DocDivaTraveller: May 2016

If you know me remotely, then you know my affair with food. And when it comes to trying out new places and cuisines, then I am the first to jump in! So when I got an invite for a food meet at the Janpath Grill bar, I was elated! It was a Friday afternoon so I had to take a half day from my clinic. Anything for good food!

Hubs was crazily busy at his hospital so he could not take out time for this meet with me. Anyways located in Janpath, it was not tough for me to reach there. I walked there from the metro.

As soon as I entered the restaurant, I felt a lovely vibe. The restaurant has opened 10 days back and it promises a live grill experience and Molecular Food technology along with conventional good food.

The ambiance was lovely. The décor is practical yet different and cute. On a wall there is a huge painting of Delhi’s map; different monuments popping out of the map with the respective activities associated with that particular place. There are beautiful lamps all over and the seating is very comfortable.

Every table has built in grills in the middle.

Live Grill in the middle of the table

Food:

I started with golgappas. Like any usual girl, I just love golagappas. They were served very stylishly with sweet chutney in droppers and sour water in test tubes.

Trendy Golgappas

Then I had molecular fried puffs. They are usual puffs with an unusual twist. They were infused with

liquid Nitrogen! Liquid Nitrogen is at -200 and hence the ‘molecular’ name! It freezes anything that

comes in contact with it. The result? The puffs are super crunchy and as soon as you put them in your

mouth, a puff of smoke (read nitrogen) comes out!

Molecular Puffs emitting Nitrogen Vapours!

Liquid Nitrogen being poured over the puffs..

Foodies enjoying their food...

Chef opening the liquid Nitrogen box

Enjoying grilled prawns...

Then skewers with different grilled items arrived. I tried fish, chicken and prawns. I just loved prawns.

My favourites among the vegetarian grilled items were spinach soya and paneer tikka.

MOLECULAR CHAAT: Then a very special kind of Papri Chaat arrived. From the yougurt to the green chutney, everything got frozen in liquid Nitrogen. The dahi bhalla and promeganates were also frozen!

Molecular papri Chaat

The yougurt looked like pieces of ice and it was really cold to taste! Chef Tarun himself played this

Nitrogen show at our table!

Yogurt got frozen with Nitrogen

Drinks: The first was Gur ka Sharbat which was very sweet and tasty. Then had Hajmola ka sharbat and Aam ka sharbat. My personal favourite is the mango drink.

I was already full with all the grilled items and the Molecular Papri Chaat so I had to skip the main course. Moreover I had to attend another meet and that was an interior decor one ( another of my passions). It was indeed a lovely afternoon.

5/28/2016 4 comments

Our Turkey trip was first in many things. After hearing a lot about B and Bs, we decided to take the plunge. Before this we were completely hotel stayers and it would not hurt to try an apartment for once. So we crossed our fingers and booked an apartment. Bookings.com had good reviews about it and we hoped for the best.

Warm welcome with a hot cup of coffee after a sleepless and jetlagged night of journey...

The main reason for choosing Sophia Apartments or Centre apartments was its location. It was located Sultanahmat, in the heart of Istanbul, and all the main tourist spots were in the vicinity. Also the metro station and tram station were nearby. Having said that, it was far from the airport. In this trip we decided to be super adventurous and ditched the taxi. So we bought the 'Istanbul Kart'. Its very similar to our Delhi metro card ; the only difference being that the Istanbul Kart was valid for all means of public transport..bus, tram, metro and ferry.

Charging the Kart was one hell of a problem. The upside was that we could use single card for multiple persons. As soon as we had landed in Istanbul, we had been facing language problem. Immigration was long and we were exhausted after about 24 hours journey. We quickly made our way out of the airport towards the Metro station. Buying the Istanbul Kart was simple but recharging it was a mammoth task. There were no clear cut instructions in English. Finally a policeman came to our rescue and we boarded the train.

We required to change two metros for reaching the Sulatnahmat station. The real task began after we deboarded the train. According to Google map it was about 15 minutes walk from there. We followed my husband's internal GPS (brain) and proceeded. When we reached what we thought to be THE place, we started searching for Centre Apartments. There were rows of houses everywhere but none read Centre Apartment nor any passer by could tell us where it was. After about one hour of hunting, I sat on the road. We were ready to give up and had accepted it to be fraud. I wish I could have taken pictures of those moments but believe me were sweating with stress. We had paid everything and paying for a new hotel involved uncalled expenses. Even their phone was unreachable. I vowed never to book an apartment again.

In front of the Sofia Apartments.. the entire neighborhood rented out space for travellers

One of the neighbours was very sweet and he accompanied my husband in knocking door to door. I sat on the pavement exhausted and crestfallen with all our luggage. Finally after a total of three hours on the road, they finally knocked at the right door. Yes we finally found Centre Apartments!

I was quite furious when we entered. I mean why no board or sign? Are we fools? We lost three hours of precious travel time! However our mood changed by our hosts. The house was very beautiful and they were very sweet ( not to mention they were very good looking). We were greeted with a warm cup of coffee. We quickly freshened up and left for the nearest spots of the city.

A very warm welcome by the younger brother...Kenan Baktas

It was around eleven when we came back. It had already been 48 hours that we had slept. Our last sleep was in Santorini 2 days back. Anyways that did not deter us from enjoying more.

Our hosts were two brothers. The elder one was a family of four while the younger one Kenan was of my age. Since Kenan knew English, we became very good friends. We are still in touch.

That night apart from us, an Italian couple was also there as guests. Kenan was making grilled chicken and he invited us to join. We all four sat on the dining table and started chatting. It did not take much time to break the ice. We chatted from topics ranging from travel to politics...anything that we could think of. It was two in the morning. Kenan made us delicious Turkish Tea. We chatted and chatted till our eyes gave up. We were humans after all.

I consider that night of bonding with three foreigners the best part of our entire trip. It is one experience we will never forget. After having such an awesome experience at an apartment, we have decided to stay like this in our next trip too :D

Turkish Delight and Baklava shop

Beautiful Turkish lamps in front of the apartments...

48 hours of sleeplessness yet we were still chatting!

With our new Italian friends...Diane and Mauro. Yummy Turkish Tea and roast chicken. I made Maggi for hubs in the microwave

With the entire warm family and our new Italian friends...

Wooden staircase...

The foyer

The dining room

5/25/2016 8 comments

Have you ever heard the term lost growth? Well I have and I have been a victim too. My mom (till date keeps on cribbing that I could not achieve the height I could have because of faulty nutrition. Its really sad that nutrition does not depend on economic strata only, it depends on so many other factors. The ability of the child to accept nutritious food, knowledge about nutrition and availability of the right supplement at the right time are so many other factors.

Being a mom myself now, I can understand my mother’s grudges. My daughter was born underweight and she is now too. I am scared whether she would be able to catch up on her growth. She is already lying behind her peers.

This Sunday was the much awaited Indiblogger Meet. We had our last meet in August, The Fitbit Meet. It was really a long dry spell and we all had been waiting for a reunion. The venue was The Lalit and it was the product launch of Horlicks Growth Plus …which claimed to let the kids #CatchUpOnGrowth.

The eminent panelists: from left: Moderator Natasha Badhwar, dietician Dr Jyoti Batra, Paeditrician Dr Rajiv Chhabra and psychologist Ms Satinder Kaur Walia.

The event started was a fabulous lunch. Somehow we all were less interested in food and more interested in meeting each other. The introduction with Anoop began and we all were so happy to be there! After few fun Qs and As, it was time for the product launch. The team of eminent panelists consisted of Natasha Badhwar, who was the moderator; a mother, entrepreneur and blogger, then there was a senior pediatrician from Artemis Hospital Dr. Rajeev Chhabra,senior child psychologist Ms Satinder Kaur Walia and senior nutritionist Dr Jyoti Batra.

We learnt a lot about children nutrition. Somehow their take on milk was accepted by my orthopedician husband and as well as me. If my child refuses to put anything into her mouth except for milk then should I deprive her from that? I don't think so! For her Iron deficiency I would give her supplements but I can't let her not drink milk. Anyways lets not go into controversies.The best thing that I learnt from the session was child psychologist Ms Walia's take on dealing with kids. We always learn that parents should be a kid's friend. She said no. A friend does not tell you what's right or wrong for you. Its a parents' job. So in order to understand your child you should be 'friendly' with him but not 'friends'! Okay Ms Walia, point noted!

The stage taken over By Dr Aditya Kaushik..

The stage was then taken over by the product experts,Mr Amaan Khan, the marketing head of GSK Consumer Healthcare and Dr Aditya Kaushik, the head of medical affairs for GSK. We were shown a short video where mothers were remorsing about how their kids are not upto their normal height and weight. Its a big blow to the child's confidence. They felt that what is lost is lost. Just because their kids were fussy eaters, they could not achieve normal growth. I could relate to their grievance because I am scared for my daughter too.

And the product arrives!!

Then the product was launched with a bang..the Horlicks Growth Plus. This supplement is for age group 3 to 9 years of age. It is fortified with important nutrients and has been formulated after 5 years of research. It promises to enable the children catch up on lost weight and height after 6 months of regular intake. It promises visible results! Well I plan to feed my daughter this! It comes in two flavours: Vanilla and Chocolate. The 400 gm pack is priced at 585 INR while there is a smaller pack which is cheaper.

We were then given Horlicks Growth Plus to taste. I a chocolate person chose Vanilla for a change and it was heavenly! So I expect it to go really well with the kids!

We all tasting Horlicks...for a change we tried Vanilla flavour instead of Chocolate and it was yummilicious!!

The people shuffling begins....

After that the real fun began. We were shuffled into teams of ten to make a 30 second video on Horlicks Growth+. There was a lot of hulabaloo! We chose Simardeep as our leader and he got a basket of fruits, a measuring tape and a mug as props. Zeroing down to the topic was really tough. After all too many cooks spoil the broth! The first video we made had all the team members participating. But it got long (around 2 minutes) So we decided to focus on a mother son relationship and of course Horlicks Growth Plus. I was the mother, Simardeep my son and the hubs the videographer with JinJin's phone. You can catch our awesome video here. It was the most hilarious experience of the day!

Hubs caught on camera while being in the charge of camera!

Our rocking Team 7 after making the video

So after 4 hours of pure fun. We headed back home with a jar of Horlicks Growth Plus. I am really looking forward to the effects it is going to have on my daughter. It was really an experience to remember!

Fun with fellow blogger friends..Dipali and Ruby

The iconic Hud Hud during group Photo Session. Who can recognise me?

Along with Horlicks Growth+, we also got a Mommy's scrapbook where I can jot down the little growth details of my little one!

Dress: Mango
Earrings: H n M
Necklace, Bracelets: Forever 21
Booties: Zara
Purse: Furla Candy

5/22/2016 17 comments

Earlier we used to associate few things with a particular gender. For example going to work, ploughing the fields, fixing electrical appliances used to be a man's job. Whereas cooking, cleaning, child rearing and laundry used to be in the woman's domain. Over the years, the scenario has changed drastically. Now women to go to work in offices and men do not plough (we have tractors to do that). Some women fix things in the house like a pro (electrical appliances and plumbing alike) while some men can be even better cooks than women! All the best chefs are men remember? Jobs may have switched genders but one thing tends to remain exclusively a woman's job...i e laundry.

I would be taking turns with the hubs in washing clothes with Ariel matic...

As a woman its very sad to see that we women can do everything. We wake up in the morning, cook for everyone, clean the house, wash the clothes, leave for office, come back in the evening from office and then cook, help the kids with their homework and then after arranging the entire house and preparing for the next day, we switch the lights off. If a woman can do everything, why can't our partners share the load a little? I am not asking for too much. Just washing the clothes or keeping things back at their places would suffice. I know its the mindset and upbringing that deters the men in the house to move their bums from the couch after coming back from work. They say they are tired. But are not the women exhausted? They had a similar day in fact a tougher one. Actually they had never seen their dads do so; hence this generation begs to differ. But now since women fly spaceships too, laundry should not be a woman's job only.

The odd days in the calender were marked for me and the even days were for my husband.

When Ariel Matic came up with the Odd Even Activity of sharing the load, I was elated. What we were supposed to do is to divide the chore of washing clothes based on the date is odd and even. My husband as you all know is a lazy bum when it comes to doing household chores. So I marked all the odd days in the month of May and assigned them to myself. On the even days the husband is supposed to do the laundry.

My husband who has not even filled a glass of water in his entire life finally agreed to carry on this task. If the stubborn Delhiites can abide to the Odd Even rule in taking out their cars, then why not him? He would be helping me only of course.

Its the husband's turn to wash clothes..

Ariel Matic makes washing clothes really easy. It gives you squeaky clean clothes in one wash only/ So far it has made laundry task very easy for the husband! Watch the video below. It would really melt your heart as to how the father learns to share the load with the mother. As it is always said...Better late than Never!

I am taking part in the #LaundryGoesOddEven Challenge by Ariel India at BlogAdda.

5/19/2016 10 comments

As our annual ritual, we opted for Udaipur for our Anniversary celebration. Udaipur is the land of grandeur, luxury and beauty and architecture. After all its the Venice of the East! Its the city of lakes too...(what do you expect from the term Venice?) I had been to Udaipur in my childhood with my parents. I faintly remembered the beautiful city. However when the hubs suggested this place for our anniversary celebration, I was overjoyed. I wanted to revise the beauty of this city with my partner in crime. Trips with my parents are laid back, more relaxing. While with the hubs its more of an adventurous backpacking type.

Hubs booked a flight from Delhi. Domestic Airlines are more convenient than trains. It takes far less time to travel and hence the extra price compensates for the extra leaves taken for travelling and precious travel time too. The Flight Schedule was very convenient too, it was an early morning flight. From Indira Gandhi International Airport to Maharana Pratap Airport, it took just one hour and a quarter to reach there. As soon as we landed, I could feel the touristy smell.

Udaipur is the city of lakes with two really large man made lakes ..The lake Pichola and the Fateh Sagar Lake and a few small ones. Lake Pichola is the largest and houses the most luxurious hotels in the world. Since we were incapable of staying in those extravagant palaces, we booked a hotel that overlooked the lake and was pretty in itself.

The next morning we decided to take a walk around the Lake Pichola. We started from the Gangaur Ghat, crossed the lake and reached the other side. This was the side which had palatial mansions and the Udaivillas. I was mesmerised at the extravagance.

The two sides of the lake are completely anti to each other..both in terms of architecture and residents. The bank on which we were staying were home to the locals and tourists of backpacker type. While the opposite bank had very few locals. The tourists were less in number but were of the affluent type. There were no budget hotels; only palaces and five stars and that explained the wealthy standard of tourists there.

Since we could not spend a fortune in the Udaivillas, but wanted a lavish experience, we decided to have breakfast in a fancy hotel called 'Ambrai' It was a lovely place. It was actually a small palace that was converted into a hotel. The rooms still had that royal feeling and there was a tiny lake inside the premises. The restaurant was on the bank of the Lake Pichola. So we had breakfast with the cool breeze in our hair overlooking the lake. Food was expensive as we had expected. A plate of bread and butter was 200 INR! Don't judge me as a miser but 200 is ridiculous as per Indian standards! Anyways we ended up having a mezze platter for breakfast. It was amazing. That hike around the lake was one of the best highlights of our trip. I felt rich without actually having to spend 50 k INR for a night!!