#its malayalam btw

[suriantei]

People need to stop pushing their straight agenda onto languages with curly characters 🙄

“Why are the letters so curly?” I don’t know bestie they’re about as straight as I am-

Also don’t y’all have cursive?? U guys have gay writing too!

[hobiebrownismygod]

PAVITR, i need more hcs, analysis… whatever you like tbh, i just love the way you write about Spider-Verse characters

Aww, thank you!

I love writing about Pavitr, I wish he was real so bad

I can write headcanons, but for the analysis part, I think I've gone over most of what I can think of 😭 If anyone has any ideas for scenes or anything you want me to research about him, let me know and I'll fs cook up some posts, but for now the creativity is on a down low :/.

Anyway here are some Pavitr headcanons that I absolutely adore!

Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-man India Headcanons!:

I always headcanon him as of South Indian descent

Basically, I like to think he was a small town boy from either Andrapradesh (no I'm not projecting) or Tamil Nadu

And he moved to Mumbattan after his parents died when he was young to live with his Auntie Maya and Uncle Bhim (this is canon btw)

I like to think that he speaks one of the South Indian languages, either Telugu/Tamil/Malayalam and sometimes accidentally mixes it in when he speaks Hindi

He loves going to temple with his Aunt Maya

He also loves wearing traditional wear even though most his age don't because it just makes him feel very connected to his culture

Considering the fact that he got his powers from an ancient yogi, he's probably a fairly strict Hindu

He's probably vegetarian like a lot of Hindus in India are

His favorite street food is pani puri (still not projecting) especially the traditional kind but he likes the sweeter versions as well

Loves coconuts and coconut water, hes constantly drinking it while on patrol or during missions cuz its good for you and it gives him energy healthily

hes a good cook and he makes his auntie teach him how to make different snacks so he can show off to Gayatri

He learned how to make Sarson Ka Saag, a traditional Punjabi dish (at least thats what my research says) just for Gayatri

I headcanon Gayatri as punjabi sikh cuz her dad wears a turban

Indian schools are very strict on being late and stuff

So I think Pav probably came to school late once cuz of Spider-man stuff and he got severely punished so he never came late again

Like hes always early cuz he'd rather do that than be stuck outside the school waiting for an hour or being forced to run laps as punishment

yes they do that, idk if they do it anymore but I know some schools used to do that 💀

He probably has a really nice voice, like he sings Carnatic music and practices it

This also connects with him being from South India cuz Carnatic music originated in South India <3

He watched the Indian serials with his auntie all the time

like the really long ones our grandmothers watch with the weird sound effects and zero plot

theyre like telenovelas but worse and he loves them

These are the only ones I have rn but if I think of more I'll post them lol

I love him so much 😭

[bonbonly]

i just said kerala btw i'm 🥚 anon from em's blog!

OMG HI!!!

and a malayali on my blog i am HONORED 🙏 the countless malayalam films i have seen and man im a really massive film nerd. especially when it comes to Indian films in general 😭 the mollywood industry is doing gods work but i gotta stop or wlse i will spend the next 50 hours talking about every film and its impact in the malayalam film industry

[shaharizade]

Wind (for the translation thing!). Btw, what language do you speak?

ooh wind is കാറ്റ് (pronounced kattu)

i speak malayalam!!

and for bengali, i think its বায়ু (pronounced bayu?)

[currylangs]

നിഴലായി... ഒഴുകി വരും ഞാൻ~ Spooky Malayalam Vocabulary

In the spirit of Halloween and by the request of a wonderful anon, We present to you a brief but informative post about Kerala’s spooky side. We’ll cover some basic words that’s used in english and also some words that are exclusive to Malayalam and some legends.

Scary - ഭയപ്പെടുത്തുന്നത് To scare - പേടിക്കുക or ഭയപ്പെടുത്തുക Curse - ശാപം (also can be interpreted as wrath) To Curse - ശപിക്കുക There are types of screaming ;) നിലവിളിക്കുക - screaming with tears/sadness അലറുക - shout/screaming (words involved) കാറുക - proper scream Dark/darkness - ഇരുട്ട്

Pumpkin - മത്തങ്ങ Candy - മിഠായി

Blood - രക്തം or ചോര Dead body - ശവം (this is not a kind word, its disrespectful so it used in scary situations, for animals, or when you’re purposefully being mean, ശരീരം body or മൃതദേഹം dead body is more kind) btw ശവത്തെ കുത്തരുത് is a common phrase don’t stab a/the dead body cause it’s unnecessary and cruel Skeleton - അസ്ഥികൂടം Bat - വവ്വാല്‍ Spider - എട്ടുകാലി (spoken lang) or ചിലന്തി (written) Cockroaches - പാറ്റ Owl - മൂങ്ങ

Full moon - വെളുത്തവാവ് Evil magic - ദുര്‍മന്ത്രവാദം (sanskrit-y) Black magic - കൂടോത്രം (malayalee ver) Magic - മന്ത്രവാദം Nightmare - ദുഃസ്വപ്‌നം

Cemetery/graveyard - ശവക്കോട്ട or ശിമിത്തേരി (christian influence) Spirit/soul - ആത്മാവ്‌ Ghost - ഭൂതം or പ്രേതം Devil - ചെകുത്താന്‍ or പിശാച്

You might be wondering what are some of the characters or monsters you can dress up and still be malayalee? ഏതു വേഷം ഞാൻ ഇടും?

Costume - വേഷം (more like a look or wearing a character, used in theatre/cinema) Magician/sorcerer (gender neutral) - മന്ത്രവാദി Monster/demon - രാക്ഷസന്‍ Phantom (dead but got a physical body) - വേതാളം

Blood sucking ghost or female vampire - യക്ഷി and a famous yakshi in Kerala is കള്ളിയങ്കാട്ടു നീലി Kalliyankattu Neeli our version of lady in white, there are many different versions of her story but the main point is that she was wrongfully killed so she lures/seduces men and kill them aka drinking all of their blood. >>If you’re curious about the title and also neeli<< 

Fun Fact: there is a belief in kerala that if you smell പല പൂവ് (palla flowers) at night then there is a yakshi nearby, this is because yakshies are sealed to this tree. So if this happens when you are in kerala and you spot the പല മരം (pala tree) and you also see a nail hammered into it you run, you run with your life (especially men). 

കടമറ്റത്ത്‌ കത്തനാർ Kadamattathu Kathanar is a famous/legendary Syrian Orthodox priest with “magical/divine” powers (9th century) also the church he created is the oldest preserved church in Kerala. Anyone remember the serial?

ഉണ്ണിയാർച്ച Unniyarcha, legendary (folklore) warrior princess (16th century)

കായംകുളം കൊച്ചുണ്ണി Kayamkulam Kochunni Malayalee Robinhood, who actually existed during early 1800s

**if you haven’t noticed most of the famous figures are associated with a place, like their birthplace or where they were most active**

[apriltwentythree]

do you want to know what my favorite neurotransmitter is…? Acetylcholine.

the other day I was at the local book store, and ended up browsing the sports section. i noticed this book ‘the performance cortex’ ; there was a chapter in it titled ’motor hunter’ focussing on Steph Curry. I am a Curry fangirl and can consume almost anything about him, even this silly Water filter Ad! anyways, i stood there for 20 minutes reading about his brain, and about how he does what he does on the playing court! the book in general attempts to speak about how Sports-Scouting is increasingly relying on neuroscience. and personally, i felt it may be an even better approach than the Moneyball-like Sabermetrics. (Moneyball btw, is one of my all-time favorite sports movies.)

later, i walked out with the realization that i am now officially a Neuro-junkie!

it is after being a part of the Brain-Gut-MentalHealth group project, that I started to obsess over the Vagal Nerve, for starters.

real quick, it goes like this….Cranial nerves are those that emerge directly from the brain, rather than from the spinal cord. there are 12 pairs, responsible for carrying sensory info to the brain, and motor signals to muscles and organs. Vagus nerve— sometimes referred to as Vagal nerve—is the 10th and the longest one, originating in the medulla oblongata and is named for its wandering path through the body. it is like a superhighway that handles sensing the internal environment of the body and regulating it, like lowering heart rate, constricting the bronchi of the lungs, reducing blood pressure, to name just a few. one of the easiest bio-hacks they say, in order to keep the Vagus nerve in tip-top-shape, is to take cold showers in the morning.

now, if you are a neuroscientist or neurologist or, a superior-Neuro-junkie reading this blog and say hey, some of your understanding here is not exactly right, i would just say i’m sure you’d know better! and will agree with you happily. on the other hand, if you are someone who thinks you are decently-smart but usually take your brain for granted, and cannot self-influence, ever, to read up on generic brain stuff unless you get Alzheimers some day, then this blog is decently-sufficient for your lukewarm-curiosity!

anyways, the Vagal nerve has been extensively studied; there is this dork-geek-nerd-joke that only dorks-geeks-nerds will find funny ‘what happens in Vagus doesn’t stay in Vagus but affects many aspects of emotionality and neurobiology, ha ha’!  

to say more…lets say, you are hungry, the gut sends a hormonal trigger to the brain (Ghrelin) and when you are feeling full, it sends another (Leptin). but, now they say there is a neural circuit from the gut cells—dubbed Neuropods— that have nerve endings, which can directly communicate to the brain through Vagal neural synapses. and this overturns many ideas around appetite and satiety! say, you are into serious-dieting. taking appetite suppressants may not work as they usually target the slow-acting hormonal route to the brain, which can take up minutes to hours. but, as the instant-connection Vagal neural circuit takes about 100 milliseconds or less, targeting the Vagus may work better at losing all those unhealthy, add-on pounds!

the Vagal gives legitimacy to the idea of ‘gut feeling’ as a sixth sense, and I doubt if any of the other nerves can beat the magic!

all my Vagalmania led me to Acetylcholine and, made me think about it in context with Epinephrine, the rollercoaster neurotransmitter. now, the story there is….um, independent of the Central Nervous System, the Autonomic Nervous system houses two subsystems — Sympathetic and Parasympathetic—speaking really simplified!

Sympathetic translates to “Adrinergic”. Neurotransmitters — Epinephrine, Norepinephrine— are behind your high heart rate in both super-pumped-up situations and heart-in-the-mouth situations. and on March 31st, guess it was Sympathetic pathways that totally ran the show! This system does have a say in most Akhlat Latifa feelings that knock us over, be it beauty-weed mode or fighter-jet mode. Parasympathetic translates to “Cholinergic”. Neurotransmitter — Acetylcholine— slows down your heart rate and makes you stay in calm, comfortable situations. It’s Parasympathetic pathways that make you want to socializie and say hello. like today May 10th, which also happens to be my mother’s birthday. somewhere I read, it’s the myelinated Vagus B-fibers emerging from the Nucleus Ambiguus inside the Medulla O, that takes care of all the cholinergic responsibilities.

anyways, reading up on the lovely Acetylcholine made me think about the month of April which was like a hangover-recharge month for me, with my Parasympathetic totally working up the scene. Lot of peace, lot of beauty. Zero rollercoaster rides, zero adrenaline rushes. Thank you vagal B-fibers.

but, guess I also slightly miss my adrenergic lifestyle of the past one year, with all the nonstop-gaming, and what not….

the whole world must be engaged in all kinds of interesting things happening around. but while THIS socmedia-window-to-the-world stays super-inactive, I keep on staying in some kind of cozy, mental time-warp that I have taken quite a liking to. it’s always good to need less, I guess. and to feel oh-so-minimalistic.  

Anita Desai popped up inside my head the other day, and I was reminded of one of her fiction works. in the story, all her protagonists play games at twilight, and one of them goes into a time-warp of a few hours, as he stays inside a shed next to the garage, while the others keep being engaged in all kinds of interesting games happening on the lawn around the house.

aside from being a neuro-junkie, I have always been a creative-junkie. so taking cue from Desai’s writerly imagination, I felt like “playing derivative” at her work, and go inside the head of her time-warped protagonist. and to see what I can pick up from that last weekend of March, what I can pick up from what’s on there, at this socmedia-window-to-the-world!

and there’s scope for gaming...

but let me write a quick disclaimer: bcos of KL’s celebrity clout, all the lovely colors were color-gamed by all the world more so than ever, and as imagination-inventor, AK always thinks this is immensely cool and it gives her an inception-orgasm. but, since the colors were also endorsed to crazy-overkill on this socmedia-window-to-the-world  ---a lot of times in intolerance and with spite and hatred even--- AK had given away all colors sometime back in February, as part of “The Curse of Raghu”, thus making a statement of protest against the misappropriation of disability-imagination in a happily-ableist world.  AK truly remains in a BnW world.

okay then, game-time!

Reference Tweets from Mar 30th:

https://twitter.com/CarDroidusMax/status/1112035121916493826

https://twitter.com/CarDroidusMax/status/1112034751521665029

#lawpoint1 -- back in August sometime, when AK/KL had first begun sparring on SM, AK had shared this Malayalam film clip and KL had shared back this ICICI Bank Ad. in both, the color is predominantly red. it is quite implicit that it is only blue in a red-disguise; there wasn’t any doubts whatsoever back then. this fact is significant as this was the first time AK/KL had ever faced-off. so if she so wishes, AK can re-possess any color. example, the red and yellow on the KSRTC bus in the above reference photo, KSRTC bus and the green in the twitter profile Cover image, the sort-of-purple on the shirt of the guy on the road in same Cover image, and the colors on Capt. Cavey DP, even! Winner takes all.

#lawpoint2 --- there was supreme court judgment sometime in September that since Karthiyayini had 2 ‘Y’s in her name, any Y in Kerala could be used to AK’s requirement. back then, as a hat-tip to this landmark judgement, the aYYappan-sabarimala ruckus had followed. so, since we already have a precedence regarding settlement of Y disputes, all 26 alphabet can be monopolized by AK just like in the board game. to say explicitly, AK can call Monopoly on the lovely district of waYanad or kottaYam or any other place for that matter. this rule is especially valid on this socmedia-window-to-the-world as the AK/KL combat had initially also begun by involving the lovely malayalam actor parvathY thiruvothu.

In clear conclusion, about the two reference tweets from KL on Mar 30, AK would like to say -- അതേ, വളരെ ഭംഗിയുണ്ട് :)

this out-of-sync and strenuous “comeback” above is the equivalent of how in her fiction, Desai writes:  Ravi bawled, shaking his head so that big tears flew. “Raghu didn’t find me. I won, I won…”

all ക്രിയേറ്റിവ് മണ്ണാങ്കട്ട gaming aside, it’s also some Desai appreciation…her way of writing… sensitive imagery about gamer protagonists and their gaming worlds! It’s good how sensitivity is not just romantic fiction-feature anymore, at least for me! growing up, my mother used to sometimes romanticize my ‘differences’ using the word apoorvaraagam, and that was that! Most of us are like her I guess, rarely ever intuitively-acknowledging the many differences in how different people navigate the same world.

the Neuro-junkie in me thinks that Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) seems to be what Desai’s timewarp-ed protagonist is going through; temperamental personality trait involving increased sensitivity and deeper cognitive processing of social and emotional stimuli. apparently, people with a high measure of SPS make up about 15-20% of the population. they say it is the gene variants of ADRA2b and 5-HTTLPR that lead to the emotionally enhanced vividness in perception.

It’s good that making sense of these will influence how we raise our children; help make lives, more tolerant and relaxed for them!

hey KL, what is your son like? does he still prefer football to cricket despite his sub-continental genes? is he old enough to have a favorite football team? someday, will you be teaching him to hack-stalk women? :) .…. my son is right now in a freezer, probably waiting for his uterus implantation by year-end! Johan is expected to default-love soccer thanks to namesake Johan Cruyff.... let’s see how that sports inheritance goes!

p.s. In this Malayalam film scene, Nanda (Revathy) tries to humor her hard-stalker Naren (identical twin no.1 Lalettan). He somehow has all the A-Z on her, while she knows next to nothing about him and just keeps going in circles trying to figure out.....

I have always loved this song from Mayamayooram. Janakiamma singing ഇതളടർന്ന വഴിയിലൂടെ വരുമോ വസന്തം....? is easily among her best!  Also, I will never really know why Shobhana is not superstar-Shobhana; she is effortless in everything…. ഒടുക്കത്തെ പേട്രിയാർക്കി തന്നെ, അല്ലാതെന്താ?!

#CLASSYwomen

[apexart-journal]

Radha Gomaty in NYC Day 25

yeah ! of all things -a blonde! ive hardly seen a blonde head in NY actually...

Well, my ma used to joke ,actually only half joke, when she was much younger that she is going to dye her hair blonde or wear a blonde wig!

She had this penchant for reading all kinds of perfectly horrid political espionage novels and really goshawful state-of-the-art horror pulp too in English that my smart aleck, super brilliant older brother , my only sibling and her favorite offspring,shared with equal fervor.

(BTW She can read Malayalam ,Tamil,Hindi and speak Kannada as well with her natural flair to pick up languages and dialects with the admirable ease of a sponge).

I would stand gaping looking from one mouth to another like a viewer of a tennis match does as mother and son went into animated discussions of events , characters and motives in such books that I had no truck with . I came from altogether a different stock -a wild arboreal creature who skinned her heart &her knees endlessly against all well meant advice engaging with real life projects&relationships each time with the same indefatigable sense of optimism and enquiry .

In the long spells of solitude in between, I was drawing.

She created another sub story about going blonde_ with her typical dark self deprecatory merciless sarcasm ,combined with a high degree of histrionic skills "...You know i am going train to be a detective.A famous one working with the Globe detective agency .And then to look unobtrusive , I shall wear my blonde wig ,lean on a pillar or sit on the street side bench and pretend to read the morning paper while actually I am on assignment observing my target through a hole that i have cleverly punched in it ...!"

That narrative detail about my mother peering through a hole cut out of the morning newspaper with her large eyes ,wearing her blonde wig would have my brother and me rolling helplessly on the floor in splits

It was perhaps her way of expressing the much repressed travel bug in her.An insatiable curiosity about the world,its cultures ,landscapes,languages...

It didn't matter that warring alongside was her Vertigo ,bad enough for her to shut her eyes tight if she saw Spiderman by chance on the TV yelling- "Change that channel !Im giddy!"

Or her terror of water (kindly remember here that she ended up marrying my father who is a seaman!)

Or her strict adherence to vegetarianism but with great tolerance of outlook limited only by her very real physical suffering due to her acute sensitivity to smells. Her olfactory capabilities sharp as a dog's that while making her a superlatively gifted chef also affected her to the point of making her sick.

When she she was younger ,her tendencies for violent bouts of migraine also wore her out.

But that is my Amma.

From the time i was little i have borne witness to the live wire trembling with which she lived this split ,this mercilessly twisting Torque of equally intense&opposing contradictions every moment -Between her desires and her conditioning,her drives and her internalized strict self restraints.

It was always like she had more than two people in her who were constantly at war with one another . As a child , i could sense this wild impatient suffering moodiness in her around which she wore a cloak of inapproachability as she stormed her way through her chores in the kitchen with absolutely formidable multi tasking skills.

It always scared me quite a bit. Still does without fail to bear witness to suffering I am not allowed to approach or address.

I sensed it simply wasn't easy for her to be who she really was and learnt to empathise deeply and respect her for it .

When she was that young woman ,while she satisfied that hunger to travel and see the world by reading insatiably magazines like the TIME and national Geographic , the only favors her proud self deigned to accept from two of her brothers in the US, she ended up opening huge windows for my brother and me .

When she also tuned into foreign stations with an inborn instinct , even foreign language ones , they greatly contributed to my brother's and my own enrichment through the subconscious means of listening in into international languages and soundscapes while doing perfectly ordinary chores.

Today through some strange cosmic plan ,without any prior preparation or goal setting i find myself in NYC where my identity is mirrored back to me in a different light than the one I am used to being seen in back from I come.

That 'Outsider ' residing in me that also comes from and is perfectly hand in glove with a Universal Insider by which I am inhabited...One that recognizes increasingly the oneness of all life Forms with every passing moment ; A form of being that is becoming a form of seeing itself that with every passing moment is a lived affirmation of an insight that is more ancient than this little i that I am and present myself as.

There is no greater and more avid reader of the spiritual than my precious Amma has been for me . I learnt so much just watching her. I have been witness to that flowering of what is already in her , a legacy from her namesake and her pious courageous resilient paternal grandmother who took it on herself to raise her children single handedly with the early demise of her husband,teach the unlettered women of her immediate neighbourhood and initiate them into spiritual readings while she could.

My Amma retains her intellectual and researcher oriented approach while I ,as usual, remain that earnest and extremely foolish child who cannot learn it seems without repeatedly having her heart broken and knees skinned .But we appreciate one another now much better than ever before.

In a couple of hours it will be 7 pm back home. i can see my ma settle in with her plate of rice gruel in front of the TV Even today her idea of winding down after a day's home management at 77 ,is to watch a french film on the TVE channel.

This small town girl brought up cocooned in a conservative Tam Brahm household,my Mother Alamelu Ramakrishnan ,is my idea of a certain kind of unsung genius.

My Salutes to YOU ,with Blonde wig and the works!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

[anoopkam]

If you ask which are my all time favourite spots to eat, then a name you’ll definitely hear from me is Hotel Highland, in Manjalikulam Road, Thampanoor, Trivandrum… For those who are unaware, Highland hotel has been around in Trivandrum for decades and back in the golden days when Malayalam film industry used to operate entirely in Trivandrum, the hotel has been a regular shooting spot for whenever there is a scene taking place in a hotel… One example I can give is that old famous movie called “August 1” which had quite a number of hotel based scenes and most of it were done in this hotel… It has been a hub of not only film crews but also politicians, beaurocrats, you name them… 🙂

Original Hotel Highland

Hotel Highland Park

My parents have been taking me there for as long as I can remember and it is still one of our preffered spots even today… Not much has changed there over the years… The menu still remains more or less the same… The only change which was a major one in fact was that they opened up another hotel called Highland Park in the same road, opposite to it… The difference is that this new place has a vegetarian multi-cuisine restaurant as opposed to the original Highland, where you get all options i.e. City Queen and City Green restaurants respectively, I guess to distinguish between the two…

The food thats available in these restaurants is what I consider to fall under the classic food culture of Trivandrum and what I love about the places is that they have managed to stick to it even today… For this particular instance, what I am writing about is about my recent visit to the City Green restaurant at Highland Park… The menu of City Green hasn’t changed as well for decades… Hence, since this was a visit after a while, I went for my favourites from their menu… These are the Cream of Tomato Soup, Vegetable Spring Rolls, Paneer Pasand along with Naan (went for Mughlai Naan as opposed to the usual Butter Naan)… Then as takeaway, we got a couple of Bhaturas and their Chole Masala…

Cream of Tomato Soup

Veg Spring Roll

Mughlai Naan

Paneer Pasand

Bhatura

Punjabi Chole Masala

Now coming to the food… The first thing to arrive was obviously the Cream of Tomato soup… This is basically the all time classic soup which you can get in practically any multi-cuisine restaurant in India… The version here is exactly how we used to get since years ago, which is a thick tomato soup topped with cream and fried diced bread as shown in the pic…

The soup turned out to be exactly as one can expect… Great rich taste of tomato and cream along with the crispy fried pieces of bread… For those who are too young to remember, there used to be a time when restaurants in Trivandrum used to use a bit of tomato ketchup along with the tomato puree for some extra tomatoey kick to it… This place seems to still do that based on what I could make out from the taste 🙂 Also the size of the bowl is bigger than what we see in the new restaurants here and the soup is filled almost to the brim, just like the old days… A time-capsule indeed 🙂

After the soup, came the vegetable spring-roll… Spring roll is something we get every time we see it in a menu and is the absolute favourite starter for both me and my mom… Unlike the original vietnamese version, the indo chinese version is usually done by sauteing the vegetables you typically add in a fried rice or noodle dish with some ginger and garlic and some soy sauce and then wrapping it in pan cake made up of either refined wheat flour or corn flour and then fried to crisp… Its served usually with a spicy and sweet garlic based sauce… Here in this one, they used refined wheat flour pancakes, like how it has always been until the maida-police started showing up 🙂

To be frank, this particular version of the spring roll is my favourite and what I consider to be the absolute best indo-chinese style vegetarian spring roll in the world… This is because, I have had similar spring rolls from wherever I have been in the world so far and nothing comes even close to this one for me… The pancake on this one is a thick pancake unlike the wafer thin ones we find in many of the “modern” places… The pan cake contributed into the flavour profile of the spring roll, which is why the thickness helps (I mean, if you can’t taste the covering, why bother making a roll, rt?) Also, the amount of soy sauce to seasoning in the filling is simply perfect in this one, unlike in most places where I find the soy and/or other sauces that they add to be overpowering, preventing me from tasting the vegetables… The vegetables in the filling remained crunchy and so, crunchy vegetables with the crispt crusted pancake together makes it a perfect roll… Another thing is that unlike many of the places, they don’t put in any noodles as part of the stuffing… There is a noodle spring roll option in their menu, but if you ask me, the noodles really doesn’t belong in a spring roll… The dipping sauce has a lot of garlic in it and they seems to be using Szechwan pepper for the spice component of it (Taste-wise it feels like a combination of the Szechwan sauce and the Hot Garlic sauce)… So, if anybody is there who haven’t tried the spring rolls from here, then I strongly suggest you do… 🙂

Btw, in the menu of the original Highland hotel restaurant, City Queen, you will find both veg and non-veg options… However, when it comes to the veg option, I felt that the one in City Queen is not as good as the one they serve at City Green… Just my opinion… Feel free to try and reach to your own conclusions…

So, after the starter, the main course arrived… I had ordered for a Mughlai Naan and their Paneer Pasand along with it… I guess its a new addition to the menu as I don’t remember having seen it listed before… Usually I take either butter naan or roti or the kashmiri naan along with the paneer pasand…

It came as shown in the pic… Its basically your regular naan topped with some butter and a sauce made with the mughlai spices and grated paneer… They also seem to have sprinkled some chopped coriander leaves and green bell pepper (capsicum/shimla mirch) to it on top as well…  If you ask me, it felt as if they made and blended a version of the shahi paneer curry and applied on the naan 🙂 The reason I say that is because, I could taste that typical shahi gravy which is the almond-cashew-melon-seed paste made with fresh yogurt and then having some saffron infused into it as well… So, if you have had shahi paneer before, then imagine that reduced and mashed lightly into a coarse paste and then smeared on top of the naan 🙂 To be frank, I didn’t like this one, but do feel free to try for yourself… 🙂

Then along with the naan came the Paneer Pasand curry… This particular dish is by far my favourite paneer dish… I simply find it to be heavenly and again, just the spring roll, I consider this too, based on my experience to be the best version of the same in the world… I am yet to find a better option than this… If you know one, please feel free to let me know… From what I could make out, this dish is made by toasting slices of paneer with a filling made up of potatoes and dry fruits (mostly dry fruits and very very little potato – just enough to hold them together that you almost don’t taste the potatoes in it) sandwiched between them… Then they finish it in a sweet yet flavourful almond-cashew-cream sauce and serve as shown in the pic…

The sauce is quite sweet but yet has the complex flavours of the masala infused in it… I have had other versions where they use either a creamy and rich tomato and almond based sauce and I have had versions were they use fried onion paste as well… This particular version is sweeter than the others and its uses cream instead along with the nuts ground into it… The stuffing appeared to have almonds, cahews, pistachios, tutty-frutty and cherries in it and as you can see, each of these paneer sandwiches is topped with a piece of pineapple (pickled in a lite sugar syrup) and a whole cherry held in place with a toothpick 🙂 Altogether a dish so rich that its fit for the mughal emperor and ofcourse fit for any celebration… Only downside is that if you don’t like sweetness in a curry then you probably won’t be able to enjoy this, which is why I guess that the waiters do warn the customers of the sweetness when they take the order…

That was it for the meal, I mean clearly, because of the sweet curry, I didn’t feel the need to order any dessert…

Now coming to the take away, Chole-Bhature is my grandma’s favourite vegetarian thing to eat… So, if a restaurant we visit has that in the menu, then automatically we order it as take away for her… Now, ordering this one here is a bit tricky because there is no such thing as Chole-Bhature in the menu… Here, in order to have the same, we have to order the Bhature and Chole Masala seperately… This can become a problem if you are capable of eating only one bhatura because then the 500ml portion of the curry becomes too much for you… Anyways, one again, just like the spring roll, I can say that this combination of their Bhature with their Chole Masala is the best chole-bhature that I have ever had… I mean, I have had the same from Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi and I am yet to find anything thats better or even close to the version they serve here…

Regarding the Bhature, I guess because they serve it piping hot on a banana leaf and in case of take away, they wrap it in the same condition in a banana leaf, the Bhature gets infused by the flavour of the banana leaf… This coupled with the seasoning in the dough makes these Bhature enjoyable as it is, without any curry with it (especially when you do take away as thats when you get the maximum banana leaf flavour in it)… I find this to be a unique characteristic of the Bhature from City Green…

Now, coming to the chole masala… This is hands down my favourite version of the punjabi chole masala… A thick curry with perfectly cooked chickpeas in an amazing onion paste and tomato puree based gravy cooked with coriander leaves and a spice mix thats just mindblowing to taste… They serve it topped with some pieces of freshly sliced tomato, onion, a green chilly split into two and a slice of lime…

The best way to eat this in my opinion is to squeeze the lemon on top of the curry and then with a piece of the bhatura, scoop in some of the curry with some of the chickpeas and then push in around half of the tomato slice and then one or two (depending on size of the morsel you are taking) rings from the onion (optional: add a bit of the chilly) and then put the whole thing in your mouth 🙂 As I said, this is my favourite chole-bhature and I am yet to find a better version than this… Again, if anybody knows a better one, please do let me know…

Altogether, its a reaffirmation of the fact that classics are called classics for a reason… No matter how many fancy and modern places come up serving equally fancy and modern food, the classics will still continue to be enjoyable forever… This is why you see places like Highland still standing strong serving the same timeless classics… 🙂  🙂

Hotel Highland – City Green : Veg Classic If you ask which are my all time favourite spots to eat, then a name you'll definitely hear from me is Hotel Highland, in Manjalikulam Road, Thampanoor, Trivandrum...