Hong Kong's best and worst of 2010

Fast-food weddings, irate tour guides and 3D porn are just three of the things that got Hong Kongers writing, reading and talking this year

27 December, 2010

'Til obesity do us part: McDonald's introduced weddings packages in Hong Kong this year.

Best wedding: McDonald's wedding

Hong Kong became the first city in the world to announce McDonald’s nuptial packages for couples this year. The package has all the details to attract a wedding banquet cynic or a Golden Arches obsessive: a baked apple-pie wedding cake, dress made out of party balloons, kiddie party favors for guests, and, of course, catering by McD’s.

Unfortunately, alcoholic drinks are banned at the G-rated venue, so couples have to toast their union with soft drinks. Hong Kong couples can get hitched at McDonald’s starting January 1, 2011. Read more about it here.

Best movie hype: 3D porn

In the post-"Avatar" world, if your visuals aren't 3D, you're not trying hard enough. One segment of the movie industry where they tend to try to be hard enough is pornography. Producer Stephen Shui Jr. who made the original "Zen and Sex" 20 years ago has now made a US$4 million 3D version.

Although the film has a 2011 release date, tourists from mainland China have already booked in advance to travel to Hong Kong to watch the film.

Best rebirth: The Globe

A bigger, better world at The Globe.

After being priced out from its original home on Hollywood Road, one of Central’s favorite watering holes managed to find a nearby location more than twice the original size for the same rent. Though its cozy, semi-basement location and warm decor are enough to recommend it, The Globe has also done more than any other bar to advance the cause of good beer. Visit for a huge and constantly-rotating list of brews, plus a lively and down-to-earth gastropub atmosphere.

Worst weather phenomenon: No T8

Not a single T8 typhoon warning was hoisted this year, the first typhoon-less year since 2006.

Plenty of storms passed us by, including the Super Typhoon Megi, which got everyone hoping for a holiday, only to disappoint us yet again. With no public holidays between July 1 and mid-autumn, we needed a break, but Mother Nature just didn’t deliver.

Best underdog theater show: Cowboy

As part of the Hong Kong Movement Arts Festival, Cowboy is the brainchild of the multi-talented artist Lee Chi-man. Condensed to one short hour, Lee wows the audience with his powerful mime, breathtaking stunts and perfectly timed fire-play.

Audiences are invited to sit on stage while Lee gives his all in the performance. Special mention must go to lighting designer Sunfool Lau who, with the use of handheld equipment and quirky placements of lights, creates a dramatic atmosphere for the show.

Best food movement: Eat local

The New Territories isn't all about junkyards and housing estates. The local food movement made bigger strides this year than ever before, with new restaurants dedicated to serving locally produced fare, old family farms finding new life in organic vegetables and even a new project, Hong Kong Honey, that has turned an industrial area rooftop into a honeybee farm.

Best activist: Chu Hoi-dick

Chu Hoi-dick

Three years after he helped rally young Hong Kongers to support the preservation of the Central Star Ferry Pier, In-Media co-founder Chu Hoi-dick was one of the leaders of the movement condemning the high-speed rail to Guangzhou, which will destroy Tsoi Yuen Village. While both causes eventually failed, Chu has succeeded in mobilizing what is now called the "Post-80s Generation" in Hong Kong.

Best new cafe: Holly Brown

With the explosion of new cafes over the last couple of years, Hong Kong’s coffee scene continues to expand. More and more independent shops are paying serious attention to quality java.

King of the indies is Holly Brown, which surprised everyone with a massive two-story space in Central, a gelato counter and Hong Kong's first barista champion. Watch out, Starbucks, real coffee has gone mainstream.

Best new shopping mall: The One

Malls are important in Hong Kong. We hide within their air-conditioned confines during summer and in the cozy embrace of consumer limbo removed from reality all year round.

One of a spate of glossy new malls in Tsim Sha Tsui, The One stands out. Forget the silly name, this is a mall to explore. With an eclectic retail mix that includes the first non-Japanese locations of many Japanese brands.

It’s also home to intriguing concept stores such as Lost & Found, and several floors of bars and restaurants with outdoor terraces and the city’s most astounding skyline views.

Worst art exhibition: Hope and Glory

This is art? Of a sort.

It made for a memorable opening-night party and we admire artist Simon Birch’s hard work and dedication. But this year’s big-ticket art show, Hope & Glory: A Conceptual Circus, was an anti-climax. The circus-as-allegory concept felt overdone while the individual installations were gimmicky. Art critic Robin Peckham was being snarky when he wrote that, “Simon Birch is out to singlehandedly destroy the integrity of the Hong Kong art world -- and the exhibition is awful too.” He was also right.

Best new local game: Mark Leung’s Revenge of the Bitch

An insane vanity project that makes fun of classic RPGs and forces you to do battle with adorable kittens? Sounds awful. But it’s actually a lot of fun to play.

Independently produced by local game developer Mark Leung, Revenge of the Bitch was released earlier this month and is already generating buzz in the world’s indie games community. It can be bought online for HK$100.

Best fad food overkill: Frozen yogurt

Frozen yogurt in Hong Kong has come a long way since TCBY died a drawn-out death years ago. It's hard not to spot a frozen yogurt joint in Hong Kong's crowded shopping districts, and many are homegrown.

From Yo Mama to Yogo to Crumbs, the frozen yogurt market is saturated. And we, the consumers, win. Until the sight of more yogurt starts making us ill.

Best new beverage trend: Craft beer

The beer's great. The pour could use some work.

Hong Kong’s first craft brewery got its start earlier this year when Cathay Pacific pilot Pierre Cadoret launched Typhoon Brewery by making English ale in a small Mui Wo space. Soon after, a group of beer lovers banded together to start Foreign Devil, which imports craft brews from three of the world’s best breweries: Rogue, Baird and North Coast. The beers are available at CitySuper and on the Foreign Devil website.

Best mobile phone recording: Tour guide rant

A Hong Kong tour guide hit a raw nerve in mainland China by showering a busload of mainland tourists with insults after they refused to shop on a trip to the S.A.R.

“Spend more, you’ll be happier … next you’ll be telling me you don’t need to eat at meal times. I will lock you out of your hotel rooms, because you don’t need them [either],” the tour guide screamed into the mic on the tour bus.

Unfortunately for her -- and fortunately for mainland tourists, who have long been pressured to buy at specific vendors so that tour guides can collect commissions -- the seven-minute tirade was captured on a mobile phone and soon made the rounds online.

The video prompted the Hong Kong Travel Industry Council to introduce controversial reforms to salvage Hong Kong’s battered tourism image.

Best celebrity scandal

The arrest of TVB general manager Chan Chi Wan dominated Hong Kong headlines for months. The executive was also the popular host of the celebrity talk show "Be My Guest." He was suspected of corruption involving a shell company that was awarded TVB's production contracts.

Chan was released on bail. Then, in a dramatic turn, charges against him were suddenly dropped and he returned to work in time for TVB's big anniversary program.

As the scandal played out, Chan gave infamous quotes, prompting YouTube spoofs of his press conferences.

Worst breach of privacy: Octopus card scandal

Octopus Holdings Ltd. spread its tentacles a little too far.

Since launching in 1997, the Ocopus card has been adopted by 95 percent of people in Hong Kong for traveling, shopping and even dining. Hong Kong Octopus Holdings Ltd. former chief executive Prudence Chan admitted in July that since January 2006 the company has earned HK$44 million in revenue by selling its clients' personal data to merchants. Chan resigned and the firm will donate HK$44 million to charity.

Best upcoming band: Supper Moment

Hong Kong pop indie band Supper Moment formed in 2006 and signed to Redline Music this year. They are known for poetic lyrics and easy listening melodies.

The band was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Commerical Radio awards, a guide to the year's most popular music. The band will release an album next year and has a spate of gigs lined up.

The group call themselves Supper Moment because they want Hong Kongers to hear their music and be reminded to cherish the moments that they have with the people they love -- such as dinner with their family. Aw.

Best pizza: Paisano’s

Many agree. Paisano's is number one.

Paisano’s already had a cult following after it opened in Sai Kung last winter. Now that it has a location in Central, its popularity has exploded. This modest pizzeria gets everything right: huge slices, hand-tossed dough, succulent tomato sauce and, at HK$25 per slice, value. What makes it really stand out is that Paisano’s is not owned by a faceless restaurant group. Owner Al Morales is a former New Yorker who is often in the shop chatting with customers.

Bangkok's best and worst of 2010

From addictive eats to unfortunate fashion trends, these are the best and worst our city had to offer in one of its most eventful years

By Matt Crook 27 December, 2010

It was a riotous year for Thailand in 2010. The rural masses took to the streets of Bangkok and brought the city to a standstill with their futile attempts to get to the front of the queue for an imported brand of donut, only to be shooed away by the middle classes who had been camping outside Siam Paragon for weeks.

Join us now as we unravel the mystery of this phenomenon and more in our list of the best and worst that went down in Bangkok and its surrounds in 2010.

Best event: Big Mountain

The hills of Khao Yai came alive once more in December for Thailand's largest music festival, Big Mountain. Thousands of campers turned up to revel in the wild and reaffirmed Thailand's place on the region's musical map.

All the usual suspects were in attendance to bring the house down, including Bodyslam, Clash, T-Bone et al, as well as the cream of Thailand's DJ elite.

Best citizen journalist: Florian Witulski

At the start of the year nobody knew who Florian Witulski was, let alone how shiny his flowing locks were.

Then the Bangkok red shirt protests hit and suddenly the Twitter masses had a new hero to worship in the 24-year-old blogging German, whose credits include being shot with a rubber bullet and doing an interview for Vogue magazine.

Although still a student, Florian has traveled the world and never goes anywhere without a bag full of gadgets to tell the world what's going on.

Worst law enforcement: Flip-flops banned

When a red shirt supporter was arrested in October for selling flip-flops emblazoned with the face of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, it could have been just a one-off, a glitch in the Matrix.

But when more arrests followed and hordes of flip-flop vendors were deemed in breach of the Centre for Resolution of the Emergency Resolution’s order to prohibit the sale of “goods, clothing, or other materials which bear pictures, illustrations or anything that will instigate unrest or cause disunity among the public," it was a clear sign that all was not well in the capital. (The ban has since been lifted.)

Best new addiction: La Monita Taqueria

The favored Bangkok venue for Tweetups, La Monita Taqueria touts itself as a Mexican restaurant by foodies, for foodies, and we have no reason to doubt that claim thanks to tip-top tacos and the madness of its monkey wings.

Best athletic achievement: Thailand take takraw gold in Asian Games

Kung-fu kicks and mind-boggling backflips were on the menu at this year's Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, but nobody could fend off Thailand's men's and women's takraw collectives in the regu and team events as the champs came home with heads held high and medals in hand.

Best new luxury hotel: Siam Kempinski

Bangkok’s tourism industry might have taken a huge beating thanks to this year’s political unrest and a strong baht, but the world’s luxury brands haven’t given up on the city yet.

European brand Siam Kempinski was the latest to join the city's high-class ranks, bringing with it a unique new dining experience in the form of Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin and a resort-like atmosphere smack next to hi-so haunt Siam Paragon.

Worst shocker of the year: Aborted fetuses

It took the discovery of more than 2,000 aborted fetuses in a Bangkok temple to put the abortion debate on the table and wake people up to the fact that there are only two ways abortions can be done: safely or illegally.

Best gadget: Amazon Kindle

How could we overlook the iPhone and iPad for this year's best gadgets? Quite simply because the Amazon Kindle is a hell of a lot cheaper (from about 5,000 baht) and it's perfect for reading books, magazines, papers and PDFs.

Less of a fashion statement and more of a practical reading tool, the Kindle is simple, wireless and app free.

Best Youtube celeb: Bon Rattanabannakit

It's difficult to know how to classify Bon. Her amusing forays into teaching Thai “the Bon's way” won her heaps of international admirers in 2010, but her quirkiness didn't end there.

Numerous skits and even a “Bon on stage” talkshow interview with her neighbour's mother, who can apparently communicate with dead people, have cemented Bon's reputation as an Internet oddity who is at times adorable, at other times bamboozling.

Best party: DJ Die @ Glow

Of late, Bangkok hasn't had the kind of drum 'n' bass parties that once brought the junglists out from the woodwork.

But ever-reliable Bristol bass-head DJ Die did some damage at Glow in November and delivered a message to promoters, DJs and clubbers alike: there is more to life than trendy house.

Best club night: Wrong Disco

Ever the stalwarts of serious underground beats, the Wrong Disco boys have been quietly doing their thing in the dark corners of the Bangkok club scene for years while celeb DJs cash in on superstar status and play sub-par sets to huge crowds of partygoers. Catch the wrongness at Glow every month.

Thailand Darwin Award for best/worst death: Man dies in pad Thai-eating contest

A pad Thai-eating contest in Phetchaburi took a turn for the worse early on in 2010 when a hungry pensioner got so carried away with the festivities that he choked to death, apparently unaware of his own noodle-chomping limits.

Hing Laichan, 66, was looking good to win the competition, by all accounts, but it wasn't to be and family members were left distraught.

Best drink: The Bangkok Bastard at Soul Food Mahanakorn

There are plenty of people who could aptly be described as Bangkok bastards, but none of them are as palatable as new restaurant Soul Food Mahanakorn's explosive -- and drinkable -- concoction of bourbon, gin, kaffir lime leaves, a dash of bitters, fresh lime juice and ginger ale. It's a drink that definitely led to a few killer hangovers in 2010.

Best new sugar fix: Cupcakes at Sparkles

Bangkok dessert shops have picked up on the worldwide cupcake craze, but few have been able to get it right. Too sweet, not sweet enough or just plain awful.

But as one judge in CNNGo's Best Eats feature pointed out, there's really only one venue that offers the real deal -- Sparkles. Forget that this place is in trendy Thonglor. There's nothing fake or faddish about these U.S.-style cupcakes, made with the best ingredients while eschewing excessive sweetness.

Worst trend: Krispy Kreme craze

They queued. And they queued. And they wouldn't stop queueing because they just really, really, really loved donuts.

The sickly sweet Krispy Kreme brand made its way to Thailand this year and quickly became the most talked about snack in recent history. Confused onlookers didn't dare question why people would stand in line for hours just to get a donut, but stand in line they did.

Lazybums even went so far as to pay over the odds for blackmarket Krispy Kremes sold on the sidewalk while the staff at Dunkin' Donuts cried into their milk.

Best concert: The Charlatans

There weren't a whole lot of eyebrow-raising band lineups in Bangkok in 2010, so it was like a breath of fresh air when British indie veterans The Charlatans popped over in November to show the wannabes how it's done, while CNNGo faves The Standards did a fine job as the support act.

Worst fashion trend: Lensless glasses

The hipster thing is wearing thin now. We get it. You guys deliberately like to look as kooky as possible. You don't follow trends, you wait for your friends to make them, and then you modify them slightly.

Geek has been the “new” chic for years now, so it's no wonder that nerdy specs are all the rage, but glasses? With no glass? Next thing you know they'll be riding bikes with fixed gears.

Best website redesign: Nothenation.com

There were rumors, fears and concerns that satirical website Not the Nation had lost steam and all but given up on the dizzying task of mocking current affairs in Thailand.

But then the NTN crew came bounding back and they even gave the website a makeover in the process and promised T-shirts for all in the near future.

Best protest-related action: Red shirts spill blood

We don't want to get too political here, but when the dastardly red shirts poured 60 gallons of their own blood on the ground outside PM Abhisit's house, the world stood up and wondered just what the hell was going on in Thailand. As a symbolic gesture, it sure beat shutting down airports.

Worst food-related debate: Outrage over foreigners cooking Thai food

The very thought that a foreigner could cook Thai and do it well sent a shudder down the spines of purists and nationalists alike.

It all started when Aussie David Thompson opened a branch of his famed Nahm restaurant at The Metropolitan. The debate raged on and food critic Suthon Sukphisit pledged to boycott the eatery. Meanwhile, normal people continued to eat food they thought was tasty, regardless of who cooked it.

Mumbai's best and worst of 2010

We're drinking our own wine, exporting Bollywood talent to Hollywood, throwing world-class conferences and indie music festivals -- 2010 was the year Mumbai began coming of age as a global culture capital

By Kanika Parab and Mansi Poddar 27 December, 2010

"Peepli [Live]" -- India's official entry to the Oscars.

Best Hindi film: "Peepli [Live]"

Beautiful people, big budgets, bouncy beats, booty thrusts -- "Peepli [Live]" had none of these. Yet, this tiny Aamir Khan production about one of India’s ugliest truths (farmer suicides), turned out to be the most attractive film of 2010.

Sure, it may once again put India’s poverty in the global spotlight -- "Peepli [Live]" is India's official entry to the Oscars -- and it was accused of being inspired by Hollywood flick "Mad City," but no one can naysay the smart script laced with dark humor and outstanding performances by a band of fresh, talented theater actors.

Made on a meager budget of two crores and raking in about 28 (according to The Hindu), "Peepli [Live]" is the big small film we all wanted to get behind.

From Goa with love -- the feni margarita.

Best drink: Café Goa's Feni margarita

Goa in a glass, this feni margarita seems to be made with two parts beach, one part sun and a dash of sea salt.

Dreamed up by ad exec and Café Goa owner Theron Carmine the cocktail is inspired by the popular Goan liquor and is not even on his restaurant's menu. It's served to those who know of this slushy secret, whispered in circles of regular patrons.

“This citric-sweet drink is a great chaser to food," says Carmine. "The perfect way to wash down spicy Goan sausages.”

Here’s how to make it: Put 30 ml. tequila, 15 ml. feni, raw cane sugar extract to taste, baby mint leaves, one tsp. lime juice and crushed ice in a blender. Pour into a margarita glass. Substitute tequila with white rum for a more chilled-out version.
Cafe Goa, Agnelo House, off St John Baptist Road, near Mount Mary Steps, Bandra (W), +91 (0) 22 6629 9167 / +91 99 2091 9110; www.cafegoabistro.com

Quit copying Chuck Norris jokes already!

Worst Rajinikanth joke: Check this out

Did you hear the one about Rajinikanth and the bank? No? Well we aren't going to tell you. Someone has to put a stop to the incessant forwarding/BBMing/Whatsapping of jokes inspired by the South Indian superstar’s 2010 Tamil release "Endhiran" or "Robot."

We may now be scowling at the jokes that went from hilarious to senseless and then just completely unnecessary, but the movie is reportedly being the second-highest grossing Indian film (earning 62 crores on opening weekend). Alright, alright, if you must know, this is how it goes: Rajinikanth once wrote a check and the bank bounced.

"Mr. India" to "Mission Impossible."

Best Bollywood export: Anil Kapoor

It’s the hair. It’s got to be. As most of his contemporaries deal with thinning careers, actor Anil Kapoor continues to thrive not just in the thick of Bollywood, but in Hollywood, too.

After his role in Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire," where he shared a Screen Actors Guild Award with co-stars for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Kapoor wowed American TV critics with his performance as President Omar Hassan in the super series "24." He's now acting in a supporting actor role in "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," starring alongside Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise.

Pam appeared on Season 4 of "Bigg Boss."

Worst TV import: Pamela Anderson

Red hot lifeguard, sexy bodyguard, playmate: this is how India pictured Pamela Anderson before she made an appearance on national television. Clad in an Indian-print sarong, rolling chapattis and heaving her bosom to Bollywood songs on reality TV show Bigg Boss, Pam looked strange, haggard and utterly disinterested.

While the audience got nothing out of the Baywatch babe’s appearance, she reportedly made Rs 25 million for a three-day appearance and took the TV channel’s TRPs soaring.

Tabloids later reported that the star didn’t actually stay at the Bigg Boss house, but shacked up at a hotel nearby.

India’s always been a dumping ground for Hollywood has-beens, but this waste could have been better managed.

Now in Mumbai: Organic candy floss.

Best market: The Farmers’ Market

The Sunday Farmers’ Market made its seasonal premier in March 2010. Set up in a smallish Bandra garden, it featured farmers from Maharashtra who sold their organically grown produce and city hipsters selling everything from sushi and organic candy floss to natural beauty products and environment ally friendly furniture.

Organized by Conscious Food founder Kavita Mukhi and now in its second season (which began in October), the market is filled with items such as exotic veggies, pesticide-free spring water, organic mint lemonade and Ayurvedic baby food.

At Wind Chimes Nursery, Bhalla House, Hill Road, next to Kobe restaurant, Bandra (W); +91 98 2008 9378. Email farmersmarket@kavitamukhi.com; Sundays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Playing to packed houses every night.

Best new entertainment venue: The Comedy Store

There’s carnage at The Comedy Store. Almost every night, as stand-up comics kill it, front-row hecklers show up to sacrifice themselves for the entertainment of others.

Launched in mid 2010, this UK-based house of laughs is teaching Mumbai not to take itself so seriously. For that, we're thankful. And also for giving us one more thing to do on a Saturday night and allowing us to drink inside an auditorium.

A band of visiting international comics and “local heroes” have worked hard at toughening up crowds, even taking down Bollywood celebrities such as Dino Morea, who laughed along.

Palladium Mall, level 3, High Street Phoenix, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel; (Comedy Store box office) +91 (0) 22 4348 5000, (Book My Show) +91 (0) 22 3989 5050.

Mumbai's most innovative new fashion designer.

Best new fashion designer: Masaba

Designer Masaba Gupta is a mediator between colors and styles that might not otherwise get along. She successfully resolves their issues and gets them to co-exist on the same sari, a skill she says she picked up from resourceful street women who put together the few random pieces of clothing they own.

Daughter of Indian actress Nina Gupta and West Indian cricketer Sir Vivian Richards, Masaba’s been designing clothes for more than two years, but this year she introduced her half-and-half saris, silk kurtas and brilliantly colored shirts inspired by Indian weave patterns worn by celebrities, including young Bollywood style icon Sonam Kapoor.

Masaba will make her debut as film costume designer on a Bengali movie. She's also gotten her wonderful weaves a home of their own at Juhu, where she opened a flagship store this month.

Masaba, unit no. 8, New Sujata CHS, plot no 28, Juhu Tara Road, opposite Satya Paul, Santacruz (W); +91 (0) 22 6529 8694; www.houseofmasaba.com

Henry Tham's new club at Hotel Sea Princess in Juhu.

Best night club: Trilogy

Mumbai has few good places to dance, which is why Trilogy in Juhu, with its big dance floor and overhead psychedelic lights, has been such an exciting addition to the city’s nightclub circuit.

Add a sea view and whiskey sours, wannabe models, waist-high champagne flutes, fedora-wearing bartenders and frills for VIPs, and you’ve got a sexy discotheque that has seduced its way into the hip crowd's Saturday night slot.

Hotel Sea Princess, Juhu Tara Road, Santracruz (W), +91 (0) 22 2646 9689

The organic South Indian coffee is superb at Kala Ghoda Cafe.

Best café: Kala Ghoda Café

Squeezed next to a furniture store opposite Trishna in a tiny lane off Kala Ghoda, this bite-sized eatery gets it right.

Cool, upcoming neighborhood? Yep. Quirky wall art? Got it. Free wi-fi? Of course. Freshly baked bread, homemade ginger cake with clotted cream, cappuccino served with dark chocolate? Check, check, check.

The cafe also offers a seasonal selection of salads and sandwiches -- the cheddar and pickle version comes highly recommended by Rodney Kabral, chef at Indigo Deli -- as well as a breakfast menu featuring eggs, waffles, muesli and yogurt.

Kala Ghoda Café, 10 Ropewalk Lane, Kala Ghoda, Fort, +91 (0) 22 2263 3866, www.kgcafe.in

Anish Kapoor's show is on till January 16.

Best art exhibit: Anish Kapoor

In spite of red gunk-firing cannons, this is one act we don’t want cleaned up in 2011.

In undoubtably the biggest art exhibit to hit the country this year, Mumbai-born, UK-based artist and sculptor supreme Anish Kapoor showed in India for the first time (simultaneously in Mumbai and Delhi). Among other displays were his famous "Shooting into the Corner" live installation, mirrored steel pieces and other wax works not for the "paint" hearted.

Fresh off a record-breaking show at London’s Royal Academy, Kapoor picked Bollywood’s iconic Mehboob Studio as his Mumbai venue.

If you’ve not yet visited, sign up for tours led by luminaries such as architect Bijoy Jain, cultural theorist Nancy Adajania and writer Aveek Sen. See schedule here.

Anish Kapoor Dilli, Mumbai, Mehboob Studios, 100 Hill Road, Bandra (W); +91 (0) 22 4020 3660/61/62/63. On till January 16 2011, open daily, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., free entry but a slot must be booked in advance via www.anishkapoorindia.com

A super-clean user interface.

Best mobile application: Meter Down

There are more ups and downs in Mumbai cab and autorickshaw fares than the Eastern Express Highway. The best way to keep track of them is Meter Down, an award-winning iPhone application that not only features a scroll table translating what the meter reads into the amount you have to pay, but automatically updates itself for fare changes.

Simple and easy to use, it's no wonder this free application, developed by Siddhartha Bannerjee for taxis and autorickshaws, has zoomed into the cell phones of Mumbaikars. Horn OK please!

Download here.

INK stands for "Innovation and knowledge."

Best conference: TED/INK

James Cameron, Matt Groening, Deepak Chopra, Anand Giridharadas -- with guests like these, Lavasa could be the new Beverly Hills.

The aforementioned luminaries joined other thinkers, artists and entrepreneurs at INK, a conference organized in association with TED (which has been particularly active in India recently), sharing ideas on everything from family connections to deep sea diving and cloud computing.

For more on the INK conference, click here.

In December, Indian airlines proposed to hike ticket prices based on a new distance-based fare calculation.

Best government meddling: Checks on airfare

Kingfisher airlines boss Vijay Mallya might be crying murder, but those who don’t own a private plane can get behind Praful Patel’s contention that no commuter should have to pay last-minute fares of Rs 30,000 for a one-way flight from Mumbai to Delhi to see their mum on Diwali.

The Civil Aviation Minister kicked off a stormy debate on the role of government in regulating private enterprise by asserting that the government should step in and penalize airlines that hike their “spot prices” unreasonably, exploiting growing demand for air travel.

A record-breaking 49 lakh travelers flew within the country in November 2010.

If you find a surprisingly affordable holiday air ticket in 2011, you know who to thank. Government meddling. Yeah, for once.

Sanitizing Mumbai for Obama was no small task.

Worst Diwali visitor: U.S. President Barack Obama

Speaking of Diwali ... here's a note to U.S. President Obama: if you want to make a billion dollar sale, try and warm up your customers rather than barricading them from their own city, especially on the biggest holiday of the year.

Diwali 2010 in Mumbai was a particularly somber affair with entire swaths of the city cordoned off, coconut trees stripped naked (for fear the fruit would fall on the President’s head) and already draconian laws regulating firecrackers tightened further.

The always charming president managed to thaw the ice a bit by engaging in candid “town hall” debate with students at St. Xavier’s College and announcing his support for India’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council. First Lady Michelle had everyone smiling when she joined a bunch of school kids in a koli dance.

Still, the city was largely underwhelmed by these holiday visitors.

NH7 Weekender was the best indie music festival ever held in India.

Best music festival: Bacardi NH7 Weekender

Our little neighbor sure knows how to party large. Pune hosted the first Bacardi NH7 Weekender in early December, a three-day music fest that brought together all of the country’s best known indie artists and bands -- Pentagram, Zero, Indian Ocean, Shaa'ir + Func -- along with a sprinkle of international acts such as Asian Dub Foundation and Magic Numbers.

Special mention to Airport, who opened Day 2 of the festival and is our favorite Indian indie band of the year. (Watch this music video and find out why.)

Great weather, awesome music, and seamless organization by Martin Elbourne, who’s worked on Glastonbury and the Great Escape in the UK -- what more could Mumbai's music fans ask for? “Vampire Weekend,” replied one attendee.

Maybe next year.

For more on NH7, click here.

"Ramayana: Divine Loophole" is a modern rendering of the ancient Hindu epic about gods, demons and mythological warfare.

Best pseudo-intellectual trend: Graphic novels

2010 was the year of comics, stand-up and otherwise. Fueled by geek-chic trends, graphic novels reached heights this year, encompassing everything from the great epics to downright silly, but still endearing, adventures of big-buxom babes who love monsters, Tintin translated into Hindi and a resurrection of the Amar Chitra Katha.

We even saw the launch of India’s first comic book library, Leaping Windows.

Recommended: "Kumari Loves A Monster" by Rashmi Ruth Devadasan, "Ramayana: Divine Loophole" by Sanjay Patel and Ashok Banker’s "Prince of Ayodhya Volume I: The Graphic Novel."

Which one is best? Let’s call it a draw.

Sunday brunch? Good luck getting a table at Indigo Deli.

Best new restaurant: Indigo Deli

In 2010, Mumbai’s culinary scene stretched in all kinds of new directions, with international chefs opening up big-budget restaurants and Michelin-starred prodigal sons returning home.

Tempted as we might be by the chocolate-rubbed baby back ribs at KOH or Ziya’s gold leaf chicken, we find ourselves returning most often to the comfort and familiarity of the new Indigo Deli at Palladium.

Springing off the success of the Colaba and Andheri branches, this Midtown outpost builds on the original menu with new additions (salmon burger, chili cheese toast, peanut butter and jelly French toast) and a larger, hipper space that is hopping even at midnight on a weekday.

Here, everyday, any day you’ll find time-obsessed Mumbaikars waiting forty minutes for a table.

If that’s not love, what is?

Palladium Mall, Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel; +91 (0) 22 2498 6262; www.indigodeli.com

Indians seem to like their wine sweet.

Best Indian wine: Sula Riesling 2010

If 2010 left a bitter taste in your mouth, replace it with lemony-sugary notes a la Sula's Riesling 2010 (Rs 640), which Mumbai sommelier Magandeep Singh picks as his favorite Indian wine of the year.

“This white is affordable, up to international standards and can be paired with almost any kind of food, but the best part is that you don’t have to be a connoisseur to appreciate it,” Singh says.

Looking to the future, Magandeep predicts that a new winery Fratelli will have wines to watch out for.

“They own 240 acres of land to grow their own grapes, which means they will enforce strict quality control," Singh says. "Fratelli will be big in two years.”

"Darling tere liye ..."

Best item song face-off: Munni vs Sheila

There were several heavyweight clashes in 2010: BCCI vs IPL franchises, Rahul Gandhi vs RSS, Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa versus state governor Bhardwaj, Barkha Dutt versus Tweeple.

But one of the most hotly argued debates of the year was Munni versus Sheila.

Two sexy Bollywood "item" girls: Malaika Arora Khan playing to the galleries as the raunchy Munni in "Dabangg" and Katrina Kaif as Sheila, clad in a white man’s shirt, tie and hat in "Tees Maar Khan."

Who’s steamier? Like the famous Sheila versus Munni forward doing the rounds says, "Munni is badnaam, but Sheila is jawaan." Now you decide.

The controversial Adarsh Housing Society apartments.

Worst scam: Adarsh Society

Monetarily, Adarsh Society scam might be chump change compared with the behemoth 2G scandal, which also broke in 2010. But it is easily the most morally depraved example of government corruption seen this year.

Because the apartments were to be reserved for widows and veterans from the 1998 Kargil war, the Adarsh Society building was approved despite being constructed on environmentally disputed landr.

Turns out, not one of the flats were actually allocated to the widows. Instead they went to top government and army officials, including Ashok Chavan, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

When the story broke, outrage peaked and Chavan resigned. The furor has since passed and the Maharashtra government recently informed the Bombay High Court that a retired High Court judge would be leading the probe into the scam. Yawn.

Mumbai's entire Parsi community came out for "Tosca."

Best stage performance: Tosca at the NCPA

Lust, betrayal, murder and passion were imported from Italy in September for the staging of Tosca, an opera about a court singer in love with a painter.

In spite of the plot ripped from a French novelist and costumes and set flown down from Italy, promotional brochures promised a spectacle that would “reek of a Bollywood drama.”

No wonder the performance staged by Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) at the NCPA sold out, leaving many highbrows scrambling for last-minute tickets at Rs 6,000 a pop.

Another thumbs up to Tosca for featuring the first female guest conductor in the history of the SOI.

A spoof on Hrithik Roshan from "Guzaarish."

Best blog: The Vigil Idiot

How does a “badly illustrated web comic” with childlike drawings garner more than 6,000 fans and 2,000 Twitter followers? Go (stick) figure!

Twenty-two year old freelance writer Sahil Rizwan’s blog The Vigil Idiot does smart, laugh-out-loud reviews of Bollywood films through a picture blog.

Particularly funny is his comic strip on Himesh Reshammiya’s Kajraare. Our favorite blogwash of 2010.

Adam Minter: Why the 2010 Expo mattered

With 2010 coming to a close, one of the Expo’s most outspoken pundits looks back at the legacy the event will leave on Shanghai

By Adam Minter 28 December, 2010

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Of the 73 million people who visited Shanghai’s Expo 2010, the six-month event better known in the United States as a world’s fair, only a very small percentage ever made their way through the crowds to visit the relatively modest World Exposition Museum.

Had they found it among the several hundred structures that covered the 5.28 square kilometer site, they would have begun their tour of a century and a half of World’s Fairs in a small theater where, at the front, toy-like models of past World’s Fair architectural icons, such as the Eiffel Tower, were set below a model of the inverted pyramid that is the China Pavilion, the intended, lasting architectural symbol of Shanghai’s Expo.

Architecture -- experimental, monumental and derided -- has always been a key legacy of World Expos.

In part, it’s an easier legacy to quantify than the social and educational legacies of these monstrously expensive events. But signature architecture is also often a part of a much more tangible legacy: the redevelopment and re-thinking of a city’s physical development and layout.

The real measure of an Expo’s influence is not whether a journalist enjoyed visiting a pavilion, but how it is viewed, and still experienced, decades later.

In the case of Shanghai, the China Pavilion -- perched so high over the architectural icons of other Expos -- represents a massive investment in infrastructure and redevelopment that dwarfs the efforts of past Expos, and will influence development and quality of life in Shanghai for decades to come.

Indeed, if only for the development and timely opening of two subway lines that fed the Expo grounds, it could be said that the Expo had a lasting, important effect upon crowded Shanghai.

But the subway lines were only a part of the physical transformation of the city. In addition to rail, the city opened a new airport terminal, made substantial road improvements and, most important, cleaned up 5.28 square kilometers of riverbank that, for a century, had hosted shipyards and steel mills.

For a few years, that cleaned-up land served as the Expo site (including the build-up and tear-down), and in decades to follow, it will be neighborhoods, commercial districts and parks.

The city will be transformed.

The China Pavilion represents a massive investment in infrastructure and redevelopment and will influence development and quality of life in Shanghai for decades to come.

Would those changes all have happened had there been no Expo? Perhaps. But surely, everything wouldn’t have happened with a hard May 1, 2010 deadline -- the opening day of the Expo.

Of course, Expos aren’t just about infrastructure. At their best, they’re about ideas, wonder and influence.

More on CNNGo: Complete Shanghai 2010 Expo coverage

The architects and landscape designers who created the “White City” for Chicago’s World’s Colombian Exposition in 1893 -- among them, Louis Sullivan and Frederick Law Olmsted -- had an out-sized influence on U.S. architecture and landscape design that couldn’t be guessed at the time.

Architecture -- experimental, monumental and derided -- has always been a key legacy of World Expos.

At Expo 2010, perhaps the most influential design of the entire event was not a pavilion, but Houtan Park, the exquisite and innovative Chinese-designed riverside park that won the highest award given by the American Society of Landscape Architects.

One afternoon, only a few weeks after the Expo opened, organizers bussed an entire convention of Chinese urban planners from a convention within driving distance of Shanghai to see Houtan Park.

Expo organizers and government officials correctly viewed this park as a landmark in Chinese landscape design, and hoped that it could influence thinking across China.

How did the experience of seeing this park influence Chinese urban planners? Only time will tell -- just as it was impossible, in 1893, to know how the landscapes and buildings of the World Colombian Exposition would influence U.S. cities in the decades to come.

Critics of the 2010 Expo tend to look at it in contemporary terms. But in contemporary terms, Expos have been derided since the early 20th century.

• More on CNNGo: China Pavilion is back

The real measure of an Expo’s influence is not whether a journalist enjoyed visiting a national pavilion, but how it is viewed, and still experienced, decades later.

In Paris, they still enjoy the Eiffel Tower; in Chicago, the parks and some of the buildings from 1893 still attracts visitors on the weekends; and in Shanghai, the former grounds and infrastructure will inform and improve the lives of Shanghainese for decades to come. The Shanghai 2010 Expo mattered.