The Weekend

was lovely. Along with my friend Archana, I tagged along for the Broadway version of 'Fiddler On The Roof'. As all the reviews say, Harvey Fierstein gives a beguiling performance as the old milkman. He exudes a cheery warmth that makes you like him from his first monolgoue. We almost missed the monolgue due to our "Indian Standard Time' arrivals and my pathetic sense of direction, though!

After the show, we wandered around for a bit near Times Square, and then pushed off toward this Korean vegan restaurant called HanGawi. All reviews list this as one of New York's best vegan restaurants, our expectations were pretty high. Thankfully, we weren't let down. The ambience was terrific, and the food was yummy. We ordered some green tea as well as citron-paste tea, and some appetizers - a pancake platter and veg-dumplings, to be precise. The pancakes were dosa-like, but I'd have loved some chutney to go with it :). For the main course, I ordered 'Vermicilli Gengis Khan' !! It turned out to be pretty good, before you laugh at me. It was sweet and spicy all at once, with a distinct flavor of tamarind. Archana ordered 'Vegetable Stone Bowl Rice', which turned out to be fried rice with yucky cheera/keerai (lettuce) in it - I hate lettuce, but she said it was good. Altogether, a pleasant experience.

I got back home at around 11:00 PM after all this, and then went for the 12:30 AM show of 'Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire'. I have to say this - the new Dumbledore sucks. He has no semblance of the dignified Dumbledore that J.K.Rowling has created. Hermoine is oh-so-beautiful, and Ron has really grown! The movie was pretty neat, and a must-watch for all HP-fans. However, as the Rediff review says here, its not all that pleasant an experience for non-muggles (my roommate Amit was an unfortunate martyr !!).

After a whirlwind Saturday, Sunday should have been relaxing. Not the case, though. We discovered a new restaurant - a Mallu one, called Chola Samrat. They had a lunch buffet, priced at around $7.00, which included the most scrumptious fish-curry with kodam-puli and the typical Mallu fare. Plan to return !!!!

Got back, cleaned the house and threw away truckloads of stuff. I really don't understand how a single house can have so much junk in it. We found dusty underwear, dozens of mismatched socks, medicines that expired in 2003 and enough cockroach eggs to survive a nuclear explosion! what beats me is, everytime we set out to clean (which is usually around once in 2 months, admittedly), we find the same quantity of stuff ! Anyway, the house is clean once again!