Virundhu Restaurant, Eastcote, serving Sri Lankan Food

After trying Sri Lankan food at Pradha in South Harrow, I was interested in trying other Sri Lankan restaurants. My family found Virundhu in Eastcote. The restaurant's name is Tamil for feast.

I went on their website and saw they had lassi. Not just mango lassi. Rose lassi. Carrot drink.

I had found a restaurant I must try. You can sit indoors, or outdoors on the pavement.

Did they have Prosecco? Yes, at £9 for 20 cl. That would be for me, if I had not seen the lassi. Rose lassi.

Maybe both.

On arrival we asked for water, just plain tap water. It was served from attractive copper coloured jug.

The table lights were mechanical, not candles. Good. I think candles are dangerous and a nuisance because every now and then they set fire to something small like a table napkin. I prefer everything clean.  So far, the restaurant has several plus points. To read the menu, we were a foursome, we took a second light from another table.

I also liked the strings of flags.

Rose Lassi

The rose lassi was thick. Served in a copper colour metal container, with a thin straw. 

The Food

Starter Hopper

I ordered a hopper with egg. That was a novelty for all of us. Within the bowl an edible bowl made of crispy rice for the central egg which looked like poached egg. A contrast in textures. Soft boiled egg with a crispy outside.

My main course choices were 

chicken, 

potatoes.

 And a rice item. A thick white disc 

Two members of staff  asked if the food was okay. We all smiled and nodded. Although, my husband said we didn't have much in the way of vegetables. I found the chicken and potatoes too spicey and didn't want to fill up on rice to counteract the spiciness. Next time I shall order at least one vegetable dish. And ask for a less spicy option.

Desserts

Only two of the desserts were available.  In any case we were full. We wanted the leftovers wrapped up to go. This was done efficiently and promptly.

With the bill came a small glass of ginger tea, on the house. I really liked the ginger tea. Sweet, satisfying, refreshing, lovely ginger flavour.

As Shakespeare said in the title of is play, all's well that ends well

Website for Virundhu Restaurant Menu 

https://virundhurestaurant.com/DrinksMenu.pdf

https://virundhurestaurant.com/pdf/dessert-menu

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Smells of Cities and Countries - Bali, England, India, Singapore - and anti-Mosquito Perfumes

Singapore and the Smell of Jasmine 

When I am in department stores worldwide, and passing perfume counters at airports, I see Jasmine perfume and cosmetics featuring the aroma of the flowers.  I recall the colours and vivid smells of Singapore, especially the Jasmine. 

The national flower of Singapore is an orchid. The Botanical gardens has an orchid garden. You can also visit orchid farms. Restaurants often have an orchid flower in a small vase on the table. 

Singapore And Durian

Another distinctive seasonal smell of Singapore is durian. You will see signsbanning durian on the MRT (underground and overground railway). Taxis also ban durian. You can get it delivered. If you wrap it sufficintly well that nobody can smell it, then you could travel with it. That's the whole idea. You should not be carrying durian which others can smell, or which leaves a smell which lingers after you have left.

Bali and Tuberose

Is all the Far East the same? No. For me, Bali's distinctive smell is Tuberose. I encountered this in the lobby of a hotel. A huge central flower display in the hall. 

I afterwards ordered tuberose which I planted in my front garden in London. It did not thrive. So for me, the smell of tuberose is still the smell of Bali.

England, London and Lavender

The smells of London are roses. But also lavender. You can visit lavender farms. Lavender soaps and perfumes and hand creams are in supermarket, department stores and chemist shops (which Americans would call drug stores). 

Perfumes from flowers attract people, but also insects. When I realised that my perfumes from the UK were making me a magnet for mosquitos, I started stocking up on different perfumes.

Lavender is also said to repel mosquitos. I used to yo-yo between Signapore and London, before and after Covid. In London I would stock up on lavender cosmetics to take back to Singapore. Marks & Spencer stocked pefumed products in the UK and later in Singapore. But UK products were cheaper in the UK than in Singapore. A British lavender brand is Norfolk Lavender. 

France and French Lavender

France also has French lavender. I recall visiting a perfume factory in Grasse, in Southern France. I went there on holiday when I was single. After I married, I went there again with my husband.

Indian Spices in India, England and Worldwide

India has different spices in different areas. Meats are in muslim areas and markets and restaurants. Vegetarian dishes are in Hindu areas. In England you will find tandoori foods in almost every high street (Americans would say main street). Tandoori is from northern India and Pakistan. Many vegetarian restaurants are well known in India, Singapore and in London, such as in Rayners Lane near the Rayners Lane tube station.

Italy, Lemons and Citronella

In Italy I discovered that lemon aromas repel insects. The lemon scent is in citronella. 

Singapore's Little India

Singapore is tropical, high temperatures. Eternal summer, bright flowers, strong smells of flowers. My previous post was about jasmine in Singapore, which I smelled daily in my walk to Cashew station.. 

I previously lived in Singapore's Little India. Strong smells of spices waft from the flower sellers selling garlands in the markets of Little India. You also get aromas from treading on petals fallen onto the five foot ways, covered paths along the shops. Also strong smells of curry and spices from the restants and stalls in Little India.

I travel with lavender and lemon scented cosmetics and perfumes. (As well as mosquito and insect repellent, anti-insect spray for hotel bedrooms, and sting relief.

Where you might see or hear a grasshopper, cricket or locust

 

Grasshopper on rose in London, England, july 2024. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Finding A UK Grasshopper

You can see the green, grasshopper on the pink rose in my photo above. I saw this green semi see-through insect on a rose I had picked from the back garden (Americans say yard) in England. 

I took a photo. I was glad I did. By the time I had called others to see it, it had leaped into the air and flown off.

 It vanished. I thought I had lost it.

The Grasshopper Hops Off

Then sometody called that they had seen it on the floor. We knelt down to look at it. It scuttled off. 

Then, to our surprise it leaped again, about knee high, a couple of feet. It landed on the floor, and disappeared under a table.

Catching the Grasshopper

I called my husband to bring a glass to catch it. I didn't move. I kept watching it.

He trapped it. He released it outdoors.

Friend or Foe\

Afterwards, I wondered if we had done the right thing. Was it a pest? Locusts are pests.. But first, what was it? 

What Was It

It was green. Green like grass. It hopped. It must be a grasshopper. 

But, are a grasshaopper and cricket the same thing?.\As far apart as London in England and Singapore!

Singapore Crickets

I recalled that in Singapore where I lived most of the year for more than twenty years, you could hear the crickets every night, making a racket after sunset and when I went to bed around 11 p to midnight.. Although I never saw them.

I had heard crickets chirping every night in Singapore for years, but had never seen one.

Elaewhere in Asia, they are a poular food.

Later, after we released the grasshopper, I started to research. Was a cricket the same as a grasshaopper? 

Yes, although there are many sub catergories, sizes and colours.  A bit like dogs or cats.

Life Span

They live only two to three months . The adults die off in winter. Next year a new generation is born from eggs which lay hidden all winter.Like many insects.

Locusts

Swarms occur when there are too many in one place and they move on looking for more food.

Friend or foe, protector of plants or poests? A few million of them, locusts, on a cash crop, is not good news. But one lone, grasshopper, probably, won't do much harm.

DNA isn't everything. The environment can change behavious. Over crowding turns grasshoppers into locusts.

Useful Websites

Wikipedia Grasshopper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper\

https://extensionpubs.unl.edu/publication/g1633/na/html/view#:~:text=Grasshopper%20nymphs%20normally%20reach%20the,months%2C%20depending%20on%20the%20weather.

https://nerdfighteria.info/v/2x5eOBJ37iE/#:~:text=But%20if%20they%20are%20crowded,loop%20that%20leads%20to%20locusts.

G

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The Rodon (Rose) Hotel in Agros, Cyprus had the best baklava

Angela Lansbury on the balcony of a bedroom at Rodon Hotel, Cyprus. Photo by Trevor Sharot

We stayed at the Rodon hotel in the Troodos mountains in the centre of Cyprus for a walking, and hiking holiday. The name Rodon means rose in Greek.

The Rodon Hotel and my rosy view of it

We were a group of 16 (Java Lava in exile) in about 12 rooms so we had to stay in a large hotel and the Rodon Hotel is the largest in the area. Oddly, it is given only three stars, although we thought it deserved four. The hotel has a large free parking area in front. 

Swimming Pool

At the back, in theory two outdoor swimming pools - the lower one being the best, curvy and cool but warm once you start swimming. (The upper pool was small, square, had a few leaves on it, and the adjoining small indoor pool was being renovated.) I also noticed a small gym.

Bedrooms

The balcony overlooked the mountains, trees and car park.

Our first bedroom was short of power point sockets, needed by two people. They gave us an extension board. 

However, we transferred to a larger suite, which cost more, about 20 Euros more. 

Toiletries

The toiletries provided were just two kinds, shower gel and shampoo, plus a shower cap. We bought a bottle of hair conditioner in the supermarket just around the s-bend mountain road, within walking distance. The suite did not have more kinds of toiletries than the plain bedrooms.

Towelling backless bathroom slippers were hidden in a drawer under the safe.

Beautiful Buffet

The buffet was great, a huge choice. The meats consisted of three or four choices such as chicken in sweet and sour sauce, two more meats such as beef or lamb and pork, meatballs, and what the serving person said was a Cypriot speciality - ground beef (I call it mincemeat) in tomato sauce. 

Breads included seeded rolls, white or brown bread, one with seeds on the edge, or plain. (At breakfast time a toaster.) 

Vegetables and Salads

Assorted hot vegetables included potatoes and rice or pasta. 

Two to four salads. We had three or four dips for starters, such as hummous, tahini, yogurt. 

Drinks. A cold water machine. A coffee machine. 

Delicious Desserts

Best of all were the desserts. Two kinds of mini mousse such as chocolate or vanilla. A jelly or two, green or red. Three or four kinds of Cypriot Greek sweet desserts such as baklava, or cake with coconut topping.

Drinks

Waiter service for drinks you wanted to order and pay for, such as Prosecco. All over Cyprus, no problem if a large group all wanted to order different drinks or food. In hotels, they took each person's or couple's or family\s room number. They put your bill for that order in a drinking glass. You signed for it. You paid on checking out of the hotel.

At lunch places, they gave each diner in turn a number. So when the food arrived, you got what you ordered. When you paid, they knew that number one ordered this and that, and checked it with you.

Fruit

Plus orange oranges, green or red apples, yellow bananas. Cut fruit was half moon shapes of red watermelon with a green rind. Also a yellow or green sliced melon. It would be easy to over-eat.

Breakfast

At breakfast we had boiled eggs, fried eggs, or scrambled egg, ham or processed meat, bacon, sausages and mini frankfurters, flat triangles of cheese. Fruits. Yogurt and cereals and nuts and sultanas and dates. Mini croissants, not flaky but with pleasantly chewy centres. Good enough. Yellow cake dotted with dried fruit in green and red colours. Miniature marble cake in plain and chocolate. 

Rose Shopping and Waterfall Walking

I shall describe the rose factory which is in walking distance, and the walk to the waterfall in other posts.  

Useful Websites

https://www.booking.com/hotel/cy/rodon-mount-and-resort.en-gb.html?aid=311076&label=rodon-mount-and-resort-

Help for Coughs and Colds at home, travelling, speaking, and online

 

I have a bad cold, day 4, and I have to give a speech online at TCA online Toastmasters speakers club meeting. The speech is important to me because it is my area of expertise. I am the author of Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and How to  ls, be the Best Man, as well as compiling two self-published books of quotations, Quick Quotations, and Who Said What When. I need to be able to restore my energy and to speak without coughing, sneezing, nor  losing my voice during the speech and afterwards.

I discovered that I cleared my nose by sniffing a small lavender candle which I was given at a mother's Day dinner at Botanico Restaurant in Singapore's Botanic Gardens. I have written about this dinner in another post. The dinner also served as a pre-birthday celebration meal.

My second success in clearing my breathing and improving my mood same from sniffing Rose bath Salts. The lidded glass container is labelled with the ingredients : sea salt, rose petals, rose oil.

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I have a bad cold, day 4, and I am giving an online 5 to 7 minute speech tonight (at TCA Toastmasters). The subject is quotations, my area of expertise. I have edited two books of quotations and I a compiling another and a workshop, so I am really keen to speak, without coughing, sneezing, nor straining my voice.

I found that I enjoyed and breathed better after simply sniffing a lavender candle. (The candle was a free gift to ladies at a mother's day dinner (also my pre-birthday dinner) at Botanico restaurant.

I had the same aromatherapy effect from sniffing rose bath salts, part of the Bundle of Jolly bought for me on my birthday by President Faith of BHA, Toastmasters club. Thank you, Faith.

That gave me the idea of hunting for Tiger Balm in the bathroom cabinet. I found the white sort, which I think is slightly different and not as strong as the green label.

I also discovered a miniature bottle of Eucalyptus oil.

My family used a brand called Vick's vapour rub when I was a child in the UK.

I had also read online that if you sneeze or rub your eyes it could be a sign that you are dehydrated. If you are sneezing, logically that is a loss of liquid. So I keep drinking water to compensate and lubricate.

Friends, everybody, do you have any other suggestions (or recollections)? I have already had my first anti Covid-19 vaccination. and am due for another shortly.)

Useful Websites

www.hushcandle.com

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