Loo - Academy wins big on this one. Absolutely wonderful, clean toilets came as a major surprise and relief. NGS is hopeless. Sruti mag has rightly ripped apart NGS for the state of the loo.
Looking fwd to inputs from others...
Season peripherals - a rating!
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kamavardhani
- Posts: 92
- Joined: 13 Dec 2006, 22:57
Best coffee - Gnanambika at NGS, as always! Academy's caterer Padmanabhan comes a distant second. Didn't venture anywhere near the eatery at MFAC; I was put off by the hygiene factor. Looking fwd to sampling Arusuvai one of these days at PSS.
Loo - Academy wins big on this one. Absolutely wonderful, clean toilets came as a major surprise and relief. NGS is hopeless. Sruti mag has rightly ripped apart NGS for the state of the loo.
Looking fwd to inputs from others...
Loo - Academy wins big on this one. Absolutely wonderful, clean toilets came as a major surprise and relief. NGS is hopeless. Sruti mag has rightly ripped apart NGS for the state of the loo.
Looking fwd to inputs from others...
good one!-
vijay
- Posts: 2522
- Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 16:06
Kamavardhini, no Arusivai this time - meenambika is on at PSS...meals at both the academy and PSS are excellent but PSS is a less stressful experience. Gnanambika has, alas discontinued serving meals. You should take your place before 12:30 at the Academy if you wish to avoid getting crushed by the kattu gumbal
Padmanabha at the Academy serves decent food (a katthirikkai sambar to die for) but his inexperience clearly shows. He puts up the same "specials" of idli vadai and dosai (reminding one of certain artists who dish out the same fare in their concerts!) and he runs out of stock well before 9 PM. Also there is no beeda and "poga ellai" - there is this thick headed north indian paan-wallah instead who can not even tell banarasi patta from calcutta patta. On top of it he does not stock Qimam either! How can one savour a Begada without the headiness of tobacco!
Murali's work in the academy has been good. The loos are really gleaming, sound management is much better and the staff appear to be more courteous. Of course, the seating in the balcony is as dismal as ever. He is planning to replace the seating and air-conditiong next year and more importantly, claims to have begun archiving collections from the past - who knows we might actually see commercial releases of past performances. If that happens I might consider putting up Murali's photo in place of the Mumoorthi painting I have at home!
Padmanabha at the Academy serves decent food (a katthirikkai sambar to die for) but his inexperience clearly shows. He puts up the same "specials" of idli vadai and dosai (reminding one of certain artists who dish out the same fare in their concerts!) and he runs out of stock well before 9 PM. Also there is no beeda and "poga ellai" - there is this thick headed north indian paan-wallah instead who can not even tell banarasi patta from calcutta patta. On top of it he does not stock Qimam either! How can one savour a Begada without the headiness of tobacco!
Murali's work in the academy has been good. The loos are really gleaming, sound management is much better and the staff appear to be more courteous. Of course, the seating in the balcony is as dismal as ever. He is planning to replace the seating and air-conditiong next year and more importantly, claims to have begun archiving collections from the past - who knows we might actually see commercial releases of past performances. If that happens I might consider putting up Murali's photo in place of the Mumoorthi painting I have at home!
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jayaram
- Posts: 1317
- Joined: 30 Jun 2006, 03:08
Tut, tut - tobacco causes cancer, didn't you know that?How can one savour a Begada without the headiness of tobacco!
Personally, I would prefer to get the lahari of a ragam without the support of intoxicants etc. An MDR singing a sahana/ritigowla alapanam is equivalent in effect to all the narcotics you can think of!
More to the topic-at-hand, I've always found the meals served at MA of top quality.
Btw, is it true that during the season, in most rasika-houses the kitchen is closed for most of the day?
Last edited by jayaram on 26 Dec 2006, 19:38, edited 1 time in total.
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kamavardhani
- Posts: 92
- Joined: 13 Dec 2006, 22:57
Along with the mobile phones, there's one other item that needs to be banned from concert halls - those crinkly plastic carry bags that make such an irritating racket! There was this moron sitting next to me at Sowmya's MA concert this morning, constantly fiddling with stuff inside his plastic bag, emitting an unrelenting tch-kicchh-ttchh sound. Glaring at him didn't have any effect, so finally I had to rudely ask him to stop shattering the peaceful ambience. He gave me a look that could kill... but mercifully put away that damn bag, letting me enjoy the Saveri.
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vijay
- Posts: 2522
- Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 16:06
Yeah, plastic bags are awful - at least phone conversations stop after a while - the bagwallahs tend to fiddle away throughout the concert....and it is, at least on the surface, a somewhat trivial offence making it that much more difficult to express one's outrage!
BTW, can you update us on Sowmya's concert?
BTW, can you update us on Sowmya's concert?
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kamavardhani
- Posts: 92
- Joined: 13 Dec 2006, 22:57
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vsnatarajan
- Posts: 44
- Joined: 28 Nov 2006, 21:01
looks like it.jayaram wrote:Btw, is it true that during the season, in most rasika-houses the kitchen is closed for most of the day?How can one savour a Begada without the headiness of tobacco!
my wife told me to eat at the fine arts club itself yesterday.
BTW, Aruna was okay.
expected more from her, but may be the tight schedules keep these performers at their wit's end. kamas, Mohanam, a short Rithi G, saveri, a RTP with guru vandanam.
the coffee sucked.
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arasi
- Posts: 16872
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
y Music Season culinary impressions: Since some concerts finished late, and the traffic situation being what it is, we had to go to Saravanas a few times (our hotel restaurant closes early). Getting up in the middle of a concert to eat is not for me. However, since I wanted to give the young musicians a whirl, I made an exit during the middle of some mid morning concerts-happily-so that I could eat before break-between-concert-time-crowds flooded in--unhappily, because I wanted to hear better music from them.
Music Academy had just hot milk one night, we were told by the ever-present-Academy french academic couple as they emerged from under the flimsy rope barrier of the canteen. Still, attention to customers from the caterers was unifomly imprsssive except in the case of a harried waiter from Gnanambika at the junction of a popular concert and a dance performance. We learnt a lessson there that it is crazy to leave the premises until the dance crowd settled in their seats in the auditorium and that we had to take refuge in the canteen, however crowded it was. Once the crowd melted away, the said waiter was attentive and courteous.
Yes, Vijay, the coffee was the best in Gnanambika. Don't know about the other stuff:)
Sweets everywhere were good (for this dessert person). Both of us thrive on tiffin, so, I have no idea about the meals.
The interesting thing, especially about the Academy canteen, is that I meet extended family and friends there. Even get to know some interesting things from fellow-patrons who sit around the same table. The conversation begins with, how did you like the concert, whom are you going to listen to this evening, and so on. I am careful now, not to discuss my likes and dislikes with my mate in the canteens because I might offend somene. It is amusing that after the initial round of conversation you find out that some are there merely to eat there and that CM is out of their ken. I can't blame them because when rasikas discuss food to such length and relish the fare as much as music, why ca'nt they be there just for the food? Of course, you run into musicians too, at the canteens.
Music Academy had just hot milk one night, we were told by the ever-present-Academy french academic couple as they emerged from under the flimsy rope barrier of the canteen. Still, attention to customers from the caterers was unifomly imprsssive except in the case of a harried waiter from Gnanambika at the junction of a popular concert and a dance performance. We learnt a lessson there that it is crazy to leave the premises until the dance crowd settled in their seats in the auditorium and that we had to take refuge in the canteen, however crowded it was. Once the crowd melted away, the said waiter was attentive and courteous.
Yes, Vijay, the coffee was the best in Gnanambika. Don't know about the other stuff:)
Sweets everywhere were good (for this dessert person). Both of us thrive on tiffin, so, I have no idea about the meals.
The interesting thing, especially about the Academy canteen, is that I meet extended family and friends there. Even get to know some interesting things from fellow-patrons who sit around the same table. The conversation begins with, how did you like the concert, whom are you going to listen to this evening, and so on. I am careful now, not to discuss my likes and dislikes with my mate in the canteens because I might offend somene. It is amusing that after the initial round of conversation you find out that some are there merely to eat there and that CM is out of their ken. I can't blame them because when rasikas discuss food to such length and relish the fare as much as music, why ca'nt they be there just for the food? Of course, you run into musicians too, at the canteens.
Last edited by arasi on 28 Dec 2006, 23:26, edited 1 time in total.
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vijay
- Posts: 2522
- Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 16:06
I can't ever imagine going to a concert hungry - even the most savoury Bhairavi becomes a torture - first for the stomach first, the soul can wait...
As for the waiters, they are under tremendous stress - I know some places in Chennai where they are made to work for 10-12 hours continuously standing inside steaming kitchens even during the peak of summer. I try not to lose patience with them but when TMK's alaapana is about to begin, one does tend to get fidgety!
As for the waiters, they are under tremendous stress - I know some places in Chennai where they are made to work for 10-12 hours continuously standing inside steaming kitchens even during the peak of summer. I try not to lose patience with them but when TMK's alaapana is about to begin, one does tend to get fidgety!