Saturday, December 22, 2012

Hungry in Bangalore: Madras Central JP Nagar

Jitain vs food
Its Saturday evening in super cool Bangalore and it can mean only one thing. Temple Hopping! Terribly short on cash and tremendously large on pot bellies, we roomies decided the evening was perfect to pay homage to the gods and try out some great vegetarian food. I read an article somewhere that Indian IT males are aging prematurely, I feel that's nonsense.

So we headed to the beautiful Balaji temple in JP Nagar which was decked up in all its electrical finery. As with most Balaji temples, this one too is opulent, beautiful and attracts a lot of devotees. I dont have much patience for standing in lines, but the darshan took hardly 5 minutes in all.

Photo captured with a potato


Right opposite the temple is the Madras Central which is very unlike a lot of South Indian eating joints at least in the evenings. We could sit down a welcome change unlike the usual eating grub standing up like horses. The waiter quickly took our orders which were for this place obviously Pongal Vade.

Pongal is a kind of Khichadi (kedgeree) spiced with peppercorns and  soaked in Ghee. A nice comfort food from Tamil Nadu which is light, filling and also curative. So I learnt today. All these years I have been having an insult to this dish. As Jitain, who hails from Tamil Nadu, explained Madras Central served a good example of a Pongal. Served with different kinds of Sambars and Chutneys and in our order a crispy Vada to make things more interesting. The Vada nice crisp and fluffy went like a duet with the white coconut chutney. The entire combination of Pongal Vada makes an excellent breakfast choice which I was very happy having at 7 PM.

So often we fail to acknowledge some dishes just because we have been eating the wrong versions. Now I feel the need to seek out great renditions of everyday food to make everyday a great day.

Jitain as usual knew the fellows at this joint, who were warm attentive and really enthused to serve their customers. I was shocked. In Bangalore getting a smiling service is truly rare.

Coffee the right way
 
A Madrasi restaurant worth its salt should have good coffee and this place does a killer coffee. Served in the traditional 2 tumbler system, with sugar at the bottom, this coffee is fueling this blogging fury. Doctor Jitain showed me how to deftly decant and drink this coffee which would make even 007 have his Martini decanted not stirred.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Hungry in Bangalore: Variety Dosa at Koramanagala Park



This weekend also turned out to be fortuitous. After another great session at Writer's club, the ride back to my end of Bangalore is usually pretty painful in Saturday evenings given that people head out all at once to Carpe Diem the weekend. It took a small accident to stop and smell the dosas.

I wrote a big paragraph to explain how an idiot on a Honda Dio (no surprise at the choice of vehicle) executed a minor hit and run on my bike ironically right in front of the Koramangala police station. I think this should suffice. Good thing we have gun control in India, otherwise guys like these would get lit like Diwali.

I stopped near the Koramangala park to asses the damage on my left foot, which was negligible since I was wearing some sturdy shoes. The park was full of evening walkers, kids and few conscious couples - supposedly a prosaic sight but hardly acknowledged by me or most of us. I dont remember the last time I went to a park like this, choosing the confines of my cold apartment. Partly because of the lack of good parks my side of town.

But what enthralled was the food. It was 6 pm and the vendors had just started to gear up for the weekend evening rush. I remembered I was hungry all of a sudden. I had had a brunch which was long digested. I was thinking of mounting up and going home, my stomach didnt let me.

I had heard a lot of this place, Koramangala Park for its amazing street food, but majorly for its variety dosas (not dosa varieties). Basically dosa varieties, simple. But this here was special, this stuff I havent found in the tens of restaurants I have been in Bangalore. But surprisingly last in Mumbai. I can guess back in 2000 in Borivali, we have a varieties dosa guy who gets swamped with customers to try out his chinese, pav bhaji and other tasty varieties.

Fortuitous, as I mentioned I parked right in front of the 99 varieties lip smacking dosas. They have 6 charcoal fired tavas to craft the dosas which were fired up in anticipation for the rush. I remembered I had attempted eating here but the rush was unbelievable and had quit.

'Chinese, Mushroom, Paneer, Masala, Mysore Masala...' , definitely not 99 man. More like a figure of speech. But the offerings exceeded more I could remember, which I didnt care cause I was ravenous. The aroma, oh man. Imagine a smorgasbord of aromas from chineese, south indian, pav bhaji, spicy and savory.  'I dont care just give me anything' I said. Still he demanded' 'no choose we have chinese, mysore masala, paneer..'. 'Aah Paneer and make it quick'.



I found a plastic stool and with my back against the park boundary I observed the two cooks work deftly with the dosas. Its a modified rickshaw with a long cargo bed decked with charcoal stoves, containers and cubby holes for condiments. A boy was constantly shredding veggies and ingredients on the foot path and I saw Paneer getting grated for my dosas. 'Is it clean' I asked the boy. He just smiled at me. Good enough.

I got served within minutes. I tried to dig in, but my fingers got burnt. Burnt meaning painful for the next 2 hours burned, it was that hot. The filling seemed tomato curry based , with a load of veggies and paneer added to it. They were using bricks of Amul butter and generously at that. I have noticed many a times people add cheese, or butter or 'chinese' up any dish the flavors dont gel, dont harmonize. This dosa got it just right. The flavors were synchronized perfectly and yet you could taste everything. The Paneer was nicely distributed, the veggie base perfectly spicy and the butter was like a great bass player in a rock concert. A green coconut chutney and a mint chutney were good. However a red sweet and savory Hyderabad style chutney could have been a better accompaniment for this particular dosa, but since it was my first variety I am not the expert.

The sweet spot is when the dosa cools down just enough for you to access its masala innards. It took me merely a minute or so to finish the rest.

At the start I thought I would eat 2 varieties, but it was very filling. For 50 bucks, it was more than worth it. And looking at the crowd that had suddenly assembled, I was lucky I came in at the right time.

Darjeeling style Momos were next stall which I heard were pretty decent. So were chaat, fruit salads, ice creams and juice. But enough for today since I had to a waiting matters.

All this and not a drop of sweat, enjoyed in the shade of a park tree in a relatively clean place. I think Bangalore scores really well in these aspects as compared to other cities. Street food is more enjoyable with the weather being so great and city being clean in many places. I wish it stays the same or gets better if possible.