My first Puneri Sunday

After last night’s extremely action packed movie experience, I was wondering whether the Sunday would be able to match up to it’s predecessor. I had decided to meet up with a friend for lunch. It was long overdue and this seemed to be a good opportunity. He stays in an area which is diametrically opposite to where I stay and hence decided to meet up at a central area so as to minimise the travelling. We met at Swargate and then moved on to M. G. Road. (I think every city has a Mahatma Gandhi Road and usually it is one of those which are bang in the middle of the city. So was this.)

The first thing that we noticed was that most of the shops were shut. The thought that Sunday was the weekly off wasn’t inspiring at all. We later found out that all shops in that area close down at around 1:00 and open again around 3:00. Apparently that’s their lunch break! Go figure! And we had reached there just after one and hence found everything closed. Sundays are supposedly worse as a few (eg Kayani Bakery) remain closed throughout. After loitering around for a while, we felt we ought to get some grub in our system. Spotted a restaurant called “George Restaurant”. It had a subtle character about itself which led me to suggest we go in. My friend suggested we try the chicken steak. I had never eaten steak before and I must say I liked what I ate :) Had some Biryani too. But the steak was definitely the highlight.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon at Landmark (I picked up a book called “May I hebb your attention pliss”) and Staples (my friend got himself a mobile). We then went back to Swargate and and went our way. I was to meet my roomie at F.C. Road. He had promised to help me get some shoes (Someone stole my worn out gym shoes from the locker room. Seriously pathetic!).

I ended up buying 3 pairs of shoes! And I don’t think I have ever had more than 2 pairs at a time (One for the formal attire while the other would go with my casual look) One of them is dedicated to the gym but I am kinda happy with the other two :) They are very unlike the ones I usually get.

F.C. Road is the hottest place in town, both in terms of the crowd and the food. Mostly college crowd doing what college kids do best. While pre-historic creatures like me see them, laugh a little, drool a little, feel a little guilty and then concentrate on the food :) Pune has a fascination for chocolate! Chocolate milk shake, CAD-B (Another name for something similar to chocolate shake but way better) chocolate pan, chocolate fountain and chocolate toast ( found this out today ). It was interesting and I would like to keep it that way. We then went on to Venky’s outlet where we had some more chicken. Good stuff :)

By the time we got done it was almost 9:30, so we decided to get back home. Now that I look back at my decision to stay back in Pune, it was a real good one. Saw a lot of new stuff, had a lot of fun and I think I know Pune a little better. Definitely better than sitting all day long infront of the PC watching downloaded movies :)

The weekend rocked!

District 9

Watched a movie called "District 9". An interesting movie. Its about a group of aliens who have come and settled in South Africa in a camp which gets named as District 9. The movie has been shot in the form of a documentary. Interesting piece of work. The special effects have been done well, in the sense that the movie itself feels crude due to the documentary look but the aliens and weapons, etc have been matched to make pretty realistic. Damn ugly aliens though :(

Met up with Sameer and had a good time. Had 2 versions of KFC today. Kentucky Fried Chicken followed by Kalpana's Fatafati Chicken :D, ie, my mom's awesome home-made chicken. The KFC guys have got a new version of burger called KFC Smackers Snackers. They are smaller than the Zinger Burger but comes cheaper at 30 bucks plus taxes and tastes same as Zinger.

Was watching Batman Begins today and noted an interesting dialogue, it says, "And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you'd be spared your pain."

Pot Pourri Live in Peepli

My food adventure continues! The plan was made last night itself over coffee. We were to go back to Pot Pourri for lunch, followed by Peepli Live. The rains are back since the past 2 days. They had subsided for a couple of days but are now back with a vengeance! I am extremely sick of it now. Another month of the damned thing :( and we have already had 107% of the normal rainfall. Why doesn't it rain in areas where its required?

I have written about Pot Pourri previously too but I need to give it a proper review, based upon the experience and what I have eaten. Its situated in Inorbit, vashi. Serves a whole array of cuisine, right from continental, italian to thai stuff. They have both buffet and "A La Carte". I have tried the buffet, both the times I visited the place. The buffet spread is larger on weekends. The menu is not the same and one could call and enquire about the spread before going. The buffet includes unlimited Ice Tea (Lemon, Peach, Kiwi and some more), pizza on a weekend and some other stuff on weekdays (had some weird bun today), soup, salad, some more starters such as satay or pasta and then the main course consisting of quite a few different dishes. There's good dessert too after that. Food is brilliant, atleast during the 2 occasions I have been there. The ambiance is good and pretty comfortable.

Its a good idea to book before going on weekends because the waiting period can be pretty irritating. Service is good ( inspite of the buffet, the waiters do serve the starters and ice tea ). The price is not exhorbitant and the buffet is "paisa wasool". It comes to around Rs. 330 on weekdays and more on the weekends (Don't remember how much it was the last time we went there).

Final Verdict:
Ambiance : 3.5/5
Service : 3.5/5
Food : 4.25/5
Value for Money : 4.5/5

After a overdose of awesome food we moved on to watch Peepli at Fame (I think they have the worst seats ever! The Gold class is obviously super comfortable). But the normal seats are like those semi-luxury non sliding seats. Extremely uncomfrtable! But before that we made a quick trip of Landmark (this place makes me feel so happy :) surrounded by books, music and movies)

Peepli Live was really good. Based on the farmer suicides, it touches upon a lot of things, about the media's TRP ratings, there sensationalizing of things and the governments apathy towards the misery of the farmers. Its a superbly shot movie, captured the village life very authentically. The actors were brilliant. Each and everyone did justice to their character. The casting director should be really applauded. There was not much of a story actually, it was just a situation shown. It doesn't try to preach or give any social message (atleast I didn't feel as if the makers were trying to force there idea on to the viewers). They just presented the situation in a satirical manner and left the viewers to form their own opinions. I have really liked Amir Khan for his work and his choice of films, whether he is infront of the camera or behind, he knows what good cinema is and to an enthusiast such as myself, thats all that matters :) I think everyone should see it once, either in the theatre or on TV, but watch it. Its a good film.

Oriental Palette, Bandra (W)

*Edit : The name of the place is Oriental Palette and not Golden Palette. This is what happens when you write food reviews at 2 in the nite :P 

I had a very very interesting and fun day :) Woke up as usual with my Dad fiddling with the laptop and trying to get the internet working. I do not know how he manages to screw it everytime. Its amazing. I am obviously responsible for it :P So set up the mtnl connection, cause You Telecom wasn't working. I have realized that my Dad has completely run out of patience. I wonder if its due to age. He gets irritated very fast nowadays.

Raghu, Sameer and myself had planned to meet up today. It was a confirmed plan and could be cancelled only on the occurance of either a life threatening situation or a situation involving saving the world. Well, I had a life threatening situation. Dad would have killed me if something was not done to the desktop. That was the reason why the plan almost got jeopardised. But fortunately the comp guy came and that got sorted out. No my PC is not fixed! He just took my MoBo away :P

I was free to go and I set off on my epic journey to Bandra. Inspite of numerous traffic jams, foreign exchange issues, always-reach-late syndrome, the 3 of us met almost simultaneously at the Bandra station, each arriving from 3 different directions. Raghu came by train, sameer from Bandra(E) while I reached Bandra(W). Monali was as usual kind enough to help me out with a good food place. After the post on Chinese food yesterday, I had a strong craving for it (inspite of forcing my mom to cook chinese last night). So we decided to try out Oriental Palette at Hill Road, Bandra (W). Its opposite Globus.

We reached there around 3:00 pm and were among the last 2 parties to enter. The waiter didn't seem too happy with us and promptly pointed out that we would get just one opportunity to order :P A big thumbs down for that. The ambience was decent, except for the sidey door setup, the door didn't have a door handle while one of the glass wall had a door handle :P. Anyways, the place serves, Chinese, Thai and Japanese. I wish I could write what we ate there, but except for Tum Yum soup I don't remember anything. Freaking tongue-twister names. We basically asked the waiter to suggest and then we pointed them out on the menu without attempting to pronounce them. But I think none of them were Thai or Japanese.

The soup came and though it looked like "Haldi-paani" initially, it was awesome! Hi5 for that one! They then served Chinese Tea (free! on the house! another thumbs up) Raghu enlightened me that it was used to wash away all the previous food taste, leaving your mouth fresh and ready for the next. We ordered noodles and chicken. Both the dishes were very good (a little bland though, cons of authentic chinese food)

By the time we were done, I got a happy feeling inside (exactly like the way I felt after eating at Pot-Pourri). Basically meant that it was a good experience. And for that kind of food, super value for money! The price was extremely welcoming. Not like how you tend to hyperventilate when you see the bill in some places. Also got my first fortune cookie (pretty useless fortune though, except for Raghu's).

Here's the final verdict
Ambience : 3.5/5
Service : 3/5 (got 3 because of all the hurrying because we went in late)
Food : 3.5/5
Value for Money : 4.25/5
Stomach is still fine. So I guess that needs a mention :)

My evening was super cool too. Met up with a couple of friends for coffee and we stayed till they started folding the chairs :P It was a good day :) I feel happy!