The Udipi Palace!

I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Fremont for the Thanksgiving holidays and had a great time there. One night my aunt took me shopping to a Gujju store called Kumudh in this place called Newark and there was this restaurant called Udipi Palace right next to it. Having had amazing vada pav the previous night at Chaat Bhavan, I did not let my expectations go too high.

We entered the restaurant and spotted the buffet sign - we were pulled to it with this unknown powerful force! It was only me, my aunt, and my younger cousin(Sri Ram). Now, I shall describe the various courses which I partook(hehe!)

I started out with alu chat, naan and chole. Then the server fetched a new sizzling dish and I went to check it out and guess what- it was Pav Bhaji! And the pav bhaji was really good :) Then there were these mini uthappams and two different chutneys- coconut and an orange one. The coconut chutney was bad but the orange one made up for it. There was medu vada and a type of cutlet. I had noodles and gobi manchurian. While I was eating something else, the server got freshly made dosas for us! My cousin was overjoyed. There was a guy making dosas at a counter and all the kids who hadn't seen it were gawking admiringly at him. There were not that many north-indian dishes available though. There was bisi-bela baath(sambar rice, dunno how to spell it) and raitha. And there was this whole sub-section of south indian dishes- sambar,rasam,mor kozambu(khadi),kootu,paayasam(kheer),2-3 poriyals,etc! I would technically call this section a buffet within a buffet- as it was equivalent to the south indian 'meals' we get back in India. I could not do justice to this section - my stomach had already reached its above capacity limit.

So anyway, I could eat no more. But wait- there was buttermilk too! Yup! I had 2 cups of that :) and when we went to settle the bill at the counter there was paan too! I am in love with udipi palace!!!

Halloween, some interviews, and a mid term!

Phew! The past three weeks went past me like a dog whose tail was on fire! Lets see...previously I was bitching about how much work I got to do in grad school. Lets chuck that, this blog is become too much of a whiner's blog :)

So lets start with the happiest, most recent memory- Halloween! This being my first Halloween ever, I had no idea what to do....I got a stupid mask but hardly wore it cos it was too suffocating. IV looked like some Indian railway station/bazaar that day! People thronging up and down, in a colourful array of costumes, all high with booze,dope and what not! I kinda didn't fit in though...I mean I dig Diwali, Holi, etc...but this? Maybe next year I will get a decent costume :) And guys, the girls were just a feast for the eyes. My friend Urmish literally thanked me for having dragged him to IV!

I also had a few interviews! The most high profile one was with Microsoft- I had to answer three open-ended questions...keeping my fingers crossed! Then I had an interview with Novacoast - a Santa Barbara based company- the interviewer asked me 7 questions from 7 different languages! The day I had my microsoft interview I also had a midterm- one of the toughest ones I have ever faced :(

I also got a bike! But its kinda rickety and old, so I gotta tune it up a bit. And we got a diwali function this weekend- so I am looking forward to some Indian food and Urmish's guitar playing :) (Diwali2009)