Birding at Madiwala lake

Madiwala lake is one of the biggest lakes in Bangalore, spread over an area of 114.3 hectare. It is an ideal place for a family outing as it has a children's park, boating facility and lots of birds. 

Sunday morning saw us at Madiwala lake where we skipped the children's park and boating to explore the bird life over there. Here's a photo tour...

The Bird Board at the entrance gave us a glimpse of the variety of birds that inhabit there...

 Our first sighting was a charming female Asian Koel...

A male Asian Koel was also spotted on a tree nearby...

A flock of Asian Openbill Stork were seen foraging for food with not much luck...

And a flock of juvenile Cormorants were learning fishing skills from an expert...

A Black Kite was concentrating on a frog from his high perch...

A quick swoop...

And the little frog is caught...

A White-cheeked Barbet was spotted in an awkward position. If you look carefully, you can see an insect it has caught...

An Asian Openbill Stork in flight...

A White Breasted Kingfisher...

This is why it is called White breasted Kingfisher...

We moved to the bamboo habitat...

Lots of Black kites were found in the bamboo habitat...

Black Kite...

Brahminy Kite...

A beautiful Cattle Egret...

 Indian Pond Heron in non-breeding plumage...

Indian Pond Heron in breeding plumage...

An extremely shy male Golden Oriole was sitting very far away...

 Noticed a movement in the bushes near where I was standing. The beautiful patterns looked like that of a Checkered Keelback snake...

After a while it raised its head. The patterns below its eye confirmed that it's a Checkered Keelback snake. It is a common species of nonvenomous snake found in Asia. This snake is found in or near freshwater lakes or rivers. It feeds mainly on small fish and water frogs...

Purple Swamp Hen...

Black Winged Stilts...

Common Myna...

A shy White Breasted Kingfisher was sitting far away...

It flew away the moment it saw me focusing...

A Little Egret caught a fish...

A Rose-ringed Parakeet...

Recent portraits of Rohan

Rohan will be four years old next month. Here are some recent portraits and some photo manipulations using Adobe Photoshop... 

Taste of Mesopotamia

Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway is currently holding a "Taste of Mesopotamia" food festival that features some special dishes from Iraq, Kuwait, parts of Saudi Arabia as well as Turkish-Syrian border. 

So, when I was invited to sample some of the items from the menu, I was quite excited as Mesopotamian cuisine is one of the oldest cuisines in the world. Here's a photo review of my experience...

The decor at Persian Terrace was charming...

A table was arranged for the reviewers...

I liked how compressed napkin expanded when water is added...

The menu for the 'Taste of Mesopotamia' festival is curated by Chef Gopal. The chef briefly explained the cuisine and the dishes he planned for the evening. He immediately made me comfortable and I eagerly looked forward to the food he made...

The Mezze platter consists of Baytinijan Maqli, made from aubergine with Tahini sauce, lettuce and parsley.  Also on the platter was Hummus Beiruti, made from mashed chickpeas, blended with Tahini, olive oil, parsley, and garlic. The marinated olives made of bell pepper, arabic pickle olives marinated with garlic olive oil and lemon juice gave a much needed zing to the rich dips for the pita...

The Kebab platter was greeted with much delight. There was Samkeh Harra - charcoal grilled fish, Jujeh Kebab -  grilled chunks of chicken, Kebab-e-robian - grilled prawns and kebab-e-Rastay Gosfand - lamb chops with arabic spices. The distinct flavors of the Arabic spices blended perfectly to my linking...

The prawns were my pick. I asked for a couple more helpings...

The mild garlic mayonnaise went really well with the kebabs...

Before we went on to the main course, we had an interesting conversation with Executive Chef Anthony Huang. Chef Anthony is a cheerful person and the conversation  ranged over not just the festival but also about the culinary scene in Bangalore that's exploded in the last decade...

For main course we had Mujaddara, a flavorful rice and lentil pilaf. Also served was yellow Zardah sweet rice...

The rice went well with Assyrian Masha white bean stew...

Iraqi Karoof and Brinjal stew was a delicate tale of flavours. The traditional tangy middle eastern stew of lamb and brinjal remains my favorite dish of the day...

Who can resist a platter that consists of desserts like Baklava, Bamiyeh, Zulbia, dates ice cream and fruits? The platter gave a broad smile as I tried to resist. Apparently, it already knew what I realized... resistance is futile...

The "Taste of Mesopotamia" festival continues till 18th of this month only during lunch hours. You can try the dishes I tried and more at the Persian Terrace.

Price: INR 2700 (With Alcohol) | INR 2100 (Without Alcohol)