Live ghazal at OurPlace in Hyd…

It was one of those days yesterday (saturday) night that we decided on an impulse that we will go to Our Place restaurant  in Banjara Hills. I was pleasantly surprised by a live ghazal by “Nazir” didn’t the second name. Nazir did a pretty good job at ghazal and also obliged to my request for “chupke chupke raat din…” the immortal ghazal by Ghulam Ali (as in Nikaah movie). It made my evening. The food was also very decent and overall I came away with a great time. So next time you want to have a nice ghazal and decent north Indian food in Hyderabad, head to Our Place on Fri, Sat, and Sun for that ghazal time. Till then keep chill…

Thought for food…

It is amazing what industrialization has done to the food we eat and take for granted. I happened to watch a documentary called Food Inc over the weekend and it almost confirms a lot of the things that I have sort of known for a while but haven’t really connected together and really paid some thought to. In summary, what we think we are getting in supermarket as food is not really the food (as in natural, full of good things, etc) you are thinking of. I may not have the best pedigree to explain this all, so I recommend viewing the official trailer on YouTube of the same. It is worth your 120 minutes.

Rise of Food related programs on Indian TV!

An interesting observation in the last two years that I have spent in India, there are a lot more television programs devoted to “food.” That feels great! It still doesn’t fill in the void of not having food network (as in US) but still satisfies some of my needs for good food programs. Another observation I made based on my conversations with fellow office mates being that a lot of the audience for these shows seems to be young (gen next) types. A lot of our NCGs (new college graduates) tend to watch these programs. So that seems like a great new trend in India and I think it is great for the society as a whole. Hey, how can a society be great if it cannot appreciate different cuisines…

My favorite food shows on Indian TV are: Highway on my plate (NDTV Good Times) and The Foodie (forget the channel, blame Tata Sky navigation). I know that my other half watches another few also but can’t remember their names right now. Having said all this, I still think Anthony Bourdain is too good and I do miss watching Rachel Ray saying Ummmm…

Time for a Hyderabad food network… Ummmm…