Lots of food options in BKC these days

- by Deepa Krishnan

I wrote earlier about how the food scene in BKC is changing, with more options coming up. Recently I went to The Capital, and was happy to see a very smart-looking Theobroma there. A nice option for a weekday breakfast. Or a quick stop with friends over the weekend.

They have a soup and salad offering on all weekdays; which is popular with people working in BKC. There's a Lunch Box for Rs 250, which is also delivered to offices. And of course, there's all the usual stuff - breads, lavash, muffins, tarts etc. I took home their olive tapenade, which was good.

The dining scene in BKC is improving day by day. Lots of new options have come up in The Capital itself. The Good Wife and Cafe Sabrosa are around 5-6 months old; both are stylish places where the 'finance types' from BKC hang out in the evenings. This photo below is from The Good Wife: a typical BKC weeknight, people relaxing over drinks after the working day.

The Capital building also has a Starbucks, which is good if you want a place with wifi. But the most exciting thing in The Capital, for those who love Chinese food, is Wok in the Box. After a successful innings at Carter Road, they opened their second outlet at The Capital in Sep 2014. They let you pick and choose ingredients, sauces and the type of noodles (or white rice) that you want. It is stir fried immediately and handed over.

Wok in the Box even offers a Jain version of its sweet and sour sauce. It's on the 3rd floor of The Capital, so they have to shut at 6:00 p.m. But it's a great option for lunch, they make deliveries to all the offices in BKC. If you go at lunch, you'll have wait times. But if you go a little earlier or a little late, then you'll have a smooth experience.

Speaking of food deliveries, there's also Box8 near the Trident BKC. It has Indian food, which works better for me at lunch time than Chinese. I must confess that anything and everything in plastic dabbas tends to put me off, but if I don't take food from home, I'd rather order this no-fuss delivery than anything else.

Masala Library at the Citibank building in BKC (the official name of this building is First International Finance Centre) is still going strong. For the past couple of years, Masala Library has been showing Mumbai what stylish, innovative Indian cuisine is all about. It's super tasty too, not just some poncy stuff that you wonder why you put in your mouth. The staff is well-trained, and enjoys presenting and explaining the food. Which is a big asset.

The same Citibank building also has a Smokehouse Deli, and a Pizza Express and another Starbucks. I've always liked Smokehouse Deli. The Pizza Express is pretty decent, always has a couple of free tables, so I go there when I don't feel like hanging around waiting for tables.

There are lots of other places also in BKC that I should write about, especially Tiffin Box, and lots more takeaways, including some more in The Capital. But maybe another time! Off to work now.

The Beer Can at BKC

- By Deepa Krishnan

London may have the Gherkin, but Mumbai has the Beer Can :) Or maybe it's a Wine Barrel? Check out the photo below and decide:

In case you didn't already know, this is the ONGC Green Building being built in Bandra Kurla Complex. I have been watching this building come up, little by little, for the last 2 years (I can see it from my 14th floor balcony in Sion). I even talked about this building in my interview for Mint.

Finally last week I went to BKC and clicked a close-up photo; then I decided to read up about the building. Apparently, the Beer Can is designed to be "Green, Energy-efficient and Intelligent". This is a CDM Project - meaning that the energy conservation measures in this project will help ONGC generate Certified Emission Reduction units which may be traded in emissions trading schemes. This kind of project needs to be independently audited. A Japanese company called JACO CDM did the audit, and I managed to get the audit report copy. The original project plan filed with United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) is also online.

ONGC has several other similar projects in India. 

ONGC Green Building, Dehradun, Hafeez Contractor

There's another one coming up in Kolkata:

ONGC Green Building, Kolkata, Hafeez Contractor

The one in Dehradun was completed last year, although I have not seen any real-life photos except this one. Construction on Kolkata has begun.

The Mumbai Double Decker Bus

- By Deepa Krishnan

Recently I was walking in Churchgate when I saw a beautiful red double-decker go by.

I have so many fond memories of these buses! As children, we loved to ride the top section, especially the two front seats with views. We would clamber up the stairs as fast as we could, hoping to beat everyone else to the prized seats. 

I looked up the history of the double-decker, and found some interesting tidbits. Did you know that the earliest "double decker" buses actually pre-date the combustion engine? They were horse-drawn, with open decks on top :) To access the top deck, you had to use a ladder.  In fact, horse-drawn buses continued in rural areas of the UK until 1932.

Photo source: http://www.doubledecker-bus.com/history/

Motorised double-decker buses came to India in 1937, but not to Mumbai. It was in Trivandrum that they first appeared, because His Highness Sri Chitira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the ruler of Travancore decided to modernize the Travancore State Department of Transport.

He appointed a Superintendent, Mr. E G Salter, who used to work for the London Passenger Transport Board. Engines and chassis were imported; and the bodies built locally under Mr. Salter's supervision. Within a year, there were 34 buses ready.

A grand inauguration was organised. His Highness and the royal family were the first passengers on the inaugural bus service in Trivandrum. Mr. Salter, the Superintendent, drove the bus himself! What a fun spectacle it must have been, buses trundling along with the rajah in the lead!

In 1938, motorised double-decker buses started plying in Mumbai (by the way, BEST claims it is 1937, and the Kerala State Transport insists that Mumbai got its buses only in 1938).  I cannot find photos of these buses, but I think they probably looked like the STL buses built by AEC in the UK. They were first introduced in 1932 in London, and became hugely popular. They were the standard bus in London for nearly a decade. So it stands to reason that Mr. Salter used this bus as the basis for his Indian fleet.

Photo source: http://www.doubledecker-bus.com/models/

By 1947, there were 242 double-decker buses on Bombay roads, and they were considered a good way to deal with the city's growing population. I gotta ask my mom if she remembers these; and whether they had front-boarding or rear-boarding.

In 1954, another popular double-decker bus appeared in London, the Routemaster. It used two types of engines, either an AEC engine or a Leyland engine. It took the double-decker world by storm, and became an instant hit. A variant of the Routemaster began to be manufactured in India by Ashok Leyland with 50% of the components sourced locally. The first Indian version of the Routemaster was called 'Titan' and it made its appearance in Mumbai in 1967.

Photo source: http://www.ashokleyland.com/history

Since then, Ashok Leyland's Titan (and its children and grandchildren) have been plying in Mumbai. There have been model upgrades and improvements over the last 75 years. But their numbers have been decreasing. Today there are only 121 such buses in the city, and they are operated only along long-distance routes (they are economically unviable on shorter routes). Older buses have been relegated to the scrapheap, and dismantled for the metal.

Meanwhile, the original Routemasters were discontinued in London in 1968, and now only a few continue on some heritage routes. I wonder if the Bombay double-decker also will be discontinued soon :( Currently, the BEST is offering a rental scheme, where you can hire an open-deck double-decker for private use.

MTDC runs an open-top bus tour on the weekends in the evenings. It is called Nilambari, and the bus is painted blue (can't say I like the colour). I haven't tried the tour, but it looks like a great alternative to scrapping the buses. I hope that MTDC beefs up this tour with more publicity and creates a permanent place for the double-decker in Mumbai's future.

Speaking of the future, the man who has already created a unique permanent place in Mumbai for the double-decker is artist Sudarshan Shetty. Amidst the steel and glass structure of the Maker Maxity office complex in BKC, Shetty has installed a Flying Bus; a double decker with glittering metallic wings. The bus is the venue for different art installations; in effect, it is an art gallery.

I loved the bus the minute I set my eyes on it. It is simply gorgeous, isn't it? To me Sudarshan Shetty's Flying Bus represents the hidden potential of the everyday objects we take for granted. Go take a look at it if you are ever in BKC. 

Eating out at BKC

- by Deepa Krishnan

After many years of being a totally boring office complex, BKC is slowly becoming a nice place to dine out.  I am referring of course, to Yauatcha and Otto Infinito, both of which have added some zing to the area in the past year or so.

For me, the nicest thing about dining at these two places (they are in the same building) is that there are wide roads leading up to the restaurant. You can actually pull up at a decent-looking open driveway, see some open spaces, and feel the breeze in your hair as you walk up to the restaurant. 

Path leading up to Yauatcha and Otto Infinito

There is lots of space for parking nearby. Unlike South Mumbai's restaurants, you don't have to go through ridiculous manouevres to reverse, turn, slide and somehow squeeze the car into tiny spaces. Or worry about whether or not there is valet parking. Otto Infinito even offers open air dining minus the crazy din of car horns.

Outdoor seating at Otto Infinito

The restaurants themselves are large, with lots of seating, and views through wall-length glass windows.

There's a yellow theme going on at Otto Infinito

And a blue one at Yauatcha

The food at Yauatcha is tasty and attractively presented, but I cannot figure out why the portions are stingy (our fried rice was a small portion stuck at the bottom of a mostly empty bowl). There were 3 of us, and after 3 soups, 3 starters, the main course and lots of tea, we were still feeling like hungry little Hobbits.

Main course - rice, noodles, chicken. 

Maybe it was because the food didn't flow smoothly to the table in a nicely orchestrated sequence. The service was outstandingly bad, with long periods of being ignored by waiters, orders written wrongly, and multiple waiters totally clueless about what was happening at our table. In fact, it was so amateur that I wondered if some rookie training session was going on. But even with the snafus, Yauatcha is a nice place to catch up with friends for Sunday brunch. There are big tables where a large group can be comfortably seated, the food tastes good, and there's a casual buzz. You can do some people-watching as well! 

With Otto Infinito, we had some hits and misses with the food. Some stuff was very good, and some was mediocre, but the service was superlative and made up for everything. The outdoor tables are really attractive, and right now in Mumbai's short-lived winter, I'd say it makes for a perfect evening out with wine and a Mediterranean salad. 

Apart from these two stand-alone restaurants, BKC has some other casual dining options as well: 

California Pizza Kitchen, BKC

Le Pain Quotidien, BKC

California Pizza Kitchen, Pizza Hut, Le Pain Quotidien - and maybe a couple of more places that I don't know - offer casually trendy places to catch up with friends. Of these LPQ is more boutique, if cafes can be called boutique! There are also expensive restaurants at the Trident and the Sofitel. The only inexpensive thing I have seen so far in BKC is a "canteen" at the Family Court. I'm hoping more  places will open up soon, making BKC a great dining option in the city.