Skip to main content

Hama Chili and Umegaves with Jayanthi

I recently virtually ventured down to Austin, Texas to meet up with Jayanthi Martins of Plush Toy of the Apocalypse.  She is one of my favorite people in Quizzing, a good friend, and made TOTW in Week 9 of Season 12 of OQL-USA.



Rich: Congrats on TOTW. What about the seat you were in stood out to you? 




Martins:  Thank you. There were 2 “level 3/4” questions in the seat that really suited me- Maison Margiela  and Aya Nakamura .  Even though I am not necessarily a fashionista, I like keeping up with fashion news, and I enjoy world music, and Nakamura is on my Spotify playlist. I believe cracking these two helped me get on the podium. I had no shot on Jujitsu Kaisen or  Starfield.  I hope to score a full house one day. I came close in regions once with 7, but this feat continues to elude me.




Rich: How did you first get into OQL?




Martins: My path to OQL is very similar to many others in the group. I did things in reverse, and learned about it in the Jeopardy contestant forum. I joined a scratch team,(Plush Toy of the Apocalypse, go Plushies ! ) and we are still together after almost 4 years. I have always loved quiz, but do not have a quiz bowl background , and have never had the time to devote to it until recently. So I am pretty late to the party, but am loving this “new” hobby, and am close to being an empty nester, so I have the time to invest in improving  my skills.




Rich: What other online formats do you play and which are your favorites?




Martins: I play in several formats, and I feel like each of them offers something unique. My favorites are COQL- which I get to play with 3 of my favorite quizzers, Nick Salyers, Randall Eng, and Vinny Tagle. I enjoy this format because it is a truly collaborative quiz, and just for how clever it is. I also enjoy playing COQL friendlies with our Aussie friends, Aaran Mohan, Mick Logue, Issa Schulz, and Holly Wulf.I n the individual comps I like Mimir’s Well(  Joey Goldman and Daoud Jackson  have been consistently writing high quality quizzes for close to 5 years now) and Zephyr Quiz League ( the creativity of the this league is fantastic with puzzly elements and material that is fresh and interesting).



Rich: I want to shout out your Quiz Nations team NBN, who plays my team a lot in friendlies. 



Rich: Have you ever attended TCONA, Trivia Nationals, Geek Bowl or SporcleCon? If so, what was the experience like? 



Martins: I am planning to attend SporcleCon for the third year in a row this year. It is so great to meet online friends in person and see who is as seen on TV and who is not :) Just kidding, it truly is a great  time strengthening existing friendships, and forming new bonds. I am hoping to go to Spain later this year for the Quiz Olympiad and am looking forward to meeting some of my international friends for the first time.




Rich: You have been on the biggest stage, competing on Jeopardy! And the Chase . What were those experiences like? 




Martins: They were both an absolute blast and I enjoyed them in spite of the results. I loathe public speaking, but surprisingly I enjoy being in front of the camera and just doing something I really love ie playing trivia. Also, I owe the discovery of this fantastic community to my Jeopardy appearance. 






Rich: What bars do you play live trivia at in your city?



Martins: I am not a huge fan of pub trivia. I am not a strong pop culture quizzer, and most pub quizzes are heavily skewed towards Film and Music , two of my weaker areas. Also, the time commitment is way more than a quick one hour zoom quiz.  The other factor is that none of my friends are interested in quizzing ( apart from the friends I have made in quizzing), so I just do other activities with them. I do play live trivia when quiz friends visit from out of town, and Cherrywood Coffee house is where I usually go. I did go to O’ Briens when I was in LA last year, and absolutely loved it. If there was something of that caliber in Austin, I would be a regular.





Rich: Besides trivia, what are your other hobbies?




Martins:  I love Yoga, and have been practicing for  more than a couple decades now. It really helps center me, and like quizzing, there is always room to improve and grow. I enjoy cooking and baking as well, and experimenting in the kitchen is one of my happy places. Travel is another passion, and I am happiest when I am planning  my next trip, or helping friends plan theirs. I also enjoy comedy shows, live music and other cultural events my city has to offer.




Rich: You are the top ranked Lifestyle player in Mimir’s Well. What other your favorite and least favorite categories?





Martins: Geography and Lifestyle are my favorite categories, and it ties in well with my passion for travel and food. They are the 2 categories I retain well mainly because of lived experience.  On the other hand Video Games and anime will continue to be huge obstacles for me. I tried studying my otaku son’s Netflix queue, and made him make me a video game cheat sheet- but clearly neither of those things are working :)





Rich: What is the dining scene like in Austin? What is your favorite food and drink and your favorite restaurant? 





Martins: Austin has a pretty robust food scene- Mexican Food and Tacos and Barbeque  are the mainstays, but there is plenty of great food ranging from food trucks to fine dining. It lacks a bit in varieties of International foods, but I get my fix of that on my frequent visits to Dallas and Houston. My favorite Austin special occasion restaurant is a modern Japanese restaurant called Uchiko. I love the Hama Chili there- its  raw yellowtail with a ponzu sauce, orange supremes and Thai chillies. It really is a perfect bite, and I love to wash it down with a delicious cocktail called an Umegave - it has a tequila infused sake, ume boshi, hibiscus and lime. My everyday comfort food would be a Benne Masala Dosa at Central Tiffin Room in Bangalore where I grew up, but that is an expensive plane ride away unfortunately.





Rich: You have traveled a lot across the globe. What countries do you want to visit that you haven’t already visited? 




Martins: So many!  I am dying to do a Central Asia trip in the next year or so  - Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan specifically. And I want to take my kids to Patagonia for some outdoor adventure. 2 countries that are on my wish list that won’t be feasible for a while are Iran and Ethiopia.  They have so much to offer, and have so many heritage sites, natural beauty and amazing food, but sadly both places are too dangerous at the moment.





Rich: When you go to Iceland, can you get me a Journey to the Center of the Earth souvenir?

            



Martins:  :) I plan on it. Your stock answer of Journey to the Center of the Earth has elicited many a giggle from me in the friendlies that we play, and it would be a great way to celebrate it. The actual inspiration for Journey to the center of the Earth is Snaefellsjokull, and I won’t have the time to go there, but hopefully will find some merch in other places I plan on visiting.




Rich: What sports do you follow and who is your favorite male and female athlete?

    



Martins: I am very excited for the Olympics. I love global unity, inspirational back stories, human achievement and sportsmanship.  I am looking forward to seeing Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone in the 400M Hurdles. It is such a powerful and graceful race, and watching her break the World record during the trials was amazing. Kylian Mbappe is my favorite male athlete,  but unfortunately he will not be at the Olympics.





Rich: If you could have dinner and play trivia with any five people in history, whom would you choose? 




Martins: This is a hard one. I definitely lean towards having some good laughs  at my dinner. I will probably invite a comedian from each continent - Celeste Barber from Australia, Trevor Noah from Africa, Mindy Kaling from the Americas, Ronnie Chieng from Asia and Jack Whitehall from Europe. All of them are pretty smart too, and since they are from different parts of the world, we will have a diverse skill set , and have a decent chance at doing well at trivia. And even if we lose, we will have a rollicking time.





Rich: Who is your favorite author and what good books have you read in 2024?





Martins: I really don’t have a favorite author. I read most genres except sci fi ,fantasy and self-help. I belong  to a couple of book clubs, so I am “forced” to read on a consistent basis.


My favorite book of 2024 is The Covenant of Water by Abraham Varghese. He is an Indian American physician who is a really gifted writer. This book was many years in the making, and one of this earlier works “Cutting for Stone” is one of all time favorite books,


He makes frequent references to Chekhov, another physician writer. The Covenant is a 736 page multi generational epic that weaves some pretty serious topics like caste, colonization, family, social justice into  lyrical prose and also goes very deep into the culture of the Southern Indian state of Kerala.



Rich:  Thank you, I wish you good fortune at SporcleCon. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pho with Scott Blish

  By Tim Rich I recently caught up with Scott Blish of Taco Belly Rubs. He is The Man in the quizzing world, having led OQLUSA in scoring on seven occasions. I’ve played in friendlies and league matches against his team and it's astounding how many facts the man knows. In Week 5, he posted a 25(7) although I would’ve settled for the eye pleasing 24(7). I caught up with him in Ybor city recently and we had virtual pho while chatting about trivia. Rich: When did you first get into trivia?  Blish : When I was in seventh grade, the school librarian at Thomas Edison Junior-Senior HS in Elmira Heights, NY, who doubled as the school academic team coach, came and grabbed me out of a classroom and bundled me onto a bus with a bunch of seniors to attend our local televised regional academic tournament. I was very surprised when he designated me as a starter, and even more surprised when I answered half the questions in the game and we defeated a school five times our size for our first...
1 comment
Read more

Burritos and Barbacoas with Jasmine Leonas

  by Tim Rich   I recently caught up with Jasmine Leonas who made TOTW in Week 10. I went out to the Mile High City and sat down and talked about trivia and other viable topics. I had the Korean Beef Barbacoa at Dos Santos in Denver. Rich:  This is your first TOTW in Week 10. How did you like the set and what stood out for you? Leonas: I don’t remember! I tend to immediately dump questions from my brain right after the game ends. I do remember getting the vague sense during the game that the content felt very friendly to my wheelhouses, and thankfully a lot of them fell directly in my seat. I have long argued that all trivia has an element of luck to it. You better your chances by studying and reading and absorbing new information, but you have no control over the questions you’re asked. You can know a little about everything and then a lot about a few things, and then when those few things hit you all at once in a game, it’s a glorious feeling.  Rich:  It must ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chicken and cheese tamales with Nick Salyers

by Tim Rich   I recently met up with Nick Salyers in San Antonio to chat about trivia and other topics. He recently made TOTW in OQL USA. I decided to have a virtual dinner with him at Biga, the best restaurant on the River Walk. Rich:  How did you first get into trivia as a hobby? Salyers: I would say I first got into trivia as a hobby in early 2020 when I joined LearnedLeague during the pandemic. Prior to that, most of my trivia-related activities were limited to watching game shows (I was a latchkey kid and GSN was my babysitter), going out to pub trivia when my friends felt like it, and attending one quizbowl practice in grad school that I left in the middle of after the captain would belittle us every single time a question went dead. I first found out about LearnedLeague in 2014/2015 when I read a Washington Post article about the league and I thought it sounded cool and wanted to join, but I had zero connections at the time. When the pandemic hit, I was bored one day a...
Post a Comment
Read more