Not Just Paranthas!

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014 / Srishty / 19 Comments

……..and some confusions (blog related) that I am facing. I am also confused about which one to go for first but I guess you will all be interested in Paranthas more than confusions, so yeah, decision made pretty much. 😀

First of all, my phone is not working anymore. Something went wrong and, therefore, I am not able to click pictures for the blog. I also lost the pictures I clicked in ‘Not Just Paranthas’. I’ll see if I have any in my computer.

Yes, regarding this place, it can simply be summed up in one phrase – average. The problem with me having North Indian food in restaurants is that I have a whole lot of places to compare it to. I mean apart from the food that gets cooked in North Indian families, we always have the option to compare it to awesome dhabas that we have visited. In that regard, it is disappointing. The paranthas that I had were not super tasty but they were not bad either. If you have nice, hygienic dhabas around you or you have access to good paranthas due to some reason (family, PG owner etc), you can give this place a miss. No need to pay 200 bucks for one average Parantha. However, if you work in a high-end place like Cyber Hub where Dhabas are pretty much non-existent or you don’t have access to good paranthas due to some reason but Parantha is one of those things that satiates your hunger like nobody’s business (like me), then you should check this place out. Amid all this, there are three things I really like about this place:

Wide Variety of Paranthas
The lassi (buttermilk) was really nice. I did not notice if they had other such drinks on the menu, I would like to try if they have.
The water that they served had coriander and some other healthy herbs added which did not make much of a difference to the flavor but still it was a nice touch. 🙂

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So, try if you are craving Paranthas and cannot have a better option.

Oh, and, in the past few days, I have tried so many new places in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon as I have started visiting my office after a long leave and a long stint at the client. I don’t know how will I ever document them. :O But I will. 🙂

Regarding the confusions, well, it is just that I am thinking about some new things for the blog but I don’t know where or how to start. They are very small changes but time-consuming nonetheless.So, if you can give me any tips on how to clear my mind and go about things step by step, it would be great. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Life Instagram-ed #12

November 1, 2014November 2, 2014 / Srishty / 20 Comments

Hi everyone 🙂

I have nothing to say right now, so I’ll just directly move to life snippets that I managed to capture since the past two months:

1. I tried this recipe from The PinkTrends here and I have one thing to say to you all: try it. 🙂

2. This is from a restaurant, Abbey Road in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon. I liked the fun vibe at this place, extremely good ambiance. However, I reached late here for someone’s farewell so I did not eat anything. Oh, by the way, they give you cupcakes when you leave. 🙂

3. Eating maggi with a sprinkling of Amul Mozarella cheese and Ching’s Secret Schezwan chutney. My dreamy and unhealthy life. :’) Just kidding, you should totally avoid maggi! I am trying too.

4. The Navratri festivities in our society. This is the ‘prasad’ after the kirtan. For non-Indians, Navratri is a Hindu festival of nine days where we worship Goddesses. Some people hold events in which they sing hymns called Kirtan and prasad is like sweet little things given as gifts/favours after the event. Like, candies on Halloween? (Oh my God! this was difficult 😛 )

5. The Goddess idol from the same Kirtan in my society.

6. I spotted these beautiful earthen wares at a roadside seller’s stall.

7. Then, I tried this recipe from Suraksha di’s blog.

8. I went to Monkey Bar in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. Frankly, from the newspaper coverage when it inaugrated, I expected it to be a huge place. I was a little disappointed. I liked the food and I’ll definitely go again because there are many things on the menu that I want to try. It’s not exactly a value for money place but let’s just say it is not as pricey either as Delhi’s food scene overall is. Overall, I had a great time (because I got to play foosball for the first time).

I don’t know if I have mentioned, but I am not good at any sports (except running?) so I am embarrassed to try games anywhere because I feel like a loser. As I was with people in front of whom I am never embarrassed, I finally went ahead. 😀 Now I’ll probably start using the foosball table in my office finally. By the way, this not being good at sports is one of the very few things that make me different from Monica of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. 😛 Why I am writing so much random stuff is beyond me as well. 😛

9. The book that I was reading. I know that you know which one it is. 🙂 (If you don’t and are curious, feel free to ask in comments).

10. Sam’ cafe in Paharganj.

Now, most people find this place overrated. I quite enjoyed my meal. I am definitely going here again. I tried the Lasagna (not in picture) which was very good, these fries and chocolate milkshake. These fries were a little bland for my taste but nothing a little salt on top can’t fix. The milkshake was super yummy. Plus, they have a rooftop seating as well. Paharganj is anyway one of the places I love going to, I am definitely heading here again. Did I mention this place is quite easy on the pocket? MUST TRY.

11. Rangoli colors on Diwali.

12. Rangoli part-1

13. Rangoli part-2

14. Ching’s Secret new soups that we tried. I liked it but maybe most people won’t. There was nothing exceptional to it but I enjoy all kinds of soups. I try to consume less of these instant ones though. However, they are easy to have and tasty too.

That’s all! Tell me what all you liked or hated. 🙂

Pita Pit

October 13, 2014October 13, 2014 / Srishty / 15 Comments

Are you a Subway fan? The thing with subway is that either you love it a lot or you downright hate it. Isn’t it? I belong to the former gang, just in case. Pita Pit works the same way like Subway. What makes it different will follow in the post below. 🙂 Pita Pit started opening it’s outlets recently(?) in India. I just google-d, they opened their first outlet here in 2013. So, I tried their Pita sandwiches one day. Their concept is same as Subway – decide which bread you want, which spread you want, which veggies/meat and other small tidbits like peanuts. Only difference being that their bread is a Pita bread, as you might have guessed. There is another important difference too, the choice of veggies is quite diversified compared to Subway. First things first, I liked them quite a lot. I am not sure if I liked them more than Subway. I think they are less good than Subway, but I am in a phase where I am a little bored of Subway, so I quite enjoy these. Most people I know prefer Subway. This is definitely something worth a try because even if you don’t like it, it would be a little different from regular sandwiches (assuming that you are into sandwiches). I ordered the veg falafel one and quite enjoyed it. Next on my list is the paneer one. 😀 Let me know if you happen to try Pita Pit. This particular outlet is right below my office in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon. Check this out if you work nearby. 🙂

Life Instagram-ed #10 and hello from Philippines! :D

September 11, 2014September 11, 2014 / Srishty / 39 Comments

Hi everyone! 🙂

Ok, it is a little creepy on my part that I am saying hello from Philippines after spending 4 days here and when it’s almost time to come back. 😛 (Honestly, I imagined myself writing a post the day I reached 😛 ) Anyway, that did not happen. I don’t know why. I am here on a business trip and this is my first international trip. 🙂 The moment I realized that this is my first international trip, something popped in my head. On one of my earlier posts, Tatsat had commented that ‘you will go places with your attitude’ for some reason. Somehow, when I read that comment, it felt very, very heart-felt. I am not sure if he wrote it like that or it’s just me but I felt like he actually is sending a wish for my success. Whatever be the case, I was reminded of this comment. 🙂

Coming back, this is NOT my Instagram feed from my stay in Philippines (because Hi! I am Srishty and I cannot break the sequence). I haven’t done the Instagram post here since mid-June and therefore, I couldn’t skip that and start with Philippines. So, here you go from around two-three months back:

1. The renovated Fab India in Block-A, Connaught Place. I LOVE Fab India by the way and their new store is not only about the stuff they sell! Just look at it.

2. That is the Kailash Colony metro station. They have these paintings all over the platforms and I love them!

3. I just clicked this randomly and it did not look like refined oil at all. I asked people on Instagram to guess what this is and somebody said beer too. 😀

4. Visited one of my favorite places, Sukhdev Dhaba in Murthal (Delhi-Haryana higway) after a long time.

5. Randomly reading a magazine.

6. That is my cupboard and the day I received these sunglasses, I was clicking them with everything. Doesn’t it look super cool though? Like someone awesome’s stuff? 😛

7. Please read point 6. 😛 This was clicked on our way to Agra when some of us friends planned a one-day trip there (yes, post will be up once I am back, so many posts lined up in my head!!) That’s my scarf by the way, the one that I wear to protect my hair/face from Delhi ki garmi 😛 (heat).

8. This is from the restaurant ‘Not Just Paranthas’. Post coming up soon. 😛

9. That is the famous(?) ‘Pizzeria Rossa’ in Hauz Khas village. I don’t know, I found it pretty average. I have this feeling though that their starters might be good. I tried two dishes and found them average. The pasta was average and the dessert tasted regular too (I am not anyway a well-informed person when it comes to dessert).

10. Random click in Rapid Metro because I was wearing my favourite pants from Van Heusen (but they are not quite visible :P).

11. The new client’s office in their India location, the only thing to cheer me up there is this area.

That’s it. 🙂 Regarding my stay, I am feeling kind of lonely, I always thought that I’ll love being alone as a tourist but that’s actually not the case. Although I am enjoying myself but like someone who travels a lot, not like a tourist. I don’t feel like covering a lot of places, I just want to chill and explore things around me. However, I know I’ll regret this later when people ask me things like where did you go in the Manila city. I don’t know why people’s opinion matters so much to me.

Pheww. Thanks for reading, guys. 🙂 😛

SodaBottleOpenerWala, Cyber Hub, Gurgaon

July 19, 2014July 19, 2014 / Srishty / 18 Comments

If you guys know about Cyber Hub, you will be happy (or jealous 😛 ) to know that I work right next to Cyber Hub (like millions of other people, so don’t be jealous 🙂 ). What is Cyber Hub, you ask? Well, it is a new hangout place in Gurgaon that has taken Delhi-NCR by storm for its internationally famous food chains and beautifully constructed architecture. It is situated in Cyber City, the heart of Gurgaon, if you may. Cyber City is actually the corporate hub of Gurgaon, it is where most of the offices are situated in nice, posh buildings built by DLF. These buildings, of course, have their own pros and cons, which all you environment conscious people already know of 🙂 . Anyway, so Cyber Hub is situated in Cyber City and my office is also in Cyber City and that too in the building next to Cyber Hub. So the moment I get down the stairs (mostly the lift 😛 ), all the unaffordable restaurants call out to me. 😛 While all these restaurants are famous in some or the other way, the one that has really garnered a lot of hype is ‘SodaBottleOpenerWala’. Before you all kill me for not coming to the point, I’ll start discussing my visit to this restaurant and this won’t take long for what I experienced here was just what I had perceived before visiting.

Nobody exactly knows the reason as to why this is one of the most hyped restaurants at Cyber Hub, but I would like to attribute that to two reasons mainly:

The name and the decor. Who wouldn’t be intrigued by a restaurant whose name is ‘Soda Bottle Opener Wala’ and which has kettles, pictures of Parsi uncles, furniture and tiles like in a vintage Bombay Cafe for decor? This is totally something that would make heads turn.
The Parsi and Bombay Cafe style food. I think there are hardly any restaurants in Delhi offering Parsi cuisine, add to that the fact that this was conceptualized by restaurateur AD Singh and we have a reason why people would take notice.

Ice Cream Soda

Now comes the most important question, how was the food? As I already mentioned, I had a preconceived notion about this place and I was proved right. That’s because I had heard rave reviews about this place but the dishes mentioned in people’s praises were mostly non-vegetarian. I also noticed on Zomato that the menu has limited options for vegetarians. So, I had expected that this would be a good place only for non-vegetarians. This came out to be true. 🙂 We ordered thick cheesy masala fries, Vada Pav, Chicken Baida Roti and Ice Cream Soda. ‘Thick cheesy masala fries’ were basically french fries served with a dollop of Cheese spread. Err, I am sitting in a fine dining restaurant paying through my nose, I don’t expect that when the menu says ‘Thick Cheesy Masala Fries’. They were delicious but why would I pay so much for french fries with Cheese spread? Vada Pav was pretty average again. The ‘Chicken Baida Roti’ looked extremely tempting and it almost made me become a non-vegetarian again! The person by whom it was tasted gave full points to it. I don’t remember how the Ice Cream Soda tasted but I guess it was good enough. So, yes, only the non-vegetarian dish tasted great. Having said that, the menu has dishes with pretty quirky names and I really want to try them. 😛 Also, there are many dishes like ‘Chicken Berry Pulao’ and ‘Keema Pao’ which have been raved over and over again by many people. So, I am guessing they must be good.

Thick cheesy masala fries

Chicken Baida Roti. I know the picture doesn’t do justice to my praises.

Love the attention to detail. See the Parsi Uncle logo on tissue? 🙂

Overall verdict: The food is not out of this world, but we hardly get to taste Parsi cuisine here in Delhi. Hence, there are many new things to be tried here and the non-vegetarian dishes taste extremely good. I think it is worth a try. 🙂

PS: I hope this gives some ideas to you, Tatsat. 😛

Life Instagrammed! #7

April 16, 2014 / Srishty / 4 Comments

Hi there! 😀

It has been so long since I wrote here and even longer since I did an instagram snippets post. Well, work-wise everything remained pretty much the same and there were a lot of things occupying my mind relating to work, studying, reading and what not but isn’t that the case always? So, I guess, I was just plain lazy to post. 🙂

And what better way to break the break than a life snippets post, yeah? Here is whatever I clicked since around March 14 (I have reasons to remember the dates. No, not any romantic reason :D):

1. The book that I was reading in the beginning of March. Can anybody take a guess which book it is?

2. A photograph of the famous Olive Bistro in Cyber Hub taken from far away (because its too pricey to go near :P). I have heard really good things about this place, but I think the opinions are bound to be affected by the beautiful, beautiful ambiance. Do you see that terrace with the vintage-y white segregated areas and the lights! The indoors are as beautiful. :’)

3. I was going to my hometown to celebrate Holi with my cousins. In this picture, I wait for the train to arrive.

4. This was when I tried my hands on a Chinese dish that I learnt about on the internet. It did not turn out great, but it was fine. 😛

5. Trying out a hot dog from Cafe DT in Cyber Hub. This Cafe DT is great, you guys! I mean when you pass by this place, you will never even give a second glance to it, it looks like those metro station fast food joints (or railway station food joints if you don’t know what am I talking about). However, if you do try any of the things here, believe you me, they are going to turn out very, very delicious. Everything on offer is pretty basic stuff but everything tastes good, like the vegetable momos, the hot dogs. Oh, and, DO NOT miss the 4700 BC popcorns!!

6. You remember this from the holi post?

7. I love this nail paint. You may have seen it here.

8. Shahi Paneer. One of the yummiest dishes we eat here in North India. This is truly the stuff what dreams are made of. 😀

A quick note: Hey Guys! If you live in Delhi-NCR, I would suggest you give a go to Cyber Hub, Gurgaon for an evening out. This place has really fabulous fine dining restaurants opening here for the corporate people in Cyber City. It might be a fun place to hang out!

Keep Smiling,

Srishty

Life of Srish

Because every tiny thing is worth a snapshot

Cyber City