my mt. juliet groove has been immeasurably enhanced
by the addition of a new local indian restaurant
called Shagor, only five minutes from StudioBelew.
this is big stuff for mt. juliet and fortunately the food
is delicious, the prices are affordable, and the vibe is cool.
Shagor, has been open two weeks
and I've already eaten there six times.
I am a pretty decent cook of simplistic meals,
(well, I'm decent perhaps, but not pretty)
and since I really enjoy cooking, as often as possible
I try to cook dinner at home for the four of us
but most evenings martha and the girls are busy
with various homeschooling endeavors
(dance classes are from 4:30 to 8:00 3 nights a week)
leaving me on my lonesome for dinner.
so I like to drive one of my precious vintage cars, park it
in a spot within my loving gaze (yes, I know it's ridiculous)
open my iPhone to an interesting app (say, the latest
tenori-on-like app called Soundgrid) and enjoy a great meal.
while I'm not an adventurous eater I love all kinds
of food especially italian, seafood, mexican, middle-
eastern, chinese, sushi, american, french, etc.
and while I wouldn't want to go without places
like J. Alexander's, Bricktop's, Capital Grill, or delights
such as chocolate Haagen-Dazs, or Skyline chili
(which, by the way, reminds me of indian curry)
I absolutely adore indian food and could probably live on it.
all good indian restaurants must play indian music
but Shagor takes the concept a step further by showing
highly amusing Bollywood clips (indian girl meets indian
boy on a mountaintop where they sing and dance
at each other) on a small screen in the corner of the room.
I especially love indian pop music. the female voice,
which always sounds like the exact same singer,
reminds me of diana ross on helium and the backing tracks
are wonderfully multi-cultural at times including such
seemingly disparate choices as banjo with sitar or chinese
flute with an english harmonium. and of course
the drumming is nearly as delicious as the food.
ah, food...my favorite dish.
Great post, sounds like a fabulous time !! Being a vegetarian forever(well almost) I totally love the variety of intense and exotic flavors of Indian food. Just learned how to make paneer, which is very interesting, if you haven't tried it, you should.
ReplyDeleteThe Bollywood thing is very entertaining as well :)
Bon appetit
Great Indian good place with all the "entertainment" you mentioned in your post called Ambala Dhaba on Westwood Blvd in Los Angeles. Give it a try when you are out.
ReplyDeletenamaste, sir!
ReplyDeletevery familiar post. i go through the same ritual, especially because i'm a bad cook and there is a phenomenal indian food cart on my walk home here in portland. and yes, indian cinema and music can be really entertaining. i love that nearly every bollywood movie, nomatter what the setting, ends up in those hills - and the couple will hide behind trees and skip around each other. like that's the archetypal image of true love in indian culture. and i love the audio production. the mic is almost always clipping and the eq is shelved all funky.
i think you would dig this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyEnG_DEB1I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ky5ClIjL8
cheers!
I recommend Egyptian at King Tut's Grill for dinner after your matinée in Knoxville on the 27th.
ReplyDeleteFood is great. I center most of my meals around it. I have had Indian food exactly once, while visiting a friend in Chicago. It was awesome, but I have yet to find a good Indian restaurant at home.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a wok ?
ReplyDelete3 words for much happiness :
general tso's chicken .
pt
it's not often that i get hungry reading a music blog. thanks, adrian :)
ReplyDeleteHi Adrian,
ReplyDeletelong time belew-blog-reader first time poster... I highly reccomend you check out the iPhone app "Thumbjam" for your dinner audio entertainment, it has made many a meal of mine quite blissful.
Cheers!
The singer may well be Asha Bhosle who has sung playback on over 1000 Bollywood movies, or her sister Lata Mangeshkar, who is also a prolific playback singer. British Asian band Cornershop featured her in their 1997 hit record A Brimful of Asha.
ReplyDelete