Fettuccine with Coriander Pesto & Dinner Economics

I was searching for a topic to write about this weekend, really seriously. I went along with the family to the new Oberoi Mall at Goregaon East, and regretted the same midway in the mad traffic. Anyway, we went, got impressed with the amazing mall design, did not do any shopping, and returned after an hour of window-shopping. The crowd was massive (Saturday evening), and well-heeled to be shopping in such a highly branded mall - even more sophisticated than the Inorbit Mall at Malad. We promised to ourselves that we would return for some real serious shopping on a weekday evening (I don’t think I can make it though), combined with dinner when the Food Court eventually opens.

On the way back, we debated the wisdom of going to the famed Inorbit Mall Food Court or just go home. Two things weighed in favour of going home ! One is again the maddening crowd at the Food Court after 8 PM, and that too, on a Saturday evening. The other is the listlessness you get once you have been in traffic for nearly an hour - as the crow flies, the Oberoi Mall is just about 4 Kms from my home, but it took exactly 55 minutes at 6:10 PM to reach the Mall, we only reached after 7 PM ! Amazing, isn’t it ? That’s Mumbai, for most of you who are all back at home in Singapore, or elsewhere (even Delhi, or Chennai). It does take will power to stay on Mumbai roads and not discuss distances or the poor condition of the roads. I am now an expert in averting my eyes off the road (ofcourse I am not driving) !

Well, we got back home eventually, and my wife decided to make Pasta for dinner. It took only about 30 minutes, but we had some great pasta - Fettuccine with Green Coriander Pesto. No cheese this time, but it was absolutely delicious. She also made some red pasta - with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto + Fettuccine ! Again, delicious. However, I liked the Green Pesto sauce the most. This is not the first time, ofcourse, but everytime it is a great meal. And, just look at the economic dynamics. It costs just about Rs 590 to make pasta for 2 adults + 2 kids, with cheese it would come to about Rs 740 only. The same quality of pasta is difficult to get at places like Little Italy, or Inorbit Mall Food Court. And, even if one were to get the same quality for argument sake, the cost would be atleast twice !

So, it was a wonderful dinner, and with some good wine it was even better than what it used to be. Just an amazing and simple dinner. It was really fulfilling !

The economics in India for such stuff, while appealing, does not do well in comparison with developed countries. A bottle of Green Coriander Pesto of 190 Grams from Sacla Italia costs Rs 240 at store shelves in Mumbai, while similar stuff costs only SGD 6 in Singapore (appx Rs 170), the Indian price being 41% more than Singapore price ! The Fettuccine Pasta from Baronia of 500 Grams weight costs Rs 145 in Mumbai store shelves, while the cost in Singapore for similar stuff would be around Rs 114 or thereabouts - 27% more than Singapore price. Ofcourse, the prices at Walmart or Sam’s Club would be lower than the Singapore prices ! Cheese is very expensive in India, my estimate is that cheese costs atleast 60% more in Mumbai than it does in Singapore for comparable quality. Well, another interesting fact about shopping in India for imported stuff like these is the expiry dates of the products - please watch out carefully. Oftentimes, you would find that expiry dates are not more than 3 to 6 months from the “Imported Date”, the manufacturing date is not specified anywhere on the “extra” label that the importers affix on the packing.

Nothing much can be done about such things, except to make the pasta and enjoy it without undue worries. It’s the best you can get anywhere !

Have a wonderful weekend,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
17th May 2008
Mumbai

Mall Mania

There are too many malls coming up even in a land-scarce place like Mumbai. While one is happy to note the quality of construction, the interior design, the aesthetics, et al of these malls, which are comparable with the West, or the East, one tends to wonder whether these malls would be able to run profitably.

While a section of the population, youngsters earning good salaries, and well-to-do parents, do find the mall culture convenient to spend time and shop, the majority of the population can only do window-shopping. The prices of goods and food at the food court are higher than what you would get outside, but that is what you have to shell out for the ambience, I guess. And, international brands are setting up their own exclusive shops all around - one wonders how they would break even. While there is preference for global brands, I believe it is at the very high end only. Even if one does want to show off, it would be a one-time investment on a handbag or perfume, which would roughly cost twice as much as Indian brands.

Amongst all the malls coming up, and the tenant strategy, I am most impressed with Pantaloons. These stores belong to the Future Group, and they seem to have taken a decision to promote only Indian or House Brands. I find some of their house brands pretty good and well priced compared to the international ones. The others, who are also doing well, are Shoppers’ Stop and Lifestyle. I have seen these stores improve their layouts over the past two years, and introduce new products and variants constantly - Shoppers Stop, for example, provides seamless access to CrossRoads, the book shop. And, traffic flows from one to the other.

The best time to avoid the crowds is to go early - say 12 noon on a weekend. The crowd size would be roughly 25% of the usual evening crowds, and one need not wait endlessly to get a seat at the food court. Also, shopping can be done leisurely, with the right level of attention from the attendants that a shopper deserves - sometimes, more than necessary. The moment you approach something like a tie-rack, a guy magically appears near you, trying to offer some unwanted advice. But, these are still early days for retailing in India. I am sure the attendants would go through appropriate training to decipher the real shoppers, the window-gazers, and the ones who are knowledgeable.

Coming back to the impressive mall styles, here are some pics from Mega Mall in Goregaon suburb of Mumbai (the suburbian malls seem to be better designed than the city malls) :

DSC08420.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Mega Mall - a view

DSC08419.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Another view

DSC08426.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Food Court

DSC08428.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The inevitable Mac

Improving designs and interiors in every new mall coming up - The Oberoi Mall, which just opened looks even more expansive and state-of-the-art.

Have a great weekend,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
3rd May 2008
Mumbai

Indus Cabernet Shiraz 2006

Today is Christmas Day, and I decided to open a brand new bottle of a Cabernet Shiraz hitherto unknown to me. I bought the Indus Cabernet Shiraz along with the Chenin Blanc at the Hyper City near my home, and both turned out to be winners.

I am surprised with the quality of the Nashik wines coming out of late. These are wines as good as one can get at the middle segment of Australian wine market. That India has been able to achieve this kind of quality in less than a decade compares very favourably with the Hunter Valley wines which date atleast a century back, and probably have taken a far larger national effort to achieve fame.

Indus Wines website can be located at “Indus Wines” (their website seems to be down as I write this, hopefully should come around soon).

The Cabernet Shiraz from Indus Wines is a deep crimson red in colour and displays rich, spicy fruit aromas - I found this claim to be true, though I could not get the aroma of “wild red berries”. This wine is soft and pleasant on the palate, with an excellent finish. I savoured it with some wonderful blue cheese, followed by tandoori chicken. It was delicious, and I would strongly recommend this wine to amateurish connoisseurs of red wine like me.

The pricing is Rs 450, which works out to USD 11 or SGD 16, which I thought is a good deal. Luckily, Indus Wines did not make the mistake of overpricing which would have forever relegated this good wine to the back of the retail shelves. The tripping point for local wines is somewhere around Rs 500, though people do pay atleast twice for the Australian and Chilean wines also available now in India pretty easily. However, there was no wine tasting offered, and I strongly believe this is a mistake. I have never heard of Indus Wines. The top of the mind recall has always been a Grovers’ or a Sula. Since there is no advertising, the good wines need to be recommended or tasted in suitable environment with suggestions coming from a qualified wine taster - I know that would be hard to come by, but no point in getting a recommendation from a retail salesperson who hardly knows anything about wine at all.

Anyway this is a good wine worth investing in. Enjoy !

Merry Christmas Folks,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
25 December 2007
Mumbai

Indus Chenin Blanc 2006

I was shopping around for some wine, and was happy to find that full-fledged wine shops have opened at both the Hyper City and Spencers’ Shopping at Inorbit Mall.

I picked up the new Indus Vineyards’ Chenin Blanc 2006 (”Igatpuri Climbs”) made in collaboration with John Worontschak of U.K. One never knows these wines, you just take a chance - all of these coming from Nashik are “New Age” wines. Ofcourse everyone knows the Sula Chenin Blanc, but I was looking for an alternative.

The Indus Chenin Blanc was excellent. It sure gets a rating of 8 out of 10 in “Vijay’s Wine Ratings !”. This wine is slightly better than the Sula Chenin Blanc 2006 for which I would give a rating of 7 out of 10. The aroma of the Indus wine was slightly better on the nose, with a complex sweetness better than that of the Sula wine.

When chilled to 12 degrees Celsius, the Indus Chenin Blanc was an excellent accompaniment to kebabs. I don’t know what collaboration they did, but I would recommend this wine hands down for an evening - say, Sunday evening - with a nice platter of kebabs and some cheddar cheese. Great find at Rs 350, approximately USD 9 / SGD 13 ! It would be almost impossible to find a Sauvignon Blanc anywhere else at this price for this quality. It appears that India, is slowly but surely, arriving at the World Wine Map. Wine Connoisseurs, take note !

The only challenge is that it would take a long time for this wine to find its way to restaurant tables, where the Sula wines rule the roost atleast in Mumbai. The only alternatives would be very expensive Italian wines on which you are paying the Indian Government 100% of the original price as taxes.

I would suggest you try this one out soon, all the best !

Let me add that the design of the bottle packaging also clearly measures up to world standards !! Something that the competitors, both Indian and Foreign, need to bother about - I took a bet and it worked out for me given the absence of wine tasting which would have surely helped drive more purchases of such wines from doubting thomases !!!

Have a Wonderful Week ahead, folks !

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
23 December 2007
Mumbai

Milan Mall Experience

I am not talking about Milan in Italy here.

The family decided to go for a bit of shopping at a new mall in suburban Mumbai - the spanking new Milan Mall close to the Milan Subway crossing at Santacruz - West. I was not sure actually whether it was West or East of the railway line, as the driver crossed the subway, and before that did some loop arounds. Anyway, this mall was located on a very busy and narrow road which ought to have been a one-way street. We somehow managed to reach the mall entrance after quite a bit of manoeuvering. I was surprised to note that the mall had underground parking.

It was a nice and cute mall, compact and not over-crowded. Compared to the Inorbit mall at Malad, the Milan Mall was something like not even one-sixth the size. They have a nice Pantaloon shop where I shopped for some “Bare” essentials. New shops were getting opened all around including the American Dollar Shop……

There was not much of a choice for food though. The only place was the Bombay Blue multi-cuisine restaurant. We went in and ordered some food. The quality was not bad - we had Chicken Biriyani, Pizza and Kebabs. Overall it was a decent experience with very good ambience. However, when we finished and wanted to settle the bill, there was no power in the mall ! The restaurant was not able to process the credit card even though power came back in about a minute or so. They said that the “machine” was not working anyway, power or no power.

I did not have cash, and my wife just had gone up to the “Big Bazaar” on the top floor to buy something. I asked the guy at the restaurant how come he did not inform about this while ordering food. What about people who run around cashless, depending entirely on a debit or credit card ? He smiled and appeared to be embarrassed, and obviously had no answer of any sort.

Luckily, my wife had some extra cash and we managed to get out. But I cut the tip amount to 50% of what I usually give to the waiters. The infrastructural hassles are well known, but these are not even managed or communicated to customers appropriately. What a pity ! When are these folks going to learn to be customer-savvy and operationally ready for any kind of exigencies ?

Overall anyway I am recommending a visit to this mall, though I would suggest you get out before lunch or dining hours. There are many more options in Santacruz, Khar and Bandra anyway for a fabulous lunch or dinner. The key thing about this mall is the freshness of the place and total lack of crowds - they haven’t discovered this mall yet !

Have a nice weekend folks !

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
12 May 2007
Mumbai

Croma Retail

Today I visited Croma Retail Electronics Store at Malad, a newly opened electronics and consumer durables supermart, not far from where I live. Take a look at the website of the store at “Croma Retail”

It was indeed a pleasurable shopping experience, similar or better than what one would encounter in Singapore. A large shopping area with ample space to move around and lots of displays was a very pleasant change from the usually crowded shopping prevalent in India.

I was surprised to find even a Skype VOIP Phone of CISCO ! The latest products were available. a 2 GB memory stick was going for Rs 999 (less than USD 23). Many types of computer and audio/video electronics accessories were available. A home theatre demo room has been set up with advanced amplifiers and speakers. It really felt good that such things are now becoming commonplace in India.

I found many, many shoppers ! And, they seemed to be buying !! So, what I thought was a hyped-up economic growth scenario is for real. Indians are consuming and not window shopping any longer. I was aware of this even when I lived in Singapore till last year, as newspapers used to report that Indians from India were one of the top three tourist spenders in Singapore. But, now this is happening in India itself, where almost all products seem to be available. I even found Lacie mobile hard disks ! Alas, no Mac peripherals or software yet, as the market is tiny still.

Consumer durables such as refrigerators and washing machines were also on display. I even saw home security systems. Demos were going on……

I just bought a few DVDs and CDs and left. But I intend to go back soon and check out more stuff. One good thing is that the attendants were helpful and knowledgeable. They were also well dressed in uniforms ! The only issue was that the security people were all over the place, constantly keeping a watch on the shoppers though each and every item was electronically tagged. This was unnecessary, as it gave a poor feeling when the security guard follows you as you move from one aisle to the next. There is just no need for the same.

Overall, I strongly recommend that you make a visit soon.

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
10 March 2007
Mumbai