One Night in Istanbul

It seems that sometimes, you have ordinary evenings out, and then you have special evenings out. Last Friday night was one for the record books, my friends!

Our friends Neharika and Mayank were headed to India for a few weeks, and we wanted to give them a nice sendoff. Meenakshi suggested Cafe Istanbul in Decatur, and when I checked out the web site, I was instantly on board with the place -- something exotic and different, it definitely sounded like fun. Hearing no other suggestions, eight of us opted for this one-night trip to Turkey.


What a splendid idea this was! Cafe Istanbul is a cozy, dark, popular little cafe which is (I can only suppose) the closest we can get to being in Turkey while still paying Atlanta taxes. One side of the restaurant has table seating, the other is dedicated to traditional floor seating. We opted for the table side.

Karen and I were the first to arrive, and we could not believe how many people were packed into the place! We had reservations for 10 for 8:30, and we were finally seated around 9:00. Soon, our party had arrived, and within minutes, our waiter appeared. I initially had some trouble distinguishing red from white wines, even though they were clearly labeled as such on the menu! Shortly after we ordered, an animated belly sashayed to the table and collected handsome tips (for the first of several times) from us all. Swaying to the Eurasian music and clicking her finger cymbals in time, she set the tone for the feast ahead. Our friend Swan, seated at the table with us, recognized the dancer from her own belly dancing lessons. So already, we were part of the family at this place.


The food was superb, the wine was nice, and afterwards, Meenakshi and Neharika took to the floor dancing to Panjabi MC's pop bhangra hit "Mundian to Bach Ke" (click here to hear an excerpt). By this time, the party was in full swing. As the evening progressed, we all enjoyed some delightful berry-flavored hookah and shared stories and laughter until almost midnight, when we all simultaneously began to drift into a pleasant sort of haze. Sensing that it was indeed time to go home, we reluctantly left Cafe Istanbul, vowing that there would most definitely be a return trip.

Like I said, some evenings are just special. Bon voyage, Neha and Mayank! We will miss you, but we'll see you soon!

Welcome to the Bollyhood!

We coined a new name for our little district of Macy's the other day: The Bollyhood.

The whole Bollywood thing started back in April with an earlier post (see "Bollywood Fever") and has continued like a train running full steam down the track. What a great ride it is! Along with some very helpful tips from our Indian friends, we have begun to fully explore this highly entertaining genre of movies, and for that matter, the whole of modern Indian culture.

On Diwali, November 9, a group of our friends all dressed in the more traditional style (see picture above). Later that evening, a crew of about 17 of us went out to dinner at Phoenix Noodle Cafe and then to the Galaxy Peachtree Funplex 8 to see Saawariya, the first Hollywood-produced "Bollywood" movie. Although the consensus among many of us was that the movie was somewhat slow, we enjoyed each other's company immensely and decided to follow up with a more animated movie in short order.

Now, we have movie posters in the office, Bollywood music emanating from first one cube then another, tasty snacks appearing from time to time, music and videos being shared, and a general sense of the world having become much smaller. This led to a spontaneous suggestion last week that our area should be labeled with a sign reading "Welcome to the Bollyhood!" So be it!

Happy Diwali!

Last night, I attended my first ever Diwali festival, and it was such a fine time! Diwali is a holiday celebrated by many members of the Indian community worldwide. It is commonly termed the "Festival of Lights" -- celebrations are marked by lights and lamps which celebrate the victory of good over evil.

This year, the suburban community of Duluth, Georgia (popularized recently as home of the "runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks) sponsored its first Diwali outdoor festival in its town center. There were hundreds of people in attendance, and we were treated to wonderful finger foods, classical and modern dances, and vendor booths full of fascinating gifts, clothing, and decorative articles for the home.

I was particularly captivated by a booth chock-full of Indian movies, videos, and CD's, many of which I've recently become more familiar with as a result of my Bollywood fascination. I purchased copies of Lagaan, Devdas, and a video performance by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani master of qawwali singing.

There was a definite chill in the air, and my tasty dinner of hot chicken samosas, chicken 65, and hot tea made for a pleasant and memorable evening. Families, couples, young and old all joined together to create a true community experience -- it reminded me of fairs which I had attended as a child, only this time with a totally different and distinctly international flavor.

Coupled with seeing the new Hollywood/Bollywood movie Saawariya on Friday night with a group of friends from all over the world, I feel that I've made a virtual trip to India this past weekend. What fun! I'll be back at the Diwali Festival next year, and perhaps I'll see you there!

Che macello! (What a mess!)

My ears are still ringing, and I don't even hear that well.

Tonight, my daughter and I headed out to a popular Italian restaurant in our neighborhood. It's one of those places where you can always get a nice hand-tossed pizza or a tasty plate of piping hot ziti. It's a predictable little cafe, nothing fancy, just good food prepared well. And it's also popular with families. Sometimes, TOO popular.

A few minutes after we were seated this evening, I noticed that two or three children were playing around the video games in a back room of the restaurant, adjacent to the restrooms. Ordinarily, this would not have attracted my attention, but tonight, the natives seemed particularly restless. Within minutes, several of these munchkins were jockeying for position at the video games and attacking with ferocity a large candy dispenser, which was loaded with colorful, perfect-for-choking sized balls of gum. Mind you, the parents were sitting not twenty feet away, enjoying their beer and wine while the children ignored their food and ran around the restaurant. I'm guessing that they must have been on their second or third drinks by this time.

As the situation escalated, several of us in the immediate area became nervous when a group of the kids barricaded a couple of the others in the ladies' room. The trapped victims began to kick the bathroom door, and after a few minutes, a waiter walked over to the kids and asked them to stop. By this time, a sense of general pandemonium had ensued, except around another table, where a lady sat with her two boys, both of whom were extremely well-behaved in the midst of it all.

There were a few moments of relative quiet, and then it began in earnest. Two of the crazy kids (there were six in total) had come from a far table at the other end of the restaurant, but four were from the table next to ours. They all began to shove each other, and at one point, a girl of about seven years of age from the next table kicked a little boy, who had fallen to the ground, in the back. By this time, our fellow diners were visibly perturbed. Two of us said something to the waiter, who again approached the kids and reprimanded them.

Finally, after all this, the totally oblivious "mother" at the table next to ours, home of the four hellions, said to the waiter, and I quote, "Oh...are they causing trouble back there?" It was all we could do not to burst out laughing. These couples had been sitting there the entire time, while their ill-mannered children not only spoiled all our dinners, but in effect, put themselves in danger of being seriously injured. To see parents so unaware of the situation at hand was downright sad.

I can only imagine what the home dinner table must be like for these children: a veritable running track surrounding the table, bruises and other injuries sustained while trying to down a slice of cold pizza, and parents literally living outside it all. And I say I can only imagine, because our own children were always interested in the food when we went to a restaurant...they would never dream of disturbing the other diners, because they knew that such behavior would at the very least nix the next "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" or "Barney" episode.

I know it's a novel concept, but children will behave given just the slightest bit of guidance.

And, as Forrest Gump was so fond of saying, "That's all I have to say about that."

Straight Flush

We recently embarked on a medium-scale bathroom remodeling project in our house, precipitated (good choice of words, as you'll see) by an air conditioning leak in our attic. It's a long story, but we'll just leave it at that. Anyway, we took this as an opportunity to update our powder room and upstairs bathroom, and I can honestly say...well, I hope I can say...that we are almost finished. We let the pros do the tile work, and we took on most all the plumbing tasks ourselves.

What has struck me in this endeavor is the seemingly endless array of new bathroom fixtures of all types. We opted for a granite countertop/undermount sink with travertine marble in the upstairs bath, and a vessel sink/waterfall faucet combination with travertine floor in the powder room. I never thought that technology could have made such inroads in what up until a few years ago was a truly functional area of the house, but it certainly has, and I believe it's for the better.

In the process, I have also learned a lot about plumbing. I now know and can spot at fifty yards a P-trap, a flexible supply line (steel is best), or even a compression fitting. Before, I was always scared of plumbing -- a mistake in a plumbing job can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, and electricity, by comparison, seems so simple. I mean, if you put in a two-way switch where a three-way switch is supposed to go, you'll know immediately that you've made a mistake, since the switch will sizzle like water in hot oil as soon as you turn it on. That's what I like about electricity -- the all-or-nothing factor. Never mind that you can shock yourself into the next century.

Plumbing, on the other hand, is a bit more insidious. We all must at some point have experienced that "drip, drip, drip" in the night, lying awake and wondering which part of the house will collapse, leaving us like stranded rafters in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat. But I have learned that plumbing, like anything else for which exorbitant service fees are charged, is a process which takes patience and a certain level of courage. The courage part is very important here. My new friend Willie at Lowe's gave me some great advice at one point, and that helped get me over the hump. Willie told me, "It's gonna work...I promise!", and I believed him. Turns out he actually was right. But again, it took a little intestinal fortitude.

So verily I say unto you, if you are the adventurous type, fix your own toilet next time. Replace that drain. Upgrade those nasty old faucets. But just remember, should the situation run amok (and it very well may), a good plumber is just a phone call and several hundred dollars away. We did have to call a plumber for a couple of the early tasks, and both times, he zipped right in, joked with us the whole time, and made prompt repairs. You know, Robert was a really fun guy. Oh, and he also told us that his condo in San Diego is almost paid off. That pretty much says it all.

Ciao!