zurich

I spent most of thursday in the art museum, wonderful contemporary collection. it was rainy in the morning and art museums have everything you need, bathrooms, espresso and snacks and ART. I really enjoyed it. there was a sculpture by Segal called Bowery that brought tears to my eyes. and lots of Giacometti since he is swiss. and a special showing of various art videos. Then we went to a little restaurant with great ambiance called Rosso, deep in west zurich. communal tables, and you can get wine by the glass where they just leave the bottle on yr table and you drink as much as you want. favorite food was the starter of beef tartar.

Haleem!

so Hyderabad is famous for Haleem which you get during Ramzan which is now and we are here - I really wanted some and due to exhaustion and colds and the convenience of staying in the hotel we didn't make it out for haleem until our last night here, but we did it. Asked the driver of the auto to take us to Hyderabad House and ended up at Paradise, but what the heck. Paradise is HUGE, you can order to go haleem, stand up and eat haleem, sit down in non-AC haleem and top floor fancy restaurant haleem. we went for the fancy restaurant (cost total: 250 rps for haleem, naan, paratha, lime soda sweet) and the haleem was delicious - omg is it filling. goat that has been cooked for 8 hrs with wheat and spices, fried onions on top. it was a mild spicy level and glutinous. that makes the second new food I have had here that has the consistency of goo.

Hyderabad

Had a great adventure today - went with cyanblue by AUTO (and they mostly used the meter) from ITC Kakatiya to Charminar and watched the parade of trucks with Ganesh on them. We were the only foreigners down there (maybe due to the recent bomb blasts?) and people were very excited to shake our hands and talk to us and wave at us. Lots of roads were blocked off so it took three autos to get there and I think two to get back. We saw the Mecca Masjid and it was beautiful - actually saw several mosques all looked amazing to me.People were throwing the powder they throw during Holi and also throwing flowers, beating drums and dancing. It was very exciting and I think it is amazing we made it there and back. I am so happy we went. We saw lots of tiny roads off the beaten path in order to avoid the road blocks.

Dentist

I went to a fantastic dentist today. He is so great, the superstar of dentist. I had tried to get this problem fixed twice in the US and once at RV dental college and none of those worked. He said, ok let's try a crown instead. His name is Dr. Jagdish Rohira.

http://www.drjagdishrohira.com/

His phone number is 91 80 2361 3286

This morning I had a dentist name and no phone number and both Just Dial and the internet failed to come up with the number. Then I had six other numbers for different dentists and all the numbers said "call failed" over and over again. I feel like I can't dial a phone here. One number said, please try at another time. It was very frustrating. But then I called Dr. Rohira - he could see me right away, he was very easy to talk to, I felt safe, everything was SUPER clean. And he can get my permanent crown on the one day I have between Andamans and Hyderabad. I was SO thankful. And a crown here is about US $200, and in the US a crown will run around $800 _after insurance_. He was so gentle, and you can just tell he has heaps of experience, great touch, great bedside manner. Plus chatted about other things. so relieved.

Standing in Line

Just got back from the dry cleaners. I arrived and two people were in front of me so I was standing and waiting my turn when this woman walked in and walked in front of me and another person and demanded to be taken care of next. It was so rude. The choices seem to be either get as pushy and as rude as her, or just let her go first. I stared at her and said she was rude.She said nothing.

I've been to Bangkok and Singapore and Hong Kong and in all those places people manage to stand in line and wait their turn. What is so hard about that? And yet here in Bangalore people just can't seem to do it. It is the exact same attitude that makes the traffic such a mess - she only cared about her needs and forget everyone else. I guess being rude isn't considered bad karma. It really doesn't add to the enjoyment of anyone's day, the people at the cleaners weren't too happy about it either.

I find it irritating.

SF

There are many things I really enjoy in Bangalore - lime soda sweet! parotta. roti. dosa. filter coffee. And the people are kind and generous and friendly.
But I also want to say this is an example of what I miss from SF (not putting down anyplace else only treasuring something about SF)- a little restaurant in a not very good part of town:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/05/CM0JR9O0C3.DTL
some quotes:

Choosing from the half dozen house-made sausages ($9.50/$18/$22.50) and a cheese board ($4.50-$25.50) is a good way to begin.

My favorite main course over three visits was pork shoulder braised in milk ($15.50), with its fork-tender texture and robust flavor. I also liked poached sausage ($14.50) cut into slices and about as rich as foie gras, served on a bed of lentils.

When the place is less crowded, as it is in the afternoon (the same menu is served all day), it's a great opportunity to have your own olive oil tasting. There are eight on the menu ($2.50-$3) so diners can check out examples from various regions of Italy.

Another choice is to try one of the 37 wines by the glass ($6-$13). When servers don't know about them, they're quick to offer tastes, but in most cases you can take your chances, because all of them are well chosen and versatile.


Bangalore has some wonderful restaurants - I really like Shiok, Herbs and Spice, Harima, I.talia, Karavalli. But there is something I really miss about the restaurants of SF. Like 37 different wines that can be ordered by the glass.
I wouldn't want the whole world to be the same. There are great things in every place and I think these restaurants are one of the good SF things.

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