Bangalore Eatinerary

Once upon a time, long long ago.....February to be precise (!)I was in the (erstwhile) Garden City of India, Bengaluru (better known as Bangalore). I know so many friends there, that almost every evening was spent catching up with someone or the other - over dinner!And then there were all those lunches too.... :D 

So rather then spend ages writing a detailed description of each wonderful meal (and give myself an ulcer reliving those tantalisingly delicious memories!) here is a round up of photos with brief descriptions as to what and where, for your viewing pleasure.....Bon Apetit!

Breakfast at Mavalli Tiffin Rooms or as its fondly known, MTR (http://mavallitiffinrooms.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavalli_Tiffin_Room)
This spacious but non-fancy cafe in Lalbagh area of B'lore (tell the autorickshaw driver to take you next to Urvashi theatre) is stuff of legend. Opening sharp at 6:30 AM every morning, they are sold out by 9 AM. Go there early to partake in the sublime experience called their 'Masal Dosa' (the last 'a' of 'Masala' is silent here) Evenly golden-brown, soft and thick yet with the slightest whisper of a crunch, the dosa is all kinds of divine. It comes smeared with green chutney on the inside and cocoons a tasty potato masala. 

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Washed down with strong filter 'kaapi' served in a silver glass-and-katori duo, this is ambrosia - food for the Gods.

MTR, 14, Lalbagh Road, Doddamavalli, Sudhama Nagar,Bangalore (Landmark: Next To Urvashi Theatre)
Telephone: 080 22220022


Lunch #1 at Sunny's, Lavelle Road (http://sunnysbangalore.com/index.htm)

This popular restaurant manages the difficult feat of being fancy and relaxed at the same time. A high-ceilinged, bright, cheerful dining room with sunshine-yellow walls, huge windows and a wooden staircase going upto the first floor give a sense of space and lightness.

The outdoor sitting area at Sunny's

 The food is a mish-mash of largely European, with a few Thai, Japanese and Chinese dishes thrown in. The dessert menu is very long, and oh so tempting, you will take more time to decide on desert than the main meal! Needless to say, my lunch of quiche and salad, and takeaway creme brulee was wonderful. 

Its kind of pricey though - my lunch cost me about 900 bucks.

Complimentary bread and herb-garlic butter at Sunny's

Thai salad with prawns

Quiche

Lunch #2 at Sunny's
This time, went with a friend, so could sample a few more dishes. My almond-crusted fish (highly recommended by the client I had met just the day before) was beautiful - in presentation AND taste. The buttery crumbly crust made of almond rubble protected the delicate fillets of fish and kept them moist and juicy.

 

 The lemon butter sauce had a nice tart edge which was a break from the otherwise bland richness of the dish. Order this if you like fish cooked simply but superbly. Not if you like a complex spice signature.

Apple Pie a la mode to round up Lunch#2

Sunnys, Embassy Diamands, 34, Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore (Landmark: In the main square of Vittal Malya Road)
Telephone: 080 41329366, 080 22243642

 

Ice cream at Cool Joint, Jayanagar
Cool Joint is a landmark in Jayanagar, having served delicious ice cream and ice cream concoctions for years. I shared a chocolate sundae with a friend I had met after AGES, and the chocolatey goodness was a fitting match to the sweetness of having reconnecting with my friend after so long. :)

Cool Joint, 70 Lakshmi Complex, 30th Cross, 11th Main, 4th Block,  Jayanagar , Bangalore (Landmark:Near Vijaya PU College)
Telephone: 080 41210004

 

Italian dinners at La Italia and Little Italy, Indiranagar

Both these restaurants are located on 100 ft road in Indiranagar (the new hep and happening area  in Bangalore), both serve vegetarian, authentic Italian fare and both sport dim lighting, and have both out-and-indoor seating areas. What's more, their menus are eerily similar too- same dishes with same descriptions! Though the one at Little Italy has more dishes that La Italia. Across the two places, I tasted the spring onion soup, the canneloni, crispy potato skins, spinach crepe ( very similar to cannelloni) and rissoto. The food is nice, especially the crepe and potato skins, but a bit bland and heavy on cheese. I was so caught up in conversation (and more importantly, the lighting was so dim) that no photos were taken of these meals.

La Italia, 100 Feet Road, 13th Main, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore.
Telephone: 080 30412940 ext:138
Little Italy,100 Feet Road, Next To Reebok Showroom, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore.
Telephone:   080 25207171, 080 25207272

Lunch at Anjappar, Koramangala Fourth Block (http://www.anjappar.com/index.html)

Anjappar is a 'famous' chain of restaurants serving spicy Chettinaad cuisine. They even have branches abroad. The decor is swishier than most mid-budget Southie restaurants and has courteous and helpful wait staff. The menu is comprehensive and luckily for solo diners like me, includes set meals (thali) in veg, chicken and mutton variants.

 I started off with a crab soup - spicy, fragrant broth offset by morsels of sweet crab meat. 

The meal was a lesson in how to get the perfect balance of similarity between dishes so that they are recognisably of the same family, yet enough difference so that each dish stands proudly apart in memory. I had ordered the Chicken set meal and was served 3 veggie preparations, 1 dal, 1 rasam lookalike and one generous (read: giant) bowl of chicken curry with rotis and rice. 

Not to forget a tray containing 6 mini bowls of different accompaniments (fish gravy, mutton gravy, veg gravy etc - no pieces, only gravy, plus kesari or sweet suji halwa). 

Given the plethora of dishes on the banana leaf in front of me, and that each dish had the signature stamp of Chettinaad cuisine- that is, a complex spice palette - it was remarkable that each and every dish had its own unique taste, unlike any other dish on the plate. I mean, leaf. And every dish was tongue-tingling, finger-licking tasty. A delicious wake-up call to the tastebuds! I washed this spicefest down with a tumbler of cool buttermilk, just to be on the safe side. :)

Anjappar, 50, 4th Block, 17th main, 100ft Road, Koramangala, Bangalore.
Telephone: 080 25534477 / 78 /79

Sandwich and Shake at Matteo
A Chicken Sandwich and Chocolate Milkshake is the ultimate comfort meal after a long day at work followed by some serious saree shopping. But the Chicken Club Sandwich and Brownie Shake at Matteo is a completely different animal! 

The sandwich, far from being your typical chicken-lettuce-egg-cheese-tomato concoction, consisted of twin decks of fried egg and tender shreds of chicken in a tangy sauce enclosed within thick slices of grilled, crunchy toast. 

The Brownie Shake was not to my liking, though....the tiny rubble of blitzed brownies gave the shake a grainy texture, not my cup of tea - or should I say, not my glass of milkshake? :)

 

Matteo, 2, Church Street, MG Road Area, Bangalore (Landmark: Off Brigade Road)
Telephone: 080 43336000

 

Breakfast at Koshy's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koshy's)

An ex-boss whom I was catching up with declared "No trip to Bangalore is complete without a stop at Koshys". Accordingly, the last day of my stay saw us head to Koshys off M.G. Road. Koshys is a Bangalore institution, an old timey restaurant, with an air of no-nonsense bare functionality. Everything has an air of genteel, seen-better-days down-to-heel ness. There's a huge dining room with high ceilings, ancient ceiling fans whirring away, old-fashioned (and old!) tables-and-chairs and dignified waiters in crisp white uniforms. A tea house straight from the Raj era!

No laptops, please! :D

The sugar bowl - old world!

The menu is very British Raj too - fish and chips, omelettes, beans-on-toast, sausages and the like. Our waiter was the sweetest gent ever- reed thin but ramrod straight, with a generous black moustache, gold-rimmed glasses and an indulgent smile. 

 

His recommendation that I go with the Spanish Omelette rather than the Masala Omelette was spot on! A soft omelette, almost bursting at its sides trying to hold a tasty filling of chicken, diced sausage, peppers, onions and potatoes within....bliss! My ex-boss R and I gorged ourselves on omelettes, toast (half-inch thick slices with a generous spread of butter) and coffee. Truly, a breakfast of champions!

Look at the size of those slices!!

Check the price of the Koshy's Special Coffee!

Koshy's and Jewel Box Restaurant, No. 39 St. Marks Road, Bangalore.
Telephone: 080 - 2221-3793

So the next time you are in Bangalore, or if you live in Bangalore, please do visit these restaurants and let me know your take on them! And of course, let me know of any others that you recommend! Happy travelling and happy eating!

Restaurant Review : Idli House, King Circle

 

For the last couple of Saturdays, Agent J and I have been following a set pattern - leave work on time at 1 sharp (no more working till 4 or 6 or 8 on Saturdays!), catch a quick bite at one of Matunga/King Circle's numerous South Indian eateries and then head to our respective homes. I reach home just in time for a relaxed siesta - full to the gills with yummy food, but without that bloated queasy feeling that often follows a big lunch. Can there be a better start to the weekend? :)

Yesterday was our first visit to Idli House, just a bit ahead of King Circle, towards Sion. A. Rama Nayak's Udipi Idli House is the only restaurant I know which speacialises in idlis and only idlis. For the uninitiated, idli is a steamed rice-and-urad dumpling. Now, urad is generally considered 'heavy' to digest, but the idli batter is fermented before steaming, which makes idlis very light, and easy to digest. It also is apparently is one of the lowest-cal foods, in terms of calories/gm.

Idli House does 32 variants of Idlis - from the unadorned simple, steamed idli through the usual suspects of Kanchipuram Idli, Rasam Idli and Butter Idli all the way to the never-seen-before Jackfruit Idli, Cucumber Idli and Pepper Idli.

The specials board

And has a line up of SEVEN chutneys as accompaniments. Plus, the menu matches specific chutneys with specific idlis - kind of like how la-di-da restaurants pair a different wine with every dish. Needless to say, rasam and sambhar are present too.

:) :) :)

As we grabbed the last of the 3 (!!) tables in the tiny eatery, Agent J tossed me the laminated A4 menu and gave me cartle blanche to order - "Order any 2 or 3 to start with" To start with!!! A guy after my own heart! :P

We started our food fiesta by asking for a Mysore Rava Idli, a Vegetable Idli and a Masala Idli. The Mysore Rava Idli was a disconcerting sunny-yellow, and soft and crumbly. Maybe I had expected an adaptation of the Rawa Dosa aor Mysore Dosa - crispy, crunchy, golden brown, onion-strewn, and so, found the soft yellow, mild idli startling. :)

The Vegetable Idli was the usual white idli speckled with some greens. Truth be told, I couldn't make out much difference in the taste of these 2 types of idli.

 

 The Masala Idli, though was a whole different beast - steamed in a leaf, soft, dense, moist and fragrant with spices.

Masala Idli

Each Idli was paired with a different chutney - green coconut chutney with green chillies and garlic, red coconut chutney with red chillies and the traditional white coconut chutney. Plus little bowls of sambhar, too. The sambhar and white chutney were refilled for free, without our having to ask for it.

The solitary waiter also brought us a trio of sidekick accompaniments - Limda (dry powdered chutney made with curry leaves), Mulgapodi (dry powdered chutney also called 'gunpwder) and mixed vegetable pickle.

 

Along with these came a tray carrying two squeezy bottles of oil - coconut oil to be mixed into the Limda and normal peanut oil with the Mulgapodi. It was a little - confronting - to pour coconut oil straight from the trademark blue plastic bottle - which is generally used for oiling one's hair - but it did add a depth of flavour to the Limda.

Next up was the Rasam Idli - the rasam was flavourful and not too spicy, but the idlis had been dunked into the rasam for a tad too long, and were ready to disintegrate into soggy crumbs at the touch of a fork. Rasam Wada is a far more successful dish, methinks.

Rasam Idli

To round up our meal, we ordered Filter Coffee and the Seasonal Special - the Butter Jackfruit Idli. Oh my, such gooey goodness! Served with a dollop of white unsalted butter, the 'idli' was more like halwa - soft, squidgy and gleaming with melted butter that ran in tiny rivulets down the cracks and crevices in the idli.

Phonsa Muddho - Butter Jackfruit Idli

 The sweet nectar-like aroma of jackfruit, combined with the unbeatbale taste of melted butter pushed this idli to the top of the charts for me.

What's even more amazing than the sheer variety of idlis and their tantalising taste, is the prices on the menu. Idlis start from 20 Rs all the way till - wait for it - 25 Rs.The Seasonal Special dessert idli is the only aberration at a royal Rs 28. Agent J and I ate till we couldnt eat a bite more - for a grand total of Rs 143.

Fast, Tasty, Healthy AND Cheap food. What not to love? The crowds in the photo below will concur! :)

Restaurant Review: Soam, Babulnath

Soam had been on our radar for some years now but whenever Mom would suggest going there, I would quickly circumvent the suggestion by jumping in with a demand to go to our family's all time favourite restaurant Samrat instead. I had visions of having to eat a set meal (thaali) burgeoning with  ghee-soaked, garlic-and-onion-less, spice-free 'satvik' dishes, which made me shudder. Especially when contrasted with rich, perfectly spiced Dum Aloo and tangy Aloo Chat which is our fixed order at Samrat.

A glowing recommendation by my cousin A reduced my resistance somewhat. A is not the sort to wax eloquent about insipid food, so I readily agreed when les parents suggested Soam for Sunday lunch.

We reached just on time at 12:45 and snagged the last vacant table. The restaurant is small-ish but pleasant, with creamy mango-yellow walls, simple wooden tables & stools, and tablemats fashioned out of dry pressed leaves.

The leaf tablemats and beaten-metal plates at Soam

The menu was a revelation - instead of a set thaali meal, the menu had separate sections for staters, one-dish meals, mains and desserts. There was a separate menu for low-cal options as well. And the what was remarkable was the kind of dishes available on the menu - snacks and mains from Gujarati, UP, Bengali, South Indian and Maharashtrian kitchens which aren't usually seen on fancy restaurant menus, all offered here with a culinary twist. For instance - smaosas stuffed with spinach and cheese. Kothimbir wadi livened up with the addition of corn. A red rice dosa (made with organic red rice flour) chock-full of cucumber shreds, served with the traditional coconut chutney. The Bengali potatoes-cooked-in-curd-with-minimal-spices served up with puris stuffed with a gren pea filling. And the most amazing khichadi, with the masterstroke touch of a garlic-and-butter tadka. The khichadi was oh so good, we ordered some to be taken away for dinner!

Green pea-stuffed puris, served with potatoes cooked in a mildly spice yoghurt-based curry

Red rice dosa with cucumber

Paapdi Chaat

Seasonal special - baked mango yoghurt. Mom and Dad liked it, I found it so-so

All of the food is tasty without being laden with spice or oil. That's why despite pigging out to glory (6 dishes between 3 people), we didn't feel heavy or bloated or listless the way one usually does after a rich Sunday lunch.

The menu has lots of interesting dishes yet to be tried (paanki, chilla, bajra pockets etc) so a couple more trips are anticipated. :) But the khichadi will always feature in our selection.......

Vaghareli Khichadi - shortest and easiest route to heaven!

Kitchen Experiments: Hazelnut Flourless Cake

Continuing with the edible record (paradox?) of my travels in Turkey, I baked a flourless hazelnut cake using the roasted hazelnuts I had purchased in Istanbul.

Approximately 75% of the world's hazelnut production comes from Turkey, and given my weakness for Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, it was inevitable I would hunt down hazelnuts in Istanbul. Surprisingly, I didnt find too many shops in the Spice Bazaar selling loose hazelnuts. Though the tiny grocery next to our hotel had small nibbles-with-drinks-sized packs aplenty! I finally picked up the much-desired hazelnuts at a deli .........................at Istanbul Airport! (yes,and not in the straight-from-the-Arabian-Nights Spice Bazaar or on the cobblestone streets of the Old City as I had fondly hoped to do)


Hazelnuts, apart from being delicious to taste, also have a rich aroma and flavour of their own (unlike most nuts which have taste but not SCENT) and do not need any flavouring to compliment them. So the hazelnut flourless cake I baked is incredibly simple - just hazelnuts, egg whites and sugar. No vanilla or cardamom or nutneg or cinnamon required. Try doing that with almonds or cashewnuts and you'll understand what I mean!



Hazelnut Flourless Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup hazelnuts, roasted and peeled
1 cup sugar, ground fine (else use icing sugar) - you can vary the amount of sugar as per taste
3 egg whites

Method:

Preheat the oven. Mine is an old fashioned one with no timer or temperature control, so cant give you exact measures. But preheat it like you would for other cakes.

Line a cake tin with baking parchment. Or simply grease and flour the tin.

Grind the hazelnuts in a coffee grinder. Be sure that you give just 2-3 short spurts of grinding and not a continuous whirr - else the oil from the hazelnuts will start separating and give you hazelnut paste, and not dry rubbly hazelnut meal.



Whisk the egg whites till they are thick and shiny and just near the soft-peaks stage. (I did this by hand - takes about 10-15 minutes of whisking - but you are welcome to use a hand blender)

Add the sugar gradually, whisk strongly in between batches.

Add the ground hazelnut and fold gently.

Pour the mix (it should be thick and voluptuous, not runny) into the cake tin, and push it into the oven.


Bake till the mixture turns colour and becomes a dark golden.

Insert a skewer to check if the cake batter is cooked - if the skewer comes out clean, switch off the oven and immediately take out the cake and cool it as soon as you can under a fan.

Cut into pieces/slices, dust with powdered sugar (you may mix some powdered cinnamon with the sugar before dusting for added oomph) and serve with tea/coffee.


AND NOW THE DENOUMENT:

This post is a grand forgery. I started out making hazelnut macaroons, not cake. (See this recipe) But a series of events led to their transmogrification into cake:

• My parents were too hungry for their lunch (the oven was taking up space on the dining table and I was taking up space in our small kitchen), so my Dad chivvied me into making one giant macaroon instead of piping the batter into individual macaroon rosettes and baking them in batches

• Either my oven is not powerful enough, or I was too impatient, or my parents were too hungry and cranky or the one-giant-macaroon approach didn't work - and I pulled out the "cake" when it was cooked through but soft, rather than crisp and crunchy.

Anyhow, the "cake" was delicious, and in a blind test (as in presented proudly as "flourless cake" instead of "failed macaroons" to unsuspecting friends at work) it emerged as delicious, rich, nutty and was polished off in record time.


So all's well that ends well, eh? :)

Kitchen Experiments: Turkish Sausage on Toast

To quote legendary director Hrishikesh Mukherjee's movie 'Bbawarchi',
"It is so simple to be happy,
But so difficult to be simple..."

This is especially true in the kitchen - ever so often, we surrender to the temptation of "just a pinch of garam masala" or "just a spoonful of soy sauce" to "liven things up" that we end up with a mish mash of tastes and flavours and totally lose sight of the essentials of a dish. Perhaps we are afraid of an insipid, bland dish (dis)gracing our table.

But when done right, a simple dish is a joy forever. I added one such dish to my repertoire over the weekend - Turkish sausage on toast.

A recent holiday in Turkey yielded a packet of soujouk (sucuk in Turkish) - spicy Turkish sausage, similar to chorizo.


All it took was some tomato, onion and Parmesan cheese to rustle up a superhit starter or a quick meal for one!

Turkish Sausage on Toast:

Ingredients:
Turkish Sausage, or any spicy sausage
Spanish onion, sliced lengthwise
Tomato, sliced
Parmesan cheese- grated or powdered (you can use slices/powder/spread of any cheese you like
Sriracha Chilly Sauce ( or any spicy sauce)
Sliced bread

Method:
Add a teeny bit of oil in a frying pan, swirl it around and place on low heat. Add the sausage(s) and cook till done, i.e. the skin looks about to burst.

Slice the sausage into 0.5 cm thick slices, keep aside.

While the sausage is cooking, slice the tomato and onion, and grate the cheese.

Spread the cheese over the bread, and top with onion and tomato.

Dot with chilly sauce

Add the sausage slices on top. You can add another layer of cheese, if you wish. :)

Grill on a hot griddle (with a lid) or in the oven, till the bread is toasted to crunchy perfection.

You can top the open sandwich with another slice of sauce-smeared bread and grill in the sandwich toaster too.

Enjoy piping hot. Tomato ketchup is an optional condiment, but is not really needed.

PS: For a more dainty take on the dish, to present it as a starter, use canape cases or mini tart shells instead of bread. Upping the ante would be using puff pastry - press down small rounds of pastry dough into mini muffin cups, spoon in the filling and bake in a hot oven till pastry becomes golden and puffy. Bliss!

PPS: In retrospect, this dish is not really original, but is more like a vampish cousin of the bland American hotdog. But what the heck, its quick, tasty, and filling. All boxes ticked for a recipe worth repeating! :)