The Times Of India - Mumbai, 12/13/2019 Cropped page Page: S6

WHAT’S HOT, THE TIMES OF INDIA6 WINE & DINE / CULTURE FRIDAY 13 DECEMBER 2019

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I’m saddened and I’m gladdened.I’m experiencing twocontradictory emotions

simultaneously. I feel sad, very sad atthe shutting down of one of the city’soldest Chinese restaurants, Kamling.It’s red-tasseled lanterned room isfull of nostalgic, happy memories ofthe many dinners which ShashiKapoor and his family had there, ofsharing the Chimney Soup with thedashing Karan Kapoor, and ofendless meals of comforting Chinesefood. The family Tham has replacedits old-world Kamling with the youngand vibrant Foo Town, serving Asiantapas, sushi and sashimi, too.

Who better to review it with thanthe dapper, avid golfer, gourmetJapanese Consul General MichioHarada? Not only has he travelledthe world but cooks brilliantly, shopsfor the freshest fish atthe Sassoon Docks andloves entertaining in hissprawling Carmichaelroad home. Harada sanhas been in India pastseven months and isalready well-loved here.We had a super timeover dinner discussinggolf, Japanese andIndian restaurants inMumbai, but the food didnot match the fare at Fooin Phoenix High Street.

So, we went back fora second check, mygourmet spies (who’d

dined with me at therestaurant) sat in the outdoorsection and gave the food athumbs up.DÉCORLocated in the buzzingChurchgate area, the old-world Kamling hasreincarnated as Foo Town.Kudos to Sumessh Menonfor creating an ambiancethat straddles the past andthe present. A custom

fishscale stone flooring with redmosaic inserts welcomes you intothe warm and inviting interiors of FooTown with its burgundy finish archedwindows that echo the design of Fooat Phoenix Mills. Commercial musicfills the cheery space.FOODSmall plates. Big plates. Dimsum,soups, salads, sushi, sashimi, acouple of Kamling favourites and afew with Nikkei influences, too. Twomeals here serve up two different

Staging a play, a dance recital, organising an art show, hosting a foodfestival / screening or having a top DJ/Musician perform? Send us yourevent details at: bombay@timescity.com Follow us on Facebook@bombaytimes, Twitter @bombaytimes

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Restaurant ReviewFOO TOWNASIAN TAPAS

Rashmi Uday Singh

You. Yes, I’m on the lookout for you, if you know the restaurant-scape of NaviMumbai, Chembur and Powai. I would like to know your favourites — thewell-known, the unknown, the big and the small. And, I’ll be happy to dine

with you as my guest #blindfoodiedate. Instagram or tweet @rashmiudaysingh,and mail rashmiudaysingh18@gmail.com.

CALLING... NAVI MUMBAI, CHEMBUR AND POWAI

Dining with the Japanese Consul General MichioHarada at Foo Town

experiences. At our meal with theJapanese Consul General, only a fewdishes stood out. Thin carpaccio likeavocado salad, Po Po…Pomelo porksalad vibrant with citrus and spicyThai lotus root. Okay-ish dimsumplump with tasty fillings.

We enjoyed the comforting old-world Kamling Hakka Chicken. Askfor their popular Foo Asian Burrataand quinoa salad. Vegetarians haveplenty of choice — crisp VegetableTempura to ‘Foo Vegan’ Makisparkled with avocado and Thaichillies. End with the Yuzu OrangeCream Caramel. Sake, creativecocktails, fully-stocked bar, too.MINUS POINTSStodgy sushi, small portions of stalesashimi were the biggestdisappointments. Overcooked lamb,ditto for the Kamling whole pomfret.Over-sauced sweet potato and manya dish lacked the vibrance of dishesat Foo, Phoenix Mills. The sesamecheesecake dessert fell flat, too.Inconsistency marked the food overour two meals.MY POINTThere’s been a reincarnation inChurchgate. Kamling has beenreborn as Foo town. ‘Foo’ translates

to ‘fortune’ and ‘good luck’ inChinese and fortunately (for us andthe owners), it is moderately priced,has friendly service and greatambiance, too. All the ingredientsthat go to make up a greatrestaurant experience. However, themost important element, food, wasnot up to par at one meal and greatat the next. Consistency is mostcrucial and hopefully, theexperienced restaurateurs, Ryanand Keenan Tham (of Koko and Foo fame) will ensure it, and Footown will have us foo-dies asking for more.

Elephant in the Room(English), CSMVSAuditorium, Fort, Dec 13, 11am, 4 pm; Master Tusk is ayoung boy, who has been given anew head - an elephant's head.Confused and bewildered, hefinds himself lost in the forest.Danger lurks at every turn.Amidst a cursed love affair, anencounter with an eccentric oldelephant and the hunt for hismissing head, Master Tusk setsoff on an adventure that changeshis life. But will he be able tocarry his head on his shoulders?Inspired by the world of Indianmythology, Elephant in theRoom pays homage to thebeloved God, Lord Ganapati, inthis quirky and poignant reinter-pretation of his story. Starring:Yuki Ellias.

The Way I See It (English),Mukkti Cultural Hub,Andheri, Dec 15, 4 pm;Directed by Shiv Subramanyam,it is a one-woman show about lifein general; including all issues,both small and big; things thathappen to a forty-somethingmarried womancharting her per-ilous coursebetween independ-ence and responsi-bility; between mar-riage and self-reali-sation; between kidsand work; a comic,funny and satiricallook at how she looksat the world, andhow the world looksat her. Starring:Divya Jagdale,JahaanSubramanyam.

Visting Mr Green

(English), ExperimentalTheatre: NCPA, NarimanPoint, Dec 13, 8 pm, Dec 14,5.30 pm, 8 pm; Directed by JeffBaron, it is a funny, movingintergenerational play by JeffBaron. It tells the story of arecently widowed 86-year oldman who nearly gets run over bya car, then has to deal with theweekly court-ordered visits bythe young corporate executivewho was driving. A comic clashof cultures becomes a grippingdrama, as the men force eachother to re-examine their ownlives and beliefs. They confronttheir differences about religion,sexuality, and family. Starring:M.K Raina and AakashPrabhakar.

Gauhar (English), RoyalOpera House Theatre,Mathew Road, Dec 15, 7 pm;Directed by LilletteDubey,Gauhar recounts the fasci-nating story of one of India'sfirst mass media superstars atthe turn of the last century. Thefirst Indian woman to break tra-dition and

sing Indian classicalmusic on a wax record,Gauhar was an Armenian-Christian who later con-verted to Islam. A natural-ly gifted musician with awide repertoire, she sangin 20 languages and cutclose to 600 records in herlifetime. Starring:Rajeshwari Sachdev, ZilaKhan, Denzil Smith and others.

Kishan v/s Kanhaiya(Hindi), Tata Theatre:NCPA, Nariman Point,Dec 15, 7 pm; Directed byUmesh Shukla, Kishan, asmall-time conman andantique dealer, is an athe-ist married to a devoutwoman. The couple oftenargues over their diver-gent stance on religionand faith, and their con-stant conflict gives rise tosome hilarious situations.However, a dramatic twistin Kishan’s life overturnshis rational out-

look and compels him toreconsider the existenceof god. Although theplay is light-hearted inspirit, Kishan v/sKanhaiya provokesprofound questions.Starring: PareshRawal, Chirag Vora,Jimit Trivedi and oth-ers.

Bouncers (English), The JeffGoldberg Studio, Khar, Dec13-14, 8.30 pm; On the coldestnight of the year, four lads andfour girls are getting ready to goout for the night of their lives toThe Pink Flamingo – Mumbai’shottest nightclub. Guarding thedoor are the four bouncers, allgrappling with their identity andtheir place in this man’s world.Starring: Siddhant Ahuja,Aditya Jain, Karan Lall and oth-ers.

Goldilocks and the ThreeBears (English), Odeum,Andheri, Dec 15, 4 pm; It is aclassic tale about a young girland her adventure as she ven-tures off one afternoon to take awalk in the forest. There she hasan encounter with a hunter whocaptures and trains animals whoeventually perform in a Circus.Starring: Shubhankar Banerjee,Shambhavi Bajpai, Neha Thakurand others.

Raavan Ki Ramayan (Hindi),Royal Opera House, MathewRoad, Dec 14, 5 pm, 8 pm;Directed by Atul Satya Kaushik,it is a re-look at history from thepoint of view of those who lostand never got a chance to telltheir side of the story with moreintense dialogues, enhanced setand costume. A virtuous king ofa prosperous kingdom is out-raged at the ravaged modesty ofhis sister and sets out for digni-

fied revenge. Buthe falls for thedefiance andaudacity of anabducted womanand ultimatelythrows his king-dom into a greatwar against thewill of many ofhis ministersincluding his eld-est son and hiswise wifeMandodari. Thewar within himposes himagainst thequestions of hiswife, sons, Gods

and ancestors and war outsideultimately becomes the eternalwar of Sur and Asur with highstakes from history on bothsides. Starring: Puneet Issar,Gaurav Jakhu, Bhanu Ranaand others.

Khajoor Mein Atkaa (Hindi),Prithvi Theatre, Juhu, Dec 13,

9 pm, Dec 14, 6 pm, 9pm, Dec 15, 5 pm, 9pm; Directed by HanifPatni, this comedy-thriller revolvesaround an unemployedyoung man who hides

himself in a houseto get rid of the mobchasing him. Thehouse belongs to a

lawyer who is going to be cheat-ed by some unsocial elements.The young man comes to knowthe whole plot and the storyunfolds. Starring: Bakul Pande,Manav Pande,Vijay Singh andothers.

The Gender That is Woo-Men(Hindi), St. Andrews Centrefor Philosophy & PerformingArts, Bandra, Dec 15, 7.30 pm;This play expresses a woman’sunderstanding of the realityaround her. It tries to find out theinner thought of every womanthrough centuries of pain andsuffering. Starring: Vedika Sai,Raksha Shetty, Rohan Vermaand others.

Koshish (Hindi/English),Kashinath GhanekarNatyagruha Mini, Thane, Dec14, 9 pm; Directed by SandeepN. More, it is a satire thatattempts to strike a chord withall age groups. Koshish chroni-cles the journey of the protago-nist, who is in search of realhappiness and is finding uniqueways to deal with his muddledlife. Will that help him triumphover his predicament? Starring:Richie Agarwal, Deepa Panchal,Anuradha Burkule and others.

Partition By Manto (Hindi),Veda Factory, Andheri, Dec 13,7.30 pm; Directed by ArvindGaur, Partition is a Hindi Playbased on Saadat Hasan Manto’sstories. Starring: Rahul Datta,Pradeep Kumar, DeepikaPanghal and others.

Chup Kar (Hindi), Odeum,Andheri, Dec 13, 8 pm;Directed by Shekhar RameshMishra, The focus of the play isthat a man can go to any extentand do anything for his own saketo fulfill his needs. The playstarts with the Nawab who oftenforgets his clothes in the houseof his neighbour Mirza, wherehe flirts with his wife. WhenMirza comes to know about it, hegoes to kill Nawab but dueto his nonsense behavior,Nawab and his servantSheikhu always make foolof him with their ideas.Nawab’s wife is a bigEnglish maniac, but whenshe speaks English shealways misspells wordswhich embarrass Nawab.Meantime, Nawab’s fatherin law comes to his housefor some research where heinforms about the two injec-tions possessed by him. Onewas which converts old manto young and another waswhich converts a man into awoman. Starring: Sagar D.Verma, Ajit Singh, MadhuriKushwaha and others.

Aadhe Adhure (Hindi),Veda Factory, Andheri, Dec14, 7.30 pm; The play deals witha five-member family caught inthe vicious net of destitution.While the treatment of the situa-tion is dramatically powerful, itis the searing language, the useof poignant silences punctuatedby verbal whip-lashes that isRakesh's creative contribution.Starring: Ashok Pandey, KomalChhabria, Arjun Tanwar andothers.

Ek Gadhe Ki Aatmakathaa(Hindi), CLAP, Malad, Dec 15,7.30 pm; Directed by MujeebKhan, it is the story of a donkeywho is lost and his owner issearching for him in differentplaces. The donkey is well edu-cated and speaks English, too.Starring: Mir Salman, KiranSingh, Vikas Sharma.

Kiss Of The Spider Woman(Hindi), Mukkti Cultural Hub,Andheri, Dec 16, 4 pm;Directed by Hardik Shah, Kiran,a stereotypical homosexual win-dow-dresser, and Divy, a politicalprisoner are sharing a prisoncell. Kiran has beenconvicted of a sexual‘perversion’, whileDivy has been arrest-ed for his revolution-ary activities. In orderto pass the time, Kirandescribes in greatdetail to Divy a moviehe once saw. Further,follows a tale of anunlikely friendship, butKiran certainly hassomething more forDivy in his heart.Starring: Mukti RaviDas, Gurinder Kumar,Lalita Pandey and others.

Jugnu (Hindi), The JeffGoldberg Studio, Khar, Dec15, 6.30 pm, 8.30 pm; The playis an adaptation of Russian play-wright Anton Chekhov's stories.It tries to intertwine three sto-ries set in the small city ofAligarh where different charac-ters, in different situations dis-play that how at the core of thethings we all are the same peoplejust with different anomalies.

Starring: Varun Kulkarni,Sanika Kashikar, Kunal Duhar.

Toba Tek Singh (Hindi),Funkaar Dance Studio,Andheri, Dec 15, 7 pm; India &Pakistan decide to exchangetheir mental asylum inmates ona religious basis. As this newsbreaks inside a Lahore asylum,what follows is funny andabsurd. The inmates ask all theright and relevant questions, butthey are ‘certified’ mad by themajority. One among themBishen Singh is seeking the ‘cur-rent’ whereabouts of his home-land, Toba Tek Singh. Butnobody knows; not even the God.On the day of exchange, he refus-es to budge, until he gets a clearanswer. What follows leaves boththe countries stunned! Starring:Mohit Sharma.

Pitaji Please (Hindi), MukktiCultural Hub, Andheri, Dec15, 7 pm; Directed by MakarandDeshpande, it is the story of lovebetween a father and his son,which compels them to keep onelie between them to welcomeSwati in their house. A com-pelling warm, truthful playabout a lie out of fear. Starring:Swanand Kirkire, Zahan Kapoor,Aakanksha Gade and others.

Eka Lagnachi Pudhchi Gosht(Marathi), PrabodhankarThackeray Audi, Borivali, Dec13, 4 pm, DinanathMangeshkar Natya GrihaHall, Vile Parle, Dec 14, 4 pm,Shree Shivaji Mandir, Dadar,Dec 15, 3.30 pm; Manoj andManisha are happily married forover 18 years. But, in the quest ofa few desires, their relationshiphas entered into midlife crisis.

Starring: Prashant Damle,Kavita Medhekar, Atul Todankarand others.

Baanswada Company (Hindi),Mukkti Cultural Hub,Andheri, Dec 17, 7 pm;Directed by Niresh Kumar, thestory revolves around the strug-gles of this group to showcasestage performances in theregion. Director of the group

'Bhalchandra' makes his besteffort to run his group by carry-ing forward his deceased father'sdream of showcasing a stageplay written by Shakespeare.Starring: Nikhil Modi, SachinBhatt, Dhyan Prashad and others.

Albattya Galbattya (Marathi),Adya Krantiveer VasudevBalwant Phadke, Panvel, Dec14, 8.30 pm; Directed byChinmay Mandlekar, this play isall set to transport audiencesinto a magical world where fan-tasies seem to come to life.Starring: Vaibhav Mangle.

Hamlet (Marathi), RamGanesh Gadkari Rangayatan,Thane, Dec 13, 8.30 pm;Directed by ChandrakantKulkarni, this play is based onrevenge. Prince Hamlet comesback to Denmark for the mourn-ing of his father and he has towitness not just the mourningbut the celebration of the mar-riage of his mother, QueenGertrude to his uncle, KingClaudius. Starring: SumeetRaghavan, Tushar Dalvi, SunilTawade and others.

Thoda Tujha Thoda Majha(Marathi), DinanathMangeshkar Natya GrihaHall, Vile Parle, Dec 15, 4 pm;Directed by Swapnil Baraskar,Shrikant Nighudakar, a middle-class professor, and his wifeSarita are trapped in a peculiarsituation for twenty years. Thisplay is about the roller coaster oftheir emotional journey thatthey endure in order to reachblissful compatibility. Starring:Sanjay Narvekar, Samidha Guru,Vanita Kharat and others.

The annualStudioPotters

Market Bandra isback again inassociation withBhoomi Pottery.This marketfeatures studio potters and ceramic artistsfrom many cities across India, with theirown unique style. You will get to see and buytableware, home decor and sculptures toadorn your homes. At this event, have funwith clay on the wheel, and you can alsolearn and explore at the 'Paint a Pot'workshop.

Where: The Vintage Garden,Patkar Bunglow, Turner

Road, BandraWhen: December 14 to 15

Time: 11 am to 8 pm:Contact: 9892547449

Entry is free.

Explore beautiful artworks at this fair

As Global Art Fair openstoday, over a thousand fineartworks by

emerging as well as seniorartists from all over Indiawill be available for artlovers in Mumbai.Organised by Artland, thisevent will feature works ofartists like FN Souza,Suhas Roy, Vrindavan

Solanki, Vijender Sharma,Nayanaa Kanodia, Anand

Panchal, DharmendraRathore and others.

Where: Expo Center, WorldTrade Center, Cuffe parade

When: December 13 to 15 Timings: 10.30 am to 8.30 pm

Call: 9820079495Entry is free.

TIMES FOOD GUIDE

(5) Excellent (4) Very good(3) Good (2) Average (1) Poor

FOO TOWN82, Nagin Mahal, Veer Nariman

Road, ChurchgateContact: +91 9920133499

Open: 12 pm to 1 amMeal for two: `3,000

Visit WhatsHot.in to read more about thisoutlet and to discover Mumbai

RATING: Food: 3.5 Service: 3.5 Décor: 3.5

The columnist visits the

restaurants unannounced andpays her own bills

Rashmi Uday Singh

Elephant inthe Room

KhajoorMein Atkaa

The Way I See It

Anand Panachal, 30 x 72 inches

Kishan v/sKanhaiya

BaanswadaCompany

Kiss Of TheSpider Woman

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

A celebration with ceramics