Let's discuss food!

I had been to a marriage today. The sad thing about marriages is that the food tastes similar almost everywhere. Every reception has a few stalls and everywhere the menu turns out to be the same . Begins with the soup , flowed by some sweets, a maida disc that people call rumali roti , some off white funny looking liquid with a few pieces of paneer thrown into it , pulav , rice and curd. When the messiahs of south Indian cuisine are asked to prepare a north Indian meal it isn’t going to be good. Innovation is the key to success. People should start trying something new in weddings as we are all sick and tired of the stall system
Okay so let’s talk food, that’s the language I love. Talking about innovation let me give you an example as to how creative you can be . If I was marketing head of all the public toilets in India, I’d come up with this Ad campaign
I went to sulabh souchalay once again
Re 1 to pee , 2 for a pooh
Aha! I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the loo

Yes this is the kind of artistry that I’m looking out for even in the marriage dinners
Talking about the foods I love most ,the first item to top the list would be dahi puri and where else other than SLV corner basvangudi. There’s the masala puri trying to say ‘Hi’ looking casual and clumsy . Then the ubiquitous bhel puri trying to make its presence felt but then it lacks that extra something . in comes the chilled dahi puri , it’s got the zing and it bumps in to you with the loudest ‘Howdy’ asking you to pop it in to your mouth and get ready for a tangy , sweet and spicy journey . A friend of mine calls his girlfriend ‘babloo ‘ , ‘dabloo’ , ‘bujju’,’gujju’ and some stuff like that . I asked him to call his girl ‘dahi puri’ . Everyone on the road can prepare pani puri , bhel puri but it takes milk , bacteria , a fridge and creativity to prepare dahi puri . So that girl is as unique and sweet as dahi puri . He followed my advice and his love life has improved three folds. I love every dish that has a prefix and suffix as dahi . Dahi bhel , chips dahi , dahi batata puri etc. If I had the money I’d build a swimming pool. It be divided in to 4 different pars 1 for dahi , 1 for sweet lassi , 1 part having salt lassi and the last art having set curd.



A little away from SLV is Vidhyarthi Bhavan . the good thing about this hotel that it hasn’t changed much over the past so many years . The pert servers show so much of adroitness in carrying these little golden brown babies . They carry nearly 15 plates at a time . What about the dosas ? Once you put a piece of it in to your mouth , the oil just leaps out of the dosa , hops and pops across ,wets your dry tounge and trickles slowly down the throat in to the stomach . In to the bin goes your chart of calories .You no longer are doing complex arithmetic calculating body mass index. Your canines begin to experience the crispiness of the dosas and the feeling is heavenly



Shifting focus away from Basvangudi , let’s travel to malleshwaram (for those of you who didn’t know malleshwaram and basvangudi together form ‘Malgudi’) .Malleshwaram has an old world charm attached to it . It reminds you of the Bangalore without those extra vowels sandwiched in between , Bangalore that once was called pensioners paradise . Enter Malleshwaram and there’s the fragrance of blossomed wild jasmines on a moist night , the traditional milieu , turmeric sprinkled in the air . Malleshwaram is a mix of old and new . Temple streets , innocent looking stone houses with sloping roofs and some tall buildings that look down upon you
There’s Veena stores too . The idly over here is super spongy . A minimum of a litre of chutney is required as the spongy idli absorbs all of it . Veena stores has learnt the art of making bland food beautiful. It may not have a perfect name that an eatery should but who cares!! Talking about funny names , I still can’t figure out why a GRE institute is called ‘Princeton review’ . I even searched this on the net but efforts went in vain



The best thing to do on a Sunday is to head to KC das . You can spend the whole of your Sunday over here savoring channa bhatura , and traditional Bengali sweets like rasagullas , rasmalai , sohan papdi etc . The breakfast +sweets make this place perfect for a Sunday brunch . It has this Bengali feel to it .With Joy goswami poetry and rabindra sangeet in the background , it’s like Kokata Callong . Off late I’ve been reading a lot of Joy goswami poetry and would recommend it to all of you. Though originally written in Bengali , the translated scripts are available on the internet . It pinches you , wakes you up from your stupor , emotionally stirs you up . Bengali writers have left a deep impact , there’s something special about them be it the passion , the traditions that they describe . Tagore , Upamanyu Chaterjee and recently Kunal Sen have this unique style of story telling . KC Das brings back a lot of memories. I used to visit this shop as a little kid , a time when owning 5 floppy discs was considered to be cool , when I used to run after butterflies not aware that probably 10-15 years later I’d be downloading class notes from the internet


After all this it’s time for tea . The PESIT canteen on the 8th floor serves brilliant tea . I remember a Vir Sanghvi show on TV where he is given to taste about 10 different varieties of tea and he rates them as good , excellent average. Finally based on his ratings they deduce which herbs, spices and leaves best suit his taste and prepare the perfect tea. But believe me , the tea in PESIT canteen is simply too good . With strong winds blowing and you lost in thought staring in to emptiness , the tea just seeps in to your mouth and u can feel it gushing inside making this ‘CHUSSSSS’ sound. Tea makes you feel more enthusiastic and perky . Don’t we all remember the ‘Alchemist’ where the guy goes and serves tea on a mountain top in crystal glasses?


Finally after eating all this food are you people scared . Is it going to be a case of ‘tick tock , heart blocked , arteries clogged , ding dong’.Iis it time to burn calories?? Nah don’t even bother about that . During Janmashtami , they prepare a hell lot of fried stuff and sweets . Does lord Krishna go to the gym and workout after eating all this ? lord Krishna is a hi flyer and binges on all the yummy stuff . Gyms are like theatre . there are fat men , thin men , lean mean and muscular men and everyone has a role to play. Fat men become thin, thin become muscular and muscular men make their biceps touch the ceiling and become fat again and the cycle continues . Don’t become a part of this obnoxious cycle . If someone tells ‘mere paas gaadi hai , bangla hai, naukar hai , bank balance hai. Tumhaare paas kyaa hai?’
You reply ‘Mere paas mummy hai aur bada tummy bhi hai’ height of flippantgiri :)
Go foodie , be born!!!!