Tag: Bangalore

South India Travels!

View of the Backwaters

Kochi! Kerala! Backwaters! 

It might seem The southern part of India is my favourite. But, even I am not sure, what influences me to travel to that part of the country! 

It was work for one part of it, It was sightseeing the Other Time and it was food and rejuvenation for this time. 

All the sides of the South have so much to offer! Just like the other states of India! But, the flavours in the South are all so different. 

While the common element remains the coconut in the flavours, Pepper and Masala in each of these states enhance the taste of the food. 

South Indian Food

Kochi! Was such a food experience. The freshness of seafood, The softness of meat & Pork.  The sharpness of Pepper and Rice and fullness of Appams was a treat every meal! 

Backwaters Calmness and quietness through the journey in the boat was an experience of Stillness in a world of technology. 

The Night at the Allepy snoozed us at 10 after another meal of Fish & Vegetable Stews! 

The next morning we were back from the shores, not sure if we were ready to travel back into reality! 

The heritage property where we stayed for another day in the city, was a museum with Vintage Cars, Camera, Projectors and an antique Radio system! 

The whole Kochi experience wouldn’t have been complete without exploring Art Galleries & Independent stores that had so much to offer! 

In terms of coffee, the Monsoon Malabar Roast is something you would enjoy the most. The Saltiness coming from the moisture in the air is what makes the coffee flavourful with the spice & nutty notes.  

Stay:

Bloom Boutique hotel

Kumarakom Lake Resort & Boat

Eat:

Kashi Art Cafe: Asian Food & Eggs

Pandhal Cafe : Pizza, Tacos, Desserts, Coffee and Berry lemonade.

Brunton Boatyard: For South India food

Jew Town Cafe : Cold Coffee

French Toast : Coffee & Desserts

Shop:

David Hall

Pepper House

Jew Town

Hampi! 

Virupaksha Temple, Hampi

Another city in the South was more about architecture and History with beautiful historic temples like Virupaksha Temple, Hemakuta Hill and Hazara Rama Temple are a must-visit on your visit to Hampi. 

The Eco-friendly hotel at Hampi, felt like a restored heritage hotel, but in fact, was designed from scratch. 

At Hampi, we were truly a tourist in our incredible India. 

Hampi, had suddenly seen a spike of interest globally even the G20 was hosted in the city in 2023. 

Stay:

Evolve Back Hotel

Bangalore! 

Bangalore Palace

The IT hub! The widest roads in a metro city! 

Where the joke for the city is.

IT professionals travel for about an hour on average to make apps and work for companies that promise delivery within 10 min. 

The City, that’s clean & Green! A metro you would like to stay in if you have a choice! 

The food options are many to choose from! 

Andra-style south Indian food being our favourite. 

But, the dessert and baking goods are one of the best in the city! 

The city has a palace, whose architectural structure is like a British-style castle. 

Eat:

Beema’s for Andra Food

Nagarjuna for Andra Food

Airlines for Dosa

Milano for Ice Cream

Corner House For Ice Cream Sundaes

Fia’s for Parsi Food

Lazy Suzy – for Cocktails

One 8 Commune – Rooftop Bar

Coffee From India #Kaffeécino #2

Always had a capsule coffee machine at your place and ran out of the Nespresso capsules?
There are a couple of options available. 
Vero Coffee: 
Besides, eating Indian chocolates. I also ended up having a lot of Indian coffee. Having got a Nespresso capsules machine and ran out of capsules. I looked for options and found Vero coffee as the best bet. With variety such as Malabar coffee, Irish Coffee and Arabica coffee. Vero was a surprise package and in all, they have 13 flavours to choose from. Starting from ₹390 for a pack of ten capsules 
Bonhomia Coffee:    This pandemic also allowed me to try another capsule coffee where it’s very economical compared to Nespresso capsules and flavours too are the same as Nespresso, but the highlight they also offer Green Tea & Black Tea for tea lovers and the only tea capsule that are available In India. So both The Tea & Coffee drinkers can enjoy themselves. Bonhomia also has its coffee machines that are worth investing.The pricing too is very economical and the quality is great too. ₹1500 for a pack of thirty capsules 

Instant Coffee:

Rage: An instant Ethiopian Coffee served in a test tube is a brand from Delhi that’s also the first plant-based Coffee in the world and I had been itching to try this one, even though I am not a fan of instant coffees and Rage has been one of the coffee that is Good! 
Roasted Coffee:
Bru Filter Coffee: 
After I ran out of my Italian grounded coffee. I  Tasted the Bru Filter roasted Coffee and it was just like South Indian filter coffee Dark & Strong and is very easily available and well priced 
Sunbean ITC Gourmet Coffee:
ITC has been a huge surprise for me when it comes to the Fabelle chocolates, The Coffee as it’s not easy to associate a company that has been known for Sunfeast Dark Fantasy Biscuits in the FMGC category and otherwise have been identified as a toboacco and hospitality company. 
The Packaging of the product to the taste of the coffee it is one Indian company that’s worth trusting. And having just two options of grounded coffee available one that’s made in the hills of the south and the other one inspired by southern America both the packing have a motif that’s are significant of the coffee region.

Speciality Grounded Coffee:

Cohoma Coffee Company: 
For the longest time I thought it was an international brand the typography used for their brand name and the combinations offered with the beautiful black packaging with a coloured design on the bottles as well as the Tin boxes. This couldn’t have been India and when I googled the country of origin for this there it was an  Indian brand.
This coffee is very bitter in taste and isn’t everyone’s cup of Coffee and those who like their coffee very strong will enjoy it.  
Araku: it’s not every day you hear about coffee that’s more popular in Europe than in India for the packing and for the flavours it has to offer. Araku isn’t necessarily strong or dark coffee but is mild with interesting coffee notes like peppers, Red fruit and dark chocolate that’s the signature collection to the toffee, Dark chocolate and sugarcane been the selection collection and many more collections to offer. They also have capsule coffee and a wider range for the European market that isn’t available in India Yet. 
Araku should be on your list to try… 
Third Wave Roasters: A speciality coffee place from Bangalore! That I had been reading a lot about and so when I was looking to try something different I tried their signature south Indian Filter Blend and it tasted and reminded you of the strong, Dark South Indian coffee. Third Wave Roaster also has cafes in Pune & Hyderabad besides Bangalore if you would like to visit them or you can order them from Amazon!  
The packing of Third Wave Roaster reminded me of Blue Bottle the USA coffee Chain that offer an interesting range of coffee flavours and the simplicity of the design in packing. 
Subko: While reading a  digital magazines publication issue! I came across this cafe in Mumbai! Though they were supposed to open in March! The lockdown forced them to keep shut! And a few months later they opened in Bandra. I haven’t been to the cafe yet! As I am not in Mumbai anymore…
But, that did not stop me from trying out their roast by ordering them from their website. They have a range of roast right from Meghalaya to the southern estate. 
The packaging and the taste of coffee are well balanced. I ordered the Woodway estate that has flavours of Carmel, Dates and cocoa a good coffee option if you are looking for something that’s not sweet but also slightly dark. 
KC Roaster- Marahulla Grounded Coffee : 
Home became the new destination. I had just ordered Pour-over Coffee equipment. 
It’s like having drip Coffee, that’s known as V60 as it’s a 60-degree angle in a v shape where you need to add filter paper and have a carafe below for the coffee to drip down. So to enjoy this I ordered grounded coffee from one of my favourite cafes in Mumbai.
And having already enjoyed all Indian homegrown coffee & chocolates. This has been one of the smoothest coffees with notes of Cocoa & Caramel. 
Kelagur washed was another good smooth coffee that was not too strong even though it’s said to be an ultra Dark Roast 
but had the taste of dark chocolate and a little buttery. You should try these two from KC Roaster. 

Bryan Adams:The Ultimate Tour 2018 !!

Bryan Adams:The Ultimate Tour 2018  last night was my 1st ever concert With this big magnitude ever attended in my life.

Bryan Adams as a personality had some super energy and a great sense of humour. 

The complete production -The synchronisation of the video to his performance was conceptualised interestingly. 

The in between act of singing songs randomly to get the audience attention.

The performances on the guitar by the man himself was like something never seen before.

The humming of songs of his greatest hits by the audience was a great vibe to witness. 

The Band member was in-tune with Bryan Adams and occasionally outperformed Bryan.The weather was so humid,the sweat was dripping through the ninety minute he performed. Traffic to reach the venue was crazy enough to cover 1 km distance in 90 minutes…It took longer to reach the venue then the duration of the artist performance. 

Being his 5th Tour in India so far.There is hardly any doubt that India isn’t his favourite country to perform.

1994 was the first time ever Bryan Adams came to India,Mumbai and performed. 

And sharing anecdotes of his first visit to the fifth one last night.

It’s been 24 years since then and he has already performed 4 more times here. May be it’s the classical and hits of mid 90s and early 00s that keep our audience in India hungry and asking for more. 

Trivia:

1.Keith Scott Adam’s guitarist has been with him  since 1979 -that’s 40 years since they have been together.

2.Summer of 69 passes as a Hindi song in India.

3.Everything I do for you one of his biggest hit was written for 1991 movie Robin Hood:Prince of thieves.But didn’t become part of it.

4.He is not just a singer but a professional photographer.Published a book in 2013 wounded:The Legacy of War.And shoots for fashion magazines.

5.One of the photos of queen Elizabeth was used a Canadian stamp in 2003.

6.He himself has also being part of Canadian  stamp collection in 2009.

7.He signed his first contract at $1 in 1978.

8.Summer of 69 is not about the year but about the sex position.

Public Trans!!

Public Transport

How important is the public transport   facilities?

Living in metro city and traveling to other Metro cities in india like Delhi,Bangalore,Chennai,Kolkata,Ahmedabad,Pune

and to Global metro cities like  London,Paris,New York.I have found that The most important  part of living remains the public transport.

Imagine how easy! you find it travelling from one point to another,Without worrying about where would I park,The timing of parking at “No Parking” Zone to day when one could park at the “No Parking “ Zone. To worrying about the fuel tank,Whether its Half Full,Half empty or reaching the E mark.

To worrying about getting a parking space.

Mind you Even in NYC! You have to wait to get one parking lot for your car.

Worrying about the servicing cost for your vecihiles.

Wouldn’t you like to be chauffered around in a car of your choice everyday! To not worrying about Starting your car and taking a rickshaw to the station for longer journeys.

But,Only if this could be improved in the other metro cities of our country, would it be easier to travel around and have the traffic flow smoothly too. Why can’t buses in our country run on the routes with an assigned timetable. A.C buses could be priced reasonably to encourage people to use them.

Why are cities like london and new York a breeze to move around. And Guess  What. Most of  these cities citizen  don’t even own a single car. All they use is Buses,Train,Metro,Subways to commute around.

Then why can’t this be done here in our country?

Unriped Lemon Tree.

Lemon1.jpg
Lemon Tree Premier hotel in Bengaluru wasn’t our first choice , being a Indian based hotel chain, In fact wasn’t an option at all unless,We started looking for options around the venue of our event.
Our only choice was a lesser known hotel Shilton Suite.
I wish,If we could have stuck with that option. we wouldn’t have any expectations at all.
But,We decided to go with a familiar name and stayed at the “Lemon Tree Premier “ until the day of the event arrived we had no clue about the citrus punches,we would experience And that our experience would be more like a fresh lime soda order gone wrong with too much of salt and no sugar. Or were we dealing with so unriped lemons which had just become part of the growing tree for the hotel chain.
After repeatedly watering them with message of do’s and Dont’s.They couldn’t still be nourished and that’s when I realised.
I was dealing with A bunch of unripe Lemon  from the tree.
From the Names not being on the list (For which I had earlier mentioned too,On the invoice  that was sent to me)
To not having a single room from about 6 rooms,I requested for early check- ins, to not having rooms either ready for late check-ins.
May be all they wanted was, to check in at the check- in time (2 pm) to get the rooms.
The final billing invoices too had my second name totally mismatched from another team members of ours, to have the Spelling of my second name totally misspelled for the detailed bills. This has to be the worst experience of dealing with an hospitality group.That is “Make in India “ and “Made in India .”