Chp 545. Weekend getaway - Almitra Villa

Photoblog update.

So this weekend, my friends and I decided to go on a weekend vacation. We’ve been overworking almost every day for the past few months, and even when we do take a break, we rarely do it together. This time, we decided to plan a really nice relaxing weekend cum road-trip together.

And here is just how relaxing it was!

Blissful escapade indeed. So how did we end up here and what was our experience? Read further below. Also, click on all photos to enlarge to a new tab.

The place we decided to go to is called Almitra Villa. We slept early on Friday night, having bought all our stuff in advance.

Woke up at 7 on Saturday, all excited and ready to go. Breakfast was packed.

Left our house by 8 AM. We hired an Innova, so five of us along with the driver, the cat and the dog fitted in comfortably. Faced the usual heavy traffic in Mumbai, which became thinner and thinner as we headed more and more away from the city…

Controlling our dog was the biggest problem of our journey. He was everywhere, that window, this window, that seat, this seat, etc etc bow bow…

Amidst a lot of internal wrestlings with our dog, we finally reached the first toll gate. After that, traffic was relatively much lighter.

After another hour or so, we finally reached the Khapoli junction, from where we had to take a right.

The timing was perfect, as our friends travelling in another cab also reached at the same time!

And if you think our cab is quite a mess because we had a dog on board, well the other cab had a baby on board! :D

After a brief stop at a roadside dhaba to pee and stuff, we continued on our journey again. We had the packed breakfast inside the cab. Again we had to fight off our dog who wanted a piece of the food!

Soon we reached Adlabs Imagica, which is a very popular theme park. I definitely wanna go there someday. Unfortunately, that was not our destination and we quickly drove past it.

From Imagica, it was approximately another hour’s drive. We drove through small winding roads with beautiful rural scenery around. The only bummer was, it was in the plains. It would have been more beautiful if it was the hills or ghats.

Soon we reached the Vasudha Gates entrance, from where we had to take an even smaller road. Our destination, Almitra Villa is one of the many farm houses located within this Vasudha society.

Finally, yayyyy, we reached.

Lunch was already made, waiting for us.

I checked out the area quickly, taking pics of the surroundings etc.

All the beds were double beds.

The pic below is the bedroom where I stayed. Alone.

Even the bathroom was spacious and elitified.

It even had a nice balcony view too, as it was situated on the first floor.

Here’s a view of downstairs from my room.

And here’s a view of my bedroom from the ground floor inside… Saddam was busy checking out where I was going to sleep for the night. Kinda like he gave me his approval :D

Meanwhile we kept all the food we brought along inside the fridge. So this place provides basic food, but we have to bring our own supply of special meats and alcohol.

After that it was to the POOL!!!

I was the first one in of course! :P

After that, lots of drinks and more drinks inside the pool. Good times indeed :)

The next pic I took was only after dark :)

We also had a barbeque by the pool. We made sheek kebabs and lots of seafood.

The kitchen inside too kept providing us with more snacks as we let our hair down and enjoyed by the pool…

For dinner, the cooks made Mutton gosht which was utterly butterly delicious.

Night meant bringing out the Mizo shawl. It was quite freezing once we were out of the pool.

The next morning, I was like, aaaahhhh :)

The cooks made maggi and poha for breakfast. I had my fill.

After that, I roamed around the farmhouse, exploring the place as my friends were still passed out sleeping. Took a few photos as well. Almitra Villa is situated right on the banks of the river Amba.

Loved the lawn as well. This is where they have the bonfire parties.

There was also this really cozy hammock at the lawn too. Took this pic from the hammock. Sheer paradise indeed. The beauty of nature.

Meanwhile Saddam was busy marking his territory everywhere. So many trees. Mine mine mine, all mine! :D

I love their sprinklers also. Makes the lazy hungover morning even more perfect…

For lunch, the cooks made chicken biryani, which was REALLY good!

Random pics I took…

Our cat and dog had their own siesta after a good lunch…

Soon it was time for me to head back to Mumbai as I already had plans. Bye bye Almitra Villa.

Crossed the river Amba for the second time…

Hello again Mumbai. Idyllic view from my taxi.

What an awesome weekend it was. I will update my blog next with what happened after reaching Mumbai. Cheers till then :)

Chp 544. North East Helpline Meeting, Jan 2015

After a long week of intense work and having spent the previous weekend on a work related conference in Pune, I was really looking forward to the upcoming weekend where I could finally relax and catch up on all my favorite sitcoms, when my phone rang.

I looked at the caller id and immediately knew what the call was going to be about. Any calls from Pa Amo, Ningsang Jamir or Seihaso Khansu on a Friday meant only one thing - that there was going to be a meeting conducted for all Northeastern representatives of the "North East Helpline Mumbai" (NEHM) during the weekend :)

Even before anything was mentioned, I sheepishly confirmed I would be attending. In order to make this venture of having a common platform that serves as a means to make the lives of Northeasterners living in Mumbai better a success, all of us have sacrifices to make I guess. And since this meeting was not just the first NEHM meeting of 2015 but a lot of important agenda were going to be discussed, the DRC (Deputy Resident Commissioner) of Mizoram House too participated, hence making the two of us representatives of our Mizo community.

And so, on 10th January 2015, we all met at our North East Helpline Office, Mini Rose Apartment, Kalina.

More than 20 representatives of various North Eastern states and communities attended the meeting, and it was great seeing a lot of familiar faces. We caught up quickly, wishing each other a happy New Year and stuff. Those who attended the meeting included, in no particular order, Aola Kichu, Beltezzar Thong, Thanshing WS, Yureimung CH, Pamsho Muivah, Ningsang Jamir, George Neihsial, Bishal Lama, Tengsek A Sangma, Sophayo Khamrang, Peter Sekhose, Asif Iqbal, V Zaithanmawia, Kevin Guite, Thomas Haokip, Aning Muinao, Jacob Tao, Lalramthang Amo, Tim Raror, Henmi, Subir Mhd, Deepen Rajkonwar and yours truly.

As mentioned before, this meeting was held on the 5th floor balcony of Mini Rose Apartment. The view was beautiful, and my Oneplus One phone captured the mood perfectly :)

The meeting started at 2:30 PM and was adjourned by 6:00 PM. During the meeting, various topics and important agenda were discussed, and here is the minutes of the meeting just released by the NEHM media wing -

1. On the need to have a "North East Association" here in Mumbai - In order to make our North East Helpline a legitimate and official organization, it is of utmost importance to have a registered Body under which the helpline will function since the existing helpline (NEHM) cannot be registered as an organization. After a long discussion and deliberation, it was decided that such an Association will be formed and registered by the designated representatives of the various Northeastern Associations present in Mumbai.

2. Another important decision taken was deciding the name of the new organization to be formed. After a couple of discussions regarding different names, a consensus was reached on the name "NEWAM", which will stand for “North East Welfare Association Mumbai”. The NEHM (North East Helpline Mumbai) will function under the NEWAM.

Both the two important points mentioned above were not finalized, and it was decided that each representatives present in the meeting will then go back to their respective parent Associations and get their official approval, post which the NEHM will conduct another meeting to discuss the way forward.

3. There was also a request from people of Darjeeling (West Bengal) residing in Mumbai to be a part of the North East Helpline community as they do not come under the North East technically, and it was unanimously voted that residents of Darjeeling will be clubbed with members from Sikkim, hence bringing them under the fold of the NEHM.

4. Our representatives also brought out another important issue of people not getting paid by their employers. At least 60% of the complaints we have received are about non-payment of salaries. Some of the NEHM representatives mentioned the difficulties they have faced while pursuing such complaints because in many cases, there were no proper document/agreement signed by the North East employees, and in other cases, their place of employment was not a properly established one, while in a few cases, it was the NE employee who was at fault, hence leading to a lot of time and resource wastage of the NEHM representative handling the case. It was even suggested whether the NEHM should no longer follow up cases involving non-payment of salaries and that if such a complaint comes in again, NEHM should just direct them to the police instead of hand-holding them all the way through. However, a consensus was not reached on this and discussions regarding this will be continued in the next meeting.

5. The NEHM is set up to assist and help people from the North East, especially when it comes to racial discrimination or abuse, but if people from the North East are themselves the perpetrators, then they deserve the same reprimand or punishment as any other Indian citizen. The NEHM will not get involved in these matters.

6. Another important decision taken was regarding the introduction of a North East cultural festival here in Mumbai, where various North Eastern Associations under one banner (NEWAM) will come together to showcase their culture and traditions to the people of Mumbai. This will also serve as a good opportunity for the local residents to interact with us and get to know more about us while educating them about our different cultures and societies. The date and venue for this program will be discussed in the next meeting.

7. It has also been decided to hold a joint Sports programme among different members of the Northeastern community in Mumbai, like conducting a football tournament, basketball tournament etc where different NE associations will compete with each other all in the name of good spirit and comradeship. Similar to the cultural festival mentioned above, the date and venue for this program will also be discussed in the next meeting.

All in all, it was a fruitful meeting, and the date and venue of the next NEHM meeting will be announced shortly.

After the meeting, I caught up with some of my friends living in Vakola as I hardly get time to come to this part of the city. This was followed by dinner, complete with our traditional Mizo dishes and pork. A day well spent indeed.

Here’s to the NEHM. Cheers.

Chp 543. Food Porn

Let’s start the new year casually with something we all love - Food!

I’ve been so busy with work right from the start of this new year that there was no time to write any proper blog post. However, food never got in the way :)

I usually spend my weekends these days experimenting with food. I may not be a good cook, but at least I can cook, and being a bachelor who knows how to cook is one brownie point I can add to my shaadi.com profile :P

Some of you may have seen my previous post, where I experimented with homemade pizzas. Click here in case you missed the delicious mouth watering post. The best part about eating something you yourself have cooked is that, no matter how salty or bland or tasteless the food turned out to be, you will still admit that it was awesome :D

Yesterday, I did my usual weekend meat shopping at JC’s cold storage. Bought a whole bunch of Chorizos among other stuff. Decided to have it with Malabar parathas for lunch!

Chorizo, as we know, is a spicy fresh pork sausage fermented or cured with a lot of chilli peppers or smoked spices and encased in a natural casing made from intestines. The description itself is enough to make any Porkaholic’s mouth water.

So here is my amateur way of preparing my meal... First, gently remove the sausage from the intestinal casing...

Next, carefully slice it. Use a very sharp knife because it is extremely delicate, otherwise it will become minced keema :D And I, Kima, ain’t gonna make keema.

After that, slowly heat the pieces in a frying pan with VERY LITTLE oil. The sausages themselves will procure their own oil once heated, which in turn will produce its unique flavour.

Heat the Malabar parottas/parathas on a dry pan with a teaspoon of ghee each. This type of parathas must only be eaten when they are hot, otherwise you’ll feel as if you’re chewing rubber :) You’ll also end up burning a lot of cholesterol in your attempt to tear them into smaller pieces if they are no longer hot :D

Additionally, you can also take accompaniments like dal and gobi sabji to minimize the spice. Thadaaaa, here’s a very simple and yet utterly delicious meal!

The meal above left a very fulfilling and satisfying flavour in my tummy for the rest of the day. Oink oink.

This morning though, I decided to have a little bit less of meat and more of greens in order to balance my diet. One must avoid too much carbs, especially if one is still single, you know :) And of course I feel less guilty when I picture my mom screaming at me, “Eat your vegetables!”.

So here is my simple, yet scrumptious breakfast - The Kimwich :P

First, prepare a simple homemade cheese base made from a mix of mayonnaise and cheese spread along with grated capsicum and onions, finely chopped parsley and basil, and a dash of mustard.

Spread this mix equally on top of fresh oregano bread.

Now take a recently purchased smoked ham luncheon meat (which I also bought from JC’s) and neatly arrange them on top of the cheese spread.

Add a little bit of salt and black pepper on top. After that, top up the meat with veggies.

Again, add a little bit of salt and black pepper on top in order to equally distribute the salinity. Now add fresh lettuce on top. Yeah mom, are you reading this? I am taking my veggies!

You can add various condiments and sauces on top too for added flavour, but since I just wanted to make it really simple, that was enough for me. A healthy and yet meaty breakfast! Yummm.

And I take a small extra effort in the presentation because that just makes it more appealing and appetizing to me.

Now coming back to Chorizos, even though they went really well yesterday with the Malabar parottas, they are also equally awesome with rice as well. And ever since my bottle of Raja Mirchi pickle which I bought from chef Gitika Saikia got over, Chorizo was the next best thing to having something spicy in my meal.

Thadaaa, today’s lunch. Veg pulao with fried Chorizo and yesterday’s leftover dal. I also fried some eggs from the very same oil that I used to fry the Chorizo, so even the eggs came with an aromatic meaty flavour. I can still feel the meat kicking in my stomach as I write this post.

What an awesome lunch :)

I just want to point out that I don’t always eat Chorizo as it is quite expensive. So on other days when I feel like eating meat, I usually fry the normal sausages, which are cheaper. Some of you may have seen my earlier post - My Spiral Sausages where I experimented with a new way of cooking sausages in a spiral manner.

The best part about processed meat is that they are extremely quick to prepare. And living in Mumbai with extremely hectic work schedule and deadlines everywhere, it is a perfect dish to make. Below is one such breakfast I made before rushing off to work last week. Fried sausages, eggs and toast. It took me less than 5 minutes to make the whole thing...

But on days when I feel like rewarding myself like after a successful pitch or a long day spent on video conference, I usually go for the Bratwurst sausage, which is more expensive than the ordinary sausages you see above or even the Chorizo. Notice the shape difference between the Chorizo and the Bratwurst.

The Bratwurst has a more smoky flavour and according to wiki, the name is derived from Old High German Brätwurst, from brät-, which is finely chopped meat and Wurst, which means sausage.

Again, I am definitely not a sausage connoisseur and I am only posting about the type of sausages I get from my favourite meat-house JC’s Cold Storage near my apartment, so the variety of sausages you’ll see me blogging about are extremely limited. That’s what we amateur foodies do.

At the end of the day, we all love food. Especially pork. I’d just like to take this opportunity to promote a new Pizza joint we came across recently.

I’m sure most of those living in Mumbai would have heard of Joey’s Pizza? Yeah?

Well, if you haven’t heard of them, and you’re extremely fond of pork, then that is one of the best pizzerias in town. Screw the traditional Dominos, Pizza Hut, Andy’s Pizza, Smokin’ Joe’s, Papa John’s etc. Those guys pale compared to Joey’s. The quantity of meat Joey’s Pizza serve is humongous!

Unfortunately, Joey’s deliver only around Andheri West and Malad West area (unless they have opened a new joint which I’m not aware of). I used to order so regularly from my previous Andheri office that one time they even made an exception and delivered to my previous apartment in Jogeshwari East!

However, now that we have recently shifted to Chandivali, Joey’s was out of the question, but we have discovered another truly awesome joint - Eva's Pizza!

Yup. Eva’s is as good as Joey’s. Their pizzas come covered in cheese, sausage, salami, ham, pepperoni, bacon and all the other goodness life has to offer. We order from Eva’s Pizza in office at least twice a week. Definitely a Heavenly place, unless of course you’re a vegetarian.

This is the size of their medium (10 inch) pizza, enough to feed me and two other colleagues.

Sometimes, when it’s just me alone craving for Pizza, I order the regular (7 inch) which is quite filling as well.

And when there is a large group of us, then we go for the large (12 inch), and opt for the 50-50 (two different flavours in one pizza) option.

They also have a “Four Season” item, which consists of four small Pizzas (smaller than a 7 inch, I think they are around 5 inch each) all having different flavours. I made the mistake of ordering one for myself... I couldn’t even finish half of it!

But one great thing about Pizzas is, before leaving office, I collected all the meat toppings from my leftover lunch and took them back home, where I had it with dinner, along with dal khichdi, tandoori roti and neer dosa. It was AWESOME.

One advice I’d like to give you if you’re ordering from Joey’s or Eva’s - ALWAYS order thin crust. They add so much meat that it would be a lying shame if you’re full from the bread crust and end up wasting a lot of good meat. Go for thin crust so that you can enjoy more meat :)

And to end this post, I’ll just include this last photo. Pork Salami with Egg Biryani and... BEKANG.

Yup, that’s a food fusion right there – Hyderabadi, Italian and Mizo. I’ll be coming up with my next batch of Food Fusion post soon (in case, you’re interested, you can go through my previous Food Fusion I and Food Fusion II posts, where I wrote about mixing up our Mizo delicacies with non-Mizo ones).

Until then, cheers and oink oink :)