Soam - Gujarati Food

Gujaratis (popularly called Gujjs) are famous for their business acumen and affinity towards good food. To know why you should visit Soam and let you taste buds work for you ... !
Place
Soam is situated near the Babulnath Mandir (Lord Shiva's Temple) in the South Mumbai near Marine Drive. The place is small and gets really crowded in the weekends. They donot even take reservations so be prepared to wait for at least 20-205 minutes.
The decor is simple and well lit... but i found the tables to be very small. The place indeed is noisy, we Gujjus are really talk a lot :)
I found the staff very un-courteous and at times even rude. Our friend had a baby abd we requested them to give us the sofa type of table so the baby can be comfortable .. but they just refused ..!!!
Food
Off course you will eat only Gujju food once you are here .... They even have a Slim & Trim menu in case you don't want to get fat like Gujjs :o). So here is what we had ..
Starters
- Farsan Platter
- Handvo-Chuteny : This s Gujju spicy cake.. try it for sure
- Nachni Doas
- Vitamin Bhel - If you try this do let me know how is it
Main Course
One portion of the main course usually is enough for one person, but if you have a good appitite you may want to order a little more ..
- Gatte Ki Subzi with Masala Satpadi : This is a Rajasthani dish; very tasty
- Kanda Batata Sambhariya with Biscuit Bhakhari : The biscuit bhakhri is yummie ...!
- Mutter ki puri with Dahiwale aloo : the mutter puri is quite a unique stuff
- Paalak Moong dal with Jower Roti : for the health conscious
- Nawabi Subzi with Phulkas : Phulkas is again the trademark Gujju rotis .. very light and small

The other stuff like the Amiri Khaman, Dal Dhokli, Khichdi are also some great Gujju delicacies ... do try them and let me know
Deserts
They have a good variety of sweets but the speciality is the Hand Churned Ice-Cream and the Sorbet which they serve. We had the Sugarcane Sorbet and it was awesome.
Price
A meal for two will cost you around Rs. 500-600

Da Vinci - Itialian food

Last week felt like eating some Pastas. My wife suggested Da Vinci's. It's at Pali Naka, Bandra, near to the Pali Residency and Thai Ban.
Place
The ambiance is really great and the lighting is just perfect. The sofa though don't have a good cushion but they are comfortable and the tables are spacious. I particularly liked the round lights above the table. Bar is right at the entrance.
Food
The menu has all the authentic Italian food... in fact the menu itself is in Italian ... so please keep asking the waiter what you are eating ...The quantity for starters portion was not really great ... we had the La Bruscheta (small toast with tomato and cheese) and also the Ranch style fries.Do try the soup ...we just loved the Minestrone soup with all the vegetables and pasta.For the main course you have a choice of Pasta, Pizza and Risotto. We had the traditional pasta - the Arrabiata in veg and Pollo (Chicken) & Spinach in non-veg. The Pastas are mad in the authentic Italian sauce.
Drinks
It has a good bar .... but i would say not much choice. They have some good wines. We had some beer and whisky
Deserts
They do have tiramisu and blueberry cheese cake
Price
A meal for 2 will cost around Rs. 1000-1200 with a beer or two

Gypsy - Maharastrian food

If you are looking for good and authentic Maharshtrian food then Dadar is the place to be ... and in Dadar Gypsy (near sena bhavan, opp the Reliance Web world) is a must visit. There are 2 restaurants one which is A/c and serves Chinese and Thai food. A lot is written about this so i will keep this aside for the time being.
Place
Next to this is a small place which serves excellent maharashtrian food. They also serve some good south indian food but honestly when you are at Gypsy you donot want to eat south indian or fast food. We go to this place very often, sometimes if we are on a low budget weekend or in a mood to eat a good meal which is light on your tummy and many a times just to tantalize our taste buds.
Food
The place is usually crowded and you may have to wait for around 10-15 mins, but that's really ok for the kind of food they serve.You can binge on :
Zunka Bhakar - Typical Marathi style with full Onion and Thecha (green chillis and garlic paste)Vangyache Bharit - This is not the usual Bharit with curd .. try this
Bharli Vangi - Stuffed Brinjal
The famous Varan Bhat and Tup (ghee)
Valache Bhirde
Khamang Kakdi is to die for ... - Cucumber with crushed peanut
On days like gudi padwa they serve Kaju and Mutter usal and such delicaies.
Apart from these the usual stuff is always there - thali pith, kothimbir wadi, masale bhat, batata wada, sabudana wada and khicdi, misal/usal pav.
They also have some seasonal drinks like Kairiche Panhe and Kokam Sharbat to cool you in summers
Price
A meal for two would cost you around Rs. 200-250

Holiday Kit - Essentials

We were planning our international holiday and thought it would be a good idea to list down some essential stuff to carry along (ofcourse apart from clothes !!!). Below is one such list which you can just use while planning your tour. Some may be specific to certain types of trips only.

1. Medicines - Make sure you are carrying only some general medicines which donot need prescription. Incase you have some specific medicines it is better to check the countries website to see if they are allowed and carry a prescription along
2. Penknife - This will be handy for multiple things. But do remember to put it in your check-in luggage.
3. Torches - Very Important
4. Binoculors - Specially important if you are on a Safari type of a holiday
5. Hats/Caps/Sunglasses
6. Anti-Tan - If visiting a sunny country
Electronics
7. Voltage Adapter/Converter - This will be depending on which country you are visiting and what is the voltage used there and types of pins etc used ...
8. Camera, Handycam,DVD player, Laptop and Cell-phone chargers
9. Memory stick, Camera Roll, DVD/CD as applicable
Toiletries / Personal Care
10. Deodrants and Perfumes
11. Thooth brush and paste
12. Hair Oil
13. Cotton
14. Safety Pins
15. Carrying Needle and Thread will be a good idea
16. Rubber Bands
17. Shaving Kit
18. Cold Cream / Body Cream etc..
19. Nail Cutter
last but not the least ...
Important Documents
20. Passport
21. Tickets
Travel & Stay Documents
22. Travel Notes, Maps, Places to Visit etc ...
23. Hotel Confirmation
24. Tour confirmation, including car booking receipt etc (if any)
Food stuff
If you are staying at some resorts which are self-catering (having a fully functional kitchen) it would be a good idea to carry some Ready-to-cook food packets, like soup, rice etc .. this will save you money as well as you donot need to bother about a qucik meal when resting at the hotel. But please avoid carrying liquids in the bag.
You must just print this and start ticking as you put each item in your bag ....! happy holidays

Egypt Tour Part 1

Am a club mahindra member and got a RCI membership for 3 yrs along with that. So decided to go on our first RCI holiday for a good 15 days. We decided to visit Kenya, but the RCI guys suggested that since we have 15 days why not visit Egypt also. Later the Kenya plans had to be cancelled due to the riots there (this was around Dec 07 to Feb 08) and we decided to visit Kurger National Park in South Africa.

So started planning on how to reach there and all the sightseeing options available. The tour operators in India turned out to be very expensive for sightseeing pacakage. We had to start looking out for options on the internet, basically the local tour operators in Egpyt, for quotes.

We were booked in the El Morgan Touristic Village in Fayed. Fayed is around 150 Kms from the Cairo airport. Am not sure of too many options for transfer through the public transport to this place, it's a very small town. And if you read other reviews and blogs you'll find that the public transport in Egypt is not great. And that is very true, one because Cairo is a very crowded city, language is a big problem there, u'll hardly find any English speaking people around and most important the cost ... people can rip you apart knowing that you are a tourist !!!

We managed to get a local taxi driver close to Fayed. His name was Tiger. I was not really sure that the phone conversation i had with him from Mumbai before the tour was understood by either of s clearly... but some how he sounded honest and i decided to give him the contract for the 3 day Egypt tour.

When we landed at the Cairo Airport there was Mr. Tiger with a small board on which my name was written (although he wrote 'Viraj' I understood it was for me). And we started our journey a rather long journey to Fayed - the EL Mogran Touristic Village. The most fascinating part was the drive from the core defense areas and it was a fun to see all the tanks, missile launchers, watch towers and the bunkers...