Chrismas Day in Mumbai

Christmas eve was so nice we didn't get home until 1am due to the train ride and the sitting around talking in a bar thing...so we diecided to take it easy on Chrismas morning....I got to sleep in Woohoo till 11am.  But the day wasn't quiet for much longer.  After 3 phonecalls from Ram and several text's I thought I would finally answer his call.  We had decided to go to the movies and go to a MALL...I was kind of excited actually, because again - a mall here isn't like a mall at home - right?  Inorbit was the name of the mall and it had a theater and 3 stories.  It was actually a small mall really becuse it wasn't spread out like ours are. 

But the only people you see in the malls are the wealthy upper class.  So, in a lot of ways it is a foreign bubble of westernization because just outside is the chaos from the rickshaws, totes, beggars, and slums.  The mall was the first place I saw something "christmass-y" (besides Santa the night before).

In the mall was a KFC, Ruby Tuesdays, Pizza Hut, and a Subway. There were also other unfamiliar coffee joints, donut shops, and Thai/Chinese food places. I had Subway! YUM. Course, there is no roast beef on the menu and my Subway melt (170Rs) which normally has bacon chicken and turkey did not have bacon per say, rather what they called bacon which tasted/looked/smelled like what we call sliced honey ham.

Either way it was AWESOME to have green lettuce, mayo, tomatoes, olives, and meat I could recognize on bread that tasted normal. Really, the food here is Good and GREAT in some places. Its just that when you have NO option (like I have now) cravings for familiar things arise and Im psyched when something that is labeled Nacho cheese actually tastes like nacho cheese.

After wandering the mall for a while we decided to check what time the movie started…we were 4 hours early for the only showing that wasn’t sold out (12 midnight). The theater had 3 screens and all but the midnight shows were closed. So, we decided to head back to the ocean and sit there for a while. It was nice.

After our sitting we got hungry so ended up at this place…

I have to ask Bec what the name was but OMG was it fun and good. Its this retro joint that has Austin power / In like Flint type furniture (see my Picasa Album for further pics). We sat at a large old school telephone table and began our orders for Christmas dinner with Milkshakes! I had the Ferro Roche Milkshake and YUM was it divine – esp at the end.

We all ended up ordering the “Traditional Christmas Special” which was garlic rubbed chicken with masala gravy or something drizzled over it on a bed of pureed mashed potatoes and spinach accompanied by garlic rubbed bread. Dinner came with a free glass of wine.

After dinner we decided to order another glass of wine and then have desert. I was almost too full so Bec and I decided to split a desert.  Now, there have only been 2 other times in my life I had been this happy to have a chocolate desert put in front of me – to the point where I actually couldn’t eat any more. I can always pack away the chocolate, but this Avalanche (200Rs) the best $ Ive ever spent.

It had chocolate cake as a base, topped with chocolate ice cream, chocolate moose covered in a hard chocolate shell, with chocolate brownie chunks and chocolate truffles as well as a tall sculpture of chocolate/white chocolate drizzled with chocolate syrup.  This that I am holding is the JR Avalanche ...there is a larger one....Next time Im not going to share!

Christmas Eve in Bombay

If you read the last post, you will note I said never give out your phone number.  Well, by the time I got to the airport in Delhi after leaving Sunil, I had not learned my lesson.  The domestic airport was small where you take busses to the airplane and everyone flying out waits in one of 3 terminals..So, not very big.  In the airport I broke down with my first opportunity to have Real western/american food. I used to be this STAUNCH person who insisted on NOT eating in an American food establishment because I wanted to try something else.  Well, even McDonalds is different.  Remember this is a country where no beef is eaten.  So, what do they serve at McDonalds???  Chicken!  There is like 8 different chicken meals, as well as Lamb and fish.  And that's it.  So, in the airport my choices were a coffee stand with strange looking sandwhiches or McDonalds....I went for the McChicken meal....which again was different.  The chicken was flavored Masala.  Not just your plane breaded chicken...While waiting for my fries I again struck up a conversation with a guy who was waiting for his as well.  This guy (Ram) was an NRI from Australia (NRI = Non resident Indian).  He was from Canburra.  Again, seemed like a nice guy, just out of university in marketing and here for a month break traveling around.  He was also going to Bombay and was alone.  He was willing to meet up and chill with me and Bec - so I said SURE - here's my number!  E-Gads!  If I had only known!

Actually Ram wasn't bad, he was just increadiably lonely or very desperate for friendship because he litterally called/texted me at least 4 times a day for the 3 days he was in Bombay at the same time I was.  We did eventually meet up on Chrismas day and you will see a photo of him when you read that blog... 

Chrismas day we went to the Ocean!

and then to the Gateway of India.  This was the archway that the last british soldiers marched though when they finally vaccated and relinquished rule over India.

This just so happens to be right next to the Taj Hotel.  This is where the 11/26 (as Americans would say) or 26/11 (As everyone else says) attacks happened.  This was the shootings happened the day after thanksgiving in 2008.  This is where we decided to have Christmas Eve dinner.  YUM, but WOHA was it expensive.  This is a posh hotel to stay at and it is SWARMING with tourists. 

This is me looking posh as I sit in the fancy hotel

This is what I had for dinner.  What is it you ask??  Good question.  It was Steak Rissoto.  Steak you raise your eyebrow as you should and as I did...and asked, "What kind of steak is it?"  The reply given was "You know, Indian Steak"....MMMMBoy was it good....really, it was good.  I think it was Buffalo.  You can see the dish beyond mine is Salmon over Rissoto and thats what Andrew and Bec ate.

Buffalo:

This was the place where I also got to see an Indian Santa and Albino Elf...