Harry Potter Book Launch at Trilogy

I attended a book launch of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. One of the numerous launch parties all over the world, hosted and attended by obsessed fans like myself. This particular party was hosted by Meethil and Ahalya Momaya, who own Trilogy, at Lower Parel. 

Check out my Hedwig pendant! 



This is what greeted us on arrival.

Like yay nine and three quarters! This sets the tone for EVERYTHING. And it was mad decorative skills on display. Check it out!

Write your feelings to all your favorite characters!

And.. and... we got food! Yummy food, really. Plus the amount of kids there, I'm sure the sugary stuff was very welcome.

And you see that chocolate there? It/'s a snitch! An actual GOLDEN SNITCH chocolate.

And the games and props! Crazy stuff. We had so much fun with the quizzes and guess-the-character and the awesome props.

I was, in particular, obsessed with this one.

We took a break from the games, and then it was picture time! Time to take inspiration from the Dark Lord.

Then, back to the fun games. Once that was done. we (and a roomful of way more kids than adults) could write letters to Madame Rowling, and Trilogy would mail it to London! How awesome was that? Then we put it in this box. Isn't it adorable?

After everything was done, there was cake! Isn't that the bestest cake? Always. Poignant. And yummy!

That's Ahalya in black. She's the sweetest ever, and one of the reasons I would keep going back there.

OF course, I had to pose with that too!

And back at it again with that hat. And the house banners! *love*

And while we were leaving, we were shown an illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philospohers Stone. Apparently, only the good kids get to see it. I was so proud of myself.

Isn't it beautiful?

Aaaand signing off with a selfie ft. the awesome hat!

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Review - Aplava.com

Hi guys! Now I don't often post on beauty products and suchlike, but I just HAD to write about this place. Two reasons, mainly.

One, a lot of you have asked me to write about skincare and haircare - products as well as styling tips (thank you all for the compliments on my hair!).

Secondly, this website is actually different. Now, I've always loved staying up to date with innovative startups, and I will continue to do so. I feel like the startups scene in India will really help our country reach new heights, but that's a story for another day. Aplava is one such startup based out of Bangalore, the startup hub of the country; and it's growing in leaps and bounds.

Pronounced as “Aap Luv“, it is Sanskrit for "taking a bath to purify oneself". Aplava sells authentic skin care, hair care, wellness products and fragrances. There is a separate section for men and children.

Aplava is a beauty shoppe with a difference. How is it better than the rest of them? Let's find out.

So far, so good. What's their key differentiator?

1) Take a personalized profile quiz - Here, you create a profile with requisite information. Aplava's algorithm will then analyse that information.

2) Receive personalized recommendations - Based on your responses in the first step, they run your details through the algorithm to tell you about your skin health, skin type, and recommended products.

3) Build your regimen - Pay heed to their recommendations, and start improving your skin with the help of their double whammy, algorithm + dermatologist advice.

I especially liked the 'Ask the Expert' section, because what is really the point in having loads of products if you don't really know what works for you? Better to ask than to blindly experiment and harm your skin in the process.

For all you makeup and beauty buffs out there, check out the 'Just Arrived' section for updates about their newest offerings. 

They've also conveniently divided their products into three sections - Best Sellers, Exclusives, and Sale Products.

Let's just say that instead of concentrating on writing this article, I ended up 'researching', which actually meant that I was completely stalking their website and staring at all the skincare products I wanted to try. 

Just look at the detailing of the filters on the left. I love websites that can filter their products/services well, that's just half the battle done in terms of customer attraction. Aplava has done a beautiful job of that, and somehow their product placement order selection is so good that I wanted to try each one of the first six products I saw there! I would not be surprised if they use a back-end algorithm for that too. For all you beauty buffs who can't be bothered with what I'm talking about, suffice to say, you will find what you love without struggling to look for it. You might even find something new to fall in love with that you didn't even know you needed. Something like toning water. It is an awesome thing to have, trust me. 

Overall, I think the website is really helpful. Whether you are totally into beauty and skincare, or just starting out a regimen of your own, this will really help you gt better. Their use of technology to ensure your skin is happy, well, what can be better? I especially appreciate the dermatological advice. After all, an expert opinion always helps.

The only thing I can see as a drawback is that they don't have the multitude of products that more established brands/websites have, but that's really a very minor issue, because what they do give you is so much more, and they are stocking up on new products ever so often. Do visit the website; I bet you'd love the effort they've put into skin profiling and providing expert opinion to all of us. 

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*sponsored post

Review - Mad Over Donuts, Churchgate

Food: 3.5/5

VFM: 3/5

Ambience: 4/5
Service: 5/5
Veg friendly: 4/5

Mad over Donuts, popularly called MOD, was one of the first donut entrants on the scene. As someone who grew up with donuts as a weekend treat, I was wildly happy to see it come to India. 

As you guys may know, I'm a total fan of Dunkin Donuts, but the new range at MOD makes me feel like it's going back to the awesome standards it set coming into the country. 

We had the brownie crumble, which is a cocoa donut with dark chocolate and crumbled brownie bits. Filled with a dark chocolate ganache, which could have been more generous. However, it was heavenly. 

Next, we had the chocolate decadence, which I think is a best seller at MOD, and with good reason! Simple and delicious, it checks all the right boxes. 

This was accompanied by a coffee latte. Nothing spectacular though, but as an accompaniment it was just about acceptable. They might want to work on making their beverages better. They're slayin it with the donuts though! They're definitely delicious. 

VFM: Not exactly affordable, but donuts do fall in a certain price range and there's no two ways about it. 

Ambience: Nice and spacious, the faux wood tables were a nice touch, as was the playful decor on the walls. Can surely spend time here hanging out with friends. 

Service: Impeccable. No other words required. 

Veg friendly: Yes! Everything here is vegetarian, though I'm not sure if the cookies have egg or not. Do check once in case you don't eat egg.

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Review - Cafe Military, Fort

Food: 3.5/5

VFM: 5/5
Ambience: 4/5
Service: 5/5
Veg friendly: 1/5

This is an old and tiny Parsi café located in the little bylanes of Fort. It might be a little difficult for people to find, but it's at the corner so it'll be visible when you're walking around. Alternatively, you can ask around - I'm sure someone will be able to direct you to it. 

Now, as you know, I am a vegetarian so it's not exactly easy for me to find something to eat at Parsi cafes, no matter how much I like the old world charm and pretty decor. I do need the grub, my friend. 

I asked my very polite server what I can get, and he suggested veg dhandal patio, which is rice and veg gravy. I didn't really want rice that day so I skipped that. Since I do eat egg (I'm an eggetarian!), I figured I would go for the egg bhurji. It came with bread, not the Pav of the quintessential vada Pav, but actual proper bread. Soft yet with crusty edges, it was good bread. 

The bhurji was pretty decent too, but a little on the spicier side. Not too much though, plus I told them not to add green chillies, so that helped. It had finely chopped tomatoes and cilantro, served with sliced onions and lemon wedges, as you can see in the picture below. 

My friend had the mutton salli, which was served with rice and gravy. The bowl on the left contains the gravy, and the bowl on the right contains the mutton salli, garnished with cilantro. It seems to be a Parsi food mainstay, atleast at Cafe Military. She loved the mutton and said it was well cooked, and it's not even one of her favorite meats. The quantity of rice was generous too.

To top it off, we had caramel custard. I'm not generally a fan of caramel custard, so I had a taste when my friend ordered it. I liked it so much I ordered another for myself! 

VFM: One good thing it's very easy on the pocket, and considering the number of corporates nearby, they're probably cooking up a storm at any given point of time. The affordability definitely does not hurt. 

Ambience: It has an old world charm, and there are rickety bookshelves and the servers are great. It's got a great lazy charm. 

Service: The servers are really nice and attentive. Ask for anything, they'll bring it with a smile. And they suggested options for me when they found out I was veg. So that's nice. All Parsi cafes do tend to have that comfortably homey feeling. 

Veg friendly: Honestly if you don't eat any non veg or even egg, and you visit a Parsi cafe, be prepared to eat rice and gravy. 

Go try out the caramel custard at the very least! And if you try the dhandal patio, do let me know how it was. 

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Mumbai Metro Festival 2016!

Hello my lovely readers!

I've gotten a few messages from you guys asking where I've disappeared to, it was because my laptop was totally fried. But now, my laptop is back and so am I! With lots of new stuff; and as you all requested, more haircare articles will be up soon.

But today, I'm going to be telling you about the Mumbai Metro festival that's happening for another week, called Majhi Metro 2016. You can find a lot of amazing pictures on Instagram under the hashtag #MajhiMetro2016.

And here are a few pictures by a couple of amazing photographers.

(rahul_vangani)

(satanssj)

(rahul_vangani)

(rahul_vangani)

(rahul_vangani)

(satanssj)

Top - Bare denim by Pantaloons, Leggings - Candies, Shoes - Converse, Umbrella - Jones New York

Do follow these two amazing talents on Instagram, they are super photographers!

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Review - California Pizza Kitchen, Malad

Food: 5/5
VFM: 3.5/5
Ambience: 4.5/5
Service: 5/5
Veg Friendly: 4/5 

CPK has been a favorite for quite a long time. We started out with the Oreo smoothie and the veg platter starters. 

The Oreo smoothie was rich and thick, and had a generous amount of Oreos thrown in. It is a worthy competitor to the Brownie shake at Aromas. 

And now, the veg platter. Which was fabulous.

It included fried mac n cheese, black bean quesadilla, margherita rolls, crispy potatoes in chili sauce, and hummus and pita.

From the right - 
First, the margherita rolls, with cheese oozing out. Perfectly made.
The crispy potatoes with onions, in chili sauce. The sauce was a combination of hot and sour and it was great. The potatoes has a great texture, I think they were roasted.
And you can see the pita bread on the far left. Pretty soft, but got harder as they got colder.

These are the black bean quesadillas, next to the fried mac and cheese. Both wonderful, and the sauces just added to the flavor palette.

The three sauce containers, from the right:

Firstly, sundried tomatoes marinara. Not watered down salsa or ketchup. Really tasty, and we loved it so much, we scooped up every last bit!
Second one contained hummus, which was good. A regular hummus, to be honest.
Third was their ranchito sauce. Ranchito = ranch + chipotle. Goooood stuff. Sharp yet flavorful, I couldn't get enough of this one.

The platter served three and this is how it would be divided between three people getting an equal portion size. Not bad!

On to the yummy pizza now! We ordered the Albuquerque, 12". The toppings were albuquerque sauce, cheddar and fontina cheese, roasted peppers, and olives. We got it in a wheat base. There is also an option of multigrain base, but that's only in the 9" version. So keep that in mind before you pick a size, in case the type of base is important to you.

At the very end of the meal, dessert! They have a special tex mex menu going on right now, so make sure you take advantage of that!

I got the mexican spice cake. They told me the spice was cinnamon, and it wouldn't be sharp or spicy. I couldn't wait to try it out! 

The cake was thick and dense. You could smell the cinnamon, and it shone through in every bite. Amazing stuff. Dense and rich, you better make sure you have enough space to polish it off, else you'll definitely regret not being able to eat more of this!

The little bits at the top are cinnamon sticks. This is undeniably one lovely dessert. Go for it!

VFM: Its alright. The costwas around Rs. 2500 for the above mentioned items, but the quality makes it worth the price.

Service: The service is fabulous, as the servers are really attentive. 

Veg Friendly: Lots of vegetarian options, and they even make some of the options Jain if you request it.

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Review - Wok Express, Bandra

Food: 4.5/5
VFM: 4/5
Ambience: 4.5/5
Service: 5/5

Sudden cravings for bubble tea. Friend wanted Chinese.
What combines the two? Wok Express, that's who.
(I'm sorry. I had to make it rhyme.)

In all fairness, this was my first time at Wok so I didn't really know if the bubble tea would be any good or not. Plus I'm not a fan of Chinese food so I was really taking a risk here. It was not bad at all though!

I'm vegetarian, so I expected limited options but I was pleasantly wrong (that is not an oft-heard combination of words, mind you.) I chose the medium size wok box, and picked the flat wheat noodles with black bean sauce. Now, one of the adjectives written below black bean sauce on their board was 'spicy'. I do not like/eat food that is too spicy. But I do like black bean. I asked if they could tell me how spicy it would be, and they brought out a little of the sauce on a spoon for me to taste! I think that was good service. They didn't have to do that. Well, it wasn't too spicy, and I was more than happy to add that to my meal. As for the veggies, I got tofu, French bean, red and yellow bell peppers, broccoli, and carrots. My add-on condiments were cilantro, fried onion, and burnt garlic.
 

My non-vegetarian friend got a medium size wok box too - with prawns and Udon noodles. She picked teriyaki sauce to go with it. She doesn't really like vegetables so she got just baby corn. He put in a very generous portion, maybe because he felt she needed atleast some veggie goodness. For add-ons, she picked Cilantro and crushed peanuts.

The box is deceptively small but oh so filling. And the portions are so very generous. One box is more than enough for one person. We had to take breaks from eating, I kid you not. All the flavors melded really well and I was glad that they didn't skimp on the portions of the veggies even though I got quite a few added. They even added a little extra if we requested them to.
 

Since we have to create our own by picking and choosing our ingredients, it could totally be a hit and miss. That's why at such places, in my opinion, it's important that you know what you would really like, even all thrown together. You could just add every single thing you like and hope for the best. It's really upto you. But they do make it better - just ask them for suggestions in that case. I did see them offering suggestions to people who seemed a little confused by the array of available options. Also, the veggie boxes are black and the non-veg boxes are red. That's a pretty nice touch.

Friend wanted crystal dumplings. They did sound interesting. I still don't know why 'crystal', but okay. To be honest, I thought they were missing something, but I couldn't really say what exactly. Now, Wok Express gives these little containers of sauces at each table to add to your meal, if you are so inclined. Since we thought it was missing something, she decided to dip the dumplings in the garlic sauce container. And then we just dunked the whole thing inside. She loved it. I thought it was a little sour now.. I think it's a matter of preference in this case. But try it if you feel it's lacking flavor. You may just like it.
 

And finally, what I came here for. French vanilla milk coffee. With boba pearls! The bubbles I wanted! I know it's not tea, okay. I know I ordered coffee. But come on - its French vanilla. Plus, it was more about the bubbles and not the tea. So, there.
 
And when I got the drink, guess what? There were no bubbles. They'd plain forgotten. This would absolutely not do.
 
I went up to them and said, 'excuse me, there's no bubbles in my bubble tea.'
And they say 'no ma'am, it must be there.'
I silently handed them my glass.
They opened it and checked.
They added the boba pearls in.
They apologized.
I came back.
I drank the bubble tea.
 

 It was every bit as good as I wanted it to be.
Yummy chewy boba pearls. And when can one ever go wrong with French vanilla?

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