E-commerce Goliath Amazon.com today preened that its customers purchased enough copies of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to create a stack taller than Mt. Everest.
As we’ve said time and again, if people had even a modicum of sense they wouldn’t stuff their innards with meat.
Only animals gorge on animals.
Alas, bereft as most humans are of the elusive elixir of wisdom, they devour everything that comes their way.
Born as we were into an Indian community that abhorred meat, we took the carnivore road only in our late teens.
Now in the evening of our life wisdom is belatedly dawning on us. We’re starting to eschew meat and contentedly graze on vegetarian items during most outings.
In that meat-free spirit, we visited Singapore Vegetarian restaurant on Race St (at 10th St) in Philadelphia the other day.
Entrance of Singapore Vegetarian on Race St, Philadelphia
Plus, ever since we had Singapore Noodles at Tangra Masala on Grand Ave in Elmhurst, NY we have been scouting for a place nearby to try it again.
The other day as we were desultorily driving through Chinatown in Philadelphia, our eyes fell on Singapore Vegetarian restaurant on Race Street (between 11th St and 10th St).
We quickly checked the menu on our iPhone 4 and were delighted to see Singapore Noodles listed.
After a 15-minute struggle to find a parking spot nearby, we marched into Singapore Vegetarian.
When we entered the restaurant around 1:30 pm, the place wore a forlorn look.
With her head resolutely down, a young Asian waitress was chopping Broccoli crowns in a corner and the restaurant put out a slightly musty unwelcome odor.
But since when have Indians been put off by a bad smell. 
We were also puzzled at the empty tables and wondered if we’d made a mistake.
But being the adventurous sort willing to try anything most things in life, we settled our derriere at a table.
A wise decision, folks.
For much of what we savored at Singapore Vegetarian restaurant turned out to be delicious fare. And a welcome change from the Indian greasy spoons.
As a bonus, the tasty food at Singapore Vegetarian is accompanied by an element rare at most Indian restaurants in Philly/NJ/NYC – Professional and friendly service.
A lot of Indian restaurant staff give the cold shoulder to desi diners but display a shameless eagerness to deep-throat Whites.
But we encountered no such step-motherly treatment at Singapore Vegetarian.
Au contraire, the service couldn’t be better.
Crisp, Hot Beginning
As we plonked ourselves at a table, the young Broccoli chopping waitress filled our water glasses and got us a bowl of Crisp Noodles with Red Chilli Sauce, Mustard and Duck Sauce and a kettle of piping hot black tea.
Hot Tea at Singapore Vegetarian
True to their name, the Crisp Noodles were crispy in texture and tasty too. Red Chilli sauce and Mustard added a sexy hot allure to the Crisp Noodles.
By the way, for some reason this appetizer reminded us of the South Indian savory Muruku.
Crisp Noodles with Mustard & Duck Sauce
Lunch Specials
Singapore Vegetarian restaurant offers lunch specials Monday-Saturday for $7.50.
Lunch specials include a choice of soup, Jasmine Rice, steamed Dumpling, crisp Samosa, Veggie Spring Roll and the choice of an entree.
While nibbling on crisp Noodles and sipping hot black tea, we placed our order of Singapore Rice Noodles ($6.95), Vegetable Tempura ($7.50), Vegetarian Delight($7.50) with Tofu for main course and Coconut Milkshake ($3.00) for cold drinks.
For soups, we picked Miso and mock Shark Fin soups.
Our Miso and ‘Shark Fin’ soups came within six minutes followed by Vegetable Tempura, Vegetable Delight with Tofu, Singapore Rice Noodles and Coconut Milk Shake.
Singapore Vegetarian Soups
With a slightly thick texture, the Soy sauce colored ‘Shark Fin’ soup included Tofu and Gluten.
No complaints folks.
The Shark Fin soup was hot (temperature-wise) and quickly dispatched by yours ‘famished’ truly.
Hot ‘Shark Fin’ Soup with Gluten & Tofu
Miso Soup was a thin watery affair with tofu, lettuce and grated carrot.
It came piping hot to the table and we had no issues with it.
Hot Miso Soup with Lettuce & Tofu
Singapore Vegetarian Appetizers
Veggie Spring roll with a filling of cabbage was crisp and hot.
Malaysian Crisp Samosa a.k.a Curry Dumpling was also crisp with Potato Curry filling inside. The shape of the Curry Dumpling reminded us of the Kajjikayalu we used to eat back home in India during festivals.
Steamed Dumpling looked similar to Kadubu prepared during Ganesh Festival in South India. The leek stuffing inside the steamed dumplings was tasty and we relished the appetizer thoroughly by repeatedly dipping it in the red chilly sauce.
Vegetable Delight with Tofu
Vegetable Delight with Tofu was a delightful adventure for our taste buds. Continue reading »
Dec 282011
* My understanding of women goes only as far as the pleasures – Michael Caine in Alfie (1966)
* They don’t yell, tell or swell, and they’re grateful as hell. – Paul Sorvino on flings with married women in That Championship Season (1983)
* Women are strange little beasts. You can treat them like dogs, you can beat them until your arm aches – and they still love you. Of course, it’s an absurd illusion that they have souls. – George Sanders in The Moon and Sixpence (1942)
* Don’t you know that we dames have got to be something more to the guy than a school girl sweetheart? We’ve got to be a wife – a real wife – a mother too and a pal. And a nursemaid. – Paulete Goddard in The Women (1939)
* All women are wonders because they reduce all men to the obvious. – Ken Niles in Out of the Past (1947)
* A woman doesn’t think. She gets stirred up….Now you know all about women. – William Powell in Life with Father (1947)
And now for SI’s favorite movie quote on women:
* They all start out as Juliets and wind up as Lady Macbeths. – William Holden in The Country Girl (1954)
Boy, Holden certainly got the distaff sex right.
Source: We’ll Always Have Paris – The Definitive Guide to Great Lines from the Movies by Robert A.Nowlan & Gwendolyn W.Nowlan
Trisha and Sex are like Laurel and Hardy, Tintin and Snowy, Abhishek and Flops, Goundamani and Senthil, so tightly coupled that one without the other is inconceivable.
Oh no, we’re not talking of that Trisha!
Trisha is a must if you lust for endless fun all night long without endless questions later.
Oh no, we’re not talking of that Trisha!
Trisha in your mouth and, hey, there’s no end to the fun.
Oh no, we’re not talking of that Trisha! Continue reading »
Tamil movie fans the world over are waiting with bated breath.
The big question today for millions of Tamil film buffs is what technique Vikram will choose to end it all after his public shaming.
Will it be a long rope, a .32 caliber revolver, a sharp knife, a straight dive into the Cooum, an ‘encounter,’ a crucification, a walk into the deep sea or, like Cleopatra, will Vikram put an asp to his body?
Vikram’s Shame
Tamil movie fans have collectively extended their middle finger to Vikram’s latest crapshow Rajapattai at the UK box office.
Folks, the disgustingly bad Rajapattai is a disaster of epic proportions at the box office in the opening weekend.
Even that podi paiyya (kid) Karthik’s Paiyya did better at the UK box office.
Rajapattai, which released on 16 screens, could manage a pitifully low total gross of just £17,528.
Average gross per screen for Rajapattai worked out to a miserably low £1,096.
By the way, Vikram’s previous movie Deiva Thirumagal, whose plot was stolen from the Hollywood film I am Sam, too did not fare well at the box office.
This suggests that Vikram’s star is waning and he’s no longer a safe bet for producers, distributors, exhibitors and, of course, Tamil movie fans.
Here’s how badly Rajapattai fared at the UK box office compared to a few prominent Kollywood films:
Related Stories:
Rajapattai Review – Height of Insanity
Folks, Don 2′s four-day Christmas weekend box office report is out.
Don 2 has grossed less than My Name is Khan at the box office.
The U.S. Box Office, that is.
Don 2 released in 158 theaters and grossed an estimated $2.02 million during the four-day Christmas weekend.
Average gross of Don 2 is $12,804.
Check the below table to see for yourself how Don 2 has fared compared to some prominent Bollywood movies:
Related Stories:
Don 2 Review – Ishtylish but Hollow
Don 2 Box Office – Less than MNIK
By Naveen
Anyone who followed Indian movies in the late 70’s could not have escaped the “Don”.
Amitabh Bachchan played Don in the original that was promptly copied as Billa starring Rajinikanth in the Tamil version.
Such was the impact of Amitabh’s Don that it was re-made a few years ago with Shah Rukh Khan which prompted Kollywood to remake Billa with the remarkably talentless Ajith Kumar.
With Don 2, Farhan Akhtar gives us for the first time in over three decades a new plot for Don. It only took 30+ years to come up with a new story but knowing Bollywood / Kollywood that should hardly be a surprise.
Just to make up for the three decades, Farhan tosses in a gimmick in the form of 3D.
Farhan Akhtar takes credit for Story, Screenplay, co-Production and Direction for Don 2.
Shah Rukh Khan reprises the title role. Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, and Om Puri reprise their roles from Don 1.
Story & Screenplay
It is surprising how an average mindless heist movie by Hollywood standards can almost seem like a thrilling never-seen-before outing by Indian standards.
Don 2 combines Hollywoodish style with Bollywoodian “brain.”
The result is a stylish and rich visual experience (if you can pretend Priyanka Chopra didn’t exist) with a not so gratifying depth in story-telling.
Don 2 doesn’t offer any “Bingo” or “Gotcha” moments for the regular Hollywood movie buffs but it isn’t bad by the abject standards of Indian movies.
Don 2 starts a few years after Don 1 ended. If you didn’t watch Don 1 then you must be told that it ended differently than the original i.e. the Amitabh version of the Don movie.
Don 1 ends with Don (SRK) giving the Interpol, Malaysian and Indian cops the slip leaving his beau(??) Roma (Priyanka Chopra) high and dry. No pun intended
In the years between Don 1 and 2, Don has become the top kingpin drug supplier all over Asia and spreading his footprint into Europe. This frustrates the European drug lords and they plan to kill Don.
Of course, Don escapes!
Meanwhile, Roma, who wanted to avenge her brother’s death in part 1 by killing Don, is now a high ranking Interpol officer with a male assistant who has the hots for her. I wonder how she got that job… hmmm
While the audience pray the Priyanka away, she is hell bent on finding Don. Mr. Malik (Om Puri) suddenly decides to retire after 37 years in duty and asks Roma to walk him to his car.
As they step out of the elevator, they find Don waiting for them.
Don deliberately surrenders and is sent to prison with a death sentence.
All this is part of Don’s elaborate scheme to meet Vardhan (Boman Irani) in the prison, win back his trust and plan a grand heist.
Don and Vardhan stage a prison break and escape to Switzerland where they meet Don-lady Ayesha (Lara Dutta). Don hatches a plan to steal the Euro currency printing plates from a German Bank. He uses a tape that only Vardhan has access to. This tape has the German bank’s Senior official Diwan (Aly Khan) spilling some secrets to blackmail Diwan.
After moving from Thailand to Malaysia to Switzerland, the story finally settles down in Berlin, Germany.
Don forms a team for the big heist.
Besides Vardhan and Ayesha, the team includes Sameer (Kunal Kapoor), a hacker naturally! Isn’t it a norm now for all heist movies to have a superb hacker? It reminded me of Premji in Mankatha who digitally secures Nav-taal pootu. 
.
Also joining force with this team is one Jabbar (don’t recall his real name) and his gang. They originally hunt Don on behalf of Diwan but change sides for money.
Does this team successfully steal the plates? Can they trust each other? What does the Interpol / German Police do?
These questions get answered in the cat and mouse game that ensues.
Want to know the answers? Go and watch the movie.
The questions in my mind were a little different. Can Priyanka act? Will the hacker Sameer zoom into Roma’s cleavage? Will Don-lady Ayesha perform a strip show to seduce Don? Will Rajinikanth’s Chitti make a special appearance in the climax? Will SRK speak one line without the wintery shiver + goat’s bleat?
Good Stuff and the Not so Good
Don 2 isn’t a bad movie by Indian standards. Continue reading »
Rajapattai BO – How Will Vikram End it All?
Tamil film star Vikram’s new movie Rajapattai is the latest infantile nonsense to emerge out of Kollywood.
Rajapattai has nothing going for it.
Zip. Zilch. Zero.
Bizarre Story
Sickles fly every three minutes, an old man in his 80s eagerly gives lessons to young men in the art of wooing girls, land is grabbed morning, evening and night, the heroine looks like she drifted out of a retard home when the security guard was AWOL on a tea break, the hero makes the Terminator look like a wimp and the arch villain has the rather incongruous name of Akka (elder sister).
We swear on Vikram that we’re not making up any of the above.
Insane as it might seem, they constitute the central elements of Rajapattai.
Truth be said, insanity is the leitmotif of the film.
Folks, the story credited to a weirdo named Seenu is insufferable.
It’s with difficulty we restrained ourselves from plucking out the few hair left on our body as the movie progressed. By the way, this bozo Seenu is also co-director (along with Suseenthiran) of this train wreck of a movie.
It’s not merely the hopelessly written story and screenplay (by Suseenthiran) that gave us grief.
The music is harsh on the ears, the acting of the heroine is hopeless, the villain Akka sports a constipated look throughout the film, the fights are comical and the overall effect at the end was sheer disbelief.
Yes, utter disbelief that movies made in 2011 can be this bad!
Not Landgrab but Moneygrab
The movie’s central theme of land-grabbing by politicians is a topical subject in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
After all, several DMK politicians have been arrested in the last few months for allegedly snatching the land of lesser humans for a pittance.
But the important subject is handled so maladroitly that it seemed to us land grab was just a fig-leaf for the film makers’ real goal of grabbing the money in the audience’s pockets.
Vikram Kennedy plays Anal Murugan, a young man struggling to make a career in films as a villain.
But the movie aspirations of Anal Murugan soon recedes into the background after he saves an old man (K.Vishwanath) from henchmen hired by his son to grab prime land on which an orphanage stands.
How Anal Murugan defeats the villain-politician Akka’s machinations, beats up scores of bad guys in fight after fight, successfully woos a pretty girl and ultimately restores the orphanage to the good guys forms the rest of this silly, amateurish exercise.
What prompted the respected Telugu director K.Vishwanath, who’s directed gems such as Sankarabharanam, Saagara Sangamam and Swathi Muthyam, to associate himself with such offal as Rajapattai is a mystery only the old man can address.
Vikram Falls So Low
There’s no question that Vikram Kennedy has turned into a mercenary and a Judas who’ll lend his name to any trashy movie for the sake of a few silver coins.
The audience and his fans be damned.
Vikram’s last movie Deiva Thirumagal was outright theft of the Hollywood film I am Sam.
Rajapattai is, of course, original. Hey, a Tamil movie this bad can only be an original.
Guys, don’t fall for the hype about all the different getups Vikram dons in the movie. The whole effect of that exercise was nothing short of ugly and silly.
Overall, Vikram leaves no positive mark on the film.
What about Deeksha Seth?
Pretty face Deeksha Seth can’t act.
The girl wouldn’t recognize acting if it whacked her on the face.
Lack of acting talent, of course, makes her an ideal candidate for a Tamil movie.
Like so many Tamil heroines (Shriya Saran, Reema Sen, Richa Gangopadhyay, Sonia Aggarwal. Jyothika, Nagma, Simran etc), Deeksha Seth too is a North Indian who’s strayed into Tamil films with the utmost confidence that moviegoers in the state will accept any trash as long as the girl has a fair complexion and is willing to show skin.
Predictably, the first appearance of Deeksha’s character in the movie is under a shower!
Music – Sheer Torture
Every song in the film starting with the first one Podi Paiyyan Polave to Paniye Panipoove and the final Laddu Laddu number during the end credits featuring (Vikram, Shriya Saran and Reema Sen) is so horrible that they beggar belief.
No one can claim that this trash is music with a straight face.
As for the picturization of the songs, they’re of a piece with the rest of this nonsense.
Poor Response to Rajapattai
At a theater on the East Coast in the U.S., there were only about 35 people.
The audience didn’t seem enthused with the movie.
During the interval, we could hear folks sneering at the movie.
Well, who can blame them!
SearchIndia.com Rating
Unless you have a desperate craving to squander your time and money on trash, stay far away from Rajapattai.
Related Stories:
Rajapattai BO – How Will Vikram End it All?
For fans of Tintin comics like yours truly, watching ace director Steven Spielberg’s animation debut The Adventures of Tintin turned out to be a rewarding experience.
There was a time in a distant era and a far off continent when we devoured Tintin comics like there was no tomorrow.
Blistering barnacles, we probably read the whole bunch over the span of a few weeks. And relished ‘em all.
So watching Tintin and his sidekicks Capt.Haddock and the smart white dog Snowy come to life on the big screen was an enjoyable moment for us this evening.
Not to forget the presence of the two bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson.
Just in case you’re the curious sort, Tintin was the creation of Belgian comic writer Georges Prosper Remi, fondly known as Hergé.
A Performance Captured 3D Tintin
Like Avatar and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Adventures of Tintin too relies on performance capture techniques of film-making.
For the uninitiated, this means real actors like Daniel Craig (Sakharine), Andy Serkis (Capt.Haddock) and Jamie Bell (Tintin) enact the scenes and their movements and actions are captured by cameras and digitally transformed into animation.
Visually-speaking, Tintin is closer to a live action film than a regular animation picture.
In some scenes, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re watching a live action film.
But The Adventures of Tintin is not in the same visual league as Avatar.
Perhaps, because lush green forests, gray suspended mountains shrouded in fog, gigantic colorful birds and bluish human-like creatures translate into better spectacles on the big screen compared to the antics of a funny-looking youngster (Tintin) and the crew aboard a ship rolling on high seas.
Still, there were some moments in Tintin that told a powerful visual story.
Like for instance, when in the middle of a sandy desert Capt.Haddock evokes the fierce 17th century fight between his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock and the villain Sakharine’s pirate forbear Red Rackham on the rolling sea we were spellbound by the rich imagery unfolding on the screen.
But the increasing use of 3D in movies is getting tiresome because it seems like no more than a ploy by movie-makers to dip their fingers deeper into your pocket. The extra ticket cost is rarely justified by the use of 3D effects.
A Treasure Chase – On Sea & Land
Tintin is a reporter who joins up with the drunken sailor Capt.Haddock and the intelligent dog snowy to divine the secret of a 17th century ship The Unicorn.
It all begins, however, when Tintin buys a small model of the Unicorn at a street corner. No sooner does Tintin acquire the small model, a mysterious buyer arrives on the scene asking him to name his price for parting with the model.
Of course, the model is a key to unlocking the secret of the original Unicorn ship that sank to the bottom of the sea following a fierce battle with pirates three centuries earlier. Continue reading »
Amid the endless sewage stream of trashy movies (both Indian and Ingleesh), it’s sometimes easy to miss the few good ones.
Recently, we had the good sense, and the blessed good fortune, to watch two nice English movies – Main Street and Page Eight on DVD (both via Netflix).
* Main Street – This well enacted 2010 film features British actor Colin Firth of King’s Speech fame as a Texan corporate executive Gus Leroy disposing off hazardous waste at one of those countless dying American towns (Durham, NC in this instance). Three decades after we first saw her in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, we got a chance to see the fine Ellen Burstyn on screen again. She plays an impoverished old woman who unknowingly rents her warehouse to store hazardous waste. The movie also features Amber Tamblyn, Orlando Bloom and Patricia Clarkson. There’s a sub-plot involving a romance between Orlando Bloom’s cop character and Amber Tamblyn’s too ambitious for the small town Mary Saunders.
Viewers who want dramatic developments in every movie or insist on neat endings will be disappointed with Main Street. But we were not because much of most people’s lives go on without any drama or fanfare. And rarely are there neat endings in life.
* Page Eight – A fine thriller involving a veteran MI5 spy who uncovers disturbing information about high-level political operatives in UK.
A top political leader had prior information about terrorist incidents in London from the Americans but does not share it with the MI5 spooks causing the death of many Britons in the attack.
Made for the BBC, this movie features a Who’s Who of talent including Bill Nighy as the spy, Rachel Weisz as his neighbor anguished over the killing of her activist brother by the Israelis and Michael Gambon as the MI5 chief.
Ralph Fiennes makes a brief appearance as the British Prime Minister.
Page Eight is proof that a spy thriller need not have guns firing every three seconds or the protagonist jumping up and down tall buildings a la Jason Bourne to delight the audience.
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