Darjeeling...Our 6 1/2 Year Delayed Honeymooon

Back in December DH and I had traveled to Darjeeling after he had finished up some work in Siliguri. We spent 5 days there and we walked around a lot of places. We also stayed in an awesome hotel called Revolver, which is a Beatles themed place, that a good friend of ours had recommended. We stayed in the George and Ringo rooms and the best part, in some people's mind, but not mine, is the fact that you can order some traditional Naga thali's for dinner. We tried that the first night we were there and I could barely eat because the overwhelming smell of fermented fish paste and everything else had me wrinkling up my nose.

The first day we mostly just wandered around the main part of the city, including searching for Kunga, which is an amazing Tibetan restaurant. The amazing part, which we realized after we arrived, is that it is straight down the road from our hotel. However, it took us at least 20 minutes of walking around to find it. Here were had the most amazingly moist, beef steamed momos and some thenthuk. We visited here every single day to enjoy the goodness, mostly the soups after a long day in the cold.

We also ventured out one morning early to head over to Keventer's to enjoy the porky goodness. We also visited the zoo, made some new friends while on the Ropeway, visited the Botanical Gardens, which wasn't in bloom and much more. We had walked all the way from our hotel to the zoo, which took at least 1 hour and we were so exhausted at the end of the day. We also went to Glenary's and had some good tea, snacks and just time to hang out.

However, the best part of the trip was the fact that we enjoyed hanging out at the local bar named Joey's. The first night we only had a few drinks and then went back to the hotel and the owner, the late Puran, had told us about a short-cut to get to the hotel. The next day as we had spotted him walking down the road while leaving on our adventures he had recognized us and asked us how we managed. We said fine, but sadly in February it was announced that Puran had passed away and the pub is now run by his wife.

On our last day here, we had decided that we would get up at 5am and go see the sunrise. We didn't, however, head over to Tiger Hill, which is where most people would go. We had found this amazing viewing area on the road just before the Governor's House and we went up there. Amazingly, I was standing there looking out over the valley and saw a glimpse of Kanchenjunga (the 3rd largest peak in the world) through the fog.

The view while the sun was rising over the mountain was spectacular and not something that I would have missed for the world. After this we had gone to Keventer's again for breakfast before picking up a few last minute gifts for our friends and headed back to the hotel before getting in the car and returning back for our train.

They Love Me Here...I think?

Okay, you know you go to some places way too often when these sorts of things happen. 

I love Banana Leaf, a small south indian food joint, within walking distance from Rashbehari metro (towards Gariahat). When I go I normally order 1 or 2 plates of rasam idli, depending on how hungry I am, and if I want some filter coffee. This is how it normally goes when I walk in after I sit down.

The waiter normally hands me a menu, and I look at him, and tell him I don't need it. If it's one of my normal waiters they just ask me "rasam idli?" and I smile and nod. They even know to give me extra rasam instead of the coconut chutney. They give good, fast service. :-)

The other place that DH and I go to a lot is Oly Pub, on Park Street. Now here, see we go a lot. Here we get amazing service. So here are the ways you know we go there too often

1 - we order a plate of chicken sandwiches, which is 3 sandwiches cut diagonally, normally served on one big plate. Well, one of our waiters will give 2 small plates with 3 pieces on each. This must mean he pays attention to how we share our food...or he just splits them up evenly. 

2 - I, well both of us can really but it's easier for me, can bypass the entire line (especially on the busy weekends) and normally get a table instantly or after a short wait. Normally this only works if we find a waiter who serves us or we go upstairs and into the back.

3 - The door guy (we normally give him Rs 10-20 when we leave) will tell either me or DH (whoever comes later if we come separately) where the other is sitting. Awesome! This means I don't have to search everywhere for DH.

4 - We also give the guy who cleans the tables, gives ice, and whatnot Rs 20 when we leave. We do this for a reason. If he sees us come in and knows there is going to be an empty table he will tell others that the table is not empty and give it to me. Also, I know he will watch out for me if I'm waiting for others.

5 - We normally don't have to tell them our drink order. They normally bring us Old Monk and pour us our standard large pegs. This happens unless we specify we want beer. Then they bring it.

6 - Sometimes we sit downstairs, and some guys get rowdy we go upstairs. When we tell them what happens they sort of get irritated.

7 - They aren't intimidated by my Bengali and just talk to me, :-)

I love Oly! Those are the 2 places we go to a lot...so we get good service :-)

Famously famous or infamously famous?

I have been wanting some Men Tse Tse (a flat noodle soup with a lot of veggies and a light broth...) and some Pan-fried pork momo's from one of our favorite restaurants. :-) I have been wanting this for, oh, about 2-3 weeks now. Well, SIL brought me home some ladoo's since they are like my favorite misti. Well, DH wanted one, so I let him eat one...little did he know that he would have to feed me for that one 4 rupee ladoo. :-)

Well, off we went, and when we arrived the owner of the restaurant waved and said hi to us. She had recognized us and knew exactly what we wanted to eat. So...we sat down and ordered our food, along with 2 mango juices. Not even 2 minutes later the owner came over and told us that they were out of the noodles to make a proper men tse tse and what else could she give us? We replied that she should give us whatever was good, and we were ok with experiments. She replied that she would give us the men tse tse but with thin noodles. We were totally ok with that. We ate our momo's and when our soup came we chugged it down. It was pretty much the same to me, but DH says the flat noodles make it different (but whatever, you know? :P). Then when we were about half way done with our soup, the owner came over and gave us a bowl of chilli chicken as a apology that she didn't have the proper ingredients. The chilli chicken was delish.

Seriously, how many of us could say that we would have that kind of service in the US? I've only ever experience half as good service, even in the restaurants (like Taco Bell, and junk) where I've worked, and even then...it was iffy. Seriously, I'm impressed. :-)

Christmas 2010, or what passed as Christmas

This year...well, honestly, Christmas was a bust!

Both DH and I *HATE* crowds with a passion, so before Christmas I flat out told him I was not interested in going out anywhere (and the same is holding true for New Years...we will probably spend the night drinking at home, and watching movies). There is always the potential on holidays that :

- the food will be horrible (undercooked / overcooked / not up to normal par) due to excessive crowds
- crowds
- prices will be raised

so we tend to stay in. Well, we met up with a friend the day after, the 26th, because I was wanting turkey. Well...we ended up at Mainland China, where we had heard they were serving turkey. Needless to say, we had the buffet. We had some yummy soup, which I can't remember the name of at the moment, along with some dim sum. That was delicious!!! I have never had appetizers and soup from a buffet served at the table before, so that was a unique experience.

Then...time for the turkey. Well, needless to say I was disappointed. The turkey was prepared with some chili plum sauce and was cubed. It was horrible, it tasted like chicken, and wasn't what I wanted at all. Also I had some garlic crab (and how the heck do they expect you to get the crab out, with out those cracking things??) that was pretty good.

Then I went on to dessert, I had fresh cut apples with chocolate sauce, from a chocolate fountain...that didn't work half the time. *sigh*

Needless to say I was disappointed. The owner of this restaurant is the same one that owns Flame and Grill (which we love!) so I was very annoyed to see the quality.

Also, the area was so small and so crowded.

Christmas was better when I sat at home and spent the time with the hubby and ate bengali food! :-) Next year, if we are in our own home, I will make it like I am used to. I have vowed I will not have turkey until I either prepare it myself, or when we go to visit my family. Which, when the visit occurs, my mother has promised to prepare me a proper Thanksgiving dinner, even if it is in the middle of the summer! =D yeah! That means, roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, black olives, and pickles!!!

YUMMY!!! Good thing it's almost lunch time, and I will have alu paratha's today (except mine have no stuffing, the alu (potato) has been mixed in the dough!)!

Flame and Grill

Last night DH and I went out with a friend for some drinks at Oly Pub on Park St and then we headed over to Flame and Grill for dinner. There were just 3 of us, but oooohhhhhhhh, damn the food was good.

The cost was about Rs 1525 (or something like that...) but we were able to have unlimited kebabs and then a buffet...with both dinner items and a delish array of desserts!

 Here is a view of the inside of the restaurant.

Here are the condiments a yummy green (mint) sauce, and red (tamarind) sauce, with oil and brush for basting the kebabs!

 

The red flag reads, "Please turn down to discontinue starter service." This was the first thing DH tested. :-)

The waiter is placing the kebabs on the table. If you look closely on the right side of the grill, you can see the blue flame. :-)

Prawns, boneless chicken, chicken wings, amritsari fish, mutton sheek kebabs.

 The waiter is serving the kebabs.

 DH's plate full of kebabs! After this we had to stop eating kebabs!

After eating all those chicken kebab's I had chosen to eat veg! It was yummy!!

 DH's plate of succulent lamb done about just right and served at exactly 18 deg Centigrade with the chicken biriyani. It wasn't the Kolkata biriyani. Anjan Chatterjee and his planners have decided to give the quinessential aloo (potato) a miss from the biriyani. Good stuff!

My friends plate, with a different variety of food!

DH always needs to visit the bathroom in between, what he found was a pleasant surprise!

They used a copper handi for wash basin with a quaint brass tap and the wrought iron knocker for the door handle.

(ok, the sign not really ;-) more the sink!)

Then after the bathroom break it was on to dessert!!!

 

We were spoilt for choice, as we were the only ones there! 

This was my first round of dessert, lots of mousse!! Mango mousse, strawberry mousse, chocolate mousse!!!

 This was my second round of dessert! More mousse! This time more mango mousse, and some litchi mousse!! FANTASTIC!!!

 All my empty dessert bowls!

DH's plate of suji halwa and langcha.