(Exciting news! See below) Hallelujah! The cuisine gods are finally smiling on us now. We’ve got a great Indian restaurant in town and it has an amazing and varied lunch buffet. Perfect on this quite chilly day, so my darling husband and I are heading there for a warm, filling, (gently) spiced lunch. Looking forward to enjoying some freshly baked naan, chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, and some samosas, among other things. I have got to try a mango lassi, but don’t think I could do cold today. A hot cup of chai will be more my speed. So in honor of our Indian meal, I’m going Neela Vermeire all the way.
To start off the day, I’m wearing Neela’s delightful Bombay Bling, with its big, happy, fruity 
personality, on one wrist. If you despise fruity scents, do give this one a try — it is so well done that you might be surprised. My other wrist is sporting the elegant, spiced rose of Mohur, contemporary yet classic, with a nod back to French fragrances of the past.
UPDATE: Mohur extrait (see below right) is now available in a gorgeous numbered, limited-edition amethyst flacon at Luckyscent (50 mls), and what a beauty it is!
And the lovely new bottles by Pierre Dinand (top right) are topped by elegant etched caps (left).
Now when temps plummet tonight, I’m planning to break out the spicy, warming Trayee, while watching the very fun and lively “Bride & Prejudice.”
Although I probably should keep Bombay Bling going strong on at least one arm for that, to keep my energy up — I’m likely to hit the living room floor and start dancing to one of the irresistible numbers (which will cause no end of amusement to my son and DH, of course). But do I care? Nope, not a whit!
Oddly enough, Neela’s Ashoka, although nice, did not move me as much as the original trio did. But three out of four is still pretty sweet. Well, actually, 3.5, as I got hold of a teensy bit of the Mohur extrait, and it is simply divine, although I parse it out very sparingly.
What are your favorite scents from Neela Vermeire? What Indian dishes do you crave? Or what are your best-loved Bollywood or India-set movies?
saag paneer!! i dont even know where an indian restaurant might be anywhere near me. although when i lived in seattle, there was an indian place on capitol hill which you had to PREPARE to sweat should you decide to eat there. one of my favorite things about indian food in general is the heat comes from within. it’s not the tongue burning spice of latin flavor.
thus far, Trayee is my favorite of Neela’s.
thank you for the update on packaging, and experience. 😉
Hi, thanks for stopping by! Mmmm … I love saag paneer as well. Hope you can find an Indian spot somewhere soon to get your fix. BTW, I do love Trayee as well; it’s so good on chilly, rainy day like today here.
Excuse the late post, but I was out of commission on Monday and am still catching up! I love Indian food and the fragrances of Neela Vermiere, with the possible exception of Trayee, which I find a bit difficult. But Ashoka, Mohur, and Bombay Bling are firm favorites. I have a FB of Ashoka and don’t know which one will be next once my samples run out. 🙂
Hi, so glad you dropped by (and it’s never too late)! Lucky you to have a FB of Neela’s Ashoka; I’m very curious which one will get the next FB honors for you. And they are such pretty bottles, too. I’d be torn between Mohur and BB for sure. I think I could get by with just Trayee samples and decants pretty well.
I’ve still only tried Mohur, and I really liked it. I need to try the rest. I love me some Indian food. I have two Indian restaurants in walking distance of my apartment, about a block apart from each other. I’ve gotten food from both, and they’re both really good. I’m not sure I could pick a favorite dish. When I was a kid, I didn’t like cooked spinach (probably because my exposure was to the nasty canned stuff), though raw was ok in salads and such. Trying saag paneer the first time was what made me realize I like cooked spinach.
Lucky you, Jennifer, to have two (I can’t even imagine)! Saag paneer is wonderful, isn’t it? Although my Indian buffet did theirs with some different greens, but still quite tasty. Glad to see another fan of the lovely Mohur!
Indian food during winter is so warming: can’t go wrong with anything spinach-based. Alas, NV perfumes do not work at all on my skin.
Howdy, AnnieA! I’m nodding my head as I read your comment — and especially loving the spinach part — yum! Sorry the NVs are not for you, but that’s OK; so many other great scents to love.
Ann, what a fun post! I love all of those Indian dishes you mentioned, but my favorite meal would be naan, saag paneer, lamb korma and mango kulfi for dessert. I love mango, and Bombay Bling is my favorite of the Neela Vermeire perfumes. (And as for movies, though it doesn’t take place in India, I loved the film The Hundred-Foot Journey when I saw it this fall. It’s about a handsome young Indian chef who starts a restaurant with his family in the South of France. It’s such a fun film, and romantic!
Thanks, sweet Suzanne! I would love to join you for that mmmm … mmmm good meal, if I may? 🙂 I’ve heard of that film and have been meaning to see it — is Helen Mirren in it (or am I confused)? And so glad you’re loving the Bling!
Yes, Helen Mirren plays Madame Mallory – the owner of the Michelin-starred, haute-French cuisine restaurant that is across the way from the new Indian restaurant. And she doesn’t like the competition! 😉 Another recommendation for seeing it: it’s directed by Lasse Hallström (the Swedish director of My Life As a Dog — another favorite of mine – and The Cider House Rules).
Sounds great — thanks so much, dear!
Hey Ann
Aloo, mutter, paneer in wet gravy is my fave Indian meal. Potato, peas & cheese. Yummy
I adore Neelas frags. You smell great
Portia xx
Yum, yum, Portia! Sounds like the best kind of comfort food. Hope you are having a great time on your travels!
P.S. Neela sounds like such a cool lady — I would love to meet her one day!
I have only tried Mohur Extrait, and it’s by far the best, fullest, most complex and beautiful rose I know. So glad I didn’t get a FB of Rose Nacrée before I tried this. Mohur feels natural, even alive. Heck, I’ll be wearing it today – take this, rainy Monday morning!
Solanace, the extrait is so lovely, isn’t it? But even if I had not tried it, I’d still be very happy with the Mohur EDP. Just so well done. We’re having a rainy (and cold) day here as well, so yes, indeed, take that, Monday!! 🙂
I shared a house with a friend of mine who could not cook. Her grandmother decided to pass on her skills to me as so not to waste them and on the off chance that my flat mate would learn something through exposure. As such I rarely eat out for Indian as I er, enjoy making it too much. My favourites are pretty simple though: prawn saak with methi, red Kashmiri chicken and onion, stuffed and fried baighan, good aloo saak and aloo ghobi, channa masala and puri, dahl in all sizes and shapes, cauliflower kofta and paneer in spicy tomato sauces. For sweets I will make kulfi, kheer in winter and eat jalabi if they are there. For special occasions gulab jamun. I do a mean samosa as well. Will eat anything though, at least once. 😛
My favourite films are the Water, Fire and Earth trilogy by Deepa Mehta. Otherwise I tend to have favourite Indian authors rather than films.
As for Neela Vermeire, I adore Mohur and Ashoka. Mohur I bought this year when I was in Paris as a pre-finishing-doctoral-thesis-treat (meant to be doing research). I would possibly give a kidney for the extrait, but as she doesn’t ship here then it may as well not exist. Ashoka is the only fig I like and one of two irises that doesn’t go off like a rotten vegetation bomb and is so nice in an Australian summer. Bombay Bling is one that I need to be in the mood for, but it is beautiful. Trayee just … doesn’t work on my skin. I want it to, but it will make people flinch away if they smell it on me.
Oooh, lucky you, to be able to cook such great dishes! And what a blessing for you and your friend’s grandmother that you could appreciate and pass on her skills. BTW, did your flat mate ever get cooking, even a little?
She did. We worked out that part of the problem was that she just didn’t know how to cook at all and was no good at working without a recipe. As long as she stuck to one or two recipes then things went okay.Turns out that she was very good at desserts rather than savoury food because of this.
Well, that’s good — knowing how to make a good dessert or two is definitely a plus. I enjoyed cooking in the past (before my bad back happened), but always had trouble with the time management / juggling of it all; i.e., planning so that everything was basically ready at the same time. Lucky for me, hubby likes to cook, so I’m off the hook. Enjoy your lovely Indian recipes (and your Mohur and Ashoka)!
Plus a few mains! She at least knew what something ‘should’ taste like from a lifetime of eating her Nani’s food. Half the battle won already.
Ouch, bad back’s really are trouble for everything. My joints might be a disaster with RA, but at least I can hold an angle without ending on the floor. I enjoy cooking and apparently can manage a small banquet without too much hassle in terms of timing, if not stress. Just I am not so good with dessert, which is admittedly better for my waist.
Oh, I surely will. Admittedly I am wearing Bombay Bling right now to try give me strength to conquer the last of my essay marking.
Excellent! I know you are proud of her (and her grandmother is smiling down on both of you).
Yes, Marigold Hotel was tons of fun. And here’s a vote for Ashoka. I think all her fragrances are well done, but I so enjoy
Ashoka – a sophisticated and ever-changing fig – so much more than fig. Love it.
Yay — another vote for “Marigold Hotel”! So glad you mentioned fig; it rarely agrees with my skin so perhaps that’s why Ashoka wasn’t great on me. Thanks!
This reminds me of a minor dilemma I have. A very kind and generous perfumista sent me samples of all four NV perfumes, but for some reason they were not labeled. I could pick out Bombay Bling because of the mango (and it helped that it was the only one I’d tried before), but I am not sure about the other three! I am not sure that I trust myself to distinguish between three perfumes given only the list of notes and my own blunt and uncultured nose 🙁
Oh, Nemo, I can empathize with being unable to trust your nose. I got my sample set (from a drawing here at the Posse! Thanks again! Still so happy!) before Ashoka came out, but I hope I can help you with the other three. They came labeled only with a single initial on top of the vials: Trayee has a yellow sticker, Mohur red, and Bombay Bling! green. Also, Mohur is by far the palest in color of the three perfumes, nearly clear, while Trayee is slightly darker than BB. Maybe someone with all four can tell you how Ashoka compares to the others, or you could look at photos online for clues. My nose is so funny I hesitate to say anything about the scents, but for me at least, the spiced rose in Mohur is very apparent, while Trayee is very dry, spicy, incense-y, and not noticeably floral. Good luck! And isn’t BB great? I wish I could afford a whole bottle.
Laurels, your descriptions are excellent — thanks for helping Nemo out!
This is great, thanks so much for the clues Laurel! It should be a fun game now 🙂
Where food is concerned, there was a little indian resturant up the road called India Mahal- and they could do no wrong, everything was good. Tried Butter Chicken, Tikka Masala ,Lentil Soup and my precious Vegetable Samosas. Love it.
Deepa Mehta makes excellent films, both Fire and Water are two of her best. I also really like Monsoon Wedding, Namesake, Brick Lane, A Peck On The Cheek, and a few more that I’ve forgotten how to spell!
Oh, yes, sometimes those little hole-in-the-wall places are just the best, aren’t they? I’m nodding along hungrily to your list of dishes. And thanks for sharing all those titles; the only one I think I’ve seen is “Monsoon Wedding,” but now I’ve got some more good stuff to explore.
Love love love Bombay Bling! I thought Trayee would be the big winner but found Bling to be more me. I wore the heck out of it in the spring and I’m alarmed at how much I used. But then what else is it for?! Not a huge fan of Indian food for some reason. There were a gazillion Indian restaurants near my son’s college apartment and he’d usually choose one of those when we’d visit for lunch. I’m OK with saag paneer with a spice level of zero. Just pass the naan and I’m happy.
You go, Tiara, use it and enjoy the daylights out of it! I’m with you on a low spice level, and thankfully, they’ll usually adjust a bit to suit your taste. And man, I do love me some naan, too!!
I love Trayee. I like Indian food but hubband doesn’t so I have no favorites because I rarely get the chance to enjoy it and pick a favorite. As far as movies the only one I can think of is the same as Kandice, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Great cast in that one too.
Oh, no, Poodle! Maybe you could do an Indian lunch or something with the girls to get your fix? Glad to see another Trayee fan, and another vote for “Marigold Hotel.” Looking forward to seeing it. Thanks!
Alas, I have yet to try any of Neela Vermeire’s fragrances. They are on my sample list but I have yet to purchase any. Of the original three, I’d like to try Trayee the most. My favorite recent movie set in India was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Thanks for sharing your Indian evening with us 🙂
Hi, Kandice! I think you will really enjoy Trayee. I haven’t heard of that movie, but now I will definitely seek it out. Thanks!
Indian food is my absolute favorite! I especially love paneer dishes (makhani, shahi, tikka masala) and Kashmiri naan, which is sweet and goes great with creamy sauces. I rarely have room for dessert, but sometimes make kheer at home and eat it any meal of the day!
My mouth is watering again just reading your yummy posts. That Kashmiri naan sounds good, and the kheer as well. I need to get cooking, I guess.
My favorite Indian dishes are saag paneer and navratan korma, followed by kulfi for dessert. What I like best about an Indian buffet? Instant gratification, and lots of it.
Amen, Lisa — instant gratification is right! 🙂 I’ve never had the kulfi, though or any of the sweets (usually too stuffed to even think about dessert, ha).