Saw my blog and found that I have let a good idea go moribund! So here I am doing the lazy way to success, which is creating links to other blogs. Here is one recipe for Lauki ka Subzi.Liked it very much. Do try it.
As I am a little adventurous, changed the recipe a bit by adding tomatoes. However, it is a superb way to eat Lauki that not many people like. This is just a filler to keep my blog active. The moment there are more ideas there will be more posts!
Here's the link for Lauki ka Subzi: -
http://hungerpangs.blogspot.com/2007/10/lauki-ki-sabzi.html
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Thursday, September 6, 2007
This article was published in rediff.com. Saw my wording copied, without any acknowledgement, by an old man called Bellur in his blog! Oh well I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Search for the Perfect Dosai in Bangalore
Bangalore can aptly be called the Mushroom City. Like Topsy in “Uncle Tom's Cabin”, it “just growed and growed”. With a constant influx of North Indians, who somehow seem to be in all the IT companies, despite the evergrowing tribe of engineers churned out of the apparently infinite number of colleges in Karnataka, it is hardly surprising that dosai afficionados seem to be in short supply. For the people of the North, the dosai is a 'dosa' with a hard D and a long a. Give them the staple Darshini dosa, with chutney containing more chillies than coconut, a standard idli vada with the sambar overflowing from the plate and they seem to be quite happy. And why not, it is still better than the 'dosa' served in the standard eateries of the North with their sometimes crisp and sometimes uncooked offerings, not to speak of the Aloo filling that comes with, heaven forbid, cashewnuts!
Blessed as we are with epicurean tastebuds allied with a sense of adventure, my family and I have made several rounds of eateries said to serve the best Dosais in Bangalore and, in this context, the Masala Dosai is the thing to eat. The choice of Masala Dosai as the standard, rests on its ubiquitousness and the uniformity of the offering. While the shape may differ, there is no difference in the components, the dosai per se, the Palia or potato filling and the accompaniments, usually chutney and sambhar. For the purist in me, no self respecting restaurant should serve sambhar with a masala dosai, but there are some concessions to be made for those with lesser tastes! So here is the Honours list
Central Tiffin Rooms or CTR in Malleswaram
Hotel Janardhana on Kumara Krupa Road (between Race Course Road and Sivananda Stores junction passing through Hotel Bangalore International)
Janatha Hotel in Malleswaram
Vidyarthi Bhavan in Gandhi Bazaar
Let us now see the commonalities of these places. All of them are very unimpressive looking and hence are unlikely to attract anyone but locals in the know. One of the prime factors for enjoying Dosai, in Bangalore, is hearing Kannada around you in any of these eateries, yes not even my mother tongue Tamil! But then I am a Tamil speaking Kannadiga! Second of all, these restaurants are a part of what I like to call Old Bangalore, a place with a unique and gentle charm and unhurried grace, rather like Viswanath essaying a leg glide. These restaurants have allowed time to flow around them and are not affected by its passage. So if the service seems a tad slow, it is because of this rather than any laxity on the part of the staff. Please also bear in mind that the best paintings were created over a long period! Third, their core competence lies in their dosais and the idlis and vadas are all passable rather than extraordinary. Some famous business guru mentioned that for a company to survive and thrive in competitive times, they must be the best in one thing and for the rest they can be upto average market standards. So it is with these places. Go there for the dosais and if you are very hungry, have one more.So for the evaluation. CTR is the first and the dosais are real heaven. To start with CTR is a nondescript looking place which surprisingly has a board that says Sukh Sagar in Kannada! It is situated on 7th Cross at the corner of Margosa Road. Having got the co-ordinates right proceed to the tables that tell you that this is a strictly utilitarian place. If you want ambience go elsewhere! One more thing, CTR is open only for a few hours in the morning and closes at 12:30 PM. Thereafter in the evening it is open till 8:30 PM. Now to describe the dosais. Since this is a purely experiential phenomenon there is no way anyone can do justice to CTR. But, start with the appearance as and when it manifests in front of you. Lovely golden brown. The texture as it goes into your mouth is crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. The flavour is yummy, all dosai and butter. The potato palia is again wonderful, well cooked and the right mixture of spice and flavour. The chutney is obviously the fruit of years of experience. Perfect is the only word to describe it. Follow it up with coffee and you are down by less than Rs 20/-. Go away smiling at having experienced a piece of history. This really is the stuff of legends.
Next on my list is Janardhana. Here wonder of wonders, you have a nice compound with space to park your car or two wheeler. Approach it from the Race Course Road end. The Dosai, nice and soft inside and crisp on the outside. Served with great chutney and sambar. Again great flavour, great taste.
Further South, we have Vidyarthi Bhavan, and this comes with a historical baggage. The dosais here are well done, a tad too much in my view, but I could be a minority of one. Again chutney served with the dosais. Don't recollect sambar being there and this satisfies the purist in me. Taste and texture as well as flavour impeccable. Makes the passage through the small lane that leads to it navigable. However, this is only fourth on my list.
Third is Janatha Hotel in Malleswaram Eighth Cross, nearer to Sampige Road on the small stretch between Margosa and Sampige Road. The dosai here makes one go lyrical. Again perfect flavour and taste of the dosai and the collaterals. Can life get better than when you have the dosais and follow up with coffee. All is well with the Universe thereafter.<
Know what, I am not really one to quibble about which one is the best. These guys know their job and have been making their dosais to high standards of excellence. So trying to criticise them is like Evelyn Waugh says about Wodehouse is “carrying a shovel to a souffle”.
Search for the Perfect Dosai in Bangalore
Bangalore can aptly be called the Mushroom City. Like Topsy in “Uncle Tom's Cabin”, it “just growed and growed”. With a constant influx of North Indians, who somehow seem to be in all the IT companies, despite the evergrowing tribe of engineers churned out of the apparently infinite number of colleges in Karnataka, it is hardly surprising that dosai afficionados seem to be in short supply. For the people of the North, the dosai is a 'dosa' with a hard D and a long a. Give them the staple Darshini dosa, with chutney containing more chillies than coconut, a standard idli vada with the sambar overflowing from the plate and they seem to be quite happy. And why not, it is still better than the 'dosa' served in the standard eateries of the North with their sometimes crisp and sometimes uncooked offerings, not to speak of the Aloo filling that comes with, heaven forbid, cashewnuts!
Blessed as we are with epicurean tastebuds allied with a sense of adventure, my family and I have made several rounds of eateries said to serve the best Dosais in Bangalore and, in this context, the Masala Dosai is the thing to eat. The choice of Masala Dosai as the standard, rests on its ubiquitousness and the uniformity of the offering. While the shape may differ, there is no difference in the components, the dosai per se, the Palia or potato filling and the accompaniments, usually chutney and sambhar. For the purist in me, no self respecting restaurant should serve sambhar with a masala dosai, but there are some concessions to be made for those with lesser tastes! So here is the Honours list
Central Tiffin Rooms or CTR in Malleswaram
Hotel Janardhana on Kumara Krupa Road (between Race Course Road and Sivananda Stores junction passing through Hotel Bangalore International)
Janatha Hotel in Malleswaram
Vidyarthi Bhavan in Gandhi Bazaar
Let us now see the commonalities of these places. All of them are very unimpressive looking and hence are unlikely to attract anyone but locals in the know. One of the prime factors for enjoying Dosai, in Bangalore, is hearing Kannada around you in any of these eateries, yes not even my mother tongue Tamil! But then I am a Tamil speaking Kannadiga! Second of all, these restaurants are a part of what I like to call Old Bangalore, a place with a unique and gentle charm and unhurried grace, rather like Viswanath essaying a leg glide. These restaurants have allowed time to flow around them and are not affected by its passage. So if the service seems a tad slow, it is because of this rather than any laxity on the part of the staff. Please also bear in mind that the best paintings were created over a long period! Third, their core competence lies in their dosais and the idlis and vadas are all passable rather than extraordinary. Some famous business guru mentioned that for a company to survive and thrive in competitive times, they must be the best in one thing and for the rest they can be upto average market standards. So it is with these places. Go there for the dosais and if you are very hungry, have one more.So for the evaluation. CTR is the first and the dosais are real heaven. To start with CTR is a nondescript looking place which surprisingly has a board that says Sukh Sagar in Kannada! It is situated on 7th Cross at the corner of Margosa Road. Having got the co-ordinates right proceed to the tables that tell you that this is a strictly utilitarian place. If you want ambience go elsewhere! One more thing, CTR is open only for a few hours in the morning and closes at 12:30 PM. Thereafter in the evening it is open till 8:30 PM. Now to describe the dosais. Since this is a purely experiential phenomenon there is no way anyone can do justice to CTR. But, start with the appearance as and when it manifests in front of you. Lovely golden brown. The texture as it goes into your mouth is crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. The flavour is yummy, all dosai and butter. The potato palia is again wonderful, well cooked and the right mixture of spice and flavour. The chutney is obviously the fruit of years of experience. Perfect is the only word to describe it. Follow it up with coffee and you are down by less than Rs 20/-. Go away smiling at having experienced a piece of history. This really is the stuff of legends.
Next on my list is Janardhana. Here wonder of wonders, you have a nice compound with space to park your car or two wheeler. Approach it from the Race Course Road end. The Dosai, nice and soft inside and crisp on the outside. Served with great chutney and sambar. Again great flavour, great taste.
Further South, we have Vidyarthi Bhavan, and this comes with a historical baggage. The dosais here are well done, a tad too much in my view, but I could be a minority of one. Again chutney served with the dosais. Don't recollect sambar being there and this satisfies the purist in me. Taste and texture as well as flavour impeccable. Makes the passage through the small lane that leads to it navigable. However, this is only fourth on my list.
Third is Janatha Hotel in Malleswaram Eighth Cross, nearer to Sampige Road on the small stretch between Margosa and Sampige Road. The dosai here makes one go lyrical. Again perfect flavour and taste of the dosai and the collaterals. Can life get better than when you have the dosais and follow up with coffee. All is well with the Universe thereafter.<
Know what, I am not really one to quibble about which one is the best. These guys know their job and have been making their dosais to high standards of excellence. So trying to criticise them is like Evelyn Waugh says about Wodehouse is “carrying a shovel to a souffle”.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Viva Vegetarians!
Hi! My name is R.A.Krishna. Am a vegetarian and not a vegan! Find that the world is hung up on eating meat and there is little for the vegetarian in terms of eating places, reviews and so on. Would like to remedy that through a blog that is meant for this minority! I would like to welcome you all to my blog and contribute in terms of articles, recipes, reviews of restaurants in your city, even shops that sell only vegetarian foodstuff. Only one condition is that the contributions should relate to vegetarian food only. My endeavour is to create a space for vegetarians to chill out, know what is available in their cities, try out new recipes and new restaurants catering to vegetarians, even suggest ideas to restaurants etc. to orient their marketing to capture the vegetarian clientèle.
Do hope that you find this of interest and contribute meaningfully to the blog. It is your vegetarian space!
Do hope that you find this of interest and contribute meaningfully to the blog. It is your vegetarian space!
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