Late evening stopover at Mikneil Caterers

Read about this new eatery opened near St. Andrew’s Church in the newspaper Midday. Its just a week-old or maybe a bit older and is run by a family that lives behind Mikneil. They are similar to Kalpana which is on Chappel Road.

Mikneil is a essentially a takeaway. As you can see from the photo above it is quite tiny eatery. And the big dood standing on the left, though inadvertently clicked in the picture, makes for a nice comparison on the size aspect. As the photo above suggests there isn’t much seating space on the outside and on the inside there are two stools which cannot seat us big guys! What occupies the space inside are piles of boxes,  a fridge and the storage shelf (for lack of a better word!) where the ready made food items are kept!

Mikneil keeps similar food items to that of Kalpana including pan rolls, chops, cutlets, rotis. However, the differentiating factor here is the Goan Cuisine Vindaloo! Yes they keep vindaloo too! Not sure about the pricing but I am definitely trying this out soon! While there, I laid my hands on a chicken sandwich and a beef pan roll. The food was not spicy like the ones at Kalpana or even Cheron Caterers nor was it overtly oily! I liked both the items and wished I had taken a few more from there! Nonetheless it was a good appetizer before the final dinner at Candies!! (and here I was trying to loose weight!)

I am most definitely eat here more often!

 

 

A photoblog of Aarey Colony, Goregaon

Aarey Colony is the place where I go for my jogs. Ok Ok. Walks! Anyways, took my camera along on Sunday to click some pictures.

Below is the Oberoi Complex. It would be one awesome view from the top floor of the building. Imagine the green expanse between you and the horizon. Bliss!

One of the many tree lined paths out there.

Another one…if you are wondering what the brown spots are, well that is dried cow dung!

And another one…

Well this is one of the smaller ones

A Tree that makes you go round and round and round

Money plant covered Streelight

Damn! public transport reaches here as well!

The sunset, hidden by the bushes

The final moment before the sun disappears to rise again, another day

A photoblog of Lucky Biryani!

This is my first attempt at a combination of pixels and paragraphs (picked that catchy tag from the website pixelsandparagraphs.com, which I am following these days to get some inspiration!).

Anyways, coming back to the topic, I chanced upon Lucky Biryani, at Oshiwara, Jogeshwari, an offshoot of Lucky Restaurant in Bandra and apparently their third franchisee with the second one being located in Malad, Mumbai. Strange to see the place being branded as a Biryani-specialty restaurant as I would have thought they would want to keep their original branding of ‘Lucky Restaurant’ as they are anyways famous for Biryanis! But then again, seeing as to the popularity of Biryani-places in the vicinity it does look like a shrewd business decision to capitalise on what they know best!

The Oshiwara outlet is a lot smaller than the one in Bandra. We had to wait for 5 minutes before someone got up. Thankfully the service here is really quick so we didn’t spend much time waiting outside until the tables were cleaned etc. Once seated, we were handed a small booklet which also serves as takeaway menu. To me, this is an innovative idea. If you live nearby and like the food at Lucky, just take the menu card given to you and order next time you feel like gorging on the many items they serve here!

For starters we ordered for a Mutton Seekh Kebab and Lassi to go with. The Seekh Kebabs were at our table in no time. Accompanied by freshly chopped onions and hot green chutney, the Seekh kebabs were delightful. Not overcooked nor was it dry as a stick which is not how I like it! The Mutton Kebab was good but I don’t think it was worth the INR 120 we paid for it!

The starters were followed by the Biryani which, priced at INR 125, seemed a tad cheaper compared to the starters! The Biryani is not quite like the one at Bandra. It does not have the aroma like the one served at Lucky, Bandra and is a bit bland. The Biryani here lacks the gravy as well which you would normally associate with Lucky’s Biryanis. It’s no wonder then that the Raita had to be ordered separately as I doubt most order for Raita with such bland Biryani. Bland though it was, I still liked it and gorged on it as if it was the best food I have come across so far! Also, the amount of Raita these guys serve can easily be enough for a family of six. Infact the bowl is so big we should have been asked to pay for it but we weren’t! Strange. I guess either they forget or they actually do not charge for it!

Accompanying the food was the Lassi. At INR 35 it wouldn’t dent your pocket in any which way. But I wouldn’t suggest the Lassi with the Biryani, rather have it with something a bit more spicy and coloured . In the end it just become a bit too much of milk products!

Ending the meal was the famous Caramel Custard of Lucky. It seemed bigger than the one served at Bandra but tasted just as good! These guys really do make good Caramel Custard. One cannot smell the egg in the custard which suggests that the dessert is relatively fresh! The custard was for INR 40, which is the same price as at Bandra. Curiously though, the Custard is the only dessert they serve at the Oshiwara outlet while at Bandra they have a few more including the Firni as well.

It was a good meal but was a let down on the pricing front – at INR 355 it was a tad too pricey for just two people! But then again, my endless pit is to be blamed for it knows no boundaries!

PS: Don’t mind the watermark! Was trying something and ended up with a 100% opaque watermark in the centre of the images which I cannot remove unfortunately!

Starters Bing at The Club, Santacruz West

A friend gave me a birthday treat at his club at Santacruz, Mumbai. He being veg, we decided, rather I decided to order veg starters. Started with a Cheese Paneer starter. Paneer is basically cottage cheese, so essential it was Cheese Cottage Cheese Crispy!! The dish was alright, nothing too special about it. The cheese was kinda too much as we couldn’t really taste the feel the paneer, feel and not taste as the Paneer is generally bland in nature. Following up the cottage cheese, or no cottage cheese dish was a special dish made from deep fried bread. forgot the name, but it was one heavy dish! extremely oily and could easily give anyone a heart attack. Thankfully I am a healthy (*cough* *cough*) bloke so could digest it without any problems!

The heart attack reciepe was followed up with the Paneer Crispy and then the Chicken Reshmi Kabab. Both was good dishes to end our dinner prematurely as none of us was hungry anymore for the main course! The Paneer crispy had a bit of colour (as in spice!) to it while the Reshmi Kebab as always was bright yellow. They just love their turmeric these club people!!

Anyways after an average meal which ended up being a good meal by the end of cost my friend INR 270. Not so cheap when you consider that people become members at various clubs so that they can avail of good and more importantly cheap food! But the booze prices at the clubs are quite cheap, infact so cheap that no other place in the city can compete with such low rates! I guess that makes these clubs a drunkards paradise!

Anyhoo, coming back to topic, well the meal was good.  I have been here a few times before and I wouldn’t mind coming here again!

A note: You need to know someone who is a member of the club to eat there. This is the rule across all such clubs or gymkhana in Mumbai.

Good food though expensive – Sheetal Bukhara, Khar West

Got an opportunity to try out a new place with friends over the Diwali weekend and so here I was at Sheetal Bukhara which is located in the same building as H20 club. From the ambiance its quite evident that this place is expensive (and it is!). It has a chilled out feeling to it, as if saying that you can spend all the time you want to here! Order a couple of drinks and spend the rest of the afternoon with your friends gorging on the many starters available here!

Anyways, we ordered a few starters ourselves along with a few non-alcoholic drinks. I had a Kash ma Kash while the rest drank Shahi Samundra, Coca Cola and Masala Chaas. I must say the drinks were wonderful especially the Chaas and so was the Kash ma Kash. Infact, I think they make awesome Chaas, even though it is a bit pricy it is still worth having! Complimenting the drink were the starters which included the Murgh Hariyali Kebab and Paneer Seekh Kebab and some Masala Papad. I cannot comment much on the Seekh Kebab as I didn’t get to have much of it and besides Seekh Kebabs aren’t my specialty either! The starters were good with the Chicken Hariyali Kebab as green as it gets! The chicken was well cooked and wasn’t spicy or bland but just about right!

Next up is the main course which consisted of Veg Bukhara Biryani and Murg Bukkhara Masala. The chicken dish was much like Chicken Kolhapuri without the hotness attached to it while the Veg Biryani was very rich in spices.The Murg Bukkhara Masala was accompanied by Kulcha and Butter Paratha which were both oven fresh when bought to the table.The biryani here isn’t the Dum Biryani but more of like a Kashmiri Biryani with a mixture of Awadhi spices to make a mix variant!

Finishing of the meal was the Rabdi which tasted very much like the one my mom made over the Diwali weekend. Good stuff! The food at Sheetal was exceptionally good and it seemed clear that the chefs were very particular of the way they made their food. The kulchas weren’t burnt a bit, the masala wasn’t overdone and neither was the food coloured! I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone with a taste for good food!

Here are the prices:

Drinks

Shahi Samundra – INR 125

Masala Chaas – INR 65

Kash Ma Kash – INR 125

Coca Cola – INR 100 (Just realised we were charged a good INR 90 more than the street price!!)

Starters

Masala Papad – INR 20

Murg Hariyali Kebab – INR 200

Paneer Seekh Kebab – INR 165

Main Course

Murg Bukhara Biryani – INR 185

Murg Bukhara Masala – INR 210

Kulcha – INR 28

Butter Paratha – 29

Diveagar & Harihareshwar Food jaunt!

A trip to the beach and temple towns of Diveagar and Harihareshwar (in no particular order) proved to be good on the restaurant review front. We were able to try out different restaurants on both days to give us a sense of the kind of food you can expect there. To summarise right now, food is much better at Diveagar and there are quite a few options and most of them remain open till 9-10 PM which is a good thing for travelers like us who prefer to be just-in-time for dinner!

I would like to start in sequence from breakfast to dinner where we had breakfast at Vadkhal Naka and dinner at Harihareshwar. First up is Gandharv Family Restaurant which is located at the Vadkhal Naka on NH17. It is on the road that goes towards Mangaon. Gandharv is a veg-only restaurant (which we only realised the next day when we stopped for lunch and had to move out as we were in the mood for some prawns and chicken!). We stopped here for breakfast and had Tea and Puri Bhaji, a combination which rarely goes wrong anywhere! The food was pretty good, hot puris and hot bhaji along with chutney and sambhar which made for an odd but interesting combination! The tea was nice as well, full of milk instead of water! It was a full breakfast costing us INR 22 for the Puri Bhaji and INR 4 for the tea. A must go to place if on the NH17. Maybe next time, will try for lunch as well. There seem to be a couple more expensive places nearby but I think they will only charge more for the same quality food.

Breakfast was followed by lunch at Mihika Bhojnalaya which is located in Diveagar. The restaurant is situated inside Prathamesh Holiday Resorts. Mihika doesn’t have an extensive menu – it serves only fish in non-veg and Watana in Veg and there is Omlette Pav as well. We were served Surmai as there wasn’t anything else available, though they do seem to serve a couple more types of fishes, the names of which I cannot recall. The food here is pretty good and for INR 140 we got a Surmai Fry, Surmai Masala, some more Surmai Masala and plain rice and rotis – quite a lot for just INR 140! It was a hearty meal and I cannot remember eating so much fish for so less!

There is another restaurant, Prathamesh Holiday Homes, right opposite the resort where Mihika is located.  Holiday Homes also serves Punjabi food among other things, as the board outside clearly mentioned. Will try this place on my next visit!

We also had a chance to try out snacks at Grasshopper Inn (not sure what an ‘inn’ is doing inside a resort!) at the MTDC Resort at Harihareshwar which seems to be the only place far and wide to serve any kind of food! We had Kanda Bhajiya and Batata Bhajiya which was priced at INR 35 each. The Kanda Bhajiya was golden brown and not burnt, a serious sigh of relief! The Potato Bhajiya was oily but acceptable for it wasn’t dripping of oil! The snack at the MTDC Resort was followed by dinner at a roadside Chinese eatery, the name of which escapes my memory. The food here is nothing to talk about though everything you get here is edible. If atall there was a rating of 101 places to eat the same chinese food, then this place would be in the low 90s. The tandoori chicken we had here though wasn’t bad, a little too overcooked for my liking but tasty nonetheless. Ironic how a chinese branded eatery served better tandoor than chinese!!! The half tandoor we had was worth INR 70 while the Manchurian Rice cost us INR 60.This small eatery is on the way to Diveagar from Harihareshwar and was the only eatery we came across in the 35 kms stretch until we reached Diveagar.

We started the next day with Poha mixed with grated coconut at the Cottage where we stayed. It was a wonderful breakfast to kick start the day as the meal was nice and hot with a liberal addition of coconut. I think I will ask my mom to add coconut the next time she makes Poha! The Poha was enough to keep us going until lunch for which we stopped at Upkar Restaurant which is right next to the Gandharv Family Restaurant. Upkar was the choice as we wanted to have non-veg food. The boys ordered for a Prawns Masala, chicken fried rice and a chicken schezwan fried rice. The Prawns Masala was awesome – it wasn’t spicy and the prawns seemed fresh.  I guess we got there at the right time!! Had the prawns with Bhakri – a bread (more like a chapati) made of rice instead of wheat – which incidently was a first for me! The chicken fried rice was good and had a lot of chicken pieces in there. The meal was a cheap one as well as we spent a little less than INR 100 per person.

Interesting is the fact that two of the best places on the whole trip were located at Vadkhal Naka. In my view, this is a definate must stop place for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Also, Vadkhal has a more Veg places than non-veg places it seems as all I could see was veg resturants all throughout the Naka.

This was a good trip as I got to try out so many different places and more importantly different food items at every place. If it was fish at Diveagar then it was prawns at Vadkhal though I think the chicken and the veg food was good as well! Overall, the food was good and the trip was refreshing – nothing else matters beyond that!

A photoblog of Diveagar and Harihareshwar Trip

On the way….the morning clouds at Palm Beach Road, Navi Mumbai

The beautiful NH17

One of the many curves on the way to Diveagar

The View from our cottage, Vrindavan

Nature at work…or should I say Big Red Ants at work

A beautiful path to…..

…..

a beautiful beach, Diveagar Beach

The Creek at Diveagar Beach

An old tree trunk, Don’t know for how long its been here!

Sunset at Harihareshwar Beach

Catching up at night at MTDC Resort

Sunrise at Diveagar Beach

Ripples in the sand, almost looks like I am in a desert!

The Sea!

The waves

The Road back home!

Weekend trip to Diveagar and Harihareshwar – 17-18 Oct 09

It is been a see-all-the-beaches-you-can-while-you-can for the last few weekends and this weekend was no different. A 2-day trip to Diveagar was planned for the Diwali weekend of 17th and 18th October 2009. Planned by a colleague, Daniel, I tagged along with another colleague Neville and Daniel’s cousin Rohit and common friend Nilu. We met at 7 in the morning at Sion Station and headed out towards Vashi. From there we went to Panvel and took the Mumbai-Goa Highway (NH17). For most part of our journey we were on NH17 which is a pleasant ride! Finally after reaching Mangaon we took a right turn to go to Diveagar, the place where a 1000 year old full-gold statue of Lord Ganesha was found!.  Below is the road map of the route (Source: Google Images) we took to reach Diveagar.

We took 5 hours to reach Diveagar which was good time covered considering we took a couple of wrong turns, stopped for breakfast and stopped a few times to ask for directions! We booked a room at a cottage run by a family which, incidentally, is also a Hindustan Petroleum (HP) gas dealer. The name is Vrindavan but asking for ‘HP Gas Dealer’ works better .

Interesting here to note is that if a ferry ride can be availed from Murud to Dighi then Diveagar is only a short distance from Mumbai and not the 200 Kms that we covered! A quick search led me to some forums which state that ferries can be transported from Murud to Dighi. So its quite possible to do a one-day trip to this serene beach.

After reaching the cottage, we freshened up and went for lunch at Prathamesh Holiday Resort which only serves fish in Non-Veg Thali and Watana in Veg. The food though, is nothing to complain about. The Surmai Fry and Surmai Masala were really delicious albeit a little too spicy for my liking. Per Thali costs came to INR 140 which is cheap considering the amount and quality of fish served! A point to add here is that, it is better to speak in Marathi or they might not understand the order correctly even though it is a simple menu!

The delicious lunch was followed by a trip to Diveagar beach, which at 3 PM, and rightly so since it was quite hot, was deserted with only the Migratory Seagulls sharing this long beach with us! The beach is clean and one of the most picturesque places I have seen so far! One has to go through a dense cover of coconut and Betal Trees to reach the beach. The feeling you get after passing the forests and finally getting on to the path from where the sea is visible is irreplaceable. You have to be there to believe that such a place exists and is not so far from Mumbai or Pune!

We had earlier decided to only ‘have a look at Diveagar beach’ and head to Harihareshwar but instead we ended up spending close to 2 hours there! At 4:30 PM we finally did move on to the temple town of Harihareshwar which is considered to be one of the holiest towns in Maharashtra. The original plan was to watch the sunset at Harihareshwar and we almost ended up missing the sunset as we had a late start from our cottage. But thankfully, due to some skillful driving by my friend Neville and the fact that the days are longer for it being the summer season, we reached just in time to catch the beautiful sunset.

The sunset picture clicking session was followed by a light snack at the adjoining MTDC Resort. We had Kanda Bhajiya and Batata Bhajiya both of which were good and filled our tummies! Though it was a fun drive to Harihareshwar for the sunset, we soon realised that the more exciting part of the day, or should I say night, had only just began. It was pitch black and we had to drive all the way back, 35 Kms, to Diveagar! Scary but adventurous came to my mind. It was a slow drive back home and a bit eventful as well with the suicidal toads (the name we gave the toads that only crossed the roads when a vehicle would pass by) crossing the roads every now and then and the beautiful Diwali fireworks in the distance on our left. We did halt for lunch at a roadside Chinese eatery which is nothing to write about. It is unfortunate that we ate there since after arriving at Diveagar we realised that most eateries here remain open until 10 PM.  Sigh! We did have ice cream at an Amul Ice Cream Parlour close to our cottage. That ended our first day on this short trip.

Day 2

Day 2 started early, very early. Went to Diveagar beach before sunrise to catch the beautiful morning sun against the backdrop of the Betal trees. Took a round of the beach as well. Checked out the small creek which is teeming with fishes which in turn feed the migratory Seagulls! Ah! The cycle of life. There was a high tide in the morning which did catch me by surprise cause I had crossed over on this small patch of land divided by the creek and crossing back was a bit scary!! Anyways, after the scary incident, got back to my group, clicked a few pictures, took a bath and went back to the cottage. For breakfast, we were served Poha with grated coconut. It is the best Poha I have ever had and the grated coconut made it all the more better!

Sadly, it was time to leave as the check out time is 11:00 AM. We said goodbye to the family and headed back home. On the way back, we stopped at Vadkhal Naka for lunch at Upkar Restaurant which serves some good Prawns masala. That was the last stop until Neville’s car stalled as the LPG fuel had gotten over! Not a big issue though as he switched onto petrol (after a good 20 minutes did the car finally start!) and refueled at a nearby petrol pump.  After that we headed back home, nice and safe and very very tired!

A brief Trip Log – Total Distance covered approximately (450 Kms, excluding the distance covered by taking some wrong turns here and there!)

Route taken (as seen from the map) – Mumbai-Panvel-Pen-Mangaon-Mhasala-Diveagar. We took the same route while coming back home.

On a closing note, I feel that a full 2 day/2 night trip would be suitable to visit all the places in and around Diveagar/Harihareshwar and Shrivardhan. They not only offer beautiful beaches and scenary but also quite a few temples.

Here is the contact detail of the cottage where we stayed:

Name of the place: Vrindavan

Contact Person – Sameer or Vasant B. Gandre

Ph: Diveagar – 952147-224270/71 | 9594142591

Mumbai – 9702037865/9960627965

Pune – 9890927965

Related posts: Photoblog | Food Jaunt

Vochelle – Dark Chocolate with Fruit and Nut!

Wow! The dark chocolate tryouts continue unabated! This time its a Malaysian chocolate by the name Vochelle Fruit and Nut. Bought this from a store in Bandra. The price was INR 65, pretty cheap for a dark chocolate, heck the cheapest one I have bought so far! Nevertheless I was happy to lay my hands on a dark chocolate to satiate my taste buds!

The chocolate is most definately rich in almonds and raisins. But where it fails is at the core itself – branded a dark chocolate, it isn’t much better than a Cadbury Fruit and Nut which is available for INR 30. The Vochelle is not necessarily a bad chocolate, yes the bitterness is there and yes it is a good chocolate overall but the fact that its priced at double the rate than that of the Cadbury is a real downer. Why would I buy a Vochelle if I can get nearly the same taste as the Cadbury? The Cadbury though is loaded with sugar and lacks the cocoa content of the Vochelle.

Overall, greatly disappoint with the Vochelle. I guess this extreme negative review maybe because I had the chance to taste two really awesome dark chocolates previously – Maya Gold and ecores d’oranges. Better luck next time is all I have to say for now!!

Dark Chocolate: Monoprix Gourmet – ecorces d’oranges

The last few weeks have been a dark chocolate try out season for me ! First it was the not so exciting Cadbury Bournville followed by the exotic Maya Gold and now the French Chocolate Ecorces d’oranges by Monoprix.

The French gave a very interesting description of the chocolate:

Your whole strength of a large cocoa-flavored orange to gladden the heart of inner gourmet in everyone. (Translated from French)

The Monoprix compares to the Maya Gold as both have the distint tangy orange flavour mixed into the bitterness that is Cocoa. But that is where the similarities end with the Monoprix relying heavily on its high cocoa content to win my heart as compared to the Maya Gold which also had a tinge of spices in it!. If you ask me, I wouldn’t mind either of the two as both have distinct tastes. The ecorces d’oranges is far more bitter and why not – it contains a minimum of 70 percent Cocoa, enough to satiate even the most hardcore dark chocolate lovers!!

Here are the ingredients of the chocolate:

Cocoa paste, sugar, fat-reduced cocoa powder, orange peel candied 5% (orange peel, sugar, wheat dextrose, acidity regulator: citric acid, preservative, sulfur dioxide), cocoa butter, emulsifier: soy lecithin, orange oil, vanilla flavoring. Traces of peanuts, grains containing gluten, nuts, milk and eggs. Cocoa: 70% minimum in chocolate.

Nutritional Value (per bar):

Energy value in Joules: 2293Kj
Energy value in kcal: 550KCal
Carbohydrates: 50g
Fat: 35g
Protein: 8.7 g

With 8.7g of protein per bar do you really need to eat anything else?? Not so difficult to overlook the fat content

I’d like to thank my friend Neville as I am in debt to him for his dislike of dark chocolate as I got to taste and cherish a very unique chocolate!

Vibha Restaurant – Nagaon Walanj Paroda

My Trip to Korlai was not just about ancient forts, lighthouses and pristine beaches but also about trying out the food in these areas. Sadly, there wasn’t anything available in Korlai so we went to Nagaon. A little tour of the beautiful Nagaon beach revealed that only Bhurji Pav was available at the many stalls at the beach. We weren’t looking for a snack but a full meal. So asked around a bit and finally arrived at Vibha – a full 30 minutes of searching!

It is amazing how place like Nagaon does not have as many restaurants as one would have liked. Do I smell a business opportunity here?? hehe! Anyways, once we reached Vibha, it become quite clear that there is indeed no other restaurant close to the beach. (Vibha itself would be around 15 minutes from the beach!). Though there are many resorts there, they do not offer lunch or dinner facilities to non-guests, which is quite a letdown!

Anyways, back to Vibha. The place itself looks like a makeshift restaurant, ready to be transported to any part of the town in a jiffy. We got the seat closest to the entrance but that didn’t matter really. The order was placed for two half Chicken Biryanis, one full Prawns Biryani and a Plain Rice and Dal Fry. The order took a long time to arrive as; apparently, we were in line as the tables previously occupied, were to be served first! A lot of people ordered for Biryanis – seems to be a favourite dish to order at Vibha! Until the food arrived, we quenched our thirst with Thumbs Up and Coke. Nearly 30 minutes late, the Biryanis arrived and so did the Plain Rice and Dal Fry.

The Biryanis weren’t as oily as I had expected, which is a good thing mind you! The chicken Biryani was tasted though the Prawns Biryani was delicious! The prawns were huge as well and not like the small ones we had at Murud. We also ordered a Chicken Kolhapuri to go with the Rice. This is where all the oil, which was apparently missing from the rice, was utilised! The chicken was good. wasn’t overcooked but wasn’t tender. Thankfully it wasn’t chewy or rubbery either. The meal was over in no time. The quantity was definitely lesser than what we had at Murud but the quality and the lack of oil made up for it! The total damage came to INR 500 (INR 120 for the Prawns Biryani and INR 50 for the half Chicken Biryani) which is reasonable for a full meal amongst 5 people!

Overall, the food was great though the slow service was a letdown. Pricing was great at well placing Vibha in my ‘must eat at Vibha when at Nagaon’ list .

Short and Memorable trip to Korlai Lighthouse and Fort

It’s become a feature of my weekends now. A new place to visit and explore every Sunday and last Sunday was no different! Korlai was always on the agenda and this time my friends and me were eager to check out the lighthouse and the fort. Though the initial plan was to ride all the way to Alibaug, where Korlai is located, we decided to head by boat to save on time (Which we eventually didn’t!). A quick view at the Google Maps made us relatively comfortable that Ferry Warf (Bhaucha Dhakka), from where bikes can be ferried to Alibaug wasn’t so far away from Bandra, but alas we still ended up getting lost! Thankfully some really helpful and extremely sleep uncles (yes in that order) did help us figure out the way to Bhaucha Dhakka and boy were in time or what! Reached there just 5 minutes before the boat left the shores! Phew!

Once on the boat, it was going to take us 1.5 hours to reach Ravas Jetty, where the ferry unloads the bikes and passengers. Ravas is around 10 Kms from Mandwa Dock and around 10 Kms from Alibaug as well.

The nearest beach, I think, is Kihim. The road towards Alibaug isn’t good for bikes at all and is in stark contrast to the road leading to the Mandwa Dock – you know how I know this? Because while coming we took a wrong turn and ended up at Mandwa (this must explain how I would know how many Kms Mandwa is from Ravas!!).

It did not take us long to reach Korlai and we were directed by the locals towards the correct path to the fort and the lighthouse. The path is a bit narrow and only one car can pass at a time. Since we were on bikes it wasn’t a problem for us at all! The path towards the lighthouse is very pretty! The sea and a beach on one side and a hill on another side topped by the Fort make for a pretty heady combination! I can imagine why the Portuguese must have selected this location! When at peace, the men, women and children come out to play on the beach!

Anyways, once at the lighthouse, we were given a tour of the place by the guide there. He told us about the various characteristics of the lighthouse and what makes it different from others. Was quite a short but extremely insightful tour! The tour was succeeded by a visit to the fort.

The fort is situated in a good location and canons, rusted at that, dating back to the 16th century are still there. The fort is not as big as it is long. Infact it is hardly as wide as a 2 lane road and is rectangular in shape. It is a shame the fort hasn’t been renovated like the Shivneri one, but efforts are on to preserve this once might Fort. The visit to the fort was a satisfying one as it was only the 3rd fort visit for me in a year!

The visit left us hungry and dehydrated as we descended to Nagaon to find a restaurant. After nearly 30 minutes of searching we finally found and soon realised that we were lucky to find it in time as it seems to be the only one present in the vicinity with a descent menu! We ordered mainly for rice items including a Chicken Biryani, Prawns Biryani and Dal Fry and plain rice for the lone vegetarian in the group. The food was much better than what we had at Murud!

We then headed back home but missed the last ferry from Ravas to Mumbai which is at 4:30 PM. So we ended up taking a very crowded ferry to Uran and headed back to Mumbai. Reached home at 8:45 PM – extremely tired, exhausted but very very satisfied with the trip! Looking forward to doing another one soon!

Here are the Ferry costs: INR 30 per person/ INR 30 for loading the bikes/ INR 30 for holding the Bikes (not sure what this means but basically just to have the bikes on board after loading them costs INR 30 extra!). The rates are the same while coming to Mumbai though to Uran it’s a bit less since its just 15 minutes from Revas!

Food Costs (Vibha Restaurant): INR 120 for the Prawns Biryani, INR 50 for the Chicken Biryani – cheap rates, good food!

Links:

Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/godzi.85/KorlaiFortAndLighthouse

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Course for Foodie Writers?

Came across this URL – http://www.monicabhide.com/my_weblog/food_writing_ecourse/ – all thanks to a friend of mine. Looks like this lady, Monica Bhide, conducts online e-courses for those with a passion of cooking and writing! The course costs USD 500 and I would like to think that the target audience would be budding/experienced writers who want to create a niche for themselves in the food business.

Defiance

Was at home on a rainy Sunday afternoon and decided to watch a World War II movie – Defiance. I have had it for quite some time yet never got time to watch it. A recent hard drive crash (heart breaking it was ) reduced my movie-watching options to just a few! So I picked up Defiance in the hope that it will lighten up my day.

Laid back with some ice-cream (to replace the popcorn off course) the movie rolled on. I was surprised to see Daniel Craig in the movie and even more surprised that I didn’t know about it!! Anyways,  the movie is about the struggle of a four Jews – brothers Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell), and Aron (George MacKay). Fleeing from the clutches of the Nazis who killed their parents as they killed countless millions of Jews under the aegis of Adolf Hitler, the brothers take refuge in the forests of Belarus. Vowing to take revenge, the brothers avenge the death of their family. What began as the will to survive until revenge was taken slowly became something else. The brothers took 100s of fleeing Jews under their protection and soon enough they formed a community in the forest. Stealing from the Germans and provided protection from the Russians, the community thrived and by the end of the war it was more than a 1000 strong.

The movie depicts the survival story of perhaps the few remaining Jews back then who may now be responsible for 1000s of offsprings all these years. The lives saved, thanks to the efforts of the Bielski brothers, in many ways, saved an entire community from extinction. It truly is an amazing story about survival through the worst nightmares one can imagine.