Lettuce Entertain You

Quiet weekend -- had to work on Saturday as 1 of 2 make-up days for the TWI Away Day at the end of the month (it'll be 4 days in Goa -- 15 hour train trip each way --- with 400+ TWers --- now that should be interesting!)

So one of things that people (including me) tend to miss here in India is eating raw vegetables that aren't peelable --- like lettuce. I haven't had a salad since I've been here (until tonight that is).

Fortunately though there are some restaurants in Bangalore that soak & rinse their salad lettuce in filtered water -- Herbs & Spice is one such restaurant --- so that's where we decided to go to dinner on Saturday night. It's a charming small restaurant about 1 mile from the Diamond District. We had an excellent meal -- started with very spicy potatoes, then a pear, walnut, parmesan cheese salad (which was the best part of the meal) and then a roasted pepper & fontina cheese risotto for the main course. Also had a decent bottle of local cabernet sauvignon with the meal. There are a handful of wineries in India --- most of them somewhere around Mumbai, although the wine we had was from Grover Vineyards, located 25 miles north of Bangalore. Wine is expensive in India (relative to alcoholic cocktails and food in general) -- typically Rs. 250 for a glass (that's around $5) -- may not seem like much, but mixed drinks are usually less than Rs. 100 and I think the most that I've paid for a main course is Rs. 300.

There was also live entertainment at the restaurant --- 3 piece band performing songs from the 60s and 70s --- rather an eclectic mix of songs (some rock, some country, some folk stuff) -- they were really good (especially the lead singer / guitarist).