salty as a base. Then a dis

Sets You on Fire!- A Bangalorean Evening

It's just not my day today , Chandru thought to himself as he swerved the auto heavily to the left. The sharp turn saw the auto temporarily shift all its weight to the wheel on the left. His heart jumped to his throat and his stomach felt like it had been punched. He couldn't afford another repair this month. The auto had just rebalanced when Chandru spotted trouble. The nets had been thrown out to sea, the fishermen were out to catch their livelihood. A police jeep and a pride of inspectors had placed themselves strategically along the road. It felt to Chandru like the shit had just hit the fan, as he braced himself for the impending attack. Royola, the cop who made the most off of the delinquents on the roads, grinned ear to ear. His favorite automan had just driven right into the trap. He could not help but have excited spring to his step, as he strutted over to the unfortunate automan. " Hello hello, where's your uniform?" "Just about to put it on sir&quo

Girl In the Mirror- Book Review

Cecelia Ahern wrote PS I Love You.. and this book too: Girl In The Mirror. It's composed of two short stories and more importantly is preluded by the following paragraph, that sets the scene for the stories that you are about to read. "There's no use trying, one can't believe impossible things"- Alice (in Wonderland) "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger I did it for half hour a day. Why, sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast,". And so the author asks you to believe in the impossible, and is followed by two impossible stories. The first is Girl in the Mirror: a story of a woman who lives in the mirror and steals people's lives or their eyes. I didn't like this story very much, unless there was a hidden meaning to it somewhere. The second is called The Memory Maker: this is a story of a man who has invented a machine that can change the most important memories,

Mooncakes

What is the most unique dish that I have had.. thought long and hard about this one, and finally, on the basis of "there's nothing else like it", the Chinese Mooncake qualified. Whilst I've had the cake many times, the last time I had the pleasure of biting into the hardended outer crust, soft azuki bean layer- lotus seeds adding the additional crunch and finally the salted duck egg crust (draw back pool of saliva in mouth) was magically enough, on a ferry in Hong Kong. With the night at 10 degrees, we were travelling away from the mainland to the Ladies market and I'd popped into a bakery at the ferry station and picked up a patterned delicacy. Generally, there are words written on the cake, I've always assumed it would say good luck.. or have a good day.. But I'm guessing there's something different to that. Typically found in East/South East Asia, it's so popular there's even a festival named after it- the mooncake festival celebrated mid au