Food

Sep 2 2009

Onam Sadhya Photo

Onam Sadhya (All dishes prepared by mum), originally uploaded by § ?zur? §.

This is what is usually served for an Onam sadya. While tempting and nice, my complaint is that any Hindu Malayalee occassion serves the same food. Rice, a bunch of curries and payasam! Onam, Vishu, traditional birthdays, weddings, engagements, at a temple! And it’s the same as what you normally eat on an average day – except that there are more curries and you get payasam!

So what’s the big deal in serving one? Since I was alone at home, I had instant noodles. It’s no sadya but then it’s no different from any other day!

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By Roshan • Food, Kerala, Photos • 2

Aug 30 2009

Sundays At Home

This is the life! I’ve always been known to quote, along with a few of my friends, that all Indian companies should advocate the 5 day work week rule. I’ve been getting 2 Saturdays off in a month since May but for over 3 years I have been working 6 days in a row with just a day off (if not Sunday, then some other day).

This is a ridiculous format and the guy(s) who invented this must be hanged to death! You need 2 days to recover from the tension & stress of work. I can understand working 10-12 hours a day if you have Saturday & Sunday off to relax. Saturday should be going out, shopping, hanging out with your buddies, drinking and getting wasted.

Sundays – ah Sundays! They must be for relaxing on your bed with a cold breeze blowing in through the windows, lots of coffee, movies on your DVD player, apple juice, lazy afternoon naps, evening football on tv & pizza!

By Roshan • Food, Photos • 3

Aug 29 2009

Shopping On A Saturday Afternoon

I’m sitting in my room sipping cold apple juice that I had bought today afternoon and sipping it in a nice imported glass (one of two that I got free along with a 200g packet of coffee powder). I’ve been shopping today but didn’t get much. I bought one shirt for work, a few dvds, some coffee and the aforementioned delicious apple juice.

I wanted to get some new shoes but the two stores I went into today have only shoes that are out of my budget. Shoes starting at Rs.1950/-. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! No way Jose! I’ll go to another place in a couple of days and get them for less than half that price. I had some Smirnoff, chicken omelette and some noddles for lunch. And then back home again to watch a movie and take a nap.

By Roshan • Drinking, Food • 0

Aug 21 2009

Chilling At The Nyle

Long day yesterday. I was up by 6:30 am, preparing for my section of the review that Cochin center of our company is presenting to the new VP and the Sr.VP. It has a department wise snapshot of 08-09, 09-10 (so far) and a detailed KPI wise for April-July. By 8:45am I was out of the house and @ work by 9:20.

The review started around 11 am and stopped at 1:45 pm for lunch – a small burger, a small sticky triangle of bread with some toppings (that a bakery tried to pass off as pizza), chips and Pepsi. I think everyone was still quite hungry even after lunch and the grumblings continued on. We went back to our respective departments and continued our work till 7 pm (quitting time for me) when we were informed by the Admin head that us HOD’s were required to be present for a presentation/dinner at Hotel Nyle Plaza.

So me & the Quality lead went to watch Tom & Jerry in the reception hall (with no sound as the tv needs repairs) and we left via a mini-bus provided for us. All HODs were at the hotel by 8:15pm and we sipped on a fruit punch while we waited for the VPS and our center head to come. Turns out that it was a very casual affair, no presentations – just a dinner and a showing our our recently held grand R&R function (end of June) on a big screen.

Dinner was nice – nan rotis, chicken, fish masala, gobi manchurian, some salads and stuff, rice & fried rice and for dessert gulam jamun & chocolate pudding! We stood and ate for the most part and it was fun. By 10 pm we left the hotel but it was only by 11:15 pm that I reached home, due to people living in different areas having to be dropped off.

By Roshan • Food, Personal • 0

Aug 16 2009

Late Lunch With Anil & Madhu

A meeting between the three of us has been long overdue. I guess work, family, personal needs & some other shit came in the way of Anil, Madhu and myself getting together and having a few drinks with some good food and some laughs. But a few months? I think that needs to be remedied.

We had to postpone our drinking session by a day since I wasn’t feeling so great yesterday. Today, there was no stopping me from hanging out with my buddies. We had fixed a meeting time as 1:30 pm @ Barista cafe. I got there on the dot and ordered a Swiss Mocha and waited for Madhu and then Anil to join me. We had our coffees and ogled at some young girls (silly old men) and then headed out to have some late lunch as we were starving.

Velocity Bar was our destination and we settled our collective asses on the comfy sofa style booth and ordered some food & drinks – 8PM whiskey for Madhu, McDowells’s White Rum for Anil & Romanov vodka for me. We had a salad, some egg burgi, chilly fish, chilly pork, chilly gobi and finally chappty and chicken curry (Kerala style). All along we chatted and laughed and also had some serious conversations about family & stuff.

I need this. I need to spend some quality time with my best friends and not worry about the time and forget about the daily stress. By 5:45 pm, we were out of there after our 5th round of drinks and went to Caravan to have some ice cream. By 6:30 pm, we went our seperate ways and I crashed on my bed for a long nap.

By Roshan • Drinking, Food, Friends • 0

Aug 2 2009

The Aftermath Of Turning 33 Years Old

I wasn’t going to spend the day at home even if my foot is still bandaged and walking is still a little painful. I spent the morning drinking cups of coffee and replying ‘Thanks’ back to the sms wishes that came to my cell. I watched an episode of Star Trek Voyager & an episode of V.

I took a shower and went to Coffee Beanz at around 1 pm where I had a iced mocha and some French fries. By 1:45 pm Binny came over and we exchanged video files – I got 5 movies and the mini-series based on a Stephen King novel IT. We talked for quite a while and I bought two dark forest cake for us. By 3 pm we went our seperate ways – I went to get me some vodka.

At Oberois bar, I had 3 vodkas + 7up and a lovely omlette & a couple of peices of fish. The vodka was Muscovy and I’m not too fond of this particular brand but it had to do as they didn’t have anything else. So I sat there and sipped my vodka and thought about the past year. I left the bar and bought some chicken for dinner – my dad said that he’d cook for me & my mom.

I came home and plonked on my bed. I watched IT in it’s entirety. It was nice to watch the vid and lie back in bed. After that, it’s been listening to mp3s and not much else. I’m tired and want to go to sleep early ad I’m not as young as I used to be . So goodnite children.

By Roshan • Drinking, Food • 2

Aug 1 2009

The Last Team Lunch

Finally 5 of my team members have decided to make the move to another BPO in Chennai and they are happier with the higher pay packages that the company is offering them. The 5 of them have submitted their resignations using the online option provided at the company I work for. Only one of my senior trainers and my MIS guy will remain back.

From a strong team of 7, I now will have just 2 – although there will be an IJP run and I will get to select 5 replacements from the senior associates in the call center. It will just not be the same. Although I am excited & motivated at getting fresh & enthusiastic newcomers and I would love to mold them & guide them in doing a good job in their new profile, I am going to miss the 4 guys and 1 girl who are leaving.

I especially know that they do not really want to go but that they are fed up of the way things are going on at the office. They asked me to apply to the new place that they are going off to. I told them half-heartedly that I would try, although I do not want to live in Chennai. So I took them to hotel Sea Park for the last lunch outing that we will spend together as a team. I told them to order whatever they wanted – the company was paying – and boy did they do so! The final count was 3 biriyanis, 3 fried rice, 2 mutton masala, 1 beef roast, 2 porottas, 4 huge fish fries, 2 chilli prawns, 3 plates of chicken 65, 3 fresh juices and 6 ice creams!

Man that was enough to feed the Chinese army! My biriyani was the last to arrive and I sat looking at them as my kids ate to their hearts’ content. I enjoy watching them eat as I have stated before and I love it when they can enjoy a good meal. The next time the training team goes out to eat, it will be a whole new team with new faces. But the older ones will always be a part of my life.

By Roshan • Food, Friends • 2

Jul 28 2009

4 Day Weekend Update

Damn this had to happen at this time! Not that there is a good time for spraining your ankle but I really hate that it had to happen at this time.

I fucked up – I fell asleep in an awkward position, lower on the bed than usual and my left foot got stuck in the railings of my bed (I was lying down in the wrong direction, with my head at the foot of the bed) and in my sleep I yanked my foot and injured it. So now I have a sprain and had to take a day off from work after a 3 day weekend! Fucking stupid.

So out of 4 days away from work, I’m in the apartment for 3. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much as I did have some fun on Sunday. I went out to have some refreshing cold coffee (it was a hot day) and a smoked chicken sandwich. I sat in my corner seat and ate my delicious sandwich and stared at this woman (perhaps 28 or 29) who sipped her coffee and chatted with a guy. She reminded me of someone I know very well….but I just can’t for the life of me remember who it is! I was also reading a book otherwise it would have pretty obvious that I was staring at her.

I swear that I wasn’t leering at her. Honest! If I was, I would tell you right?

Anyways, a while later, I went in to Velocity for some vodka (it’s been a while since I’ve had vodka) and some cilly pork. Best thing was that they had MGM Apple Kizz vodka – the best kind that there is in India! And I hadn’t had any of those in a couple of months. So I sat there drinking my vodka & watching the flat screen tv – multitudes of Indian women dancing provocatively to techno & hip-hop versions of older Hindi hit songs. Really, where do they find all these women willing to shake their assess and jiggle their boobs for music videos?

Oh yeah, I forgot that we have a huge population!

The rest of the time has been spent watching V and some dvds or listening to music & Youtube!

By Roshan • Drinking, Food, Personal • 0

Jul 26 2009

Homemade Pizza

Homemade Pizza, originally uploaded by Scandblue.

“There is fresh avacado, roma tomatoes, grilled ham, green peppers, cheese and all kinds of spices on it…tasted superb.”

By Roshan • Food, Images • 0

Jul 23 2009

Some Delicious Bark Past

At the company guesthouse in Trichy, where me and my colleagues stayed on Monday & Tuesday, there’s a caretaker cum cook who stays year round at the house along with a young lad. The lad does odd jobs, while the caretaker/cook keeps the house neat & tidy and cooks food for the employees who travel to that city and need a place to stay.

The guy who the Trichy office have hired to take care of the guesthouse there is a Tamilian named Mutthu in his 50s. This guy has over 23 years experience in cooking for either a catering service or a hotel and his cooking is…fantastico and bellisimo!! Morning breakfast was idlis, uppma, chutnneys & chammadis that tasted so great and delectable dosas that melted in your mouth. For dinner we asked for thick uthappam styled dodas and chicken curry – needless to say, they were great too!

N ow his English is suspect and I can’t speak more than a few words in Tamil although I can understand a lot more than I can speak. But even then we found it hilarious when he handed us the bill (which is reimbursed by the company) that stated that he was charging us for Chekkan in the night and Bark Past for the morning!

Well, it sure was some delicious Bark Past!

By Roshan • Food • 0

Jul 5 2009

Improvisational Dinner

I wish I had a camera to showcase it to you my readers! But I guess that my description will have to do.

I was wondering what to do for dinner. Since I had a couple of beers and some good lunch, I didn’t want anything major but by 10 pm I was hungry again. Problem is there isn’t anything in the fridge that I can make for dinner – I can’t really cook!

But wait – I had bought this huge sliced loaf of white bread, which I had remembered as a brand that tasted soft & not too sweet (I hate sweetened bread and as a rule prefer garlic or wheat bread), so I looked for something to go with it. Not much as it turned out but I can improvise. And I did!

Dinner is 4 slices of huge soft bread, lightly fried onions, a dab of tomato sauce & sprinkles of Oregano seasoning that was left over from Dominos. pizza that I had ordered last week. One word – DELICIOUS!!

By Roshan • Food • 1

Jun 21 2009

A Fine Way To Spend Sunday

I had arranged with Binny to meet at Barista Cafe at around 12:15 pm today. Agenda – I was to bring my portable hard drive so he could copy Season 1 & half of Season 2 of Star Trek Voyager into his laptop. We’ve been planning this meeting for a few days but it got delayed due to my ankle sprain. Anyways, I also offered to give him a couple of other movies & tv stuff while he would give me a few movies from his giant list.

At around 11:45 am, Binny finished watching a movie and headed out to Bay Pride Mall only to find Barista closed (with a sign that read ‘Sorry for the inconvenience) and so the venue was changed to right next door – the Bay Pride Mall’s food court! By 12:15 I was there and we sipped our cold drinks and chatted while he copied the files. I got a few movies – You’ve Got Mail, Logan’s Run, Evan Almighty, Hot Fuzz & Apocalypto – copied into my external drive.

About an hour later, he went to meet his brother at the movies and I left to meet a friend at Velocity for drinks & lunch. Turns out my friend had to cancel but I was hungry and thirsty so what the fuck, I’m in a bar and so I ordered some noodles & pork and down four vodkas. The bar had a dvd of Boney M videos and live songs playing on their large tv. There was a group of 6 huge men in their late 40s and early 50s bouncing around and bopping about in their seats to the beat of Boney M. Bopping – I just love this word!

I enjoyed my lunch and drinks and it was time to get back to the apartment for a little snooze. I watched an episode of Star Trek Voyager before I slept and I woke up to get a cup of coffee and watched You’ve Got Mail. I’ve seen this movie about 10 or 12 times and I love it. There’s a couple of things that I want to post about this movie, so hold on for a bit.

By Roshan • Drinking, Food • 0

Jun 4 2009

Dancing The Night Away @ Koramkotta

The house boat idea was scrapped and instead the idea of going to a small resort was thought off. And it was a great idea!

We left the office at around 7:50 pm and took a mini-bus to Marine Drive. We crossed the rickety pier and boarded a boat (with plastic chairs lined on both sides, a stereo system and a lower deck) to head out to the Fortune Isle Resort Situated at Koramkotta Dweep, an islet, just a few kilometers away from Cochin town.

On the boat Bacardi White Rum, Signature & Royal Challenge Whiskey was brought out. There was seven up & soda to add to your drink of choice (but sadly for me, no ice). Spicy chips, fish, chicken & beef snacks were passed around for eveyone as we lifted our glasses in a thunderous cheers that almost rocked the boat! A couple of rounds and much laughter later, we arrived at the little islet.

We alighted from the boat and made our way through to the grounds and took in the calm serenity of the place. That was ok for a few minutes but we wanted action! Done deal. The resort has a small shack with a dance floor & glitzy lights and lazers and a DJ. For the next couple of hours everyone danced their asses off and a couple of us screamed the lyrics of the few rock songs that were in the list of dance hits in English, Hindi & Tamil.

By midnite we were mostly an exhausted group of guys and we slowly made our way outside to the open dining hall. Food awaited our hungry bellies – soup, fried rice, huge fried fish, chicken masala, chilly cauliflaur and chappathis. A small ice cream ended the evening. A couple of the logistics guys made a fool of themselves but overall everyone was well behaved. I had a blast.

However the boat’s battery was dead and we had to wait a long time to get it replaced. I dozed off on the boat and enjoyed the cool wind as we made our way back. Well after 2 am, the boat stopped at the boat jetty back in Marine Drive. We got back into the mini bus and I was the first one to be dropped since I live quite close to Marine Drive. By 2:45 am I was washed and ready for bed, although it took me a while to get to sleep.

And no surprise, I woke up after 9 am today with the mother of all hangovers and a killer headache!

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By Roshan • Food • 3

May 31 2009

Coffee, Croissants And Reading A Book

A nice way to de-stress after the working week is to relax with a good book and some coffee at one of your local coffeeshops. I prefer cold coffees & frappes to hot since a) I can make hot coffee at home & b) we live in a hot nation/state. I enjoyed a soft & wonderful croissant with my frappe as I read my book while trying to ignore the crappy music playing on the stereo and the couple near me who seemed to intent on displaying their affection in public.

After having caught an eyeful of a babe’s tight jeans-encased round buttocks (I am such a pervert I know), I heard a man’s loud & angry protests. Turns out that, a couple of tables away, a man had come in with his two young sons (I would put them at the between 12-8 year age bracket) to meet an acquaintance and drink coffee. I had earlier noticed that the two boys were a bit annoyingly loud as well.

Well, back to the incident, the man was irate that the he was brought three huge cold frappes by the staff – the guy claimed that he hadn’t ordered them. The staff said that one of his sons had done so. The man shouted that he had heard his son only ask for water and why would they bring some pricey coffees to him. He said that his son couldn’t even pronounce those coffees ordered. He said that their service was becoming worse day by day and that he would complain to their owner or manager or whomever.

lawman online That last line that he said reminded me of something – I had seen this bugger somewhere before! And on close scrutiny I knew who it was – it was the ‘I’m back in form fucker’ species iii movie download who I had seen in Barista about a month back. What does he do for fun – get to personally know all the owners/franchise managers of coffeeshops in Cochin? Rude, obnoxious and an asshole to boot. I think he didn’t want his sons to drink any coffee there and that the boy had infact ordered the drinks. Jerk!

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By Roshan • Food • 0

May 29 2009

Chilling With Drinks & Squid

Clients releasing newer & newer softwares & applications are a pain in the neck. Clients releasing newer & newer softwares & applications often are a pain in the ass. Clients releasing newer & newer softwares & applications which don’t work properly in our office premises is an kick in the scrotum!

Dealing with all that rubbish is hard work. I guess that was part of the reason that the interim manager (who currently manages both Kerala & Tamil Nadu processes for Quality & Training) decided that he wants to spend some time with my counterpart in the Quality department, Leslie and myself outside of the office in a casual setting. So went went to his room at Park Residency (excellent view out the window) at around 3:30 pm and ordered some drinks and some food to chill out and relax.

We ordered Signature whiskey, Smirnoff vodka, seven up, 2 plates of squid roast, chicken 65, battered prawns (dipped in koos-koos) and peanuts. It was a good decision as Leslie & I aren’t really comfortable with this guy but the guard may have lowered down a bit and it was enjoyable. Leslie & I walked a bit and then took an auto to HMT jn. I then took a bus back home.

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By Roshan • Drinking, Food • 0

Apr 25 2009

Lunch With The Team

It had been a while since we went together for lunch or anything from the office as a team. I really wanted my team to have some fun & enjoy a good meal outside of the office. So it was arranged for us to go to a hotel nearby and have some fun. By 1 pm we set out – 5 of us in a car and the remaining 5 on 3 bikes. We started out with soup – sweet corn chicken soup for 8 and 2 guys had mushroom soup. I pulled the leg of the waiter by stating, like Mike Myers does in the movie Wayne’s World, that I would have the “cream of sumyungguy (some young guy)!! A couple of my colleagues were holding back tears of laughter as the puzzled waiter said that he would check and get back to us.

So, soup was slurped back quickly and the waiter took our orders. 2 Chicken biriyanis, 3 mutton biriyani, 3 fried rice, 1 American chopsuey, 3 big ‘karimeen’ fish fry, 2 plates of chicken 65, mutton masala, one veg meals, 2 prawn schezwan & 8 porottas. The waiter staggered back with trays heaped with plates & bowls of food. We shared & compared and ate to our heart’s content. At the end of it, we had ice cream and 3 had milkshakes.

Damn that was good food and we had some fun, making jokes and laughing ourselves silly for just over 2 hours. You never know if it’s the last outing together with the same bunch of people, so make it a point to enjoy yourselves.

By Roshan • Food, Friends • 2

Apr 23 2009

Best Food On Planet Earth

The Arabs gave us their version of coffee, their version of tea and their version of religious fundamentalism (it’s no fun and they – the religious zealots – are mental!). They can proudly lay a claim to many things but they should not be prouder for anything other than what I dub the “best food” on Planet Earth!

I’m talking about the Shawarma sandwich. It’s cut up peices of heaven, rolled up in a khuboos or bread or whatever kind of roti you get, depending on where you get yours cooked. Cochin & the rest of Kerala have adopted this precious food as one of it’s favourite late evening snack or dinner. I just love them and my belly is full after having a couple of these, washed with a small milkshake down at restaurant near the bus stop. Perfect!

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By Roshan • Food • 1

Apr 14 2009

Toasty Goodness & Coffee

Bread – Wheat or otherwise is the best thing to have for breakfast according to me. I just love lazy, cold mornings like today for example. And I love to spend my morning with a giant cup or cups of coffee and toasted bread for breakfast. I laze around with it, listening to music (the Blues for this morning).

Last night on my way from the bar I stopped at a Varkey’s supermarket to buy some Nescafe coffee. I spotted this big loaf of what was supposed to be garlic bread with a brand name I had never seen before – Iris. So I bought a loaf of that. This morning I toasted 4 slices of the bread and chopped up some cuccumber to go along with it. Coffee & toasted bread!

The bread didn’t taste garlicky, just a hint of it, more like… like an aftertaste. But it was soft, fresh and tasty. A light but satisfactory breakfast.