Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Mughlai Treat - Kolkata Biriyani In Gurgaon

This post is meant only for Biriyani lovers in Gurgaon. More so for those who crave the Bangali/Kolkata Biriyani, with the whole boiled egg and aloo (potato). Especially for those who think of moving back to Kolkata just to have Shiraz' Biriyani, ad infinitum.

If you fall under these categories then get prepared to receive the wisdom that will change the way you live in Gurgaon. Forever.

During Durga Pujo this year I happened to chance upon this Roll, Mughlai Porotha, Biriyani stall in the community Pujo organised by the DLF Phase 1 Community Centre. All items were love at first bite.

One thing led to another and I found out that they have a shop in Sushant Tower, Sector 56. Soon after the Pujo I went to their shop with my other Biriyani loving Gurgaon dwelling friends - Anal & Debraj, and my wife Veni. The smell wafts in even before you take the right for their tiny hole in the wall kind of shop (picture alongside).



The Biriyani was just  'authentic' - I know the definition is open to discussion, but having tried Biriyani practically everywhere in India I would classify the Lucknawi, Hyderabadi, Bangali and Kerala ones as Authetic. Not the chicken pulao available across Delhi NCR which goes by the name of Biriyani What's more it's priced at the Kolkata figures of Rs. 90 for Chicken and Rs. 100 for mutton. It has the yellowish dry rice with the 'kesar' flavour smeared all over. The meat pieces are well cooked, soft and succulent from inside, and dry on the outside. You can see the meat strands, individually. The whole boiled egg is ensconced in the slightly greasy rice and camouflaging somewhere in there is the whole boiled yellow potato. Did I mention divine? The picture accompanying is of the mutton Biriyani that I brought home and just before I dug into the plate and finished in less time than what they took to pack it.

But there is more to it than what meats the eye. The flavour and smell was not just authentic but had some thing special about them. During my next visit I chatted up with the store 'manager' and the three cooks and helps and learnt the secret to the magic. The cook is no ordinary person. He is from Kolkata! The same hands that added the magic to Kolkata Biriyani for 20 years is now dishing out the same manna right here, in an unknown corner of Gurgaon. As you can see he also cooks a mean 'Chicken Chaanp' and again priced at a very affordable sub Rs 100 range.



If you have been tempted enough by now then you need to keep the following in mind.

Name - Mughlai Treat

Location - Shop # 26, Sushant Tower, Gurgaon (click for map directions)

Menu -    Chicken/Mutton Biriyani - Rs 90/Rs 100,
                Chicken Chaanp Rs 80,
                Chicken/Mutton Roll Rs 25/Rs 30.
                Chicken/Mutton Rezala only if ordered in advance.

Home Delivery - Mostly in and around Sector 56 & 57, Gurgaon, Otherwise for large orders.

Seating - Pure take away, if you discount the couple of broken plastic chairs.

Available - All Days except Tuesday.

Contact Number - +91 9999311547 or + 91 9312733913

Rating - 5 star

Friday, January 08, 2010

Are You An Early Adopter?

In the world of internet, the term 'early adopters' refers to those people who start using any given technology product/service before most others. These people are considered quite influential because it's based on their promoting and coaxing that others join. It is also a commonly accepted trend that it's usually the same set of people who are the 'early adopters' for most new technology.

In order to verify the authenticity of the assumption I looked at the trends that various technology game changers like Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger etc. followed and the claim seems to stand validated.

I can be called a moderately early adopter for most of these apps mentioned, except surprise surprise - Facebook! But of course given the fact that I work for an internet technology company it doesn't come as a big surprise that most of my colleagues and I fall in this category. What is interesting to see is the magnitude of traffic these adopters have been able to bring to various products.

I am showing the graphs of some of the popular apps below, and marking my entry with a red arrow on the timeline. You can see for yourself at which part of their growth did you join the bandwagon.

Gmail



Orkut



Blogging




YouTube



Facebook



Twitter




So, are you an early adopter? When you started using these services did you expect them to become what they have?

What are the not-so-known products of today that you are an early adopter of and you see potential for the future?

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Hungry Kya?

There is Pahalwan Dhaba!
Brack Fast, Lanch & Deenar!




Clicked on our way to work. Photographer: Veni


Friday, January 01, 2010

Movies of 2009 & New Calibrated Ratings

Continuing from my last post where we looked at the best movies of 2009, I wanted to share my ratings on all the movies of 2009 which I watched in a theatre, and more importantly to announce a slight change in the ratings of movies going forward.

The 2009 is provided below. Would be interesting to know if you have very different ratings for any of the movies mentioned.






Being a bit statistically inclined, I have kept some notes of the movies that I have seen in theaters since 2007, and the summary would be as follows:


Year        Movies Seen      H:E              Top Rating (on 10)        Avg Rating

2007               32                 22:10                      9.0                                5.78
2008               30                 23:7                       8.5                                6.35
2009               24                 18:6                       9.0                                6.85

What I have found over the years is that I was tending to give a 7 rating for movies that I found average, which was not leaving much scope for fairly rewarding the truly exceptional movies as there was a space crunch between 7.5-9.0.

Going forward I will be recalibrating my existing 7.0 to 5.0, so you will notice a considerable drop in average ratings. However, this will help in highlighting the good, great and outstanding efforts. Or sifting the men from the boys to put it chauvinistically!

I will continue updating the ratings through Twitter and Facebook and will be looking forward to your comments and thoughts.

Wishing everyone a wonderful new year will many great movies to come that will keep us engrossed till 2011:)