P. F. Chang’s – the new Chinese bistro in Kuwait

‘Been there twice and didn’t get a table’….. ‘the waiting time is like an hour and more’ - sound bites from my office. What more PR does a newly launched restaurant need? The reference is about P.F. Chang’s - the new entrant in the Kuwaiti dining scene. This brand being a US based one is familiar with the young Kuwaiti population. This is their first venture outside US.

Am not a great fan of Chinese cuisine but the elusive aura built around the difficulty in getting a table landed me along with my long time friend from UAE at the reception desk on P.F. Chang’s in Aveneues mall. ‘Sorry sir…you are 12^th in the waiting list’ smiled the lady at the reception while raising her thick mascara eyes from the reservation register. I looked at my friend and we rolled our eyes ‘as expected’. ‘By the way I can offer you the bar counter’. We didn’t care…

The food was worth the hour spend on the bar stool. We ordered dynamite shrimps and fried green beans for starters. The latter (a simple dish of batter fried green beans) was a bit bland but worked great with the sauce. The dynamite shrimp exploded shaking up every taste bud taking notice of the batter fried shrimps soaked in a thick spicy sauce. I could spot the cocktail glass, in which the shrimps arrived, on every second table. I repeated the shrimps during my second and third visit as well.

Need to mention here about Chicken lettuce wraps – a must try! I loved my drink as well – a blend of honey, sweet melon and I guess orange.

The main dishes were fine. The ginger chicken with broccoli and the orange peel shrimps were an escape from the true Cantonese style and that’s exactly why I liked them. They came with brown rice (our very own palakkadan matta). The menu am told was originally conceived and planned by chef Philip Chiang (now you know the origin of Chang in the name).

The mini desserts were really ‘mini’ just to fold in to the last few square inch spaces down your belly. The ambience is chic so was the bill. Finally I dined at a Chinese bistro that was named after human beings (Paul & Chang) and not a dragon or a lantern !

                                                                                      

Valentines day - a story of love, flowers and bills

Love was in the air. Love smelled like roses, felt like red silk and tasted like delicacies at a fine dine restaurant with candles lit between pairs of love struck glistening eyes.

'Planning' seems to be the key word when it comes to 'love' on Velentines day. Valentines who were trying for a last minute dinner reservation or flower delivery would vouch for that...because they never got that romantic seat in their favourite food bar or the perfect dew filled roses decked with cupids arrows. 

My colleague placed a last minute flower delivery (paying KD 3 i.e more than US$ 10 per rose) and ended up with 20 withered roses that looked like they had practically been sniffed by the entire neighbourhood. But for most of my friends and family it was a perfect 'Valentines day'

It was mid day when i called my sis to wish her. She sounded ecstatic as i later learned she was the Jeweller with her valentine. A newly married friend took a flight from Kuwait all the way to Bombay to be with his valentine. The day seem to have passed by peacefully in Bombay and not disrupted by the Shivsainiks...lately they had too much on their plate ( Rahul Gandhi, SRK..) and sending troops on Feb 14th seemed to be another disaster they didnt want the statelite channels to dine on.

Another friend who keeps telling me how the recession in dubai had spiralled his business (of course to the earth's core) found petty cash useful to decorate his office with fresh flowers and rolls of red silk - all for employee motivation in a recession hit economy.

Another Valentine day faded out in the horizon...leaving behind a lot more love and a lot more bills to pay....


  

Shivarathri...om namah shivaya...

Today is Shivarathri...men and women fast during the day and stay awake during the night - all for thanking lord Shiva for saving the world. There are numerous myths regarding the origin of Shivaratri. All these myths happened during night and hence reason enough for celebrating Shivaratri during night.

I googled and found a few 'shivarathi' myths  - about Vishnu and brahma searching for the origin of Linga following a fight,  the Story of Shivaratri based on 'Samudra Manthan' where Shiva drank the poison that was churned out of the ocean and had to stay awake the whole night to keep himself alive. 

There is also another story of Shivratri based on a hunter who escaped wild animals by climbing a tree and kept him awake by plucking Bilva leaves. In the morning, he discovered that he had been dropping the leaves on a Shivling. And the word spread that he was saved by Lord Shiva.

Apart from these myths, it is said that the reunion of Lord Shiva and Parvati happened on the Shivratri day. Another legend states that Lord Shiva performed the Taandava on this day - the origin of indian classical dance.

Shivarathri (night of Shiva) has eventually entered the Indian vocabulary (be it hindu or christian, marathi or tamilian) as a term for sleepless night. Every night India (or where ever Indians are living) murmurs 'Looks like tonight is going to be shivarathri' -  it may be a newly wed groom whispering lustly in the dark, a tired mother trying to put her child to sleep, a student on his exam night....they all experience the essence of 'shivarathri'.

Just a heads up about your hypermarket counter assistant

Its thursday evening and our office elevators (8 of them) frantically stuttered at each floor and offloaded scores of our colleagues on to the ground floor. They were all in a hurry to queue up the narrow spiral exit of the parking block adjacent to the office building.

By the time i left office the elevaors were taking an evening nap. I met William in the elevator. He works as an office boy (yeah they remain 'boys' forever) on the 18th floor. He is not hurrying to go home to rest and then to go out later in the evening to enjoy the weekened.

William like many other low paid expatriates work as counter assistants at a leading hypermarket. No...they are not employed as part time assistants. They 'pay' this retailer to be employed. They pay KD 1 (US$ 3.6) per day to the retailer to help pack the trolley of goods purchased by their customers. William and his colleagues hope to get tips from these customers tired of shopping while attempting to load these huge trolleys (assumably designed by a finance guy to accomodate a lot more than one would have intended to shop).

Next time you see a hypermarket counter assistant skilfully opening the thin plastic bags to load your grocery, think about tipping him. He has paid from his pocket to serve you in the hope of making a little extra on a busy weekend.

Salute to the Hypermarket giant for a win-win strategy - the employee pays for packing goods that are paid for by its customers. In a recession hit market, organisations are looking for new revenue streams - but this seems to be a stretch of imagination rooted in sheer expliotation of a meek marginal population.

Recall Mails

People have a fascination to open a recalled mail even when they know that the sender has expressed the desire otherwise. 99% of the times I get my ‘recall’ request popping up as failed. It’s the human urge to know or experience the forbidden in action.

The underlying thought process is that there has to be some goof up that the sender is trying to hide and I need to know it. But still the ‘Recall’ option is a good feature (if successful) allowing to avoid an embarrassment or a regret. Wish we could apply the ‘Recall’ option to some of our sound bites that create havoc (mostly) in our personal lives.

The husbands of the world would vouch for that. To gain an upper hand in an argument, men do say silly things – mostly about in-laws or compare spouse to another woman (sister or sister-in-law) and then they repent for a life time.

Same goes to a wrongly send SMS. I remember the rumor about a cricketer sending an SMS to his wife that was intended for his mistress. The grape wine is that the sms was intentionally send to break the news to his wife. Men are so vulnerable. They even have to fake confessions!