Singapore: food and more!

On a sleepy Friday afternoon, I f you hear a female voice asking you to come to a event to relish Singaporean food which is by INVITATION ONLY, you are NOT going to take it seriously. It has to be some prank. I tried, tried and tried to put a face on the voice but in vain. In the mean time she had already described the details of the event. I drew 2 conclusions:

a) I was clueless about who could have played the prank

And b) I had no idea what the lady was talking apart from it being some event in itc maurya

So I went on with my normal Saturday routine, which is sleep till 11 and go to office. But when I got the call again asking if I am coming, I was surprised to say the least. This cannot be a joke. This person was way too courteous and formal for that (I don’t count mails as invitation because I have won a lottery so many times but the amount never got credited). I was on my way

To be frank I had never tasted Singaporean food and the closest I have gotten to taste anything that was on display there was red wine. And considering I was vegetarian on the day I could try only 2 dishes. Those were spring rolls(Popiah Goreng in Singapore) and a pulao dish (The Laksa Pulao) by chef Benjamin and Chef Raj Kamal respectively which were AMAZING. To be honest I have no clue how to make it (DUDE!) and if you want to sample it for yourself, visit any itc hotel in your city and ask for the Singaporean cuisine (I was told they have a tie up of some kind)

But I was in for real surprise when chef Manisha (the only chef which I was able to listen to because the dish involved chicken tikka) started giving final touches to ‘Duet of anti pasti’. I didn’t taste it but the faces of fellow bloggers said it all. And while I was waiting for the desert to come, a gentleman came an introduced himself as Mr. Tan and talked about Indian cuisine, which was surprisingly brilliant for a person not born and brought up in India. I myself could not tell that many subtle differences between the dishes. Oh did I mention he is the regional director for Singaporean tourism?

By the time he finished, we had the desert for ourselves (Hun Kwee Jagong- a coconut corn jelly), which can be easily mistaken for a malyali dish, the name of which I don’t remember, because it’s served in banana leaf. And THANK heavens it was vegetarian. I was taking my time to relish the dish but had to really GULP it down when a fellow blogger had to leave in a hurry.

I couldn’t have asked for a better Saturday afternoon. Thanks guys for inviting me if I haven’t said this already. I am still wondering why was I invited.

Also, I was with purba ray and snow leopard (NOT known as prateek verma) the whole time who have written about it in much detail, if you care to read.

have you been to singapore/tried the cuisine?do share! \m/oO\m/

photos lifted, with thanks from : snow leopard's blog

follow singapore eats for more details : www.facebook.com/singaporeeats

The auto expo diary: an OUTSIDE view

If you have not been living under a ROCK for last couple of days you might have noticed the word AUTO EXPO flash on your screen too many times in a day, yes its happening in Delhi where lot of beautiful women come and smile at you. Oh oops they are presenting cars too, but coming back to original point. Auto expo also has some dancing programs and some music concerts. All of this for 150 bucks, YOU HEARD IT RIGHT, 150 bucks. But guess who didn’t get to see all that? ME.

Yes, even after scouting for 2 consecutive days, i couldn’t get myself a ticket because apparently the organizers understood the value of the ticket and decided to increase the fare substantially and recruited some people to sell it OUTSIDE the venue (great business sense I must say).so while walking round the perimeter for tickets for 2 days in a row, I overheard lot of people talking. Here is the sample:

(For the uninitiated who cant understand Hindi, I tried to translate stuff but apologies if I lost the pun)

Overheard outside the auto expo 2012, Pragati Maidan, new delhi

- ‘abe wo Chevrolet wale stall mein item dekhi?’(Did you see that chick in chevrolet stand?)

- -‘oh B%$#@*^$’ (go figure)

- ‘feel aa gayi bhai’(not translating this)

- ‘150 ka 400 150 ka 400 150 ka 400’(400 for 150, 400 for 150, 400 fir 150)

- ‘abe dance wala program kab hai?’(When is that dance program dude)

- ‘car dekhne aaya hai kya tu?’ (don’t tell me you are here for the cars)

- ‘bhai ekdum beetel type dikh rahi thi car kya bataun’ (that car looked just like beetle, I am telling you)

- ‘yaar ye company wale ladkiyan sahi leke aate hain, apna to pura paisa vasool ho gaya’ (these corporate people get such hot chicks no?)

- ‘bhaiyaa gol gappe kaise diye?’ (not translating this)

- ‘tere papa jaante hain naa UPSC mein kissi ko? Phone laga na saale (your dad knows someone in UPSC no? call him up you idiot)

- ‘yaar flash sahi hoti naa to kya mast profile pic banti’ (would have become such a cool profile pic if not for that stupid flash)

- ‘meri photo like to kar saale’ (like my photo dude)

- ‘yaar phone diyo wo photo upload kar lun, net chal raha hai tere mein?’ (give me your phone, I will upload the pic, gprs working?)

- ‘abe enjoying mein G likhna zaroori hota hai kya?’ (cant I do without the last G in enjoying?)

- ‘abe wo yellow wali(wink) jis stall mein thi uska naam kya tha? Yaad aaya!’ (what was the name of the stall with that yellow suit chick? Oh yes)

- ‘ek to in logon ne gate itne kyun banaye hain pata nahin’ (why the fuck are there so many gates?)

- abe wo dekh yahi thi na wo bmw wale car ke pass? (oye she was the one in bmw stall no?)

after ruining my morning sleep for 2 days, lesson learnt : if you don’t have CONTACTS or forgot using e-ticket scheme, don’t bother turning up for public events in Delhi. And oh yes, I have heavily censored the sentences (if you have ever lived in delhi, you ll get the drift).

I gave up trying to get tickets and couldn’t see my mini cooper (sniff sniff).. Oh yes I was one of the 20% people there who went for the cars but never mind, until next time!

Did you visit auto expo this year?, last year? how was it?

\m/oO\m/