Guilty Pleasures in Singapore and a wonderful birthday

I won't lie. Singapore makes you food orgasm. It is drool paradise. And a food orgy is something which every foodie needs.
And that's what I got.
It started off with an over fattening dose of burgers and fries at Carl's jr in Singapore. It's every burger-holic's dream come true. O should know Co a I dont even like fast food! And even I loved it.

Dinner that night in Arab street's Cafe la caire had hooka and some awesome Turkish and Lebanese food. Sapadrama wasn't feeling too well and the food was consumed cold. And even that was awesome. So all in all- a good evening. 

Next came the best birthday lunch I have ever had. The MJ brothers were amazing company as usual.
Singapore's Marchè is a treat to every sense. You enter the restaurant which would pass off as a Swiss farm at any given point. Fresh produce, amazing cheese and pictures of your favorite cows on the wall. A perfect 10 is an understatement for the food. More than the food- it was the experience which made it P.E.R.F.E.C.T. On the menu was the lunch special- Rosti with chicken piccata. Lots of sour cream and some home made ice tea. I really couldn't get enough. Of course there was dessert as well. Apple pie with fresh cream! And who cares if im fat?

And how can a birthday be complete without beer. And a beer stock exchange was the destination.
The beer market decides prices based on market forces- an interesting beer drinking experience!

The day ended in the popular watering hole Cafe Iguana. Lots of alcohol on the cards of course- a very happy ending to a birthday!

Pics attached.

Sapadrama goes to phoren countries!

The best part of traveling is the food. You get out of India and the food options just get blown open.

I had my first encounter with Sushi yesterday, and boy did I love it!  (Though I can understand why a lot of people say its an acquired taste).

Nihon Mara was the name of the palace- located at The Cathay mall. Had the pleasant company of the MJ brothers and  Had 8 different varieties sushi. Most tasted really good. My favorite was something called maki with lots of sesame seeds. And sushi was just the beginning!

Teriyaki chicken, shitake mushrooms, steamed noodle soup called udon, crusted prawns and lots of other dishes I dont know the name of! Washing all this down was lots of black current and peach ice tea.
The dessert was, believe it or not, MACHA ice cream! Some weird green tea flavored ice cream. It was surely not as good as the machas who accompanied me. Service was pretty bad. Though sushi was buffet, the waiters were pretty slow on the uptake and had our orders delayed by an hour!

My ability to type is limited with my phone so will keep it short. Photos attached. They speak better than what I can communicate.
Ratings:
Food 8/10
Service: 4/10
Value for money 5/10 (SGD 24 all Inc)
Company: 10/10

www.sukigroup.com.sg
(Pls excuse typos. Blogging through phone with auto correct)

Not the Galli Khaana you'd expect:

Auto seats in Nautanki Gali

I visited Nautanki Gali last weekend and it seemed like the entire of Hitech City decided to land up! From the geeky couples to firangs in coat and pant!

Oh before that first things first:

Being a quizzer I cannot avoid givi

ng you some 'funda'*. My friend Renuka Shenoy put a question in a SpEnt quiz she did ages ago and its still fresh in my mind: This folk dramatic art form takes its name from a musical play about a princess who weighs as much as Nine Silver Coins. Oh and her second name happened to be Shehzadi. Which one?

The answer of course is Nautanki!!

*Funda: Arbit quiz trivia which quizzers think is very cool and normal people don't give a damn about

Ah so coming back to the the restaurant itself: It had the feel and atmosphere as one of those folksy-dhabas. The puppeteers belted out a funky version of 'Yamla Pagla Deewana' as the Sunny-paaji puppet danced away, performing some cool moves Nearly Headless Nick would have been proud of.

The walls and interiors had painstakingly been painted with posters of younder (just wanted to use that phrase), billboards and signs which had intentionally been misspelt to give us a laugh. These included some HIV warnings for truck drives, ads for Lux Cozi banian and Shotgun Sinha's "khamosssshhhh".

The waiting area's seats were a stroke of brilliance: A metal bucket with a soft cushioning on the top for a seat! Romantic seating areas included an auto where the meter wasn't running and a family table at the 'saloon' where you could apparently get a muchroom cut for 20 bucks!

After waiting for about half an hour we got our seats for the Rs.315 (including tax) buffet. We started off having the chats and Indian Beverages: on the menu was Kachori Chat, Papdi Chat, Jaljeera, Masala Chaas and a pineapple drink which didn't belong there and tasted awful. Everything else was pretty good.

We then went on to have some steamed momos with two different types of spicy accompaniments. (I've surely had better in Popsies in Bangalore). The random chicken dishes and the veg. kababs don't deserve a mention. Heck since I've mentioned it I might as well say they were below ordinary.

The veg and non veg salads were kept side by side: #MahaEpicFail. The main course was confused. They had the run of the mill Biriyani (welcome to Hyderabad where Biriyani is as important in a meal as water. Really!!...). Some ok paneer dishes and a pizza with (stale) Zucchini: a toping I never have and never will try as a pizza topping- its just freakin wrong! Everything else you would expect in a normal buffet was there: the usual rice items, dhals, a live dosa and phulka/roti counter... U know the jazz.

The only thing I thoroughly enjoyed in the meal was the Gajar Ka Halwa. My partner in crime MJ seemed to think so as well.

I have to mention how annoying the buggers at the dessert counter were dumping as much ice cream as humanly possible and topping it up with mint sauce and everything else they could find. Not cool!

The Rasmalai seemed to be more of a pansy-pink rasgulla: somebody needs to give these Ohris guys a 'How to name a dish 101'. While Dhruva endured the pain and still swiped it off. He deserves applause for that.

In the end I felt cheated that I had gotten a hotch potch of a meal, but I guess its ok to say its worth that one visit, though I'd pick galli khaana ANYDAY over this Nautanki Gali !

Ambiance: 8/10

Food: 5/10

Service: 10/10 (self service)

Here's the link to the Official Website

Here's the Map to the place

View Larger Map

The name game

I used to eat and talk.

Now i plan to eat and write.

And cook sometimes

But write a lot about food.

Where you SHOULD eat.

What you should eat.

Eat things which make you want to eat more.

The way i see it,

Food is our purpose in life.

We need it to survive

But more often than not,

Its something which makes you happy.

Food certainly makes me happy.

So here i am,

Sharing things which make me happy.

Sapad Rama was a happy guy

He ate....

Ate a lot

I eat a lot

Probably I see myself in him

Or him in me

Whether I have the gift of Gab or not,

Sapad Rama will not disappoint