Welcome to my blog

 Welcome to my blog

My blog covers my food reviews, events I attended and my interactions with achievers.

Please scroll below to read through my blog posts..

Links

Social media (@rajalingamtalks)

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My Interview to Parivu TV

My Interview to Parivu TV

Interaction with Parivu TV

Exclusive media coverages

In The Hindu Oppurtunities

Got featured in today's The Hindu newspaper. With more companies getting onto social media recruitment it's high time that the job seekers use LinkedIn to get their dream jobs.
Catch my views on this scenario in this article.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-opportunities/Talent-acquisition-on-a-new-track/article14473241.ece

My interview in Edex

My interview in today's New Indian Express (Edex) about my recently launched book, "LinkedIn - The Key to Your Dream Job" which is about career improvement using LinkedIn. The proceeds from this book will go to my "For A Change Trust" and it will be used towards youth & women empowerment.

In The Hindu

Article featuring me talking about my recently launched book "LinkedIn - The Key To Your Dream Job" in today's THE HINDU

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-downtown/kk-nagar-resident-releases-book/article14430306.ece

Review - Shanghai Annaachi, Chennai

I had ordered before from Shnaghai Annaachi. After being impressed with the food very much from the home deliveries, this time I wanted to check out their ambience and the service at their outlet @ KNK road.

The Veetu Kozhi kolambu & the steamed rice were the delicious ones from their menu. But this time I wanted to try something else.

I was in a mood to try something spicy but not a gravy nor a briyani, I after lots of thoughts I enquired the waiter for a spicy and saucy noodles. And I finally settled for the schezwan chicken noodles n roasted chilly chicken.

I was served a colorful and spicy looking noodles spiced up with tomatoes, green chillies and capsicum. I should say that they are the best noodles I had in my life. The noodles were awesome as it tasted like the home made noodles with a Chinese flavour to it.

Definitely worth the money

Here’s my rating

Overall       - 5/5
Ambience   - 5
Price           - 5
Waiting time - 5
Taste             - 5

On the Party whirl page of Deccan Chronicle

On the Party whirl page of Deccan Chronicle

(second from the top right)

SuperChef Chennai - Food Carnival

Being a foodie and part of the facebook group ‘Chennai Food Zone” I din’t wanna miss this international food carnival organized by the Madras Cosmopolitan Ladies Circle 38 & Round Table India - Area 2 

Initially I went around to check out all the stalls and you can get an idea on the number of stalls by imagining a picture of the sheer size of the Amir Mahal ground.

I paid for the tokens and started tasting different international cuisines from countries such as Britain, Belgium, Singapore, Burma and not to mention our own India.

Among the overall stalls, the stall that attracted the maximum crowd was that of the Waf O’bel. When I started looking around the stalls, it was empty. But when I was done with the stalls and came back to buy a waffle, all I could get was a long queue waiting to get the waffles.

Finally After an hours wait, I was lucky enough to lay my hands on the waffles. I should say its worth the wait.

And the next thing is the burmese delicacies by The Park. The burmese cuisine is always my big time favorite and when I saw it here, I couldn’t resist more. Ordered Khowsuey and was busy finding a place to sit and started tasting 

it that I totally forgot to take a picture of it.

After this, my stomach was totally stuffed, but on seeing the Chat items in the Stall of Uncle Sam’s kitchen, without any second thought I ordered for them.

Apart from the stalls, there were other activities happening around. The one that caught my eye was the ice-carving event and the guy was amazing. You can see it yourself here in this picture.

On the whole, it was a nice event.

Thanks to Madras Cosmopolitan Ladies Circle 38 & Round Table India - Area 2 for organising such a wonderful food fest carnival.

Sea Shell – Chennai food review

After a long week, and back to back travel wrt to my social media agency business in Chennai’s traffic, I decided to have a nice non-vegetarian lunch at Sea-Shell Anna Nagar.

It’s been a long time that I had been there. I ordered my usual favorite “BBQ Chicken Grilled” coupled with a butter naan and Kerala Paratha. Also ordered egg curry for the naan and paratha.

I will always rate the grilled chicken at SeaShell as the best against any restaurants in Chennai. The egg curry tasted awesome for the paratha and the butter naan.

The ambience was great and gave me a calm experience to my mind which was so busy for the whole week.

The service was awesome and everything was served in time.

The price was Just ₹.545/- for a lunch of two people. And I should say that’s pretty normal for a 2 people lunch in Chennai.

Ratings:

Ambience: 5/5

Serving time: 5/5

Food taste: 5/5

Pricing: 4.5/5

Sea Shell – Chennai food review

After a long week, and back to back travel wrt to my social media agency business in Chennai’s traffic, I decided to have a nice non-vegetarian lunch at Sea-Shell Anna Nagar.

It’s been a long time that I had been there. I ordered my usual favorite “BBQ Chicken Grilled” coupled with a butter naan and Kerala Paratha. Also ordered egg curry for the naan and paratha.

I will always rate the grilled chicken at SeaShell as the best against any restaurants in Chennai. The egg curry tasted awesome for the paratha and the butter naan.

The ambience was great and gave me a calm experience to my mind which was so busy for the whole week.

The service was awesome and everything was served in time.

The price was Just ₹.545/- for a lunch of two people. And I should say that’s pretty normal for a 2 people lunch in Chennai.

Ratings:

Ambience: 5/5

Serving time: 5/5

Food taste: 5/5

Pricing: 4.5/5

Chennai Flood Relief - Saidapet adoption

Chennai Flood Relief

During the Chennai Flood, we decided not to just help the people in the flood affected areas with the daily supplies, instead, we decided to lend our long term support to help them come out of this unexpected disaster and move forward in their life.

Our trust 'For A Change' has adopted a street having 100+ houses behind the saidapet railway track to do this work

We did our rehab work in the following phases.

1. sewage eviction from homes
2. pathway restoration 
3. supply of cooking raw materials 
4. restoration of lost items (dress, mats, blankets)
5. counselling to encourage them to move forward

Apart from the regular support, our women centric works were:

• Supply of Sanitary napkins to the girls and the women
• Milk packets to help the women feed their children
• Special counselling to girls in the flood affected area

Review - Delhi Highway, Nungambakkam

The rain didn't stop and it was drizzling still. The Kenyan black coffee we had in the morning at Starbucks couldn't keep us energetic for long. It was after noon and we both started feeling hungry.

As we had ordered sandwiches and muffins earlier in the morning at starbucks, we were not extremely hungry. So we decided to go some place nearby. We started walking under the umbrella and we reached the Delhi Highway.

As we weren't totally hungry we decided to just go for a butter naan and a paneer butter masala.

And my partner went for Laccha, the wheat variant of the regular naan.

The order wasn't seeming to be arriving  soon and we both ended up finishing up the amla and the mango pickle that was kept on the table.

And finally the order was served. Nothing much to comment on the food here, as the naan was like that of the other decent restaurants in Chennai. I will be writing a detailed blog post on the menu some other day in near future.

As I was doubtful whether I would get hungry again, I ordered another butter naan, as I felt it's much economic than ordering a sandwich in the cafes.

But I should say that the paneer butter masala was the best of the things I ever had in Chennai.


So here goes my verdict
Price: 4 / 5
Quantity: 4 / 5
Quality: 5 / 5
Ambience: 4 / 5
Speed: 4 / 5

Coffee tasting - Kenya at Starbucks

It was raining so badly and heard that my office is totally surrounded by water like an island. So we decided to work from Starbucks.

I wrapped myself in raincoat and helmet and started riding to starbucks, as I couldn't book a Ola cab.

After reaching the starbucks, Nisha, who works there asked us if we can join them for a coffee tasting session. I learnt that they do the coffee tasting every morning and this time two more staff joined us in our second coffee tasting at Starbucks.

Elam who was supposed to take us through the coffee tasting process, initially seemed to be shy but as he started speaking about the coffee, I found his enthusiasm reach its height.

He started briefing us about the "Kenya" coffee at Starbucks.

I'm not going to bother you people with the coffee tasting process, as I have described it already in my previous blog post on coffee tasting at Star Bucks. You can read the old post here..

The coffee had a citrus taste to it. And it tasted excellent than the Sumatra.

Now back to the details about "Kenya" that was shared by Elam.

The beans are from Africa and they were medium roasted ones. It's a seasonal and aged bean. I came to know that Starbucks uses only Arabica beans.

Now the Gyan about Arabica and Robusta varieties. The arabica beans are cultivated at high altitude whereas the robusta beans are cultivated at low altitude. The beans goes through a stringent quality check by the GCQ team ie., the Green Coffee Quality team.

He also spoke about the different coffee making processes at Starbucks.

• Bun machine
• Espresso Machine
• Filtering process
• French Press method

The Kenya beans are the only Arabica beans that tastes good for a cold coffee too.

 We had a nice second coffee tasting session at Starbucks and we really enjoyed it.

Would love to go through more such sessions and get to upgrade myself both in coffee tasting and to become a knowledged and a master coffee story teller like Elam.

Review - Dhaba Express, Nungambakkam

Decided to go again for Little Italy. .But remembered a friend telling me about the lunch buffet costing around just Rs.150 at dhaba express. .since it was in same building..I decided to give it a try 

My partner who initially preferred ala carte later decided to go for the buffet after seeing the array of food kept for the buffet. .

For the 150 bucks I gotta get d following

• Kadi pakoda
• Dhal makani
• Crispy cabbage fry
• Sambar
• Rice
• Boondhi dahi
• Raddish
• Onion vinegar
• Jalebi
• Roti
• Curd rice
• Pasta
• Veg pulao 

Ambience resembles punjabi theme. .I would suggest this place far anyone who would like to have a quick lunch in this busy office days and when not in a mood to wait for the order to be served fast,

Finally, it's Worth the money

Ambience 4 / 5

Price 5 / 5

Quantity 5/5
Quality 4/5

Review - The Madaras Kafe

It was raining cats and dogs outside and it was an awesome sunday noon. Was busy discussing business with my partner at Cafe Coffee Day in Ispahani Centre, Nungambakkam.

Around 4 pm, started feeling hungry. We were discussing a wide range of options for 30 minutes, on where to go for eating.

We were in double thoughts as to go out in rain or not.. As we were standing on the corridors and chatting, this place "The Madara Kafe" caught our eyes. I wasn't sure whether they serve food. So i decided to go check out the menu before going there. And the man standing behind the counter said that food is available, I asked for the menu. I was expecting to see just sandwiches and coffees. But when I saw Parottas and Dosas on the menu, I decided to eat there.

We settled for Corn Kichadi, Tomato Ghee Roast and veg Kothu Parotta.

Initially I was disappointed at the quantity of food that was served. man, that was too less for the price.

But to my surprise, when i started eating the served food, my taste palettes were giving a thumbs up. yea, the taste was good and it was more like a home made one.

The spiciness was perfect and I decided to go for another Kothu Parotta, as it was not filling enough.

Though the place is small and houses only 5 to 6 tables, the ambience was quite good. With pictures of Old Madras hanging on the walls, to go with the name of the restaurant.

My verdict:
Price: 3 / 5
Quality: 4 / 5
Quantity: 3 / 5
Service: 4 / 5
Speed: 3.5 / 5

But its worth the money given its location at Ispahani centre and the quality they serve.