Listen when I say: the horseradish has landed!

Wasabi, feted by critics as India’s trendiest morsel, just served up seconds. Mumbaikars can quit crowing; Celebrity chef Morimoto has risen on Delhi’s horizon, and I got a sneak-peek into his new kitchen at the Taj Mahal hotel.

Going live on Wednesday, May 21, Wasabi’s gonna be the place to see — and be seen at. Monochrome decor colour-washed with light, mirrored ceiling and fanciful glass baubles, this 54-seater jewel box expects queues! Hit the bar for a cocktail while you wait. I loved the Nippon Mary (Smirnoff Black, tomato juice, ponzu, teriyaki sauce, spot of wasabi and sichuan rim) and the Kappa cooler (Ichiko with peach, kiwi, cucumber, grapefruit juices).

Aim for the seats at the live sushi bar or teppan counter. Note: only the Nippon-naive order sushi as a starter. Trendy gyaru (gals) eat edamame — as fingerfood — squeezing pods toothpaste-style to pop milky-sweet soyabeans into mouth! (Great alternative to bar peanuts!)

Wasabi’s ‘contemporary Japanese’ menu carries signatures that made Nobu shine and gave Morimoto’s eponymous chain fillip. The artfully stacked (but hugely deep fried) Morimoto tempura with cheese sauce scares me silly. His rock shrimp tempura, and the veggie ‘rock corn’ is kinder. First-course faves: broiled king crab on the half-shell, steamed scallops with ginger and scallion, aona goma ae (Japanese spinach in sesame sauce and chilli oil). On to teppanyaki — tofu, chicken, tenderloin. But saving space for Nobu-classic black cod miso. Alternatives: steamed sea-bass in black-bean sauce, splashed with infused hot oil; or stuffed kabocha pumpkin. Now get sushi and sashimi (yes, yes, flown in from Tsukiji every other day).

Let the sun set on your kaiseki with green-tea ice cream with azuki (red bean) sauce. Looks, there’s no other way to say it, yucky, but oh, it sure slurps yummy.

Wasabi, Taj Mahal Hotel, 1 Mansingh Road, New Delhi; ph: 66513585, 230261612. Prices: Rs 5,000 per head (including a drink).

What wouldn’t I give to get J Lo-like tresses — a curly cascade that looks sun kissed, showing up a million tonal glints. I want colour that gives me the freedom to let my hair be without worrying too much about root touch ups.

My favourite daydream is now a reality. I am talking about the latest hair colouring technique by Wella called ColorCascading. The stylists claim it is the next big thing in tress highlighting. I decided to take a trial at the nearest Wella salon and I must say I was impressed!

First, the colour used for this technique does not come out of a bottle. The hair expert mixed together powdered hair colour to get what he called ‘clay’. And then, instead of wrapping my strands in foil, he actually painted the mix on the strands layer by layer, as if applying a mask. He created different tones and colour density from the same mix by just increasing the amount of `clay’ he put on the strands.

The great thing about this technique is that it does not burn or weaken your strands like its liquid counterpart. The colour stops working as soon as it’s dry, so it doesn’t look brassy.

Post wash and blow dry, I was blown away by the results. The flow of colour from root to tip was seamless. What I liked best about this is that the highlights on each person are unique. My stylist explained that the highlights on my hair cannot be replicated on another head. So my colour will be all my own. All I have to do to keep my highlights looking great is to go for Wella Biotouch Color Protection Shots, once in a while.

Now J Lo has nothing on me.

Wella ColorCascading. Price: Rs 1,000 onwards
Delhi: Dar Salon and Spa, E-31/32 IInd Floor, South Extension- II, Phone: 4168-0600.
Mumbai: Dilshad’s Salon, Nav Pooja Apartments, 11-A, Perry Cross Road, Bandra, Phone: 26431770, 26516374.
Bangalore: Wella Beauty Parlour, 1 2nd Mn, Road , 1st Blk, R.T. Nagar, Phone: 23632393.

I think I’ve just discovered the perfect antidote to those Monday bring-me-downs: A plump cushion, a delish fruit martini, superlative food, gentle breeze and bluesy jazz that soothes the nerves till you’re ready to take on the rest of the week.

Okay, so Johnnie boy (Coltrane, of course) or Armstrong aren’t landing up on your doorstep. But trust me, you don’t need to know who they are to appreciate Monday evenings at Olive Beach.

With renowned artists performing every week, this place comes alive as the lights go on.

We’ve seen Gerard Machado, Amit Heri and Just Us Trio (from Kolkata) impressing Bangaloreans with their distinct style of music already. May 19 will have Matt Littlewood (saxophonist, pianist and composer) with French drummer Suresh Bascara and one of India’s leading bass players Keith Peters, dishing out some very spicy numbers.

For the uninitiated, Littlewood lives and teaches at Auroville and has played with many jazz groups and bands in England and India, besides having two albums to his credit. Suresh Bascara is trained in the tabla, has been into pop and rock percussion and is now learning the Tavil, a traditional South Indian drum. Keith Peters has played with A R Rehman, Zakir Hussain, Louis Banks Kadri Gopalnath, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Illaiyaraja and Harris Jayaraj among others. Phew.

Just so you can look forward to your Mondays again.

Jazz at Olive Beach, 16, Wood Street, Bangalore 25. Every first and third Monday of the month, 7 pm onwards. Tel: 41128400. Do reserve ahead.

Sometimes, it’s not what he says, but HOW he says it. Often, it’s not what I wear but HOW I wear it. Similarly, there are times when it doesn’t matter to me what is being sold but HOW it’s being sold.

God isn’t just in the details, She’s in the display. Which is why Nik-Nish scores over scores of other similar accessory outlets. I just chanced on the new store at Atria the other day and the hot pink-pale pink, giant polka dot interiors were SO appealing, I just HAD to stop and browse.

Like the name suggests, Nik-Nish is a niche for finding knick-knacks of all types. Funky earrings and bracelets, faux jewellery, glitzy bandanas, embellished scrunchies, sunglasses, belts and handbags make up the major part of their merchandise. The smiling sales assistants in trendy pink were only too enthusiastic to help me find what I wanted.

I had fun rummaging through the racks. For me, it was a tough choice between some funky shoulder-dusting earrings in earth tones and sparkly fuchsia party hearties that rollicked around my ears and won a whole-hearted thumbs up from my man. Guess which ones won that rosy skirmish?

Despite my handbag hankering, and the sheer variety of handbags in jute, silks, metallics and leather, I knew which one I wanted the minute I lay eyes on it: The microscopic batua in deep red raw silk and a Ganesha in burnt gold sequins on one side and handles that doubled as bangles around my wrist.

My boyfriend literally had to drag me away after I’d ka-chinged my purchases. With many a backward glance at the brightly lit store, I made an Arnie-like vow that I’d be back.

And you know how I’m a woman of my word.

Nik-Nish For Her: Shop No 221 & 222, 2nd floor, Atra The Millennium Mall, Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai 400 018; Tel: 24813646; Prices: Start at Rs 30; handbags Rs 325 up.

Glad tidings. The distinctly unsavoury Tacomaker’s gone, gone, gone from SDA market opposite IIT. In its place is the latest set of tables to join the city’s eating-Asian explosion. Chi, from the Tabula Rasa guys, is the opposite of their pioneering ’small plates’. All mains emerge as big, deep bowls here!

At first glance, it looks a bit like an upmarket office canteen. But its nirvana-orange accents, designed to iron out all the kinks in your aura, reveal more: the paper mats offer clever crossword puzzles, funky tangrams counterpointing food with fun, and sage aphorisms.

I weigh my choices: ramen broth? crispy snapper with sticky rice? vegetables in Japanese curry? My musings are cut short by our starter– a shoal of Vietnamese fish skewers, with red-pepper heads, pineapple tailfins and three condiments to help them make waves — chilli paste, carrot sambal, peanut sauce.

A bak-kut-teh — pork in spice ‘tea’ — expands my fellow-foodie’s horizons nicely. I choose the congee. My comforting rice porridge, redolent of honest ginger and hearty stock, comes with a halo of relishes to amp it up, India-ishtyle. I dole out generous alms of crushed peanuts, chopped spring onions and fried garlic over it. The claypot across the table breathes a star-anise-scented sigh as the last toothsome noodle twirls away.

Mmmmmm. We inhale, stretch waistbands, exhale — and demur over dessert.

Finally, we split a date-honey pie. Goodness gorgeousness! The hot rich yang pudding comes with a sexy yin dollop of ice cream.

Yoga mat, to aid recovery in supine or lotus position: optional.

Chi Kitchen, C-1 SDA Market, New Delhi; ph: 46508753. Meal for two: Rs 1000. No alcohol served.

My barsati-dwelling cousin was fit to be tied last week. Over my offer of colourful bedclothes. It’s just too hot for anything deeper than sherbet lemon, she said.

She hunted down an ice-cream-cone suite herself. The new bed linens from Abraham & Thakore proved once and for all that white needn’t be plain vanilla boring. They come with a tasteful sprinkling of texture. And a subtle garnish of whimsy.

The black-and-white casings on her throw pillows match her celluloid passion. A linen one with a border of running stitches. A silken one with a Taj Mahal scrawled on, in nubbly black thread. One with blobs of black velvet popped on. Then there’s the variously pleated voile bedcover, and scribble-doodled palest-pastel flowers on her duvet. And a tiny punctuation-point of colour by way of a cushion topped with a cluster of silky tikkis!

All served up on several shades of pale — ivory, birch, tan, moonlight.

Hmm. Maybe I need some sturdy neutrals too. That duvet with the barcode edge has my name coded in, I suspect. And that touchy-feely cushion with velvet mosaic on cotton casement. And those dusky-sheer embroideries in jamun and moss fit right in with my botanical bedroom — I think I’ll drape a sheet over the curtain rod and give the chiks a break this month.

So my cousin and I made up over the smooth sundae shades. And linens as surface-textured as a waffle crisp. Who can say no to sorbet in summer, after all?

Abraham & Thakore’s home collection. Prices: cushion covers Rs 800 to 3,000; bedclothes: Rs 8,000 to 22,000.
In Delhi, Moonriver, D-16 Defence Colony, New Delhi; ph: 41617103.
In Mumbai : Ensemble, #130/132, Great Western Building, Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg (Colaba Causeway), Fort, Mumbai; ph: 022-22872882, 22843227.
Moonriver, Shop No. 1, The Courtyard, 41/44 Minoo Desai Marg, Colaba, Mumbai; ph: 022-56385460
Pallate Design Studio, 34 Clerk Rd. off Racecourse, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai 400034. Telephone: 24983575.
In Bangalore, Moonriver, Shop No. 5, Embassy Classic, 14 Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore; ph: 080-51329312.

My doc friend identified my phobia. “Whenever a pal says she’s engaged, you start cooling off,” she said. “I think it’s weddingitis,” I joked.

“No, I know what it is — it’s survival instinct. You hate the idea of being dragged from shop to shop looking for the perfect lehenga, the right jewellery, the matching bag, the suitable shoes. Well, I know the cure!”

That diagnosis led, of course, to the announcement of her engagement. And to put the cure into practice, she took me to Shimmer. It’s the only one of its kind in Bangalore: A bridal concept store that takes care of everything from invitations to thank-you cards.

Jamila and Seema, the mother-daughter duo behind Shimmer, want to take out the woe from the vows. In three months, they can transform my pal’s wedding dreams into reality. First, they do a cotton fitting for bridalwear — that’s their speciality — and after finalizing colours (yellow, bright mango, gold, lime green and some shades of aqua and pink are hot right now, especially with bronze and antique stone work) and fits (no multiple kalis or mermaid looks, but seamless, freeflowing cuts), they start work on the garment and can put together a full trousseau. In fact, they did Cate Blanchett’s ornate costumes in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth.

Simultaneously, they suggest consultations with top-notch make-up artists (Gouri Kapur and Laila), jewellers (Hyderabad’s Mangat Rai), accessory designers (Rinaldi) and their recommended wedding planner, Dinaz.

The best part? There’s no compulsion to sign up for all their services — or even any of them. And the bride is involved every step of the way.

Because bridezillas are so 20th century. And bridesmaidzillas, too.

Shimmer. 12 Vittal Mallya Road (next to Sunny’s), Bangalore 1. Tel: 22132580-2. Footwear starts at Rs2000, jewellery at Rs25000 and bridal lehengas at Rs75,000. There are no packages, every bride gets a customized deal.

I’ll admit, when my BFF begged me to go swimwear hunting with her, I had my doubts. She may have a fab, gym-sculpted bod. But where’s she going to get a suit that suits her curvy Indian figure, I wondered.

Just to humour her, I went along to see the latest collection of swimwear at Boudoir London. And came back, not just converted, but a proud owner (and wearer!) of my first two-piece.

Okay, so miracles DO happen. The boutique that’s famed for the perfect fit in lingerie has extended to swimwear too. Owner Dalbir Bains has brought two South American brands — Aguaclara from Peru and Saha from Colombia — to her plush store. Let’s just say that if glam suits and bikinis got any hotter, we’d face meltdown.

Bright, two-tone polka dots, florals and classic animal prints with a twist, like the zebra with contrasting brow trim. I liked the Hawaiian ones, especially the turquoise and pink with a lightly padded 50s style bikini top and a fabulous belt and buckle. The range of whites is ultra pleasing too. And for the less conspicuous, earthy coppers and browns.

I also loved the innovative reversible bikini, where one top can be worn in five different ways (they show you how). And the cunning tummy-control suits, which elongate the torso and flatten the stomach with their special stretchy fabric that hugs curves so lovingly.

Which one did I bring home? The two-piece tankini, as it gives me a glamorous air without putting too much of my skin on show. And when I tell people that it’s South American, a little bit of that bootylicious beach exotica rubs off on my persona.

Even though I can’t quite wear this to Chowpatty or Juhu beach, right now, I’m headed right over to the poolside, with my matching sarong and flip-flops (also from the same store). Coming?

Boudoir London: Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Mumbai. Tel: 226607940/26607530; Prices: Start from Rs 3,000.

It’s my friend’s bachelorette party next week. Perfect time to splurge on some new threads. No heavy OTT embroidery: what I wanted were clothes which looked luxe yet let me breathe easy.

I found exactly what I was looking for at the Guess By Marciano store in Gurgaon. The just-out Summer ‘08 Collection, arrayed against white metal shelves backed by wide mirrors, left me breathless — the colours, cuts and the fabric all oozed style. It was all very 70’s retro, with a twist. The hippy silhouettes were slinky, and the colours eye-poppingly bright — fuchsia, tangerine, purple, yellow, turquoise and blue.

I loved the high-waisted slim fit denims — aptly called Carrie Jeans — marking Sex & the City diva Carrie’s high flying style. Good for work and play: paired with tailored white in the day, and tangerine dress shirt at night. And the wide-legged, high-waisted palazzo pants in silk is a wardrobe essential this summer — so say the fashion experts.

Very exciting range of dresses, too. The maxi halter neck dress in brown splashed with an ultra big floral print fit my need for something bohemian yet elegant. Then there was the short, knee length, swirly dress in white with a jeweled halter neck, sexy yet understated.

Another eye catcher; the long, empire line dress in red - so totally 70’s yet modern — accentuated the curves in the right places. The empire bust slimmed me down. And the wild print made me purr.

I’m planning to be naughty that night!

Guess By Marciano, Shop No 3, 4, 5, Ambi Mall, NH 8. Gurgaon. Ph 95 125 4665356/55. Prices: Rs 3,000 to Rs 25,000.

‘fession time! I occasionally blast Kylie Minogue songs on the speakers and sing into my hairbrush. Wear fishnet stockings and pretend I’m Madonna. Curl up with my Enid Blytons and get lost in the world of Malory Towers and St Clare’s.

But, hey. Madonna moved on. Minogue is now a symbol for the anti-cancer crusade. And Blytons, beloved as they are, are so, well, dated! Which is why I love Double Click!, the first of the Foxy Four adventures by Subhadra Sen Gupta. The foursome — Jahan, Mandy, Padma and the narrator Charu — are Class XI students in a Delhi convent. Not for them tame midnight feasts or tricks on Mam’zelle: these girls are gutsy, resourceful and will not hesitate to come to a classmate’s rescue even if they don’t like her very much.

To give away any more of the plotline would be a crime, so let me just say that the slim book made me wish I was back in school again. Sen Gupta — she’s got 18 books, mostly for young adults, to her name — captures the contemporary lingo and the camaraderie perfectly. Not avenging angels, the Foxy Four resemble your best friends from school, pulling each other’s legs, mercilessly ribbing someone about their weak spot, quailing before authority and yet standing by each other through thick and thin.

Pick up a copy to gift a young cousin. But read it before you give it away.

Double Click! By Subhadra Sen Gupta. Published by Young Zubaan, available in stores nationwide. Price: Rs 195.