Chp 734. SCOOP lunch

After SCOOP Launch, there was SCOOP Lunch! :D

So SCOOP has recently started a "North East Cuisine lunch" at Ales, Brews & Cider. This was the first time it was held in Pune, and I made sure I did not miss it.

The North East lunch event costs ₹ 600 per head, and this consists of an unlimited offer - Rice bowl, Pork Ribs BBQ, Mizo Bai, Pork, Chicken and Buff with Bamboo Shoots and Mustard leaves, Axone, Scoop Buff fry, Eromba, Sinju, and lots of boiled greens.

Along with that, there was the special 2 PM - 5 PM offer from Ales, Brews & Cider on drinks – Unlimited drinks on House Craft beers (Belgian Wheat, German Wheat, IPA and Apple Cider) for ₹ 600.

I sneaked into the kitchen to catch a glimpse of the busy chefs in action.

Everybody was shouting out instructions here and there - put more onions in there, need more chopped tomatoes over here, reduce the flame on that dish, pass the oil to this counter, where can I get a happy ending massage in KP, etc. Yeah, everybody was busy…

By the way, the chefs for this event were not just the regular chefs at Ales but also different Northeastern volunteers from the Seven Sisters.

It was a good thing we were participants of the first SCOOP lunch event because we realized it was quite hot in the day time. All of us sat in the shade.

Just chilling as we all wait for our food.

Alok, owner of Ales. Amazing dude.

Northeastern families too turned up from near and far…

I look so happy :P

Finally, the food started rolling out…

Yummy indeed. Here are a few more pics of the event, provided by the talented "Aman Photography".

We also ordered extra Pork Ribs and Buff Fry, which were so amazing!

A great time indeed! Kudos to the Chefs and all those who helped.

I'll be updating more on the delivery services SCOOP had started, including "Yellow Box" homemade food and an upcoming NE Food Thali. So stay tuned, Pune. You'll love it! :)

Cheers!

Chp 733. SCOOP launch

So the other day, SCOOP officially launched their brand of Pork and Red Meat pickles with much glitz and razzmatazz. I was one of the lucky ones to be invited for the private launch event held at Ales, Brews & Cider, Kalyani Nagar.

The pickles are homemade dry pickles made in Northeastern style (Ginger, Garlic, Naga King Chilli, Vinegar etc), so it is bloody tasty and quite spicy.

Even though the current product range covers only Pork and Red Meat for now, there are plans to expand their portfolio to Chicken, Bombay Duck, Bamboo Shoot, Dry Fish and Fermented Fish in the near future.

All of us received a free bottle of the pickle at the event, but many of us opened our bottles and munched on the delicious meat right there at the venue itself because it went so well with the alcohol (perfect seh-hmeh).

A few more photos of the glamorous invitees that night…

Yeah it was definitely a memorable night…

What made this event even more special was that it was also a combined birthday party of Kirripirri and Miss Jungio.

Cake cutting time!

By the way, because of the launch event and birthday events, the food and drinks were all free that night :D Yeah, my kinda partayy :P

Currently, SCOOP ships out around 100 bottles a week, based on the number of orders they receive in advance. They prepare the pickles during the weekends and ship them out on Mondays across Pune, with free home delivery charge.

In addition to the Red Meat and Pork pickles mentioned above, Dry Crispy Fish pickle is also available now for delivery from this week onwards.



To place your order, you can DM them on their Instagram account or comment on their Facebook page. The Pork pickle costs ₹ 300, Red Meat pickle costs ₹ 250 and the newly launched Dry Crispy Fish pickle is available at ₹ 200.

Trust me, there's something about these pickles that really attracts the ladies. It's not just the awesome taste, maybe it's also because of the class and packaging involved…

And speaking of packaging, there are plastic bottle options for those of you outside Pune who wish to place an order.

SCOOP has so far delivered many outstation orders to Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, Puducherry, Chennai, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Assam.

You just have to pay for shipping charges if your order is less than 5 bottles. Anything above 5 bottles is free shipping! Even if you order less than 5 bottles, the shipping charges come to less than ₹ 200. 

I have already started taking this bottle to office every day and eat it with my lunch order at our office cafeteria, and it is super yum!

So get in touch with SCOOP if you want to place your order too.

Until then, cheers everyone.

Chp 732. Mizo Greetings

Ok so here is something I've been thinking of for quite some time now, and I think a lot of you, including my close friends, are going to disagree with what I'm about to say. Feel free to disagree with me and give me your counter viewpoints, I like having a healthy discourse.

So, here's what's been on my mind for the past couple of months…

We know that one of the regularly discussed topics within our Mizo society is the way people greet each other back in Mizoram. There had been many blog posts and FB status updates written by various Mizos regarding this issue. The tone of such posts usually goes along the lines of this – 

What Normal People Say When They See Each Other After A Long Time:

- Hello, how have you been?
- Good morning. How you doing?
- Long time no see, what's going on with your life?
- Hi! Hope everything is fine with you.
- OMG, you look so good. How's so and so?

Meanwhile… What Mizos Say When They See Each Other After A Long Time:

- OMG, you've become so fat!
- Whoah, what the hell happened to you, you're skinny as bones!
- Hey, what is wrong with your skin? You have the cancer?
- Oho! Are you not sleeping well? You look so tired and ugly!
- Long time no see, are you still shy and single?

Ok so this is the topic I want to discuss…

Yes, it is only when we go back to Mizoram after staying outside for months or years that we experience this "culture shock" of meeting people we hardly know telling us right to our faces that we have gained a lot of weight or look malnourished.

And I totally understand the insensitivity of this issue, hence the reason why I know so many of my close friends complain and criticize about this. Even I think it is quite rude, especially when that person is not somebody we know well.

But I started having this thought, you know, call it a devil's advocate opinion if you will…

So I've been hanging around with a lot of other Indians and foreigners. And we would talk and laugh and discuss various topics over a drink or two. And every time I, or some other Mizo in our group, tells them about our Mizo society, and how people are very frank and direct when greeting somebody they haven't seen in a while, our non-Mizo friends would express their astonishment in awe.

And here is where this thought struck me. This non-conforming realization that perhaps… perhaps this is what makes our community unique? This is what makes us special? This is what makes us Mizo?

Because from a political-correctness standpoint, we know those are not the things we should say to random people, unless they're like our relatives or BFFs. We can hurt other people's feeling in a lot of ways that we may not be aware of.

But having said that, if we dissect the scenario deeper… the one question we should ask ourselves is, does the person asking such a candid and "rude" question have malice in his/her heart? I think not. Because, that's just simply how our community has been rolling all these years. He or she definitely did not intend to hurt your feelings.

It also has to do with the fact that, even though that person may not be somebody close enough to intrude deep within your personal boundary, the Mizo bonhomie-ness kicks in, an intangible bond that binds all of us close to each other. A magnetic phenomenon that automatically makes us feel connected to each other.

The more I think about this, the more I actually look forward now to returning home one day to the welcome chatters of "Dayymm Kima you so fat and ugly now" or "What happened to your hair, you look senile!" Because that will tell me that I have finally reached home, a place where you will never experience something like this elsewhere. Home. Home sweet home. My Mizoram.

And that is what I've been thinking of these days. Feel free to have your say on this topic.


[thanx for sending me this pic Didini Tochhawng]

Chp 731. Grace Kitchen Other Pickles

As I mentioned in my previous post Grace's Kitchen Beef Pickle, Grace delivered the special order I requested - Eromba pickle and Ngari pickle last night!

It is a special order because she had made the pickles just for me. She only takes bulk orders like when there are around 50 people demanding Beef pickle, but in my case, it was just me. :)

Oh they were soooo good :)

So Ngari is basically dry Fermented Fish mixed in chutney and paste, so it has a pungent smell to the untrained nose. Eromba is mashed vegetables mixed with King Chilli and Fermented Fish.

I had them last night with Ghee Rice, Fried Mustard leaves and Fried Fish.

The fried fish in particular is called Nghachik, a river fish from Mizoram, and they all combined to give an amazing flavor.

Yummmm.

Bon Appetit everyone! :)

Chp 730. Grace's Kitchen Meat Pickle

This is an advert update. Not that I'm getting paid for it, but those of you who follow my blog posts will know that I like to advertise stuff my friends make, free of cost.

So there is this awesome lady from Nagaland called Grace who had set up her own business here in Pune. Grace's Kitchen is the name of her label, and she makes this kickass Beef pickles from home.

I decided to give her pickles a try and placed an order. Since my office was close to her house, she personally came to my office to deliver the goodies.

At 130 bucks a bottle, it was an amazing deal. The "Naga King Chillies Meat Pickle" was prepared from Beef and super spicy King Chillies so the spice level was bloody awesome. Apart from having it with food, it was also excellent as a "seh-hmeh" for alcohol :D :P

Grace used vinegar and mustard oil as natural preservatives, so the pickles could be stored for around 3 months if refrigerated. But of course, 3 months storage, lolz, who am I kidding, I was finishing one bottle a day, lolz.

The pickle went perfectly well with normal dal-chawal and Rajma meal (Oye Kiddan)

It was also a match made in Heaven with Veechu Parottas and Egg curry (Tamil Nadu Mess)

With buttery Alu paranthas and Omlette (Faasos)

With Mustard buttered Kasundi Sticky Rice and Guwahati Gateway Pork (Mineority by Saby)

With Lachcha parathas, Paneer Masala and Scrambled Eggs (Eatsome)

With Meat Feast Pizza (Smokin' Joe's)

With Steamed and Roasted Corns (Corn Club)

With Chicken Biryani and Roti (Hyderabad Biryani House)

One weekend, my nephew Ruatfela came over and we cooked lunch together at my house.

The Beef pickles went really well with the grand lunch we cooked.

Speaking of homecooked meals, the pickle also went well with very simple homecooked meal I made - Plain rice with Ghee and Scrambled Eggs. Yummmm. Such a simplistic and yet so satisfying bachelor dinner.

Like I mentioned earlier, the pickle also went well with alcohol :D Just take a bit while sipping Captain Morgan Rum or munch them while downing a cold pint of IPA. Really awesome :)

Also, these amazing combos with food and beef pickle is not just restricted to my house, I also take these Beef pickles every day to office. Here are some of the awesome combos.

With Egg and Veg Thali (Dino & Duggy's)

With Curd Rice and Egg Roast (Chopsticks Spice Malabar)

With Malabar Parotta, Korma and Medu Vada (Madras Coffee House)

With Ghee Rice and Naga Pork Curry (Elephant & Co)

With Kothu Parotta and Egg Curry (Kerala Cafe)

With Khara Pongal, Ghee Idli and Medu Vada (Anna Idli)

After all those awesome combos, the pickles vanished within a week!

And so I placed my next order from Grace again :D

As usual, she came to my office to deliver the products. This time my order was a bit bigger than the first one :D

The order was bigger because a lot of my colleagues from office and friends from WhatsApp who follow my story updates placed an order too. It was just too good.

And with that, the combo fusion continued…

With Chilli Podi Idli and Medu Vada (Madras Coffee House)

With Fried Chicken Bucket (KFC)

The pickles also went so well with Sawhchiar (home-made Mizo Chicken Stew). Yes I went all the way to Undri with my Naga King Chillies Beef pickles just to have it with Sawhchiar :D

And so, those are the amazing combos so far.

You can reach Grace at +91 8830956579

Today she is coming to my office again to deliver Eromba and Ngari Pickles I had specially ordered from her, and she will be making her next batch of Naga King Chillies Beef Pickles tonight, so if you are around Pune, message her on the above number to place your order.

I will give my feedback on the other pickles soon.

Also coming up is a review on SCOOP pickles, so watch this space for more.

Until then, cheers everyone!

Chp 729. Lost in Timeline

And suddenly
there she appeared

at the far corner of my 42 inch monitor screen

sandwiched between unsolicited ads and unnecessary notifications

a shining beacon amongst the multitude of information overload

"People You May Know" was her label

I may know?

sorry, I not may

but I sure would love to may!

165 mutual friends between us

half of whom I don't even know

her smile was like the forbidden fruit from the garden of Eden

a calm amidst a stormy turmoil

captivating me, keeping me enchanted

And then I refreshed my Facebook timeline...

*poof*

just like that, she was gone with the wind, never appearing on my timeline again, no matter how many times I pressed the back button

oooh fortune's fool, thou hath picked yet another victim tonight