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Posted on November 4 2006 by Jag @ 8:45 pm
Thanks to the ever-inspiring Diamond Geezer, lunch today was traditionally London; pie and mash at the about-to-close down family-run-since-1890 Goddards Pie House in Greenwich. A warming and veritable end to a chilly November morning of spectacular views obtained in getting there by switching from the Jubilee Line to the Docklands Light Railway at Canary Wharf. It’s been a while since I was in Docklands last, and the ascent up the escalators at Canary Wharf tube is simply breathtaking:
Dramatic ascent.
(Taken with my cameraphone from the up escalator at Canary Wharf tube.) Then hotfoot it over to Wood Green Cineworld to see the movie Don, a very recent Indian cinema release, interestingly set in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My review in a few words: Good fun action film, especially if you are a fan of SRK. But why oh why couldn’t we have been spared the squirm-in-your-seatingly embarassing song and dance sequence featuring Kareena Kapoor near the beginning? Also, “Bollywood” desperately needs a new coreographer, as the dance sequences throughout the film made you think that you’ve seen it all before, and the pace of the dancing was simply way out of tune with the tempo of the songs too. And please: can we have less of the open-mouth syndrome from the leading lady during dance sequences please? That’s so Rani Mukherjee and we’re getting a little tired of it! Still, great escapism due to implausible storyline, but couldn’t help thinking about the sinister stuff that Suketu Mehta wrote about in Maximum City which I read just recently. Overall, good film; shame about the dancing.
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Route 79 Reflections on a bus journey home |
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| From London: By a British, European, 2nd-Generation Indian. Probably confused - but proud to be them all! Half of my journey to and from work is a 20-30 minute bus ride: London Bus Route 79 - between Alperton in West London and Kingsbury in North West London. I very frequently get pissed-off and frustrated waiting around in the DARK, WET and COLD - waiting for the 79 to turn up. But I have to be eternally grateful for the quality thinking time I get to myself. | ||
Canary Wharf Station is the (highly overrated) don of the Underground.
Comment kindly left by Anne — November 5, 2006 @ 10:42 pm
Dear Jag
I work around there but have only been to Canary Wharf station once and can only agree: most of the Jubilee line stations are rather exciting but the CW station is quite delightful. Westminster and London Bridge have extended the scale of things but CW is rather special largely because the ascent is steeper and the view as you reach the top of the escalators can lead to a degree of vertigo. Last time I saw anything like it was atop of the Pyramid of the Moon outside of Mexico City. Tried the fishcakes again today and we all loved them.
love etc
Comment kindly left by Mark — November 5, 2006 @ 10:46 pm
Oh thank you for the link to Kareena. She is now looking lovely back at me on my desktop! I also have never been to Docklands but your photo and description of the view makes me wanna get there sometime soon!
Comment kindly left by Happybutterfly — November 5, 2006 @ 11:11 pm
Anne: Canary Wharf highly overrated? Yeah – I think you may be right.
Don it is!
Mark: glad you liked the fishcakes! Which fish did you use and how did you prepare it? Any unique touches? Intrigued. You work around there? Lucky you – I was only there on Sat for a few hours and there was just too much for the eyes to feast upon, not enough time! I agree with your point re vertigo though – it really is something riding up those escalators.
HappyButterfly: You *will* grow tired of Kareena quickly believe me. Priyanka Chopra (the leading lady in the film Don) is far better than Kareena; glad she(Kareena) only had a minor role. Trust me! Here is a Wiki link to Priyanka: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyanka_Chopra but do search Google for more images of her! And do go to Docklands; if you’re like me you haven’t been for ages and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Comment kindly left by Jag — November 5, 2006 @ 11:27 pm
Jag: Did read Suketu’s maximum city some time back – another gr8 one is thomas friedman’s “The world is flat” which endorses the same string of thought but in a roundabout “gora” way (LOL).
Did meet the gr8 man in my newsromm where he was invited 4 a discussion on his book. Very polite with a lot of class.
Ref Don, though the new version is slicker but always liked AB’s older version, maybe ’cause my ancestors come 4m the same place when AB sang with such verve the song “khaike paan benares wala…’ or maybe one always was a sucker for things gone old !
It’s sad that Goddard’s is closing, it really had some character.
From next week, i hope to start uploading pixs on my blog “nsquares.blogspot.com”. lets hope they would be worth a “dekho” !!!
Any out -of-box tips you & ur patrons could kindly suggest for the look & feel of the blog, will be most welcome. The blog’s focus will be quirky images in a supposedly quickly developing (catching up with the Joneses kind of) nation !
Comment kindly left by Nitin N. Singh — November 6, 2006 @ 5:12 pm
Don sounds scary alright
I think I’ll avoid it after reading about your experience. I don’t like KK too much either so that dance is probably something I won’t miss at all!! I haven’t read Maximum City either. Have heard good things about it.
Comment kindly left by anita — November 7, 2006 @ 1:07 pm
Here is a andhra veg recipe we tried 2day, culled from the nandyala website which claim cooking with a consciousness , whatever it means (Link: http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/category/authentic-andhra/
Baby Brinjals in Masala Sauce (Gutti Vankaya)
Gutti Vankaya Kura (Stuffed Brinjal Curry or Baby Brinjals in Masala Sauce)
Once upon a time, like many of us in present time, a housewife was struggling with the question, “what’s for lunch?â€
Adding to the stress, it was almost month end, everything in her kitchen cupboard needed refilled. To do that she had to wait until the salary comes home. What she had was few young brinjals from her backyard garden. Even the pleasant pale purple color of brinjals couldn’t lift her spirits up. Nonchalantly she plucked the brinjals and dragged herself into the kitchen to prepare something. She opened the cupboard, added everything that was available there to the skillet to roast. Wonderful aroma from roasting lifted her spirits a little. She had to powder them so pounded away her frustrations. In exercise induced endorphin daze, she thought of a novel way to cook brinjals and made a plus shaped cut in brinjals. In a big skillet, added the brinjals along with powdered ingredients and a glass of water. Covered the vessel and let it simmer while she went to freshen up. When she came back what she had in the pot was a delicious stew of brinjals. So fragrant and so pretty to look at. Her face glowed like a warm sapphire and at last she smiled at her ingenuity. Thus, a new recipe was born! Saving housewives everywhere, whenever they are low in spirits or things in kitchen cupboards.
I am sure this must be the story behind the ever-popular stuffed brinjal curry of India. Like the designers to dress stars at Oscar night, all the famous spices and ingredients in Indian kitchen come out, but here to dress the already gorgeous shiny starlets – the fresh, young brinjals. Needless to say the recipe rocks!
Ingredients for Gutti Vankaya Kura
Recipe:
Roast or toast in an iron skillet:
Needed: quarter cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, ¼ teaspoon and a hot iron skillet. One by one or all together, however it’s convenient for you, roast the following items listed below. Take care not to black or burn them. Ingredients quantity is for 12 brinjals.
- Quarter cup each of:
Chana dal, urad dal, sesame seeds, grated coconut and peanuts
- Tablespoon each of:
Coriander seeds and cumin
- Quarter teaspoon each of:
Cloves, cinnamon, black peppercorn and fenugreek(methi) seeds
- 15 dried red chillies (for 12 brinjals)
Once they are cool enough to touch, take them all in a mixer. Add a tablespoon each of – jaggery, tamarind juice and a teaspoon of salt. Blend them to smooth consistency.
Baby Brinjals:
12 young fresh looking brinjals. Make two cuts in each brinjal, one horizontal and one vertical Like plus (+) shape. Keep one end intact. Check this photo for reference.
(The brinjals I’ve used for this recipe are young and tender, too small to stuff. So I directly added them to the skillet after making a plus shaped cut. If these were somewhat medium size, I’d have stuffed them like I did in this method.)
Cooking:
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a big skillet. Do the popu (add and toast few curry leaves and a teaspoon each of cumin and mustard seeds).
Add the cut brinjals to the skillet and also the masala powder you have grinded earlier. Add about a glass of water. Stir in turmeric and salt-½ tsp of each. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring in-between. When brinjals are cooked to tender and masala sauce thickens up a bit – time to turn off the heat. Let the curry sit on stove for another 10 minutes like that, giving more time for the flavors to mingle well.
Serve warm with rice or roti.
This recipe is my mother-in-law’s. Even without ginger-garlic and tomatoes, it tastes great and she usually prepares this curry with pulagam (rice+split moong dal+salt) or jonna rotte (sorghum roti) combination.
Gutti Vankaya Kura mariyu pulagam (Stuffed Brinjal Curry with Split Moong dal Rice)
Gutti Vankaya Kura mariyu pulagam (Stuffed Brinjal Curry with Split Moong dal Rice)
Stuffed Brinjal:
Gutti Vankaya Kura (Stuffed Brinjal Curry I)
Nune Vankaya kura (Stuffed Brinjal Curry II)
Comment kindly left by Nitin N. Singh — November 7, 2006 @ 4:03 pm
Nitin: The World is Flat sounds interesting. You met Thomas Friedman? He is the Don.
Now: I would have to agree with you regarding the AB version of Don. I’m with you there – the old skool just can’t be beat. I can watch Deewar over and over without tiring of it – absolutely classic. And thanks for the Brinjal recipe – this is one classic dish too – one that has to be eaten with a concience! Will check out the blog – and offer some tips along the way for sure!
Anita: I think the film is worth seeing just to be informed, but go get some popcorn during the KK dance, it is just so cheesy. Maximum City is definitely worth reading – esp you being a one-time Bombay-ite!
Comment kindly left by Jag — November 8, 2006 @ 12:36 pm
Jag: Yeah, did meet Friedman on a tv show I was producing, one of those few “goras” without a hang-up , & is really is a DON!
By sheer coincidence, a 2nd gen brit of indian origin, just like u “n” me, who is an expat sound engineer here in India, gifted me the day- before a recently published book “Brideless in Wembley”, authored by Sanjay Suri.
READ IT & then try connecting the dots between Friedman, Suketu , Greggory David Roberts (his very lucid auto-bio book “Shantaraam”) & Sanjay Suri & you’ll get a very confused picture of what “brown” is all about !
By the way, the gr8 Brad Pitt is playing Shantaram , the ausssie convict who gives a very different take on asia, LOL !
Comment kindly left by Nitin N. Singh — November 10, 2006 @ 5:37 pm
Hi Nitin, wow – a gora without a hang-up – that’s something!
Brideless in Wembley is now on the reading list. Thanks!
Brad Pitt? I am intrigued.
Comment kindly left by Jag — November 12, 2006 @ 7:21 pm
Jag:
Surprised that you liked DON
…SRK did not work in the movie for me…
It was a slick movie though and very different from the old one.
It will be interesting to see how the sequel to this film will turn out. There is a sequel I am guessing given the way the movie ended…
Kamla
Comment kindly left by Kamla — November 13, 2006 @ 3:52 am
Hi Kamla, well I was trying bravely to spin it positively. I recognise that there are many fans of SRK, and as SRK movies go – it has all the usual SRK qualities, or lack of. Of course, if you use the original film a a frame of reference then the outcome is very different – but most of the people who were in the cinema when I went to see it didn’t look like they had seen the 1970s version. So, if you look at it standalone – it wasn’t all bad – and there are some parts of the old movie that didn’t work well in the new movie for me – for example I already wrote about the “Helen” dance at near the beginning was really “out of place” in this version. Yes, the end twist leaves room for a sequel – and the line “it’s not just difficult, but impossible” has a very carry-forward quality to it. Lots of scope to develop Roma’s character – and quite possible to twist turn Don round into a good guy against evil etc. (i.e. a bit like Terminator did in T2).
Comment kindly left by Jag — November 13, 2006 @ 8:19 am
[...] Bollywood. Route 79 has a short review of a new Indian movie that was released a couple of weeks ago. [...]
Pingback kindly left by Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Blogging About India, NRIs, Bollywood and Ice Cricket — November 16, 2006 @ 9:06 am
[...] Bollywood. Route 79 has a short review of a new Indian movie that was released a couple of weeks ago. [...]
Pingback kindly left by Global Voices Round-Up: India « Kamla Bhatt — November 16, 2006 @ 3:31 pm
Just count yourself lucky that you don’t work in Canary Wharf (aka Frankfurt am Thames, Singapore-by-Bow, New Minneapolis).
Comment kindly left by El Cid — December 9, 2006 @ 5:56 pm
[...] been exactly 100 days since I went to see the Indian movie “Don”. I’ve also snapped (and wirelessly uploaded “live”) to Flickr exactly 442 [...]
Pingback kindly left by Route 79 » LonDon Revisited — February 12, 2007 @ 5:30 pm