Jan 22 2009
Slumdog and Aqui
The story itself was very creatively told with flashbacks and the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire in real time at the interrogation in the police station. The story is told in three generations of the same characters—all the actors at the different ages were great, believable, convincing and looked plausible that they were in fact the same person at different ages of their life.
Watching the life in the slum areas of India was telling and interesting to me. The level of poverty in some areas of the world is downright shocking. And although we see a rendition on the big screen there really is no way of really understanding unless you’ve lived through it and I am in no way saying I really understand the squalor or struggle. I’m just saying from what I could see it was shocking.
Slumdog, was very much a love story about a boy Jamal, who keeps losing the girl Latika, throughout his life to which he is constantly searching through the struggle that is his life. Jamal and his older brother Salim who lose their mother to Muslim killing rebels, have to survive in an utter squalid world alone on the streets, dumps, and slums. Battling poverty, starvation, ruthless adults taking advantage, the mob world doing what they must to survive—and they all do pretty well under the circumstances. A feel good movie ending that is hopefull—Definitely one of the top movies of the year, but I’m still liking Grand Torino a little bit more for different reasons…
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Segundo the Dinner: Aqui Cal Mex in Campbell was something to look forward to because the first time was caught us off guard good! Aqui is a casual, upscale, full service bar, seat yourself, cafeteria tray, pick up your own food when the buzzer starts beeping, but the food quality is really good.
Started off a little rough during ordering because I think they chose to be a little cut-your-nose-off cheap, versus penny-wise that would have made all the difference in the world to me. In fact the more I think about it, it was bullshit!
We ordered two drinks—Margarita on the rocks, and Sangria with NO ICE. Sangria is already chilled why do I need ice? When asked we chose the large 16 oz size. The cashier was new with a manager on his shoulder assisting. The Sangria and Margarita were both in one of those old style juice cooler with a tap on the bar. The manager informed me he would only be pouring the amount of Sangria in the glass that he would if there was ice in it. Umm-kay, if that’s what you think is good business… So he poured it 2 inches from the top. It cost $5.50 for the glass not that cheap considering the cost of the meal itself. If I would have ordered a glass of wine he wouldn’t have put ice in it, or poured less because there was no ice—same thing with soda. Okay, I understand you’re not talking about the same profit point, but… I’m telling you it comes across as CHEAP with a bad after taste. I will order beer in a bottle from now on!
I ordered the same thing as the first time because it was so good—crab cake on a bed of spinach salad and diced mangoes and zesty dressing, sprinkles with crunchy tortilla strips. It’s a very tasty number and for the price of $7.99 I don’t think you can beat it.
My Sous Chef had the Chicken Limon special $8.99 with some noodle cake and string beans. A whole breast of chicken that was tender and lemony, the noodle cake was interesting, but, and the beans needed some seasoning.
The Sangria or the Margarita $5.95 wasn’t as good as I remembered them to be the first time, but I didn’t ask to have the Sangria without the ice the first time and they didn’t tell me they were going to short sheet the bed either—not sure if that played into enjoying it less or not…
We’ll be back—probably.
