Bar Italia - Truly Italian!

Bar Italia is located right at the heart of Dublin city center and sees it's existence dating back to the previous century. It is one of the few ventures which has seen it's light being prevalent right since 1999 onwards and you would see the proud display inscribed in white text with below quote "Open 7 days for lunch and dinner since 1999". This and the popular Italian eatery joint Toscano are the 2 restaurants in Dublin which have now been serving customers for around quarter a century.

As the name connotes it's pretty to surmise that this is a restaurant which prides on Italian fare with a variety of pasta and pizza options along with samples of antipasti on the board. It was however very limited on the vegetarian side of things and I just had couple of items to choose from on the pasta or pizza menu.

For starters, I went with Rosemary Potatoes. They were large chunks of pieces shaped like a spiral and slathered with garlic, oil, butter and flourished with seasoning. They felt good on the mouth and it was nice consuming these giant sized juicy potatoes.

On the main course, I decided to go with Pasta and I literally had just 2 items to choose from one being ravioli with mushroom stuffing and another being a cheesy pasta sauteed with pepper in what you call a cacio de pepe pasta. I chose the latter and it was brought in a big 2 tier bowl with the upper end being garnished with parmesan cheese and the bottom portion were the rolled up pasta infused with cheese and a dash of pepper. It was quite lovely though for the Indian palette of mine felt a bit too bland lacking the masala you're so used to but nevertheless the tinge of cheese and pepper worked really well and it was flavorful on the whole.

The place gives a rich appeal with a black carved theme with dim lights associated. You have the bar right at the entrance and a row of seating to go along once you get inside. The service was crisp and on point. There was hardly much waiting time and you got your stuff without any delay. It's definitely a good spot to dine out however being a vegetarian options felt a bit too limited and will certainly be helpful if they have little more items in the fray. The two items which I had set me back by about 23.5 Euros with the pasta costing 19 and started about 4 and half Euros. Pricing seems par for the course and on similar lines to other places. Overall a cozy smooth dining place at Ormund Quay right around the corner of Dublin city center.

July Maadham Vandhaal - Get grooving!

This song is just sheer joy. A throwback to ARRs good old early days as a composer where he used to churn out one hit after another along with effortlessly touching upon a multitude of genres. This particular movie Puthiya Mugam didn't fetch the requisite rewards due to being a dampener at the silver screen but the entire soundtrack is curated with exceptionally decorated gems. 

The bits of music that are consecrated across this particular composition is simply pure delight. You just feel like dancing with ecstasy every time the guitar tugs the heart strings with it's superlative phrases. The ample feel good factor is evident across the entire piece.

The song also captures Colombo City in it's mighty glory. My formative years were spent in this beautiful country of Sri Lanka and seeing depictions of Galface, Taj Samudra, BMICH, Independence Square, Buddha Temple etc. bring back fond memories. 

It's the interlude which really blows away in this song with the guitar showcasing it's mastery. The guitar also doubles up as a call & response technique and the riveting interlude portion is an absolute feast. Also not to mention SPB's flawless rendition giving it the much desired zeal. 

I tried attempting a bit of the interlude followed by the charanam and pallavi on the veena. First time trying out the 3rd string to capture the bass element.  Just hope I've been able to capture a miniscule bit of the magic this song is laced upon in all it's vigor.