The Stinking Rose

The Stinking Rose has been recommended to me by Uncle David and Noella. I have been wanting to try it for a loooong time and I finally got to do it during this trip to the Bay Area.

The restaurant is known for the fact that it has garlic in all its dishes! the deco inside is nice. All the food we ordered was fantastic! They first gave us the bread basket and the table had a delicious garlic relish. For food, Saurabh got the SILENCE OF THE LAMB SHANK (with Chianti glaze & fava beans, served with garlic yukon gold mashed potatoes). The lamb just melted in our mouth. The spinach that came with it was really really good! The mashed potatoes were okay). I got the Prawn Pasta (Prawns, fettuccine, pancetta, onions in a spicy red pepper garlic oil) It was fantasticccccc!!!

Bread kept warm by the candle below and the Delicious Garlic Relish

Silence of the Lamb Shank

Prawn Pasta

If you are a garlic lover and you are going to visit San Francisco, GO to The Stinking Rose! GO! GO! GO!

Google Campus!!!!!!!

Rish has a friend, Bikash, who works at Google, so we were able to visit the Google campus while in the Bay area! :) It was super cool! I saw an infinity pool for the first time. The campus has over 20 building and 50% of their power needs are satisfied sustainably (small part solar power and the rest from a natural gas plant they have on their campus). In front of where we had parked, there was a large area of empty land that reminded me of the NIST grounds. So, when Bikash met us, I had to ask what the empty land was for. The land is for their Natural Gas plant! :)

We walked around the campus, saw bikes in google-colours that employees use to get from one part of the campus to the other. They aren't locked or anything. People can take them from anywhere to anywhere and just leave them. They have gyms every few buildings. We went into one building where there was a google graffiti board. Also, there, they had about 8 screens set up in semi circular fashion, all connected. And you could use them to view Google Earth, Google Moon and Google Mars! SOOOOOOOOOO FRIKKING COOL! We walked around some more, but it was dark soon. On the campus, there a random LARGE dinosaur skeleton. Haha. We saw a bit of the sculpture garden, walked to the Japanese garden, but it was too dark and too cold!

Loved the campus! They have a couple of terms at Google - Google 10 and Google 100. Google 10 is similar to Freshman 15, where people put on 10lbs after joining good because of all the free food everywhere. Google 100 is, wherever you are on the Google campus, you are not more thn 100 feet from food. No wonder the Google 10!

Random Map Marker on the Google Campus

Google Bikes

A giant Dinosaur Model on the Campus

Look at what I scribbled on the Google Grafitti Board

Google Mars in the background

Sculpture from the Sculpture Garden on the Google Campus - 'No matter how big you are, there is another fish that will eat you.'

Bouncing Cats

I went for Bouncing Cats today at the National Geographic Museum's Grosvenor Auditorium. This documentary is about how breakdance (and hiphop) has affected the children of Uganda, which is considered one of the worst places in the world to be a child. Abramz Tekya, an orphan, took to breakdance as a child since it was something in his life that was his own. Today, he teaches the children in Kampala and Gulu. The movie is heart wrenching (seeing the immense poverty and the horrific state of the child soldiers with ears, noses, hands burnt, amputed and mutilated in ways unimaginable to most of us) and heart warming at the same time. It's heartening to see how the children embrace this dance and enjoy it with everything in them.

The name of the documentry comes from a couple of phrases they chanted to sound like beats when they didn't have music to dance to. They sorta rapped "Bouncing Cats. Baboons n Cats. Bouncing Cats. Baboons n Cats" over and over. It sounded extremely catchy! :) In the documentry they talk to different people in Kampala and Bulu about their lives and living conditions. What struck me was that almost every person they spoke to had fluent english. Often, as an Indian I feel insulted when non-Indians compliment me on my english. This insult stems from the assumption they have that we don't speak english well. Then, it must be hypocrictical of me to be impressed that the people of Uganda speak english quite effortlessly? Even their made up beat is in english and not in swahili or a local dialect! But, I think my surprise was that despite their incredible poverty and minimal education, their command over the english language was really strong.

After the movie, there was a discussion with the panel. Nyla Hassle (one of the producers of the movie) conducted the panel that consisted of Nabil Elderkin (director), Abramz Tekya, Crazy Legs (who went to Uganda and held workshops with the kids on break dancing) and Okot Jolly Grace (who has been involved with Invisible Children from the beginning). I love these discussions after movies at the NG museum!

After the panel, there was food, drink, dance and music! :)

♥ National Geographic Museum. ♥ Goldstar.

The World According to India

This cracked me up!

Ixtapa

For lunch today we took Jess and Adam out for their birthdays. His is today and hers on Saturday. Ixtapa was a nice restaurant. Their chips and salsa were nice, but I liked the ones at Cactus Cantina more. What I did like about their salsa was that it was extremely chunky, big pieces of onions and tomatoes.

For my meal, I ordered the Camarones Catalana (Spanish style shrimps sauteed with olive oil and with green and red peppers, green onion, garlic and fresh basil, garnished with broccoli). It was good, but definitely not out of this world. I don't think I would crave it. The hot sauce, they serve, that I mixed with my rice and beans was hot and yum! They didn't give the sauce in a bottle, it was served in a little bowl.

Camarone Catalana

Also, the free nachos with cheese, beans etc was a nice surprise. To celebrate the birthdays they gave us a piece of Flan and a piece of Tres Leches (Homemade sponge cake filled with a mixture of evaporated and condensed milk, and a sweetened rich cream, topped with homemade whip cream). The flan was nice, but a little too dense for my liking. I REALLLLLLY enjoyed the Tres Leche. Oh also, the server had us sing Happy Birthday in Spanish to Jess. (Adam had already left to go back to work). Haha!

The Delicious Tres Leches

Making of the Great Migrations

I went to the NG Museum this evening to watch the Making of the Great Migrations.

Phenomenal!

Mind Boggling!

Inspiring!

Jaw Dropping!

Those are only a few of the many many superlative adjectives I have used to describe it! I would like to say more about what was in the making, but if someone who is reading this hasn't watched the making I don't want to spoil it for them. I am SO SO SO SO SO glad I decided to go! I can't wait till I own a copy of the seried and hopefully the making as well.

The panel consisting of the producer and photographers after the movie was fun too. It was kinda amazing to see the people up close who have been in INSANEEEEEEE situations during the making of the series! YAYYYY National Geographic!!

After, I had to buy the book that accompanies the series. What a gorgeous coffee table book! :)