Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Avoid "Family Dental" at Colombo 3 for any reason



To say loud and open about my opinion about "Family Dental" at Colombo 3 (In front of Holcim Building) I have no hesitation as it was the worst ever experience i had in my life at a dental. So as my parents..

- Their consultation fee was 5000 SLR.. The highest i have paid is 2000 and that was also for a specialist who are like very important to meet and very rare in Sri Lanka..But paying 5000 SLR for a dental doctor at a stingy place and actually for nothing is ridiculous.. absurd.. what else.. :(

- They filled 2 teeth and charged for 4 teeth.. it was very clear but they didn't put a break down in the bill.. when I inquired they were not sure to give the details of the break down and i was asked to come after some time to provide the break down details..  The cost for those services was 19,000 SLR. :(

- My little one had a cavity and they have filled a wrong teeth instead the one that they should fill..


Pathetic that doctors are at this level of behavior and has no dignity at all!! Disgusting!

A place that everyone should protest definitely.

Gelato.. Dessert Recipe that cannot go wrong

I read this recipe from daily mirror newspaper ..

Liked the recipe for many reasons...
- Its healthy
- I like the fruits and fruty taste
- Super easy to make
- Less ingredients to worry
- Super quick
- Its sweet
- most of all it cannot go wrong!!

So here is how to make it..


This is an easy dessert called Gelato.
1.  Cut up 2 or 3 bananas, and 2 mangoes.
2.  Place in a canister, and put into the deep freeze for at last 2 hours, or possibly more.
3.  Empty into the blender with 2 small cartons yoghurt  and blend. Serve immediately. Or, it could be re-frozen and served as an ice cream, or used to fill wafer cones. :)

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Why people has become so rude..felt so pathetic today

I hate when good people change into bad people. When I say good people either they had been bad but still I understood them as good people. Atleast that is how i made up my mind.

People have become so selfish, criticize other people, blame other people for nothing, may be they get some pleasure by scolding others, may be they think it is how they think they can be heard by the society and make a name. How pathetic. Don't they know they also die no matter what in no time.. just for the few years we live why these people behave as if they will live forever and undercut people, hate people & act selfish and do harm for others. Just to get a 1 second time save people are not bothered to put their lives in disaster when on roads.. what has happened to this people.. what race they are in..? I never thought i will face this situation at the current working place.

Do they know at least the basics of the Buddhism. If they follow the basic rules of life and simple truth of Buddhism how wonderful Sri Lanka would be.

How to complain regarding contaminated or unhygienic food in Sri Lanka

Simple!
Call on the hotline, 2676161

Please do take the effort and time to make the complain if you experience this as it helps to establish the standards of the food we pay in long term.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Savoy 3D experience with just released movie Ice Age 4- Continental drift

Ice Age - 4, in other words continental drift was released in USA on 13th July. Years back we had to wait months until we get that in Sri Lanka. But those days are gone and sometimes you get to view the movie on the same day it is released.

Ice Age is a 2002 American computer-animated adventure comedy film created by Blue Sky Studios . The film got lot of positive reviews and was a box office success, starting a series with three sequels, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Ice Age: Continental Drift.



Savoy at Colombo 6 has been upgraded into a 3D theater and re-opened on 26th July and the 1st 3D movie that they show is Ice Age 4. When EAP opened Savoy after a huge renovation in early 2003 or somewhere me and my hubby(BF at that time)used to watch all the movies that they showed until we got our little one delivered which was a life changing thing. 

Back to the film..  In just 3 words. Good, over the expectations!!
The graphics, sounds and the story was good and my 6 year old little one enjoyed it full though the 3 D glasses were bit too large and she thought it as a hassle to wear. For me it was real 3D experience. The last time I watched a 3D documentary in Hartford, CT at the aquarium in year 2004 and by then 3D technology has come a long way. I heard some comments saying the 3D at Savoy has an issue and not good. But for me i did n't observe anything as such and it was a really good movie and an experience.

Turtle Hatchery at Hikkaduwa.. Nice experience

On our way to Hikkaduwa Chaya Tranz we went to see the turtle hatchery and it was a nice little experience for me and mosty to my little one who stared at the 1 day old baby turtles and their behaviors for a very long time. It had different varietities of turtles and the person explains how they differ and all that.
<1 day old turtle babies>
The place is small but it had all the information one needs to know about turtles and the guide person knows a lot by his experience with Turtles.. They have turtles who has lost their eyes/hands/legs from the 2004 Tsunami. The entrance ticket to the place was just SLR 40./= and well worth to visit.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Colombo Court yard..newly opened boutique hotel

They opened very recently in Colombo and all the past years when I passed this location it was a torn down building and i thought to myself it is just in vain and a waste to have this building in the middle of Colombo without any use.. and after some time it turned into a beautiful serene location called "Colombo Courtyard". I am been a loyal heavy user of Google  i googled for it and found their appealing website though it misses the menu and finer details.
http://www.colombocourtyard.com/

As as usual as a foodie wanted to try out this new place and went their 3 times for the last few months. I would say its interior and exterior looked good but the food was average. It is a nice place to have a meal peacefully in the huzzle and buzzle busy Colombo. But the food was nothing special.
Once I tried Penne with Pesto, and the other day tried brown bread club sandwiches and the last day it was just an appetizer of grilled vegetables in Olive oil.



I was able to get a pic of the appetizer. The vegetables were not perfectly grilled and too much of olive oil was poured on to the dish. The veges were more or less boiled rather grilled, see the color of the green bell paper.. boiled too much or cooked in low heat for a longer time and the color is not preserved and the crunchiness was gone. So I would say the chefs need a lot of seasoning and  much care on what they cook.. Obviously I am not a chef and have not learnt on How To Cook anywhere.. (But i have been commended by my friends as a good cook)..but I can critic on the taste of food and presentation. (LOL)

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Electric trains in Sri Lanka... Not in dreams?

The Railway Department has decided to commence electric train services in the country within the next two years.

It was a shocking good news if so. Of course as in the other projects this will also make some politioans and their families and there generations a billionares and we will end up paying the cost. But I am happy atleast the infrastructure is getting better. Sri Lanka been a small island still it takes so many hours to go from one place to the other due to lack of good train service. So i welcome this move.

Exporail is also a one good move though it is run by a private company within the government trains.
www.exporail.lk and good that they have online booking.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

2012.. Half of the year gone and Mayan's predictions

Where did the year go? Suddenly it is end of May in 2012...half the year is gone. ..again and we realize that with giant strides we started in January and within a blink of an eye, it is over !
When a year comes to an end normally we look back of the past year and we tell to ourselves a brand new year is starting and I am going to be this New person from 1st of January and all of that. (Overnight transformation to a whole new thinking and a brand new creature)


 
Most of the times from What I told myself to be.. I never achieved what i thought.. If I achieved what i thought to myself sometime I may not spending my time in front of my computer and writing a lousy blog like this.
But for good or bad I am still here.
Probably when I achieve all my dreams, resolutions and all that and one day when I become rich i might do something different..So for now I am not! and...... I love writing what I feel, what I like what i think would at least useful for a single person or even make that persons day!

Like most of us when year 2012 dawned it brought me back the memories of the movie 2012. Would it be the end of the world this year as in the movie?
So everyone wished to go wrong the Mayan's predictions.

Out of the 2012 end of world disaster feeling still people hope that they can achieve their resolutions this year which they could not achieve for many many years.. I am no exception. :)

The only difference i made this year to my old set of resolution is to add a few more (Hilarious.. You are adding more to your backlog even when you have not completed what you already had... Interesting ..huh?) and I made a document with all my resolutions.  and showed it to my best friend..

For few months it went well.. I was going in the right directions.. Simply because I wrote them down and and had a plan and also I exposed my resolutions to my friends so that I sort of had to stick to what i plan..may be because my ego that I didn't want to be a person who cant stick to her own plan.

BUT honestly I am not doing perfectly as i wanted on the 1st of January. But I am not doing as bad as I did last few years..  So I am not that unhappy.. I have 6 more months and on 31st December I am going to write how well/bad I achieved my resolutions.. (The honest and naked truth I mean.)

Did I say what my resolutions are.. I have 10 resolutions and will write about each on the resolutions review on 31st December. That will be my 1st post in 2013. Yay.......!

Green Roti..Sounds scary ...?

I had a sort of a big Karapincha tree in my back yard. And one day Suhi was playing and making a scare crow that she saw in her grade 1 sinhala reading book. For the scare crow's hands she needed some sticks and wanted me to cut the sticks from the karapincha tree. I was happy on her idea of making a scarecrow than wasting time in front of the laptop watching movies.So I cut the small branches to give the sticks to make hands of the scare crow.
She made a nice scare crow with a broken broom stick, Karapincha stick,card board box and an old pijama bottom.
One strange thing is that the squirrels and birds who usually coming to our back yard earlier didn't come after the scare crow.
So then after cutting the karapincha sticks i end up having a big bowl of Karapincha leaves.
What shall i do with this? Keep it in the fridge and use ? Why should I? When I can use the freshest leaves handpicked from the tree.
So then my inner interest of experimenting with food came out.And it came out nice, yummy and Healthy. You try it for yourself and guaranteed it is worth!

Karapincha Roti:
  3 cups of flour
  3 cups of karapincha leaves
  1.5 cup of scraped coconut
  1/2 tea spoon of salt
  1 cup of onions chopped
  1 green chille chopped
  2 cloves of garlic chopped

1. )Put the karapincha leaves, red onion, garlic, green chile in the food chopper and switch on the blender for few seconds
2.)Now mix the flour, salt, scraped coconut
3.) Add the chopped mixture with the flour mixture and make a non sticky dough
If its too dry add a little water. If its sticky and watery add a litttle flour.
4.) Use a rolling pin and roll it on a board.
Cut different shapes as you like
5.) Heat a pan and sprinkle some oil
when the pan is hot add the roti and cook both sides for 2-3 minutes(Until you get the full surface light brown)

Ready to eat, Serve hot!!
See how it came out mine.

Karapincha a is a very healthy herb that helps your body metabolism, reduce cholesterol. With this recipe you consume a large portion of Karapincha without any difficulty.

Yummolishes food and royal treat at CASA, A must try in Colombo

CASA Colombo has won many travelers awards consecutively for 2011, TripAdviser awards, 2012, World luxury hotel awards 2012 and many other and i never thought to try it out as it sounded as if very very expensive.
CASA Colombo is famous as a retro style luxury boutique hotel located in the heart of the busy Colombo yet in a very serene location. It is some hundreds of years old mansion which has nicely redesigned and excellent interior. (Source of all interior photos: www.casacolombo.com)




It has  a pink pool and it looks gorgeous at night with the elegant lighting. It could be the one and only pink pool in the whole world, At least I have never heard of any so far.



Imagine the sun bathing in the noon and reading your favorite book while sipping a tropical chilled orange juice on those glassy and chicy tops. Of course i am blessed with sun the 365 days and I would rather like to relax in the evening here with lights and listen to a soothing music while drinking a chilled EGB. (EGB is a original recipe since 1896 and its taste is unique and one of the best soft drinks i ever had.)



And the best part is the food. I have been here for 5 times and I have tried different dishes as I was sure that everything will be good. The appetizers they give are unique Sri Lankan style roast bread with lunu miris and Mint dip and they are so heavenly.
And the dishes come with a little presentation and at a glance when the food arrives you feel like oh my god it looks delicious, but looks small portion quantity. ( Honestly i felt so) But dig in and see,, its just that they pack the stuff nicely and it has a big quantity. So never worry from your first sight. (See what I had, Lucky that I take my camera in my bag, but forgot to adjust the date)
 The Sri Lankan style roasted bread with lunu miris and Mint sauce with scraped Coconut
 The zipped meal that preserves the hot.
 After unzipping the above, The quantity looks good right?
 Grilled meat on top of creamy mashed potatoes
Mouth watering dessert, White chocolate and divine creamy ice cream dessert with chocolate sauce. This is a must try!

I said I thought the place is expensive right. But I am been a just average person i say the place is not expensive and value for money. You can have a decent meal for 10$.

Chopsticks...

All this time i was writing food critics in trip advicer and thought to add it to my blog so that anyone who is planning to go these places will have an idea in terms of ambiance,location, menu, price and service. And top of all taste. :)

Last week I went to Sakura Japanese restaurant. One of my office friend gave us his Birthday treat at Sakura.
Trip adviser had both negative and positive feedback. nothing was extream feedback on either side.
So i guess reviews actually helps.

So this is how it looks outside. Indeed it needs a big revamp. At the outset it is just an old run down place. Not even painted for the last twenty years or so.

And they have displayed the food items and their names which makes our lives easy which otherwise would be a tough task for non Japanese.

And the service persons at Sakura were helpful for selecting dishes and providing forks by looking at the way we use chopsticks. But I would say we were not bad even we made a laugh on it at each other.

The sitting arrangements makes you feel like you are in a Japanese restaurant. But not the Japanese way of sitting on the cushion.
 
And then the most important thing .. food. Food was average portions. Not too big or not too small.
We ordered Maki sushi. I am been a vegetarian I ate Maki sushi made out of cucumber and rice. (Sushi is rolls of raw fish or vegetable and rice wrapped in seaweed and cut into bite-sized rounds) 

The way to eat your sushi....
- Take a small amount of soya sauce to the small dish that they provide for each of you 
- Mix a small amount of wasabi with the soy sauce, Wasabi is a A strong, spicy green horseradish-like condiment, So be careful. Its so strong.So when i say a very little.. it is indeed a very very little. :D
- You can hold sushi with either chopsticks or your fingers.
- Dip sushi into the soy sauce.


Tip:Nigiri sushi(Sushi with fish, prawns or crab) should be dipped into the soy sauce fish side down. This keeps the rice from getting too wet and falling apart. Depending on the size of the piece it can be eaten one to three bites. Maki sushi should be dipped seaweed side down.

Also there is a common myth among non Japanese (Including me some years back) that sushi is eating raw fish. There are types of sushi that are made with cooked seafood or feature vegetables or even cooked egg.

And we ordered different dishes for the main meal. Some ordered Udon noodles(Thick, wide wheat noodles), some ordered teriyaki(sweetened soy sauce) chicken and Japanese sticky rice and some grilled fish with Soya sauce and herbs.
Unfortunately the most of the dishes are over by the time I remembered to take photographs. (Apologies pls...) 

But my curiosity for Japanese food is grown so hopefully I am going to try out another Japanese restaurant very soon and i will keep in mind not to jump and eat before taking photos. :)


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Best 10 islands to visit worldwide... Amazing!!

As a senior contributor in TripAdviser.co.uk I am getting amazing news about the whole world. I get a chance to answer the questions raised by other end of the world and review the places I visit or eat and share the good and bad experiences hoping it would help many people like me. It has become a habit for me to read the reviews in Tripadviser before trying out a new restarunt or a hotel or even a place.  I am  planning a trip to Dubai next and gathered a lot of information from there.. Am I sound like too conservative and too much of trying to be perfect or get perfect... Well answer is No and i am not that sorta person before and even now. But I have to now as i dont want to ruin a family time with my little girl.

Coming back to what i wanted to tell.....So today morning i saw this link sent to me from TripAdviser on the " World best top 10 islands must see"
And i went through each one by one and looking at the breathtaking pictures of those islands thinking to myself that one fine day when I become really really rich i am going to go at least one of these..
I scroll down 1, after the other and here comes the surprise...

Sri Lanka Photos

This photo of Sri Lanka is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Sri Lanka at number 6... Amazing and I born there and live there...
Is n't it amazing. I dont need to wait until i become a grandma and earn money to visit one of those islands i thought before. Its awesome I am living here.

Proud to be Sri Lankan!!!!

Sometime I hate myself…!!


Why am I this much lazy.. Why I still like that few minutes sleep after switching off the alarm.. regardless it is still not a good sleep and just closing my eye.. The simple truth is that I am intolerably lazy.
But why… even after being a wife..after being a mom.. very very bad.. yes I am saying to me..
 

I did n't have time to feed a good meal for my daughter today even knowing the best meal should be the breakfast and that she will need a lot of calories for her school work and dancing and all those activities at school. And on  top of me and my laziness to wake up in the morning the car gave trouble and not started. (God you punished me right on time)
Had to walk to the main road with the poor kid who has no clue and get a tuk tuk. And lot of pressure in my mind a heart drumming so faster and looking at the watch hundreds time until i reach school had a trauma time. And finally ended up at the school gate just 1 minute after closing the gate at 7.30.
Too much for a day. :(