A Perfect Evening - My visit to Cup O' Joe 

Serene. Idyllic. Quite. Peaceful.

Some of the words that come to mind when I think of my experience at Cup O Joe, a new restaurant in Koramangala, Bangalore.

Watched 2 groups a friends play board games, there were about 20 more on standby and a book cabinet to keep you company when alone.

Like to play the guitar and have your friends sing along with you, no problem. They have that too.

The origin of the name is interesting in itself and can be found here - http://blog.dictionary.com/cup-o%E2%80%99-joe-starbucks/

A new place opened in Sep 2014 is a great place to go to unwind after a long hard day. Whether its with some friends, or looking at spending some quite time with that someone special, there is something for every one here.

The food has a good variety of light eats, coffees and shakes ranging to mocktails and main courses of European nature.  So if you are looking for a quite coffee shop experience (unlike the noisy chains) in the evening or a romantic candle light dinner at night, there is enough fare to keep you hooked.

Click here for a full set of very realistic pictures -  http://on.fb.me/1m8jaSm

I personally dint get to eat a lot, but I did love the Nachos in cheese sauce and their chocolate mouse is out of this world. One of the best I ever had and believe me I have had a lot. The Red Thai curry we had was not as spicy as we hoped but presented really well.

The good thing about going to new places is that the food will only evolve and get better with time and the Chef here is very attentive and customer friendly.

A meal for two should cost you around 800 bucks for good eaters which is well worth the money. This includes mocktails too which was quite good.

The place is owned by 4 partners from the software world, who got a new calling in life.

It’s a must visit place and I will surely be spotted there on weekends gorging on their Chocolate Mousse.

Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/cupojoe.cafe

P.S. – They currently don’t serve liquor but don’t let that deter you from going there.

P.P.S  - Very friendly management who are all set to provide you a very pleasant experience.

Breaking: Magnets found mixed with tar on Bangalore Streets, Bad Drivers finally forgiven.

During a recent dig by some students of the Bangalore chapter of Archeological Survey of India, searching for the lost gardens and water of the city (students of the current batches had only heard of the garden city and wondered where it all went and as a side project decided to venture on a treasure hunt), they found that road contractors were laying magnets on Bangalore roads mixed with tar. Apart from high road erosion, these magnets  were creating an interesting traffic phenomena. 

That almost all Bangaloreans were forced to drive in the middle of every road thanks to the magnetic pull. Funnily enough on the 1 or 2 multi-lane (wide) roads the city has, these magnets created a pull towards the center of the center of the center lane. And the balance power was shifted to the center of the center of the side lanes.  

When a news channel heard of this, they promptly got into action to interview people meaninglessly, knowing fully well that this would do nothing to change the traffic situation, but vociferously
as they had to still had to sell their air waves that evening.  

Excerpts of the Interviews are as follows:

Contractors - Magnets are a lot cheaper to buy, is a sturdy metal and helps make the road look shiny and new so even when there is no road (which is the case in large parts of the city), the glare from the sun reflects on the magnet into the drivers’ eyes and makes them believe there is a road that they are driving on. We learnt this from the 3 Idiots movie, where Aamir says in a scene keep fooling your heart and yourself and you will believe that something is real and hence Bangaloreans believe they have real roads to drive on. So its a social cause.
ALL ISSSS WELLLL.

The typical car driver – thank God I now have somebody else to blame for always driving in the middle of every road I drive on in Bangalore or outside, I like being the center of attention and now I can do this shamelessly and not be blamed. We obsessive centre lane drivers now heave a huge sign of relief,

The Auto drivers’ union threatened to go on strike on being asked if they believed the magnet story – we don’t follow any rules or give in to any pulls whether its gravity or magnetic, we drive all over the roads. We are followers and believe in the snake god who is more powerful than any magnet and are his disciples who follow his ways.

The Bus driver’s reaction was simple – we drive with our eyes closed, how does all this  matter to us?

Finally they met an erstwhile member of the now defunct Bangalore Bikers Wheelie Association who said in disgust – Now I know why we could not lift our bikes and perform wheelies on the roads here. The contractors should be blamed for me not being able to impress chicks in my college. Now am forced to take them to movies and coffee shops and hang out outside malls all day to keep them happy.

   He signed off, sobbing – Even Axe deodorants dint work. 

Don’t you sell to Indian’s in India even if you are not Indian?

This past weekend I finally got to visit Café Max which is at Max Mueller Bhavan in Indiranagar.

This is not a food blog where you will get to hear my experience with the food. The simple reason for this was that I never actually got to eat the food there to be able to write about it.

And why dint I have anything to eat? Because I was a vegetarian that day and hence had to lay off almost all the items in the menu.

The fact is that most of their food is non-veg which is not wrong in any sense.

What irked me about the menu was that they passed off Non Veg food as Veg food!

That’s right, they have food that has EGG in it and they explicitly call it VEG food. Now maybe in Germany egg is termed as vegetarian and hence it is acceptable to call food that has egg but no meat as Vegetarian but last I checked we in India still consider it as non-vegetarian.

When I was living in Singapore it was a common problem when you ate at a local eatery. You could order veg food and they would serve it with the egg and when you insist I want veg food they would be like this is veg, no meat. Then we would need to explain that Indians consider egg as non-veg and hence we can’t eat the food since it has egg in it.

Here are some snapshots of their menu from Zomato.

Click here to check online - https://www.zomato.com/bangalore/cafe-max-indiranagar/menu#tabtop

This is the menu items that we saw too and hence it is as new and relevant till this 

past Sunday.

I would like to draw your attention to the entry – Crepes.
By highlighting that Ham and Cheese is Non-veg your suggesting that the other 2 are veg right? But you forget that Crepes are made with Egg and hence ALL the items ought to be non-veg.

Same goes for the Mediterranean crepes in the starters section! It says Veg when it has egg. 
And this was confirmed by the waiter as well.

Don't believe me? Read the entry highlighted under breakfast!

A quick look at the Max Mueller Website’s about us section  - reveals this at the end of the about us -
We would like to support them (Indian artists, scientists and journalists) in their roles as promoters of culture and pave the way for future international and cultural cooperation.

http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/en/bag/uun.html

Great way to promote their culture I guess. Personal preferences be aside, Indian’s as a nation term Egg as non-veg and hence even if their primary audience maybe German (which is not the case as I know people who go there frequently and the clientele is largely Indian).

It is grossly un-cultural to be promoting eggs as vegetarian in India. Good for health, maybe but surely not vegetarian and surely not in India.

A quick byword about the service we experienced - Crappy. Not worthy of a tip let alone the service charge they force you to pay on the bill.

P.S. – the author of this blog is a hard core non-vegetarian and can only tolerate vegetables when accompanied by non-veg.