Thursday, July 23, 2009

Delhi Restaurant Recommendations

I have to help plan a foreign correspondents' tour for the company I work for that is schedule for next month. As part of that, Bridget, our PR person in the UK, asked for a list of great restaurants in the Delhi area. I contacted the Yuni-Net group and they came forward with lots of suggestions. I trust their palates - most of them are expats and local fellow foodies. Here is a compilation of their responses:

Bukhara is an overused favourite, but how "authentic" an experience do you want to give them? (NOTE: I think this place is overrated and over priced, but people swear by it.) Bukhara has a string of awards to its name, including being voted "Best Indian Restaurant in the World" and "Best Restaurant in Asia" by the Restaurant Magazine in the UK. It's known for its rustic atmosphere, unforgettable kababs, and huge family size naan bread. Be sure to make a reservation.
  • Address: ITC Maurya Sheraton Hotel, Diplomatic Enclave, Sadar Patel Marg, New Delhi. Ph: 26112233.
  • Opening Hours: 12.30 p.m. to 2.45 p.m. for lunch on weekends. 7.30 p.m. to 11.45 p.m. for dinner daily.
  • Cost: Around 4,500 rupees ($100) for two people.
  • What's Good: The Dal Bukhara (black lentils simmered overnight with tomatoes, ginger, and garlic) has achieved legendary status. Kabab lovers will also appreciate the Burrah Kabab and Murgh Malai Kabab.

Karim Restaurant in the old city is a personal favourite for visitors, but it isn't haute cuisine. There are 3 of them and my favorite one is near Jama Masjid - a real north Indian experience! I believe the one in Nizzamuddin is also great. (mainly non veg) The popular Karim Hotel is now in its fourth generation of management, having been established in its current location in 1913. The decor of this restaurant is nothing much to look at, but the food more than makes up for it. Karim Hotel offers inexpensive Mughal style cooking at its best. Its location in Old Delhi also provides a fascinating insight into a side of Delhi that many visitors don't get to see.
  • Address: 16, Gali Kebabian, Jama Masjid, Old Delhi. Ph: 23269880.
  • Opening Hours: 7 a.m. to midnight.
  • Cost: Around 500 rupees ($12) for two people.
  • What's Good: The Dil Bahaar Dopiaza Stew (mutton cooked without water in onions with curd and unground spices) and Dil Pasand (Heart's Liking) Seekh Kabab.

The Orient Express at the Taj Palace Hotel. French Cuisine. It's fine dining in a replica of the legendary train itself. Everything is served on Silverware - expensive and fabulous experience

Ai, Japanese cuisine, really exotic and amazing display of food. Have the noodle salad served in a straw basket on a block of ice. It's on the 4th floor MGF Mall, Saket, with an open air bar lounge on the terrace...

Lodhi Garden Restaurant is nice.

Magique (in Five Senses Garden) is excellent.

Indochina (close to chatarpur).

Indian Accent: It has recently been awarded best modern Indian restaurant by HT Eating out guide + it is the personal favorite of Vir Sanghvi (India's best food critic). It is slightly expensive though. About Rs. 1500-2200 per head. Located at The Manor, 77 Friends Colony (West). www.themanordelhi.com . 26925151

Chor Bizarre - India's Restaurant. It’s the best north Indian Restaurant in town as well as serves best Kashmiri cuisine. It has branches in Delhi, Noida & Gurgaon. Has a branch is London too. Average price will be Rs. 500 per head. Visit www.chorbizarre.com.

Varq at Taj Man Singh (Modern Indian). at Hotel Taj Palace, Mansingh Road - Very high class Indian Mughlai

360 Degrees Restaurant at the Oberoi is excellent and a fun place for a group (NOTE – my friend is a journalist and she’d love to be taken there!) Nice sushi bar (you can't have Indian every night ...

Swagath in Defence Colony Market - South Indian Mughlai is fantastic. Not five star, and unpretentious, but a really good place to pull apart a chili seasoned crab). Go there for the best butter garlic crab this side of india. Fresh and to-die-for. Five people mentioned the crab.

For Pan-asian food, you absolutely must try Chili Seasons at Defence Colony main market. They have a Singapore food festival on at the moment - the food is sumptuous! Oh, and they also have a beer festival running. You can read what other diners have to say about the place at burrp! - http://delhi.burrp.com/listing/restaurant/127622782_chilli-season

Veda on Outer Circle, Connaught Place - Indian Mughlai, hip, stylish yet Indian

Olive Bar and Kitchen in the Hotel Ambassador Chanakyapuri - amazing place, ambiance and food are great

Olive Beach @ Hotel Diplomat, Malcha Marg, - Italian cuisine is really good. Not the cheapest though...

Cibo on Janpath, Hotel Janpath - Italian Cuisine

Punjabi By Nature
The multi-level Punjabi By Nature is a hip and elegant place, with waiters clad in traditional Punjabi attire. It's known for its unique creation of vodka gol gappas -- fried crispy shells filled with flavored vodka and other spices. The food is excellent, servings are generous, and the atmosphere warm and inviting. There's also a bar on the upper floor. You can combine dining with shopping, as the restaurant is located in an enticing and stylish shopping complex.
  • Address: 11 PVR Priya Cinema Complex, Basant Lok, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi. Ph: 41516666.
  • Opening Hours: 12.30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
  • Cost: Around 2000 rupees ($50) for two people, including drinks.
  • What's Good: The Raan-e-Punjab (roast leg of lamb), Naan bread, and vodka Gol Gappas.

Zest @ DLF Emporio Vasant Kunj. (A mall to be seen if you haven’t yet!) - World Cuisine [Reviews: http://bit.ly/RKl2N and http://bit.ly/w7aYx ]

Spectra @ The Leela Gurgaon

Azzuro - Saket near Cinema (NOTE – There’s one in Gurgaon that I frequent. It’s nice. Great mixed drinks.) - Italian/Mediterranean

Spaghetti - Saket in Select City Walk - Italian/Mediterranean

Tamura - Poorvi Marg - Vassant Vihar - the most terrific Japanese restaurant in Delhi but may be not recommended for vegetarians...

Cafe de Paris - GK1 N block Market – French cuisine

Naivedyam - Haus Khas village - very lovely deco and absolutely fantastic vegetarian South Indian food.

Oh Calcutta! - Super Bengali food. Near Nehru Place just after the Eros Continental in that big building facing the Satyam Cineplex.

Yum Yum Tree: Indian Fusion.

Spice Route, Imperial Hotel - excellent food.

Smoke House Grill, GK2 - bar + restaurant.

Park Balluchi is located in Green Park, Safdarjung - All the embassy people go there for dinner. Fantastic food and ambience.

Well, that's my list of restaurants I'll be visiting over the next few months, for sure. As it happens, InterNations is having a "thing" on Saturday at Park Balluchi's, so that will be the first one I check off the list. I'll let you know what I think. :-)
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Welcome to India, Newbie.

I have a good online friend, a fellow blogger who chronicled her move to India and just arrived this past weekend. If you haven't had a chance to read her stuff, you're missing out: http://delhibound.blogspot.com/2009/07/disparity.html

Her latest post discusses her initial reactions to living her western lifestyle while witnessing the India around her. This is the initial reaction everyone has upon arrival. "How can I help the poor and wretched especially as I have so much?" (said with a whiny voice) I see this all the time.

First, let me say, this is my personal opinion based on years of living here in India. I am not a person of Indian origin, so my views are based on personal observation and responses to questions asked of people from here of many different backgrounds. Your background/responses to my questions may vary.

I struggled with "the poverty dilemma" many years ago on my first trip for a year in Mumbai. The family I stayed with were extremely wealthy, even by western standards. I had immaculate chappals and sandals because a family of cobblers lived just outside the walls of the family compound and I was sure to give them business as often as I could. They were raising four children on the sidewalk. One of my fellow students at Sir J.J. College of Architecture lived in the slums out near the airport, even then a formidable place. It wasn't something he was proud to tell people but he wasn't ashamed of it, either. He was studying to become an architect and lived under a tarp. He failed to see the irony.

I learned a lot about disparity but I also learned a lot about acceptance, perhaps even resignation. If people want to better their situation by whatever measurement they choose, they can, regardless of their circumstances and disabilities. This country is full of people that have bootstrapped their way to leading global companies while being barely literate. Parents really value their children's education and understand the investment they are making in their children's future. This country is full of people who have built manufacturing plants, became successful shopkeepers, movie stars... There are political leaders here from the very lowest of the castes. You can be successful here if you sincerely want to be. But it's not easy.

The situation can be partially explained in a couple of areas, one cultural, one just human. The cultural one is based on the idea that when you are born into a certain circumstance, you stay in that circumstance and if you do the best you can, perhaps in your next life, you will be born into a better circumstance. (My father upon hearing this, mused that perhaps this belief construct developed as a way of controling such a large population and waxed philosophical. It became a source for many political and religious discussions throughout the years.) It also creates pressure on sons to join the family business: "My father is a leatherworker, then I must become a leather worker, too." This is fundamental to the culture here. You'll hear this everywhere: Aunties complaining about a son that refuses to join the family business or expresses shock that son of a house servant wants to become a doctor, which to them is clearly "not their place". Not a big fan of the Auntie.

The second is the basic and fundamental human fear of change. You can't get those kids from "Slumdog Millionaire" to move from the slums of Mumbai and the western world is clearly perplexed. There's a reason for that. That's where their community is. Moving to a flat in a skyscraper does not allow them to stay connected to their own familial sense of community and personal identity. Even if you moved the whole family, the satellite persons involved intrafamily in their little world would contraindicate the move. The slums of Mumbai in particular are extremely complex cities in their own right with their own infrastructures, stores, restaurants, tea stalls, liquor stores, tailors, electricians, political machines, social programs, even quasi-health care, etc. that are entirely independent of any government programs and are completely self-funded. Numerous studies have been published as to the intricacies of this organically grown, undocumented subculture. I am not in any way defending this way of life. It is A way of life and should be accepted as the way some people choose to live.

The beggars are another known, unwelcome quantity. Never, ever give them money. As a foreigner, you've got a big target on your back and you will be contributing to the problem. The more mangled and disabled, the more money a beggar can bring in. They in turn end up giving most of that money to a Beggar Master. Babies are rented to increase your pity as well. There is an entire industry devoted to the separating of you from your rupees and every rupee you give will induce new beggar masters to lop off more hands and blind other children in their greed. They're not dirty because they haven't access to water - it's for the effect. Clean beggars won't earn as much as a dirty one. Water is available - it is finding potable, drinking water that is always an issue. They can certainly bathe and wash clothes. Another thing that I've seen in Rajasthan is using sand to clean pots and even skin (think of it like loose pumice) with a quick rinse of a mere cup or two of water. Indians, as a general rule, keep their homes and persons impeccably clean. (How they handle public spaces is an entirely different issue. LOL.)

Overall, it takes a while to even start to grasp the complexity that is India, just as it must be a challenge to all the Indians that have emigrated to the States... all that space with no one on the streets... the way people stand so far away from you (that pesky personal space issue again), the way people in America drive, stand in line, pay tips, say "Thank you" (You know who I'm talkin'bout - Bengali in da house! - long story), wash their own clothes, clean their own houses, tend their children... the lack of familial contact... It has to feel so very lonely... or liberating. :-)

I know I'm going to catch hell for this post. Again, please see my words above in bold. I'm still learning about this place and if I've made incredibly uninformed comments, please let me know - I find this puzzle called India fascinating and I'm learning as I go.
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Links to Many Things Green

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Frightening Electrical Panels in Indian Modern Homes















Okay, someone in the house wanted to document the mess that we call our electrical panel. Here's the service.

There is no cover, so it is exposed to all the elements, wind-borne dust, monsoon rains, etc. Nothing is labeled so figuring out what appliance or circuit is the problem becomes a mystery. You can't even tell which apartment is the problem.















Circuit Breaker Panel. Notice that the panel did not trip, but burned instead, in the lower right corner. The electricians come to the house and they don't even carry a screwdriver with them, let alone a tester, wire stripper, electrical tape, caps, extra wire (WTF!), etc. What kind of professional doesn''t show up with their tools? I wish I had a photo of the one electrician's drill. He had used leftover wire from previous jobs to plug it in; there had to have been three or four different wires all badly taped togther and NO PLUG! He would just stick the two wire ends into the socket... go figure. When we lived in Kolkata, there used to be a commercial that would run occasionally launching a new product line of wires "Guaranteed Not to Catch Fire". Um... shouldn't that be a given for all indoor wiring products? (WTF again.)















Closeup of the burnt wire.















Current inverter/battery setup that is connected to the grid. These two batteries power a three-family household, sometimes for a full day. Notice the layer of dust everywhere. Delhi is so very dusty,especially at this time of the year. I haven't heard back yet about the hybrid inverter system with the solar panel hookup. I'm hoping that will get sorted out as soon as possible.

BTW, if anyone knows a capable local electrician who can rewire our house to handle the electrical load we would greatly appreciate the phone number.

Cheers, Jeanne
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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Ode to the Tiffin


I've been reading a lot lately about the evil that plastic does. In India, there is a traditional container called a "tiffin", made of steel, typically comprising two or three, even four separate containers, that stack above each other, encased in metal springloaded arms that also feature a handle. These containers are getting used less and less as plastic, thermos-like products emerge in the local stores. The original steel containers are typically less than half the cost of the new plastic ones and extremely durable. I've seen these costing anywhere from 200 rupees (less than US$ 5.00) and up.

I like the old tiffins. I also like the steel cups and plates that are traditionally used here. Perhaps it's because plastic and glass are so prevalent in the U.S., that you can't GET them there. I've only seen decent steel cups and glasses in very high end department stores and designer showrooms at home. We also have marble floors here in India, so if you drop something made of glass, it shatters on impact, therefore, with son and dog in the house, glass products have nearly as short a shelflife as the ubiquitous Starbucks takeout coffee container.

When I go back to the States next time, I will be bringing along enough steel to set up a new home as gifts for friends and family. They can't get it, it's green, and it's fairly affordable. All good things, in my mind.

Cheers,
Jeanne
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Friday, June 26, 2009

Riots in Delhi Caused by Lack of Electricity

This past week, there have been riots in parts of Delhi for two reasons - lack of electricity and lack of water. This is becoming serious. The worst power cuts were in Dwarka averaging 10-12 hour outages at a time, Krishna Nagar at 10 hours, Vasant Kunj at 8 hours and Greater Kailash, averaging 5-6 hours. No part of the city has been spared. On Thursday, the 400 KV Mandola Power station tripped and went off-line, along with one unit in the Singrauli plant affecting large parts of the city. The highest demand for electrical power was this past Friday at 4,171 MW, while the region can only provide around 3,500 MW on a good day.

The reason? The monsoon is late. Much of the power here is hydroelectric. Without rain in the hills, the hydroelectric plants can't generate power. The power ministry has stated that there has been a 12% decline in generation leading to an overall 25% shortage. [As I've said before, infrastructure here isn't planned for growth. Well, infrastructure here isn't planned. Period.] Water is so precious that people are hoarding it. A 34 year-old man was killed in a fight over water earlier this week. We keep buckets of the stuff in our baths so we have water when the tanks on the roof empty. Food prices have risen because crop yields are down. With system failure, traffic lights don't work (not that anyone follows them anyway) causing massive traffic jams. Earlier this week, riots broke out in the Ambedkar Nagar, Govindpuri, Kondli, and Rajbir Nagar sections of Delhi. We need an alternative. A sustainable and affordable alternative.

VVDN is a company coming up with exciting new alternative energy products. The three light system they installed at my house last month has been working steadily and dependably with no decrease in brightness and no outages. The LED bulbs did blink one evening, but Parveen at VVDN said that it was because there was little charge left in the battery. Overall, the system is quite successful.

I met with Parveen because I'm totally sick of the lack of electricity and I need to at least keep one room cool by fan or AC, running a TV, cable box, computer, and wireless hub for at least four hours. Our existing inverter/battery system hasn't been keeping a charge for more than an hour or so. Parveen said to check the water levels in the batteries because in this heat, the water dries up and the chemicals in the batteries turn into a gas. [Note to self: check batteries regularly.]

He recommended a standard 540W solar-powered system that would run 3-4 fans and 4-5 lights (8-10 hours of backup by solar charging). The cost of this system is around US$ 3,000 with replacement batteries every 3-4 years; they cost around $350. The panels have a 20 year warranty. He said that the panels and batteries can be purchased from the market any time but the main charge controller unit that I want (hybrid unit) is not available commercially at this time. You see, I want a system that integrates both the grid when it's available AND solar power to maximize the charge in the batteries. I want the solar power to be the main provider of charge with the grid only being pulled when there is still capacity available in the battery array. There is nothing on the market right now, but Parveen shared with me that there is technology in the R&D stage that is exactly what I want.

One of the companies he's working with has such a system and he says it is very stable. One of the features is the fancy new controller, which can be configured to favor one source over the other. They are at the stage where they need to do field trials and I volunteered. He will be discussing it with the people running the trials and get back to me next week.

Let's look at the financials. This system retails for 1.5 lakh (150,000 rupees). I pay between 3,000 (winter) and 9,000 (summer) rupees per month for electricity, averaging around 5,000 per month. Payback on this sytem is 30 months, assuming no grid usage. Even if payback takes twice as long, with panel life at 20 years and battery replacement every 3, it's still an incredibly viable option. Plus in India, subsidies for solar systems can be up to 70%, so, to me it seems practically criminal to be relying on an unreliable grid when these systems are so readily available.
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Saturday, June 20, 2009

CommunicAsia 2009

Revisiting Singapore after a 30+ year wait, it was like the other Singapore I remembered never existed. We did get to the Raffles' Long Bar for Singapore Slings one evening, but even that place had been upgraded. The Raffles Hotel was a dump back in the 70's. It's been refurbished and expanded a hundredfold since then. The city is impeccably clean and its residents are very friendly. The Ibis Hotel, where we stayed, was merely okay. The staff were nice, but the amenities are not up to standard. The rooms were small, but typical for Asia. Their TV channels were few, and no pay per view. They did not have room service. Breakfast buffet is usually an extra S$17/day, but of course, BS managed to negotiate that, too. I swear that guy can haggle on anything...

Debashish, from Insta - our booth designer, stayed until we were happy with the quality of our custom booth space. Fan, the booth contractor did a remarkable job getting the space ready. All the men from Shyam and VNL put the base station together which took about six hours because a) the parts were mislabeled, b) no one looked at the instructions, and c) every decision was by committee. Rajneesh, Carlo, Niyati and I shopped for all the booth paraphernalia which took a whole day of prep.

CommunicAsia 2009 proved remarkable considering the global economy. Attendance was good along the main aisle, but deadly on the alleys and byways. The ratio of booth babes to attendees was probably 1:10, much higher than shows in the States. A lot of the booth babes working the show were walking the aisles in skimpy outfits with signs or passing out brochures to drive traffic back to those booths. Ericsson and Nokia weren't there, but ZTE and Huawei were. Carlo said they were using the same stands as in previous shows.

CommunicAsia is a big show, probably 500 exhibitors overall utilizing four halls at the Singapore Expo. We were located on the main aisle, right behind LG's two story booth which looked pretty much like a hair salon, all pinks, purples and lavender. Across the aisle was Powerwave, who brought a Formula 1 simulator. Powerwave is a direct competitor to Shyam Telecom whose booth space faced the byway. This simulator attracted a lot of traffic which congested the main aisle. They had booth babes along the main aisle passing out clipboards with forms for attendees to complete - for what? I have no idea. It got so congested between onlookers and people filling out forms that people spilled into our booth to get around the congestion. I'd had it when they started using my reception desk for clipboards.

I walked over and found out who was in charge of the booth and approached him. I told him that the noise from the simulator was way too loud and needs to be turned down. I also told him that he needed to keep his staff on his side of the aisle. He replied that there was nothing in the rules that said he had to and that pissed me off. I started arguing with him. He refused to move his babes off the main aisle.

"See the red line in the center of the aisle? That's the DMZ. Keep your people on your side and we won't have a problem."

He told me that I didn't want to go there.

"I'm already there," I replied. "See the size of my booth? (120 square meters) See the size of yours? (maybe 36) When I go and complain to the show services, who do you think they'll want to keep happy?" He continued with the noise, but the babes moved off. It's tough being a good neighbor at these shows when everyone is competing for attention, something we didn't have a problem with - we felt like the prettiest girl at the dance. All the mobile operators attending the show came to our booth to see our solution, which was very well received. A gent from Nigeria complained about his US$ 110 million he spent on diesel fuel last year and said if he spent half of that on our bases stations, he'd be a much richer man.

On day 1, Rajiv presented a session on Microtelecom that sent a lot of conference attendees to the booth to get more information on our business model. Tony Chan of CNBC interviewed Rajiv about the products and business model. We pushed the press conference scheduled for the next day and collected business cards. The VIP tour showcased a selection of ten vendors including VNL, and Ministers from 17 countries stopped by. Comments overheard were, "This is much simpler than the solution we saw in Sweden" and "If it works in India, it can work anywhere."

On Day 2, Bridget, our PR consultant produced our press conference announcing that VNL's solar-powered GSM base stations for rural networks were now commercially available. Rajiv was interviewed by a number of journalists following that. The Day 3 Official Daily Show paper featured an article about VNL. Day 3 also featured the Green Telecom stream hosted by Laina Green of TelecomTV (love her!). Mats presented the keynote speech and Rajiv joined the panel that discussed green telecom. There were a lot of attendees at this event.

Evening events I went to were sponsored mostly by the news companies, Questex and TelecomTV. Both were good, well attended events where marketers like myself got to meet with many journalists. It really helped to be able to spend "quality time" getting to know these people as they'll be important to our PR efforts moving forward. I really enjoyed meeting Laina and Neal of TelecomTV and networking with other telecom marketers, especially since I have no history with previous shows to compare our results.

On my last night, Carlo and I went to Low Pa Sat to eat Singaporean street food. We gorged on barbecued stingray, chilli crayfish, prawns, beef satay and peppered beef, washing it down with Tiger Beer on ice. It was an extremely tasty meal, but one hint - wear a bib when you try to eat seafood with chopsticks. My shirt was a mess.

Overall, CommunicAsia was a big success, which is a huge relief for me. We're doing ten trade shows this year. CommunicAsia is the first of the shows for which I am responsible. At the same time, the West & Central AfricaCom Conference was being held in Abuja, Nigeria, where we were also exhibiting. Next week is AmericasCom in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Word from Abujs is that our booth was mobbed. We had conversations with 6 or 7 journalists as well. Judging from the response from the industry, VNL is in position to make serious change in the industry. See you in the future. :-)
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