Hungry in Bangalore: Delite Chaat House at Indiranagar

Delite is a bonafide Gujju Chaat place (got directions to their new place in Gujarati) which serves 'authentic' (as per me) chaat. So Mumbaikars in Bangalore might travel through 1 hour of traffic to get here for Delite's really amazing and authentic fare. The Dabeli is incredible. For 30 bucks in Indiranagar, you will fill up and just get a cold drink at all the snooty places you were planning to hit when short on cash.The sev puri, bhelpuri are great. Except the Pani Poori which was disappointing, which they promised to fix. Great place, well setup, good tasty chaat and very reasonably priced. In short, unmissable.

Now the long. Chaat (or Chat) is subjective. Different people, different tastes. What the hell is wrong with Chaat in Bangalore, the general chaat fare to be precise?! I know, Mumbai would hear the same from a Bangalorean when the said Bangalorean samples a Dosa Sambar. Its kinda a dosa and remotely a sambar. But it works! We have authentic Croissants and Baos and bubble teas but no, not the chaat in Bangalore. Curry / sambar powder and boiled peas gravy (that mysterious green stuff ) in 'Chaat' gives me nightmares. My brethren from the Eastern belt equate Golgappa with Pani Poori in Mumbai (blasphemy!), yet every corner in Bangalore has a Golgappa guy handing out insipid watery stale pooris and call it Pani Poori. My reaction is over the top, but I been avoiding Chaat in Bangalore for years. Its bad, to my tastes. And so agree a lot of other folks. We just give it a miss, unless its at a wedding. Respectable mentions - Anand Sweets, Calcutta Victoria Chat (yet to try) and a few others who do get it just right.

The flip side, Bangalore has incredible indigenous chaat  - Bullet chaat, pineapple chat, congress chaat, nippat chaat, capsicum chaat (entire globe of fried capsicum stuffed with chaat) are outstanding. If not tried cause all you come across when talking about chaat is bhel puri etc, these have to be sampled. I would recommend getting this fare from VV Puram, Jayanagar (near the playground behind Amoeba) and Banashankari where I discovered this stuff.

Hungry in Bangalore: Majlis Kamannahalli

Muglai..tried and tired, the tastes same all over. No matter how good a restaurant you end up, tastes the same with varying levels of butter to drown the palate. But then thats what you get when you go to a local darshini and ask for Roti curry, its not quite Mughlai. But the same occurs in high end restaurants, not just in Bangalore, but all over. Or is it that the taste of Mughlai has become very common, so over done and similar, again same all over.  The only respite might be if one goes to expensive places like Bukhara or Samarkhand.

But Majlis breaks the mold. The food is different yet what I felt was essentially Mughlai, a fusion of Indian Mughlai (or I guess Awadhi) and Arabic cooking and at the end of it not very expensive. The Roti itself, the very basic is superb. I think one of the best Rotis I have ever had, its wholesome, fluffy, layered good and not drowned in fat. Tasty as it is, dosent have to be anything more, but its so good. The spices are different, not accosting your stomach with too much garam masala, but a balanced fresh bouquet. Overdoing Majlis might cause the same ennui, but as a one off once a month event, this place rocks.

The restaurant proudly displays its lineage with photos of Padma Shri winning Chef Imtiaz Quereshi. Read the Chef was very particular about the spices he used, which was evident here. Its very easy to miss on the now maddeningly congested Kamannahalli  road, on the roof of a gym building. A friend recommended it to me, which made me get a take away Kabab - which came with a wonderfully fluffy Roti, Hummus and salad. The Kababs were few, but the accompaniment really was good and it made for a good meal, I was very happy with the Roti. Good enough to get Mom along for dinner the next evening. Mom who is a tough critic to please when it comes to North Indian food, she absolutely loathes egregious amounts of butter and over spiced conveyor belt fare.

We ordered the Kadai veg, Warki Paratha (fluffy cross between Roti and Naan with Ajwain on it) and a Veg Biryani. The portions were very generous which made us parcel more than half of the stuff back home, except for the Paratha which was delicious. The Kadai veg was balanced, unique and tasty. The Biryani was nicely spiced, again unique with hot undertones, not the Chillies spice, but a heady cinnamon, anise and perhaps 'dagadphul' (kind of lichen which heats up the palate) with a 'Kevda' aroma in the background.

Its open air on the roof with fabric top. The ambience is decent and comfortable, but its on top of a 4 storied building on Kamnnahhali so you do get subjected to a little cacophony spilling from the road, which can be ignored. Cannot imagine how it would fare in a hot day during lunch, but the evening was pleasant. Perhaps its obscurity makes it relatively under attended.

A telling sign this place is good, Mom cannot wait to go back to this place...