JourneyMyWay on Facebook

Yes yes, I know I'm behind in my reviews. Thats what juggling does to you! My latest article on Rediff looks great (the snaps could have been better I agree) and JourneyMyWay is gaining momentum.

Which made me realise just how Facebook is not such an easy tool. The JourneyMyWay group was almost touching 100 when we realised that everytime we posted something, the members wouldnt even get an alert, thus you would miss out on all the exciting new places we found.

Corrective measures have been taken, and from now on, please visit the JourneyMyWay company page instead. The restrictions in the FB group was not helping us grow.

Please click on the link below and join the JourneyMyWay company page instead:

Just click on this LINK and when the page opens, click on the 'like' button on top of the page.

We promise to keep you entertained with our new discoveries, photographs and more!!

Legends of Delhi’s Belly

 

Legends are a complex animal. They may not be the fad of the day, there may be shinier and better things coming up everyday, be they actors, stories or restaurants. But legends hold their own as places, people or things that have stood the test of time. You must experience them to have an opinion on them, whichever way your opinion may swing!

 

Rediff recently published my article on Legends of Delhi’s Belly. It traces legendary restaurants in each cuisine in Delhi and includes places of worship for Delhiites like Big Chill, Karims and the eternal HCF from Nirulas.

 

Check out the article HERE.

 

Disclaimer: The photographs in the article need an apology. Could have been and will be way better in the future. Food tends to make me lose focus!!

 

Big Chill’s signature Fuseli Chicken Piri Piri

 

Mutton Burra at Karims

 

Gigantic Golden Fried Prawns at Chungwa

 

The Mecca of all deserts – Nirulas for their HCF

Iraqi Restaurant Reviewed – Don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

 

No…this is not the description of the restaurant. Actually, it may as well have been. The Iraqi Restaurant, set in a bylane in Lajpat Nagar 1’s residential E Block (E-178 near the gurudwara) is indeed an Iraqi Restaurant and for the sake of simplicity, the owners decided to use the description for it’s name as well!! It takes a little bit of searching to find this nook and its best if one asks around for Krishna Market and thereafter locates it. On a hot Delhi afternoon (and the afternoons are getting sweltering hot these days), we braved the weather and went ahead in our endeavour of constantly trying to find new places to eat.

 

The decor was much better than we expected. Expecting bare tables and chairs like Bline (the Russian restaurant that is now shut), we were pleasantly surprised to see the minimalistic yet aesthetic look of black tables and sofa seats. The waiting staff, like the owner, are all Iraqi students and speak just a tad bit of English but pointing and hand gestures should get you by.

 

Very interested in exploring a new cuisine, we decided to start with the appetizers. A platter of kebabs, a mix seasonal salad and a dal (lentil) soup. The kebabs came impressively on their skewers but were dry and very bland in comparison to their Indian counterparts. The salad was great though – was one part an eggplant and onion salad, one part cucumber and tomato and a part of hummus. The dal soup was a large bowl of ..well what did you expect…dal! It had some boiled rice thrown in, so your quintessential khichdi!!

Telling ourselves that there must be an upside to this place, we went ahead and ordered the main course. The Qosi Rice is the most recommended dish to eat here so we ordered a plate of that with a bowl of beans for our vegetarian friend. Trying to figure out what the beans dish is like, we asked the waiter and he said it was like baked beans…we thought that perhaps that is just a metaphor. Alas, he was forewarning us, it was indeed just a plate of baked beans! Having said that, I have a feeling that our vegetarian friend had a better meal than us because the Qosi Rice turned out to be one large mound of rice with a ‘boiled’ piece of sheep meat on the side. Thats it. No gravy, no flavor. Literally just a boiled piece of meat! Thinking we must have ordered wrong (rather desperately praying that we had), we asked him to get any other dish with a gravy – the house speciality. What he plonked on our table though looked like he was very very mad at us. In the huge bowl, there was a lot of runny red water, submerged in this water was 2 huge rotis broken into bits and on top of this pile was yet another piece of the boiled sheep meat similar to the one that we had been struggling with!

 

The prices are low. A meal for 4 cost us just Rs.1000. Yet, we walked out hungry, discontent and very very unhappy. Nothing that a quick stop at the Def Col Nirulas couldn’t fix with their Hot Choc Fudge though!

 

All in all, a very disappointing experience. If Iraqi food is like this, then perhaps this is one country I’m not planning on visiting soon! If not, I hope to find a restaurant that does it justice!!

 

Rating: –0.5 out of 5

Journey My Way

Some things are just meant to be – they have been staring you in the face for so long and you just never saw them! Often I get calls from friends and family who are in a particular part of the city and want a restaurant recommendation for a specific cuisine in that area. Or colleagues who are going out of town and just wanted my suggestions on where they should go, what to eat there, how to travel, where to stay etc. Add to this, the fact that I have been writing about Travel and Food for many years now, on websites like Rediff etc. When you put this all together, I saw what had been staring me in the face. A Travel Advisory. Sharing local insights about North India with inbound travellers – helping them experience India in a unique way!

Thus, Ladies and Gentlemen, was born JourneyMyWay. The Travel Advisory helps travellers customise their itineraries to suit their personalities and not go for the tried and tested packages which make them adjust their personalities to their itineraries.

JourneyMyWay (JmW) first tries to understand the clients in terms of their preferences, their comfort levels, what aspect of a city would they be most interested in, what cuisines, how much would they want to spend on the trip etc. Taking these personality traits into account, JmW creates a unique itinerary for them, giving them recommendations on what to see, how to schedule their day, what to eat and where, what to wear, weather temperaments, how best to travel, where and what to shop etc.

Whenever one goes for a trip, the most credible source of information are friends who have already visited your destination and thus may have local insights. JmW is a traveller’s local friend who can help plan and guide him/her for the duration of their trip.

Please visit www.journeymyway.com to explore more of the concept. Also, don’t forget to become a part of the Facebook Group by clicking HERE. Keep tuned in for some great insights, reviews and tips!

Feature on Lakshadweep published

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My latest travel feature on vacationing in Lakshadweep is up on Rediff. Lakshadweep is like a string of pearls. The islands untouched, the white sand and crystal clear water - its a vacation that dreams are made up of.

If you have a week to spare and 25K per head to spend, take my advise and take this path less trodden. It will be a week you will remember for a long time to come!

You can read the feature here

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