KFC, Unity One Mall Janakpuri

I have been a huge fan of KFC ever since I first tasted their Zinger Burger. Even when the Burgers are sparsely stuffed, they still taste great. So we have a deep fried chicken piece stuffed inside the bread with Lettuce, White Mayonnaise and another orange colour ketchup. That’s it, with four ingredients, the Zinger Burger is truly finger-licious!

Got Super Cruncher (a smaller version of the Zinger Burger with Chicken Strips) and Rizo Rice Bowl with Smoky Grilled Chicken for dinner. First bite into the Rizo and you are hit with the fragrance of the rice. Cloves and chillies add up to the spicyness. In the two photos of the Rice Bowl, you will notice the colour has changed. That’s because underneath the rice, there is a layer of spicy gravy to perk up the taste. Smoky Grilled Chicken is so soft and juicy, you are likely to forget Desi Tandoori Chicken for a while.

The Chicken Strip Burger was equally tasty. It helps that KFC has emphasised on its Paper Bag a proper disposal in a waste container (Swachh Bharat Abhiyan). It is also targeting to feed 20 Million young children by 2020. That is both noble and humanitarian. Long Live KFC!!

Bikanervala, Rajouri Garden

Tried Mix Veg Uttapam and Kesariya Sweet Lassi at Bikanervala, Rajouri Garden sometime ago. Would recommend it if you wish to try desi cuisine in West Delhi. The variety of vegetables on the Uttapam was really good. Sambar, coconut and Tomato Chutneys were good too. Average and not excellent. I like coconut chutney so much, I end up asking for a second helping :). I love the fact that there are so many vegetables in the Uttapam and Sambar, humans can’t go wrong when they are eating vegetables. Also Tamarind in the sambar is an absolute delight. Simply the best appetizer one can think of.

Kesariya Sweet Lassi came with balanced sweetness and a hearty sprinkling of cardamom powder. It was garnished with two spoons of yellow saffron sauce to perk up the taste.

Overall, a good experience with South Indian food. The store itself is beautifully lit and spaced out with the entire ground floor available for seating and dining. Have fun at Bikanervala with your family and friends.  

Burger King, Orchard Road, Janakpuri

We have enjoyed Chicken Tandoor Grill Burger and Cheesy Fries at Burger King in the past and these have turned out to be the tastiest items for us so far. The Whoppers are good but not outstanding or memorable. Also Nachos chips inside a burger is only visible at Burger King, why?

I believe taste matters to all of us and most Burger King Burgers aren’t as tasty as say McDonald’s Burgers or KFC Burgers. We have tried Burger King’s wraps as well and while I can go back again and again for McD’s Big Spicy Chicken wrap, I can’t say the same for Burger King’s wraps. Sad, isn’t it?

The blandness of Burger King’s items hits us again and again. On a perfect weekend, we ordered Medium Fries, Veg Cheese N Chilli Whopper, Chicken Whopper + Crispy Chicken (Offer) and Veggie Strips (3 Pcs).

I don’t want to criticize much, take a look at the photos and see for yourself, the burger patties can be made spicier or can be customized to Indian levels of spiciness.

The regular lettuce, tomato slices, mayonnaise and onion partly make up for the taste but that's about it.

Thankfully, in Chicken Tandoor Grill Burger, the chicken patty is spicier and has a smoky flavor to it. That is why it’s tasty for Spice-hunting indians, lol. Also Cheesy Fries is interesting because you don’t find equivalent items in other Fast Food chains. So Burger King pours ample yellow, molten mozzarella cheese on the Fries and even though that makes the Fries a little soggy, we don’t complain since the molten cheese brings a lot of flavor to the Fries.

Try these two items, the next time you walk into a Burger King outlet. Bon Appetit!

National Savings Certificate (NSC), India Post

For Corporate employees, making investment in Tax-Saving instruments is a constant endeavour. Afterall you want your hard-earned money to sustain your family in the future.. At the end of the day, we are responsible for managing our family expenses, children’s education/marriage, retirement etc.

Long back when I had just started my career, there was this discussion about NSCs (National Savings Certificates) at the local Post Office. Just for the experience, I decided to invest a small token amount as part of my tax planning.

Time flew by and one day my wife brought to my notice the maturity date on the NSC. Dear Reader, please be aware that there is a lock-in period of 5 yrs and the current return is 7.6% compounded annually but payable at maturity. Up to 2 yrs after the maturity date, the return provided is that of a Savings Bank account. After 5+2 yrs, your investment lies idle with India Post with no returns whatsoever.

It had been 7 yrs and we had to do something so the money didn’t sit idle in a Post Office. Now, investing is easy. I walked into the GTB Nagar Post Office (North Delhi), deposited the money in cash and got a Physical certificate with the maturity date and amount mentioned on it. Compared to investing, encashing the Certificate can be a task in a day and age when everything is digital/online and one can get work done in a matter of clicks.

I had shifted out of North Delhi and taken up a residence in West Delhi. The nearest Post Office at Arya Samaj Road, Uttam Nagar told me the NSC can be encashed at the home branch (where it was issued) or at a Head Post Office in Ramesh Nagar.

On a Saturday, in the famous Delhi heat, I took the Metro (Subway) to Ramesh Nagar only to find a huge crowd at the Head Post Office. I was given token number 587 and an employee at the counter told me that the office closes at 2pm, we will consider ourselves productive if we are able to serve token number 540!

The next weekend, I took a metro to North Delhi, travelled 24 stations and arrived at the GTB Nagar Post Office at 11:20am (where the NSC was originally issued). The first guy at the counter tried his best to convince me to return saying they serve customers only till 12 in the afternoon. I persisted, seeing only 5 customers in the queue. The old age employee processing the files took an hour when my turn came at 12:20pm. All this while, I was anxious if these guys would ask me to come back on another day. The Old man complained to me that I was increasing his workload on a Saturday. I smiled nervously explaining how I had come all the way from West Delhi to get the NSC liquidated. In reply, he was sarcastic, ‘how does it matter to me that you have come from Etawah UP or from Mulayam Singh Yadav’s (former CM, UP) village? You don’t know how much workload we have!’ After all the complaining, he handed the cash and I left the premises partly exhausted and relieved.

Despite the efforts of the present government, the Indian Post Office hasn’t changed much in terms of efficiency, service standards and polite/timely customer service. Imagine having to run around and be denied service for your own hard-earned money. Imagine having to stand in long, serpentine queues to access your money when you are old, less energetic. The employees are hell bent on denying service. We are supposedly increasing their workload. I was told, they would not serve customers after 12pm and there were still processing files at 12:45pm. One customer who had come to deposit premiums for his Postal Life Insurance was sent back in a rude manner. He created a ruckus and left the premises disappointed even though he was polite throughout his stay in the queue.

We have so many options when it comes to tax-saving instruments in the country that millennials should think twice before investing in Post Office schemes. Happy investing to you!

Punjabi Tadka, Uttam Nagar

For good quality Tandoori Chicken in Uttam Nagar, check out Punjabi Tadka on Najafgarh road. This restaurant is between the Uttam Nagar East and West Metro stations on the busy main road. Make sure you are picking up your dish hot and fresh from the shop, because ordering it on Zomato/Swiggy, we realised the quality dips a little. After taking out chicken from the Tandoor, it is spiced up with light lemon juice, butter, milk cream and their in-home spicy mayonnaise. This extra concoction makes the Tandoori chicken different from the normal, dry variety. The owner is a friendly guy who will happily answer your queries related to the various items on the menu. There are 3 tables inside, if you wish to enjoy the food at the establishment.

Keema Naan with Gravy is average and so is lemon chicken. We thought lemon chicken would be treated differently but that was not the case. Lemon chicken was basically tandoori chicken with lemon and a little more turmeric (for that extra yellow colour). Keema Naan was nicely stuffed, soft and buttery yet the keema had a tough texture to it. Normally you would expect the Keema to be soft and melt-in-your-mouth type.

I would definitely recommend Butter Tandoori Chicken at this outlet because it’s tasty and treated differently.  

Waffles at Giani's, Rajouri Garden

After having dinner in a restaurant in Rajouri, we were looking for some dessert when we spotted Giani’s nearby. Giani’s is a chain of dessert parlors in Delhi operating for the last 62 years. They have about 52 stores in Delhi NCR.

These days they have added Waffles to their menu. Not sure why I could not spot waffles on their menu on Zomato, but the same is visible on Swiggy (https://www.swiggy.com/delhi/gianis-near-mota-singh-school-janakpuri-janakpuri).

Zomato should keep the updated Menu on their website. After all, it’s a go-to website for foodies.

Moving forward, we ordered Giani’s special Waffle and another one of the Strawberry variety. When these were served, we thought it would be a good experience. Unfortunately, Waffles is not something that Giani’s is good at. The Waffle had turned soggy under the weight of chocolate sauce and ice-cream. The chocolate sauce or homemade Nutella was too sweet. The entire concoction was so sweet and wet, we regretted ordering it. Visually too, it was not appealing with sauce lines visible all over the periphery of the plate. The Strawberry slices were not sweet and with so much sweetness around, it tasted like it was sour (lol).

Overall it was a bad experience, and I would advise foodies to keep away from Waffles at Giani’s. Try IHOP at Cyber Hub or Select Citywalk and you might fall in love with Waffles all over again.

Tippling Street, Rajouri Garden

It was our Marriage Anniversary and we were researching for restaurants on our favourite website Zomato for that perfect experience. The inspiration of visiting a restaurant on our Marriage anniversary came from our Honorable CM Arvind Kejriwal who takes his wife out to their favourite chinese restaurant on their anniversary. Not a bad idea at all. Turns out our busy politicians are romantics too. :)

After a few minutes of research, we zeroed on Tippling Street in the Rajouri Garden area. No prior reservations are required so Saturday evening we walked up to the place and it looked like a busy weekend for the management. They have a desk at the entrance on the ground floor where guests are guided to the 2nd floor for entry. It appeared the first floor was occupied by some other establishment.

The first thing one notices on entering the property is their impressive, imposing bar area with floor to ceiling racks of different kinds of booze bottles. The tables were occupied on the second floor so we quietly walked up to the third floor where we chose a seat near the bar railing where we could enjoy the view of the imposing bar, listen to the music and taste our food.

One of the Staff members arrived with the menu as soon as we were seated. We ordered Starters: Tom & Jerry (Stir fried fish in Chilli Garlic sauce) and Make your own platter Non-Veg (Chicken Tikka in 3 different spicy flavors), Main Course: Lungi Dance Chicken with Malabari Parantha and Concoction drinks: Paradise Island (Vodka with watermelon, peach, orange and cranberry with mint) and Banarsi Paan Mojito.

First the drinks arrived and Paradise Island was an absolute delight. The taste and flavour were pleasant and thin slices of fresh watermelon in the drink were sheer joy to the taste buds. The Banarsi Paan Mojito was good, except that it had a stronger lime lilt to it that made us vote for ‘Paradise island’ as the better part of our ‘Cocktail’ experience.

The crispy stir-fried fish stood out among the starters. It was tastefully done with a crisp layer outside and tender flesh inside. The garnishing, level of spicyness and food presentation was really good.

The main course was a slightly disappointing because both Lungi chicken and Malabar Parantha were below expectations. The chicken pieces and gravy were regular stuff and Malabar Parantha looked almost like buttered Tandoori Roti.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience visiting the outlet. Polite staff, a clean spacious property, music in the background and quick, timely service added to the positive experience.

Thank you to the staff of Tippling Street for hosting us and making our evening memorable.

Hit Refresh Review

“Consistency is better than perfection.”

“Empathy is what I practice daily; understanding the other person’s pain areas, difficulties solves many of my own problems in understanding his or her behavior/intent.”

“When somebody finds fault in what I do, I consider it a gift of insight that I wouldn’t otherwise have. Frankly, I am wired that way.”

“Team work; working with each other is the greatest skill you can teach your family and friends. Because together, we achieve more.”

“I don’t want to hear that someone is the smartest person in the room. I want to hear them take their intelligence and use it to develop deep shared understanding within teams and define a course of action.”

“To be a leader and partner at MS, you have to stop whining. You can’t say the coffee around here is bad, or there aren’t enough good people, or I didn’t get the bonus. Your job as a leader is to find rose petals in a field of shit!”

“Leaders take internal and external noise and synthesize a message from it, recognizing the true signal within a lot of noise.”

Satya Nadella’s book is a minefield of wisdom quotes that only a seasoned, experienced business leader can share with his readers. He defines two mindsets which can be used to categorize performance at the workplace:

Fixed Mindset: Decisions that reinforce the tendency to continue doing what we’ve always done.

Growth Mindset: Decisions that force us to think out of the box, to be creative in problem-solving and find solutions to problems without cribbing about it. It encompasses individual empowerment and team work – what one person or one team can do against the odds.

Two examples of a Fixed Mindset were shared:

1    An employee asking him in a Q&A session, “Why can’t I print a document from my mobile phone?” Satya politely told him, ‘Make it happen. You have full authority.”

2    On Yammer, employees were complaining that people were leaving half-used milk cartons in the office refrigerator. Apparently, people would open a fresh eight-ounce container of milk, pour some in their coffee or tea, and then leave it out on the counter thinking others would finish it. But no one wants to use a personal milk container opened by somebody else that is beginning to sour.

Satya used one of his video messages to employees to have a good laugh at it, showcasing it as a humorous example of a fixed mindset.

He has spoken at length about the future of technology that will facilitate Artificial Intelligence, Cloud computing and Quantum computing.

He has taken references from Hollywood movies that depict technology in a light-hearted manner. In the movie, Creed, (the latest of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movie series) the boxing champ jots down on a piece of paper a workout regimen for his protégé, who quickly snaps a photo of it on his smartphone. As the kid jogs away, Rocky yells, “Don’t you want the paper?”

“I got it right here, it’s already up in the cloud,” the kid replies.

The aging Rocky looks skyward. “What cloud? What cloud?” Rocky may not know about the cloud but millions today rely on it.

Kali Ghata Misthan Bhandar, Uttam Nagar Delhi

Indian sweets and sweet shops have evolved over the years. Traditional Indian sweet shops are no more just mithai over the counter. Foodies can see design, variety, presentation, balancing of sugar, mixing fruits in the ingredients, having a presence on the internet and a tireless pursuit of sophisticatedness. Haldiram's, Bikanervala and countless other chains in the country are a testimony to that.

Weekends for me are all about trying new dishes/cuisine and enjoying the many varieties that Indian food has to offer. Packed 'Fruit Cut' and Bengali Sweets from Kali Ghata. The four differently designed cups you see in the pics are all 'Fruit Cuts'. A creative variant of Chhena Payis or Fruit Rabri. These cups have a piece of chhena (soft cheeseballs in various shapes) in the middle with sweet milk puree and loads of fruits as toppings. There are also cheese lachchas (long string-like cheese strips) that add to the texture. These 'Fruit Cuts' come in a variety of flavours, namely Strawberry, Orange, Black Grapes, Pomegranate and Pistachios. if you look at the images, these are easily a feast to any foodie's imagination. I hope you try these and share your experiences with us Zomans :).

The other box has a variety of Bengali sweets that I have written about in my previous column. These are my personal favourite. Malai Chamcham has been named Suraiya (after the famous Bollywood actress), the chamcham with Silver foil on it is called Pakiza (after the famous film, Pakeezah), the round white cheeseballs with a strip of Pistachio is called Kacha Gola. Mildly sweet and melt-in-your-mouth cheeseballs that will not bother you with unwanted calories. ;)

Enjoy it with friends and family, Bon Appetit.