Foodgasm Sunday

Its been more than a year I have shifted to Bandra. I wanted to try various food joints in Bandra West since many years. Few years ago, my brother Ajinkya introduced to me to the most happening (i feel so) food lane near Bandra Reclamation around ONGC colony. This area is very calm but happening at late night with all the food joints packed. There around 10 food joints with cozy ambience, few serving alcohol & few with outdoor seating options. Have visited Che Moi & Fat Mans Cafe.

Saturday, being little tiring & busy, I decided to sleep early & head for some food joint in Bandra Reclamation area for an early morning breakfast. I checked few places on Zomato & decided to visit Foodgasm for healthy breakfast.

Foodgasm is well organized air conditioned & outdoor seating joint with veg & non-veg breakfast options with seating capacity of around 25-30. It opens around 8am daily, but being a Sunday today, place was empty. It serves breakfast, salads, soups, appetizers, tandoor, main course, wraps & sandwiches (Veg. & Non-Veg.) along with deserts & beverages.

Selecting Non Veg breakfast from 9 options was little confusing & tempting too. Finally, I decided to opt for Foodgasm Brekky. Indeed a tempting Wholesome Breakfast Tray with so many options in a single tray to start day with. Foodgasm Brekky is served with Home smoked chicken, Bacon & Fish with sunny side up egg, multigrain toast, Half a roast tomato, Wilted spinach, Baked Potato, Thyme Mushrooms & Oven Baked Beans with an option of Tea or Coffee. Opting for Foodgasm Brekky was a good decision to taste various portions making it a healthy start of the day.

Foodgasm Brekky costs Rs. 220/-.

Later, I ordered, Toast from Cannes. Prepared with Peanut Butter and Berry jam sandwiched in French toast served with fresh fruit (watermelon). Toast from Cannes was served with Honey & Maple Syrup.

Toast from Cannes costs Rs. 120/-.

And, finally it was Power Shot. Mixture of Banana, Muskmelon, Dates, Almond, Milk & Honey in chilled milk (asked for less ice). Served in a huge glass making a Power drink with whole dates and almonds at the bottom (neither grated nor grinded).

Power Shot costs Rs. 140/-.

Foodgasm charged 5% service charge on whole bill, making final sum of Rs. 504/-. Would love to visit this place again for trying other options, maybe salads or sandwiches. And, Power Shot would be a recommended drink.

ENERGEE..... Mumbai's Nostalgic Drink

Had after long time. Taste is same but, things have changed. Remembered childhood days, in slim 200ml bottle with typical Aarey logo. In those days the Aarey outlets were large in numbers throughout Mumbai.

Now, everyone is in search of CCD, Barista or Starbucks. Lot has changed. Yes, shape of  Energee bottle has changed with a plastic label. Today it costs 25/-, those days it used to cost 5/-. Even Masala Milk from Aarey used to cost 5/- in those days.

Taj Mahal Hotel blast eyewitness

Not only the Mumbai City, but the whole nation and other countries were shock to see and hear the news of the Terror Blasts in the city of Mumbai on 26th Nov. 2008. I was planning to go to Vashi with my cousin from Kalbadevi around 21:30 hrs. My cousin Sachin, who owns a mobile phone shop, was completing his pending work and we got late to leave for CST to take a train to Vashi. Fortunately, we managed to escape the terrifying situation at the CST. My close friend Rahul Tripathi witnessed the very first blast at the Taj Mahal Hotel (New), sharing his experience below.

Hi,

My name is Rahul Tripathi.

Me and my cousins left Bade Miya hotel after having our dinner and went walking to the Gateway of India. As we were admiring the Gateway in the dark, lighted in the night. Later, we went right in the front of the new Taj Mahal Hotel and were discussing about the history of the hotel, I heard the first gun shots fired. As my cousin is an Ex-Army man, he instantly said that this is a gunshot, shot from some weapon which can be fired continuously and also one shot at a time. I told him that this is Mumbai dude, it must be wedding crackers but after that moment what we saw was that something I and my brother had never witnessed in my whole life as yet.

At the main reception gate of the new Taj some people started running and calling the taxi drivers who were standing along with us went to a taxi driver and asked him as to what was happening...he said "SHAYAD BHAI LOGO KI GANGWAR KI FIRING CHAL RAHI HAI".....i moved behind and while moving behind we heard some more gun shots inside the hotel....and finally from outside what i saw was terrifying......someone threw something(possibly a hand grenade) towards the reception of the new Taj and a big explosion took place right in front of our eyes....all the taxi drivers and the hotel staff came running out.....this was not the end.

We came towards our car that was parked just near Cafe Mondegar...while i was trying to take out my car..a mob of around 50 people came running towards me...what the hell......i came out and saw one man running out of Cafe Mondegar, bleeding from his cheek....something hit him so powerful that he could not re-collect what it was ... not a bullet as for sure ...or else he would have being dead.....still no clue what was happening.

Finally i drove my car outside the lane and when i hit the main road Opp. Delhi Darbar hotel, there were empty BEST buses were standing and i was in between two buses. I was just above 10 meters away from the Leopold Cafe and what i saw was again fire shots....this time it was the police ....all wearing bullet proof jackets and firing at someone inside the hotel....What i understand that these bastards went running from Leopold Cafe firing, towards Taj and went inside the Taj from back side.

From there somehow, after waiting in the car for around 20 minutes we rushed towards our home from metro and when i reached home at C.P.Tank I saw the news that terrorists took away one police jeep and fired and killed a few more innocents bang on the metro cinema junction.....just a few moments after we passed.

Regards
Rahul Tripathi.

Thanks & Regards.

Pudhchya Varshi Lavkar Yaa......

In spite of high alert all over the city and state Mumbaikars bid a rocking farewell to the very famous Lord Ganesha. The whole city was on high alert after the five bomb blasts in New Delhi on Saturday, day prior to Ganesh Visarjan. Many mandals in Mumbai started late for the Immersion procession due to very heavy rains all over Mumbai. But Bappa listened to both the wishes and left with a grand salute of Mumbaikars. In spite of heavy rains and high alert in the city, lakhs of people were present at locations like Parel, Lalbaug, Byculla and various immersion locations like Girgaum, Juhu and Dadar.

As it was the 75th year of the famous wish fulfilling Lalbaugcha Raja, there was a tight security through out the procession from Lalbaug to Girgaum. The distance from Lalbuag to Girgaum would not take more than an hour to reach, but the grand procession of the Raja took almost 21 hours and finally early morning on Monday at 6AM, the idol touched the sands of Girgaum Chowpatty with at least a crowd of 1 lakh devotees (including people already present at the location).

There were no major calamities except the idol from Mugbhat Lane (Girgaoncha Maharaja) which collapsed at Girgaum, had 3 serious injuries. There was also short circuit at the BEST tower which was under control soon by the concerned authorities.

With full of joy and excitement and also some tension around, Mumbaikars bid farewell to their loving Ganesha by shouting..... Ganpati Bappa Morya....Pudhchya Varshi Lavkar Yaa......