Going "Home" to Bollywood Tandoor, After Little India Permanently Closed in Cebu City

It's was sad for me to realize that Little India (Cebu) has permanently closed. So far, the Manila branch has not closed yet. I wrote an article where I explained why vegetarian restaurants tend not to last long in the Philippines. The closure of Kongtiak Restaurant in Quezon City was just one. Little India Cebu City closed (eventually) due to constant losses. I was thinking about it that I usually ate vegetarian food at Bollywood Tandoor (which served meat) while I soon got into Little India (read my review here), to eat their delicious vegetarian foods. However, things changed when they started to stop having dine-ins closed altogether.

I thought about the comparison between Little India Cebu City (closed), and Bollywood Tandoor. I looked into the fact that Bollywood Tandoor is very mainstream. Little India Healthy Cuisine is hard to market, especially when several Cebuanos may not be that health-conscious. Little India Cebu City was a vegetarian option, as they allowed meat eaters to try the alternative, and didn't require people to go vegetarian. Going to Bollywood Tandoor also meant a huge change in business model. Before, the interiors of Bollywood Tandoor felt more like a Hindu/Buddhist temple. However, the post-pandemic Bollywood Tandoor lived up to its name, Bollywood! Little India Cebu City remained in the Buddhist temple type of design.

Bollywood Tandoor Facebook Page

Here's a photo of the more recent Bollywood Tandoor interior design. The older interior of the dining area felt "more serene" at first. However, by going more "Full Bollywood", it certainly attracted not just curiosity but also more customers. Old-time customers came back for some newer meals, the menu gets modified every now and then, and it serves a wider customer range. As a non-vegetarian who eats vegetarian meals, Bollywood has given me more options than Little India Cebu City. I enjoyed Little India Cebu City's vegetarian meals. I enjoyed the vegetarian stuff they had. However, Bollywood Tandoor's ever-growing model was just hard to beat. Little India Cebu City's primary market, the vegetarians, are harder to find. Meat eaters were often a secondary market.

As I went back to Bollywood, I started eating more of their meals, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. I could eat a vegetarian meal on one go and a meat dish on the next. In fact, it was their older, now closed, restaurant, Mr. India, that got me into the Indian food craze. Mr. India was too small to accomodate the success that Mr. Soni Vasnani was having. Bollywood Tandoor was soon born and has evolved into a much better model.

I'm back at Bollywood now. It's sad for me that Little India Cebu City had closed, since I was always looking for vegetarian options on certain days.

Venezuela as a Cautionary Tale on #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba, Nationalistic Pride, Welfare State Economics

The Sunday Guardian Years ago, I wrote about Venezuela's pride and protectionism , under a more "formal" style of writing compared to my latest posts. I decided to use an even "less formal" and "less academic" tone since I'm not writing a term paper. Instead, it's like how a professor and a student discuss the thesis using first person over third person, using contractions, etc., while the thesis doesn't use such tones. Back on track, I thought about the arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro can spark debate. Was it a violation of sovereignty? I'm no expert on international law. However, Venezuelans can be seen celebrating Maduro's arrest. Right now, I'm using Gemini AI and Google search to help me find some sources for this blog. It's because I don't want my blog to become another gossip central, but a place to discuss facts with my own personal opinions (making sure they don't derail the facts). I used Venezuela ...

Venezuela's Pride and Protectionism

The Telegraph Venezuela is an oil-rich country yet it's a very poor country. Somebody could go ahead and give every unthinkable reason such as "foreign investments caused it" (a blatant lie) and "It's because America had economic sanctions in Venezuela". Yet, the answer can be found in several causes such as corruption. Yet, China and Vietnam, which can be seen to still have a good amount of corruption, are far more successful. The answer also lies in one policy--economic protectionism . The very idea that a country that first world countries used "protectionism" to succeed is a lie as proven by Venezuela's ongoing crisis. A common-sense examination of one root cause of Venezuela's continuing crisis Forbes magazine mentions this in "What Do Investors Need To Understand About Venezuela's Economic Crisis?" by Nathaniel Parish Flannery on December 21, 2016: Venezuela is far and away the worst-managed economy in the Americas . Ad...

Davide vs. Mahathir: Which Lolo Should Filipinos Take Economic Advice From?

The real issue isn't that something is old or new. Instead, if something old or new still works, or doesn't work! Many modern laws are built on some ancient principles, while adjusting to the current times! The Constitution of Japan is actually older than the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. However, it's more effective for the reasons that (1) their constitution is silent when it comes to regulating economic activities (ex., protectionist measures), and (2) it's a parliamentary system. Honestly, it's a pretty straightforward constitution compared to ours! As Mahatir Mohamad turned 100 today, I would like to raise up Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr. once again. The problem isn't Davide's age but his unwillingness to embrace change when needed (read here ). This time, it's time to bring up a contrast between wise old people and unwise old people. A young person can be right where the old person is wrong. A young person can be wiser because he or she lea...

Filipino Manufacturing's Golden Age ENDED Because of the Filipino First Policy

Here's a picture from the Dose of Disbelief Page on Facebook. Here's something that it wrote: Filipinos once trusted locally made products more than imports. Before World War II, the label "Made in the Philippines" carried prestige, not stigma, reflecting a strong sense of national confidence in domestic production. Local products such as shoes, cigars, textiles, furniture, and food were often preferred over imports. This preference was rooted in the belief that local goods were better adapted to local conditions, tastes, and were often of comparable, if not superior, quality. This period showcases a strong historical era of consumer nationalism and thriving local industries. We need to look into the context of Filipino history If we look at the Philippine history timeline , we must account for 1935-1940, during which the Philippines was under the Commonwealth government. Independence was declared from Spain on June 12, 1898. However, there was a transition period w...

Confusing Foreign Direct Investment for Foreign Imperialism for the Bajillionth Time

I guess those fools of the Philippine Anti-Fascist League (and many of its deluded supporters) either refuse to get it or are blatantly lying. Almost every rally held by what many believe are CPP-NPA legal fronts also confuses foreign investors for foreign invasion or even foreign imperialism . Once again, do I need to say that 100% FDI ownership is all about the shares and not land ownership ? What makes it even more hypocritical is that they are actually recording these things on imported media . They're sharing their anti-FDI rants using imported devices, imported platforms, and imported social media (read here ). When I do ask them on Facebook, they say how can they take them seriously and that they're "simply forced to participate in capitalism". Did anybody (especially those they call "evil capitalists") force them to buy the expensive Apple equipment when they could've settled for Xiaomi or Huawei? A simple research on the dictionary will tell us...

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