Hungry in Bangalore: Sattvam, Sadashiv Nagar

The starters roll in

Sattvam is a buffet only vegetarian restaurant which focuses on Sattvic food - sattvic meaning good for the body and soul. Located in Seshadri puram, it is a very unique restaurant experience with one of the best tasting food in Bangalore. In a nutshell, the food is excellent, the service great and you really don't feel heavy after the meal - which my Family unanimously felt makes it a good restaurant.

Buffets almost always evoke a groan in my house. Same old tired concepts of the usual starter+roti sabzi+rice+gulab jamun with ice cream which were perhaps from the wedding hall down street or the barbecue Non veg buffet which doenst work in my household rule by majority vegetarians.

But Sattvam creates a unique twist to the buffet experience with a very tasty, wide and impressive spread. The several starters are just superb, the masala puri with tiny bottles of pani to start with comes with a dry ice presentation. The buffet spread is huge covering a lot of Indian salads, starters, sabzis and rice dishes. All of them great. The few chinese are continental dishes were above average. The deserts were numerous and extremely well made. Plus there was a live cold stone ice cream counter and a live pasta counter. The Pizza slices were really good!

For Rs.630 per person on weekend for Dinner, this is a very satisfying restaurant.

Great presentation

Balinese Paradise: Part 1

Aneeshka Bali 2017!!

I was sweating "Uhhh Umm where would you like to go for honeymoon" - "Bali!" came the immediate answer as if it was telepathy.

Getting married has, from my perspective, a wonderful plus - you get to take a very nice foreign destination vacation without fretting about budget, time, company or worrying about 'what would people say'. Company, Family and spouse sanctioned, Bali it was.

After having heard only good things about this place, we didnt have the slightest doubt where to plan our vacation. It took just a day of research and asking around, almost a no brainer why couples with a decent amount of budget would want to miss this place for their Honeymoon. If falling short of budget, I highly recommend trimming your wedding budget but saving for such a memorable journey together.

We spent 5 blissful days in Bali, each and every day beautiful and memorable. The island has a very beautiful culture and is welcoming of tourists of all backgrounds. Yes Bali does have a lot of touristy stuff going on with tourists filled to the brim, yet has nature intact and has enough space so that it doesnt get onto your nerves. As newly weds, we didnt feel even a bit hassled or inconvenienced in any aspect. Budgetwise, everything was value for money from and Indian standards. The hotels we booked were decently priced, about 6K per night , gave us amazing service and  were superb properties. The food was priced on the high side but was amazing. The taxi service, after we made a choice from 5 different taxi recommendations cause all of them are so good, was reasonably priced.

The only bad experience we had was the 10 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur airport and the monkey bite at Ubud monkey forest (I think its a good part of the experience , but worried Anushka to no bounds I will turn into a bigger ape)

We stayed in Bali in 2 parts - at the beach - Seminyak for 2 nights and 3 nights in the mountains of Ubud. Seminyak is the touristy beach part and Ubud the cultural centre. I will detail our experience in further blogs.

Good waves, better waves: Surfing at Mulki, Day 2 and 3

Day 1 Blog

Day 2: After having a solid 9 hours of sleep post day 1– I started the day with a quick short breakfast of fruits then geared up to head for a different beach today. The high light of the day were the photos we could finally take and the amazing waves courtesy of the full moon.The rash shirt and board shorts I bought at Decathlon have paid off well over their worth, despite the super tight shirt accentuating my paunch.

Reading the waves

We had Gautam and Shyam today teaching me which meant I had a dedicated photographer. Seriously I had 2 pros dedicate their time and attention at me. Today we headed to a different spot called as 'Baba's left'. We tied up the  small motor boat to a puny but strong tree branch on what I would describe was a big sand bar. The beach was ours. Not a soul in sight. I has almost white pillow soft sand. The wonderful view was jarred by large swathes of trash dumped back by the sea onto the beach. We had to tip toe around lots of bottles with the board on our heads to get to our spot. 

Shyam read the surf to be perfect for learning and I was to find out, how good it really was. It was goooood. I looked up to the heavens to thank for this amazing day. The waves were big, of perfect speed and were breaking regularly, for a beginner this was the perfect step up. There quite a few glugs to be had with some powerful waves wiping us out even before I could point my board towards the beach. This day had the best waves of the 3.

Gautam was my trainer today, he had brought along his own surf board, which meant I was going to be more on my own today. Waves were breaking 40 metres off the shore. Unlike yesterday my first wave was a dud, I stepped too wide instead of inline with the board. Spreading your weight side ways means you tip off real quick. But the second one and subsequent ones were brilliant quick rides to the shore. 

Coming straight for the camera

The sea changes its mood. There were changes in the pattern of the sea with bigger waves coming in intermittently and breaking closer to the shore. These were quicker too, so I had to be fast on my feet and paddle really hard. Paddling was a big thumbs down. Paddling lets you speed up, get some momentum and be ready when the wave reaches you. My arms weren’t letting me do that in time unfortunately so I missed out on a couple of waves. Homework for me – swim regularly. It was overcast, with fluffy clouds muffling the Sun's intensity. I rode quite a few waves for about 1.5 hours. Then called it quits. All those long surfs, means long treks and paddles back to the break point. 

We returned to a sumptuous brunch of Mangalore buns, chickpea subji, simple flavored rice and gulab jamun prepared by Kirtan. Then it was a long siesta time. I got up with the pangs for some seafood, so I headed out to the town to try some local oysters (Marwai) and boiled rice (a variety of brown rice). Once I headed back, I thought might as well take a second siesta. I love this vacation! After tea, I decided to hitch a ride with Rasik to the town to purchase some fresh cold pressed, organic coconut oil. I heard a lot of benefits from using cold pressed unrefined oil so am packing some for home. I noticed the town of Mulki is really clean and orderly in a certain way. Generally 5Pm is time for Kayaking or stand up paddling, but I skipped it given I had a little excess exertion today, which I am not used to yet. I had another tranquil sunset at the dock clicking picture, while Jaymo from ‘walking on water’ surf club joined in to click photos himself. The red sun dips into the far away tree line on the beach separated by the big backwater channel. Dinner was simple rice and lentil sambhar and pakoras. End of another amazing day

Day 3: Final day of the course hence I was psyched to give my best today. I spent some time doing yoga to prep. Having a relaxed mind is very important, being in tune with the waves is necessary and timing is the key. Waves were lazy and low and conditions were perfect for learning. I was able to ride some long rides, with multiple swells hitting my board. 

Dosa for Brunch

Parathas, Mexican hot sauce?! and Rice

A sumptuous brunch of Dosas, chutney, brinjal sambhar and apple juice. I slept hard for 4 straight hours. I skipped a planned SUP session and had a restful evening watching the sun go down while the gang relaxed in the backwaters, swimming SUP. Very idyllic. Had a 63 year old Kiwi guy share his stories. We ate a healthy dinner of parathas and rice.

Sittin on the Dock of the Bay

Time to leave to catch the bus (fingers crossed the bus doesn’t give me a miss! Back to Bedlam, back to Bangalore

I am a Goofy! Surfing at Mulki Day 1

As the small motor boat carrying our boards glided over the serene Shyambhavi river, I finally took a deep breath. Finally a break. After a gruelling 6 month spree of work and hectic pointless weekends I took days off to finally visit Mantra surf club. I was planning this visit for years, when I finally got a chance for this solo trip. I had surfed before at Shaka surf club in 2013. This was my second foray into surfing. I also wanted to immerse into the Mantra way of life. I had signed up for 3 days of awesomeness, at the end of which I felt so fortunate to have experienced. Surfing, food, unique and very importantly stepping aside from the usual.

After a bad night of sleep in a bus from Bangalore to Mulki, I reached the Ashram at 7.30. Yes its a Surf Ashram, not a resort or a hotel. I checked into a nice clean room which accommodates 3 people, I was lucky that I got it entirely for myself. After a quick change and breakfast of bananas and pears, we got to the main event. 

The schedule is flexible but usually goes like:

• Surfing from 7.30 – 11 (or till you get tired);
• Brunch 11.30 then siesta
• 4.30 ~ 6.30: Kayaking, Stand up paddling (you can also do some jet ski, wakeboarding, etc), but the main event is watching the beautiful sunset from the tiny dock
• Dinner 7.30
• Conversations with Guests who are from myriad backgrounds, countries and hold interesting views  

So we begin day 1 - we took a boat ride through backwaters, walked through mangroves to ‘Swami’ beach. This beach was discovered by the 'Surfing Swami' Jack, the head of this Ashram. After the Ashram brought this place on the surfing spotlight with a surf competition a few years ago, its now being developed as a tourist spot by the local administration. My instructor for the next 3 days is Swami Sham who has been surfing for more than 13 years. We start with basic warm ups and yoga. Through my previous experience with surfing, I had retained my lessons on pop ups’ which is getting up from a laying down position to a standing / crouching position on the board aligned with its central line with proper weight distribution. You need to swivel your body, hips especially from a flat prone position to a crouch. Thats the whole point, but it takes practice to time your pop up, align your weight and shift your position in the rapidly moving water. The stylish low crouch that you must have seen in surfing photos do, is to keep you from majestically hitting the water, fun though as it is.The water temperature was perfect, and I mean the right hot and cold. The chest high water was clean, though wasn't transparent. Sham studied the waves and we waded to a point where the waves parted and was relatively calm, but we had to float or jump up when waves did come. I laid flat on the wide beginners board (damn! I wanted a narrower board,makes for cooler photos) and we waited for the first big wave to come through.

The first wave hit us fast and I caught it before I realised! The sheer thrill as the wave caught up to me and I was flying over the water was absolutely exhilarating, it was almost perfect except for the dismount. And I was hooked again. I caught many more, some long rides, some wipe outs. Every ride to the beach means a wade back lancing your board through waves, which takes work and quite a bit of paddling - I realised I was woefully short on stamina. Each wave I caught and ride made me go back, the adrenaline making the trudging wade and paddle back through crashing waves easy. I called it quits around 10.30 as I wanted to pace out my 3 days of fund rather than max out and lie in bed.

Oh and I realized I am a Goofy! One who surfs with his left leg back. Its an unconventional stance but it came natural to me.

Sham let me steer the boat (has an outboard motor) some of the way, and its pretty fun. Remember turning left makes the boat go right and vice versa, its difficult! When we headed back an amazing brunch was waiting. I was ravenous. Great food – idli, lemon rice, fruit juice, gulab jamun. I had mailed in advance of my peanut allergy which they gladly accommodated. The food was simple, tasty made with a lot of devotion to the Lord. A fellow guest from Brazil also liked the food a lot. 

Simple Food on Day3

I slept like a log made out of lead ; I was sleep deprived and had just surfed 3 hours. Woke up late in the afternoon had a second helping of lemon rice.  I headed up the small dock of the ashram with a a cup of tea to drink at. A sailboat was casting off in which a few guests and Swami took off. 5PM, time for kayaking or stand up paddling. I chose kayaking, while the Brazilian guest who was a seasoned stand up paddler (SUP) chose to do just that. I came back after 30 minutes for some more fruits, and went down to the dock to watch the beautiful sunset. The sailboat came in to dock. It was one of the best sunsets I have seen so far in my life.

Dinner was a sumptuous spread of fried sweet potato, vada, chapathi, veg curry, lemon rice. Some other guests joined us for great long conversations at the dinner table. Perfect end to day 1.

Link to Day 2 :Day 2 Blog

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...

Hungry in Bangalore: Chaaye Stall

MBA types call it luxury positioning. Old wine in a fancier bottle but served in a swanky place with fancy plates and edgy names. Chaaye stall, in my opinion, does this well enough to charge 243 bucks for two decent chais and one excellent sandwich. Ambiance inside is good for conversations, but the open windows and terrible traffic outside kills the vibe. Place has good choice of teas, a few coffees but a nice spread of tea time snacks like Pakodas and Sandwiches. We went with the Queen of spices and elaichi chai which were pretty good and decently priced. The waiter recommended a Mumbai Manoos sandwich which was yummy but a tad expensive, it did have the authentic Mumbai sandwich taste (Yay!) which will bring me back. Being  close to Garuda mall is good location and will make a visit here a good idea once the ongoing construction ends.

On a side note, blogging after such a long time is to be attributed to pals from Writers club which I been hanging out on Saturdays on and off since the last 4 years. Great way to get over writers block.

Going Nuts

Peanut a super snack. My superfood for my mostly vegetarian diet, great source of protein, convenience and deliciousness. I ate it roasted and salted (my favorite), in 'Shenga Holige'  (Shenga = peanut in North Karnataka Kannada parlance) 'Shenga Laddu', 'Shenga Chutney / Pudi', Chivda, Chikkis (original Snickers), Snickers (duplicate Chikkis), Reeses etc and Pad Thai! I seriously dont remember long stretches when I didnt eat any peanuts.

A persistent gastric condition and focused diagnosis later, the Doctor pronounced me allergic to something. Something was my beloved peanuts after a selective exclusion exercise and eureka moment.

The amazing realization set in me and my Family was that I have been allergic (and also was my Father) to peanuts since my teens. I suffered mild stomach upsets, aggressive and consistent skin breakouts and sluggishness. The transformation was semi miraculous when I stopped immediately.

Mild jokes here and there thrown about being a 'Firang' and having a fashionable 'American' condition. Worse when someone serves something traditional which cannot do without peanuts (Chivda, Poha for example) and you gotta eat around it leaving nuts at the end like a bad mannered kid.

I wish I could show them the scene from Hitch.

Hungry in Bangalore: Quaint little Kammanahalli Part1

"Where for lunch man". "I don't know, how about Andhra? or Mexican or Darshini (Dosa, Idli South Indian Fare etc) or Subway or North Indian (separate list) or Mac or KFC or Chinese or Empire (mostly non veg fare and Malabari cuisine) or Momos or Arabian or Continental or Pizza....". All this within a Kilometre. Typical eating out conversation within us room mates, its a glorious problem of plenty close to our Humble abode.

I moved into this area about 6 months ago and have been loving this quaint, well now recently popular place. About a Kilometre around the Kamannahalli main road lands you smack in the middle of youthful energy and foodie delights. I am gonna write about this place in parts, cause there is so much to go around. There is a huge foreign student population here, mostly from Middle East and North Africa and a upper middle class population which creates an interesting food situation.

I will start with Breakfast. So recently I was in Delhi, the options - Paratha, Idli, Uttapa. Repeat. In Pune - Poha, Idli, Vada. In Mumbai - Poha, Idli, Dosa. Typical Indian restaurant in the US also served  Idli, Vada and Dosa for breakfast. Get the drift. So after an entire week of eating Idli Vada in office I cant wait to have the superb combo of Idli Vada and Coffee at A2B (whose Vadas are wonderfully fluffy and spiced) or at Adigas whose Dosas are superb or at Filter Coffee (another Darshini style restaurant) for its unique Tamil fare. Any trip outside Bangalore, I cant wait to come back and have the proper breakfast. I am more inclined to Adigas cause they always seem to have a newspaper lying around to read.

My Favorite

Best Coffees to be had

Now not everyone is a fan of South Indian food (or developed such a strong taste for it like me) so there are other great options. If you say Cafe, this place has a lot of them.

Au Bon Pain is one such, the proper Bagel Cream cheese is really good and the Cappuccino was surprisingly wonderful.

Au Bon Pain

The Middle Eastern and (lemme qualify)  North African Students particularly enjoy their coffee so you will find a lot of them enjoying cafes in the relaxed way they are used to, none of the hustle of Darshinis. 

And yes Donuts!

So pretty much every franchise owner wants to open a shop in this area. Not much from the 'local' aspect or street varieties like other areas. As expected the prices are on the higher side. But its pretty good that things are sanitary (yep nothing wrong..so far) and standardized and a lot of options to be had. 

Come a long way from having a solitary Darshini ( small South Indian joint with very limited options and some times sketchy hygiene) to international stuff available at a stones throw away.

Its lunch time, thats another blog...

Viva la Vile Parle Again! Gajalee

Four years and six months ago I had written of this place, it was the same dinner with Brother while on a vacation from Bangalore. No difference this time around - which is a good thing. Meaning the food was as again really awesome.

This place cant go wrong with anything that thrives underwater. Don't know much about the ones living above. Gajalee does crustaceans really well. They get a whole plate of live ones you can choose for your meal and after just a few minutes it arrives steaming and delicious on your plate.
Plus a brief cameo by the actress Raveena Tandon, who is stunningly tall and still pretty(not included as part of the package).

Always a joy to be back home for Diwali. With such separate lives, its great to connect over some great food.

Whew! Blog after a good 10 months. Great to be past this writers block. Plus I hope it helps put down doubts that I am vegetarian.