~Happy Deepavali~

Wish you a very very Happy Deepavali!

आप सब को दीपावली की हर्थिंक शुभकामनाएं

தீபாவளி வாழுதுகள்

Not 2 but 3 Visits, Lotsa Food, and Clarke Quay

"The most uncomplicated love is the love of food."

So back home, back to work, back to gym, back to swimming, back to Such's fab salads and life is going pretty. Only cloud on the horizon is our office moving from my beloved Ngee Ann City to Fusionopolis in Singaporean boondocks, but before that I have 2 social and 1 official visit to look forward to.

The first visit was from my cousin and her husband from Pune. They arrived on Thursday 11 July via KL on Thursday late afternoon. We hugged, we clapped, we jumped up and down in joy, got ready and hit Cafe Iguana on Clarke Quay. Mexican food, margaritas, Singapore river - nice. Food over, it was dancy time across the Read bridge to the other side.

We settled in Cuba Libre but Pune cousin and I being complete Bollywood music lovvers I had to show her Rupee Room and do a little bit of झूम बराबर झूम। The place was empty (not that I ever mind that) and so they music was all ours! The DJ, with no one else to play to, was really sweet and played everything we wanted. And we danced and danced full दिल खोल के (with abandon) till the search party came looking for us and we were dragged home.

Back in office bright and early next morning and I finished off as much work as possible. Met cousins for lunch in Food Republic, where we lagaoed Thai food consisting of:

• Phat Thai (Flat noodles)
• Kaeng Khiew Wan Mangsawirat (Green curry with vegetables)
• Fragrant Thai Rice
• Ruby Red

Then we walked around Lucky Plaza, Tangs, and Far East. I was bribed to bunk office and go off with them to Chinatown but being the conscientious person that I am, loserly, I went back to work.

Evening time saw us in our collective favorite Cafe BluJaz on Bali Lane. Belly dancing, sotong sambal, chicken fireballs, hunk burger, chimichanga, Arab street walk, drinks, and many many hours of live jazz music later we were happy to be back home.

Next morning Cee made us pancakes for breakfast over which we sat for hours over till it was time for Pune cousins to catch bus back to KL.

The next visitors came a week later on Friday, 18 July. This time it was another cousin and a sis-in-law cousin both from Chennai. Again super excited, we did Cafe Iguana again, we did Cuba Libre, we did BluJaz but more than all this we did so much shopping! Unfortunately I was in office during most of these shopping trips but if there were ever in Orchard I did not miss the opportunity to join in the fun. More on that in a bit.

Between these 2 weekends there was a week - as there usually is, otherwise we’d all be happy troopers. The week saw my boss in Singapore. It was the first time I was meeting her and there was the usual round of meetings and outings. Mwah the meetings and let’s get on with the outings. We did Sushi Tae sushi and Sashimi one day, Taka basement food court another, and then we decided we needed to do a nice fancy lunch. So my colleagues booked a table @ a popular local seafood joint, Jumbo Seafood. I went along not very sure what to expect but hey I love seafood, so how bad can it be? What I had blew my mind away.

For the first time tasted the following signature Singaporean dishes:

• Singapore Chilli Crab, which is a Sri Lankan King Crab smothered in Sweet Chilly sauce. OMG so good!
• Fried Bread - tiny morsels of sweet salty perfection especially great with the crabs. Yum yum!
• Steamed fish - full full with head, tail, scales, what have you) but once those were removed from my sight, you could not remove my chopsticks from it. Verrrry good. Really very good.
• Kang Kong in Oyster sauce was love at first bite! This is the BEST ever green veggie I've ever ever ever tasted. This is stupendous and beyond!

We had other sundry things, but I don't want to dilute the flavour, so to speak. Now I am a convert. New standards have been set. Currently nothing compares, nottthing compares to this (naturally to be sung to the tune of "Nothing compares to you"). Jumbo Seafood Restaurant and these signature dishes have become my Singaporean introduction meal to all visitors.

Other than Jumbo, two other distinct culinary high points were hit with the cousin and sis-in-law cousin. One was lunch @ Din Tai Fung Dumpling House, an amazing Taiwanese place in Paragon B2. Oooh ooooh ooooh the food! Mmm! Yumm. Public, what-A food, what-A dumplings. Solpa what-A price also. I generally tend to go porcine but IMHO you must have these items:

• Steamed pork dumplings
• Steamed shrimp and pork dumplings
• Steamed green vegetable and pork dumplings
• Noodle soup with shrimps sliced bamboo shoot and green vegetable
• Egg Fried Rice
• Baby Kai Lan
  

The third was Red House Seafood Restaurant on Robertson Quay. As old as me (Oh God now why did I write that?) this place is a very close contender to Jumbo when it comes to Seafood. I would go so far as to say it might even be better than Jumbo. (The only reason I end up going to Jumbo more often is because of its vicinity to Clarke Quay where all the &#!$%^*@ want to go all the time.)

Back to Red House, the service is exemplary, the food, perfect! Beyond perfect. Everything we ordered was great. The decor is so Chinese dark red and black lacquer - and NO am so not sick of dark red and black lacquer Chinese decor. In fact one sees hardly any trace of it in Singapore, so its almost comforting to find a place where they still have it. There are tables along the river, and being a much quiter part of the river, its more river and less people, in a word charming. Fantastic, awesome food, awesome service. Love you guys. Will be back soon.

With the cousins and in-law we also did a lazy Sunday afternoon in Sentosa. Louging in Km8 in Tanjong beach, drinking beer by the buckets (they serve pint bottles in a bucket of ice, hence bucket of beer :D), lunch, snooze, and watching the sun go down. Sadly we got heavily poured out of a Jazz concert on Upper Deck but it was a lovely day nevertheless.

All too soon their holiday came to an end and a new chapter in my life began - I moved into my apartment! More on the move soon...

Last few days in my native land

After all this eating and meeting I had to do some shopping. Comm Street ki Jai ho! No Orchard Street can compare to Indian market experience. Be it Commercial St in Bangalore, Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, Laxmi Road in Pune, T-Nagar in Chennai, Gariahat in Kolkatta, or any other market in any other city in the native land. The colours, the noise, the people, the smells, the prices, the deals, the merchandise, the merchants, the people, the food, ... (Never ignore the food in an Indian market).

Indian markets are like a bhelpuri of all aforementioned things - the good and the bad - all mixed, tossed, and served up with dhania and sev on top. थोड़ा खट्टा, थोड़ा मीठा, थोड़ा crunchy and थोड़ा chewy. Am lovving it!

So on Thrusday I shopped in beloved Comm St buying 100 rupee to 2000 rupee chappals all morning. In fact I got so carried away with my chappals that shopkeepers started offering me business deals - they thought I buying all these chappals to set up a shop abroad! Aghast, I quickly dived into Shiv Sagar to lagao a juice and चाट and restore my composure.

Did Dalam or pomegranate juice (which is YUM there) and decided to do one chat... which somehow got followed by the Shiv Sagar Thali. Replete with all this I rolled off next door to visit Mecca Stores - a book library, a ladies fancy item shop, and a household fancy items shop - all in one. This place has been around for ages, ‘cause everyone remembers it being there for as long as they can remember. It’s not changed an iota, expect for the sorry demise of the elderly gent presiding over the shop, but his son is running the show and its business as usual.

The ladies fancy item section (1/2 part of the entrance), according to me, has the best collection of earrings, hair clips, hair bands, and other sundry ladies fancy items, in all of Commercial Street. Their general fancy store section (one wall and 1/4 of the entrance) has an inexpensive fast moving collection of ceramic vases, cookie jar sets, flower vases, and other time pass glass and ceramic items. Bought my essential earrings, hair bands, scrunchies, a vase, a jar, borrowed a few books, chitted and chatted a bit, and this is what being in Bangalore for me is all about.

Next stop was to the temple of creativity. A visit to my best friend in Comm St. namely Vijay - my trusted and much harassed tailor. Pleaded with him to make time for me and make me some new apparels, the moment he gave in, off I rushed to Pooja Collections, Shoba Collection, New Choice Collections, Lal's Collection, Mysore Udyog Collections etc. to collect materials for skirts, tops, dresses and dumped it all on Vijay for him to do his magic and to turn them into wonderful creations, which I must say, he miraculously does.

The sun was beginning to set and it was time for the Bangalore Night to take over. The spot for this night was a very घर पे बना हुआ place; it was such a made-at-home a place that I've even forgotten its name. Its a karaoke bar, very Bangalore Cantt owners, very Bangalore Cantt crowd - which should have been really charming and fun and hospitable but... Anyway we were in a mood to belt out songs and had a pretty decent time but made it an early night as the food was just about passable, the management nasty, and the service god-awful.

The next day I had pretty much the same schedule, took one last look into all the shops to ensure I'd not missed anything. Lunch was with Chint at Tiger Bay, which I must say, does a very decent Non-Veg Thali for lunch. Of course, the added bonus to eating in Tiger Bay is that one needs no excuse to browse through Bombay Stores. While I am the most ardent believer of retail therapy, and practice it most religiously, shopping in Bombay Stores is a double therapy. One, which of course is retail, the other is an almost Zen-like soothing and relaxing atmosphere of the shop. Browsing through their multi-mid-level floors, little niches, very pretty desi uber chi-chi merchandise, quite ambience, and nearly empty shop (yikes! not a good thing for them is it?) I feel as great a calm as having done half hours mediation. Rested, refreshed, and completely at peace. Bombay Stores - you ought to bottle and sell this!

Dinner was at friend's favorite restaurant - Paparazzi. Allegedly, 'One of the World's 82 Best' restaurants. Set on top of Central Park Hotel (now called Royal Orchid Central, I think) it offers nice food and a great view of Cubbon Road. Must have is the 'Bread Basket with Multiple Dips' I totally love it. The rest is kinda pendulum type - the chef can be very good to disappointing, the service can range from very attentive to I'm-so-totally-ignoring-you. Royal Orchid Central people - you've really got something good going - please be consistent, stock up your bar, your cellar, or wine cooler, or whatever and train your staff. I'd love to patronize you more, give me a little more reason.

Saturday, my last weekend started with breakfast at Vidhyarthi Bhawan - really nice dosas, but everyone complains that they were better - well I didn't find anything missing. Post dosa went to pay my respects to Dodda Ganesha and Dodda Basavanna at the Bull Temple.

Basavanagudi is super quaint and charming. With shops selling pooja samagri, snacks like congress kadle, ready-to-cook food like fresh hand-made idiappams, a huge vegetable market, and traditional Indian flower shops selling loose flowers and elaborate flower garlands. All this right in a austral heart of cosmopolitan, almost-metropolitan Bangalore. Travellers, if you want to see the 'real' old Hindu Bangalore, do make a visit here. After making one full round from VB to Bull Temple, to all the shops and back, we were ready for one more dosa at VB. Glutton, that me! Finished that off perfectly with a post breakfast snooze.....Zzzzz....

Saturday night I was lucky to attend a very dear friend's father's 65th birthday bash. As with everything uncle does, this was also in grand style. Lovely Manglorean people, with their great food, and their great music, fun and laughter. One of the most hospitable people and man do they like to party! It was a great ending to a lovely Bangalore holiday.

Sunday was spent with mom and dad, eating (again!) home food, chatting, finishing packing, weighting the suitcase a 100 times, removing stuff, weighting again, adding stuff, weighing again and you get the drift. All that done, I chilled in my room in Bangalore for one last time, for a long time to come. Come evening I was off to the airport.

Ah! another update on the airport, so it was well organised, there are weighting machines to weight your luggage outside so you can remove stuff from your bag if it’s too heavy and give it to the relatives who have come to see you off, the terminals were well lit and everything looked clean and tidy. But then there were 4 terminals for check-in and only 2 working, resulting a long and serpentine queue. There were not enough seats for people/kids to sit, and the loo had the most MAJOR surly cleaner who refused to speak in any language and resisted all entreaties' to be even remotely helpful. Also, considering there was no seating space outside, people occupied the toilet seats and refused to vacate! No! I am serious.

All this endured, there was some time left for a little browsing in the few upgraded duty free stores, got a beer at the sports bar, munched on the goodies mommy packed for the flight. Boarded the flight at 12; a 4-hour-flight-that-seemed-like-10-hours, no sleep, and landed bright and early on the shores of Singapura Monday morning and am sure I don't need to spell out the hue of this Monday morning blue.