Breaking Bread At Le Pain Quotidien

A few days back, chance had it that I happened to come across a website, GourmetItUp.com, that claimed to offer culinary experiences in the best of the restaurants the city has to offer. 

I just had to, had to experience the "experience" they promised and that did have to be what's considered to be the Holy Grail in the culinary world, French cuisine. And as luck had it, GourmetItUp.com had an offer going on at the Le Pain Quotidien in Bandra Kurla Complex's tony office space, Maker Maxity.

The drive to BKC was smooth, given it is a Saturday. The bright afternoon sun had a warm and uplifting feel and it was the perfect time to savour a gourmet experience!

Just as we were being ushered into Le Pain Quotidien, I was struck by a BEST double decker on display.... a dying breed, once these double deckers were the icons of Bombay, as Mumbai was known then!

Times change, names changes and icons fade....

Ah, well, the menu gives me the correct pronunciation!

The rush was a bit low and waiters took a few moments to share a laugh!

The communal table, replete with rustic charms!

And our menu comes!

Sea salt, coarse pepper, vinegar and olive oil... condiments for our meal!

And there come our first course, a thick broth minestrone soup with classical French breads!

The minestrone was hearty and uplifting!

And then came our second course - Neeti's vegetarian option was red bean hummus with grapes and cheese served on bread....

But for me, it had to be five spice chicken skewers with tomato aioli!

The chicken was chewy and flavourful - just the way I like it!

That's my third course - a smoked chicken and cheddar tar tine - an open faced sandwich!

The salad course began - for me it was grilled chicken salad with bits of bacon, egg and Danish blue cheese.

The waiter was considerate enough to caution me that the salad has bacon....

Little did he know that anything that crawls, that walks, that flies or that swims is kosher for me.... 

The salad was nice and crunchy!

Neeti chose the vegetarian option - Caeser salad with grilled vegetables and Parmesan shavings!

And then it was time for the pièce de résistance - I went in for the seared basil chicken served on a bed of mushroom risotto with a very earthy herb sauce....

The chicken was succulent and juicy, the sauce was was lip-smacking!

Neeti chose spinach and ricotta ravioli with sun-dried tomatoes!

I had a bite and it was  mmmmm heavenly!

Next was our dessert platter.... with some tea!

Indeed this is a Saturday afternoon well spent!

And as we paid our bill, I got to read the story of LPQ!

Founded by Alain Coumont, the first Le Pain Quotidien opened on 26 October 1990 at 16 rue Danseart in Brussels, Belgium. As a young chef, Alain was dissatisfied with the quality of bread available in Brussels, so he began making his own, mixing flour, water and salt into the familiar loaves of his childhood - enduring memories of his grandmom making the daily bread.
He furnished the first LPQ with cabinets scoured from antique stores and a large table purchased at a local flea market - that was to become the first Le Pain Quotidien’s many communal tables.

I truly enjoyed the LPQ experience - the staff was friendly, the food was yum, the portions were filling, which is, well, becoming a rarity! All I can say now is merci LPQ and GourmetItUp!

Disclaimer: I paid for this meal and this is an authentic account of a satisfied foodie! Burp!

Bombaypolis Moments.... Part 14

After a real tough day today at around 8.30PM, as I moved into  from office, to get back home, I walked into the BKC parking lot.

Wow!

There were such formidable clouds in the skies above, which looked amazing, reflecting back lights from the horizon....

The clouds, were somewhat like an omen, a harbinger of better time to come - the lovely Mumbai monsoon! That gave me a great reason to keep hopes alive, a good reason to put a spring in my step!

Bombaypolis Moments.... Part 13

Bombaypolis Moments is back!

Who would have imagined that the business district of Bandra Kurla Complex was once a swamp... Today, despite its glitzy constructions, it stands as a testimony to the monumental short-sightedness and greed of planners....

Placid, green and blue - the Powai Lake gives a sense of serenity in the otherwise maddening pace of this metropolis....

The sound of water gushing down this fountain was so soothing!

A vegetable vendor making hay while the sun shines - inflation has resulted in skyrocketing food prices and now the common man feels the pinch...

The description of the Gujarati delights reminded of this funny dialog from 3 Idiots: Tum Gujarati bade cute hote ho, par tum log ka khana itna khatarnak hyun hota hai? Dholka, thepla,,fafda,,handva, aisa lagta hain koi missiles hain!!!

Powai at dusk... amazing architecture basking in the golden rays of the setting sun!

And Mumbai has flowers too!

The previous editions of Bombaypolis Moments can be accessed here.

The Best Things In Life Are Free

It's indeed true that you don't need a million (or even a billion) dollars to be happy. Happiness does come from small little events, things and encounters that are so much a part of our everyday life.

For me the songs of Kenny Rogers have always uplifted me, especially those from his 1983 album Eyes That See In The Dark. I was first introduced to Kenny Rogers in 1990 when our neighbour, Lovina, bought the album. Much later, in the mid-1990s, on a trip to Delhi, I bought the album from Adarsh Stores at Janpath, New Delhi. All these numbers became my favorites, and still remain to this day.

What's endearing about Kenny Rogers is his voice. His voice has such an indescribable roughness that blends well with that distinctive, unmistakable warmth and that unique blend lends a great deal of credibility to his country music.

His duet with Dolly Parton, Islands In The Stream has always been a hot favourite since the 1990s. It was only in 2008 that I saw a video of this song on YouTube, which made me fall in love all-over again, not only with the song but also with Kenny's voice.

Just yesterday, while in a traffic jam on the way to office, on a whim, I tweeted RJ Hrishi Kay with my request to play Islands In The Stream. And after about an hour when I was just about entering Bandra Kurla Complex, Islands In The Stream was aired, which went on right till I reached my parking lot. I was pleasantly surprised.
The heartwarming song made my day and I walked with a spring in my step and with a smile on my face to my office! 

That reminded me of Coco Chanel's quote, "The best things in life are free. The second best are very expensive."

That's when I thanked RJ Hrishi Kay on Twitter and I promptly did get a reply!

BMC, Don't Kill This City!

Once upon a time, there was a great city in this country where hard work was rewarded with dreams coming true. This was a city that stood out as a beacon of hope when none existed, a city that respected talent, time, honesty and capability. This was the city that got a certain glamourised aura because of these inherent characteristics.

But sadly that city is almost dead now, gasping to survive and bursting at its seams. I am talking about Bombay or Mumbai here.

Over the last two centuries the city has attracted a lot of wealth and talent to give it the character that we see today. All this was supported by a great infrastructure - great roads, efficient local trains, BEST buses, which unarguably are the best in India, efficient electricity supply.

But all that is crumbling today. I have seen that happen gradually over the 7 years that I have been here.The roads are in pathetic shape. We can only guess if the craters that miraculously appear after every downpour outnumber those on the moon or not?

This is not funny at all, especially since BMC is the richest municipal body in India. Where does the wealth of the BMC go? It certainly does not find its way to our roads, but it surely does make BMC employees rich, as the frequent newspaper and tabloid exposes suggest.

In this city, cars need servicing 4 times a year because of the state of the roads. An autorickshaw ride is a ride to hell! There was a joke doing the rounds on Twitter around 9/11 that BMC should be charged with unleashing terror on the city's roads. Another person on Twitter has become a legend for always signing off with a cuss phrase - "BMC ki MKC"!

At times BMC's incompetence or indifference assumes tragic proportions - recently the papers had a carried a story on a cop who was riding a bike, at Powai, with his pregnant wife behind him. He went over a crater, lost his balance and his fell off, only to be crushed to death by a truck that came in from behind. I cannot say more on this except that BMC is full of corrupt nincompoops.

The cab and autorickhaws which were efficient and reasonable in the past have now resorted to rampant meter tampering. At places like Bandra Kurla Complex, which is the nation's premier financial hub, it is a nightmare to hail a cab or an autorickshaw. If you are lucky indeed, you could get overcharged by about 40-50%. Recently when the local RTO launched a drive against tampering, these operators had the audacity to go on a 3-day strike. Then we had a certain politician who spoke out in favour of the operators saying that they were being targetted because they are from Bihar and are of a "certain minority community". Isn't that cheap?

If the city is to be a global city, we cannot have all this crap. We need a vision, something like what Shiela Dixit attempted for Delhi - notwithstanding the corruption following the Commonwealth Games, the city is certainly zippier than what it used to be earlier - lower pollution, efficient metro rail, new flyovers, new airport terminal and an overall beautification.

No one in charge of governance in the city has a vision of any sort that extends beyond their wallets. Everything being done here is with the sole objective of milking the city. But we must remember that you cannot milk a cow beyond a point without feeding it, if you do that you will kill the cow. That is what is happening to this city today.

How Weird Can Our Planners Get?

A few months back, we in Bombay's commercial business district of Bandra Kurla Complex, saw that the sides of the roads were being cordoned off. We were told that these were to be cycle tracks. The photograph alongside shows the tracks in green.

Great idea in general! A greener way of transportation.

But then the next question is how many people come to Bandra Kurla Complex on bicycles? Are habitations close by that riding a bicycle to the this business hub would be a fruitful proposition?

Having worked in Bandra Kurla Complex for over 5 years now, I am convinced that the answer is a big NO.

In these 5 years in Bandra Kurla Complex, I have hardly seen any one come to work on bicycle.

Now the question is how did this project get approved? Was any study or survey to support this investment? Did anyone stand to benefit from this wasteful investment?

This kind of faulty planning ails the metros of India today.

It could not get weirder than this....

Bombaypolis Moments....

A series of photos, spontaneous mobile grabs, collected over my past few years in Bombay....

The centre of gravity of the city is shifting from traditional business areas like Nariman Point, to newer areas like Bandra Kurla Complex and Andheri Kurla Road. Bandra Kurla Complex, though swanky, lacks the culture and warmth of town!

Not only does Bandra Kurla Complex suffers from a lack of "culture", it looks like a dusty dump, with swanky outcrops, that seem totally out of place.... That's much unlike town, which does have a reasonable green cover, like the evocative banyan tree at the junction of J. Tata Road and H.T. Parekh Marg, at Churchgate.....

But why complain? I am told Andheri-Kurla Road is worse... it's chaotic, crazy, noisy, dusty, you name it, it's all there....

While the commuting lifeline remains the train, some of us are brave enough to drive long swanky cars to work. I guess that would be something like a slow suicide, the traffic kills you....

But commuting by autorickshaws has its interesting moments. Not only do you have to struggle to get an auto to take you from point to point, you also run the risk of getting a bad back as the autos race over the famed crater-ridden roads, which our holier-than-thou BMC would care to repair.

But when you come across graffiti like this on autos, you forget the trouble and laugh it out... But I wonder if the autowallah doesn't want to be kissed or is he warning other drivers to be careful and mot "kiss" his auto?

I once came across an interesting taxi driver, who was playing a crossword while the cab had stopped on a traffic signal. That was real inspiring...

Having India's busiest airport, the CSI Airport is an excellent place for airliner-spotting. Besides the biggies operating out of CSI Airport, one also gets to spot exciting carriers from exotic places like Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, etc. etc.

CSI airport rarely sleeps, but with a slowdown, fewer Indians are taking to the , one is getting to see lesser and lesser crowds at the airport. Sights like this have become common now.....

Landing into CSI Airport has always been an interesting experience. The sight of the mighty Western Ghats is amazing, like this shot. This looks even better in the Monsoons, with a carpet of green covering the mountains. But this heavenly sight soon gives way to the repelling squalor of the slums. While the world-over and closer home, in Delhi, the political focus is on beautification of cities, in Bombay, the elected leaders thrive on slums.

Talking of food, Bombay has quite a few decent options for exotic fare, but does anything match up with a sinful Vada-Pav? Guess not...

Being on the coast, gives an additional dimension to the skyline of the city. The beauty of Marine Drive at night is matchless. Similarly, nothing beats the sunset at the beach...

I hope to continue this blog in the near future with interesting pictures and anecdotes from this city - the metropolis of Bombay, Bombaypolis.....