A Grand Buffet Lunch With Tweeple

Today was the long awaited meeting (and eating) of three of us who have self-titled our little group as the ‘Cochin Foodies Group’ aka the ‘Three Foodkateers’ and, one I just come up with now, ‘The Three Foodiots’. Three of us who initially met online on Twitter and in a couple of tweetups here in Cochin and have since been communicating regularly online. Over the last couple of years in the case of Ranjith and last few months in the case of Antoinette.

Today was planned to be our first official lunch out as a trio and inauguration of the Cochin Foodies Group. This was decided last Monday and on Friday the venue was chosen to be Hotel International which is quite close to where I live.

Having said that I still haven’t been to this restaurant since late 1995 – my sister & brother-in-law had taken my cousins & me for a dinner just after they got married. I remember we have beers and awesome sizzler steaks there. Since then I haven’t been to this place. Anyways, the three of us arrived at 12:30 pm, met outside and made our way into the buffet area. I started off with a beer first, just a normal Kingfisher gold. The other two don’t drink and so they ordered pineapple juice.

We were also busy on Twitter & Facebook, announcing to several friends that we were currently sitting down for a nice lunch. This is Antoinette on one of her two phones.

Ranjith proudly uses his new BlackBerry Curve 9320. However dude you should take better care of it and used a pouch or a case from day one. Rough useage – well it’s a lower end phone so I guess ok.

First round of food from the buffet. This is what I took – two pieces of porota, a super soft & delicious plain croissant type bun, butter chicken, pork, some salad & a dressing.

Round two was fried rice with more pork & butter chicken, a plain pappodom, a spicy pappodom, dragon chicken & dragon cauliflower and some salad. Amazingly delicious food and the best was the dragon chicken, which was not on the buffet menu but we ordered separately. Fantastic food.

Nothing like desert to finish off a great meal. Only Ranjith & I had desert as Antoinette started getting a headache. On my plate is an assortment – some kind of a pudding, a flan, two kinds of soft cakes, a fruit salad, nuts & chocolate syrup. I could not go back for ice cream as I was full!

What a grand meal fit for a king no a kingdom itself! Hope to go there again some day.

Brothers In Arms & Hockey Sticks

You can look at it as a younger brother wanting to play with his older brother and does that still happen in their 20s or you can look at it as a rare opportunity of brother playing in highest level of their favoured sport in the same team.

Two of the Staal brothers are being reunited in Carolina. The Pittsburgh Penguins traded centre Jordan Staal to the Hurricanes on Friday for centre Brandon Sutter, the No. 8 pick in 2012 draft and defenceman Brian Dumoulin. Pittsburgh then selected defenceman Derrick Pouliot of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks with the first-round pick. Eric, the eldest of 4 hockey playing brothers, is captain of the Hurricanes.

“Jordan is an elite two-way player who possesses a rare combination of speed, size, scoring ability and defensive responsibility,” said Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford in a statement. “For his young age, he has a wealth of NHL experience, including winning the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2009. “And he is obviously a natural fit for our team in joining our captain, his older brother Eric.”

Jordan Staal has 120 goals and 128 assists in 431 regular-season games with Pittsburgh. He has a career plus-53 rating. The Penguins selected Staal in the first round, second overall, in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. “He’s still only 24 years old. He’s got upside yet,” Rutherford told the Canadian Press. “I think it’s a great fit.”

In another trade during the NHL draft the Dallas Stars have traded forward Mike Ribeiro to the Washington Capitals for forward Cody Eakinand a second-round pick (54th overall) in the 2012 NHL Draft. The 32-year-old Ribeiro had 18 goals and 45 assists in 74 games last season.