Eatopia - Maiya's

Pedigree does show, especially with Maiya's. This is a vegetarian restaurant in 4th block of Jayanagar, Bengaluru, opposite to the police station and has a nice foodie aspect to it. This restaurant is from the MTR family and I have been here a few times for lunch/dinner and their Bisi-Bélé Bhath and Rava Idlis are stand-outs. They come with a very small cup of ghee (The metal cup is only as large as a small cap on your thumb, so chūntaani, to say). Spread over 4 floors, with the ground floor being a sweets and savouries section, the first for South Indian meals/tiffin and the floors above for special cuisine (Gujarati / North Indian)

South Indian meals are heavy there, and I am already tired of it. Starts with an appetizer (usually a juice or some digestive) in a silver tumbler (Señora disagrees that they are indeed silver), then comes a soup, vegetable curries, poori-saagu, bisi-bélé bhath, vadaam/sandigé, appalam, rice, dhal, sambar, kozhambu, rasam and curd, payasam/sweet and fruit-salad with ice-cream that reminds me of Crocin syrup with its taste and smell. The meal is Rs 110. The plates remind me of the cafeteria of my previous company. :) :)

Have not gone to the North Indian or Gujarati restaurants as of now; probably may not.

The restaurant is clean and large, the ambience decent. The only hiccup is that it is always crowded. You have to wait outside (cramped seating area) before being seated. The entrance to the dining floors is like a shanty fair and the passage is narrow.

Whenever you are in the Jayanagar 4th block area and feel like having a decent meal/evening snacks, drop by at Maiya's. It is worth an eat there. I was surprised that on my last visit, the person who took my order took it on an iPod Touch. Aha!

Eatopia - Bon Appétit at e-inn

<Grumble> <Groan> Two consecutive eatopia posts!!! I am in a time warp these days. I've no clue each day on where a fair portion of my leaky bucket of 86400 seconds goes. Weekdays go in a flash with a very tiring evening commute, moderately heavy work load and weekends fly by. Maybe my spare time is all going to an unreported black-hole possibly created by the LHC experiments in CERN for the mysterious Higgs-Boson. I have a backlog of close to 200 posts to read and maybe comment on a quarter or less, at least.

Having explained my deficient blogdom visits and back to the topic, it is rare to find a star rated vegetarian restaurant anywhere. We went to one such last weekend, in Bengaluru (okay, it is near Electronics City, if you consider it as a part of Bengaluru), which is a multi-star rated hotel (I think it is 4 or 5 star) and whose restaurants are vegetarian, don't serve alcohol and are non-smoking.

Welcome to e-inn, the hotel on Hosur Road, 2 kms after Electronics City towards Hosur, in the Bommasandra Industrial Estate. It is a large multi-storeyed hotel (at least 10 floors) that comes up on the right and is visible from a distance, but because of the divided NH-7 you have to go under the overpass that comes after the hotel intersection and make a U-turn.

It has a very decent ambience at the entrance and some lovely flowering plants. The Chinese cuisine restaurant is at the basement and the main one is beyond the lobby. The main restaurant can seat around 60-80 and is usually frequented by IT folks (sometimes with their clients) on weekdays and families on weekends. A better way to dine would be to reserve seating in advance as I have seen the crowd increase steadily in each succeeding visit.

The lunch course started with a drink of the day (it was a chocolatey milk this time), some fritters to snack on and then the soup of the day, which had pasta and herbs in it. Then it was time to go and sample the world-wide buffet. It was a mix of Indian, Continental, Mediterranean, Oriental and some exotic dishes. Quite a few salads (at least 6 to 8 types) to sample, a few varieties of bread (3 or 4) to choose from, and the main course taken from an assortment of rice items like fried rice, pulao, saffron rice, curd rice etc, a few North Indian gravy dishes and associated bread(s), margherita pizza slices, noodles, lasagna, stir fried/tossed veggies, sambar, curries, mini dosas/chutney and a chaat item rounded off the main course.

The desserts took the icing on the cake (and takes it every time I go there with the variety). Around 10 varieties of desserts that include some bright coloured exotic ones which I have no name of, eggless cakes, payasam/kheer, fruit salad, two varieties of ice-cream.

For me, getting to this place from mine was like going to another city after crossing two toll roads before I reached Electronics City, but this place has become a regular haunt every quarter. Kids love it (choose what you want with no dearth of choices and no forced eating :-) like at home), Señora likes it for the variety to choose from and the desserts and I am ambivalent to what I eat, being picky and hence okay. Parents have a mixed opinion on this place as they are used to the typical South Indian grind of veg curries, kootu, kuzhambu, sambar, rasam and curd etc. The charges are pretty decent for the variety it offers, at Rs. 250/- per head for adults incl. taxes and half of that for children.

So went one more afternoon in the weekend that has been accounted for. :-) The dinner there also is a buffet with different entrées. If you have an afternoon or an evening in Bengaluru to spare, wouldn't mind a wide choice of all-vegetarian fare and can traverse the long drive to beyond Electronics City, I'd suggest e-inn for a try. You'll love it.

And till the black-hole releases me from its clutch, ciao!!!

Eatopia - Davanagéré Bénné Dosé

The simple eateries provide maybe the best taste. Proved again by a random visit to a non-descript eatery tucked in the 13th Main Road (it is not really a main road though) of Jayanagar IV block, close to the bus stand, at Bengaluru. I usually see this eatery named 'Davanagéré Bénné Dosé' (no prefix or suffix names) without any bells or whistles, a one room entity and pass by after savouring the aroma. Last Friday evening, on a visit in that direction, it had gotten late and the choice was to either go home and make something for dinner or eat outside. Stepped into this eatery, which was around 15x15 feet in its entirety with a few four legged stools to sit on and a round high table for those who prefer to stand and eat.

A brief history on the name. Davanagéré (also called Davangéré) is a mid-sized city, once famous for its sarees and textiles, and is in the heartland of Karnataka. Bénné means butter and Dosé is Dosé. :-) The past few years, alongside the famed darshinis, Bénné Dosé eateries have sprouted around and the USP was the Dosé roasted crisp with dollops of butter and served with mashed potatoes (you can have multiple servings of this) and hot chutney. Typically eveningesque fare.

Downed Bénné Dosé with the masala (mashed potatoes with onions and chillies, but colored naturally as creamy white since no turmeric or masala powder is mixed. There is a khara paste smeared on the dosa, just like masala dosa, but we asked to be spared of that) and Paddu (kuzhi paniyaaram, in Tamizh) along with medium hot chutney for dinner. It was filling, fattening and good on the tongue. The eatery is run by a middle aged couple, is clean, served with a smile and I noticed that the oven used was not gas fired, but with firewood. It is decently priced, at Rs.20/- for a Bénné Dosé and the same amount for a plate of 6 paddus. The menu was lean with not many other items.

Hail the Bénné Dosé and the small eatery!!!

Foodsteps - from Devagiri to SLV Coffee Bar

I know that this post is going to get Ramesh mad again, but then here it goes ...

Sometimes, you go for something and get something else in return. Last Saturday, hustled up a quick visit to Devagiri, a Venkateswara temple on a small hillock immersed in the surrounding cityscape in Banashankari after el Niño's tennis class. One treat about going to a Perumal Kovil is the prasadam. 'el Niño' loves the theertham given at temples. It is always multiple helpings for him and showing his cupped hand and gulping the water down with a slurp. Loves the fragrance and taste that the theertham has, with the Tulasi leaves, camphor et al. Seeing Perumaal or Pillayaar is secondary. Theertham is divinity, for him and the running around in the prakaaram. :-)

The prasadam at the counter there is laddoo and vadé. The vadé is 'milagu vadai' (pepper vadai) which is hard (almost teeth breaking) and disc shaped, but tremendously tasty once it starts to melt in the mouth. The heat of the pepper hits your senses. And add to it, the puliyogaré (puliyodharai) there. One thing I have seen in Karnataka temples, almost without exception, is the amount of free prasadam that they give there. No shooing of people or giving small helpings. It _is_ generous and the temples are usually very clean. Both Niño and Niña got their helpings, took some of ours, all of which were in our hands, stood outside the temple, with Niño eating off our cupped hands and finishing it _fast_ (if only eating at home could be as quick!). Perumal Kovil puliyogaré tastes ethereal wherever you go. [Govindaa Govinda]

As we walked down, remembered that there is another 'Brahmins Coffee Bar' [BCB] type place nearby. Trundled down there, which is across the park there (close to the BDA shopping complex), to see a milling crowd outside a small eatery. And we had arrived at the Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Coffee Bar. Idly and Vadé again after wading through humanity. The chutney was a tad hot, but the idly and vadé were yum-o-yum, very similar to the ones at BCB. No sambar here as well, but chutney is limitless. This place is different than the BCB in that you get a larger variety to eat, like dosé and rava idly. el Niño, fickle to eat at joints like this, asked Señora to get him the dosé with aloo and vegetables inside (masala dosai), that he had tasted for first time at a friend's birthday party sometime back. Sat on the platform for a tree on the footpath, finished it off in no time.

What started off as a short and quick temple visit ended up with a trip to SLV coffee bar. Thanks to all the little eateries that make up the little joys of life !!!

The milagu vadé pack-of-5 from the temple survived only for a day more before its extinction. If you visit Devagiri on a Saturday, you can treat yourself to the mouth-watering temple prasadam, gorge at SLV Coffee Bar nearby and wind it up with a glass of fresh and hygienically pressed sugarcane juice at "cane-o-la" in the Banashankari BDA complex, all within 3 minutes of each other by walk.

Have a great weekend.

Eatologue - Brahmins Coffee Bar

Dropped by, last Friday at the Brahmins Coffee Bar, an almost non-descript, small place in the old-timer eatopia zone of Bengaluru, Basavanagudi, after dropping off "la Niña", at her dance class. The place is tucked away in a primarily residential area and is surrounded by homes (not houses). The menu (if you call it so) is only idli, vadē, khara-bhath (upma/uppittuu), kesari-bhath, and coffee/tea/badam-milk. This place was voted sometime back as the best place for idli-coffee by Times of India. Never judge a building by its facade. This place can be missed easily if you aren't attentive, but the crowd around makes you pause. It isn't a sit-and-eat at leisure type of restaurant, however.

And me, being the idli lover, jumped right in, with a couple of idlis with vadē. There is no sambar and it is only chutney, poured over the idli and which tasted different and good. The idlis just melted in the mouth, aided by the chutney and were gone after one more deliberate helping of chutney. [Slurrrp, it was]. The vadē was wonderful. Roasted to crisp perfection and no trace of oil. Went for a small helping of kesari-bhath, stolen from Señora (I am no connoisseur of sweets. I'd rather stick with the khara items.) Snuck inside once again for a khara-bhath, again aided by the reverential chutney. Had to miss the coffee as it would have been the fourth in the day and hence vetoed out by Señora. :-( This itself was so heady.

The idlis cost around Rs.16 for a pair, the vadē Rs. 12  and the kesari/khara bhath Rs.12 for a single helping, higher than a typical darshini, but well worth it. You can take out a parcel as well. They are open for around 4 hours in the morning and then similarly in the evening. If you are in Bengaluru and if you are somewhere near Gandhi Bazaar in Basavanagudi or going close to Shankar Mutt, drop by at the Brahmins Coffee Bar. You'll never be disappointed!

And this post is dedicated to some of the foodies in blogdom like "Bangalore Blues", whose experiences I have enjoyed reading as much as I try to walk their foodsteps.