edgeplay

Beer Taste Off: OZ and NZ versus CA

2010-12-31T20:45:00.000+11:00

Our local hop head beer purveyors Purvis Beer in Richmond got in some beer from one of my favorite California brewers - Bear Republic. So we had an impromptu double-blind tasting of Racer 5 and Hop Rod Rye against our local favorites Galaxy and Hopwired.

I labeled four coasters "A, B, C, D" poured a measure of each beer into glasses, noted which beers were on which coasters, and turned the coasters over. Debbie came in and rearranged the order of the beers and the coasters. We sniffed and tasted each one, and then rated them.

There was unanimous agreement among the judges!

In fourth place was the Hop Rod Rye from Bear Republic. This isn't too much of a surprise because it's qualitatively different from the other three beers. It's darker and sweeter, with a creamy head and less hops. It's a malt driven beer, with interesting grainy tartness possibly from the rye?

In third place was Racer 5! Also from Bear Republic, this beer is one of my "go to" beers in California. I first had on draught at Zeitgeist in San Francisco and was instantly smitten. I still love it, but in this tasting it seemed a little closed, without the lovely hop aromas I remember. It's still a lovely beer but it may have suffered in transit.

In second place was Galaxy from Bridge Road Brewers in Beechworth VIC. It's made with (wait for it) Galaxy hops. This was a one off brewing of an American Pale Ale style and it's a winner. I hope they make more. Great hop nose, slight sweetness with a nice pungent bitter middle.

Finally the winner was Hopwired from 8 Wired Brewing in Marlborough NZ. This is my new favorite beer. Big dry hopped nose with notes of grapefruit and pine (though they like to claim passionfruit down here) made with local NZ hops this is a big american style IPA with a lovely burst of alpha acids on the tongue.

When I first moved to Australia, I committed the sin of trying to find the things I loved from home in our new environment. I looked for big hop driven "American" style IPAs and I kept being disappointed. I was starting to think that maybe that style just wasn't popular here.

I was wrong. There are brewers brewing in that style, and it is popular with some people, just not broadly popular. We've found a number of great local craft brewers including Mountain Goat and finally a purveyor, Purvis Beer, who shared our love for unsubtle, one dimensional, purely hop driven pale ales.

We've been trying out various local IPAs and "APAs" for a while now. First on our own, then going through Purvis's selection. We had settled on Hopwired as our favorite though we keep trying new beers as we see them. This tasting was to see how my fond memories of my favorite California hop driven pale ales compared to the new favorites we'd found here.

My conclusion? In beer, "local" and "fresh" wins. Even if Racer 5 were better on its home turf (which isn't actually clear to me) it's obvious that local beers are better - certainly when drunk close to home. So I am overjoyed to have found such great local beers, and a beer supplier who shares my love of hops.

Now off to finish those open bottles - fresh beer doesn't keep...

Hoppy New Year!

Auction Rooms

2010-12-11T18:28:00.002+11:00

Debbie and I have been on a quest to try a new Melbourne cafe every weekend. This weekend's cafe was "Auction Rooms" in North Melbourne. We've been hearing good things about it, both the food and the coffee. We visited at the height of the weekend brunch rush, and wanted a table inside so we had to wait maybe 20 minutes. This was no hardship as it gave me a great view of the kitchen and a chance to take some photos of the line.

This place seems to specialize in poached eggs, there was one guy poaching eggs pretty much continuously. He had two big pots of water on continuously and would alternate about eight eggs into each one. The kitchen was a little backed up and you could tell people were a little stressed.

We got our table over by the cute little sample roaster and each started with a macchiato of the single origin of the day, which happened to be one of our favorites an Ethiopian "Nekisse." This is a hand picked dry processed bean that I think has lovely blueberry and spice notes when handled well. Auction Rooms roasting and brewing did a great job of pulling out the complexities of this bean, my only complaint would be that the cups weren't warmed enough so it was a little cool by the time it got to the table. It's hard to serve such a tiny amount of coffee well, but they did a good job.

We ordered two of the "non-egg" dishes. All of the egg dishes use poached eggs which explains the poaching station, but I'm not a egg-for-breakfast fan and besides it was lunch time. Debbie had the tea smoked ocean trout salad while I ordered a pig knuckle sandwich.

The salad was a large portion of tender fresh-tasting trout that didn't seem at all smoky, combined with mango, avocado, green beans, potatoes, red onions, lettuce and tomato. It was lightly dressed in a slightly sweet whole-grain mustard vinaigrette that helped bring everything together. A definite winner.

The sandwich was slow roasted pig knuckle with pickled cauliflower, bread-and-butter pickle, green beans, and endive all served on a nice crusty bread. I didn't examine it closely but I think there was a sweet seeded mustard, and maybe an aioli or mayonnaise on it. Good, but the most memorable part was the sweet crunchy pickled cauliflower.

After the meal we each had another macchiato, but this time Debbie tried the house blend, while I stuck with the Nekisse. We shared a chocolate brownie that was very nice, but not worth a special trip. Overall it was a lovely way to start our Saturday. Definitely a bright star in the constellation of Melbourne cafes.

More IPAs

2010-12-05T16:02:00.000+11:00

Found two more winners at Purvis

The first is "Hopwired" from 8 Wired. A purely NZ beer made with NZ hops and NZ malt. It's a big IPA in the "New World" style, hop driven with plenty of dry-hop character and hop bitterness in the body. It's from Marlborough, home of world famous Sauvignon Blancs, and they like to claim it has a less grapefruit/pine hop character and more of a passionfruit/sauvingnon grape character. I say grapefruit/pine and I say the hell with it - actually I say "bring it on." It's my current favorite and having found it I am well content.

That said, there's another kiwi APA from Purvis that I just tried that's another winner. That's the "Tuatara APA" and I don't think I can do much better than quote from the label:

Spawned by freewheeling California hopheads, American Pale Ale is the red-headed stepchild of the Classic IPA. Big and extroverted with plenty of bitterness, a great APA shows off some fruit on the nose and the kind of earthy, herbaceous complexity Pinot Noir buffs drone on about when they corner you at a fundraiser. Anyway, we had a thumb through the Tuatara Atlas and discovered that us Kiwis are New World too. So we reckon its time a NZ APA pulled on its Dockers, flashed its iPhone and generally talked louder than anyone else in the bar. Here it is.

It's great. Maybe not quite as much in-your-face dry-hoppedness as the Hopwired, but it's plenty good. I could drink this. Next up I have to try the local brewery "Mountain Goat"'s premium IPAs...

Single Hop IPAs

2010-11-29T20:04:00.003+11:00

Debbie found me a beer store that carries not only IPAs but a whole range of "single hop" IPAs. Most of them are by the Danish crazy man Mikkel Borg Bjergsø of Mikkeller brewing, but one is a local Australian IPA from Bridge Road Brewers.

The two Mikkeller's I tried this time were the Tomahawk and the Chinook. Both are 6.9% ABV a nice full golden color with big heads. They both had a rich malty mouthfeel, but were significantly different in flavor, obviously due to the different hops.

The Tomahawk seemed slightly less complex, mostly alpha acids appropriate to a bittering hop with less of the fruity citrus notes I look for a dry hopped IPA. It was fairly well balanced with some crispness, and would be a good foil to an oily or spicy food. I'm not so fond of it on its own though.

The Chinook is a hop I'm somewhat familiar with, it's a little spicier, a little less of the alpha acid bitterness, and slight woody and fruity notes. There was some malt sweetness, and overall it's a very drinkable beer.

The Bridge Road was a completely different beer. Galaxy hops are some of my favorites, distinct citrus notes in the nose and start, caramel notes in the middle and finish. This is a beer in the traditional west coast IPA style that I've been looking for, and I think it will become a staple.

Purvis Beer

Bistro Ortolan

2009-10-07T22:30:00.005+11:00

Bistro Ortolan is one of Sydney's well known "flash" restaurants. A fancy place you go when you want an upscale french dinner. We had heard mixed reviews. One friend whose opinion we respect a lot had completely panned it, but when our favorite server at Tastevin called it "the best degustation in Sydney" we decided we had to try it.

It's a single bus ride for us out to Leichardt, which is best known as one of Sydney's oldest estabished Italian neighborhoods. Leichardt is where we go for ricotta cake, wood fired pizza, and great Italian cheeses. I called early in the afternoon to get a booking, asking "could I get a booking for this evening?" "Certainly, when would you like to come in?" "When do you have open? I'm free all evening." "So are we." "In that case, I'll just wander in. See you in a bit." "Thank you, sir."

So wander in we did. After perusing the wine list, menu, and degustation we settled on a bottle of Shaky Bridge 2006 Pinot Noir from Central Otago NZ, a glass of Gosset Grande Reserve, and the degustation.

We started with an amuse of tomato veloute accompanied by a single Coffin Bay oyster and a horseradish cream filled choux. The oyster was magnificent. I continue to be amazed and appalled by the Australian custom of shucking and rinsing raw oysters before serving them, but Bistro Ortolan served the oyster freshly shucked and included the top of the shell perhaps to indicate that the oyster was freshly opened. Fat and briny, with luscious oyster liquor in the shell I could have eaten a dozen of these. The tomato veloute was rich with tomato flavor and included a number of interesting "bits" in the bottom, I believe I noticed a slice of olive, Debbie thought there were capers, and I also thought there might be some mushroom. The choux filled with horseradish cream was a nice accompaniment, but I thought the choux might have stood too long - it was a trifle soggy. At the time, I didn't remark on the number of things going on in one dish, but as the meal progressed that grew to be a theme.

The next dish, the obligatory raw course, was a ceviche of kingfish, sea urchin, with a "pipe" of caviar cream arrived in a hollowed out sea urchin shell and garnished with flowers and gold leaf - a presentation that made both of us exclaim "wow!" The ceviche itself was excellent, delicate morsels of hiramasa, tossed lightly with creamy uni and lemon in a light piquant dressing. It was accompanied by a buttery tuile filled with a caviar cream and topped with caviar. I'm not generally a fan of gold leaf on my food, it's just flashy and is good for impressing unsophisticated diners, but adds nothing to the food.

This was followed by pasta, a pappardelle on which rested an egg shell in which was nestled a single whole yolk. We were directed to pour the egg yolk onto the pappardelle, which was then finished with a buerre noisette. The dish included wild chantarelles and other french mushrooms. The combination of egg yolk and butter made this dish extremely rich, and there wasn't any acid to lighten the flavor. The mushrooms seemed a bit tired, and the flavor was augmented with truffle oil. I do not expect to find truffle oil used in a putative fine dining restaurant. Truffle oil is used to impress people who may not know better. It's inexpensive and often used to cover up inferior ingredients. The pasta itself was well made (though I remarked "Quince it's not") but I thought was slightly undercooked and barely warm. Having it hot would have helped the yolk and egg, but as it was the dish left my mouth feeling slightly greasy.

Fortunately the Shaky Bridge Pinot was the perfect cure for that. The wine was young but drinkable, full of soft tannins. It had enough acidity for me and enough fruit for Debbie, and turned out to be an excellent pairing for the degustation.

The fish course was a blue-eye trevalla, sauteed with a crispy skin. It was served with what was billed as a "baby squid and pea 'risotto'" which I was curious to see. It turned out to be a lightly cooked brunoise of tender squid shaped into a round. Tasty, but to me the key features of a risotto are the creaminess and the slightly firm texture of each grain. The green beans and broad beans were exellent. The dish was finished tableside by garnishing it with sauce from a small pitcher. I thought this was slightly gratuitous, it could easily have been sauced in the kitchen, but thought no more about it.

This was followed by poultry, a pot-au-feu of chicken with foie gras and girasole. The chicken was meltingly tender and slightly pink, which caused me to ask the server if it had been prepared sous-vide. He wasn't familiar with the term and looked slightly confused. The foie had a fairly strong liver flavor and texture, as a big fan of foie gras I was slightly disappointed. The dish was finished by the addition of the broth tableside. After three dishes in a row being finished at the table, I joked to Debbie that I was tired of it and hoped the game course wouldn't also be finished at the table. She said "there's no way they'd finish venison at the table."

The loin of venison was finished at the table. It was accompanied by a bone marrow gnocchi, asparagus, a piece of marrow, a cafe de paris butter filled croquette, chanterelles, and three garnishes. It was a farrago. Too many things going on all at the same time, with nothing to pull it all together. Venison, plus marrow, plus gnocchi, plus a croquette, none of it stood out.

The cheese course was a good roquefort, with the traditional accompaniments of toasted walnut bread and honeycomb. Creamy, tart, and sharp cheese with toasty rich bready flavors and the complex flavors of honey and wax. This combination is a classic for good reason. I love good cheese and thoroughly enjoyed this course.

Next came a palate cleanser of pink grapefruit and campari sorbet. A solid choice of two great flavors that pair very well, the tart bitterness of the grapefruit complementing the sweet bitterness of the Campari in a sum greater than its parts. The citrus salad complemented the tart/bitter/sweet of the sorbet and added bright freshness to the course. The flowers made a coherent addition to the palette.

The dessert was a cute little soufflé flavored with spiced chai baked in a teacup. It was paired with a rather undistinguished rhubarb and custard tart and rhubarb sorbet.

It seems clear that we agree more with our friend who thought Ortolan was overhyped than our friend who thought it was one of the best degustations in Sydney. If you want the best Sydney has to offer, I suggest Quay. If you want to see what can be done with simplicity and excellent preparation while still maintaining very high standards I recommend Atelier. Bistro Ortolan panders to what popular taste expects in "flash" dining, with overly complicated preparations that result in confusion on the palate, and show at the expense of substance.

Phở Bắc Hải Dương

2009-10-07T13:53:00.006+11:00

Pho bac hai duong is a Vietnamese restaurant in Marrickville serving northern style beef noodle soup, which is obvious from the name - if you speak Vietnamese. "Pho" is Vietnamese beef noodle soup, "bac" means northern, and "Hai Duong" is a province in northern Vietnam. [I realize that by omitting the diacritical marks I'm mangling the Vietnamese, and I apologize for that.]

We'd ridden by this restaurant on the bus to other places, we'd heard it was one of the best pho places in the Sydney area, and we were in the mood for pho - so off we went. There are various theories about the origin of the name, and the origins of the dish. One popular version is that the name and soup come from the French "pot au feu." Others think the soup was of Chinese origin. In any case, there's general agreement that the dish started in the north in the early 1900s, and moved southward in the 1950s. There are definite regional variations, in the flavor of the broth, the style of noodles, and the amount and type of vegetables added.

The decor of Hai Duong is reasonable, glass tops over linen table cloths, but don't come here for the decor. The inside is plain and simple, and each table comes with a little tray of the standard condiments, hoi sin, chili sauce, ground chilis, fish sauce, soy sauce. There's a box of tissues to use as napkins. When you're seated you get a pot of tea that is kept filled the entire time you're there (I drank a pot and some all by myself.)

The menu is minimalist, black and white with page protectors, but a good selection of classic dishes, including the three we'd come especially to try - the eponymous pho, fried egg pancake (banh xeo), and "broken" rice with pork (com tam bi suon cha). We looked over the menu to see if there were treasures we might have missed, and to try to decide which of the multitude of pho we should get. Eventually I settled on the old reliable pho dac biet, or "special" pho, which usually includes tripe, tendon, lean beef (often round), and brisket but can include anything the restaurant feels like.

They quickly brought the condiments for the pho, bean sprouts, fresh basil, a lemon wedge, and fresh chilis. The chilis are the ubiquitious hot red chilis you find here in Sydney, and I used them to spice up all the dishes.

The first dish to arrive was the banh xeo ("sizzling cake"), which they described as Vietnamese Crepe-Style Pancake but is actually made from rice flour and tumeric.

It was filled with bean sprouts and plump shrimp and served with a side of nuoc cham (tart diluted fish sauce), fresh mint, and lettuce. The pancake itself can greasy (part of the charm in my opinion) but the mint, lettuce, bean sprouts and sauce cut the greasiness and the whole combination is delightful. The version at hai duong was nicely balanced and the shrimps were big and flavorful. We were off to a good start.

Next came the com tam ("broken rice.") The version we ordered included shredded pork, pork skin, egg, and sparerib. Each ingredient should be distinct, and there should be a hint of smokiness, especially in the sparerib. Unfortunately I thought they had overcooked everything especially the egg, and used way too much oil. Debbie liked it though. Also served with a slightly spicy nuoc cham.

Almost simultaneously came the pho dac biet. The heart of a good pho is the broth. It should be very fragrant but well balanced, no single spice or strong flavor should dominate and not too greasy.

It should be redolent of beef and fragrant spices. This broth was tasty and fragrant with star anise, though perhaps a bit sweet - though that's a matter of taste. It was topped with rare beef and brisket, though I searched in vain for tripe and tendon. I hope they didn't leave it out fearing that the white guy wouldn't like it! The noodles were the thicker northern style noodles more like fettucini width, rather than the thin southern style noodles. It was all garnished with cilantro and green onions. I doctored it with the fresh basil, lemon, bean sprouts, fresh chilis, hoisin sauce, and some chili sauce. It was great! It'd been a long time since I'd had a bowl of pho this satisfying. Any dissatisfaction with the com tam dissolved in the warm glow of the pho.

I'd come back, but there are other Vietnamese places nearby on Illawarra Road that we'll be trying first.

Egg & Soldier

2009-10-05T21:34:00.006+11:00

The other new place that's opened recently on Glebe Point Rd is a "milk bar" called "The Egg and Soldier." I had been under the impression that a milk bar was a kind of local store for picking up milk and eggs and newspapers. Reading up a bit more, milk bars are that but they also used to be a place where people especially young people could come and socialize, drink coffee or soft drinks and generally socialize with their friends.

The Egg and Soldier is definitely more a place to socialize than a place to pick up a newspaper. It's a cafe where you can also get coffee, desserts, or light meals. The name (and logo) refers to the childhood dish of boiled egg with toast "soldiers" and "The Egg and Soldier" recreates some of that feeling of happy nostalgia.

We visited the first day they were open and things were still a little chaotic, but the staff is very friendly and obviously anxious to make a good impression. The place was warm and full of friendly people. Warned that the kitchen was still getting up to speed, we opted for some of the treats we saw in the case, a lemon meringue pie, and the banana bread. Being a coffee fanatic I also tried their macchiato.

Let me start by saying that the macchiato could use some improvement. The coffee was not as strong and thick as it should have been, but I passed on the feedback and it was well received. They're trying hard and I'm sure they will improve quickly, but this is no Espresso Vivace. Nevertheless they are starting from a good base, using Single Origin beans.

On the other hand both the banana bread and the lemon meringue pie were excellent. The banana bread was moist and flavorful with small distinct bits of banana in it. It was served with good butter and presented with nice fresh strawberry and mulberry.

The lemon meringue pie had great flavor, with intense lemon filling well balanced between sweet and tart. The crust was crisp and the meringue had good loft without going to ridiculous extremes I've seen on some other commercial lemon meringues.

After the two sweets, we were treated to a sort of dessert amuse, two macaroons. I'm not usually a fan of macaroons, not particularly liking dried flaked coconut, but these were great. Slightly crispy and toasty and very sweet, they'd be a great accompaniment to coffee.

We had other errands to run that morning so had to hurry off, which is a shame because Egg and Soldier is a comfortable place to linger and chat, to sit and relax. The space is still new, and the staff is still working things out, but I look forward to seeing what they do with it and how they grow into it. I can easily imagine sitting here for an hour or two.

[Edit to add, October 12, 2009]

We revisited The Egg and Soldier a few days ago, and let me start by saying the espresso is much improved. They've got a new barista who understands what a macciato is, what a picolo latte is, and how to make them. It now matters that the beans are from Single Origin, you can taste the difference in the cup. In fact I'd be happy to go back to The Egg and Soldier for a nice macchiato - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

When we visited this time, we decided we had to try their signature "Egg and Soldiers." This is a traditional UK "comfort food" of toast fingers and soft boiled eggs in egg cups. You dip your toast soldiers into the egg and eat the eggs this way. I thought the eggs were done well, with slightly runny whites and runny yolks, but Debbie would have preferred the whites to be set a little more. In order to do this they would have to cook the eggs longer over a lower heat, and the kitchen is already having trouble keeping up with the pace of the orders.

Along with the eggs and soldiers came some bacon wrapped asparagus, that I thought was a nice touch but maybe a little fancy for comfort food. Regardless, it was delicious.

I should say at this point that I am not a big fan of traditional breakfast foods. I don't much care for eggs on their own, and sweet starchy foods like pancakes, waffles, and french toast are not my first choice. So I tend to struggle at most "breakfast" places, and Egg and Soldier is really a breakfast place. Nevertheless they do have a nice selection of sandwiches and salads on the menu, and I am a big fan of Croque Monsieur, so I decided to try it.

I have some definite ideas about what constitutes a "proper" Croque, the first and formost being that it should be crisp. That's what "croque" means. It should also contain good ham and good cheese - classically a swiss. The croque here is a version I've run into before, a relative of the Monte Cristo from the USA, a soft white bread in egg batter, grilled with ham, cheese, and in this case hollandaise. It's warm and tasty, but it's not crispy, and it's not what I'm thinking of when I think "Croque Monsieur." Ah well.

The coffee on the other hand was excellent. I would be happy to come down here, sit with a cup of coffee and a book, and watch life go by on Glebe Point Road. Egg and Soldier still has a few rough spots - they need to at least double the speed of the kitchen for example - but it's still a warm, charming, friendly spot.

Glebe Noodle House

2009-10-05T15:25:00.004+11:00

There are two new restaurants on Glebe Point Road that just opened in the past few days. Glebe Noodle House is down at the Broadway end of Glebe Point Road, and serves western Chinese style hand pulled noodles.

I'm a huge fan of hand pulled noodles, and Chinese noodle dishes in general. Hand pulled noodles are thick and chunky wheat noodles that are either fried or put into stews or soups. They're hearty, filling and delicious.

The process of making hand pulled noodles is both time consuming and labor intensive, requiring making dough, cutting it, rolling it into fat cigar shapes, letting it rest, rolling it again into long thumb width snakes, coiling it and letting it rest, pulling it into pencil thick lengths, piling them and letting it rest, and finally making skeins of noodles between your hands and stretching them into their final shape and size then boiling them.

The same dough can be rolled out into thin rounds as wrappers for the ubiquitous dumplings, that are filled with spiced meat, either beef or lamb here, and then boiled or fried. We opted for beef filling (by Hobson's choice - this being the first day they didn't actually have lamb dumplings yet) and asked for them to be fried. As you can tell from the photo the dumplings were cooked just a little too hot, with some of the dumplings getting over brown and the filling a little underdone. I put this down to teething pains, and expect things to improve as they get more experience.

We also had to try the noodles, of course, so we got their "Country Style" noodles, which consist of hand pulled noodles, and a stir fry of lamb, greens, onions, capsicum, and tomato in a savory sauce. Very nice flavors, and of course we loved the noodles.

We sat downstairs near the front in order to watch the open kitchen, but there's a larger seating area upstairs including an open balcony. The kitchen was a lot of fun to watch, with the noodle specialist constantly making noodles, rolling out dumpling skins and assembling dumplings. It was clear from her economy of motion and deftness that she has done this a lot. It was a joy to watch her work.

The kitchen on the other hand is a bit small, and cramped with three people trying to maneuver around. The mise en place needs a little work, with some of the sauces being hand poured from bottle into a ladle rather than just scooped out of ready to hand containers. As a result, timeliness suffered but I'm sure they'll work out these issues. Noodle houses are traditionally inexpensive and filling and this was both - we will be back.

Palace Chinese Restaurant

2009-09-28T13:28:00.003+10:00

Based on recommendations from other local food bloggers, Debbie and I decided to try the Yum Cha (dim sum) at Palace Chinese Restaurant. We arrived just before closing on a weekday so the selection was a bit anemic - but that was our own fault.

We tried a selection of traditional dim sums, including har gao, glutinous rice with pork, custard buns, and BBQ duck. All of them were tasty, the duck in particular was the best prepared of any chinese BBQ duck we've had in the city - they boned it!

From our preview we were favorably impressed with the quality - we'll be back to check out the selection soon. My one concern is that the prices seemed a bit high, even by Sydney standards, but if the quality is good enough it will be worth it.

Hunter Valley

2009-09-27T13:40:00.005+10:00

The Hunter Valley wine region is only about two hours north of Sydney. We'd never been there and various of our friends had been telling us how pretty it was, so last Thursday and Friday we headed up to see what it was like. Debbie and I had recently gotten YHA memberships and booked the tour through them. They provided transportation to and from the Hunter Valley, a half-day wine tour, dinner, and a private
room with bath at the Hunter Valley YHA all for a total of AU$368. We ended up seeing four pretty ordinary wineries and some typical tourist attractions the first day, but an interesting brewpub and some great brick kilns on the second day.

We were told to meet the bus at the corner of Pitt St and Campbell St at 7:15am. We arrived a few minutes late and had a momentary concern that maybe this time they really meant "we will leave at 7:15 sharp" rather than the more traditionally Australian "you show up sometime around 7:15, we'll show up anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour after that." We needn't have worried, the bus didn't arrive for another 45 minutes. Not only that, it was only a shuttle to take us to the Star City Casino where we would meet our actual bus!

Finally everything was ready and we set off. The bus was a Chinese manufactured "midi" bus, quite modern and comfortable. We wound through Sydney morning traffic for a bit then headed north. After crossing the Hawkesbury River we headed inland off the main road through towns with names like Kulnura, Bucketty, and Yallambie before making our first stop of the day in Wollombi. During the gold rush Wollombi was a town of a couple thousand people, but now has a only few hundred people and a certain bucolic charm.

We rendezvoused with our wine tour at the Rosemount/Lindeman's winery. Rosemount is best known for quantity - it's one of the largest selling Australian wine brands in the US. I did not have particularly high expectations, and they were adequately met. I'm not really complaining, we were on a discount wine tour arranged by a youth hostel after all. If I had wanted an oenophile tour of the best Hunter Valley wineries I would not have arranged it through the YHA. We were here to have a fun time and see the Hunter Valley. Still, I couldn't bring myself to get enthusiastic about tasting wine at Rosemount.

Our next stop was Drayton's Family Wines one of the oldest wineries in the Hunter, and still family owned. They go way back in the Hunter, and have a lot of history, not all of it happy. In 2008 an explosion at this winery killed two people including one of the best known of the Drayton family.

Besides the standard Hunter Valley Semillons they make some fortified wines, including some flavored ports, and a botrytis Semillon dessert wine. Debbie, our resident fan of "stickies" picked up a chocolate port, and a botrytis Semillon from them.

Next stop was lunch at Hunter Valley Gardens, a huge touristy development containing the aforementioned gardens, a kitschy shopping area, and a large resort hotel. One of those expensive integrated tourist destinations that resort owners like to build. For our purposes it had three attractions. A place to get lunch (including a 20% discount from tour operator), a fancy chocolate store, and a cafe. I ended up explaining the differences between an espresso machine, a moka pot, and a press pot to a cafe customer when the clerk couldn't, and suggested they should grind their beans a little finer for the espresso. Just call me "helpy helper."

After lunch we visited two smaller wineries. I had been spitting rather than swallowing at our first two stops, hoping to be able to appreciate the wine in the afternoon, and I'm glad I did. The next two wineries were smaller, and the wines a little more interesting. The first winery was Oakvale Wines. It's a fine smaller winery making a pretty standard range of Semillon, Chardonnay, Verdelho, and Shiraz, with a few dessert and fortified wines - some muscat, some sherry and tawny. The woman behind the counter was great fun, making outrageous comments and flirting shamelessly, sadly I didn't really find anything I wanted to take home with me.

After that we made a quick stop at the Smelly Cheese Shop where Debbie and I ducked out of the "tasting" portion of the stop - they were passing around fresh farmer cheeses that had been marinated in various things, and as fans of really smelly cheeses we knew there was no way they'd be passing anything challenging around. We went directly to the counter where I asked about any local washed rind bacterially ripened cheeses and about local blue cheeses, while Debbie asked about local goat cheeses. They had one reasonably nice washed rind, but it wasn't really ripe, and they had a nice chevre style that Debbie picked up. Unfortunately, due to some miscommunication, I later found that I'd ended up with a triple brie instead of the washed rind. I was a little sad.

Next we visited a "boutique" winery called Savannah Estate Wines. A small friendly place, they buy grape lots from growers and produce their own wines from them. They had a somewhat more interesting range, including a 2005 Mudgee Shiraz that I bought to have with dinner, and a more traditionally thick botrytis semillon that Debbie liked. After that we headed to the YHA.

At the YHA we checked in and checked out our room. We had paid $25 extra each in order to get a "twin share, ensuite" which is to say a private room for two with a private bath. It was cozy but nice! The bathroom was nearly microscopic, but it was "en suite" (as opposed to the hostel we stayed at in Darwin, where "en suite" meant "there's no one else on your floor, so you have the bathroom down the hall to yourselves.") I could touch both walls of the shower with my elbows, looking through the drain in the floor of the bathroom I could see the grass under the house, and the sink was barely bigger than my two cupped hands with not even space to set a toothbrush - but it was ours!

We sat out on the deck eating our cheese and crackers, drinking our Mudgee Shiraz, and reading our books while waiting for the dinner that was included. It turned out to be grilled lamb chops, grilled sausages, grilled onions, and a green salad. Quite tasty, all prepared by two Chinese women staying at the hostel. One from Guangzhou, the other from Taiwan. We chatted a bit them and the other folks staying at the hostel about riding motorcycles in Ontario, four wheeling on Frazier Island, selling used Volvos, and how to get visas - typical hostel conversation.

The next morning we got up at the crack of 9am, packed up our stuff and wandered over to a nearby brewpub hoping to get breakfast. Unfortunately breakfast service ended at 10am (!?) and lunch service would not start until noon. I would just have to sit and drink beer for two hours. Poor me.

The brewery is called The Hunter Beer Company and I decided to start out with their six beer sampler. It consists of the Hunter Kolsch, Hunter Witbier, European Style Lager, a Hefe Weizen, a Dunkles, and a ginger beer. Nothing here for an ale drinker, and nothing with very much hop bite. Ah well at least it's fresh! The european style lager had the most body and depth, while the Kolsch, one of their signature beers, was a light pilsner of the style I have come to roundly hate. A beer that tries so hard to not offend anyone that there's nothing in it to like. The ginger beer was quite nice, light with a distinct ginger bite but not overpowering. A good summer beer.

Finally it was noon and we could order lunch! The brewpub is part of a resort that obviously does a lot of corporate business. As such the decor is airy and friendly, the menu is well written, the presentation is beautiful, but the food itself is rather bland and inoffensive. They don't take any risks, and as a result the food has little character and is usually boring.

Debbie ordered a swordfish with mango salsa, and I tried an Australian beef pie with mash and mushy peas. I wanted to compare it to the "Tiger" from Harry's Cafe de Wheels. The swordfish was as you might imagine - which is to say there wasn't anything particularly interesting about it.

The beef pie was better than average, cooked in a cast iron ramekin with a flaky pastry cover, then topped with mashed potatoes, (not too) mushy peas, and brown gravy. We decided to try a couple of the desserts.

Debbie's become a big fan of sticky date pudding, and I'm always willing to try a lemon tart. The sticky date pudding was quite tasty, dark and sticky as advertised.

The lemon tart was unremarkable, a creamy lemon filling in a generic tart shell. I'm glad we visited, I'd eat here again if I were in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't make a special trip.

On the other hand, the reason this place is called "Potter's" is that it used to be a brickworks and commercial pottery kiln, producing (at various times) terracotta roof tiles, garden pots, bricks, and salt glazed sewer pipes. Four of the old kilns are still standing, and are amazing looking structures. You can still see the sheen from where salt has attacked the bricks of the kiln. I could have spent hours looking at them.

Lunch over we wandered back to the YHA, picked up our stuff and got ferried to meet the big bus back at Hunter Valley Gardens. The trip back was unremarkable except for being subjected to two hours of bad '70s pop. We're talking "Captain and Tennille" level bad. I now have "Love Will Keep Us Together" stuck in my head because of our driver's choice of music.

All things considered an enjoyable two days, in a beautiful part of NSW. Lovely weather, friendly people, wine, beer, tasty food.

Crocodile Senior Thai

2009-09-22T20:23:00.004+10:00

If you ride the bus up or down George St in the Sydney CBD, you've almost certainly seen a restaurant with the odd name of "Crocodile Senior Thai" along with its bright orange sign and silly reclining yellow crocodile. It would never have occurred to us to try it, except that a number of the local food blogs recommended it very highly. So we tried it.

At least one blog warned that the menu was in thai, and we were worried we'd be reduced to pointing and pantomime, but in fact there is plenty of english on the menu. Crocodile Senior Thai specializes in "Issan" cuisine - Thai food from the northern provinces along the Mekong River near the border with Laos. Issan food is sufficiently different from the rest of Thai food that it's considered a distinct cuisine.

Debbie ordered "Kuy Jub" which is sometimes spelled "Kuay Jub" and is basically a pig intestine soup with broad rice noodles. This one had the traditional jellied pig blood, pig intestine, spare ribs, and fried tofu, but also a boiled egg. The soup was dark and slightly sweet, and the entire dish was wonderful. I was a little concerned about the jellied blood, but it turned out to be delicious with a firm texture and a mild savory flavor.

Being a som tum fan, I ordered som tum. This iconic Thai dish is actually Issan in origin, and is possibly the most popular dish in the north. I got Som Tum Thai Pu (also spelled Som Tam Thai Bpoo) which is green papaya salad with dried shrimp and salty crab (bpoo). The salad was fine, and the flavor of the shrimp and crab was a nice salty savory contrast to the tartness of the rest of the salad, but the chewiness of the crab shells was hard for me.

Anyway, we were very happy with this funny named restaurant!

Under Ice

2009-09-12T22:03:00.006+10:00

Debbie and I went to see "Under Ice" at the Griffin Theater tonight. What a pretentious piece of self-indugent sophmoric crap. The good news is that it was the last night so you don't have to worry about seeing it. The bad news goes on and on.

First, let me say that the acting was great. Technically brilliant, the play is practically 90 minutes of long monologue after long monologue, intercut with intricately choreographed rapid fire dialog. I would say that it was a triumph of form over substance, except that there wasn't enough substance to triumph over.

The point of the play is that corporate culture is shallow and meaningless, values youth and energy over age and experience, and will suck your soul and throw you aside. The points are made with all the subtlety of schoolyard sarcasm, and repeated ad infinitum and ad nauseum. In case we didn't get the point by having a forty something office guy contrasted with two twenty something go getters, we are later treated to a grade schooler dressed up in a business suit who joins their team. Oh yes, we also get sports analogies and a heavy handed example of how business will use anything - including "art" - as grist for the corporate mill.

I think the only reason I didn't walk out 15 minutes into an excruciating and seemingly interminable 90 minute show was that I'd have had to walk across the stage in the middle of the performance in order to escape.

This play comes across as someone who wants to show off their mastery of technique but has only high school level playwriting skills with which to demonstrate them. The Griffin's 2009 logo is "2009" traced out in pyrotechnic sparkler, and this play was ultimately about as flashy and satisfying as free fireworks. I've been somewhat disappointed with the rest of this season's offerings from the Griffin, but this was by far the worst of the lot.

Shanghai Tang

2009-06-12T21:22:00.005+10:00

As part of my never ending quest for the perfect Xiao Long Bao (Shanghai style "soup dumplings"), tonight we visited Shanghai Tang at 653 George St. We had heard about it from a few friends, and when it got reviewed in TimeOut we decided we better not wait any longer.

It's a small place, at the intersection of Campbell and George up a small flight of stairs. There are black wood tables spread around a somewhat disorganized space, but it feels light and airy and clean. We sat down and quickly looked over the menus, excited by the prospect of good, inexpensive, authentic shanghai style food. We settled on some old favorites in order to judge the place. We got Xiao long bao, of course, and some dan dan mein (tan tan mian) with hot tea. Given that this is a place that bills itself as shanghai style, and that it's in Chinatown, we had high hopes.

The dan dan mein arrived first, and while Shanghai Tang apparently offers hand pulled noodles, these were not. It also seemed more like a soup than I was expecting, but it had some nicely unidentifiable bits of brown meat on top, and lots of sesame, bean sprouts, and scallions. Just as we were considering starting on this however, the xiao long bao arrived and we decided to try them first.

The reigning champion for xiao long bao in Sydney is the venerable Din Tai Fung, a well known Taiwanese chain. They make good xiao long bao, consistently serving hundreds of them a day. But Din Tai Fung is often very crowded, especially at dinner time, and we were hoping for something with great xiao long bao and no wait.

Auspiciously these looked plump and juicy and were served piping hot. The traditional fresh ginger accompaniment was provided, although the amount of ginger was somewhat ... parsimonious. We added black vinegar and tried them out. They were great! Succulent and flavorful, rich meaty broth, tender pork, skins that were thin yet elastic. At last another source for great Xiao Long Bao. We quickly ate all eight.

That settled we moved on to the dan dan mein. Strictly speaking this is a Sichuan dish, not really Shanghainese, but Shanghai Tang also bills itself as a noodle place, and dan dan mein is universal street food. This was good, nicely spicy with flavorful beef and pork (purists would insist on pork only) there were some odd additions - mung bean sprouts and coriander leaves - though I thought they were tasty. I did notice some preserved vegetables but not as much as I would like, and this was a version with sesame paste (again, purists would cavil.) It was a tasty dish, and certainly spicier and more "interesting" flavors than you'd find in a typical westernized chinese place. Another winner, though not as spectacular as the xiao long bao.

Finally we tried something new. Shanghai Tang has two "dessert" xiao long bao on the menu. One filled with sweetened black sesame paste, the other billed as "egg and milk." We decided to try the black sesame and were delighted with the result. Piping hot, sweet nutty liquid inside a thin elastic skin. Perfect with the tea.

We visited again yesterday and tried a few more things, the Crab Meat Xiao Long bao, braised pork spare ribs in sweet and sour sauce, drunken pig knuckle, scallion cakes, and the other "dessert" xiao long bao called "milk and egg."

We started with the braised pork spare ribs in sweet and sour sauce. I found it disappointing. The meat was dry, chewy, and almost flavorless while the sauce was thin and two dimensional, mostly sweet and a little sour but none of the richness or depth I had hoped for.

Next we had the "Shanghai Xiao Long Bao with Crab Meat" - the specialty of the house. We'd seen other diners ordering it the last time we'd gone, and while we were there this time another two tables ordered it as well. So It's obviously popular, and now I know why. The filling is still mostly pork, but the meat and broth are flavored with crab meat. I suspect it's local mud crab which, despite the name, are quite delicious. Again the skins were nice and thin but still elastic. Not too thick and neither gummy or soggy.

We were still hungry and didn't think that dessert was going to be enough, so we ordered a couple of other dishes we had wanted to try. I had seen them preparing the scallion cakes on the previous visit, and wanted good scallion cakes to erase the memory of the ones we'd had at Shanghai Night in Ashfield. I also wanted to try the drunken pig knuckle since it was pork and held out the promise of being a little challenging.

The scallion cakes were everything I could have hoped for. Crispy, flaky rounds not too oily and with enough scallion flavor to earn the name. Exactly what we wanted. The drunken pig knuckles were also excellent, but in a different way. Cooked in rice wine and served cold, they had lovely textures. Silken smooth gelatinous skin, slightly crunchy, firm and chewy cartilage all with lovely meaty pork flavors. A nice contrast with all the hot liquidy smooth textures of the other foods.

Finally we had the "milk and egg xiao long bao." It was indeed sweet, milky, and eggy with strands of coconut as well. Hot sweet milky custard fills your mouth as you bite into them, then you have sweet coconut with supple dumpling skin after. Nicely satisfying and just what we expected, but personally I liked the black sesame more.

The first time the total came to $30 for the two of us, the second time was $40 both of which are quite reasonable. They are licensed for alcohol though we only had tea or milk. We will be back, there are a lot more things on the menu we want to try. I, for one, will be ordering the xiao long bao every time I visit.

Shanghai Tang

653 George St

Sydney, NSW

02 9281 0088

Moroccan lamb

2009-06-01T23:10:00.002+10:00

Tonight I needed to figure out what to do with two lamb backstraps. Poor me. So I marinated them with some cumin seed, coarsely chopped garlic, cracked black pepper, grated onion, chopped coriander leaf (cilantro), chopped parsely, some diced preserved lemons and a bit of olive oil.

Grilled them still in the marindade under a hot broiler and served them over lemon parmesan risone. Yum!

Quick Breakfast

2009-05-24T10:08:00.003+10:00

A slight departure from my normal photos and restaurants. This morning had a lovely breakfast of steamed brown rice with an egg cracked over it. So far, so mundane. What made it special is that I was inspired to make a little sauce of chili garlic sauce mixed with kaya and sesame oil. Kaya is a Malaysian coconut "jam" that's basically sugar and coconut milk cooked down till it make a thick paste. Think "coconut dulce de leche" if it helps.

Anyway, spicy, garlicky, sweet, coconutty and just a bit of aromatic sesame. Yum!

Shanghai Night

2009-05-04T11:13:00.005+10:00

Debbie had been trying to get us to Shanghai Night restaurant in Ashfield for a while. Saturday night we were out running around in the city with our friend Patti and around dinner time were looking for a place to eat, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

I'm on a quest to find the best Xiao Long Bao (aka Shanghai Soup Dumplings) in Sydney. We've tried a few places already, including Din Tai Fung and Golden Century, but I'm always on the lookout for new ones to try. Since Shanghai Night is billed as both Shanghai cuisine and snack food and it was highly recommended it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

We decided that with three of us a cab would be cost effective, so off we went. Ashfield is a new part of town for us, and the ride down Paramatta Road was fun. Eventually we were driving through an area full of Chinese restaurants and soon enough arrived. From the outside the place is completely unremarkable, plain and not particularly inviting. Inside though - it's the same. Plain Formica tables, generic chairs, no particular ornamentation or decoration, completely unremarkable except for the fact that it was packed.

We had heard that the scallion pancakes were good, so we ordered those, Xiao Long Bao, some fried garlic, chive, pork dumplings, and a mixed seafood noodle dish. The food arrived quickly each dish as it was ready, first the noodles, then the Xiao Long Bao, the fried dumplings, and finally the scallion pancake.

The mixed seafood noodles were good if not really remarkable. A few prawns, a few scallops, some nice tender bits of fish, some fish cake, baby corn, and fried wide rice noodles. The year we spent in Bangalore, Debbie tried repeatedly to get fried wide rice noodles in Chinese restaurants to no avail, but here? No problem, she was happy. I thought the dish was slightly bland, so I jazzed it up a little with light soy and tiny bit of black vinegar. Later I asked for chili paste which really improved it.

The Xiao Long Bao were a bit of a disappointment. The skins were a little thick, and most of the dumplings the soup had leaked out. The ones that did still have soup were good, nice savory soup and tender pork. Despite not being perfect they still disappeared quickly. The fried garlic, chive, pork dumplings were exactly what I expected. Very garlicky, nice crunchy texture, rich pork filling - what's not to like?

The scallion pancakes on the other hand were a surprise. Perhaps it's the difference between Shanghai style and Cantonese style, but instead of being thin and flaky it was thicker and chewier. It felt more like a fried flattened bread dough, which is fine - we love fried dough - but it was different from what I had imagined.

Finally we ordered a couple of desserts, a red bean paste pancake and a sesame crusted fried glutinous rice. I'm not usually a fan of red bean paste desserts, but this one was tasty, and the glutinous rice with sesame was fun, lots of nice toasty crisp sesame flavors around a sweet chewy sticky rice center.

The price was right too, around $30 for all of us for dinner. If we lived in the neighborhood I'm sure we'd visit regularly, but it didn't impress us so much that we'll be making an effort to go to Ashfield just for the opportunity to eat here.

Shanghai Night

275 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield NSW 2131
Phone (02) 9798 8437

Oscillate Wildly

2009-05-01T09:32:00.005+10:00

Oscillate Wildly is a "trendy" restaurant in Newtown with a reputation for good imaginative food. We've been wanting to try it for a while, but it can be difficult to get bookings. We had heard that they had changed chefs so were curious to see if they were still as great as we had heard. Last Tuesday we had a friend in town and it turned out they had an opening that evening! So off we went.

There is one fixed menu for the evening at AU$95 per person. They're fully licensed now, but thinking they were still BYO we took a nice Rippon Pinot. We were seated at the back of the dining room, near the kitchen. I joked that we had gotten "the chef's table" but was actually pleased as it gave me a chance to watch the kitchen. It's a smallish place, looks like it seats around 20 and they do one seating per night. It's pretty dark, so taking photos was a challenge.

They brought a nice warm crusty malty bread to the table, opened the wine and explained the menu to us. The first dish was an unusual nut based dish, consisting of walnuts, new crop chestnut puree, honey, and a sugar glass. The textures of the walnuts and chestnuts contrasted nicely, I

think the walnuts may have been blanched to reduce their brittleness, and the sweet honey balanced the savory chestnuts nicely. A promising start.

Next was a tuna sashimi with lightly vinegared cucumber, a wasabi cream garnished with pomelo. Obviously intending to evoke a Japanese sashimi course, the classic combination of flavors worked well and the pomelo added a nice brightness. Tasty and comforting if not sparklingly innovative. The baby shiso leaf on top added a nice color contrast and continued the classic sashimi theme.

Next up were potato gnocchi, with toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) dressed with a coffee foam and espresso grains. The gnocchi were nicely executed, soft with delicate potato flavors, the pepitas were excellent. I love toasted pumpkin and these were crispy with good roast flavors, an excellent texture and flavor contrast to the gnocchi. The coffee foam and espresso grains were an interesting idea, but I think the flavors were too close to the pepitas flavors to really work.

This was followed by a fish dish of whiting on a bed of sweetcorn puree, and squid ink pasta with a light citrus foam. The whiting was beautiful, delicate and tender, the rich squid ink pasta and toasty corn flavors all worked well together. This was one of my favorite dishes of the evening. It's easy to over work whiting, but here it was left alone to great effect.

Next was a poultry course, a sous-vide chicken breast over puffed grains and celeriac. Another winner, with the sous-vide preparation resulting in a soft tender chicken contrasting nicely with the crispy crunchy grains, which included a puffed wild rice that I thought worked particularly well. Too many places use sous-vide for it's own sake, not putting a lot of thought into how to integrate it into a dish or a meal. I thought this combination worked. Technically the attention to detail was gratifying with the skin wrapped around the rolled breast, browned, and garnished with crunchy salt.

The next dish, venison with chocolate mille-feuille and beetroot, was also prepared sous-vide, but I was not as impressed. I found my venison to be slightly tough with a few strings still in it, which is a serious defect in a sous-vide. At least part of the point to sous-vide is to create something silken soft and smooth, fully cooked but without overheating or damaging subtle flavors. I was also slightly unhappy with the mille-feuille in that it tasted like it might have been sitting out for a little longer than was good for it. Never the less, the flavors worked well together and the crispiness of the mille-feille provided a nice foil for the softness of the venison. This dish was all about deep earthy flavors, and the beetroot rounded that out while providing a nice sweeter note.

This was followed by a lighter palate cleansing fruit course of watermelon, coconut jelly, and candied palm seed. This was a visually stunning presentation with layers of watermelon sitting on a bed of clear coconut jelly, topped with a nugget of candied palm seed, all presented in a crystal clear double walled glass. The flavors were light and refreshing, and recalled Indian or Indonesian desserts. The rich fresh coconut, nutty palm, and fresh fruity melon flavors worked well together, as did the textures of silky coconut, slightly chewy palm, and crisp melon. I ate every morsel.

The more traditional dessert course followed. We had chocolate ganache over poached pear, garnished with chocolate crisps and topped with a celery sorbet. Yes, celery sorbet. I liked it, it reminded me a little bit of that classic New York drink, Dr Brown's Cel-Ray Tonic, though I'm not sure I agree with pairing it with chocolate and pear. The chocolate and pear combination however was strong enough to carry the dish, especially as the chocolate was excellent, including chocolate nibs in the ganache. The inclusion of basil seeds provided a nice visual contrast, and the basil flavors did work well with the celery. An interesting dish and tasty though perhaps too clever for its own good.

Finally we had petits-fours. I'm always interested to see what restaurants do with their petits-fours, they often save their best wit and humor for last. Oscillate Wildly was no exception. The petits fours consisted of three floral lollipops, and three cubes of blood orange jelly, similar to lokum, topped with effervescent hard candy. The lollipops were very fragrant and delicate, which is tricky to do with hard candy, but the effervescent hard candy made me laugh out loud. It was similar to "pop rocks" but with smaller more "fizzy" bubbles. Much fun.

Overall we had a very enjoyable evening, the food was fun, interesting, and well prepared. However I think they were trying too hard to be clever. The dishes were clever, and showed off some impressive mastery of technique, but ultimately I didn't get a feeling of passion for the food or for what they were doing, and it ended up feeling a bit hollow. So - fun to try once, but I don't think we'll be regulars.

Oscillate Wildly
275 Australia St
Newtown NSW 2042
Phone (02) 9517 4700

Azuma

2009-04-13T18:21:00.004+10:00

I've been looking for good Japanese food in Sydney for a while. Friends of ours had recommended Sakana-Ya in Crows Nest, and indeed it was good, and of course there's the excellent Tetsuya's Restaurant, but Tetsuya's isn't exactly what I would consider a traditional Japanese restaurant.

We had heard that Tetsuya had a restaurant he liked to relax at, Azuma Restaurant by Kimitaka Azuma. When Azuma opened a new kushiyaki restaurant near Town Hall, that provided the impetus we needed to try them out. We first visited the new place, Kushiyaki Azuma located on the ground floor of Regent Place Shopping at 501 George Street in Sydney.

Kushiyaki or "skewer grilled" food, is often called yakitori or "grilled chicken" after one of the most popular kinds of kushiyaki. Kushiyaki Azuma serves a selection of kushiyaki, but in addition they serve otsumami, a "snack" or "tidbit" - small dishes traditionally served with alcohol.

We ordered a few traditional kushiyaki, one of my favorites - beef tongue, some otsumami including squid shiokara which is squid in salty fermented squid innards, some abalone braised in sake, and a sake sampler.

Kushiyaki Azuma has a nice sake list, with some daiginjo and ginjo by the glass as well as a larger selection by the bottle. We tried a flight of four - Toyo Bijin, Suishin, Raku, and Garyubai. I've had the suishin before and find it a fine slightly light bodied sake. The Garyubai was billed as being aromatic and pungent, I had hoped for something reminiscent of Kakunko but the Garyubai is a slightly more balanced Shizuoka style sake. Very satisfying, we ordered a carafe of it after the sake flight.

The kushiyaki were all excellent, my only complaint would be that they don't have a wider selection! I want more dammit! The abalone was beautifully prepared, soft as butter but with all the delicious abalone flavors, served back in an abalone shell. Highly recommended, we've been back already and will be back again.

Azuma's flagship restaurant, is on level 1 in Chifley Plaza - 2 Chifley Square at the corner of Phillip and Hunter Streets in the heart of the CBD. It's a lot fancier, more expensive, and harder to get in to (bookings recommended) so our expectations were correspondingly higher.

We talked a bit about the menu and what we should do. On the one hand there were a lot of interesting dishes, and we had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for. On the other hand, in a restaurant where we've established a relationship with the chef, we almost always order omakase or "we trust you" style - which is to say we let the chef decide. In a new restaurant that's tricky - you have no idea what their style is, and they have no idea what your preferences are. However, Azuma had a pre-set omakase that they also called a "degustation" and we decided to try that.

The amuse-bouche was raw oyster and ikura or salmon roe in ponzu, and three different flavor "sheets" with a dipping sauce. The oyster was excellent, briny and set off nicely by the ikura. I didn't realize at first that the sheets were intended to be dipped, and instead ate them by themselves. They reminded me a little of shojin-ryori or Buddhist vegetarian temple style cooking, each of the three sheets seeming to be an agar base with a subtle flavoring in it.

Next was a grilled fish served with a goma-ae "sesame dressing" side of what I believe was broccoli rabe. The fish was tender and moist and well prepared, but the fried accompaniment had been let to sit too long in my opinion. The goma-ae on the other hand was excellent. Tasty dressing, and the use of broccoli rabe was a nice touch instead of the more traditional blanched spinach.

The sashimi was a straightforward tuna and salmon combination. It was fine sashimi but pretty pedestrian. I had hoped for something a little more interesting or creative. Next up was "Azuma's Unique Sushi" which were nigiri composed of seared or tataki style fish. Good, but from the build up I had expected something more unusual.

Next was chawan-mushi or "tea bowl steamed" egg. This is a traditional dish of a steamed savoury egg custard usually with seafood and a ginko nut. Azuma's was made with with Prawn, Scallop and Shiitake mushroom, and the scallop was particularly excellent. Tender and sweet not tough at all -all it would have taken was leaving the dish to sit a few seconds too long - very satisfying.

After that came an assortment of tempura. Tempura is one of those iconic japanese dishes that every restaurant is expected to do. Bad restaurants make a heavy or greasy tempura, while a great restaurant will serve tempura that is as light as a cloud, delicate and crispy. I'm sorry to say that Azuma's tempura while entirely adequate did not rise above the ordinary.

I had some reservations when I saw that the degustation included a wagyu steak course. I don't know if it was because I was getting tired of wagyu this and wagyu that every where we went (our corner pub serves a wagyu burger for example) or if I thought a heavy beef course was inappropriate for a fancy japanese restaurant, but I was concerned. I have to say that while the course wasn't as heavy or overpowering as I had feared, neither did it allay any of my concerns. It was a fine piece of good beef, and seared nicely, but I would have prefered a grilled fish.

Next was a tuna tataki served with daikon and ponzu. This was a traditional "half-cooked" seared fish, though served with daikon instead of pounded ginger. Comforting, tasty, but again somewhat pedestrian for such a fancy place. The last savory course was a tanuki udon thick wheat noodles in a shoyu based soup garnished with fried tempura bits, green onion, and seaweed with a shaker of togarashi on the side. Another warm comforting homey dish.

The desserts on the other hand were quite innovative a small cup custard, a cube of chocolate cake drizzled with a sauce, and a fruit sorbet. I find Japanese desserts in general to be unappealing, not being a big fan of an (sweet bean paste) or glutinous rice. Azuma instead uses more western desserts - a welcome decision.

My conclusion was that ordering the degustation was probably our mistake. I've had a similar problem in other fancy Japanese restaurants, where the pre-set omakase is uninspired and designed to appeal to non-Japanese who want a chance to sample everything the restaurant has to offer. The omakase ends up being made by rote, with very little creativity since the restaurant turns out dozens of them in an evening, all of them exactly the same.

I think I'd like to come back at least twice more. Once to sit at the sushi bar, where we can interact with the chef and discuss what they have on offer, what we've tried in the past and liked, and to start to develop a rapport with the kitchen. Then come back and either order a la carte, or arrange a personalized omakase in advance.

So we were disappointed, but we're willing to try again.

Love Supreme Pizza

2009-04-10T19:45:00.000+10:00

180a Oxford St

Paddington 2021 NSW

Phone: (02) 9331 1779

We were in the neighborhood after seeing a movie at the Academy theater. Debbie had been wanting to try this place for a while, but wanted to go there with me so it was the perfect opportunity.

When we walked in it was pretty empty, we looked over the menu which seemed to have some pretty interesting and tasty pizzas. In fact we quickly came to the conclusion that we thought we'd enjoy pretty much any of them - a rarity for us. Given that, the "Surprise" pizza appealed to us. When you order it, what you get is "chef's choice." The server asked if we had any preferences, likes or dislikes, and I replied "No boring pizza. Make it as weird please."

The pizza above is the result. It was very tasty, but not really all that weird. Tomato base, pesto, bocconcini, prosciutto, olives and arugula. Nice crispy thin crust, it was gone in no time at all. Would happily eat here any time I was in the neighborhood. BYO.

Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay

2008-07-15T12:20:00.000+10:00

We've started to explore the nicer (called "flash" here) restaurants in Sydney. Previously we'd been to Tetsuya's, Bird Cow Fish, Danks Street Depot, and Atelier. This time we decided to visit The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay.

This is supposed to be one of Sydney's best seafood restaurants, so we concentrated on ... seafood! We started in the bar while we waited for our table with half a dozen local oysters and a split of Bollinger. The Pacific oysters were quite tasty, but the local bay surface oyster was huge and strong. Not a bad thing, but you have to love oysters to like them (which we do, and did.)

We were then shown to our table, harbor side with a great view of the Anzac bridge. We had a roasted beet, cress and goat cheese salad while Debbie had a NZ bluefish and I had local Spanish Mackerel. My Mackerel was very nicely done, moist (possibly poached) then finshed over high heat to crisp it (possibly with a torch?) Debbie's was probably just poached and not as spectactular.

The dinner was great and the view is superb, but the prices are comparable to some of the best restaurants in the world and the food is good but not in that league. We probably won't go back for dinner unless there's some special reason to go there. On the other hand, we may well go back just for the oysters.

Saigon Saigon

2008-07-15T12:09:00.000+10:00

We've been trying out the restaurants near us, mostly on Glebe Point Road. Most recently it was "Saigon Saigon" a Vietnamese (no really) restaurant. It's slightly upscale, we started with the crispy pancake appetizer that was quite deliciously crispy and filled with bean sprouts, chicken, and other sauteed vegetables. On the side was a nice big pile of lettuce leaves, fresh mint, fresh cilantro, julienned carrots and sliced hot chili peppers to stuff it with. The contrasts of hot and cool, crispy and soft, sweet, tart, and spicy reminded me why I love good vietnamese food.

The second dish was a spicy beef salad, with nicely cooked shreds of lean beef on a bed of butter lettuce and piled with mint, cilantro, and more julienned vegetables. The description may sound similar to the pancake, but that's only because the condiments are similar. The dishes themselves are quite distinct, one being a hot crispy eggy crepe, the other a cold spicy shredded beef.

Finally we had a special salt and pepper soft shell crab. The crab was deep fried in a delicately flavored batter fragrant with pepper and nicely salty, sauteed with chilis and garlic, and served with the requisite garnishes. The crab itself was sweet and flavorful, though the oil was maybe just a little too hot - the crab was not overcooked but the batter was slightly overbrowned.

Accompanied by two traditional soda lemonades with mint, though you can BYO.

Din Tai Fung

2008-07-15T12:05:00.001+10:00

There's a branch of the noodle/dumpling chain "Din Tai Fung" here in Sydney. Debbie and I went, and were very pleased. We had Dan Dan Mein, Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumplings (Jiao Tze), and shanghai soup dumplings (Xiao Long Bao). All of the dishes were excellent, though I prefer my Dan Dan Mein a little spicier, and my Xiao Long Bao a little soupier. Nevertheless we'll be back!

Craft Bar

2008-03-23T12:20:00.000+11:00

We left Bangalore, visited Singapore, Darwin, Sydney, Mountain View, and finally New York. We landed on March 10th and started our culinary tour at Craft Bar.

Started with a Llopart “Leopardi” Brut Rose Cava.

Had a few small plates.

Duck prosciutto with arugula, soft cooked egg and a little orange zest. Nice combination, reminiscent of a nice salad frisee in some ways.

Fried Polenta, was like hushpuppies, the sauce was sweet and sour vinegar based with sultanas. Quite tasty.

Beef tongue in gelee, flavor of thyme and whole mustard seeds. Huckleberries on the side.

Fondue of pecorino, spicy toasted hazelnuts with honey. Melty cheese!

Sweetbreads breaded in panko crumbs and deep fried. Tender and juicy, nicely done. Crispy little sweetbread nuggets.

Just Oriental

2008-01-03T16:22:00.000+11:00

The owners of T'Chi (previously reviewed) have closed that location and opened a new place on Brigade Road - called "Just Oriental." Last night Gautam, Madhu, and I checked it out.

It's a relatively small place, up on the first floor of the big mall near Residency Road (I think of it as "the Coffee World mall" but I'm sure that's not really its name.) The decor is quite nice, lots of plain wood, simple tables, with a decorative screen covering the windows that overlook Brigade Road. It felt elegant and restful.

I arrived early, and ordered a bottle of wine while I waited. The wine selection is nothing special, but the Grovers Viognier was pleasantly crisp and dry. We started with steamed dumplings which were reminiscent of shiu-mai, open on top and filled with spiced minced meat and vegetables. It was served with a custom made chili sauce that complemented it nicely. They were served VERY HOT which was good, but caused us a small round of "ow! That's hot!" and reaching for water glasses.

We asked the chef to just serve whatever was good, preferably Chinese style. He graciously agreed, and proceeded to bring us braised pork spare-ribs in a savory five spice sauce, glazed deep fried prawns with orange peel, ginger, and peppers, seared shredded beef in a Taiwanese sauce, Buddha's delight, braised pork belly, and Singaporean style noodles.

The braised ribs were tender and tasty, but as Gautam put it "this was a very small pig." Nevertheless I found it satisfying as a starter. The brown sauce had a lot of star anise in it and the dish was nicely complemented with fresh bean sprouts and slivered green onion. I find many braised spare rib dishes to be overly sweet, but this was not sweet at all - a welcome change.

The prawns on the other hand, were covered in a crunchy sweet glaze over batter fried prawns. The batter was a little thick, disguising the otherwise tasty prawns. The sauce included fresh orange peel, dried red chilis, and fresh ginger nice clean citrus flavors to complement the sweetness and bring out the prawn flavor. I'm sure this will be a crowd pleaser, though as I said I'm not really a fan of super sweet dishes (though I certainly ate all of mine!)

The shredded beef was tasty, with a shrimp scented Taiwanese sauce. The beef was unremarkable, which is remarkable in itself. Often beef here is tough, stringy, and overcooked. This was not. It was fairly tender, without gristle, and not dried out.) The sauce was interesting. I first misidentified the flavor as oyster sauce, and I'm a fan of beef in oyster sauce.

Buddha's Delight is a vegetarian staple, and easy to get wrong. It has a number of different vegetables, and fried tofu, in a slightly thickened sauce. If not prepared correctly the vegetables get limp and the flavors muddy. This one was done reasonably well, with fresh cabbage that was not overcooked, and a good balance of ingredients. I might have liked the flavors to be a bit brighter and stand out from each other more, but on the whole it was a fine dish.

The Singaporean style noodles were a mixture of fried thin wheat noodles, and rice vermicelli. It was unremarkable either pro or con, though I found it the tiniest bit oily.

The braised pork belly was good, and I'm happy to find pork belly anywhere in Bangalore! The sauce was properly gelatinous and the spicing let the flavor of the pork show through without drowning it out in chilis, sugar or soy. If there was one thing to improve about this dish, the meat was a bit dry. Cooking it longer over lower heat would cure that, but it was quite enjoyable just the way it was.

Three people, bottle of wine Rs 3000. About Rs 600 per person without wine. I'd go back.

A Milestone (of sorts)

2007-12-31T15:27:00.000+11:00

Since moving here I wondered if I'd always stick out like an obvious foreigner, or if eventually at least some of the time people would treat me like a "local." There have been a few small instances, but yesterday something happened that made me feel like I'd truly arrived.

I got shooed away from a store by someone! It was one of the myriad of curio/handicraft/rug stores that are constantly inviting tourists to "come look." They are filled with carved wooden Ganeshas, tacky souvenirs, and overpriced rugs. Anyway, I was sitting on a railing in front of the store waiting for Debbie wearing a cheap cotton FabIndia kurta. After I'd been idling there for a while, a guy came out of the store and made the "tshh tshh" noise you make to get someone to move out of your way, and made shooing motions with his hands. I was being shooed away from his store!

I was shocked, I'm used to having to tell them that no, I'm not interested in looking at his rugs, or buying a nice pashmina, or a chess set even at a "very good price." So it was very amusing. I had arrived - I wasn't seen as a rich tourist to be cozened, but rather a local nuisance to be shooed away. At least for those few moments I was a local.

In another small milestone, we went to Chitra Santhe, the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat's annual art show/sale on Kumara Krupa Road. The entire road is closed to traffic and lined on both sides with artists showing and selling their art. (Most of the art was, as another attendee put it, "not breaking any boundaries" but we picked up a Madhubani Nagini that I'm quite happy with.) We took an auto to get there and our auto driver had no idea where it was. He got lost and we had to direct him but we finally made it. While paying for the ride, a woman came up and asked him if he knew where the Chitra Santhe was, on Kumara Krupa road. I laughed. "He has no idea where it is, but that's where we're going - it's just down at the end of this road," I said pointing down a nearby side street. She thanked me and got back in her car. So not only had we told the auto driver how to get where we wanted to go (not that unusual) we had also given a local directions! A small triumph, but it made us happy.

Dinner

2007-11-26T19:20:00.000+11:00

Ok, I've decided to stop whining, shut up, and cook. Here's the dinner menu from night before last, we had our friends Anita and her sister Ranjita over for dinner. Ranjita's about to leave for a chef's job in the UK, so we wanted to have a nice dinner before they left. Here's the menu:

Spicy thai chicken [Ranjita]
Crostini with goat cheese [Debbie]

Cold seasonal vegetable salad [Anita]
Sauteed haricots with caramelized garlic [Charles]
Polenta and mascarpone [Debbie/Charles]

Prawns poached in lime and garlic buerre monte served with roasted pineapple green chili salsa fresco [Charles]

Fresh strawberries in chantilly cream [Debbie/Charles]

L'Origan Cava
Indage Sauvignon Blanc

Bread, Goat Cheese, Mascarpone from Herbs-n-Spice, Indiranagar
Pineapple, Fresh Green Beans, Garlic, Prawns, Strawberries, Limes from Russell Market
Fresh Cream, Butter from Nilgiri's Brigade Road
Fresh green chilis, onions from the vegetable guy a half block from my house

Bangalore Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T19:41:00.000+11:00

This will be our first Thanksgiving in Bangalore. Mostly we're enjoying not have to deal with the consumer nightmare that you get in the USA from Thanksgiving to Christmas, but I do have some nostalgia for traditional Thanksgiving dinner. So imagine my excitement when I saw the following menu for Thanksgiving lunch at work (edited slightly for formatting and grammar):

Thanksgiving lunch from Erica's kitchen.

There will be:

Waldorf salad
Exotic salad
Leek & Mushroom soup
Cream of chicken soup
Bread Basket

The Highlights:

Stuffed Turkey
Mashed potato
Zucchini
Broccoli
Green beans with puff pastry
Cold cut platter

And to top it all

Fruit pies
Vanilla Ice cream

Our staff worked hard to put together as close to a traditional American Thanksgiving menu as possible, and I think they did the best they could to communicate that to the caterer. I think the problems are that 1) the caterer has no one who's ever experienced an actual Thanksgiving dinner, 2) they couldn't get a lot of the things that go into a traditional Thanksgiving dinner (like cranberries) and 3) there were the inevitable transcription errors.

I think I understand better why my Indian friends complain so much about the Indian food in Charlie's Cafe at Google. They say the names sound familiar, but the food bears no resemblance to the dishes with those names. This was like that. What was it actually like?

From the top:

Waldorf salad
This was chunks of apple swimming in runny mayo with a few bits of walnut thrown in. No raisins, no celery.

Exotic salad
Now I don't know about your family, but my family never had "exotic salad" for Thanksgiving. This was just shredded purple and green cabbage, carrots, and some lettuce leaves with no dressing. I guess if undressing a dancer makes them an exotic dancer, not dressing a salad makes it an exotic salad?

Leek & Mushroom soup
Cream of chicken soup
These weren't so scary, but they looked like standard steam-table catering cream soups.

Bread Basket
Some bread sticks and a bunch of soft white rolls, torn in half. It was in a basket.

The Highlights:

Stuffed Turkey
It was turkey, and it was stuffed, but it was like no stuffed turkey I've ever had before. As best I can tell they mostly boned a whole turkey, wrapped it around some kind of chicken forcemeat, then roasted it maybe over wood? It had an interesting smokey flavor, but the dense salty forcemeat dominated, and in order to cook it through, the outer layers were inedibly dry. A shame, because it looks like it once was a nice bird. In addition, the server was just hacking off big chunks, not slicing it. Carving a whole roast turkey is a learnable skill, carving a boneless turkey is something anyone can do, this was a farce. So to speak.

Mashed potato
These were actually croquettes, and spiced with masala. How hard is it to just make plain mashed potatoes?

Zucchini
Broccoli
Green beans with puff pastry
I came a little late, and never saw any of these.

Cold cut platte
"Cold cuts" in Bangalore are usually some kind of shaped and formed chicken forcemeat, or sliced pressed chicken. It's dense, bland, over salty, and thoroughly unappetizing. When we were moving here we thought that it might be hard to find beef, but pork should be widely available. Wrong.

And to top it all

Fruit pies
These "fruit pies" were actually little tarts, with bland flavorless fruit (I think it was apple), no binder (no custard, no whipped cream, not even a cornstarch glaze, just pieces of fruit) and soggy crust.

Vanilla Ice cream
A five gallon box of commercial ice cream, left out on the table with a spoon stuck into it. By the time I got there it was a puddle in the bottom of the box.

A laudable sentiment, a fine sounding plan, appalling execution.

San Francisco

2007-10-23T16:51:00.000+10:00

We arrived in San Francisco later than expected due to airline delays, but got met at the airport by Sarah, and immediately whisked to the B&B we were staying at. This is the second time I've stayed at "The Parsonage" at Haight and Laguna, and it continues to delight. We had the garden room, which is tucked under the stairs and has a private entrance and a sofa bed - both very convenient for us and our friends.

After freshening up we caught a cab to Quince - one of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco, and in my opinion the best pasta in the Bay Area. I see that the latest Michelin guide has awarded it one star, so it's likely to be even harder to get in from now on. Ah well. It was too dark to take photos without a flash, and too nice to disturb everyone else so there are no photos. Rather than the tasting menu, since there were three of us we each ordered three courses from the menu and shared. I ordered a couple of half bottles of wine, and life was good.

The next morning I had an 8am meeting for work, but arranged to meet Debbie and Sarah for breakfast at Tartine Bakery. Our hope being that early morning during the week might be less crazed than the weekend madhouse. It was less crazed, but there was still a sizeable line and a small wait for a seat. I've already posted a million photos of Tartine, so this time concentrated on just enjoying the food. Debbie got the ham and cheese croissant, Sarah a chocolate pudding, and I had a morning bun. The same thing we always get. I joked to Debbie that she was in a rut, even though she hadn't been to Tartine in almost nine months. She in return said that since it had been so long, and since the croissant was so perfect that she wasn't going to share! Fortunately for me she relented. I may not forgive Mark Bittman for writing about Tartine, but I have to admit I agree - it's one of the best bakeries in the US - and it would be hard not to write about it.

For dinner that evening, we went to our friend Eric Gower's house and he cooked for us. Eric's an amazing cook and writer who lived with us for what seems like hardly any time but I think was actually 18 months. He's written a couple of great cookbooks, and I love shooting his food.

The next morning we walked by my favorite coffee place - Blue Bottle Coffee - for a couple of double ristretto cafe macchiatos. I do miss that level of fanatic devotion to the production of a perfect shot of espresso. I know for certain that it exists in other places, because I've found it in places like Seattle and New York, but it's hard to find! Anyway, after a bit of coffee heaven we wandered over to Polk to our friend Brenda's new place "Brenda's French Soul Food" a creole diner serving Brenda's personal mix of french and creole. When I met Brenda she was cooking at Cafe Claude in a postage stamp sized kitchen with almost no equipment. In that environment she turned out amazing french and now with a real kitchen she's amazing. We had beignets, french toast, an open face bacon and egg tartine sandwich, and a side of amazing grits - deep corn flavor with a touch of dairy richness that was irresistable - I was stuffed but we finished all of the grits. (Meredith Brody seems to like it too. I knew I liked her...)

I got some work done in our San Francisco office, then caught the shuttle down to Mountain View where I had more meetings - including lunch at Pinxto with Sarah, Sarah, and Patti. Pinxto is Google's "tapas" cafe, and it is consistently excellent (even if the tapas aren't always Basque, as would be implied by the name.) Then met Lori on Caltrain then off with Debbie to Sens, in the Embarcadero Center where Lori's friend Shuna is the pastry chef.

The next day I took off for Truckee to see my family, while Debbie hung out in San Francisco with her sister. Then it was off to Tokyo!

Claremont

2007-10-20T11:57:00.000+10:00

From Cleveland we flew to Claremont to visit her sister and her family. We had two tight connections in Chicago and Denver, but the trip was uneventful. Debbie's sister met us at the airport and we drove to their place.

Claremont is a very pretty little college town. Broad quiet tree lined streets, few pedestrians, a pretty downtown with coffee shops and a Saturday farmer's market. We spent the time playing with her niece and nephew (great kids and very fun to be with. Robin is into drawing, especially fairies, and Arlo is a cute talkative four year old.)

We went out for Mexican food with her brother-in-law's parents (who are fascinating people, well travelled, well informed, great conversationalists) the kids got tired and bored so went home early and we had a nice walk home. The food was forgettable, but the company was memorable. I took a few pictures that I may post later.

The next morning was Saturday, and we walked downtown for coffee and the farmer's market. Fair trade coffee, fresh pastries, sitting around listening to typical liberal college town coffee house conversation, looking at the zen brush paintings on the wall, we were in our element.

Next - San Francisco!

Cleveland

2007-10-20T11:47:00.000+10:00

From Krakow to Cleveland we flew LOT the national Polish airline. First we flew from Krakow to Warsaw. The domestic terminal in Krakow was an open empty concrete floored space kind of like a warehouse, but it has a spare modernistic feel that made it comfortable. Before living in Bangalore I would have thought it was kind of primitive and boring, but now it stands out in contrast to the international airport in Bangalore as a paragon of cleanliness and efficiency. Not adjectives historically applied to Polish facilities in my mind!

Anyway, the flight from Krakow to Warsaw was on a 64 seat turboprop. I love turboprops so it was a treat for me. Next we jumped from Warsaw to Toronto on an unexceptional two class jet flight. LOT business class is nothing to write home about, but it was comfortable and the alcohol was plentiful. We had a small adventure in Toronto. When flying from Europe to the US via Toronto you actually clear US immigration and customs in Canada. Our luggage was supposed to have been routed to the transit area, where we waited for almost and hour, but actually went to regular Canadian baggage claim. So we had to enter Canada to get it, then go through US customs and immigration. The Canadian customs people, perhaps because they were bored, asked us all kinds of nosy and intrusive questions:

How much money do you make? (Lots)
Do you own the company? "Do I own Google? I wish."
How much did your plane tickets cost? "About $10,000 each."
What is that, first class? "No, business class."
How long are you going to be in Canada? "About an hour..."
How long are you staying in Cleveland? "Two days."
How come so short a time?

Toronto to Cleveland was an even tinier turboprop so I was happy. There were nine people on the flight, with a back row of five seats - like a bus. We sat back there and spread out.

Cleveland was lovely. Debbie is from Cleveland, and we spent the time with her parents and visiting all her old favorite haunts. I have pictures of Tommy's, an iconic Cleveland restaurant and source of one of Debbie's old favorite T-shirts. The food was prototypical 70's hippy food. Lots of salads, baked sandwiches with cheese and sunflower seeds, giant frozen yogurt milkshakes, stuff like that. Her mom made us a nice home made dinner, and I got to see her childhood home and the neighborhood she grew up in. Very nice.

We gave a little talk at Debbie's dad's International Business class (he's a professor at Cleveland State) talking about business in India. She talked about what it's like day to day living in India, and I talked a little about infrastructure, property rights, and the rule of law.

Krakow

2007-10-20T11:41:00.000+10:00

Krakow is great, very old European. Old buildings, old streets, old churches, lots of history, great food. We stayed in a B&B in an old apartment house. It's a small city, you can walk everywhere, but there is a great transit system. Trams and busses go everywhere and they're cheap!

The food is about as diametrically opposite of Indian food as it's possible to be. Every meal revolves around meat. Pork, beef, game, you name it. Spicing is very simple, and sauces are often heavy with fruit. As for vegetables, well cabbage is a vegetable, right? So are potatoes aren't they? The first morning we went to a cafe, the menu entirely in Polish. We had sandwiches - toasty multi-grain bread, fresh tomatoes, fresh cheese, preserved meats - it was heaven. Then we had espresso, dark thick Illy espresso with rich golden crema. Ahhh...

Around the world!

2007-10-06T18:35:00.000+10:00

We're on our way around the world. Two weeks ago we were in Hyderabad, visiting the Google Hyderabad office while Sarah gave her talk at IAC. After that we went to Aurangabad to visit Ellora and Ajanta caves, then back to Mumbai for a day.

Next stop was Zurich, and the Google office there. Zurich is a beautiful city and the opposite of India in just about every way. The city is spotless, well organized, punctual, and quiet. If a pedestrian stands at the side of a crosswalk, cars stop to let them cross. The public transit system is ubiquitous, inexpensive and convenient. There are great restaurants, wine and especially CHEESE. Raclette and fondue are national dishes.

Now we're in Frankfurt, visiting Debbie's old friend Eric, and her ex girlfriends Diane and Debbie. Last night was a neighborhood restaurant with apple wine (cider), sausages, pork and lots of potatoes. We're about to leave for the flea market.

Pictures to come.

Coffee Flame

2007-08-29T17:39:00.000+10:00

Most of you know that I'm a ~~fanatic~~snob about a lot of things, but especially about coffee. On a mailing list I'm on I've been participating in a small discussion about coffee in India, with particular emphasis on a comparison of the relative poorness of coffee chain baristas in the US versus India. Mostly low key harmless fun, until one of the list members forwarded part of the discussion to an off list friend of his who considers himself a coffee aficionado. He forwarded his friend's reply back to the list, and what follows is my response with comments added for this blog in italics.

A few thoughts, from an off-list friend, on the coffee discussion thus far.

He's quite sold on the coffee (and the pizza) in Napoli. Something to do with the water and the volcanos and some such.

____________________

Yes, a few.

1) I don't put a lot of emphasis on the beans. Of course you do need the right kind of bean and the right kind of roasting for the kind of coffee you're making, but I believe the point of diminishing returns to effort and refinement in this area is reached pretty quickly.

This says volumes to me. It tells me that your friend either doesn't have much experience with premium varietals or proper roasting. It's easy to lose varietal character by over roasting, and even whole beans once roasted will lose quality after a week, but to say you don't put emphasis on the beans is just ignorance.

The differences between typical south or central american beans, african, and island or pacific beans, or even the fincas within a state like tarrazu in costa rica are huge. The difference in processing between wet and dry processed can make an enormous difference in flavor of the coffee. Even variations from year to year mean that an estate producing exceptional coffee one year will produce ordinary beans the next.

This doesn't even begin to touch on my personal obsession, Yemeni varietals. Coffee from Yemen is like no other in the world. It's grown traditionally on small farms, and harvested by families by hand. It's all harvested at the same time so you get a mixture of ripe and unripe cherries, and it's all dry processed which enhances the character of the beans. Each region or village in Yemen's coffee producing area has a different character to it, and from year to year different regions are the "best" (though personal preference plays a huge part as well.)

I'm personally a fan of Yemen Hirazi, but it's nearly impossible to find anymore, as Saudi Arabia consumes almost all of it. The beans are very small and yellow, and produce a lot of smoke and chaff when roasted. I like it roasted a little past full city, deep into second crack, because Yemeni beans respond well to a darker roast. (For reference, starbucks and peets roasts are much darker than even that, and italian espresso roast is typically darker still. When you roast that dark you burn away almost all the varietal character, so for espresso it makes little difference if the bean was originally from brazil, columbia, or ethiopia. [Though the sainted Mr. Illy would disagree, and I have to bow to his superior expertise. The man is a fanatic.])

Yemenis should be rested a little longer than most coffee after roasting, typically 24-48 hours. (Where 8 hours is usual for most other beans.) The resulting brew is winey, chocolatey, with huge body and little acid. I drink it unblended with anything else, much less milk.

2) I'm a little surprised by the cult of connoisseurship around things like cappuccino and macchiato, which are basically kids' drinks,

This comment was in response to some of us complaining that coffee chain baristas in the US would add the coffee to the milk rather than correctly vice versa, while apparently Indian coffee chain baristas are better about doing it right.

When the beans are stale, acrid and acidic, and the pull over extracted I find that a little milk tends to buffer the nastiness. It's hardly "connoiseurship" to expect a barrista to know how to correctly make the basic repertoire, and it's pretty pointless to go on comparing the depth and color of the crema if the barrista can't even make basic drinks correctly.

and the limited attention given to the basic characteristics of coffee (by which I mean espresso). My own three-item checklist for a good cup of coffee: not burnt or bitter; syrupy consistency; layer of coffee foam at least 2mm thick. Achieving these three characteristics on a regular basis is part art and part science, and experience has taught me not to trust anyone outside of napoli (it's theoretically possible for others to achieve the same results, but the percentages don't work for me).

To be fair, what he really is trying to say is that he is unwilling to try random coffee places outside of Naples because the odds of getting good coffee are so low, while in Naples any random place is more likely to have good coffee. He's still full of it, but not as much as I imply in my next paragraph.

Oh please. That's magical thinking. I'm as chauvinistic as the next person, and I love my city of San Francisco. I think there are some great baristas in San Francisco, but the best coffee I've had has been in that cliche of a coffee mecca - Seattle. I've sought out the best coffee places in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Boston, and New York City in the USA, and Paris, Barcelona, London, Milan, Florence, and Rome in Italy. (I have not been to Napoli, but while it's possible they have achieved some kind of transcendence there, I doubt it.)

My point being that I have found that coffee fanatics around the world produce a consistent and ambrosiacal product, that while it certainly differs from place to place, is an order of magnitude better than anything you will find in a place that is not staffed by total coffee fanatics, and that no one of that stratum would say anything as absurd as "I don't put a lot of emphasis on the beans." To them (and me) EVERYTHING matters. The beans, the roast, the grind, the dose, the tamp, and the multitudinous factors of the pull (the tank temperature, the head temperature, the head pressure, the volume of the pull, the timing of the pull).

To believe that somehow simply being in Napoli can trump someone who devotes their entire attention to each of those variables all the time is, well, magical thinking. It's possible that a detail obsessed OCD barista in Napoli produces infinitely better coffee than a similarly detail obsessed OCD barista in Seattle, but even then the appropriate comparison would be so-and-so barista in such-and-such cafe in Napoli is better than so-and-so in such-and-such cafe in Seattle. To generalize to all espresso in a single city is absurd.

For what it's worth, an Italian has never won or even placed in the World Barista Championships, but an Indian has. In 2001.

3) I'm only reciting my prejudices here, but the only marginally valid coffee tradition outside the neapolitan is the south indian.

How many coffee traditions do you know about? French? Portuguese? Spanish? Turkish? Vietnamese or for God's sake ARABIC? You do know the arabs discovered coffee, right? You are aware that there is an entire history and ritual around the preparation and service of cofee in Arab cultures? Yes, coffee came to India early, but it came to India from Arabia, and in particular from Yemen. To discount the Arabic coffee tradition as somehow "invalid" is ignorant and chauvinistic.

And I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to get good south indian coffee around here given the difficulty of finding fresh milk. (Airlines is two strikes away from falling off my list.)

4) Incidentally, the "napoletana" referred to in the thread was used in neapolitan homes until a few decades ago, but has almost died out. It produces a coffee similar to our decoction (minus the chicory)--high on caffeine, low on texture, making it good base for concoctions with milk but not so good for drinking on its own. Bar coffee in napoli ( i.e. the real thing) has always been made with plain old espresso machines.

5) I'm not sure what "gourmet" means in connection with coffee (or anything else for that matter). It's either good or it isn't,

Besides not-good, and good, there is better, and eventually best. To take this spectrum, draw a line across it and equate all the variety and color on one side as the same is to deliberately turn a blind eye to a rich feast. It was attitudes like that that caused the India coffee board to require all indian growers to mingle their beans and to sell a single kind of "indian" coffee, stunting the indian coffee industry for decades.

and it's important to understand what makes it good or not good, but I'm convinced that the secret lies in better judgement rather than in greater sophistication or refinement.

And what is better judgment except greater sophistication and refinement?

At any rate, in the case of coffee, I think I will trust my own judgment.

Eating Bugs

2007-08-24T18:46:00.000+10:00

First let me say that Bangkok is fabulous. I love the city, I love the people, I love the food. The only thing I don't really love is the heat. The street food scene is amazing. Fast, cheap, and so very tasty. You see all sorts of things. Pork leg that's been simmered so long the skin is meltingly soft, served with braised chard and a hard boiled egg, over rice. Pad Thai made individually for you in seconds as you watch. A line down the block waiting for the best yellow curry rice in Bangkok. A cart with half a dozen different kinds of fried bugs and truck drivers stopping in the street to pick up a bag of crispy fried whole frogs.

Yeah. That. We found this cart on the way to the big food market area, and had to try them. We got a bag, 10baht worth of fried bamboo worms (a kind of caterpillar/grub) and fried pupae of some kind (I think they're silkworms.) The flavor is sort of nutty, and the texture is just crunchy. The vendor puts the bugs in one of the ubiquitous plastic bags, then sprays soy sauce on them.

Tasty.

It's raining now...

2007-08-22T20:29:00.000+10:00

This is the view from my office right now.

I've always wondered what a "monsoon" was. Living in the US and reading about it, they always sounded exotic and a little scary. Having grown up in Hawaii and experienced the rainy season there, I imagined the monsoon must be that much more intense, and last that much longer.

Well the monsoon here is more intense, and it does last longer, but most of the time it reminds me of the rainy season in Hawaii. It rains most days, and it's usually a gentle warm rain that stops after an hour or two. But every once in a while it really rains.

Rain so hard you can't see across the street. Rain so hard you're soaked before you can open your umbrella. Rain where two wheelers scurry under overpasses, and cars pull over. Rain where everything pauses for a few minutes and the entire world is rain.

It's Gonna Rain

2007-07-20T13:24:00.000+10:00

Last night Debbie and I went to a movie. Going to a movie here is interesting. You have reserved seats, and you often have to buy tickets as much as a few days in advance. Movies are very big entertainment and you don't just go see a popular one on the spur of the moment. We wanted some mindless entertainment so went to see "Die Hard 4." For the record Die Hard 4 was quite satisfying. You go to Die Hard movies expecting non-stop over-the-top action that strains your suspension of disbelief past the breaking point, and to see Bruce Willis be the everyman tough-guy that saves the world. It was all that. We did burst out laughing when right after one of the nearly endless ridiculous fight/chase/explosion scenes they stopped for the intermission. Indian movie houses still have intermissions.

But none of that is what prompted me to post.

After the movie (around midnight) as we were leaving we noticed little knots and clusters of people just standing around. Some of them semed to be chatting, but mostly they just seemed to be hanging out. We thought it was a little odd, since it seemed to us that it was quite late and there was nothing open in the mall, but our life here is full of these little mysteries. As we decended four escalators to the ground floor and approached the front door, there seemed to be more and more of these little groups of people till we finally got to the front door and saw what seemed to be a farily large crowd just inside the door.

There was a bright flash from outside and I noticed the floor was quite wet. It was at this point we realized why people weren't leaving - it was pouring down rain outside. Ok, it's the monsoon, it's supposed to rain, but this was our first real experience with it.

As I approached the door and peered out to see just how bad it was, a short auto driver with a towel as a turban approached me and said "Auto sir?" I said "We want to go to Safina Plaza." He bobbed his head and gestured for us to go. Not so fast I thought. "How much?" I didn't want to bargain standing in water up to my ankles in the pouring rain. "Hundred rupees" he says and grins at me with gutka stained teeth. I laugh and consider bargaining with him. Normally the fare should be under 20 rupees, and late at night maybe 30 or 40. I look him in the eye "At this time of night, in this rain? Sure."

We set off through the downpour, across the marble terrace in front of the Garuda mall. Our driver slips once on the slick surface and I say "be careful!" We go down the steps, holding the handrail. He gestures to the autos parked in front, and when I look I realize the road is completely flooded. The water is up to the axles of the little autos. We step out into the flood, and weave between the autos. I wonder which is his, when he sets out across the street! Oh my god, his auto is on the other side of the street. Oh well, what to do? We gamely follow him, the water slowly getting deeper, up to my ankles. I resign myself to flooded shoes, when I notice that he's pointing behind him. "Watch out for the curb" I tell debbie. She looks worried so I go back to hold her hand. We step off and the water is now partwayup my calves. I notice this water doesn't smell so good. Lovely.

Crossing the street in front of Garuda Mall can be tricky even in daylight in dry weather. There's usually a ton of traffic, half of it is turning so you can't tell which way it's going to go, and none of it is going to stop for a pedestrian. At midnight, in the pouring rain, with the road flooded it's even scarier. The only good part is that there is very little traffic, and most of it is using their headlights. We make it across the street to the auto, and pile in. As we get in the auto tips towards us slightly and the pool of water that has collected on the canvas roof sluices off on our side. That's ok, we were already wet, at least this water is relatively clean. The driver takes us a circuitous route, maybe avoiding flooded roads, we worry briefly that he's taking us to some deserted alley to hold us up for more money, but nothing like that happens and we eventually make it home.

The power is out, no surprise, but we strip out of our wet clothes by flashlight and light some candles. Suddenly there's a giant bright white flash and KA-BOOM! Lightning has hit something very close by but we don't care, we're safe at home.

Prawns Poached in Butter

2007-06-27T13:47:00.000+10:00

We had a lovely dinner locally organized by someone who has read my whining about food in Bangalore and proceeded to put together a huge chinese banquet at a local restaurant for me, some other foodies, and various friends and family.

It was a lovely evening, and we met a bunch of interesting people, but the best part was that he and his wife offered to show us around Russell Market! Now we knew that Russell Market was where all the serious food people went to shop, but it's intimidating. There are lots of vendors for each kind of food, it's crowded and noisy, and it's hard to tell who to ask for what.

Debbie got a guided tour at 8am (I had to work!) and as a result she got introduced to purveyors of chickens, seafood, and veggies. She brought back a veritable cournocopia, including some HUGE whole fresh prawns.

If I can't find good "french" food here, then by god I'll make it myself. So the menu for last night was whole fresh prawns poached in lemon-garlic buerre monter served with chicken rice. I bought a pound of butter, squeezed out about 50ml of strained lemon juice, coarsely chopped some garlic, and cracked some black pepper. Brought it all to a simmer in the bottom of one of my pots and proceeded to make a buerre monter. Added the prawns and poached until just firm.

In the mean time I just cooked some long grain rice in the defatted chicken stock I had left over from the potatoes, onions and chicken we had last night.

Delicious.

Now I just have to figure out what the hell to do with a bitter gourd, some beans, filleted fresh fish, and some chicken breast. I'm sure I will cope.

Ninth Street Espresso

2007-05-31T05:52:00.000+10:00

After satisfying my beer craving, the next thing I went in search of was a good espresso. I was surprised to discover that despite the large Italian population in NYC, that finding a hard core modern espresso was a bit of a challenge. Names that I found were "Casa" on 9th Ave at 40th, Ninth Street Espresso (at Avenue C), Via Quadronno 73rd St near 5th, and few others. Casa was close to the hotel so I tried it first. Apparently it's now a muffin shop. Sigh. Strike one.

Next I tried Ninth Street Espresso, took the A to 14th, then the L to 1st. Walked about a half mile to 9th and Ave C. This place had wooden benches out front with bikes chained to the rail and kids with messenger bags smoking out front. Looked good. Insidethe "house rules" said things like "no half-regular half-decaf" and the menu was reassuringly brief, with the magical words "all coffee drinks are made triple ristretto." This looked very promising.

First, a single espresso. The crema was maybe a little dark, but the coffee had a nice aroma. It was thick slightly sweet and maybe a touch bitter (which may sound odd to 99.9% of the population for whom all espresso is bitter and ristretto is ridiculously bitter) maybe slightly over extracted or over roasted? But that was a quibble - this was espresso that invited critical scrutiny.

Next a double, with a croissant. Served in a slightly larger cup, the flavor was just as good as the last, and the thick crema lasted all the way to the bottom of the cup. Ahhh. The croissant was unremarkable, but I had come here for the coffee and coffee I had found.

Hop Devil Grill

2007-05-30T07:49:00.000+10:00

I landed at JFK, took the subway to my hotel, showered, changed and went in search of the thing I miss the most - a good hoppy ale. As I walked out of the hotel a dykey bicycle courier checked me out looked me in the eye and said "Nice hair, guy." Right then I knew - I was with my people.

I'd done a little homework, and it seemed from what people were saying that "The Hop Devil Grill" in the East Village was likely to have what I wanted. I walked in to a place that a couple dozen taps along the wall and twice that many bottles ranked above them. Lots of familiar names - Stone Pale Ale, Stone Arrogant Bastard, Mendocino Brewing Red Tail, Sam Adams, Rogue. I mentioned I was in search of an intensely hoppy IPA and the barman smiled and pointed at the one hand pulled tap.

"Have you tried Hop Angel? Intensely hopped, cask conditioned, hand pulled IPA - and it's local. Brewed in New York." He was speaking my language. If I had specified my dream beer that's what I would have asked for. I asked for a pint.

The first sip confirmed all my hopes. First came citrus from dry hopping, intense grapefruit, followed by crisp maltiness, hardly sweet at all, just enough to balance the finishing bitterness. I smiled and nodded and said "This is a good beer." The barman smiled back and nodded.

If you're looking for real ale in Manhattan, I suggest looking at Hop Devil Grill.

T'Chi

2007-05-27T17:25:00.000+10:00

Lots of people have been saying "Oh you have to try T'chi!" whenever I mention I like chinese, or that I liked some other place. So last weekend I tried it. We were... disappointed.

Many people, people whose taste in food I trust, have told us that T'Chi is one of the best, most authentic, chinese restaurants in Bangalore. After our experience at Nanking, some of them have explicitly told us to suspend judgement till we tried T'Chi. So it was with a sense of heightened expectations that we finally went to try it.

First we had to find it. The location is described as "Edwards Road at Queens Road." No problem, we hop in an auto and tell the driver to take us to Queens Road. He obliges, treating us to a mini-tour of Shivajinagar on the way. He has no idea where Edwards Road is, of course, and apparently neither do any of the people we ask walking down Queens Road. We continue slowly cruising down the road looking for a sign. What non-Bangaloreans may not realize is that Queens Road is one-way, and like many one-way roads in Bangalore, the one-way direction is not constant over time. One day it's one-way one direction then suddenly with no warning the next day you may find that it's changed to one-way the other way. Queens Road has changed direction in the recent past, and the signs have not adjusted (not that it would have helped.) Eventually as we were getting close to the end of Queens Road Debbie said "there's something red down that side street, maybe that's it." We got out, and amazingly enough it was!

Entering, the decor seemed Chinese enough, and we as we looked over the menu, it looked promising with many familiar dishes. I called the waiter over and said "we'd like some recommendations. We're familiar with chinese food, and we are looking for something authentic. Authentic chinese food, not what you serve tourists." "Yes sir, very good sir." "So we'd like you to recommend your best most authentic dishes." "Yes sir." The first dish he recommended was a crispy fried spring roll. Now I thought this was an inauspicious start, as this is a Vietamese dish, but I had resolved to go with his recommendations. The second dish he recommended was a Guilin Prawn which, from the menu description didn't seem so interesting, but again we would try what he suggested.

The spring rolls arrived on on lettuce leaves, garnished with mint - a good sign. They also came with chili flakes, a sweet/sour chili sauce, and chopped peanuts. I decorated my spring roll and took a bite. To my surprise the entire thing was filled with one solid lump of chinese dumpling (jiao tze) filling! Vietnamese spring rolls should have some bean sprouts, some julienned vegetables in them to add color and texture contrast. This was just wrong. I was starting to worry a little.

Next the "Guilian Prawns." Guilin cuisine combines some of the elements of Hunan and Canton. It's often delicately sweet and spicy, and can include strongly flavored ingredients. These were whole prawns on skewers, covered in a sweet sauce but to my surprise they came on a hot cast iron platter, and arrived at the table in a cloud of smoke and steam. He'd recommended a prawn sizzler to us! When I questioned him about it he said "Oh when I saw you I knew you'd like this dish, all the expats like it." Excuse me? When I said "authentic" and "not tourist food" was that somehow unclear?

The prawns themselves were quite fresh and tasty, the heads were flavorful and the prawn bodies were meaty and flavorful. The sauce was sweet and had no spiciness at all, just a heavy hand with with ginger and garlic. It was at this point that I decided that I'd order the rest of the meal myself.

We decided to go with Szechuan Chicken, Lamb Hot Pot, and plain white rice. These are two classic dishes, and would show off two very different cooking styles. The Szechuan Chicken is a classic stir fried dish, of small cubes of chicken in a tangy, fragrant, spicy sauce. Properly done it should have a good aroma of the wok, and the sauce should just coat the other ingredients. It's a deceptively simple looking dish, but shows off the ability of the chef with the wok. Lamb hot pot is a dish that requires a long simmering to get the deep flavor in the broth, and shows off the kitchen's ability with slow cooked simmered foods.

This Szechuan Chicken was assorted sized chunks of chicken with green bell pepper and carrots. There were no red chilis in the dish at all, and the entire dish was swimming in a glutinous brown sauce that seemed to be not much more than soy sauce thickened with cornstarch. It was boring, graceless, and nothing like any Szechuan Chicken I've ever had.

At this point I was past disappointed and well in to annoyed. When the rice arrived we asked for bowls and chopsticks, and I asked for them in my bad Chinese just because I was frustrated with our waiter. Of course he had no idea what I was asking, and I don't think it was my bad pronunciation. It was petty, but I wanted to show my frustration.

The "Hot Pot" was worse. It was served over some kind of warming flame which I found odd, and when opened it was clear that this was just another stir-fry served in another puddle of cornstarch thickened brown sauce. At least this one had some ginger flavor.

Enough people have recommended this place that we will give it another try, but next time I'm either going with a regular, someone who knows the chef, or armed with a list of dishes to order.

Saigon Restaurant

2007-05-16T17:57:00.000+10:00

I just posted about Saigon Restaurant on Bangalore Metroblog. You can read the review there, but I wanted to add a few details here, one invidious comparison, and a description of my trip to the kitchen.

First the comparison. Normally I wouldn't go out of my way to compare restaurants in Bangalore and San Francisco because, well, in most cases there is no comparison. With the obvious exception of all the many and varied forms of indian cuisines (especially south indian - karnatakan, keralan, chettinad, andhra, etc.) with very few exceptions (Shiok, Grasshopper, and recently Nanking) the restaurants we've been to in Bangalore don't really compare to similar style restaurants in San Francisco.

Now I know this isn't really fair. San Francisco is known as one of the restaurant capitals of the world, being compared in the same breath with New York City, London, and Paris. But locals like to tout Bangalore as one of India's "foodie" cities and so we had (and have) high expectations for the dining scene here.

That said, Saigon has provided a bright spot in that landscape. The Thai is high quality, as authentic as I can tell having not actually been to Thailand. I'm not really an expert just opinionated and experienced. In any case, this is a restaurant I'd go to in San Francisco. Sure there were a couple of misses - the soup (thom kha) had broken, and the pork was overcooked. But the dishes were interesting, the spicing and preparation was to high standards, and the presentation was well done.

I'm sure some of it has to do with the fact that there is a visiting chef from Bangkok. We'll see if they can keep the standards up after she leaves, but in the mean time I'm happy.

So, being the nosy guy I am, when the chef came to chat, I asked if I could see the kitchen. In no time I was whisked down the back stair (the restaurant is on 3, the kitchen is on 2) into a spacious, immaculately clean, nicely appointed restaurant kitchen. Looked like one cold station, one hot (wok, griddle, frier), and someone plating. I've posted pix on flickr but I was surprised by the size of the mise!

Anyway, all in all it was an enjoyable experience to warm the cockles of my foodie heart. It gives me hope that we'll find more little treasures like this to comfort me while I try to learn the ins and outs of indian food - I won't feel quite so much like a stranger in a strange land.

aire helado de parmesano con muesli

2007-05-14T01:41:00.000+10:00

parmesan frozen-air with muesli

This dish was a tour-de-force. A styrofoam box was carefully placed in front of each of us. We were directed to unwrap it, and sprinkle the "muesli" on it. When opened, the box contained - air, sort of. It was a very light frozen foam, almost a snow. I suspect the use of liquid nitrogen, but I can't prove it.

The foam tasted intensely of parmesan, while the "muesli" looked and tasted like muesli, it was clearly not like any other muesli you'd ever had. Each of the elements had been distilled to its essence. The dried fruit having an intense fruitiness, and the crispy brown flakes having a delicate nutty sweetness. Both worked well with the parmesan.

As a nice touch we got to keep the wrapper and the muesli bag. The entire presentation was slightly reminiscent of the snacks you got served on an airplane. The styrofoam container, the little zip-loc baggie of unidentifiable bits. The pun being enhanced by the "elbulliaire" logo on the wrappings.

brioche frito shangai

2007-05-14T01:33:00.000+10:00

Fried Shanghai Brioche

These were tasty little fried puffs, just about what you'd expect from the name. Brioche-like dough filled with crab, cilantro, green onion, and sesame oil. Very yummy but if there was something astonishing about it I missed it.

People who couldn't have seafood got a "mozarella puff" that looked entirely more interesting. A base of what looked like a steamed mozarella flavored dumpling, split and topped with some kind of foam. For all I know it was actually the foam that had the mozarella flavor, and the dumpling was a puff of something else.

won-ton campestre

2007-05-11T01:19:00.000+10:00

rustic won-ton

When I first arrived and toured the kitchen, I noticed bright green foam being spooned into bowls. I was mildly curious but hey, it was just green foam. Well, it was a whole lot more (and less) than "just green foam." The green foam is an intensely flavored basil foam, but the real star in my opinion was the won-tons. They appear to be nothing more than small dumplings floating in broth in a small cast iron pot.

The won-tons are an unlikely star. Basically they're small pillows of parmesan flavored dough, poached in a good strong chicken stock, and filled with... nothing. They weren't so much "filled" as inflated. You pick them out of the stock with a special slotted spoon, dress them with a little foam and pop the whole airy confection into your mouth. The flavors of chicken, basil, and parmesan are simultaneously ethereal and comfortably rustic.

We ate every bite, and sipped the stock as well.

horchata/trufa

2007-05-11T01:09:00.000+10:00

"horchata" - truffle

The "horchata" I'm familiar with from Mexico is a sweet rice drink flavored with cinnamon. Apparently in Catalonia, horchata is made from the milk of the "tiger nut." This dish came as a yin-yang of Catalonian horchata, and a clear truffle consomme. We were instructed to alternate spoonfuls of each side. The slightly rough sweet pale creaminess of the horchata contrasted with and nicely complemented the thick smooth dark savoriness of the truffle. The nut itself was fibrous and crunchy but otherwise not to my taste.

croqueta líquida 2006

2007-05-11T00:46:00.000+10:00

liquid croquette 2006

Croquettes are possibly the most overdone menu item on your typical trying-too-hard pretentious menu. El Bulli may be pretentious, and they certainly try hard but their croquette could hardly be described as "overdone." Reminiscent of the spherical olive, this was a thin gelatinous shell around a rich warm meaty liquid. Garnished with just enough crusty bits to justify the "croquette" label, this was tasty and fun. Very satisfying if not transcendent.

Indian Wedding

2007-05-11T00:40:00.001+10:00

Bride and Groom
Originally uploaded by Charles Haynes.

Debbie and I recently attended our first Indian wedding. My friend Girish (who worked for me in the US) was getting married here. We took the night bus up from Bangalore to Shimoga, spent three days there including two full days of wedding stuff, then took a regular day bus back. It was an incredible experience. I loved watching how they prepared food for 2000 guests...

fondant de frambuesas con wasabi y vinagre de frambu

2007-04-16T01:26:00.000+10:00

raspberry fondant with wasabi and raspberry vinegar

This arrived as a small whitish raspberry with green wasabi at the top like a stem or small leaf, and a teaspoon of red liquid. We were told to eat the raspberry, then drink the liquid. The raspberry had a firm shell on the outside, leading you to think that maybe it was another freeze dried confection, but no! Once you put it in your mouth you realize that it's a fresh raspberry, but it's HOT! You then drink the liquid which is a raspberry vinegar which nicely complements the sugar shell of the raspberry. "Fondant" in French means "melting" so I think of these as "melting raspberries." Another dish that made me laugh with delight.

bombones de mandarina, cacahuete y curry

2007-04-16T01:18:00.000+10:00

Bonbons - mandarin orange, and curry peanut.

These were... bonbons as advertised, but not like any bonbons I'd ever had. One was a flat round golden brown disk, the other a yellowish cube decorated with gold leaf. We were told to eat the flat disk in two bites, but the cube all at once. The flat round one was like curry flavored peanut butter in a thin buttery shell - maybe cocoa butter? The cube made all of laugh. You pop it into your mouth, bite down, and your mouth is filled with liquid! It's tangerine juice and the bonbon shell practically evaporates. What fun!

algodón de flores

2007-04-16T01:11:00.000+10:00

"flower cotton"

These arrived like little books with rice-paper covers. You opened them to find a flat cottony white felt with flowers arranged in the shape of a face. Cotton flowers, pressed into a book - very clever! Also delicious, the cotton was spun sugar, the flowers had been enhanced with various floral and fruity flavor essences that went well with the candy floss. We were instructed to open the books, and tear off little bits with our fingers and pop them in our mouths. After the first unusually strongly flavored flower, I started inspecting them to see if I could find how they were modified. The evidence, when there was any was very subtle. A sheen of liquid on the back of one flower, a mist on the back of another. Masterfully done.

Snacks

2007-04-15T23:55:00.000+10:00

The next set of dishes were a series of little snacks. For the most part they looked like they should be sweet - but they weren't.

3 - hojas de mango y flor de tagete
4 - fritas de pina
5 - merengue/profiteroles de remolacha y yogur
6 - catanias saladas
7 - chocolate salado de cassis, yogur y pistacho
8 - galletas de arroz y parmesano

Hojas de Mango y flor de tagete "mango leaves with marigold flower" were delicately crispy golden mango "leaves" each with a small flower at the base. The leaves were sweet and intensely mango and very crisp. Normally I'd think they were made from a sugar brittle, but the intense fruitiness of the mango would imply no high heat. Fascinating.

The fritas de pina "pineapple frites" look like little french fries but taste like light crunchy pineapple. I suspect pineapple puree frozen into sticks then freeze-dried.

Merengue/profiteroles de remolacha y yogur "Beet meringue and yogurt" were airy light beet puffs with a coating of yogurt dust. Sweet earthy beet flavor and a mild tart dairy to offset it. Traditional flavors - but a very non traditional dry and crunch presentation.

Catanias saladas "salty 'catanias'" were interesting. Centered around a walnut, with a savory deliquescent coating, then a thin delicate chocolate shell coated in cocoa. "Catanies" are a famous confection from Barcelona, consisting of an almond with a sweet almond milk and chocolate coating. This is reminiscent but with a savory walnut preparation instead.

Chocolate salado de cassis, yogur y pistacho "salty chocolates of cassis, yogurt, and pistachio" are small wafers reminiscent of fancy chocolates. The pistachio was greenish and a grainy texture with a strong pistachio flavor. The yogurt was white and delicate. The cassis was the most interesting, one dark layer and one thin white layer in the back. The dark layer seemed like dark chocolate but I suspect it was actually cassis flavored, not sweet with subtle fruit flavors. The light layer though exploded with intensely tart fruit. A shocking combination, but very tasty.

Finally galletas de arroz y parmesano "rice cakes and parmesan" look a little like rice crispies treats covered with decorative glass beads. The cake itself was dry and delicately crunchy while the "beads" were tart little balls of liquid. The entire thing was garnished with citrus zest (probably lemon, maybe citron) and a small purple flower.

teja de encaje al queso curado

2007-04-15T23:41:00.000+10:00

The english menu translated this as "'tile' - curing cheese" which confuses me. The name in spanish "teja de encaje" is a particular kind of decorative building tile. It's flat with an embossed design. "Encaje" is lace or embroidery so I think it should be translated as a "lace tile." In any case they certainly seemed like embroidered lace tiles.

They were round lacy cheese crisps. I think there were at least three separate layers of cheeses. I also think it's "cured" cheese not "curing" cheese but perhaps these cheeses have a special restorative quality - one of the things we miss most living in Bangalore are good cheeses, and this dish was deeply satisfying. Crisp, good complex cheese flavors combined with brown roasted flavors. Held up they reminded me a little of holding a host (hope that isn't too blasphemous.)

aceitunas verdes sféricas

2007-04-13T12:18:00.000+10:00

Next course was an appetizer of green olives. These olives are as much a "signature" appetizer as the French Laundry salmon and crème fraîche cornets. They are essence of green olive encased in a thin gelatine shell. They're finished in olive oil and herbs and served in a single spoon on a stainless steel tray that is itself a work of art.

El Bulli - Arrival and Cocktails

2007-04-13T11:24:00.000+10:00

Debbie and I were part of a party of eight people, our half arriving a little late. One of our party missed a wake up call - what would it feel like to sleep through your El Bulli reservation? When we arrived I quick took some exterior shots then hurried in to the restaurant. We were ushered into a quick viewing of the kitchen, which felt like a cross between a large restaurant kitchen, a laboratory, and an esbat. Presiding over at all at the end of a long table was the chef, head scientist, and officiant - Ferran Adrià.

We were then lead through one larger dining room into our smaller room. It felt cozy and homey, even though we were at a large dining table. Once seated we were served apéritifs, either sherry or a cava, and cocktails. With the cocktails, the show began. Most of the table got a "gin fizz" which consisted of a martini glass half full of yellow liquid, topped with a white foam. When you drank it you realized the yellow liquid was frozen lemon, while the white foam was hot! It was such a shocking contrast it made me laugh. It would not be the last time...

El Bulli - Cala Montjoi

2007-04-12T21:20:00.000+10:00

We flew from Bangalore to Paris, Paris to Barcelona, then drove from Barcelona to Roses and from Roses to Cala Montjoi. With each leg we went from larger to smaller - from 6 million to 2 million to 1.5 million to 15 thousand to well, basically none. Cala Montjoi (Montjoi Cove) is a small seasonal resort about 15 minutes outside of Roses, with a campground and one of the most famous restaurants in the world - El Bulli.

After arriving in Roses, we decided to scout out the road and see if we couldn't get a peek at the restaurant. It's a relatively short drive, only 9km, through scenic hilly spanish countryside and down to a pretty little cove. Since it was still winter, the beach was deserted and a cold wind made you want to keep moving. We explored a little, walking up the trail from Cala Montjoi back towards Roses. The trail skirts the back of El Bulli, with a picturesque stone stair leading up from the beach.

We drove slowly back, stopping to take a few touristy snapshots outside the gate, and went back to Roses to get ready for dinner.

Dharwar

2007-03-27T20:26:00.000+10:00

Debbie and I got up early Saturday morning to fly to Dharwar, a small town north of Hubli. Our friend Eric had been telling us that if we wanted to see what India was like 20 years ago we needed to get out of the cities and visit some smaller towns, specifically Dharwar since he would be there and could be our tour guide.

We took Air Deccan, a "no frills" discount airline with no reserved seats, snacks for purchase and really low fares. We flew from Bangalore to Belgaum then to Hubli the nearest airport to Dharwar. We were met there by Eric in a hired car. We were driven the 20km to Dharwad, checked in at our hotel, the Hotel Hoytala. Immediately after checking in Eric took us off to get Ayurvedic massages. A massage that cost Rs$5000 at the Leela Palace (a five star hotel) in Bangalore, cost just Rs$500 in Dharwar. I had an interesting discussion with the proprietor about how the best ayurvedic massage practitioners are Keralan (he is from Kerala - but I've heard this from many people), how hard it is to get local help that truly cares about ayurvedic massage, and about the framed image of Jesus above the door and the icon of the patron of Ayurveda next to it. I mention how unusual the combination of christian and hindu iconography is but he assures me they are all christians and ayurveda is not hindu. I decide not to press the point.

After the massage we go back to the hotel to change then to the temple. Eric is in Dharwar visiting his friend and mentor Dr. V.G. Kulkarni, a sanskirt scholar and trustee of a local temple. We have arrived during the Ram Navami festival, a annual week and a half celebration with multiple daily rituals including large meals for the celebrants and guests.
At this time at the temple a fire sacrifice was in progress. Men were seated in front of a wood fire facing an image of the god, chanting and throwing handfuls of black sesame from a large pot onto the fire. We looked around the temple briefly and were introduced to Dr. Kulkarni and his wife Shakuntula. I saw the bell that I'd help Eric buy in Goa hanging in the temple - Eric helpfully rang it for us.

With the brief tour over we went to Dr. Kulkarni's house for dinner. This household consists of Dr. V.G. Kulkarni ("vee gee") and his wife Shakuntula, his son Vijay ("vee jai") and his wife Kalpana, their 17 year old son Vinay ("vee nai"), a helper and her husband (who live in the servant's house in the back). Kalpana fixed dinner with her helper, I watched them finish dinner - our second home cooked dinner in India! She made drumstick sambar, simmered brindjal, rice, dry grated veggies, curd, and tapioca pancakes. (soaked tapioca kneaded with peanut flour and spices, rolled flat on oiled paper, then fried). After dinner Kalpana graciously agreed to take us to the local market and help us shop for spices and sundries. I buy fennel, whole turmeric, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, coriander seed, and some black spice I haven't identified yet. Wre get some tamarind from another vendor. We also buy small glass jars for the spices, and a small alarm clock for Debbie.

The next day, Sunday, we got up late and wandered down to the hotel restaurant for a breakfast of dosas, fresh pineapple juice, and milky tea and coffee. We picked Eric up at the house and went to the temple to see the Shiva puja, in progress. A small number of people in chairs along the walls, and rows and rows of people sitting cross legged on floor with an elaborate array arranged on a banana leaf in front of each of them. Two brass bowls of water on beds of rice, each topped with a plate covered in flowers and greenery, small bowls of orange powder, red powder (kum kum), red rice, white rice, water and ghee; a small cotton wicked lamp burning ghee, sticks of incense, piles of flowers and herbs. People chanting and periodically throwing rice on the plates, lighting more incense, burning little transluscent white tablets in special holders, and ringing their bells, all in unison. Small banana leaf bowls of prashad (sweet rice with banana) distributed, more chanting and ritual, someone going up and down the rows refilling lamps with ghee, distributing more of the little tablets or red rice. Finally someone goes around and gives everyone - including us! - a little handful of rice, flower petals, and herbs. We're admonished to accept it in our RIGHT hands and told to toss it to the god. We follow everyone else and I expect this is the end of the ceremony but no - more chanting until finally it's over. We're told politely that we have to move, as this area is about to be used to serve the food.

We are ushered into a cool storage room where we sit on the bed and talk to children who wander in about who we are and where we are from. It's quiet and easy going, the kids are funny and curious, and we get to ask a few questions ourselves. After a while we're escorted to a patio overlooking the main floor where everyone else is sitting comfortably on the ground. Two men who look to be in their 60s bring a table and chairs for the weak-kneed foreigners. We're joined by a few other people incuding an architect from Bombay who has flown down just for this puja and have a very pleasant meal. I watch closely in the kitchen, asking endless questions about how this or that is cooked or prepared. For example, the rice is cooked in a pressure cooker! I was surprised. I noticed that every time the weight started to rock either Kalpana or her helper would tap the pressure cooker and cause it to release the steam, so one time when they were busy I did it, causing uproarious laughter.

We take the car back to the hotel and nap through the hottest part of the day, then go back to Dr. Kulkarni's house to pick up Vijay who will be our tour guide for the afternoon. We drive around the various colleges of the university. Supposedly this is the second oldest university in India, after Bombay University. I take photos of bas-reliefs and beehives and chat briefly with some of the students and faculty. Eventually we drive back to the house for another meal a nice conversation about how Dr. Kulkarni ended up in Cleveland, politics, history, and eventually are driven back to the hotel for the evening.

Monday morning we get up, shower, and dress. I've been practicing bathing Indian style because it uses a lot less water. It's similar to Japanese style, you fill a large vessel with hot water, wet yourself with a scoop full of water, soap up, then rinse off again with a few more scoops of water. I like it well enough and it uses a LOT less water. After bathing we pack all our recent purchases up and head over to the house for breakfast and goodbyes. Shakuntula has to be at the temple by 9am so we get to the house around 8:15. Breakfast is tapioca pearls mixed with peanut flour and spices then fried. Eric loves his tapioca so much that Vijay and I had to walk to the corner store the previous evening to get more for this morning. We eat the tapioca, drink tea, and talk. I help cut up the watermelon Eric bought earlier and we share it around. Nice relaxing morning and too soon we're back in the car to Hubli airport.

"Mainland China" restaurant, Bangalore

2007-03-08T18:17:00.000+11:00

Mainland China is one of the most highly regarded chinese restaurants in Bangalore. Since we're seemingly on a "not indian" kick this week (Grasshopper, Blue Ginger, Smokin' Joe's, Hypnos, Noble House) we decided to try it out.

When we sat down, they brought us two little starters: one of cabbage in spicy chili sauce with white pepper and ginger - the sauce reminded me of sriracha, the second was delicately pickled cucumber and carrot side sauce of tart chilis.

We ordered Shangsi Crab Soup, Squid in Pepper and Salt, Jumbo Prawns in Hot Garlic Sauce, and Singapore Rice Noodles.

The shangsi crab soup was very nice. Subtle egg white and pale crab made an elegant presentation garnished with small flecks of green onion. The clear broth was infused with just enough green chili to wake your palate.

The pepper and salt squid was not what I had expected. I'm used to a squid that's crispy fried and served with a bowl of ground roasted szechuan pepper corns and salt. This was squid body meat cut in squares dredged in corn starch and deep fried till lightly crisp - so far so good despite a very slight starchiness to the coating. But it was dressed with an onion brunoise,, scallions, red chilis, and szechuan pepper. It was faintly sweet and tart - a traditional szechuan preparation for squid, but not "salt & pepper." Very tasty with a good balance of sweet, tart, spicy, and aromatic.

Next, on the waiter's recommendation, we had jumbo prawn in hot garlic sauce.
These were big prawns lightly breaded, tender and flavorful but served in the undistinguished sweet/sour red chili sauce that is ubiquitous in local "chinese" places. The sauce had onions and green peppers but none of the fragrant subtlety that is an excellent hot garlic sauce - the garlic was barely detectable. A shameful squandering of the promise in those delicious prawns.

Finally we had a singapore style rice noodle. Having recently acquired a taste for singapore noodles, we had certain expectations. These thin rice noodles were cooked to a perfect texture then fried with green onions, carrots, green peppers and traditional singapore yellow curry spices. A tad heavy on the oil but delicious.

The wine list included a Grover La Reserva but did not indicate it was available by the glass. When I asked, they said that yes, it was, but when it arrived the flavor was oxidized. Perhaps almost no one orders it by the glass letting the open bottle get stale? It was unpleasant.

Also unpleasant was the music - bad chinese interpretations of cliched movie tunes, constantly repeated. I eventually tuned it out, but no music at all would have been better.

I then had the Grover sauvignon blanc which had no such defects. I generally prefer french fume blanc, and Debbie like the Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs, but this was an agreeable wine, that went well with the food.

For dessert we had daarshaan - crispy wonton strips in thick honey syrup w sesame and ice cream. It was very sweet, I think it might have been better with tea?

Speaking of tea, they had a very nice chinese style jasmine tea! I was pleasantly surprised, not expecting to find anything but indian teas, we drank quite a bit of it.

There was no pork at all on the menu! I know that pork is relatively uncommon on local menus, but pork is a staple chinese ingredient. The ma po was advertised to be made with mutton! (I like ma po, I like mutton, I think I may have to try it...)

Foreigner's Registration Office

2007-02-19T17:05:00.000+11:00

I'm now an officially registered foreigner. After having heard innumerable horror stories about the bureaucracy in India, I have to say this was completely painless. I had the help of a relocation service (Ikan) and they took care of all the paperwork. The entire process took less than 1/2 hour. I walked next door (the FRO is next door to Embassy Icon) met the Ikan rep, and he walked me through the process. Two windows to submit paperwork at, three individuals whose signatures we needed to get with me there in person, that was it. I daresay it would have been much more painful without their help - my office mate said that it took him 18 months including a full day to pay a US$30 fine for registering late. The fine having to be paid at an obscure bank located 45 minutes away.

The waiting room for the office did meet all my expectations of what a scary bureaucratic office should look like though. Ancient metal seats, peeling paint, obscure notices on the wall, faceless people behind rows of windows... but it was fine.

Arriving in Bangalore - Restaurant Reviews part 1

2007-02-19T00:36:00.000+11:00

Sunny's

Sunny's restaurant is supposedly one of the best Italian places in Bangalore, and a foodie "destination" restaurant. It's definitely good, and one of the few places we've gone to more than once since arriving. It helps that it's on Vittal Mallya Road very close to the Google guest house.

Sunny's lets the flavors of the ingredients show through with simple but interesting preparations. I had roast lamb chops (prepared rare, as I asked, with no arguments or questions) which were served in what appeared to be a reduced balsamic glaze with sprigs of thyme and whole rosemary. Quite tasty. Debbie had penne in a gorgonzola cream sauce that was also very tasty, though I commented that while the penne was properly "al dente" the cooking water hadn't been quite hot enough - the pasta was a tiny bit gummy. We were brave and had this with a Ceasar Salad.

The second time we decided to try the pepperoni pizza. Since I make pizza myself I was interested to see what I would be up against. Sadly this was a disappointment. The crust had a soft bread-like crumb, not nearly chewy enough. It was relatively thick, but most disappointingly it had been baked on a perforated metal pan so that it couldn't brown properly or crisp up. The sauce was flavorful, and the mozarella was good but could not make up for the crust.

However we had ordered a fresh tomato, onion, mozarella appetizer that was dressed with a good balsamic and that was quite excellent.

We'll be back.

Spiga

Spiga is another restaurant on Vittal Mallya, a little further from the guest house. We tried to go there on the 14th, not remembering that it was Valentine's Day and it was mobbed. So we went to Sunny's instead. We tried again the next day and had no trouble.

Spiga has an interesting menu, a combination of Mexican (!), Italian, and some Indian. I'm not generally a fan of "multi-cuisine" restaurants or their cousins "fusion" restaurants. I'm also wary of any Mexican restaurant outside of Mexico, or a Mexican barrio, so we didn't try the Mexican dishes.

I had pasta (fusili) in a tomato/garlic/basil sauce, while Debbie had fish in spicy sauce. The food was uninspired, the pasta overcooked and the sauce had neither the brightness of fresh tomatoes, nor the deep caramelized sweetness of a long simmered sauce. The garlic had been burned, not browned, and I didn't find much basil flavor. A big disappointment. Debbie's fish was similarly uninspired.

This is supposed to be one of the best Italian places in the city! I'm very worried...

Cafe Coffee Day

We started our quest for excellent coffee at one branch of a well known chain of coffee places. Cafe Coffee Day has locations all over Bangalore, but we visited the one on Lavelle Road (at Vittal Mallya Road) I had a double espresso, while Debbie had a macchiato and a chocolate croissant.

Let's get one thing out of the way right off. This is no Blue Bottle Coffee or Tartine Bakery. On the other hand, the coffee was decent - for an automatic espresso machine. We had a little trouble at first ordering the macchiato "I'd like a macchiato." "Ok" [comes back] "You want a mochachino?" "No a macchiato." "We don't have that." "See up on the menu, Espresso, Double Espresso, Macchiato. The third one down." "Ok." I get the feeling that either they don't get many people ordering macchiati or my pronounciation was confusing. In any case we straightened it out.

The "chocolate croissant" was not a traditional pain au chocolate (and if anyone reading this knows where you can get a pain au chocolate in Bangalore please tell me and I will be eternally grateful) but instead it was more of a rolled sweet yeast dough filled with chocolate, and coated with chocolate at one end. We enjoyed it, but I had hoped for a flaky crispy chewy thing and this was not that. Ah well, it's good to have goals in life.

Despite all that we definitely enjoyed it, the coffee was drinkable, and I have no qualms about hanging out at other Cafe Coffee Days when I find them.

Arriving in Bangalore - House Hunting

2007-02-18T01:42:00.000+11:00

One of the things we've been doing this week is looking for a permanent place to live. We have a real estate agent hired by Google, and filled out a big check list of what we're interested in and what's important. What we're interested in is a place that's walking distance to work, and costs less than Rs 50,000/month. We'd like 3 bedrooms but we'll be happy with 2 - but we have to have at least 2 because we want to have guests. We want furnished because I don't want to deal with having to buy a bunch of stuff only to sell it again in a year - though we may go that route by buying a houseful of stuff from someone else in the corresponding situation who's now leaving.

Anyway, when I first filled out the questionnaire I thought we'd be working first at the one Google location at Embassy Icon and then at Prestige Sigma so I wanted a place that was walking distance to both. The realtor started by showing us a bunch of places in Richmond Town (all of which amazingly enough were going for exactly Rs 50,000!) and all of which were unfurnished. He seemed a little grumpy when we said we wanted places that were walking distance from Embassy Icon (he tried to tell us Richmond Town was "close") and that were furnished, and preferably were somewhat cheaper.

The next day he did better, showing us places mostly along Infantry Road, and a few on Ali Asker Road. Two of them were actually furnished, and he admitted that while the prices were still all amazingly exactly Rs 50,000 per month that some were "negotiable." He showed us one place that was one lakh (100,000) Rs per month and we were frankly unimpressed. For over US$2000 per month I'd expect something totally fabulous - and this wasn't.

We did five or more places each day, and after two days he tried to tell us that this was all there was that was close to Embassy Icon and if we wanted anything else we'd have to look further out. Debbie had been talking to another couple staying at the guest house and they had six real estate agents, and they were talking to three of them each day with at least five places each and there were plenty more places in the nearby neighborhood still in our price range. So if he tries to play hardball, I'm prepared to discuss it with him - but we did like one of the places.

It's a furnished place, decorated by an interior designer. It was immediately obvious when we walked in that the place had been decorated by someone with a sense of taste and had a coherent esthetic. What's more it was an esthetic that not only could we live with, but that our pieces would fit with nicely. I'm optimistic. We "negotiated" a little on price, so we'll see what happens.

I decided to hedge our bets and see how much it would cost to furnish a place. It looks like you can get a decent bed set for on the order of Rs 16,000 and a dining room set for on the same order. I didn't check sofas and chairs, but it looks like you could probably furnish a place for on the order of a month's rent plus or minus. So we might consider furnishing a place if it comes to that.

Arriving in Bangalore - Paperwork

2007-02-17T23:46:00.000+11:00

The rest of the week has been me learning my way around the local office, getting my team up to speed on what we'll be doing, looking for a place to live, getting a phone, getting our stuff out of customs, eating and sleeping. I had one 5:30am video conference that I got up at 4:30am for. I suspect this will be a regular occurrence. One of the first things I realized was that none of the SIM cards I brought with me will work in India. So I started the process of getting a SIM card. "Process?" I hear you ask. "Can't you just buy a pre-paid SIM from any corner store?" No. You can't (at least not officially.) Apparently if terrorists get SIM cards they will destroy the fabric of society. So in order to get a card for your phone you need to provide identification, proof of residence, and not look like a terrorist. I only have identification. So I asked my people at Google if they couldn't get me one, and waited.

While I waited, I filled out the paperwork to register as a foreigner working in India. We suspicious foreign types have to register with the local police within 14 days of arrival. I feel like some kind of sex offender. Apparently there are something less than 2000 Americans registered in all of India, I find this hard to believe, since I can think of on the order of half a dozen Indians with American citizenship working here just for Google. (To be fair, the requirements for foreigners working in the USA are much more stringent and much less reasonable. I have no reason to complain.)

Anyway, I have to get passport sized photos to go with the application. In Mountain View that means going to the security desk where they snap a quick photo and print copies on the fancy photo printer they keep on the desk. Not so here. Here I am told to go to G K Vale and get pictures taken. "Where's that?" "The one on MG Road." "Um, where on MG road?" At this point the long suffering Reena just calls up the driver and tells him to take me there. I hear her say something like "He's very new and doesn't know anything so you'll have to show him where it is." I feel like a small child.

This place is amazing, apparently they've been in the photo business since 1910. It takes about an hour, but they use a real studio portrait set up and do a great job. No cookie cutter id card cameras here! I tell the FRO (Foreign Registration Office) agent (Ikan) that I've got the photos and ask what next. He says they'll come by when they need to get other documents from Google and I put that aside. This turns out to be a mistake...

In the mean time we've been dealing with Crown Relocation for finding a place to live, and getting my household goods through customs. On Tuesday I get an email from Crown and a phone message at work saying our goods are there. There are some customs formalities to go through, but Crown sends a nice person over with various forms I can sign that will let them go deal with it. I sign the forms and give them my passport (with some trepidation) and that is that - or so I think. The next day the Crown guy calls me up and cheerfully asks when I can come down to do the customs inspection. "I thought you were going to take care of that?" "Oh no Sir, you must be present." "Ok ok. When can we do this?" "Would 11am be suitable?" "Sure" "I will meet you at MSIL at the airport at 11am then Sir." "Ok." Fine whatever. I ask for a driver and we drive down to the airport.

First problem. The MSIL area is big, and I have no idea which of the multiple warehouses is the one I'm supposed to be at. Second problem, I have no idea what the guy I'm supposed to meet looks like. Third problem, I have no working phone to call him. This could easily turn into a fiasco. Each warehouse window I visit, the person looks at me like I'm deranged when I say "Crown Relocation? Household goods? Charles Haynes." They all just point me to the next warehouse along the road. Finally I reach the last one, which is the designated one for collecting customs duties as it turns out. They don't look at me like I'm deranged, but they want the paperwork. The paperwork that the guy I'm meeting has. My driver helpfully calls him. "I'm on my way. 15 minutes." We wait 15 minutes. Call again. "I'm very close. 5 minutes!" We wait ten minutes, just as I'm about to call again, a small guy with bad teeth shows up peering at me and looking at my passport. "Mr. Haynes!" I agree that's me. We go in to the customs area.

First they ask me if I have any computers or cameras in my bag. I admit that I have a camera and an iPod, which I'm asked to surrender in return for a reciept. We go back to the warehouse and I see a pallet with our boxes on it! Woo hoo, our stuff is here! One of the boxes has a big hole punched in the side. They want me to agree there's no damage, I silently point at the hole and look a question at them. We open that box, and fortunately it's mostly clothes and sheets and things. I agree nothing is damaged.

We then go through the manifest, box by box and they take things out and unwrap them. At first I'm mystified. Some of the things they don't even bother with, but others they unwrap with expressions reminiscent of bloodhounds on the scent. Eventually I figure it out. They're only looking for high tech stuff, in particular for camera and computer stuff. Of course I have a bunch of fancy high tech stuff. Uh oh. The list keeps getting longer. At one point one of the inspectors picks up a paper wrapped object and feels it. "Do you have any food or agricultural products?" "No. I don't think so." "No seeds or plants?" "Not that I remember. I'm pretty sure not." He unwraps it, and the smell hits us. "Oh yeah! My coffee!" We all laugh.

Eventually they have a list of all the booty they think I should pay duty on and we begin dickering about the value. 21" Dell LCD monitor. Went for about $1200 retail new when I bought it two years ago, but I got a discount down to $800 and it's two years old. I claim it's worth about $500 now and they agree. There's an iPod nano in there that was a recognition award from Google that I've never even unwrapped, now I'm going to have to pay cash money to bring it in.

They want me to pay Rs 35,000+ (or maybe Rs 21,000+ it's not totally clear) in duty. Now it looks to me like they're charging me the 35% rate and not giving me the TR (Transfer of Residence) break. I ask my guy about this. He asks if I've got the FRO paperwork. Oops. Not yet. (See "Turns out to be a mistake..." above.) We go back and forth on this and I'm not sure of the end result. I point out that I can't get the FRO done while he's holding my passport. He gives it back to me. He asks if I've got the money with me. Yeah right. Like I carry that much cash around with me, especially in India where the largest note most ATMs give out is a 100 rupee note, 500 if you're lucky (1000 if you know where to look) and where the daily ATM limit is often 10,000 rupees. Do I look like I'm carrying around 200 100 rupee notes in my pocket? (I'm not that well endowed, thanks anyway.)

I agree to bring the cash the next day at 11 and to call him when I leave the office. I call at 10:15 when I leave and we agree to meet at the warehouse at 11. I'm there at 10:45 (what can I say, traffic was unusually light on Airport Road, probably because it was Mahashivaratri. Even so I waited until 11:30 before asking my driver to call him (see "no phone" above.) "I'm on my way! 15 minutes!" We wait until noon and call again. "I'm almost there. 5 minutes!" I laugh and told the driver he did the same thing yesterday. The driver smiles and says "Time is different in my country." I can only agree. Eventually I hand over Rs 30,000 in cash and get my passport and we leave.

I get back to the office to find a SIM card that's charged to Google on my desk. Woo hoo! I have a phone! It is unbelievable just how difficult life is here without a mobile. Everyone has a mobile number. It seems even some of the poorest people will have a phone with free incoming calls. The trick is that when they need to make an outgoing call they'll call you and immediately hang up. You use caller-id (called CLIP here) to call them back. It's a pretty good system.

Finally today our boxes arrived at the guest house! We have our stuff. I asked the shipper how much it weighed, so I could see how close we had come to the 500lb limit. He said "200 kilos sir." Close!

Next up - looking for housing.

Arriving in Bangalore - The Bandh

2007-02-17T22:54:00.000+11:00

After 4 days in Singapore, we left at around 8pm and arrived in Bangalore at 10pm. This time we knew the drill, picked up our luggage and quickly found our driver. The swarms of drivers waiting outside were reassuring not intimidating, and the pushy porters wanting to load our bags were just part of the scene. When the porter asked for US$10 for loading our bags I didn't get upset or confused - I just laughed. That's the price of a nice dinner for two. I instead offered him US$5 (which is pretty standard in the US - about $1/bag - and nearly quite generous in Bangalore.)

The driver was a pleasant friendly fellow named Sanjay, who it turns out has been my driver pretty much all week. He drove us to the guest house, we put our stuff away and went to bed.

Guest House

This guest house thing is pretty nice. Google has rented most of a place called the Maranatha Apartments in D'Souza layout. (If you know what Maranatha means, and who the D'Souzas are it's not really surprising...) The guest house consists of a three or four separate apartments each with a large common area and three or four bedrooms. For the first few days we basically had the place to ourselves. It felt very luxurious. Fridge stocked with juices, sodas, and milk. Lots of snacks, fresh fruit, cereal and bread. People come in and clean, take your laundry, fix meals.

The next day (Sunday) we wandered around the neighborhood a little. Had coffee at the local Cafe Coffee Day. The coffee was decent, but the "chocolate croissant" was ... interesting. More like a long choclate "snail" than a croissant. This was a fairly thick risen yeast dough rolled around some chocolate then baked and dipped in chocolate. Not exactly a "pain au chocolate" but still tasty with coffee. Walked up to MG road, bought some books including the excellent Eicher map that someone recommended in the comments after I complained about the lack of good maps. Eventually walked down MG road to Bangalore Central and took an auto-rickshaw back to the guest house.

The Bandh

Monday was interesting. The state of Karnataka, where Bangalore is, is involved in a water dispute, primarily with the state of Tamil Nadu. There's an argument about just how much water from the Cauvery River Karnataka has to release to Tamil Nadu. There's a water board specifically set up to decide these disputes, and they had decided that Karnataka had to release more water to Tamil Nadu than Karnataka thought they should have to. (The decision will have significant impact on farmers in both states, regardless of how it ends up.) In protest of the decision, various Karnataka organizations had called a dawn-to-dusk statewide "bandh."

As far as I can tell a bandh is a kind of general strike, usually organized by a political organization to make a political point. What I'm less clear about is how this bandh was supposed to advance the cause it was supposedly advocating. A general strike by the common people in protest to decisions by the government or other people in power that they disapprove of I understand as a protest technique. But this was a strike that was supported (or at least not disapproved of) by all the state political parties. Its effect would be primarily on the state that was the aggreived party, not on the people making the decisions. It seemed to me very much in the vein of "I'll show you, I'll shit my pants!"

Anyway, we were told to not come in to the office, and that everything would basically be closed from 6am to 6pm. So we hung out in the guest house, ate, read, and finally got bored. I decided it would be ok to walk the two blocks to the Google office, though Debbie was a little concerned. As we walked down the street it was a little eerie. There was basically no traffic. No autos, no private cars, no two wheelers, no bikes, and very few pedestrians. There was a police officer armed with a rifle at the one intersection we went through, and a strange quiet over the entire city. The office was open and we had internet connectivity, so we hung out there for the rest of the day. Later, we wandered over to Nandhini Paradise our local Andhara place and had spicy food and went home to bed.

Impressions of Singapore

2007-02-16T02:58:00.000+11:00

I must say flying 14 hrs on Singapore Airlines Business Class is much nicer than flying 20 hrs on United Coach. What a huge difference! The food is better, the drinks are free, but most importantly you have wide enough seats and enough leg room to stretch out - and the seats recline nearly flat! You can actually sleep in some semblance of comfort.

Anyway, after our comfortable flight we had a very short stop in Hong Kong just enough time to wander around the airport a bit a whet our appetites for a longer visit sometime in the hopefully near future, then off to Singapore proper.

... and boy is Singapore proper.

Baggage claim is quick and painless. The customs and immigration lines are efficient and no-nonsense. There are scads of brochures and advertisements everywhere telling you about all the things you can do in Singapore. We contemplate taking transit, but with two large checked bags, even Debbie thinks a cab is a better idea.

This is the best cab I've ever taken. We walk up to the cab stand, we're directed to a parking space where a cab is just pulling in. The cabbie helps us load our luggage and we're off. No arguing about fares, we just tell him what hotel we want and off we go. The drive is smooth, traffic flows, people stay in their lanes and mostly obey the speed limit. We arrive at our hotel (The Shangri-La) only to discover that yet again we've been fooled by a small detail in the name, and are at the wrong hotel. We're at the Trader's Hotel by Shangri-La, not the Shangri-La. However this is quickly straightened out, the hotel puts us in another cab and we quickly arrive at the correct hotel. We check in and plan our next moves.

We want to visit hawker centers and eat hawker center food. Chicken Rice, Chilli Crab, Char Kwey Tiao, Laksa for sure and anything else that looks good. I want to check out some of the fabled electronics malls - Sim Lin Square for sure. Debbie wants bookstores, and to see if there's a Muji in Singapore. We both want to check out transit and go on the Night Safari.

Over the next few days we do all of these, and a few more things. Hawker centers are everything we hoped for. Electronics malls are cool but ultimately somewhat disappointing (mostly due to a weak dollar), Muji is a let down, but the Night Safari lives up to its advance billing. I'll put up details with pictures once I get a chance to process them...

... and we're off!

2007-02-06T17:47:00.000+11:00

We're sitting in the Singapore Airlines business class lounge (the "Silver Kris" lounge) because Google has recently changed our travel policy to allow business class travel for long flights. Our flight leaves at midnight and I can still hardly believe we're actually doing this!

This week has been kind of hectic. We finished off our immunizations, rabies and japanese encephalitis, and I talked to my doctor about taking copies of my records with me. (He seems to think my medical history is mundane enough that this won't be necessary.) Got my Indian work permit - Google hires a very efficient law firm in San Francisco who does all the hard work. I just send them my passport, a blank visa application, and my resume and they take care of all the rest. Very nice.

I joined a mailing list recommended to me by a friend ("Silklist") that looks like it will be very helpful with acculturation in general and Bangalore in particular, and immediately discovered that I already know at least one person on the list, and that Debbie had been introduced to the moderator by yet another mutual friend. I know it's a small world, but this is ridiculous. In another "small world" moment, I reconnected with an old DEC friend (Vasudev) and discovered that he's also friends with our friends-of-friends Suku and Latha AND he's a friend of a PM I work with at Google. So we had dinner with them last week and it was great fun.

We've been madly cramming cultural, food, and social events into our last weeks in town. Dinner with friends, plays at Shotgun ("The Forest War" - superb!), Berkeley Rep ("Pillowman" - also excellent, and Bear Bergman's "Monday Night in Westerbork" (which was fabulous too!) Dinner with our friends Carol and Robert and donating decades worth of books and artifacts about radical sex to the Center for Sex and Culture. One last dim sum at Yank Sing with dear friends, dinner at Jardiniere, brunch at Tartine, dinner at Quince. Saying "au revoir" in person to as many friends as we can.

It still seems somewhat unreal, even though the movers came this morning. (Their comment "Oh, this will be quick!" because we're only taking advantage of the 500lb allowance by air.) Draining the waterbed, sending a few last things off to Janice my wife up in Truckee (mostly my CD collection, some childhood photos, keepsakes.) Cancelled the phone, cancelled DSL, forwarded our mail, stopped the paper for one last time.

Dealing with cellphones has been particularly interesting. I had a brand new Treo 700p from Verizon. Problem is that it's CDMA and while I can in theory use a CDMA phone in India, Google's deal is with a GSM provider (and I'd rather get GSM anyway.) So I sold my 700p to Nathan, and bought a 680 and a pay-as-you go SIM card from T-Mobile. Turns out that number portability works to pre-paid plans! Furthermore, T-Mobile is more than happy to grab my number away from Verizon and stick it on a pre-paid SIM of theirs. So I get to keep my phone number. But nothing is ever quite that simple when it comes to US cellphone plans. Because I had a new phone from Verizon, I have a 2 year commitment. If I cancel it costs me almost $200. On the other hand Debbie and my family are all also on my plan and are all month-to-month. So, what I did was I put a new handset on the main phone line (the one with the contract obligation) and changed the phone number and billing address on that line - to Janice's existing handset [but a new number - she wanted one]. Then I canceled Debbie's line, and canceled Janice's old line. Same result as canceling my line but $200 cheaper! Ok enough geeking about hacking cellphone provider billing.

I'm looking foward to flying Singapore airlines. They're supposed to be very nice, and their business class is supposed to be especially nice. We're spending a few days in Singapore, at the Shangri-la hotel. The plan is to go to lots of hawker centers, maybe shop a little, and do the night safari at the zoo. It should be fun.

On Assignment

2007-01-09T16:47:00.000+11:00

Everything is approved and now there's the paperwork to finish. It turns out that I'm not "relocating" to India, it's an "international secondment assignment." The short explanation is that I will be treated like a US Google employee while I'm there, and Google will "equalize" things so that I neither suffer nor gain financially from the assignment. At least that's the theory.

What this means in practice is that I will be paid in US dollars at my US rate, I will get credited for US holidays (though I will take local holidays), Google will provide a tax adviser and will be tax equalized. My medical coverage will be handled under a special expat plan. I get a $5ooo relocation allowance (taxable) to cover incidental expenses - appliances, decorating, seasonal clothing, tips for the movers, and things like that. I get a one way flight for me and my partner there, and another one when we return, plus one round trip per year (after we've been there a year.)

One novel part of the agreement is that Google will provide me with a company car. I've never had a company car before, so this should be interesting. I was wondering if it made sense to lease a car when we were there and to hire a driver, well that question seems to have been answered. We will have a car, and if we have a car I'm pretty certain we'll want (need!) a driver.

Google will ship up to 500lbs of stuff by air, and a 20' shipping container for surface stuff. That's a lot of stuff! I doubt we'll come close. They'll also pay for corporate housing for 30 days while we find a place to live. Speaking of places to live, Google has a very generous housing plan that we will be completely ignoring. Basically we could continue to pay our existing US housing expenses, and Google would provide for housing in Bangalore. In other words we could keep our house here, pay our regular US housing expenses, and Google would pay for us to live in Bangalore. Instead we are going to sell our house here, and take care of our own living arrangements in Bangalore. Many of our friends, and the relocation specialist at Google
look at us like we've lost our minds when I tell them this. Especially when I explain that housing costs in Bangalore are only slightly lower than here. On the other hand, a number of our financially savvy friends who understand US real estate think about it for a bit and agree that this is actually not totally insane. Especially after I argue with them for a bit and explain my reasoning.

There are three basic reasons for this. First - I think US real estate in general, and SF real estate in particular will be flat at best for the next two years. I have argued that we should sell and rent even if we plan to stay here - investing the proceeds in something other than real estate for a few years. Second - this place is really bigger than two of us need. Yes we love having guests, but this is ridiculous. The second floor is basically uninhabited most of the time. We should downsize. Third and finally - I want to step up our basis. US tax law says that you can shelter up to $250,000 in capital gains of your residence if you have lived there for at least two of the last five years. We are bumping up against that limit, so it would be good to take that gain now. The downside risks are twofold. First that I might be wrong about real estate prices. This would be bad not just for forgoing potential gain, but it would make it harder to get back into the market. I'm not so worried about this. Second that we may not be able to find a place we love as much in an area we love as much. I'm confident that if we're patient we can find a place in this area that we would love. It might take a year or two but it will happen.

Last night we talked to a real estate agent. We hired a fee-for-service agent this time, as we have interest from friends and neighbors and it may be that we can get a reasonable price at a minimal cost. Besides I hate the way real estate is sold in the US, so if we give up a little equity in order to support a better model of real estate sales, I'm all for it. Now that we've gone and done that the first thing we decided was that we wanted to wait for the results of this year's condo lottery before deciding anything else. Hurry up and wait!

Tonight we met with Kevin from the estate sale company. We walked through the house and talked details for a bit. Both Debbie and I were astonished to discover that not only did we not need to be at the sale, he practically forbade it! How are we supposed to have any idea if they are actually selling stuff? How do we know if the money they collect bears any relation to the money they eventually give us? "Either you trust me or you don't." WTF? In the end we decide that this is stuff we're leaving behind anyway, and we'd end up just giving it away if we did it ourselves, but still it feels quite odd. He also suggests the sale will go better if it's after we're out of the house, so we reschedule for February 9-10-11. Debbie and I will probably go visit some of their other sales to check on things, and will probably ask friends to come check out the sale to see, but it still seems odd.

Now it's time to scan and shred all the documents we don't want to schlep, figure out what we want to ship, and what we want to store. So much to do, so daunting.

Bangalore day 5 - BLR - LHR - SFO

2007-01-02T15:34:00.000+11:00

Au revoir to Bangalore for now. Our flight is at 6:30 am, so being totally paranoid we asked the Google driver to show up at 3:30. He, being the conscientious sort, shows up early. Oh boy. We stuff all of our things into one bag each. If you are flying through London you are limited to one carry on bag, period. Any briefcase, purse, or any other small personal items must fit in that one bag. Next time I'm wearing a camera vest. We ask the driver to wait till we're ready, finish packing, and check out.

We're off to the airport in the cool dark quiet of the early morning. There's even less traffic than when we arrived, and we make good time to the airport. The airport seems small and somewhat run down from the outside. We hadn't had time really to get an impression when we arrived, but now with more than two hours before our flight we have more time to observe. Bangalore International Airport does not feel like any of the other airports we've gone through to get here. Bangalore is in the midst of constructing a new more modern airport that is scheduled to open in 2008, but for now it's a small, almost tiny place harboring antiquated equipment. The rooms are cavernous, floored with linoleum. The chairs seem sixties vintage stained upholstery under the glare of fluorescent lights. There are few amenities, one overtaxed coffee shop and a book and gift store not much larger than a cubbyhole. The room is filled with tired people waiting for their flights. I find two seats next to each other and we join them.

There is no electronic departure board, instead one of the three televisions periodically changes from sports or a soap opera to show a dozen lines of departure information in cryptic abbreviations. Our flight does not appear on this listing and I start to worry. The listings appear to be almost exclusively domestic Indian flights from what I can tell of the obscure destination codes. I wander back out to the security check where one of the inspectors assures me that this is the right gate. I believe him because as far as I can tell there are only two gates and the other one is closed. I'm not the only one who's nervous. As far as I can tell the waiting room consists of two groups, foreigners hoping to catch the British Airways flight to London, and Muslim pilgrims on their way to some destination that remains opaque to me.

Finally a BA person shows up and makes an announcement over the PA. The good news is that we are indeed in the right place. The bad news is that the flight is delayed for about an hour. We could have spent two more hours relaxing in our luxury hotel room paid for by Google, but instead we're trying to stay awake on uncomfortable seats in a careworn waiting room with no amenities and no internet access. I entertain myself by walking around, and buying overpriced souvenirs in the postage stamp sized gift shop.

Eventually the plane arrives, is unloaded, and we are clear to board. We file on, take our seats and take off. I look out the window at the city that will be our home for the next year. I see houses right up against the airport property, a baffling warren of small streets, and people everywhere. Still I'm looking forward to it.

Ten hours later we arrive in London late due to our late departure, and have less than one half hour to make our connection. We have to get from terminal four to terminal one, and we have to navigate Heathrow's internal security checks. We lose no time getting to the right shuttle to take us to our terminal, after asking we are granted the use of the expedited security line because of our close connection and finally make it to our gate in time to immediately board our next ten hour flight to San Francisco.

After watching four movies that were not on my list of movies I wanted to see, watching the sun set and rise again because of how far north we flew, watching ice floes and snow drifts in the rising sun, noticing Mount Shasta passing by, we eventually arrived back at San Francisco Airport. We quickly and efficiently dealt with all the customs and immigration formalities and boarded BART. We were home - what would be home for just a few more weeks.

Bangalore Day 4 - Sahib Sindh Sultan

2007-01-01T18:40:00.000+11:00

Even after our afternoon feast at MTR, we had plans for yet one more nice restaurant. Guidebooks had suggested, and friends had concurred that Sahib Sindh Sultan was a place to go. One thing that I like about dining in Bangalore is that the busy part of the evening starts at around 10pm, and restaurants are still going strong at 11pm. We had been eating early due to jet lag and were often the first or only people in a restaurant at 8pm. We asked the front desk at the hotel to make reservations for Sahib Sindh Sultan the day before because the guidebooks and friends had agreed that on weekends it would fill up and prior reservations were needed. Unfortunately the front desk had not read the guidebooks and hadn't actually called on the day we asked. Fortuntately the restaurant put us on the "waiting list" for 9:30-10:00pm and said that if we just showed up we should be seated relatively promptly.

Sahib Sindh Sultan is in The Forum mall, and we arrived early enough to wander around and look at stores. We saw a disturbing "catwalk" contest event with pre-pubescent girls volunteering from the audience then walking down a simulated fashion show catwalk to bad dance music and showing off their "moves." The Forum mall contains big name fashion stores as well as more pedestrian venues, including a McDonalds, a KFC, and a grocery store.

After wandering around for a bit, we went up to the top floor at 9:30 and announced ourselves to the hostess. She said she'd called our hotel to tell us we had a seating but had gotten no answer but that they could still accommodate us. We were seated immediately.

The restaurant is styled after a 19th century train station and train. We were seated in an antique railcar, the owner has gone to great lengths to provide authentic period details including hats, luggage, and antique style lighting. They work hard to recreate the feeling of luxury during the British Raj. The atmosphere could be overwhelmingly tacky and kitchy or simply charming depending on your mood. I was charmed.

I had noticed that some of the menus we'd been seeing had a section for (non-alcoholic) drinks at the beginning, but we had just skipped over them. This time we decided to try a couple of them, "Sahib Ka Panna" charcoal roasted pineapple with cumin and sugar, and "Sultan Sharbat" sandalwood, saffron, and lemon. The Sahib Ka Panna was an opaque bright green and more savory than we had expected. The pineapple flavor was ... subtle, and the cumin was quite prominent. It was billed as a "digestive" on the menu and like most digestives this was not a "sipping" drink it tasted like it was supposed to be good for you as opposed to tasty. The Sharbat on the other hand was delicately sweet, clear and yellow with a mild citrusy flavor. Very refreshing.

For a soup course we chose to share a "Miskin Paya Shorba" a soup made from simmered lamb's trotter. It was as thick and rich as you might expect with all the gelatine, easily cut with the thoughtfully provided slice of lemon. Very tasty, though the chunks of lamb came complete with small foot bones that you needed to discreetly hide under the soup bowl.

Debbie had a craving for cheese, so we ordered char grilled paneer stuffed with cheese "Lady Canning's Reshmi Paneer Tikka", and cheese naan. I am a fanatic for lamb so we tried to order "Leberiyan" lamb soaked in yogurt then grilled but were told they were out. Instead we substituted a pounded lamb formed around a skewer and grilled. I hoped it would be like the ubiquitous ground lamb dish that goes by "kefta," "kofte" or similar names all around the mediterranean but no. It was a mushy paste that was barely cooked and not very tasty. The head waiter, perhaps aware that this dish was not a resounding success brought us a freebie - "Makai Mothia Seekh" a soft vegetable kebab with paneer and sweet corn. This was utterly delicious and convinced us that yes everyone was right and we really should be trying more of the vegetarian dishes.

Finally we had "Gucchi Aur Kumbh" Kashmiri morels in a thick spicy nut flavored sauce. Apparently mushrooms are traditionally seen as a relatively "impure" food, since they grow on decaying tissue, on the same level as preserved meats or alcohol. I say "more for me!" This dish was very tasty with a subtle creaminess that complemented the earthy flavor of the morels. We had been practicing eating with our hands, and we ate this dish with our naan using our fingers. We were so stuffed we had no room for dessert, so after the finger bowl we wandered out to find an autorickshaw and make our way home.

Bangalore Day 4 - Mavalli Tiffin Rooms

2007-01-01T17:34:00.000+11:00

The Mavalli Tiffin Rooms are an institution. Not just a Bangalore institution either. People come from all over the world to eat at "MTR" as it's called. At most places in Bangalore, if there's a line (yes, it's called a queue here. I'm from the US, I'm going to use US terms till I get assimilated.) people will just go some place else. At MTR even locals willingly line up and wait for hours. MTR started in 1924 with the restaurant, but now is known even more for their line of prepared foods. So this could be like going to "The Rice-a-Roni restaurant" but I don't think locals would line up for hours to visit some over-the-hill brand-identified over marketed has been tourist trap, would they?

I don't know for certain if they would but I certainly wouldn't, and I will be back to the Mavalli Tiffin Room. We ate at some of the fanciest five-star hotel restaurants, some of the most recommended "name" restaurants in Bangalore while were were there, and the most memorable meal was here.

You start downstairs at the iron barred cashier's cage. After deciding if the chalkboard written menu of the day suits your taste, you pay up front a fixed cost per person and get your receipt. Upstairs is a large waiting room, filled with people sitting on benches and a lone gatekeeper at a podium next to the door to the main dining area. Occasionally he calls out a number or series of numbers, and people file in to be seated on plastic chairs at marble topped tables. We wait in this picturesque waiting area for almost an hour, watching a stream of different people come in and occasionally enter the dining area. It's fascinating people watching, and I only wish I knew more about how to recognize their differences and similarities. Everyone is polite, there is no crowding or complaining (though my friend and co-worker from Bangalore who's our guide for the afternoon informs me that people are cheating. They slip in with other groups even though they have not yet been called. I am amused.)

Finally we are allowed in. As we are led to our table I notice the basins for washing your hands, and the rows of shiny stainless steel buckets holding the food we're about to be served. The three of us are seated at a table for eight, along with a family of three NRI (non-resident Indians) from London who have made the pilgrimage to MTR. The son peppers his father with questions about "is this how it was when you came here?" It's clear that they're as excited as we are to be here. We sit down and a stamped stainless steel plate with various indentations is placed in front of each of us.

The parade of food begins. Servers circulate precisely between the tables, following the same route. Each one carries a bucket, and dishes it up precisely with no nonsense. First a silver tumbler of sweet juice - tangerine? Then a spoonful of potato curry seasoned with black mustard. It reminds me of the potato curry inside masala dosa, but wetter. Then in quick succession a green chutney, a dry vegetable dish (cabbage with coconut and white sesame), anther dry vegetable dish of carrots and dal, and a poori.

Next comes a small side dish with a fried dumpling in a salty yogurt, and a famous local rice dish whose name I've shamefully forgotten that was both tart and pungent, served with a scoop of yogurt with diced red onion over it. A crispy yellow hard fried sweet "pretzel" that had been soaked in sugary syrup was placed on each of our plates by the dhoti clad server, and before we could finish it, a scoop of pristine white rice. This had ghee drizzled on it, and then a scoop of vegetable curry. I thought I was going to burst. To top it off, two more scoops of rice, one we were told to make an indentation for rasam (a soup) and the other for curds (like thick chunky yogurt). Both were delicious and a welcome complement to the other flavors.

Finally to end there was a dish of fruit salad topped with ice cream and a cherry. As we were wondering if there was any more to come, we got our answer. The server placed a cellophane packet with paan at each of our places. Our local friend told us that in the past MTR had let people in the front, but they exited out the rear through the kitchen - something that was unheard of at the time, but MTR had wanted to display the uncharacteristic cleanliness of their kitchens. This was no longer needed - their reputation had been long established by now - but we still exited through the kitchen to take a peek.

I regret not getting a photo of the chalkboard menu, and we still need to experience their breakfast dosa. We also avoided the nearby MTR supermarket, all of which lacks will be repaired on a future visit, because we will be back!

Bangalore Day 4 - Impressions of Roads and Traffic

2007-01-01T12:00:00.000+11:00

One of the first impressions I got of Bangalore was the traffic. I had heard from many people that the traffic was going to be bad and I had mentally prepared myself for floods of traffic. On the way in from the airport though, traffic was more of a trickle than a flood. Granted it was something like 6am, but I had expected more!

The next day we got more. Our hotel was on a main road. This road was apparently originally called "Double Road" because it was one of the very few divided multi-lane roads in Bangalore. It's official name at that time was "Residency Road" and that is still what most people call it, though it's official name is now "FM Cariappa Road" due to the great renaming of roads. Apparently roads all over India are being renamed from the colonial names with names that reflect important or famous people in India's history. This means that a road may have three or four different names. We do similar things here in the Bay Area - do you know where Army Street is in San Francisco, or Grove Street is in Berkeley?

Traffic on Residency Road was a flood of trucks, bicycles, motorcycles and scooters (collectively called "two wheelers"), automobiles, busses, even bullock carts and autorickshaws. Lots and lots of autorickshaws. nominally it's a four lane road but in fact there are no lanes. Vehicles go whereever they see an opening tootling their horns merrily as they go. Horn use in Bangalore is different from how horns are used in the US. You use your horn liberally to say "here I am" - to alert people to your presence, to let them know you're planning to pass them, to let people merging to know to check how close they are, to warn pedestrians to watch out. It was rare to hear a horn used in anger, to say "hurry up," "get out of my way," or "you idiot!" Debbie (and I) hate horns in the US, and I was sure she'd hate all the horns in India, but no, they don't feel nearly as upsetting.

If Residency Road was a flood, the smaller streets were rivers and streams, and even the alleys were trickles of traffic. I don't think the traffic itself was all that much heavier than heavy traffic anywhere, but it was unrelenting. There was always traffic. You could never just stroll across a road, even a small one, because someone would be driving on it. Further, not only do pedestrians not have the "right of way" cars expect you to get out of their way, and you damn well better. Even walking on the sidewalk across a driveway, cars do not in general slow down or try to avoid you as they exit or enter. It is up to you, fragile human, to avoid the vehicles.

I've tagged my photos taken in Bangalore to make it easy to see where they were taken, but it was not so easy finding the places we wanted to go to. There aren't really good maps of Bangalore, although Google has recently put a good map online and Microsoft Research has something called "Virtual India" but I've lately had trouble getting Virtual India to work. Paper maps, especially the tourist ones from hotels are useless. Even if you have the exact street address of some place, it's not nearly as helpful as you might think. Because there are no good maps, you can't look up the address on a map. You can ask someone, but unless the street is big and well known, your interlocutor is unlikely to know the actual street - there are a lot of streets in a big city, and Bangalore is a big city. Even those professional street-name-knowers, the taxi drivers (or in this case autorickshaw drivers) are unlikely to be familiar with that specific street. For one thing, the street may have three or four names, and you may be using one of the ones that the driver is not familiar with. For another thing, names are reused from neighborhood to neighborhood, so you may need to qualify the street name with the part of the city. If all you have is a street address, you may not know the neighborhood! This means that directions in Bangalore are generally given in terms of neighborhoods and landmarks. If you don't know the landmarks near your destination, and the neighborhood it's in, it's quite likely you won't be able to get there from here.

For example, Google is at "3 Vittal Mallya Road." None of the autorickshaw drivers seem to have heard of this road. Instead you tell them you want to go to some local landmark, like the St. Mark's Hotel around the corner then direct them when you get close. This scheme is not limited to ignorant foreigners, I'm told by locals that this is how everyone gives directions. Our hotel, The Chancery Pavilion, while big and fancy is relatively new, and often drivers would not have heard about it (or worse, would think we were talking about "The Chancery" a related hotel about a mile away.) Even telling them "Chancery Pavilion" "Residence Road" "Richmond Town" wouldn't help. However telling them "Bangalore Club back gate" would get us close enough to direct them across the street to our hotel.

Let me explain a little about autorickshaws. They are three wheeled contraptions with bright yellow vinyl coated cloth canopies with noisy little two stroke engines. They are controlled like motorcycles and are ubiquitous. Nominally you tell the driver your destination, he drops the meter's flag, drives you there, and you pay the fare on the meter. Currently that's Rs 12 for the first 1.6 km, and Rs 6 for each km after that and 1.5x that between 10pm and 5am. That's the theory. In practice autorickshaw drivers are notorious for overcharging passengers. First they will try to negotiate a fixed rate, which is always higher than the meter rate. They will refuse to take you if you want the meter rate, they will take you by a longer indirect route, they will try to add the 50% premium on top of electronic meters that already have the extra built in. If all that fails they will wheedle. Yet they remain the most popular and common form of transportation in the city.

At first we were scared of them. They're small, open, and fragile looking. Bangaloreans have a deserved reputation of being open, easygoing, and friendly. Not the autorickshaw drivers! They can be cunning, hard, abusive, and impatient. They don't understand our English and we speak no Kannada. Even if we did I doubt my ability to explain where we want to go. So at first we asked the hotel to get their driver to take us where we wanted to go and we either walked back (from Google) or had the driver come pick us up (from Dakshin.) I later discovered that this was costing approximately 10x what an auto [as autorickshaws are called] would have cost. Eventually though, after going to the Garuda Mall for dinner at Sikander we decided to be brave and take an auto home.

It was a blast! We ended up paying a fixed fare that was probably 50% above what we should have paid. Rs 60 instead or Rs 40 - Call it $1.50 instead of $1, for the two of us. But we got an up close view of the street and the people, and got to see streets we would otherwise have never visited. We heard some of the rich invective that is possible in the Kannada language, and felt connected to the street and people in a way you can't feel locked behind the air conditioned glass of a private automobile. Even if we get a car and driver (and we likely will) I can tell that autos will be a big part of our travel plans in Bangalore.

Bangalore Day 3 - Google and Dakshin

2006-12-28T16:12:00.000+11:00

I haven't written much about Google Bangalore, partly because I can't say much about it and partly because it's not that different from what I do for Google Mountain View. The office is in a nice building in a posh part of town, but not in one of the "Special Economic Zones" (SEZs). We walk there each morning from the hotel, Debbie does internet stuff for a while and sometimes we have lunch there.

The lunches are quite different from Google in Mountain View, not too surprisingly. For one thing, while we get Indian food in Mountain View. It's nothing like this! There is a choice of from six to eight hot dishes, two kinds of rice, one or two kinds of bread, fresh fruits, salad and dessert - and that's just the "Indian" side of the lunch. We also have a more "Western" style lunch with prepared salads, a salad bar, and various prepared sandwiches. Google also provided breakfast and dinner. I haven't yet tried the dinner, but breakfast was two kinds of hot farina, and an assortment of cold cereals.

For dinner we went to "Dakshin" a fancy restaurant in the Sheraton Towers. The idea is that it serves authentic southern regional dishes presented in an elegant setting with live music, in our case a duo from tamil nadu on the mridangam (drum) and venu (bamboo flute). The restaurant kindly moved us right up next to the musicians when it became clear we were really into the music.

The food started with papads fried in oil that had first been flavored by frying chilis in it. These were the lightest, crispiest, best papads I've had. I'm sure living in India we'll find even better ones eventually but so far these are the best! They were served with four chutneys, two of them standard coconut and cilantro, two of them more unusual - a tomato chutney, and a "sour leaf" chutney, a fermented leaf that reminded me of lime pickle, salty, tart, and pungent. All were great but the sour leaf chutney on the papads was especially good.

Next came a pair of fritters. One was slightly sweet banana and cashew, the other was a more salty rice and lentil flour dumpling. Both had been fried, and were quite delicious. We started with "Kozhi Varuval" a "dry" dish of pieces of boneless chicken marinated in spices and deep fried. Then Maama Saaru (boneless lamb mysore style), Kelayachi Bahji (raw banana with sesame and red chilis), traditional local rice, and Elaneer Payasam (Hyderabadi tender coconut kernels cooked in reduced sweet coconut milk flavored with cardamom.)

Finally they brought us a tray of paan (betel leaf) in this case filled with spices, sugar and flavors including cloves and crystallized ginger. I'm still trying to figure out how one is supposed to chew the things, but I'm going to keep at it for a while.

Bangalore Day 2 - Dinner at Sikander

2006-12-27T17:03:00.000+11:00

For dinner tonight we went to "Sikander" a nice restaurant in Garuda Mall. The concept is foods from all the places that Alexander the Great conquered. An admirable goal but evidently Alexander only drank light pilsners. Finding a good beer in India may be a challenge. So far all the beers have been lagers, whats more they've been light pilsners. This is no country for an ale drinker.

We started in Turkey with Adana Seek, a ground meat formed around a skewer and grilled. We've had this in San Francisco, and this version was neither much better or much worse than we've had before. We also had Diwani Handi (fresh vegetable dish in browned onions and almonds) and Murgh Dum Biryani a Persian inspired dish of chicken and spiced rice.

Bangalore Day 2 - afternoon

2006-12-27T16:15:00.000+11:00

Bangalore is an almost overwhelming maelstrom of impressions. There are women wearing beautiful saris carrying large budens on their heads past barefood sewer workers blithely carrying on in the middle of traffic rushing by on both sides of them as they work.

The sidewalk is cut stone slabs laid on kerb stones, but in places have fallen through or broken exposing the trench beneath. In some places it smells of urine, in most places it is dusty or dirty, often there is no sidewalk at all, and you share the road with traffic.

There are exquisite small shops in almost every block where local people shop and enjoy their daily lives, but as yet despite my curiosity I haven't had a chance to try them. I'm sure we'll get our chance.

Besides the small stores, there are also street food vendors selling all sorts of foods. Roasted peanuts, chaat, snacks of all sorts that I don't yet even have names for. Our local friends tell us not to eat at the street carts, but I'm sure we'll try them sooner or later...

The traffic is bad, but not so horrendous (yet) as we've been lead to believe. There have been a few cases of gridlock, often lots of traffic, but it's just traffic. There's dust and haze, lots of unfamiliar vehicles, but on the other hand it makes sense. Smaller vehicles, bikes, lots of small two-wheelers. It may be hard because we like to walk, and we like to take busses but it'll work out.

One thing that's taking some getting used to is how dogs are treated. In San Francisco we meet a lot of our neighbors through their dogs. We see them on the street, we say hi, we pet them. In Bangalore I have yet to see an obviously "pet" dog. We see lots of dogs, but none of them seem to have owners. Maybe they're "neighborhood" or "community" dogs, or maybe they're just strays, but they're all over. I have have no desire to try to befriend or even pet these dogs. It's a shock.

In spite of all the differences, there are pockets of familiarity. Not necessarily the things I find most attractive about my world, yet they are familiar. Global brands, designer labels, and rows of high end stores. MG Road and Brigade Road have all the familiar names and storefronts, but with a distinctly Indian twist - they all have generators waiting in front of them for the inevitable power failures.

We quickly found the shopping streets, the malls, and the big hotel restaurants. While they have their charms, I look forward to spending more time and enjoying more of the things that make Bangalore, and India what they are. It's not Dominos, malls, traffic, or even fancy restaurants in five star hotels. I don't know what it is yet, but I look forward to learning more.

Bangalore Day 2 - First Impressions

2006-12-22T04:05:00.000+11:00

Today I got up and walked with Debbie to Google. Spent the morning doing various work things, then left at midday to meet with our friend of a friend (Suku) of a friend (Scott) Mohan. We spent a long time asking questions about living in India (he lived for many years in the US, moved there as a child and returned to India as an adult - so he has a lot of the culture shock information we want.) After chatting for a while about the relative merits of flats versus detached houses, how to hire a driver and deal with domestic help, the best brand of house water purifier to get and other esoterica, we all went off to lunch.

Debbie (and I) had been pining for dosas for a while, so we mentioned this to Mohan. He suggested the restaurant at the St. Marks, and off we went. It turns out that for lunch they have a buffet, but after some skillful negotiating by Mohan they agreed to make us dosas. We were very pleased.

Bangalore Day 1 - Hotel, Google, Dinner

2006-12-21T22:52:00.000+11:00

We arrived safely in Bangalore - at 5:40am local time. Customs and immigration formalities were just that, a formality, and in no time we were standing looking around for our driver surrounded by dozens of drivers holding up little white signs with names on them. We only got accosted by a few taxi drivers anxious for our business, and finally Debbie found our driver in the crowd.

We loaded our bags into the car (well actually a couple of volunteer porters did the loading for us) and I apologetically informed them I had no rupees. They cheerfully replied that they would take any currency, so I gave them my last GBP small change - 30p. That worked out to about Rs 26 which is about right. Whew.

The ride to the hotel was exotic and interesting and bewildering for us, though looking back on it knowing what we know now it was actually very quiet and uneventful. Well except that the driver took us to the wrong Chancery Hotel... We went in to check in and they could find no record of our reservation. They realized we might be at the "wrong" Chancery Hotel and called over to the other one (The Chancery Pavilion.) Sure enough that's where our reservation is. They quickly ran out and stopped our driver before he left and we managed to get things sorted out. The two hotels are actually quite close to each other and after agreeing with him that he'd drive us to Google in the morning, we got to our room. Except for the fact that it has two slightly too small beds instead of one large one it's a fine room, a nice "five star" room that I'd be happy with anywhere in the world. Plenty of bottled water, internet access, a lovely shower and tub, everything you would want. We slept for a few hours then off to Google.

It turns out the Google office is a short walk from the hotel, the driver pointed out the route to us and since then we've walked each day. The office is nice, felt very "Googly" with all the standard Google arrangements. Meals in the office, soft drinks and juices, and all sorts of snacks. One nice feature is along with a good selection of teas, is an assortment of tea biscuits in brightly colored containers. One of the tea bags available is a masala chai which made me happy.

We came back to the hotel for their buffet lunch which was fine if unremarkable. The lamb chops were tasty, but it suffers from the same disadvantage of any buffet. Nothing is terribly fresh, and being held on a steam table makes the flavors suffer. Still it was our first "indian" food and it made us happy.

I spent some time in the office, catching up with work things and arranging meetings and talks for later in the week. With work done for the day our next "outing" was to try to find dinner. I'd looked at some Googler recommendations on the internal Google Bangalore website, and had noticed that one of the places "Nandhini" was on our way to the hotel. Nandhini serves Andhra style food which is spicy! It was the first really spicy hot food we'd had and it was delcious! Definitely need to go back. Unfortunately the beer selection has so far been downright bad. Well, it's fine if you want a light lager, but a good flavored ale? Forget it.

After dinner we went for a little walk around the "neighborhood." Basically down to the end of the block the Google office is located on, and back. At the end of the block we saw the only traffic accident I've seen so far this trip, which was a bike that went down when he didn't see the road was diverted to the right and he
laid it down when he hit a patch of sand while trying to turn too fast. Everyone rushed to help him (including me) but he was ok, no serious damage done. On the way back from that I saw the only graffiti I've noticed so far. I have no idea what it means...

London day 4 - off to Bangalore

2006-12-21T22:03:00.000+11:00

We spent a leisurely morning wandered over to Harrods 102 to pick up food for the trip as well as have a little breakfast. Normally I would run screaming from a place that had sushi boats on one end, a convenience store in the middle, a cafe on the other end, and a dry cleaner in the back, but it was convenient and I had a sort of morbid curiosity about the place.

I had a berry smoothie, a latte and a pain au chocolate. Debbie had an espresso and a pear tart. Both were decent but as Debbie says "it was no Bluebottle." (My god, am I one of those tiresome people always complaining about how something or other just isn't as good as back home? I'll try to keep the whining to a minimum.)

After that it was off to Heathrow! We just hopped on the Piccadilly line at Knightsbridge skipped the first train because it was going to Uxbridge instead of Heathrow caught the next train with the cheerful "Heathrow 1,2,3" on it and were on our way.

Sadly the cheerful sign was a lie. After a few more stops the announcement changed from "This is a Heathrow train" to "This train is going to Acton Town" bait and switch! The driver admitted to the switcheroo and advised people to change in Acton town - which we duly did.

Once at Heathrow, Debbie got in the (long) checkin line with our luggage while I went scouting for faster ways to check in. Travelling together works well - I found the automatic check-in machines, and the "tag and drop" queue and proceeded to print our boarding passes. Unfortunately the machine claimed I had already checked in (we had, on line, but I hadn't printed the boarding passes) and wouldn't proceed. Fortunately the nice BA lady sorted everything out. I fetched Debbie so she could show off her nice Indian visa and we learned that with just check-in we could just proceed to security. Yay!

I breezed through the documentation line and was merrily on my way to security when I noticed Debbie was no longer behind me! I came back to find that her bag didn't fit in the little bag size template. Boo. After a quick rearrangement the problem was solved and we had no further trouble getting through. I had a nice glass of champagne while we waited in the cafe for our flight, we boarded with no trouble and after a forgettable dinner of "chicken risotto" I snoozed through the rest of the flight.

London day 3 - Caffe Concerto, Tate Modern, Pierino, The Bunch of Grapes

2006-12-18T10:14:00.000+11:00

We started off this morning from our cozy little B&B and visited Caffe Concerto an Italian cafe and bakery on Brompton Road. Debbie had two cafe macchiati with a millefeuille while I had a macchiato and double espresso with an apricot danish.

Breakfast done we took the tube back to the Tate Modern to visit their two special exhibits. "Fischli & Weiss: Flowers & Questions. A Retrospective " and "David Smith: A Centennial."

The Fischli and Weiss exhibit was charming, amusing, and provocative - an excellent combination. They produce what seem to be light witty pieces, very contemporary, but pieces that prick at you at the same time. We especially liked Suddenly this Overview, a collection of small unfired clay sculptures that illustrate various themes both profound and mundane.

Next we visited the David Smith exhibit across the hall. I had only a passing familiarity with his work before this, but after seeing it as a collection, especially having just seen the surrealist and cubist works at the Tate I think I have a much better appreciation for his work.

For dinner we arranged to meet Tanya (tnt) from The Well, at Pierino. Pierino is a neighborhood italian place in Kensington where Tanya lives. From the outside it looks like one of a hundred other generic italian places you see all over the world, but they make all of their pastas in house, and the pizza crusts are obviously hand made and baked in a hot oven.

On the way home we stopped for a hand pulled pint of real ale - Abbot's IPA in the local pub "The Bunch of Grapes." With a name like that you'd expect it to be some kind of foofy wine bar, and while you wouldn't be entirely wrong, they also did have real ale and hand pumps. Unfortunately they also had cigarette smoke, which reminded me why I don't really like pubs all that much - except for the company.

We're off to bed, and tomorrow we leave for India! We can take the underground right from our local tube stop directly to Heathrow, so we should have a relatively easy time of it. Still didn't buy a cellphone, and I hear they're somewhat painful to get in India, but calling people over VOIP has worked ok so far, so we will see.

London day 2 - Borough Market and the Tate Modern

2006-12-17T20:18:00.000+11:00

We're staying at a cute little B&B in Knightsbridge, just around the corner from the retail madness that is Harrods in christmas time. We had a nice little breakfast of yoghurt, croissants, coffee and fruit then walked to the tube. The nearest tube stop is Knightsbridge just a few blocks away and is directly opposite Harrods's entrance.

Our first destination was the Borough Market in Southwark ("sutherk"). This was originally a working wholesale fruit and vegetable market under the mainline train tracks right near London Bridge. We took the tube to the London Bridge station using our shiny new Oyster cards (after adding money to them... ahem. See previous post.) While it is still a working fruit and vegetable market in the wee hours of the night, that's not why we wanted to go. On weekends it turns into one of the biggest and most popular food markets in London.

The Borough Market has everything. If you've ever been to the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market, imagine that about three times bigger and twice as crowded. There are people there selling everything. Prepared food, lots of game including whole rabbits, ducks, and pheasants. Large mounds of fresh yellow butter being sold by weight, and meat. Unbelievable meat. Meat from cows, sheep, pigs and more exotic animals (springbok anyone? how about ostrich?), identified by breed, location, and how it was raised. Most exciting though was the sheer quantity and variety of smoked and preserved meats. Can you say BACON? I had no idea there were so many bacon possibilities and here they were on display. Back bacon, dry cured bacon, streaky bacon, each identified by the breed of pig it had come from. A cornicopia of bacon.

Besides meat, there were lovely fresh mushrooms (it's cepes season!), a wide variety of fruits both mundane (apples of all varieties) and exotic (dragon fruit, the fruit of a peruvian cactus), a huge assortment of cheeses with specialists selling one particular artisan stilton and generalists selling cheeses from all over the world. There was a good coffee shop, we were excited when we noticed they were using mazzer grinders, la marzzoco expresso machines, and I heard the familiar "tink" of someone knocking the portafilter before polishing the puck. Sure enough they were making excellent espresso though a little more acidic and not as velvety smooth as Blue Bottle I had not expected to find espresso I could compare to Blue Bottle just walking around a market!

Sprinkled throughout were various confectioners, selling cakes, pies, cookies ("biscuits"), shortbread, candies, jams, honeys, and yes chocolate. Chocolate bulk, chocolate confections, and chocolate truffles. Lots and lots of chocolate truffles. We bought an assortment to fortify ourselves for the rest of the day and wandered off towards the Tate Modern for the rest of our day.

The Tate Modern is London's museum of modern art (defined as "since 1900") and has three main floors each divided roughly in half. Today we visited two floors, but since the Tate prohibits all photography in the exhibit halls, there will be no photos from me! Photos below courtesy of the Tate. We started with "Material Gestures" with rooms by or about Anish Kapoor and Barnett Newman, Material Gestures, Rothko, Expressionism, Distinguished Voices, Contemporary Painting, Claude Monet and Abstract Expressionism, Tacita Dean, and finally another room by Tacita Dean. The "Material Gestures" room contained some lovely Giacomettis, and the Claude Monet room had a riveting Pollock "Summertime: Number 9A." The photo (click on it for a slightly larger version and discussion) does not even begin to do the painting justice. It's full of rhythmic motion and life.

We moved on to "Poetry and Dream" which is mostly about Surrealism and its influence on modern art. I'm a huge fan of surrealism, so I was in heaven. The rooms were: Giorgio de Chirico and Jannis Kounellis, Giorgio de Chirico and Jannis Kounellis, Poetry and Dream: Surrealism and Film, Poetry and Dream: Beyond Surrealism, Francis Picabia, Thomas Schütte, Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois, Joseph Beuys and Cy Twombly, Juan Muñoz, Cindy Sherman and Gillian Wearing, Realisms, and Susan Hiller. One of the most striking exhibits was the Thomas Schütte exhibit "Enemies" consisting of pairs of male figures, heads sculpted from Fimo ("Sculpey") signifying the corrpution of current political figures. Not representational of an specific politicians, but somehow evoking all politics as corrupt.

At this point we were both hungry and exhausted so took a break for lunch in the excellent Tate cafe. Debbie and I shared fish and chips and I tried a beer from Wensleydale that had a sheep on the label. How perfect is that?

After lunch we went up to the fifth floor, which has two exhibits, one "Idea and Object" devoted to minimalism, and one called "States of Flux" devoted to Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism. I found both of them tedious and boring. I guess I was either tired, or I don't like all modern art. (I suspect the latter.) Though there was some pop and Russian socialist realism in States of Flux that I liked.

At this point we were exhausted. Walked to the the Southwark station then back to the B&B for a quick nap and some internet. Then off to dinner at Haandi an Indian place right around the corner. The food was excellent, we had lamb chops, a nice chicken dish that's a favorite of north indian truck drivers, and a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

Dublin Day 6 - The Queen of Tarts (and London!)

2006-12-16T10:28:00.000+11:00

This morning we got up early to try a bakery we'd heard was one the best in Dublin, "The Queen of Tarts." Across the street from city hall, it's a feast for the eyes as well as taste. Debbie tried a raspberry scone, while I had to try the almond raspberry danish. The scone was great, a well executed example of the art, but the danish was astonishing. Like no other danish I've ever had, it was a flaky yeast dough around a warm soft center.

We accompanied our pastries with a decent lavazza cappucino, but don't go to Queen of Tarts for the coffee - go for the array of tempting pastries and baked goods. They had raspberry cheesecakes on display that made me regret that I didn't have all day to spend here.

We later went across the river and tried Panem, which was decent, run by friendly people, and had good coffee, but Panem seems more like a lunch and food place, while Queen of Tarts is a bakery.

After Panem, I went to work while Debbie hung out, logged in, bought postcards and sat in a cafe writing postcards and mailing them. We met back at the hotel around 2:30 to pick up my nicely cleaned clothes, then off to the airport to catch our 6:30 flight.

Unfortunately our 6:30 flight got delayed, twice, and eventually left around 7:30. We arrived in Gatwick and had to disembark down stairs. I thought those went out in the '30s! Don't you have jetways? Anyway, after taking the shuttle to the terminal and then another shuttle to another terminal, we finally found the Victoria Express train.

We bought two one way tickets on the Victoria Express and were off to London. We made it to the Victoria station without incident, but were kind of tired. We got turned around trying to find our bus stop, then spent some time trying to figure out how to buy a bus ticket. (It turns out you need £1 coins, and all we had was bills from the ATM.) A helpful clerk in the book store (cute fat girl with a labret and bright red streaks in her hair - yay London!) told us to get Oyster cards, that we'd save the cost of the deposit many times over and that it's a lot more convenient. So after some wandering around I finally obtained Oyster cards for each of us.

We caught our 52 bus out to Knightsbridge, and with the help of some friendly passengers managed to figure out which stop was ours. (The bus driver was hopeless. When we asked where the stop was he just pointed his thumb at the back of the bus and said 'ask them.') Perhaps amusingly I noticed that while we had paid our £3 deposit for the Oyster cards, that doesn't actually give you any value for USING them. You have to add money. When we casually swiped our cards I noticed the LCD saying "insufficient funds, invalid fare" or some such. Debbie on the other hand was blissfully unaware of this and breezed onto the bus. So I just followed quietly behind without saying anything, resolving to put money on them as soon as we could.

We got off at our stop and proceeded to follow the directions we'd gotten online. The directions had us following streets that seemed curiously indirect, but at this point we weren't in the mood to take any chances. I think the directions are driving directions and the oddities are to account for one way streets, but in any case we are finally here safely in bed AND THERE'S WIRELESS!

Dublin day 5 - The Mermaid

2006-12-16T05:49:00.000+11:00

Debbie wandered around town during the day visiting museums. In the evening, I met her at the Irish Film Institute, in their pub - does EVERYTHING in Dublin have a pub? Silly question. The answer is "yes." Iseult met us there a little later and we once again asked her to suggest a venue. This time she proposed "The Mermaid."

The Mermaid is a slightly upscale, slightly french place and seemed to be nearly full of the christmas parties that seem endemic this time of year. We managed to get a table for four near the kitchen and were seated immediately. Debbie and I shared a "rare beef salad" special, a terrine of game and foie gras, and a braised lamb shank.

The beef salad consisted of nice tasty fresh greens, marinated anchovies, seared beef, and shaved parmesan. A nicely balanced composition and good fresh ingredients, it was a happy choice. The terrine on the other hand was dense and dry and had very little distinctive flavor of either game or foie gras - disappointing. Finally the braised lamb shank was exactly what you'd expect in a braised lamb shank. Meltingly tender lamb, falling off the bone with satisfying sauce over potatoes and a yellow vegetable, in this case roasted sweet potato. Delicious. We accompanied this with a Crozes Hermitage (Iseult was drinking champagne.)

For dessert we had a sauternes creme caramel that was accompanied by braised prunes. I had a nice well balanced dessert white whose name I can no longer remember... I should have photographed it!

Dublin Day 4 - Debbie and Thornton's

2006-12-15T04:18:00.000+11:00

Debbie arrived today! She called my loaner cellphone and we arranged to meet for dinner. My friend Iseult had generously arranged reservations at Thornton's - a fancy Michelin starred place in the Fitzwilliam Hotel. Debbie and I had agreed to meet there at 8pm, there was a small amount of confusion and after a tiny bit of anxiety we managed to find each other. She had been waiting in the hotel lobby, and I had been waiting in the restaurant.

The dinner itself was a delight. When I had walked in I saw a large open box full of truffles. Mmmm. I love truffles. In addition to their regular menu, and their eight course "surprise" menu (similar to a US style tasting menu) they had a special seasonal truffle menu.

This was the menu:

Sauteed Dublin Bay Prawn, Prawn Bisque and Truffle Sabayon
King Scallop with White Truffle
Slowly Braised Pigs Trotter with Creamed Truffle Potato
Sauteed Foie Gras with Brioche and Winter Truffle
Fillet of Brill, Artichoke, Truffle Egg
Truffle Salad
Loin of Silka Deer with Truffle Polenta, Valrhona and Truffle Sauce
Cashel Blue Cheese
Poached Pear William with Parfait and Truffle Ice Cream

A complete set of photos is up on Flickr.

During the meal, Chef Kevin Thornton came out and showed off the truffles and chatted with us about the meal and what to expect. He's a charming man, friendly and likes talking about food. We talked about a few of the dishes, and I asked him about an ingredient in one of the dishes that had been driving me nuts (it was an herbal flavor in the truffled apple juice that was served with the foie gras. I had finally figured it out and he smiled and confirmed it had a "teeny tiny bit" of the flavor I had guessed. I'm insufferably pleased with myself.)

His wine list is also quite impressive - we had a half bottle of "Clos de la Mouchere" 2001 Puligny-Montrachet with the prawn, scallop, and brill, and a half bottle of Chateau Tour du Pas St George 2001 St. Emilion with the foie gras, salad, and deer. On our way out I complemented the Maitre d' on the cheese cart, saying we were sad to have missed it. He brightened and said it was his own little project. He's Kevin's brother Garret, and it turns out that the Cashel Blue that we had probably has milk in it from their family farm. Almost all of the food at Thornton's is Irish sourced, and it was all delicious. I'm very happy with our evening.

Dublin day 3

2006-12-13T10:47:00.000+11:00

Most of the officehere doesn't show up till 10:30 ("half ten") or later so I got up at 8:30 ("eight thirty") showered and had breakfast. The hotel provides a breakfast buffet of cereals and milk, coffee, stewed prunes, grapefruit sections, orange juice, breads, croissants, cold cuts, cheese, bacon (irish bacon is soft and kind of like ham, delicious), scrambled eggs, sausage, white pudding, black pudding, and coffee. Surprisingly (t o me) the coffee does not suck. I have bacon, grapefruit, and coffee; edit yesterday's post and head off to the office.j

...

After work a bunch of us head to The Porter House brewery/pub in Temple Bar. Rebecca ("Bink") had suggested it on the way to The Market Bar so I suggested it to some of my co-workers. It's in a four story building, and serves a number of ales, lagers, and stouts they brew themselves. They also serve food. I tried their "Porterhouse Red" (an Irish ale with crystal malt and decent balancing hops), "Brainblasta" (a strong ale advertised to have good hops), and their "Celebration" stout. They're celebrating their tenth year, and from the quality of the beers I can understand why and wish them a prosperous ten more. The Porterhouse Red is a nicely balanced beer with mild caramel notes and a subtle hops balance. It's not as caramelly as, for example, Anchor Steam, but it's more subtle. This is a beer that I could drink all night - it doesn't tug at you demanding attention. The Brainblasta was stronger, but still well balanced, not as hoppy as a hop-head like me would have liked, but still very drinkable - except that at 7% alcohol you need to be a little careful. Finally the Celebration stout. In a city known around the world for one stout, it would be a little presumptuous to brew a competing stout and serve it under the nose of St. James Gate. It would be quite presumptuous to brew and serve two. It would be the height of presumption to brew and serve FOUR different stouts, and to pointedly not serve Dublin's most famous stout. Good for them. The Celebration stout at 10% alcohol celebrates their ten years in business. This stout is strong! It's also very malty and sweet, in the Russian Imperial style. It was a great finish to a delightful evening.

The food at The Porterhouse is much better than typical pub food, but is not the reason to go there. I had an Irish stew, others of my co-workers had fish and chips, burgers, and a salad. They were good, but go for the beer. We sat on the top floor, in a corner by a large copper beer wort vessel and a view of the street, it was lovely.

Dublin Day 2

2006-12-13T03:36:00.000+11:00

Day 2 after work I met my friend Iseult who I'd known from San Francisco. She's moved back to Dublin and I hadn't really expected to get a chance to see her again. How nice to be wrong! She suggested we go to a place called L'Gueuleton, a very popular French bistro in Dublin City Center.

They don't take reservations, and when we arrived at around 9pm the wait was about a half-hour. We entertained ourselves in a nearby gay pub while we waited.

When we were seated I got the chicken liver and foie gras parfait, which was a little like a livery pot de creme with a hard port glaze on top and a caperberry. Served with toasted brioche, poached pear, cornichons and greens I found it to be excellent. I also had another starter, and a 50cl bottle of house Cotes de Rhone. An excellent place - I recommend it highly.

The company certainly helped. Iseult and I spent the hours catching up with our respective lives and relationships, what it's like to live in Dublin, what it will be like to live in India, our jobs, families, hope, and plans.

Arrived in Dublin

2006-12-11T19:30:00.000+11:00

I'm safely in Dublin, at the Park Inn, Smithfields. Took the bus from the airport to the downtown bus station, then the Luas (pronounced "lewis") from there to Smithfields, which is one block from the hotel. Total cost €5.40. The hotel is more swedish modern than I would choose for myself, but it's apparently ownedby SAS so what do you expect? The Luas is fantastic. I love it. Reasonably priced, quick, convenient, goes useful places.

After arriving I wandered around Dublin for a few hours. St. James Gate Brewery is just a few minutes walk away, and the Heuston train station just a few minutes from that. Tried to take natural light night photos with the new Canon and no tripod. It was... interesting. I threw away a lot of photos.

After that it was time for dinner with co-wokers. We ended up at the Market Bar which serves tapas. I ordered olives, marinated anchovies, a cured meat plate, and patatas bravas (adventurous, eh?) other people ordered a "fish pie" that was more like a gratineed fish stew in a cream sauce and was absolutely delicious, a grilled chicken salad, and meatballs in a tomato sauce. All accompanied by lots of Guinness.

More photos on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/gp/87232391@N00/J80Y3y

Lunch at SFO

2006-12-10T10:58:00.001+11:00

This was lunch at SFO, Firewood Grill. $10 for two tiny overcooked pieces of tritip, $6 for a beer. I should know better. On the other hand, I'm now waiting to board my flight to Dublin!

Lunch at Pinxto, Dinner at Amber

2006-12-09T19:06:00.000+11:00

Had lunch with Sarah at Google's Pinxto cafe. This is our "small plate" Basque Tapas cafe and I love it. I usually have all three soups, whatever interesting "drink" of the day, a seafood appetizer and a couple of dishes. Today was no different. Going clockwise starting with the soup in the 9 o'clock position I had: saffron clam soup with israeli couscous, white bean soup with lardons, wild mushroom risotto with truffle oil, marinated baby squid, red pepper gazpacho with basil parmesan crisp, minestrone, beefsteak milanese, white sardine with proscuitto. I also had a nice tiramisu for dessert and a fresh squeezed grape/lychee juice to drink.

Dinner was with my friends Randi and Marty, at Amber India in Mountain View. It's mostly moghlai style. We started with papri chaat at my suggestion - they'd never had chaat before and as a relatively recent convert to the joys of chaat I had to introduce them. Amber makes a very nice papri chaat. Again starting at 9 o'clock and going clockwise: I had the Mirch Ka Gohst (lamb cooked with peppercorns, green chilis, ginger and saffron) that is advertized to be "spicy hot" but I found quite mild, an unpretentious basmati rice, Marty had the Kerala Lamb Curry, and Randi had a lamb cooked in almond milk that was quite unusual, slightly sweet and very creamy. We also had naan and a raita. I accompanied it with Anchor Steam - a very satisfying meal, I'd definitely recommend this place as being much better and more interesting than other local Indian places, especially if you're looking for fancy northern style food.

Bar Tartine

2006-12-08T08:07:00.000+11:00

Bar Tartine is another place I've been meaning to get back to. Last time I had their frites that are fried in duck fat and I wanted them again. Unfortuately they usually have a long wait for walk ins, and I'm not so good at planning ahead. Fortunately last night I knew Lori and I were going to be having dinner, so I called ahead and made reservations.

We arrived about ten minutes early and sat at the bar while they got our table ready. We had good rustic Tartine Bakery bread, and an apertif of Prosecco with Navarro Pinot Noir grape juice. I'm not usually a fan of prosecco, or of sweet apertifs in general but this worked well. I think the acidity of the grape juice helped. We sat and examined the menu. To my disappointment they no longer have frites on the menu! After about a 30 minute wait (!) they seated us. To their credit they did come by periodically to apologize and give us updates but the wait was too long.

Lori ordered the charcuterie plate and the onglet, while I had the sardines pinxtos. The sardines were big! They were served on toast with a nice tomatoey piperade and topped with sieved egg (that I at first thought was a ricotta) and topped with spinach. Lori's charuterie plate was a study in contrasts. Coarse testa - almost a rillette - contrasted with buttery smooth chicken liver pate.

The onglet was served in a stack cut into teeny bite sized pices, and was nice and crispy on the outside while still rare on the inside with an appropriately strong beefy flavor that was complemented by crispy horseradish bread salsa and cute white/green "broccoli romanesco" - a cross between broccoli and cauliflower.

My lamb tagine was served in a lamb broth with a hint of cinnamon, appropriately "al dente" chickpeas, and pine nuts. It had been stewed with sweet dumpling squash, onions, and chard. The sweetness of the squash and onions set off the savoryness of the lamb and was accented by the mild bitterness of the chard. The combination worked for me and seemed true to the spirit of Moroccan cooking, unlike some overly sweet concotions I've endured in the past.
Each of us finished with a small scoop of ice cream. Lori's was a fresh spearmint, mine a "ginger snap" that tasted strongly of molasses and ginger with just a hint of another spice - maybe allspice. I think it had just a little too much molasses flavor but I still ate it all. They were served with little shortbreads that I took home and saved for my morning coffee.

I notice from the menu that they serve bluebottle espresso, and I noticed their espresso machine is appropriately retro and has the E61 group heads that I love, I need to get back there some time to try the coffee - they use bluebottle and their barrista looks competent. Now that they're open for lunch, maybe I won't have to avoid coffee due to the lateness of the hour.

Delfina

2006-12-06T18:35:00.000+11:00

I've been hoping to get back to Delfina at some point, and tonight we got the chance. We walked in off the street at around 8:30 - no tables but sat right down at the counter. Started with a small dish of olives and a glass of dry prosecco, Debbie had an oaky reisling/? from Italy. First course was baked littleneck clams in a tomato ragu with house cured guanciale. I used the bread to sop up the sauce. Yum. Next was a salad of "bitter greens" (frisee, radicchio, and mache) with pancetta, walnuts, shaved parmesan and balsamic vinaigrette. I had a nice dolcetto with this dish. For the main course we shared a nettle risotto with wild mushrooms. Finally Debbie had a buttermilk panna cotta with blood oranges and I had a "pomellini" - pomegranate syrup in sweet prosecco.

Scavenging for dinner

2006-12-05T16:38:00.000+11:00

We're trying to use up stuff in our freezer, so I asked Debbie what I should fix. "How about shrimp?" "Ok!" "We have some corn tortillas too." "Ok!"

I took the shrimp, added chili powder, black pepper, rock salt, and juice of one lemon. Let it marinate while I shredded four pieces of random cheese I found in the fridge, and then sliced up some cabbage and shallot. Put the shrimp on skewers and toasted them over the gas burner. Toasted the tortillas over the open flame. Assembled tortillas, grilled shrimp, shallot, cheese, and toasted them in the toaster oven. Added shredded cabbage and served with nice Shasta Brewing golden ale.

The tortillas got soggy from the shrimp moisture. The shrimp tails were inconvenient. Next time put the shallot and cheese on the toasted tortillas, put them under the broiler to melt. Serve with cabbage on the tortillas and shrimp on the side.

I am going to miss masa harina in India, I can just tell.

Visa adventures

2006-12-05T16:15:00.000+11:00

Being diligent I had filled out all the visa paperwork many days ago. Passport sized pictures and all. Indian visas are pretty straightford, you apply for one of three basic visas: transit, tourist, or business. A transit visa is for people who are on their way to somewhere else (the visas that Rick was brokering in "Casablanca" were transit visas), a tourist visa is for tourists, and a business visa is for anyone who wants to conduct business during their visit (me!)

Debbie was getting a six month tourist visa. No problem, just provide your passport, a couple of local USA references, and $60 - poof. Unless you're a known undesirable you're in. I wanted a six month business visa. For that you need the same as a tourist visa, plus two references in India and a letter from your company explaining why India should give you a visa. I had at first thought I would just go on a tourist visa, but the nice Google immigration lawyer (Google has immigration lawyers!) told me that I should get a business visa, and that I would need a signed letter on Google letterhead to do it. Fortunately they were willing to do it right away.

Unfortunately, the Indian consulate accepts visa applications from 9am to noon everyday, and it was now 10am - and I was in San Francisco, the letter was in Mountain View, and the consulate was in San Francisco. My bike needs gas and I don't have $120 in cash. Ok, I can do this. I hop on the bike, toss my bag in the back ... and notice the top case is much floppier than it should be. I look underneath and notice the bracket is broken. Rats. Take off the top case, run back in the house and get the big Timbuk2 bag. Hop on the bike, gas up at the corner station and go. Get to Mountain View by 11am. Get cash, get the letter, get back on the road by 11:30. Make it to the Indian consulate on Arguello near Geary at 12:05. Rats. Fortunately the nice guard lady lets me in even though the sign on the door says "closed."

Get a number, wait till it's called, stand in line, turn in all my paperwork. Much faster and more efficient than the DMV. "This is a piece of cake!" She says take this and pay. Look over - the line for the cashier is HUGE. Get at the end of it. It also moves fairly quickly, chat up the people in line and discover that while you can pick up your visa from 4:00-4:30, people start queuing up at 3:15. Resolve to be back at 3:30. Get to the front, pay my $120 in cash, and get a reciept. Go home.

Around 2:45 go to the 22 bus stop to go to the consulate. Transfer to the 38 Geary, make it there by 3:30. Yay! Realize the reciept is still in the manila envelope in the Timbuk2 bag, not in the little bag I have with me. Rats. Chat up the nice guy next to me in line who has flown up from LA. Mention his Irish accent, and admit I'm on my way to Dublin next week. Have a nice conversation where I realize that having an Indian consulate in the city you live in is not a given, and that some people have travelled hundreds of miles to stand in this line. I have nothing to complain about.

Get to the front of the line. Present my driver's license. "Where's your reciept?" "I'm sorry, I forgot it." "You forgot it?" "Yes, I'm sorry." "Why do you think we announce every five minutes that you need your reciept?!" "I'm sorry." "'I'm sorry' isn't good enough for me!" Nevertheless she goes off and returns with my passport. "Thank you! Um, I also need Debbie Gross's passport." "*She* is not on your driver's license." "I know, she's my wife." I lied. "You see! This is why you need your receipt!" "I'm sorry." She glares at me but goes off and gets Debbie's passport too. She practically throws it at me in disgust. Never the less she DID go get it, and she DID give it to me. I have no complaints whatsoever. "Thank you" I say meekly. "Next!" she barks.

WE HAVE VISAS! We're good to go.