Miss Adventures » Expat Life

Rule Britannia: My Article for Saveur

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:08:06 +0000

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of writing a FOB (front of the book) “feature” on the legendary Parsi eatery Britannia & Co. for Saveur magazine. At the time, I was living in Bombay, India, and had frequented Britannia enough to know that it deserved to be written about – if not by [...]

Six Things You Must Do in Istanbul

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:23:23 +0000

As you may know, Istanbul is the Europe Capital of Culture for 2010. Istanbul has been prepping for this year for quite some time, readying the city for an influx of new tourists to sights like the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and the Grand Bazaar. While I’m not heading back to Istanbul any time soon [...]

Istanbul: 2010 European Capital of Culture

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:32:37 +0000

Tomorrow – January 16 – Istanbul will be introduced to the world as the 2010 European Capital of Culture. Istanbul, the Capital of European Culture, you say? But Turkey is not even part of the European Union. You’re right…not yet. But, most of Istanbul is in Europe, even if the majority of Turkey lies in [...]

Planting Season at MissAdventures

Melanie Renzulli — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:38:21 +0000

Dear friends, I must apologize for the long delay in writing. But, I have been up to big things. First of all, I have been concentrating on my writing and my other blog Italofile.com. I am using Italofile as a way to explore the Italy travel landscape beyond the pages of my books The Unofficial [...]

Perfect Summer Salad

Melanie Renzulli — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 13:45:43 +0000

My staple during this hot Turkish summer has been kisir, what some call Turkish Tabbouleh. It’s not really a salad, but it makes the perfect cold side for stuffed peppers or karniyarik (another Turkish dish I’m making a lot lately). I learned this recipe from my maid, but you can also find a perfectly good [...]

Three Great Books

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:08:49 +0000

There are a ton of books, both fiction and non-fiction, about Turkey and the Middle East. While most of them are useful in learning about the region’s history and culture, few hold my interest for more than a couple pages. That’s not the case for the following three books, which I am reading or have [...]

Beypazarı and the Food of Anatolia

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:46:28 +0000

Last weekend we went to Beypazarı, a small village an hour and a half by bus from Ankara. Located on the old “Istanbul to Baghdad route,” Beypazarı has been inhabitated by various tribes and peoples, including the Seljuks, who left behind a 12C mosque, and the Ottomans, whose “konak” houses dot the town’s hillside. Beypazarı [...]

First Impressions: Ankara

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 25 May 2007 08:15:01 +0000

No one ever writes anything particularly special about Ankara. Guidebooks don’t dedicate many pages to the capital. And, when I mentioned to people that I was moving to Turkey, their faces lit up: They: “Istanbul?!” Me: “No, Ankara.” They:”Oh, too bad. Istanbul is great.” My first impressions of Ankara had been quite favorable, up until [...]

36 Hours in Istanbul

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:15:19 +0000

In case you missed it, the New York Times ran Seth Sherwood’s 36 Hours in Istanbul this weekend. I’m looking forward to following Sherwood’s suggestions and telling you all about them very soon. Before that, we’ll be doing some traveling in Anatolia. Stay tuned…

Welcome to Turkey

Melanie Renzulli — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:40:15 +0000

We arrived in Turkey at a very interesting time. The Battle for Turkey’s Soul is afoot, pitting the “sons and daughters” of Atatürk (as well as the Turkish military) versus the “headscarf republic,” or Islamists. Hundreds of thousands of Turkish secularists have marched in Istanbul and Ankara at the slightest hint that the prime minister [...]

On Republic Day, Starting Anew and Moving On

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:43:38 +0000

It has been almost nine months since I left India and last posted on the blog. (You’ll also notice I moved cyber addresses – from http://tblogs.bootsnall.com/miss to here.) I was ready to leave India last April, but now I look back on that chaos quite fondly. Indeed, I was also fond of today’s holiday – [...]

Update and Great Photo

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 10:17:11 +0000

I apologize for the long silence. In fact, not much has been happening around here. Well, not much except bird flu, temple attacks, and presidential visits. At this point, nearly two years later, India and Bombay have almost become everyday for me. And, sad as it may seem, there comes a time when you become [...]

I Heart Outsourcing!

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 01:03:37 +0000

Senator John Kerry came to India recently to discuss, among other things, his opinions on outsourcing. During the U.S. elections of 2004, Indians (or at least the Indian media) never quite warmed to Kerry, so I suppose this was a chance for him to go on a goodwill tour and to see outsourcing at its, [...]

Book Bans and Other Stupid Govt Tricks

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 12:43:39 +0000

Bombay is one of the most progressive cities in India. For most intents and purposes, both the New York and L.A. of India. It is also the capital of of Maharashtra, a state that is proving to be more backward which each report of a book ban. On Monday, the Maharashtra government banned a scholarly [...]

Plus Ça change…

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 13:07:08 +0000

I don’t think I had ever planned my life beyond 2005, so New Year’s 2006 hit me from the out of the blue. We hadn’t made any plans for New Years, either, figuring that something low-key would come along. Ha! This is Bombay. Something came along, but it certainly wasn’t low key. A friend of [...]

Queen of Clubs

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 05:36:17 +0000

Another sign that Bombay is booming: it seems like a new club opens each week. Since I arrived over 15 months ago, a number of new clubs, including Zenzi, Seijo and the Soul Dish, and Squeeze have opened in Bandra (north Bombay), the home of the nouveau riche, Bollywood stars, and the majority of Bombay’s [...]

The Town of Boiled Beans

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:18:06 +0000

Bombay has changed to Mumbai. Madras to Chennai. Calcutta to the much less evocative Kolkata. Now, it looks like Bangalore is jumping on the renaming bandwagon. It intends to change its name to Bengaluru, which means “the town of boiled beans” in the local Kannada language. Is this really necessary? When a friend sent me [...]

Bombay in November

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:35:41 +0000

I’m finally back to work after three restful weeks back in the States. Besides traveling around and seeing family and friends, I had the chance to while away a few afternoons in some national and state parks, including Wakulla Springs, where I saw alligators grinning in the sun, and Sagamore Hill, the former home of [...]

Golden Triangle and Ganpati

Melanie Renzulli — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 18:30:10 +0000

September Ho Gaya…September is gone. And I didn’t even have much time to blog. I did some traveling – again to the Golden Triangle (see below) – went to a film shoot (see my last post), attended the Elle Decor India Design Awards, and also found time to check out the Ganpati Visarjan (immersion) on [...]

Rani, Abhishek, and SRK

Melanie Renzulli — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 18:14:06 +0000

Much has been made about a possible link-up between Rani Mukherjee and Abhishek Bachchan, two of Bollywood’s biggest stars of the moment. As I’ve mentioned before, Rani is on a hot streak, having had hits with Black (a remake of the Miracle Worker) and the recent Mangal Pandey, as well as lighter fare like Hum [...]

The Raj of Wankaner

Melanie Renzulli — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:57:19 +0000

As Indian states go, Gujarat has a long way to go before becoming tourist friendly. It may be the homeland of many a global Indian (the Patel clan comes from there), but it’s lacking in some of the things that draw tourists, namely the Taj Mahal and alcohol. Nevertheless, as Gujarat borders on Maharashtra, we [...]

Mangal Pandey: The Rising

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 08:33:26 +0000

No matter what the raging controversy is about the new film about Mangal Pandey, whether it was too harshly anti-British or that Pandey, India’s first so-called freedom fighter, was blasphemously portrayed as a having a relationship with a nautch girl, the picture was a pleasure to watch. I went to the film with approximately 20 [...]

Death of a Hobra

Melanie Renzulli — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 09:56:09 +0000

The first thing I thought of when reading this front-page story in the Times of India today was, “Couldn’t they have let the poor thing live somewhere in the country?” As I’ve said before, animal rights have a long way to go in this country. Full text of the “hobra,” an animal oddity similar to [...]

I’m Not Bajirao

Melanie Renzulli — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:45:06 +0000

I’ve often mused at the title of “I’m Not Rappaport,” the play-then-film about two men from varying backgrounds coming to terms with the ravages of old age. Even though I’ve never seen the play or the film, I was always tickled each time the phrase was used as the punchline of any dumb joke. After [...]

The Rainfall and the Fallout

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 03:55:15 +0000

Three days after record-breaking rains brought Bombay to a halt, I’m finally beginning to hear about my friends’ and colleagues’ unbelieveable journeys. South Bombay, as I’ve mentioned before, got hit with 7 inches of rain on Tuesday, but, save for the lack of bustle, it looked pretty normal on Wednesday. On the other hand, the [...]

Monsoon Update #2

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:47:57 +0000

Well, I’m still pretty high and dry here in Bombay. But now I see that the international papers have caught on to our little rain problem. So, it must be a big deal. Actually, it rained about seven inches in 24 hous in South Bombay. The suburbs, on the other hand, got 27 inches of [...]

Monsoon Update

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 03:34:32 +0000

Nine hours later and…it’s still raining! No flooding where I am, but most of the city is shut down. I guess this is the equivalent of a blizzard, so I’ll concede that flooding is inevitable at this point. News about the Monsoon: Maharashtra rains leave many dead [BBC News] Rains bring life to standstill in [...]

Now That’s What I Call A Monsoon!

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 17:24:06 +0000

I’ve been pretty unimpressed by the monsoon so far. Sure, it came in with a bang. Then again, the flooding has happened mostly in the suburbs, not in the city. In fact, the weather in Bombay has been mostly overcast with occasional sun and sprinkles. The locals said that the rains had “regularized,” meaning that [...]

Bollywood Memorabilia On View

Melanie Renzulli — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 06:33:14 +0000

Until last week, visiting museums in this country has been a mostly unsatisfying experience. Luckily, we stumbled upon the last day of a week-long exhibit at the Jehangir Gallery entitled “Revisualising India.” Included in the show were pieces from the Osian’s Archive & Library of Cinema and Popular Arts, an auction house and archive center [...]

MTV Desi

Melanie Renzulli — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:40:53 +0000

In case you missed it, MTV launched its newest offspring the other day: MTV Desi [press release] From my Bombay-entrenched perspective, I’m surprised that it’s taken so long to put together the channel. Why not just beam MTV India into homes? Well, other than the fact that the VJs here go in and out of [...]