ICE & SPICE

Events and other fun things to do in Bangalore are scarce.

There is always the option of going out to catch a bite or the winner option of a "house party" but much else is not a regular option for Bangalore.

So after dissecting all the online forums and Time-Out Bangalore in an attempt to land myself onto an interesting Friday "welcome the weekend" celebration, the only thing R & i did find was a play.

So we reached the venue only to realize it was a kid's event and most of the audience was a parent to one of the performers.we quickly found our way out & drove half way across the city.

All the while brainstorming and throwing our options in the air.

After juggling around a bit with the possibilities, we grudgingly settled on Ice &Spice.

The place is on St.marks road nestled between a Kebab place & A wine shop.Both the kebab place & the wine shop are so bursting with the florescent light of a million tube lights that the yellow lit ice & spice with a small as small can be cafe set up is charming.the black interiors and the Quiet graphics of the board is comforting.

The desserts are marvelous and we sampled some on R's birthday when we dug into a delish cake coated with an almost burnt brown shade of chocolate.

We stepped in only to savour some cool AC atmosphere but we didn't realize that the cacophony of the 15 yr olds out with their monthly pocket money were bringing down the roof with their decibel levels.I now know that saying "My ex" is mandatory every 4 sentences & that a certain Aman likes his women to dominate him"(or something like that! )

I ordered a pasta Arrabiata.It was tangy & creamy.Served in a wide white dish with 2 slices of garlic bread. I am very delighted when i see the waiters walk up to me with geneous portions and it certain makes me feels like i'm in a hospitable place....but the warm sticky summer feeling, the noise & the heavy pasta was just the mix of things to make me feel like running out of the place.

R ordered a chicken gravy with some rice.The gravy again was thick & creamy and very white.

High on fat..low on flavour!

However, the place is perfect for a quick bite and the portions are abundant & the staff friendly.

The prices very pleasing and the place is alright.If you can brave through the teeny-bopper crowd, you have yourself a nice time!

VADA-PAV

you have a small wallet....you have a craving for something very buttery /spicy/you want something to make sense with your thick cold coffee or you want another reason to go to "japan electronics" store on CG road,Ahmedabad....then the reason comes in the form of a squashed, toasted, generously buttered bread bun (pav) stuffed with a potato cutlet and served on a steel plate that has a poster red and a olive / sap green pudina chutney on one side of it.

There was always a crowd at this particular spot at municipal market in ahmedabad where locals and outsiders like us would regularly flock to eat vadapav.

while i introduce to you this little gujju/bambaiyya marvel...i should tell you that ahmedabad is a food city.you will find people in love with their food and it shows. on them and around them.there are all sorts of indigenous delicasies available on the side of the road, on streets, at junctions, in shops, in air conditioned showroom set ups, in restaraunts, in the night life etc.you have desi pizzas, hybrid varieties of burgers with imli chutney or proffessional looking "golas" (ice candies) with flavours that vary from raspberry to khata aam and choclate eclair.

when i first went to ahmedabad ...the vadapav was a mere 6 bucks and in the last vada pav i had there...the rate has rocketed to a 20. It was still cheap and watching those big hairy hands slather those pavs with ginormous bricks of butter was not beautiful but fascinating none the less.

It always ended with a thick cold coffee.or a chocolate shake.the kind that would almost never make it way up the straw and would choke you.......but it was the perfect comfort food.

Perfect for when u have come on a solitary shopping missison or a birthday treat where orders would fly back and forth over hours .......

The memory of good food evokes the taste in my palate again:)

The choice was between Koshy’s and herbs and spices.

Immediately my memory darted to this time when had had lunch with a couple of friends. And then it was gourmet as I had gotten with something called walnut meringue. Well, Its still as fancy as it can get for me since I spend 6 out of 7 days in an industrial estate in bommasandra feeding my guts with spicy toast topped with oily onion something and supper straang kaapi or more often the sugary sweet milky Indian favourite- tea.

The memory of the taste teased me yet again into shamelessly jumping at the opportunity of going back to herbs and spices!

So come Sunday and I wore my Sunday best and waited by the road full of afternoon sun hoping that the knight in shining santro wouldn’t be too late.
P arrived and I hurriedly jumped into the car and a few quicks turns later we were at herbs and spices. No board, no announcing of arrival and there it was hidden away and yet crowded. Damn! yet another treasure trove discovered and looted before I had set foot!!!

A moment of panic and with the gentle aromas in the air and the sun filled central courtyard. All was forgiven .

I hate it when people talk to me when im studying my menu…cause I get very distracted and i feel im being diverted from the actual agenda…and thus I politly, whenever I can, ask my lunch mate to shut up and figure what they’d like to eat too!

P is predictale and so he picked what I almost expected him to…the beef stake!

I went for the fish with my new sea food fetish and I figured chicken makes for ordinary meat (don’t really talk me into foie gras and the likes…im going to be desi for long…..and I had to remind myself and stop P before he wolfed down his meal.so there was a temporaray interruption in the meal and the necessary documentation was done .
Thus the pictures of the half eaten fish and beef.

The fish was nice and packed .white and layered.shiny skin creased together at points giving in to the heat it had been grilled over. Thin, slimy skin tasting like mellow fire. Breaking softly layer by layer. And whenever I felt it was getting too bland for my palatte, I doused it with a (lemongrass??) sauce that accompanied it.
Contact P for more about his steak of well done beef and yummy green herbed potatoes!

Dessert was the difficult part…the meringue came in without much debate but then there is the usual chocolate fav…which I just had to have…and in this moment of massive confusion, I did what I should do…take both…yipppeeee…
Some choices in life are actually easy and I wish I cud do that with everything!!!

Also, lunch was paid for and I was dropped back. Almost felt like a date but only that it was with P and there were no flowers.