Restaurant Review - Cafe Silan, Menlo Park, CA

Cafe Silan is in downtown Menlo Park, at 867 Santa Cruz Ave, Menlo Park, CA.

This is a small, Kurdish restaurant, with some pretty tasty dishes. My favorites:

- The appetizer - flat bread with dip. The dip is delicious!
- Some pizza with keema or ghosht on it. Very simple, and very good. To completely change the flavor, try it with the spicy sauce on the tables
- Salad with kebabs. The kebabs were good, but the salad was excellent!

Silan is on my once-a-quarter restaurant list now

Crossing 95K Visits

I just crossed the 95K visits mark on my blogs, on Friday:

• The serious blog - all about Tech, Startups, Revenue
• The all-purpose, main blog
• Blog on cars - one of my passions
• Blog about Travel topics, including not just destinations, but also food, wine, etc.
• The older, retired Autos blog

Looking forward to 100K.

And on a smaller scale, my profile on blogger has now been viewed over 1,400 times.

Crossed 80,000 Visits On My Blogs

Early in February, I crossed the 80K visits mark on my blogs.  Nice. 

My blogs are:

• The serious blog - all about Tech, Startups, Revenue
• The all-purpose, main blog
• Blog on cars - one of my passions
• Blog about Travel topics, including not just destinations, but also food, wine, etc.
• The older, retired Autos blog

And on a smaller scale, my profile on blogger has now been viewed over 1,000 times. 

Batonnage - New Wine Consulting/ Blog/ Site

What is Batonnage?  It is the wine making operation of mixing up the lees (dead yeast cells from fermentation) in the barrel with the wine to release the mannoproteins, improving the flavor, mouthfeel, and stability of the wine.

Did that impress you?  How do I know this?  A close friend,  has fired up a site http://www.batonnagewine.com/

If you're looking to host a wine event in the bay area, check out this site, or just email info@batonnagewine.com  and ask them your wine questions. 

In particular, check out the blog for helpful and timely tips.  My favorite for 2009 - Batonnage's take on the best value wines

Carlton Hotel Mussoorie In Winter

A couple more photos of the beautiful Carlton's Plaisance Hotel in Mussoorie, India. 

The photos are from the very large front lawn, facing the hotel.  There is a lovely hill with a temple behind the hotel.  Kids love running up that mountain.

Restaurant Review - Himawari, San Mateo

Himawari in San Mateo in the bay area (California) is one of my favorite restaurants, specially when its getting close to 9 pm (it doesn't close early, except on Sundays).

Himawari is a Japanese restaurant.  They have sushi, of course.  But their specialty is ramen, udons, and that kind of stuff.

My favorites are the Shio Buttercorn Ramen, and the Tan Tan Men.  Having grown up on Indian food, I prefer a bit more taste, a bit more saltiness in my food, and Himawari delivers.

Favorite side dish - the sesame spinach.  (Although I think all their appetizers are great)

It is located at 202 2nd Ave., San Mateo, CA

Mussoorie Hotel, Carlton's Plaisance

Some more photos of the Carlton's Plaisance hotel in Mussoorie in India.  (Previous photographs are here).

These photos are in winter.  Mussoorie is absolutely beautiful then!

This is the front lawn, which has swings, and a canopied area to sit under (when the weather is good, of course)

Restaurant Review - Zao Noodle Bar

Zao Noodle Bar, University Avenue, Palo Alto, California. 

A couple of my friends really like Zao -they say its tasty, healthy, convenient, and decently stylish.  And now for something completely different....

When you order take-out (or take back left-overs), you get one of the great bits of Zao - their plastic bags.  These are tough, resilient, stylish.  They're much better for carrying things than the bags you'd get at Safeway.  You can use them for quite a while, too - they have longevity, I kid you not.

And finally, they're great for odor containment.  I carry an extra Zao's plastic bag in my car at all times.  That way, whenever I get takeout from any restaurant, I can always put it in the Zao's bag, and make sure the car doesn't smell.  

Mussoorie, Carlton's Plaisance Hotel Photos

My folks run a bed-and-breakfast in Mussoorie, called Carlton's Plaisance Hotel, up in the Himalayas in India.  It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. 

Here are some photos of Plaisance in winter.

This is the yard on one side.  There is a table-tennis table, and a half-basketball court here.

This is Bugsie, the playful St. Bernard

Page Rank Increase For My Blog

My non-serious cover-all blog,  Capoeirista,  just got a Page Rank bump of +1 ..... its now got a PR=2. 

Ah well, slow and steady, I guess.

My Blogs Crossed 70,000 Visits

And now for another milestone.  My blogs have garnered 70,000 visits so far. 

Don't I look happy?   :)

A New High

This Monday, November 24, my blogs hit a  new milestone - 1,240 visits.  Woohoo! 

Normally, between them, my blogs get around 500 visits/day, so this is a nice new rise.

This occasion calls for a random photo - how about one from Kosmix' 2007 holiday party.  Nagraj and Sailesh are flanking me.

New Milestone For My Blogs - 50,000 Visits

On Tuesday this week, my blogs passed 50,000 visits.  Sweet! 

The blogs, of course, are:

• The serious blog - all about Tech, Startups, Revenue
• The all-purpose, main blog
• Blog on cars - one of my passions
• Blog about Travel topics, including not just destinations, but also food, wine, etc.
• The older, retired Autos blog

And on a smaller scale, my profile on blogger has now been viewed 550 times. 

From Jodi's Blog - My Top 5 Tuna Steak Destinations

Jodi Olson, Kosmix's new head of Public Relations, likes to interview folks for their top 5 lists for her blog.  This week, she put up my list - and quite an arbitrary one it is!  I am very flattered.   Her blog is here, and I have also reproduced the post below. 

Vikram Singh's Top Five List of Cities to Eat Great Tuna Steak

Blogger and tuna steak connoisseur Vikram Singh is the author of Information Overload.
1. Poughkeepsie, New York: The Hilton in Poughkeepsie has a restaurant that serves really, really good Ahi tuna steaks. They pan-sear it, and the crust on the outside is made with seeds or something that’s just amazing. The portions are small—you’ll probably have to order two. I recommend following the meal with the house bread pudding. It goes really well with the tuna for some reason.
2. Boulder, Colorado: You can get great Ahi tuna steaks in Boulder. Order it rare there. Most places have really good wasabi- based sauces to go with the steak, and they don’t muck about with vegetables. St. Jillian’s Hotel in Boulder has a particularly good tuna steak—both for a starter and a main dish.
3. Chicago, Illinois: Ruth's Chris steakhouse in Chicago has the best Ahi tuna steaks compared to any other Ruth's Chris. I wouldn’t use any sauce because their fish has a lot of taste on its own, and they don’t make a good wasabi sauce.
4. Mountain View, CA: The Cantankerous Fish on Castro Street. This is the only salad entry in this whole selection. Their Ahi salad is really good, and they have a really good miso sauce with it. Here’s what you do: ask for two extra helpings of the miso sauce, so that you have three in total, and then ask for two separate helpings of the wasabi cream sauce, so you can try the steak two different ways. The dish comes with a lot of vegetables. Very tasty.
5. New York, New York: Most places in New York city that are mid- to upscale have really good Ahi. They cut it too thin and too small to be considered a steak—it’s more like slices of fish. Because of that, you have more surfaces exposed for taste, which makes up for the smaller portion size. I especially like the Ahi in Anthony Bourdain’s restaurants.

Virgin America - 2 Quibbles

Ok, so I do like Virgin America.  A lot.  Based on only 4 flights so far (between San Francisco SFO and New York JFK, and San Francisco SFO and Las Vegas' McCarran Airport - LAS)

But I have a couple of minor issues.  First of all, they've started charging $2 for headsets.  With all the great programming (and not to mention the original Doom video game!), this is idiotic.  Just add $2 to your tickets, and stop asking for handouts!   Some people will use their own earphones, some will read a book or do something else... and some, like me, will get just a little pissed off.

Second - no free food.  Pay for your food.  I guess I shouldn't even expect this any more, even on 6 hour flights.  But it does irk me just a little bit.... I expect more from Virgin America.

Flying with Virgin America's CFO

This morning, while on my nth flight this year back from New York, I found out I was sitting next to Bob Dana, Virgin America's CFO! 

What's quite interesting is that we were sitting in the economy class.  Granted I feel Virgin America's economy class is better than almost all other US airlines, this was still quite funny.  Turns out Virgin has their executives travel on economy.  They do get one perk - the exit row.  (apparently they fly business/ first when they are on Virgin Atlantic, which is good). 

I am impressed.  This was a 6 hour flight, and the CFO was sitting in the aisle seat in economy, typing on his laptop, with his Bose headset on his head in between friendly stops by the airline stewards and stewardesses.  And Bob's an ex investment banker.... so he is probably used to the good things in life.

Go Virgin!

Here's Bob in a presentation outlining Virgin America, including their mission statement.

Finally, some Page Rank for my Tech blog!

My Tech/ Startups related blog finally has some Page Rank.  It is at PR = 2 right now.  That should help me show up higher in Google searches.

New York Trip

I had a few meetings last week in New York, so decided to stay the weekend.  I'm not normally a star-watcher, but I am an Entourage fan - so it was fun meeting Jeremy Piven.

Ended up also seeing William H Macy, Felicity Huffman and Tim Robbins.  Who needs LA?

982 Visits on Wednesday!

Wow, my main blog got 982 visits yesterday!  The 1K barrier is close, I can feel it!  I'm racing towards it!

And Now For Some PAGE RANK!

Ah, it took its own sweet time getting here, but four of my blogs now have some Page Rank. 

The older Autos blog is the leader, with Page Rank = 3

The younger Autos blog and my Travel blog have Page Rank = 2 each

And my main, all-purpose blog has a Page Rank = 1

Still waiting for the baby of the group, the Technology/ Startups blog, to get some love from Google.