Monthly Archives: February 2010

Twitter is like junk food

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Twitter is like McDonald’s or KFC’s junk food. We know it is bad, but fall for it for the sake of taste and packaging. From being a voracious tweep, I have cut down drastically over the last few months for two reasons – work deadlines and Twitter boredom. Like my friend on Twitter says, leave it or take it, you can’t stay out of Twitter for long. He is right 100 percent. Twitter is a cool microblogging tool which allows you to connect to people all across the world – from celebs to stars to college students to nuts. You make new friends or piss off existing friends – the options are endless and mind-blowing. Depends on what kind of stuff you tweet. Twitter is what you want it to be.

One more disadvantage of tweeting is that your blogging takes a hit. This blog is the finest example of Twitter impact. From 20-25 posts a month, I can barely manage to post once a week. There is no shortage of stuff to post; it is just the laziness which creeps in when you can express the same thoughts in 140 characters over Twitter. Muscat had a lot of cool bloggers who lost their way, someway or the other, and Twitter has a major role to play in this downward spiral.

Thanks to social media/new media, I don’t mail my ‘real friends’ anymore. They track me over Facebook, blog and Twitter. Such is life in 2010.

Rock show

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A truck carrying monster-looking boulders/rocks was cruising at 80-90 kmph along the highway near Musanna. Are these trucks designed to carry the boulders? It is always scary when you drive past them.

Safety anyone?

Restaurant review: China Mood

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What are the options for Chinese food in Muscat? Other than Golden Oryx and Silk Route, there aren’t enough decent options around. For a change, we decided to try China Mood at Al Bustan Palace Hotel.

Since the weather was great, we decided to go for outdoor seating. With the magnificent sea in the backdrop, the place is perfect for a quiet meal.

We opted for the Szechwan combination set menu, and asked the staff to substitute the beef option with chicken. A little later, a Chinese lady with colourful attire landed on our table offering tea, served acrobatically with a long metal pot. Quite a sight. Later, in the evening, she performed a tea show as well. The Chinese tea was rocking, and I had three servings during the course of the meal.

For appetizers, we had Szechwan barbeque hammour and spicy shredded chicken. Both were well made, and hammour especially was crisp and nice. After coming to Oman, I have a become a big fan of hammour.

A little later, our sweet corn with crab meat soup arrived. It was a bit bland to our liking, and we had to add a little bit of sauces to make it alive and kicking.

For main course, we had stir-fried prawns with spicy sauce, Szechwan spicy chicken, stir-fried mixed seasonal vegetables and Szechwan stir-fried noodles and rice. Every dish was perfect, and well made.

Finally, we tucked into crisp honey banana with vanilla ice cream. Perfect end to a lovely meal.

Verdict

Food: The food taste was awesome, totally Chinese. There is a vast difference between the Indian Chinese and the Chinese Chinese. Every dish was unique with different flavours. The portions are decent as well.

Service: The courteous staff pampered us and made sure we had a great dining experience. They knew the food they were serving inside out, and were knowledgeable.

Damages: The set menu for two cost us RO 48.200, inclusive of taxes and service charges.

If you want to enjoy a quiet meal with your family or loved ones, China Mood is the place to be. It is a bit expensive, but definitely worth it.