Hoping to see you guys there tomorrow! Make sure to come say hi :)

On a lazy Friday afternoon, post lunch, what’s that one piece of food that can completely satisfy all your senses? Well most of us have a vague idea of what pleases us, after a coma-inducing meal, however for me it has, is and will always be the Tres Leches cake.

Tres Leches, which literally means ‘three milks’ in Spanish, is a light sponge, generously soaked in three different kinds of cow’s milk, baked to perfection ensuring no crust, dense yet light fluffy texture, with every bite screaming ‘just died and gone to heaven’.

If I’ve managed to make you salivate, you can definitely sink your teeth into this cake at Maria Bonita’s Taco shop on Umm Al Sheif road in Jumeirah.

A tip — to avoid disappointment, ring in advance and book a slice for yourself (I know :)).

It’s been a little over a month since Steve Jobs passed away, and I’ve toyed with this post since then. As is the case with everyone who knew he was battling cancer, it was expected and yet, it seemed sudden. As I opened up a new tab to apple.com, hoping against hope that it was just a twitter rumor, I was greeted by a page that carried the simple words, “Steve Jobs, 1955–2011.” I spent the rest of the morning watching the news coverage highlighting his life and realized that a person’s legacy is what happens when he passes, the people that are touched by the news, and the impact that has on everything we do.

Screenshot from apple.com, taken Oct 7, 2011

My obsession with computers can be traced back to 1988. Although, considering the timeframe, it focused on Bill Gates and Microsoft. I learnt over time, more so in 2002 that my calling was more about the story of Apple. That was the year I ventured into the offices of The Triangle, and continued to toy with Macs full time until I left in 2005. It was 2008 before I would get my hands on another Apple device, and I finally (happily) moved to an Apple computer in 2010. During the last few years, I’ve looked over the start of the computing era over and over, with movies such as Pirates of Silicon Valley and books such as iWoz. Now that I managed to get through Steve Jobs, I feel in a better place to put down this post.

I think about the Think Different campaign more so since I heard the Steve Jobs rendition of the ad; there is passion in his voice as he narrates it, because — unlike Dryfus, the narrater of aired advert — he believed and equally, understood the words he spoke. I have played Jobs’ version about once a day since I first heard it, and I encourage anyone who might be interested to play it out (see it here or at the Remembering Steve event, starting at 9:45).

I know that he wasn’t a perfect person but as I’ve grown to understand, and as been stated already — Apple was a company only someone like Steve Jobs could have built. With all his passion. His perfection. His eccentricities. His abrasiveness. With who he was.

People talk about the flailings of a man that powerful, someone who had a bad side, someone who drove people to madness and had shouting fits with anyone and everyone. As he himself told a former staffer who tried to fight him, “…you have no idea what it’s like to be me.” I get that. I really, really do.

I think also, that it makes sense to look at what he did right. Of where his ‘reality distortion field’ pushed people to do things they didn’t think possible, whether it was the first Macintosh, or the iPhone. For someone to tell a supplier that the reason they couldn’t do something was because they didn’t believe they could, and that, if they tried, they’d get it, takes a unique set of guts and he had them. He read people instinctively and he knew how to push them, how to get at them. And how to get the best out of them. And it’s those people, the ones who understood, are the ones who will tell you a story about a man who changed the world.

Jobs today is credited for being the person behind revolutions in the music industry, smartphones, PC, tablet, animated movies, retail stores … and Apple itself. His story will be told for a while, of the revisions he made to everything, of his second coming — back to Apple, of his belief that hardware and software should be integrated and not fragmented for it to work, for bullying the music industry into submission — and saving them to an extent — and more.

Even John Scully, the man who ousted Jobs way back when, revealed later on that he believed the Apple Board should have sided with Jobs in that power struggle, and that says a lot. Jobs Commencement Address at Standford is considered by many as one of the best; where he cited three approaches that he wanted to pass on:

• Keep looking (for what you love), don’t settle
• Death is the single best invention of life, it’s life’s change agent.
• My favorite line in this section was: “Even people who want to get to heaven don’t want to die to get there”
• ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’

Today, we all strive to make something the Apple of its category, and I think that says a lot. I find it even more interesting — even though he obviously didn’t intend it that way — that his (approved) biography released was completed and released some 10 days prior to his passing away, thereby being perfect, complete, in all the events leading up to it.

In the end, the best statement to Jobs’ legacy is the line he himself approved in an ad that ran all those years ago, “…the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world…are the ones who do.”

Recommended Reads:

• Mona Simpson’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
• Remembering Steve, Apple event for Steve Jobs held Oct 19, 2011
• Steve Jobs Commencement Address, Standford, 2005
• Steve Jobs was always kind to me (Or, regrets of an asshole)

I have been making cheesecakes yet again. This time I decided I would attempt to make a favourite of mine. Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake. This took some imagination and a little bit of research. I finally decided to alter a few recipes which I found to make my own.

Ingredients:

• One box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates
• One jar of Nutella
• 1 250g packet of Chocolate Digestive Biscuits
• 100g Butter, melted
• 1 Tub of Double Cream (300ml)
• 1 Tub of Cream Cheese (300g Philadelphia)
• 3 tablespoons of Icing Sugar
• a handful of chopped roasted Hazelnuts (to decorate)

Method:

1. Line the cheesecake tin with baking parchment
2. Crush the digestive biscuits in a mixer and add the melted butter into the mixer. Pulse the mixture till combined.
3. Pour into the cheesecake tin and press down firmly
4. Whip a bit of the cream with the Philadelphia to soften and remove any lumps.
5. Whip the rest of the cream in a separate bowl with the icing sugar
6. Add the softened Philadelphia to whipped cream and mix till just combined
7. Pour the combined cream cheese mixture into the cheesecake tin, smoothing down with a spatula or spoon.
8. Spread a layer of Nutella over the cream cheese mixture.
9. Sprinkle on some roasted chopped hazelnuts
10. Add one whole Ferrero Rocher per slice of cheesecake. (usually 8/10 slices)

Top tips:

• If you are making it in a cheesecake tin, line the tin with baking parchment
• Grease the baking parchment with some butter to make it stick to the inside of the tin
• You can make individual cheesecake pots (see picture above)
• Press the digestive biscuit base down gently with a spoon or fingers if you like getting messy
• Dipping the spoon/spatula in water helps the Nutella layer smooth out

I love making cheesecakes almost as much as I love devouring them. I dare you to give this one a try, you will not be disappointed. Happy Cheesecake making!

The history of cake dates back to ancient times. According to the food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the English word ‘cake’ back to the 13th century. According to food historians, the precursors of modern cakes (round ones with icing) were first baked in Europe sometime in the mid-17th century. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that cake as we know it today arrived on the scene and the birthday cake became an integral part of the birthday celebrations in Western cultures since the middle of the 19th century. With the development of culinary and confectionery advancement, what we have now is just a delectable masterpiece of rich ingredients, combined to tantalize all senses.

Well, can you imagine a world without cake?

Wait, wait — can you imagine a birthday without cake?

No, never.

So, here’s presenting a slice of sin, from Shakespeare & Co, Dubai — the Mogador. Moist sponge with hanzenut cream, oozing rich milk chocolate, finished with whole roasted hazelnuts and dark chocolate. One word — divine.

Diwali is almost here — lights, colors, bling and ofcourse, sweets. So on the occassion of Diwali, we bring you, live from the naihar kitchens, the Ghughra. Since I try to relate stuff we do to more colloquially known items out here, I suppose you can think of this as perhaps a sweet fatayer.

Layered on the inside with sweetness that will change your mood regardless of how angry you are on the day, fried on the outside to a nice crunch to boot, and filled with a richness that is supposed to give you energy and brain power (and maybe, a tad bit of cholesterol), the ghughra is a traditional gujarati diwali production. Not that it can’t be eaten during the year or anything, but well, it just must be on the table during all those diwali get togethers we have around this time. Relish!

I am a man of simple pleasures. And for those who know me, Iced Tea is my simplest pleasure. Which reminds me, I need to go place my iced tea bottle into the freezer for a quick chill.

Where was I again? Right, so this afternoon we strolled down to one of my favorite dessert shops, Brunetti. Jumping straight for the usual suspects, their little tiramisu container and some cappuccino, we wandered around to see what else attracted our eye. Their cheesecake looked alright, but sitting smugly next to it was a pear and cheese crumble that we proceeded to…crumble. Good stuff.

We also came across a Bacio. This was pretty much a chocolate mousse with some hazelnut but it looked oh so pretty with the little layer of chocolate around it.

As we started ordering drinks — we went with a cappuccino, espresso and an orange juice, I started fumbling, unable to decide as my impatient company towered over me telling me to hurry up, unable to understand why I needed more time than I was given while they decided. I tried to read a very italian name (which I will need to go back to Brunetti to get exactly and then update here Te freddo al limone) and was like man, I can’t imagine what that would be…until in little tiny characters I read the words that always get me going: homemade iced-tea with lemon. Voila!

I’ve got to set up a disclaimer here. When in the US, reading those words were like gold. It meant I was in for a treat. Out here sadly, the words iced tea tend to be abused pretty easily. So despite reading those words, and my general affinity for Brunetti, I expect little until this mammoth glass was deposited on the table.

The hell was this…?

Yup, iced tea with a comfortable, convenient and yummy deposit of ice cream. Goodness me….goodness me.

I’ve never seen it before (and that’s saying considering it’s a given that if there’s iced tea on the menu that’s not out of a can, I’ve ordered it), and I was amazed. We quite literally just stared at the thing for a while.

But this takes the cake, pun not intended. I seem to have found the iced tea. And interestingly, it has nothing to do with the ice cream at all. The tea itself was light, fresh as it could possibly be, with the right amount of mint without being overwhelming. (I realize everyone now thinks I’ve got to be insane to psycho-analyze iced tea, but hey…I yam, what I am.)

The ice cream itself was good, not too sweet, and somehow didn’t overly melt and ruin anything. Over time, it lightly drizzled itself into the tea without overwhelming it at all and considering most people have their tea with milk anyway, the taste was more than acceptable.

The iced tea itself runs you to AED24, which is slightly higher than what is normally out there (AED12–20) but it still on par with the general Brunetti value.

Goodness that was good iced tea.

Goodness, goodness me.

Brunetti, +9714 339 8173
http://www.brunetti.com.au/

The Dubai Mall (Next to Candylicious, opp. the Dubai Aquarium)

Because Take 1 just wasn’t good enough.

Say hello to the newest kid on the block (wow, I need new band references) and our very own resident food explorer, Siddhi!

A self-confessed lover of food that’s been plated well, Siddhi is known for snapping up dishes all around town (and beyond), and starts off with the extremely craving-inducing dessert all the way from C’est ici Brasserie in London.

Presenting the Evil mud cake with a dark Belgian chocolate center and chamomile ice cream. Quite a mouthful. She claims it took her mere seconds to devour!

To this day, when I close my eyes and recall the shocking events from 10 years ago, somehow I’m still at a loss for words. Still cannot describe the event. Still.

The impact of the day is continued to be felt the world over. Every thing from the the economy to international relations has changed. Everything.

Ten years ago to this date and time, I was in a car, heading towards New York, when we saw the neon roadsigns telling us to avoid the city. A quick flip to the right radio station told us a plane had crashed into the first tower. I instantly reacted with “a suicide attack?” and people in the car laughed with a look of bewilderment on their face that I had come up with the option.

We pulled off the highway to a rest stop and watched CNN as the second plane crashed. Eyes wide open, complete silence in the crowd that had started to gathered there, unable to eat the fast food on their tables. Someone in our party turned to me and said ‘Oh my god, you were right.“

I have never wanted to be more wrong.

…

A moment of silence, for those who suffered, and for those who continue to suffer. May they have courage to withstand the years ahead.

They stood quietly.

It hummed downward.

35? Maybe 40, they both speculated.

Each was amused, and gave the other the stare down.

Then the depth engulfed them.

Probably senile.

Definitely rash.

They laughed on the inside.

Bing!

The doors opened. One looked confused at the other.

He smiled, “The exit’s here, follow me this way.”

Each walked away with their perceptions changed. Just a little.

Always nice to be featured,so nice to have a photo I took featured on a travel site for Philadelphia, wohoo! For one of my favorite restaurants too — the site is here, and my review of the restaurant which is when I took the picture is blogged here.

We all love a good sponge cake. Now close your eyes and imagine that instead of a sweet, sugar-rushing sponge cake, you have a savory, slightly spicy, salty delicious sponge cake. Yes I realize you can’t read this if you closed your eyes, but I’m also relying on the fact that no one listens to me anyway.

A Gujarati specialty, Khaman is the equivalent of a savory sponge cake, with just the right amount of spice and flavor, and topped with a tempering of mustard and garnished with coriander and sometimes, grated coconut. Most people have a weakness for this gram-flour deliciousness, considering it can be eaten all by itself, or dipped in the chutney of the day.

I have even managed — wait for it — to make a Khaman sandwich that tasted so awesome, it’s now a standard occurance every time there’s Khaman in the house.

So there you have it, the savory and slightly spicy sponge cake, the Khaman.

We’re planning to have this available at the next Bakefest. If you like the idea, let us know :)

As news of Steve Jobs’ resignation flutters through the cyberspace, most people pronouncing this the end of an era. It is. Steve Jobs may not have had the agreement of every John and Jane Doe, but we definitely had the respect of a man who knew what he was doing, often way ahead of his peers.

What struck me is that this was a matter of time — not his first medical leave for one — and yet it comes with a level of shock and surprise, going to show how larger than life the man is.

A tribute to the man who envisioned a new era to computing, and pretty much got us there.

I leave you with a witty tweet poking fun at the awesome autocorrect feature (via GarethAveyard)

Famous words from an inspiring speech. India celebrates another year of independence, and there’s a lot on my mind.

Every year on this day, I introspect a little. What does this day really mean to me? The answer is weird. It means a lot — and yet, it somehow means so little. I feel patriotic, I feel inspired, I love the tri-colors fluttering everywhere, I’ve attended the flag hoisted ceremonies organized as far out as Philadelphia. Yet I come up with an empty feeling when I think about what I have done. For my country. At all.

The thoughts take me broader, farther. I think of the world. Of the crises and of the mess. And I re-call my favorite TV show of all time, one that — as it drew to a close — highlighted what it means to be human, not Indian or American or Middle-eastern, or anything else for that matter. What we can achieve as a species, and what we are destroying. Of political power, and corruption, racism and hatred and cold war.

Is this what we are really about? If so, I genuinely don’t feel like being human on those occasions.

I could go on, but I think I want to focus on what needs to change, rather than what cannot be touched or controlled.

Over the last year, maybe a couple years, I started to find my call, and interestingly, it lies in technology (and food, but that’ll kill my point right now). Over the last few years, I’ve witnessed, thought about and complained about changes in technology, the impact it’s having on our day-to-day lives. I have some clear thoughts on what I think technology should be doing, which inturn defines what it shouldn’t.

Social Media

A lot has changed since the advent of Twitter. Facebook was around way longer, but it was always a closed network — something to help you create a close-by community, or keep in touch with your friends and family. Twitter opened it all up — by giving us access to people we’d never be “friends” with in the Facebook paradigm but could still interact with without losing the feeling of privacy and control. It became a news feed, a community builder and a conversation starter all in one. In India, this has grown over the last couple of years. Today news channels regularly display opinions collected via twitter (and even facebook). It is starting to bring people together, giving them a voice and channelize support (or opposition).

I think this will slowly but surely impact governance in India. Sadly, our political system is 64 years old (and not in the good way) and well, rubbish. In India, there is a large group of people who think the political system is pointless to bother with. But there’s a young upcoming group of this generation who is going out there to make their point too. It may take a few years, but social media is going to help improve it, and with it, things will change.

Technology

The broader technology scope is equally interesting. I frankly hate a lot about the status quo, and more importantly, the attitude people have towards technology — especially in the corporate area. I’ve been looked down upon, called an idiot and laughed at purely because one look at me makes people know I’m an Indian IT guy, and then I must be like every Indian IT guy. It’s a funny kind of racism.

I’ve even been told that people are moving away from working with Indians because the cost-reduction does not offset the time and energy required to get Indians up to speed and up to the right level of professional working since we are “so far behind”. Is this what and where we want to be?

It is time to change that.

It’s our own damned fault too, and it needs to change with us first. Indians in technology need to stop coming off as bookworms, because we can be so much more. We need to stop rejecting new technologies and fighting over stupid bans, and focus on what we can do to improve the way we do things. Starting with education. And not stopping there. In some arenas, technology is so backward it’s not even laughable. I’ve even had bad experiences even with the big names and the way they treat us, their customers, fellow Indians.

This is an open call to any organization in India who wants to change they way they do things, and the way they use technology, and need advice. Heck, I’ll even do as much as I can of it for free. All I ask is you have an open mind to embrace what I have to say and accept that there needs to be a change in attitude. If you don’t like what I have to say after that, no problem. Tweet, drop me a line on LinkedIn, Google+, whatever.

I’ve started it a little bit too. And while it hasn’t been easy, I will keep trying until technology peers in India — the local, day-to-day folks just as much as the big guns — change their attitude towards technology, operations and most importantly — the way they treat their users, customers and us in general.

It’s an odd goal, I know, but this is how I can contribute.

How will you?

After-shave for geeks…like me.

It continually amazes me to see the kind of creativity that comes out of American movies and TV. As I finally watched Sucker Punch this week, this was more evident than ever.

There is so much creativity in the telling of this story. When I compare that against the real run of the mill rubbish we see in bollywood or on Indian tv…I quite literally, have no words.

I think that, in the Bollywood paradigm:

• a movie like Sucker Punch wouldn’t have been conceptualized
• if we assume for a second that it could have been, no one would have been ready to fund it
• if it had been funded, not one ‘mainstream’ish actor would have found the script worthy enough (and)
• if one had, they probably couldn’t actually have pulled it off
• very few people would have gone to watch it
• some politician would have opposed the way young girls were portrayed, and possibly, banned it
• All in all, it would have been a big enough mess to deter anyone from even voicing the idea

On 100% of current Indian television, we still haven’t gotten past the ‘oh-my-god my mother-in-law is insane’ storyline.

It’s sad really.

Anyone who’s driven around Abu Dhabi a bit will notice Il Forno outlets spread around the city. Boasting authentic food, the real reason I wanted to try it out was because someone who tried out my favorite pizzeria in Dubai (which has since shut down) said he had liked Il Forno better.

Not one to take criticism poorly, I tried it.

One bite in and Il Forno fell into the category of just another pizza place. They’re not bad, but they’re not great either. I only tried their pizza — I went with their garlic-and-olive-oil option — and felt mostly like I was eating a couple-hours-old manakish. The crust was overwhelming, didn’t feel too fresh and the cheese was your usual unfrozen mozzarella. The iced tea I had with the pizza was your standard run-of-the-mill restaurant iced tea and not brewed or such either.

Il Forno works with something that does look like a woodfire oven, although it’s a pretty standard one in reality. The staff were friendly though and while I’ve only tried their pizzas on a couple different occasions, it’s been with the same results.

For those following closely, the search continues for good pizza in the UAE. There are some I like, some I don’t and others I despise (and therefore, haven’t really visited since the start of this blog). But I’ve received some good suggestions and will post up once I get a chance to try them out. All in all, Il Forno is not going to be my favorite pizza anytime soon.

— -
Il Forno Italian Restaurant
Abu Dhabi Mall, Abu Dhabi & multiple locations

About a year ago, I received a DM over twitter that went: “Is this you: http://t.co/GAVYjLo?"

Oh relax, it wasn’t spam — well that was when twitter wasn’t so infected anyway. Point is, it was linked to a foodblog (go ahead, click it), but the friend had confused it as being this blog because of “eerily similar[ity] to u!” Another food blog? With much better pictures? Ooh. I hastily posted what I can only imagine now was a creepy comment and didn’t think anything of it afterward. Who responds to blog comments right? A grand total of 4 minutes later, I received an email titled “Hi — just saw your comment on my blog :)”.

Today, Famished in Arabia (or FiA) as we were coined, is a group of 56 food bloggers (as of 8 p.m. GMT+4 today) covering various walks of life and blogging about a whole variety of different things — from expert restaurant reviews, expert bakers, expert pickle-makers, expert restaurant owners and.. well there’s me too. The group has seen a phenomenal growth — oh a history buff you say? you want ALL the details? — anyway, the rest of you, like I was saying…

Today Famished in Arabia celebrates a year of existance. And what a marvelous one at that. Some very creative people, some very talented people and most importantly some very passionate people. This means that as the site grows, the information flowing gets even better — new places worth checking out, suggestions on evening-outings, and even tips on cooking and baking better. Even more, how to photograph food — some of the improvements (What rubbish you say? You haven’t seen any? Pfft, go away!) you see on this blog over the past year have happened because of things I’ve picked up by just admiring all of these blogs.

Right, so what’s the point of the post you ask? Well it’s to say Happy Birthday FiA. It’s to be happy and proud to see it grow into something great — just think about it, for a country like UAE, to have 56 independent food bloggers each with their own unique voice. That’s amazing. And you know what? I’m actually sure there are more out there, waiting until the silent assassins..er…acquirers at FiA pounce and draw them in with cupcakes…

I leave you with the RSS feed aggregate of the food bloggers, and if you’re on twitter, the FiA list. Go nuts! Just don’t forget the chocolate.

UPDATE: Read other posts from the group on the 1st year celebrations here.

Well, well, well.

I had to really think about this one. I finally decided to file it under #funny.

Bachelors have been barred from entering a newly- inaugurated shopping centre in Dubai for fear that they would misuse the massive discounts on offer.

…

“We found out that many of them were buying our products on offer only to resell them in at their stores at the original price. So we have decided to turn away single men from entering the hypermarket until the promotion ends,” he said.

Only men accompanied by a woman are being allowed into the store.

Because that totally solves the problem.

Oh, and enjoy the hashtag currently in operation: #unioncooppickuplines

Union Co-op Barsha outlet bans single men, via @bilalhouri

“At some point I took it personally. #fail”

I remember this tweet someone wrote before going offline for a few months very vividly. I’m not entirely sure why, but it just stuck. Maybe because it resonated with me somehow. Maybe..I’m not sure.

I saw this coming I think. It’s not often that I lose my temper, in fact, it happens rarely enough that I cannot recall the last time I did it. But over the last month or so, I was brimming. I could feel it happening with every conversation — and it wasn’t just one person. Today, I lost it altogether. I’m not happy about that. It may not have been a disaster, but it still was not good.

So today, we start again. A little rehash, a little time-alone, a little bit of introspection. The outcome, as before, will be the same: return to the patient side of me, the one that dominates without chaos, and the one who’s shoulder people like to cry on because it is offered without judgement; one that would never expect a shoulder in return.

It is time.

Who doesn’t love candy. Come to think of it, I can’t think of anyone who’s ever told me they hate Gummies. Maybe not biggest fans, but don’t like Gummies. Yea, NEVER happens. Gummies are things that you can’t stop eating once you start, then you feel sick and tell yourself, okay not having *that* many again. Until a couple of days later, you walk by a store that sells gummies and…pfft, what’s another entire pack going to do — I survived fine last time!

I indulged heavily in gummies — gummy bears & worms in particular during my stay in Philadelphia. With everything from the next block grocery store to the elaborate candy stores carry them, they were never in short supply. Over time, you even new which ones carried fresh gummies (yes, there is such a thing as ‘fresh’ gummies compared to stale ones. It matters!).

Moving back to Dubai meant a literal cut down in the amount of gummy intake. That probably wasn’t a bad thing but you also don’t find gummies around the block, and when you do, they just seem expensive. Ofcourse, all has changed over time and I can safely say I can find gummies within a 10 minute radius from whereever I am these days.

This however, brings me to Lifesavers. For the uninitiated, Lifesavers can be best described as the American Polo. Well, you don’t actually get Polo there, and you see Lifesavers everywhere. Frankly they don’t really come close on a taste front, but they make do. What Polo however doesn’t have, are…Lifesavers gummies! Those brilliant, mint-candy-with-a-hole-shaped soft gummies. So good. Case in point: when I touched down in the US last year for the first time in 4 years, the only thing I wanted oh-so-badly along with my Snapple Iced Tea obsession were, yup, the Lifesavers Gummies. And yes, they are joined by the 7–11 Big Gulp.

The good news is, the ENOC petrol station store has started featuring Lifesavers, including the big versions, but in hard candy. Everytime I stop by to fill up the tank — even if more than once a day at the same station — I make a quick move into the store purely to check out the Lifesavers aisle in the sad-puppy-dog-eye hope. So far, I’ve been disappointed.

Lifesavers, are you listening?

My early thoughts on the all-new Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion — image via Apple), in trademarked bullet-point style:

• I upgraded to a new OS for all of $30 and did not step out of my room. While this appeals to my height of laziness, you have to say that is an impressive way to function. The installation took about 35 minutes in total, not counting download time (a little over an hour).
• (Update) Case in point, it just took me >30 minutes to download the 30MB new VLC.
• I decided to leave the new scrolling as is and test it for a while first. In a couple of hours, the new scrolling is happening a lot more intuitively. I definitely like how full screen apps are being handled — pretty much a separate virtual desktop that you can scroll in and out of easily.
• I’m having am amazing time using Twimbow — or I’d imagine any twitter-like application — scrolling through twitter columns is now identical to using an iPhone.
• Mission Control is a brilliant add-on. Actually it’s not so much mission control itself, but the way this has been integrated with the new scrolling and the virtual desktops mode. Very seamless, intuitive to move around and it does what you think it would do. I also like that Dashboard has now setup its own screen on the far left (similar to the search screen on the iOS). It handles dual desktop better than before.
• What remains to be seen is how seamless the change will be between using a Magic Mouse and using the trackpad. At my desk I use an external keyboard and mouse, whereas often during the day or when out, I’m glistening about the trackpad. Now the gestures are a bit different between them for some of the tasks, so it might take more than one try to get it right based on the input device.
• I’m not so sure about the Mail app yet. I’m a active Gmail user for both personal and work, part of the reason is that they offer a significantly improved interface and controls, and the other part is my not having to manage my inbox and archive and so on and so forth — a major pain in Outlook days. Apple seems to have got the interface down real well, I’ll give them that, but I’m not as fast on it as I’d be on Gmail, simply with the shortcuts — I use keyboard almost entirely to sort, shift, search, archive, delete and send email in Gmail. Tab+Space vs Command-Shift-D? Yeaaa, no. That said, the interface is smooth, clean and the use in full screen mode can be very productive and focused. For now I’ll use it on and off, but the lack of labels and keyboard ease of use will deter me as a full-time Mail user. However, I can completely see why normal users (ie, non-heavy-gmail, outlook or previous Mail users) would be very happy with it.
• So far, I’ve not run into an app compatabilities. However, apps that would improve upon the finder, such as say Dropboxwhich adds menu options have lost these, so a re-install will be necessary. At the same time, a variety of my pre-Lion preferences (such as changing my screenshot folder) have stayed on.
• The all new account syncing is actually quite good, although surprising. Using my stored account info the keychain, it managed to figure out that I used 3 chat accounts that also had calendar, contacts and email attached to it, imported the accounts and gave me a prompt to chose what I wanted synchronized. Nifty.
• I also get a feeling that the Dock is on its way out. I was barely using it anyway — a combination of Alfred and Spotlight pretty much give me everything I’d want — but with Launchpad coming on as a visual ‘Let me see all my apps’ option…
• Finder, and just general interface wise, it’s looking a bit more polished. The buttons looks almost Chrome-HTML5 like and snazzier, and there are definitely some adjustments to contrast, shading and general whiteness.

It’s still early days. Still, 1 million downloads on Day 1 is pretty staggering (think $30m revenue and no shipping/box costs). I haven’t tried everything yet, particularly Resume & Versioning.

Overall, I think I now understand Apple’s Back to the Mac campaign a lot better. They have learnt some sharp lessons from the iOS adoption and incorporated them with good insight into the OS. Launchpad, Scrolling and Full Screen apps are great additions to both experience and productivity — and mission control seems to be a much-upgraded version of Spaces+Dashboard without losing their usefulness. I’m happy so far.

Be happy to hear your thoughts too!