Finders Eaters: The Chocolate Room

Hello, there! Welcome back to OhRiyally. I’ve been off on vacation and hence unable to post but I’m back now, armed with photographs and stories of Singapore and Malaysia which you’ll see in next week’s WTLS post. This week, however, the Finders Eaters have a sweet delight for your palate.

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Remember being young and reading/watching ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, wishing that a place like Willy Wonka’s factory actually existed and then cursing God because it didn’t? We sure do. So, it was with chocolate on our minds that we set foot in The Chocolate Room’s Satyaniketan outlet.

However, unlike the previous places we’ve covered, this wasn’t our discovery per se. It was suggested to us by a friend who’s already a pretty big fan of this place. Rest assured that we dragged him with us. After juggling traffic woes and parking spaces – or the lack thereof – for over 20 minutes, we were glad to escape the blazing sun and set foot into the restaurant.

The first thing that caught our eyes was the size of the place. For a name that’s well known among chocolate lovers in the city and has over 7 outlets in Delhi-NCR, it’s quite small. Considering it was lunch time, that too with a DU college right across the street, we were lucky to find a table upon entering.

Once seated, we were given a very colourful booklet which housed the menu of the establishment. We are not exaggerating when we say that The Chocolate Room has a plethora of delicious items to offer. They have everything from pizzas, paninos, nachos and pancakes to waffles. In drinks, they offer a wide range of frappes, mocktails and coffees (much to the delight of the resident caffeine-addict). After careful perusal, we decided on a Garden Fresh Panino, Nachos and the Melting Marshmallows Pancakes (our mouths were watering by the time we ordered). To accompany this calorie-loaded order, we picked a Caramel Frappe, a Bloody Orange Granita and a Muggaccino (that’s basically a double cappuccino because who likes a small coffee?!).

Our drinks arrived within 5 minutes of placing the order, and we can vouch for their taste and quantity. However, the Muggaccino could’ve been a bit stronger, but that’s only if you can handle drinking about 400 ml of strong coffee in one go. The Bloody Orange Granita was tangy and fresh, as expected. The Caramel Frappe arrived in a tall glass with the words ‘drink me’ emblazoned on it–very Alice in Wonderland and very Finders Eaters approved.

On the eating front, the pancakes were the first to arrive and stacked beautifully. Needless to say, we attacked them with ferocity and demolished them within a few minutes. We did take our time with finishing up the nachos and the paninos, both of which were delectable and fulfilling. The only fault we could find was with the paninos and that too only with their quantity. For its price, we felt that the quantity was half of what it should’ve been.

Talking about the ambience of the place, it was mainly filled with college students who wanted to grab a quick bite or just sit down and chat, though that could be solely because of the location. The whole place was buzzing with conversation but not irritatingly so. Every table had its privacy. The staff was also quick and prompt, while at the same time being courteous. As for the whole cost of the meal, we were done in about ₹ 1050, which for three wallet-conscious students seems feasible, though definitely not cheap.

Their waffles and chocolate shots are on our to-try list for the next time we visit. Though, we’ll probably head to another outlet such as the Baani Square, Gurgaon one, which comes highly recommended to us, especially in terms of its decor.

The Chocolate Room’s website will give you all the details you need about their various locations across Delhi-NCR and possibly make you salivate over the wonderful pictures of sweet things displayed. There’s also an option of seeing a 360° view of the cafes. You can check them out on Facebook, if you need more convincing (but let’s be real, you’ve already texted your foodie friend and fixed a day to visit, haven’t you?).

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Let me know in the comments below what you thought of this Finders Eaters post. The next post in this series will go up on Arshi’s blog in two weeks. While you wait for that, don’t forget to come back here in time for next Friday’s WTLS post featuring photos from my recent vacation in Singapore and Malaysia!

Finders Eaters: Mr. Choy

Hello! Welcome to Finders Eaters #5. I hope you’re having a great monsoon (or whatever passes for monsoon these days). Arshi and I have been busy finding eateries worth checking out and this time, we take you to a little gem we found when the craving for dim sums took over.

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Khan Market is known among Delhiites as the place to be when you’re in the search of good crowd, great food and an even better ambience. Mr. Choy, while a small establishment, does not fail in ticking off these basic requirements. Set at 75, Middle Lane in Khan Market, it’s not hard to find with its picturesque glass exterior (at which we stared for a few minutes before we stepped inside).

 

Since the place only has about 6-7 table settings and we went to lunch on a surprisingly busy Tuesday, we had to wait for ten minutes to be seated. As soon as we took our seats, we were handed notepads and pencils which caused us to share a dubious look (‘Do they want us to doodle while we eat?’) until we realised that those were, in fact, menus. Being the suckers that we are for creativity and quirk, you could colour us impressed.

 

It took us a while to place our orders since the restaurant claimed to specialise in dim sums and accordingly had a variety of choices in the same. At last we settled on Four Seasons Vegetarian dim sums, Spicy Fried Chicken dim sums and Mr. Choy Special Vegetarian noodles. While selecting drinks, the resident caffeine addict was a bit too fast and ended up with Berry Rocks –a drink which we unanimously voted to be the best of the lot. We also ordered a Minty Chang and a Herbal Dew since this time, we roped in one of our friends to accompany us.

 

  

As we waited for our order to arrive, we took the time to observe our surroundings which were quite delightful. From the strategically placed smoky mirrors on the wall, to the cage-enclosed lights which hung from the ceiling, it was a sight to behold. There was also a beautiful mural on the wall right behind us, which made for a wonderful visual whenever we looked up. On each table, was a holder with six test tubes, each filled with a different sauce to savour with your meal. Whoever thought of this idea is a genius, we decree.

 

 

The other patrons dining besides us were extremely polite and kept to themselves. It offered a sense of privacy which seems peculiar for a place where tables were placed pretty closed to each other. The wait staff was also very accommodating and sweet when dealing with a group of starved youngsters (that’s us!). They just nodded reassuringly when we asked them if we could take and extra menu home with us (one page of the menu notepad, of course).

 

After waiting for about 10-15 minutes, our order arrived, albeit in bits and pieces, which is to be expected considering the size of the order. The noodles came in a mason jar (for which we have a thing) and were served to us along with the dim sums. The food was sumptuous and light but at the same time, the portion sizes were enough to satisfy our starving stomachs. Couple that with the wonderful drinks and you’ve got a winner on your hands.

 

            

For dessert, we ordered a Chilled Mango Pudding whose consistency was just right–not too gooey, not too firm. In total, the lunch set us back by around 2000 rupees, which is a bit steep for us unemployed college students but it was worth every penny. Along with the bill came three fortune cookies for each of us and while some were satisfied with theirs, others were confounded (hint–it’s the coffee addict).

 

All in all, it was a nice culinary outing and absolutely deserving of the Finders Eaters stamp of approval. We heartily recommend this place to anyone who craves the taste of Hong Kong cuisine.

 

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I hope you enjoyed reading that! Let me know in the comments below what you thought of this post and Finders Eaters in general. The next post will go up on Arshi’s blog so don’t forget to follow her. Until next time, stay hungry!

Finders Eaters: Rose Cafe

Friday is here and it’s time for the next installment of Finders Eaters! I can’t believe that it’s been two weeks already. Like I mentioned in the previous post, Finders Eaters will go live every two weeks here and on Arshi’s blog, alternatively. This week, Arshi and I take you to Rose Cafe on Westend Marg, Saidulajab, Delhi. Head on over to Words, Whimsy and Wanderlust to view the next page in the adventure that we call Finders Eaters.

Click here to view the post and do let me know in the comments below what you think!

Finders Eaters: Kunzum Travel Cafe

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll remember me hinting at a possible collaboration with Arshi from Words, Whimsy and Wanderlust. It took us a while to make a concrete plan and set it in motion but we’re finally ready to unveil our series. Our common love for writing, exploring and dining (food for me, beverages for Arshi) has culminated into Finders Eaters. While most finders keep, we’re the kind who eat. This series takes you to restaurants and cafes in Delhi and its vicinity through our eyes (also, stomachs). We flag this off with our first experience at Kunzum Travel Cafe, Hauz Khas Village, Delhi.

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Anyone who has ever lived in Delhi can tell you how cruel its summer is. Seeing as how it’s June currently and temperatures are unbearably high, wise people would advise you against wandering around aimlessly in Connaught Place and then Hauz Khas for hours under the sun. So of course we went ahead and did exactly that (not our most brilliant idea, mind you).

It was the aftermath of this wanderlust that left us exhausted, thirsty and a little sun-burnt till we stumbled upon Kunzum Travel Cafe in one of the many lanes of Hauz Khas Village. Eager to escape the sweltering heat, we immediately decided to check it out (meaning checking out its air conditioning). Within five minutes of being inside, we realised that we had stumbled upon something special, a place that we could finally write about. So we decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and set about gathering information and clicking pictures. We interviewed the only officials present there, Pooja Kapoor and Shivam Tomar, who are both long-term friends of the owner Ajay Jain.

We learned that the place was actually started in 2007 by Ajay Jain–who is a renowned traveller, author, photographer and blogger–whilst on a road trip and is named after the famous Kunzum Pass in Manali. It connects the Kullu Valley and Lahaul Valley with the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh, India.

It actually began as a private gallery to display Ajay Jain’s travel photography and gradually turned into a meeting place for the travel community. Knowing that not everyone likes to display their stories on global social media platforms, Kunzum is a place where people can come together and talk to others about where they’ve been and where they wish to go. It’s travel sharing at its most intimate.

A strong love for travel radiates throughout the cafe. The walls are lined with photographs clicked by visitors and by Ajay Jain himself (we’re assuming). There’s a bookshelf that patrons are free to peruse which is filled with–you guessed it–travel guides. Along one wall is a shelf decked with magazines from all over the world, vintage editions from what we could tell. The overall decor of the cafe is kitschy yet chic as can be seen through the exquisite wooden trunks that serve as tables and cane chairs & jute ‘moodas’ (low-height settees) on which visitors perch. There was a huge hand-held bell on our table which we were tempted to ring (don’t worry, we resisted).

While most who visit Hauz Khas Village might walk past this idyllic cafe without realising the wonder that lies within, Kunzum is a major draw for global audience and dedicated travellers. Most of the people who visit Kunzum Travel Cafe have heard about it from someone and visit to satiate their curiosity. Due to the close-knit nature of the travel community, Kunzum’s exclusivity, edgy decor and peaceful environs make it a very popular destination among travellers. It has been featured on popular news sites like the Huffington Post and the Washington Post, among numerous blogs run by people all over the world. It’s founder, Ajay Jain has been a speaker at events held by organisations such as  NASSCOM, IBM, Intel and ITB Berlin, the European Travel Fair.

As we glanced around, one of us had a sudden craving for coffee (hint: it’s the coffee-addict) and we ordered one steaming cuppa which came with the most delicious cookies. Kunzum Travel cafe has the Finders Eaters stamp of approval when it comes to coffee, according to our in-house coffee-expert (hint: still the coffee-addict).

Besides being a regular haunt of travellers from the world over, Kunzum Travel Cafe also boasts of hosting monthly workshops related to three major areas – Travel Photography, Travel Filmmaking and Travel Blogging. These, they claim, are all the basic skills you need to become the kind of traveller who gets paid to travel while nursing your serious case of wanderlust. Kunzum also has yoga sessions and regular music gigs in its vast repertoire of events and salsa sessions will be added pretty soon.

As if all this wasn’t enough, they also provide free WiFi, tea, coffee and cookies to anyone who enters their doors. Shivam Tomar doesn’t mind being quoted when he says, “This is the only cafe in India where you don’t have to pay anything as there is no menu. If you’ve had a good time and wish to pay then you can.”

On hearing this, we couldn’t help but ask if someone had actually left without paying anything. “All the time,” Pooja responded as she laughed at our shocked expressions. In case you’re wondering, yes, we did pay for the coffee and cookies we had and it was marvelous.

If you are intrigued by Kunzum Travel Cafe or just passing through Hauz Khas Village and want to rest your feet and revel in good company, this might just be the place you are looking for.

For more information, you can visit their website, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook page.

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We will be presenting our take on some more hidden gems of Delhi-NCR over the next few months. Posts will go up alternatively on our blogs i.e. since this post went up on my blog, the next one will go up on Arshi’s blog and so on. You can expect a new post every two weeks. Be sure to check out and follow Arshi’s blog for the next installment of Finders Eaters. 

Comment below and let me know what you think of this series, Kunzum Travel Cafe and ‘Dilli ki garmi’. Did you figure out who the coffee-expert is?

What The Lens Saw: Hauz Khas Fort

I’m back with another photo feature! I have to admit, What The Lens Saw (let’s just call it WTLS from now on, all that unnecessary typing is tiring me out) is quickly becoming my favourite category of posts. This time, I take you to Hauz Khas Fort in Delhi.

It was a bright sunny yet pleasantly breezy day when I found myself in Hauz Khas Village for a friend’s birthday party. (If you read the last WTLS, you might assume that the only time I get out of the house is when I’m invited to a birthday party. Let me assure you, that is not the case. Mostly.) Being the control-freak that I am, I reached right on time and was greeted with the news that the host was running late. With about an hour to kill, I walked over to the nearby Hauz Khas Fort, took a perch under a nice tree and spent my time watching people and thinking up blog post ideas (*wink*).

For a person like me who loves stories, Hauz Khas Fort, with its beautifully rustic exteriors, looks like the kind of place which has a lot of tales to tell.

Some ceilings in the fort are decorated with gorgeous inlay work such as this. If it looks so intricate even after years of dilapidation, one can only imagine the original beauty of this ceiling when it was freshly carved.

The whole fort follows a pattern of symmetry which is an exciting visual for people like me who, well, like symmetry and order.

Full of discreet passageways and corridors, the fort is a regular haunt for couples, groups of friends and even loners who arrive too early for birthday parties.

With gorgeous hallways such as this one, the fort draws me in with its mysterious vibe. I can’t help but imagine the people who walked through these corridors and wonder what conversations these walls have witnessed over the years.

I’m a thoroughly lazy girl but on some days, I find the motivation to make an effort and ditch my denim and sneakers in favour of trousers and shiny oxfords. At first, I felt quite overdressed but after roaming around for a while, my glittering shoes seemed to fit right in with the rugged stone floor. That’s the beauty of this place, it welcomes worn-out sneakers as warmly as it does dapper oxfords.

There’s something captivating about this fort. I find myself inexplicably drawn to it. I always hope to absorb some of the fort’s tranquility that the porous stones with which it was built seem to exude.

The greenery set against the stone walls makes for a picturesque view.

The fort overlooks a lake, which, once a source of clean water for the residents, is now mossy, green and definitely not inviting enough to drink from.

Beyond the boundaries of the fort lies the Hauz Khas Village which has a plethora of restaurants and cafes, known for their edgy food and decor themes. This vividly painted residential house seems to be competing with them.

The gardens are interspersed with these idyllic structures which make for great picnic spots. I remember spending a rainy afternoon sitting under one of these, chatting away with my friends. It was quite peaceful, really, to sit nice and dry under the stony roof while raindrops fell on the grass.

There is no dearth of beauty in the fort grounds with sprawling trees such as this one. Currently bare, this tree must have seen countless visitors stroll through the gardens as it stood in the corner, listening in to their conversations and laughing at their jokes. Come spring, it will be full of green leaves, ready to witness new memories being made.

This lake must have been quite beautiful in its time, I reckon. This is the closest I’ve ever been to the lake, actually. You see, my sense of direction is very poor and the first time I visited the fort was with a friend who kindly led me to the entrance. To this day, I use the same entry point whenever I visit the fort and my countless efforts at finding a staircase which leads down to the lake have been futile. Some day, I hope I’m able to find my way down to the lake, but till then I’m just going to stand against the railing and gaze longingly at the lake, quite like Jay Gatsby used to look at the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock in the book The Great Gatsby.

The pictures in this post weren’t all clicked on the same day. I had around 5 pictures to work with, when I first drafted this post, but I wanted to add more. So one day, when I had around two hours to spare, I headed out to the fort and got clicking. Determined to find a way to reach the lake, I stepped out into the Village with a friend and as I explored the back lanes, I came across this wall full of graffiti.

While our quest to find a path that led to the lake resulted in failure, my friend and I did manage to find Steve Jobs on a wall in the Village.

My inner Sherlock fan desperately wished for this door to say 221B.

Spotted this right in front of the Steve Jobs graffiti and I couldn’t help but capture this.

This one is from the very first time I visited the fort. I was walking around wide-eyed, trying to commit to memory as much of the fort’s beauty as I possibly could when a friend of mine snapped this. This is me in all my silhouette-y glory.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I must thank my friends Anish (@Rai_Anish on Twitter, @raianish on Instagram) and Utkarsh (@UtkarshChawla on Twitter, @poundforabrown on Instagram) for accompanying me to Hauz Khas on various separate occasions and bearing with my control-freak self as I clicked away. Tell me what you think of this post in the comments! Any suggestions, requests?

Body-shaming Needs to Stop

Let me begin by stating a few facts about myself:

1. I’m 5’5″ and I weigh 50 kilograms.

2. I’ve always been thin, it runs in the family.

3. I have a healthy appetite and eat more than enough to satisfy my daily nutritional requirements.

4. I have, on multiple occasions, been subjected to hate because it’s ‘unfair to eat like a pig and still be so skinny’.

Body-shaming is nothing new. It has been around for years, with its claws wrapped around our heads, filling our mindsets with poison. There’s always something wrong with your body–you’re too skinny, you’re too fat, you’re too short… It may start with seemingly harmless little jokes here and there but it soon morphs into something sinister which settles in the back of your mind and eats away at your self-esteem.

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I don’t condone bad health choices, neither do I believe that using dietary disorders like obesity or anorexia as a shield is the way to go. If you have a problem, the first step is to accept its existence. I feel like people, especially in India, treat eating disorders like they’re not serious enough to demand medical attention. What we don’t realise is that by refusing help to someone who needs it or toning down the gravity of their condition, we’re putting their well-being at risk. ‘You’re just fat. Go work out and lose some weight, you’ll be fine,’ is not an acceptable thing to say.

When I first started college, there was a new timetable I had to get used to. The breakfast-at-home-light-lunch-in-school-heavier-lunch-at-home schedule which I had been following for more than a decade ceased to be relevant. I had to acclimate to eating at odd hours, sometimes skipping meals because I didn’t have enough time, eating too much later in the day because of said skipped meals and consuming all sorts of junk food because that’s how college kids have to roll. This led to some fluctuations in my almost always steady weight and I remember panicking when I realised I had put on a few kilos. I’d been thin for so long that the idea of not being skinny anymore was unfathomable to me. I’m pretty sure that it took mere seconds for the shock to wear off and be replaced with shame.

There I was, weighing 50 kgs and still underweight for my height, worried about being called ‘chubby’ by people. This is what years of body-shaming had done to me. There is only one thing that’s worse than feeling like you fail to conform to some social standards of bodily appearance– the fact that such social standards of bodily appearance exist.

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I had a friend in school who quite literally starved herself for weeks, barely eating one proper meal a day, all because she was three kgs overweight. There’s nothing wrong with going to the gym or changing your diet, in fact, these are all wise decisions if you want to improve your health. What matters is your motivation behind those efforts. Don’t start working out because you want other people’s approval, do it because it would give you contentment.

I’m proud to say that I don’t measure my fitness in kilos anymore. The fact that climbing more than four flights of stairs in succession makes me pant like crazy still worries me but I’m working on that. And the best part is that I’m doing it for myself.

If you have a story to share, or if you would like to contribute to this topic, feel free to use the comments section. I’d love to hear from you.

The Importance of Being Desi

A few years back, when my cousin was about 6 years old, she had a fancy dress competition in her school. I asked her what she wanted to dress up as, fully expecting her to say Barbie or Dora The Explorer, but her answer left me at a loss for words. ‘Mother India,’ she exclaimed. On further questioning, after she made me swear secrecy, she revealed, ‘My mom loves to wear skirts and dresses but I think she looks the prettiest when she wears a saree. I want to look pretty like her too.’

It took me five minutes to process the weight behind her words. A little girl had accomplished what us grown-ups failed to do: embrace our culture. Being Indian comes with a full set of challenges: People have preconceived notions about your background, everyone assumes that you come from a nation of narrow-minded people, you’re blamed to be ‘trying too hard to copy the west’ if you blare rap music through your speakers… 

via http://www.instagram.com/ohriyally/

  Over the years, I’ve noticed that somehow, we’ve started distancing ourselves from our culture. Home-cooked rotis with daal? Nah, we’d rather have some pizza. There’s nothing wrong with that. Variety is the spice of life, after all. But what about when you completely forget your roots? Admit it, you’ve made fun of someone for grooving to Bollywood music. I know I’ve judged people for that. (Don’t gasp at me, I’m not proud of it.)

A few months back, I was talking to my childhood friend who now lives in America. I asked her about her music tastes, ready with my list of Ed Sheeran, John Mayer and Maroon 5 favourites. I didn’t get the chance to fangirl over Adam Levine’s amazing voice with her because she told me that she only listened to Bollywood music. Talk about a curve ball. We spent the next 25 minutes singing duets from the latest Shah Rukh Khan movies and guess what? It was the most fun I had in a month.

via http://www.instagram.com/ohriyally/

I can’t be the only Indian kid who turns right around and walks out of the room when I hear the words ‘festival’ and ‘preparation’ in one sentence. I feel like somewhere between being disappointed with India’s shortcomings and branching out to get to know other cultures, we let ourselves be ashamed of being Indian. That’s a serious accusation, I know, but don’t take offence, I’m just trying to put forth an opinion.

Coming from someone who owns a total of one churidar-suit (hand-me-down from my mother), it might seem blasphemous but isn’t owning up to your faults the first step in the long road towards recovery? In that spirit, I’m embarking on this journey to embrace my ethnicity with open arms.

I can’t say that I’m going to put on mehendi (I cannot stand the smell of it) and belt out Raag Malhaar but I promise not to roll my eyes the next time my dad tries to teach me how to fly a kite properly. Saree-ously.