Matcha in the City - Maharaja exhibition at the Asian Art Museum

We love going to the Asian Art Museum's evening mixer which is locally called Matcha. Aside from the discounted museum tickets, we usually expect live performances that are culturally oriented, hands-on art activities and giveaways such as food, tea, and other souvenir items. The museum comes alive at night during Matcha making art even more enjoyable.



(Click here to read my blog on another Matcha event in 2009.)

Coincidentally, a new exhibition just started at the museum. The exhibition is entitled Maharaja: The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts which which opened on Oct 21st. At the art exhibit, paintings of India's past royalties are displayed including colorful scrolls, exquisite jewelry, elegant Indian clothing, fine furnitures, musical instruments, ornate elephant thrones and of course, ancient weapons used in the wars between kingdoms. The only drawback to seeing an exhibition during Matcha is the long queues and crowded galleries. My favorite in this exhibition is the watercolor paper scrolls which tell of the different processions during the years leading to the British invasion. The details in these scrolls are amazing. There are blurbs opposite the scrolls that explain and highlight the important points in the processions. As always, taking of photographs is not allowed inside the galleries.

This particular Matcha event has a food tasting where the servings are generous. Included in the tasting plates were roti bread with tamarind sauces, chicken kebab, and veggie samosa. The food were made by Sukhi's Gourmet Indian Foods. We didn't have dinner anymore after the event because we had seconds.


The queue to the bar was long eventhough the drinks were not free.  There was a cooking demo upstairs by Top Chef Master Floyd Cardoz but we were too tired after we saw the last gallery of the exhibition. Remember, Matcha is on a Thursday evening so technically it is still a weeknight.


All in all, the exhibition is good. It gave me another view point of this ancient Asian culture.


Maharaja: The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts runs through April 8, 2012 at the Asian Art Museum. The next Matcha event is on February 16 and March 29, 2012.


~rl