Date Night & BBQ

On Friday, we headed to Mount Kisco for dinner at Cafe of Love. We had been there once before had a good time. I made a reservation early afternoon as we were once turned away on a Friday night. I really enjoyed the complimentary bread bar, especially the bean dip. I also like dining at a restaurant that openly supports the local farmers and tries to educate the customers about the food in season. It was noteworthy moment when, the mom seated at the table next to ours, was reading the posted list of available fruits and vegetables to her elementary schools kids. I ordered a small plate of ravioli and Nelson had the stake. The service was fast and despite the mixed reviews I read on chowhound, we had a positive experience.

For dessert we had frozen yoghurt from YoGoBerry, a place which we had just discovered. The concept was similar to pink berry except that it was self serve. We could mix any amount of flavors and toppings and pay by the weight. I didn't like the other flavors we tried(strawberry, cappuccino) as much as I liked the original and as Nelson noticed the yoghurt wasn't too frozen as it melted within mins. Mount Kisco has a nice downtown and this was a perfect spring day to walk about. But I wish there was a place to sit and have some coffee or dessert after a nice meal. In the end we headed to Borders.


On Sunday we headed to Liz & Keith's home in Woodbridge CT for a much awaited get together. We were celebrating Keith's doctorate and meeting up with Nelson's high school friends after a long while. We had a fantastic evening with great food & conversation. We need to do this more often!

Singapore & KL tour

On new year's day this year we left on a 5 day/4 night tour of Singapore & KL. We flew from Colombo to Singapore on a red eye flight. We had a great tour guide who picked us from the airport and brought us to our hotel near the Little India area. Very early in the morning we walked around the Mustafa Shopping Center,a 24-hr shopping mall selling a variety of merchandise. We had breakfast at one of the many of roadside cheap eateries with Indian flavored foods. The rest of the day was spent on the famed Orchard Road. The lightening and x-mas decor were amazing at night. This was an ultimate hub for retail with large number designer stores and shopping malls in a densely packed area. even in very crowded areas, the city lived up to it's theme of being "safe, green & clean." We did some shopping followed by a very expensive Chinese meal that included Peking duck prepared at the table side.

Next morning we had a city tour with our tour guide driving us to various points of interests such as the colonial buildings, the new opera houses, Sinagapore Flyer, merlion statues and Buddhist temple.This was a multi cultural city just like Colombo but eons ahead in terms of urban planning.In the evening we headed to Sentosa Island, an island resort with a Universal theme park. We enjoyed the sea lion show and many marine life exhibits at the Underwater World, had a glorious view of the surrounding seaports on the sky tower, did the luge and sky ride and watched the laser show "Songs of the Sea" After a good night's sleep we headed to KL on a 5 hr bus ride next morning.


The ride to KL was very peaceful and we arrived in KL during major rush hour. The crowded streets with trash on the sides were a stark contrast to the orderly streets of Singapore.BB plaza & Sungei Wang located near the Times Square area. The number of shops selling knock off designer items was surprising no matter how much I expected it. The scale of it surpassed every china town I had been to in the US. Our bargaining skills were pretty bad so we didn't end up doing too much shopping.

Next morning we set off to visit Genting Highlands. Along the way, we stopped at a pewter factory and passed by a Hindu temple and saw the largest Vishnu statue I've ever seen. One of the distinct features of Genting was the cable car ride to and from the highlands. The resort was large with an indoor and outdoor theme park, lots of shopping, casinos and hotels. The rides wouldn't be too impressive for anyone experienced with American theme parks but the location gave it a unique flavor. My foot spa treatment with live fish was a memorable experience. In the evening we walked to the Petronas towers which were truly spectacular. Though the towers were closed we had dinner at Suria KLCC, an upscale mall with real designer stores. One of the highlights of this trip was the Nasi Goreng I enjoyed on several occasions. We didn't have much time or the energy to explore the city of KL as much as I would have liked to. We were exhausted and partially ill from all the travelling the past few weeks. But I'm even more resolved to tarvel to this part of the world sooner rather than later.

Home in Sri Lanka

Our long awaited trip to Sri Lanka was during our x-mas break last year. Even though it was months ago, I wanted to document our trip on this blog and remember all the places we visited. The food at all the hotels and restaurants was amazing. I wonder when we will get a chance to go back again.

Kandy: This is was our only stop in the hill country. We stayed at Earl’s Regency Hotel and visited The Sacred Temple of the Tooth Relic and drove about Kandy town.


Dambulla: It was amidst a lot of rain that we drove from Kandy to Dambulla. Our first night was spent at Amaya Lake hotel. The second night was at Kandalama. We visited the Golden Temple and the Rock Temple during our stay.


Pinnawala Elephant’s Orphanage : On our way back from Dambulla, we stopped at Pinnawala right on time to see the elephants being taken to the river for their bath. We also saw the feeding of baby elephants by their caretakers.

The Blue Water : We spent x-mas at Blue Water resort in Wadduwa. We got a chance to experience the magnificent beaches and the Indian ocean.

Down south To Katharagama: We drove along the coast from Colombo with stops at Deundara and staying over night at Tissa. We attended the night pooja at the Katharagama temple and headed out on a safari at Yala next morning.
Peacocks, elephants, buffaloes, deer, fox and crocodiles were some noteworthy sightings. On the way back we drove through Uda Walawe and saw the elephants by the fence of the National Park.

Colombo: Though we were travelling about for most of our trip we had a little time to drive around Colombo, go shopping and spend time with friends. I miss my city!

Around NY & CT

The weekend started rather late on Saturday as I slept in. It was late afternoon as we headed to check out the Portugal Day in Ossining downtown. Though much smaller than the Ossining village fair last weekend, we were surprised by the fact that a Portuguese community that warranted its own festival actually existed in our town.
I had my favorite Portuguese food, grilled sardines while Nelson ordered a "bifana" (a sandwich with pork cutlet). There were a couple of jewelry stalls and I bought a new pair of earrings for $4!

Then we headed to Spring Valley theaters for the evening show of Ravaan. Though it didn't garner as much viewer appreciation as Rajneeti, I still wanted to see this Mani Ratnam epic on the big screen.
I enjoyed the cinematography and the brilliant acting by Aishwarya & Vikram. I found Abhishek quite entertaining even though he has been criticized by critics. I didn't enjoy the music as much as I have with other Mani Ratnam/AR Rahaman collaborations. On our way back we picked up the last big piece of furniture for our living room from Best Buy in Palisades and grabbed a quick dinner at Lefteris in Tarrytown just before the kitchen shut down.

On Sunday we met my in-laws for lunch at Lisboa restaurant in Waterbury, CT, a midway point between our two homes.
We had a great Portuguese meal that included caramel pudding, one of my all time favorite desserts. After lunch, we headed to Ives farm in Cheshire hoping to pick some strawberries. Unfortunately we were a couple of weeks too late even though it is technically still the season. So we headed to the Cheshire mall for our fall back family activity!

Ravaan poster courtesy of: log.ivinay.com/post/528118781/raava-movie-poster

Bollywood Rules

I was so excited have to Adity over for the weekend. We met on the first day of orientation at MHC and have been friends ever since. Bollywood news and movies tend to dominate a significant portion of our conversations so it was truly fitting that we saw Rajneeti, the first big hit of the year together. Before heading to Spring Valley for the movie we dropped by the Ossining town fair downtown. I had been waiting for this since last year especially for the kettle corn. For dinner we got takeout from Ambadi's. The food was really good and gave us enough energy to stay up till 4am watching old Bollywood hits.
On Sunday we had a quick brunch at The Patio Restaurant at Briarcliff. There were good brunch and lunch offerings at very reasonable prices. Then we had some gelato at the Ossining Pizzaria before dropping off Adity at the train station. This gelato which is s homemade has even been written about in the westchester section of the NYT. I expect to be visiting this place more often this summer even if it is to just take a look at the luscious mounds of ice cream in beautiful pastel colors!

In the evening we attended a birthday party at my co-workers house for his two year old daughter. Isn't she one of the cutest kids you've ever seen?


Rajneeti picture courtesy of http://letzindia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/rajneeti.jpg

Meetup in the City

On Friday evening I headed to the city for a long awaited meetup with some of my best friends. We met at Ali Baba, a turkish restaurant in Murray Hill. It had a great selection of mostly meat dishes and we all settled different versions of lamb. It was busy as expected on Friday night, but was a good place for us to sit and chat. After dinner we walked around the corner to LaSalle on 3rd Ave for dessert. Out of the many ice cream and sorbet selections, the pretty pink watermelon sorbet caught our eye. It was really, really good! I'm still craving it!!!It was really great to have a mini reunion before Manjari's wedding.

Season's Sushi Buffet

On Sunday we had brunch at Season's Japanese Bistro. It was all you can eat for $14.99. There were several appetizers and sushi rolls available. The food was great and we were completely full by the time we left!