Famous food

The sign seems to be out to confuse you. Yes, of course that's a sardar welcoming you in, but the board says "Vellore". Check as many times as you like, but you'll not find any evidence of Vellore being anywhere near the land of the five rivers. And yet, that's what the sign goes on to imply. Also, I am sure there are sardars who are pure vegetarians, but I haven't come across one in all these years.

Eliminating the impossibles, this is what I'm left with. Sardar landed up in Vellore many many moons ago. Vellore, in case you didn't know, is a major clearing house for kuska - that is biriyani without pieces of anything. That probably drove home the point that vegetarianism is good business; and so sardar mixed the exotic "Punjabi Dhaba" with the blandness of Vellore cuisine, added in the "Gyan Vaishnav" for good measure and voila! Vellore Punjabi Dhaba became famous.

Actually, it became famous enough that it brought the Vellore Gyan Vaishnav brand to Chennai. Famous enough for the Chennai branch to be inaugurated by Amitabh Bachhan. For all that, it remains fairly rooted to the essence of the dhaba: simple food, quick service, easy on the wallet. No wonder that the sardar from Vellore has hundreds, maybe thousands, of die-hard fans in Chennai!

Driving through arches

McDonald's was very late in coming to Chennai. Their first outlet in India was set up as far back as 1996, when they opened their Connaught Place outlet in New Delhi. Their first outlet in Chennai was opened a dozen years later, when they took up space inside the food court at Ascendas, following with the standalone store at Anna Nagar a short while later.

The third outlet was in Velachery. Those who know Chennai from a decade ago would wonder at this - Velachery was at that time a sleepy suburb, where good folks wouldn't think of eating outside their houses, let alone get to a McDonald's at that. But Velachery has changed considerably and even for McDonald, it wasn't enough to just put another outlet there; it had to be a shade above the others in Chennai.

And so it is that Velachery boasts this family restaurant, supposedly the "only Drive-Thru' restaurant" in Chennai. Well, with the Woodlands Drive-In gone, we have to make-do with such substitutes!

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The concept, they say, is to "Eat as you like, pay as you feel". Such a path-breaking concept had to emerge from a non-business mind, and that's exactly where the Annalakshmi vegetarian dining experince came from. Swami Shantananda Saraswati first put this idea into operation at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1984, before bringing it to Chennai in 1986.

There are no specialized chefs, standardized recipes or secret sauces at Annalakshmi. The food is cooked - and brought to your table - mainly by volunteers who give their time to serve the hungry. When it first opened in Madras, Annalakshmi's patrons were taken aback to find senior civil servants, musicians and other well-known public figures taking their orders and bringing the dishes to their table. That's how it has been in the Annalakshmi restaurants all over the world, across Malaysia, Singapore, Australia or India. It was an experience like no other and then, to top it all, there was no bill at the end of it. Remember, the concept is to "...pay as you feel". Of course, given the philosophy and the ambience, it is quite likely one would end up paying just that little more than the 'Management' would have charged.

I have only admired it from a distance, never having the experience of dining there. Maybe it is the 'vegetarian only' menu, but more likely it is the feeling that I will embarass myself by becoming the first person to underpay at this 'Temple of Service'!

Rare, very rare

Can't think of too many 'theme' restaurants in Chennai; Sparky's Diner may be one only because there is no other diner, there are (were?) a couple of movie-themed restaurants a while ago, but the list more or less ends there.

And yes, there was (is?) the Rainforest in Adayar where the sounds of thunder and rain were supposedly more exciting than the food. The Cave, which opened about 6 months ago on Mount Road seems to be from the same folks who came up with Rainforest. Themed as a pre-Stone Age eatery, it certainly let's you know that right at the entrance - the gorilla and assorted monkeys sharing cliff-space with what's meant to be a stone age man. It seems to be that they've got the food part better this time around.

I prefer my meat very well done, though!

Traditional, version 2.0

The Mylai Sri Karpagambal Mess is back in action after having been completely knocked down and re-built. It will take a while - quite a while - for this building to get that worn-out, we're-too-busy-to-think-about-painting-this look that its predecessor had. But inside, not too much seems to have changed. As it used to be, there are packets of various kinds at the entrance, and the serving staff seem to have stepped right out from the old building into the new. Just that with a little more light, we're able to see them more clearly than we're used to.

The Karpagambal Mess has always been one of those places which you could not be indifferent about. There are people who don't mind waiting for (what must seem like) hours to get a table, who make the pilgrimage to Mylapore only to eat at one of its tables. Then there are others who cannot stand the very mention of the name. The latter group, in most of the cases, comprises individuals who went in there with sky-high expectations about the Mess' much talked about adai-avial and badam-halwa ("melts in the mouth"). They did not anticipate having to deal with slow service and less than squeaky clean tables - so every little slip has been magnified and vilified quite disproportionately. With such strong, polarised views, it is rather difficult to take a middle-of-the-road approach to eating here.

As for me, I have no complaints about the times I've been here - in its earlier avatar or now. But then, I'd not be the first in a group to suggest we have a bite here, either!

Valet parking

Went out for lunch last month to a new restaurant just across the road from where we stay. We walked, but my son insisted that he would cycle down. And yes, he did get his vehicle valet-parked!

The Eater's Digest - 7

Four Seasons restaurant it may not be, but with four restaurants inside this space, it is difficult to make a decision as to what cuisine you'd prefer for the evening. This space however, started off with just 'Kaaraikudi', bringing the cuisine of the Chettinad region to Chennai, sometime in the 1980s. At a time when most specialty restaurants in the city were looking towards north India (or beyond the borders), Kaaraikudi went south and became a hit almost rightaway.

With more space available in the complex, the choices grew. 'The Dhaba' offers you what you think it does - comfort food from the roadside eateries of north India - Punjab, mainly. 'Shogun' satisfies your craving for Chinese and 'Coastline' is fresh seafood - probably the first restaurant I saw where you could choose your food while it is still alive.

But for all the choice, there is no edging out the main deity here. It is Kaaraikudi and if you have any doubts about that, the faux Ayyannars at the entrance will drive them out of your mind!

Trust indicator

According to an old saying, one should never trust "clean mechanics, happy undertakers, or skinny chefs". Thom Petty, a native of the USA who has now made Chennai his home, swears by the last bit. Putting his mouth where the money is, he introduced Chennai to the 'authentic American dining experience', as his website says.

Given the variety of 'dining experiences' in the USA, it would be hard to replicate it authentically in Chennai. But Sparky's certainly overwhelms you with its decor and the wide range of knick-knacks, almost every single piece of which is authentically US; the portions, too, are nearly large enough to qualify for US citizenship. It is definitely a place that a visiting American will remember for sure - a wee bit of America in the heart of Chennai.

Given his website url, Thom seems to have wider ambitions, though. There may soon be a day when Sparky's Diners are spread out all over India!

Arriving hungry

Quick, which is the first eatery one sees on coming out from Chennai Central Station? If you answered "Buhari's", you are indeed a true Madrasi! They have been in Chennai since 1951 with their flagship restaurant on Mount Road. Not sure when the Central Buhari came up, but well, it has been around for as long as I can remember. Other hotels may have come up (and some gone, too), but Buhari is the place for that last biryani before getting into the unreserved coach to Jhumritalaiya or wherever!

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When it first started off in Chennai a few years ago, it had the 'Madurai' tag to it and was called 'Madurai Murugan Idli', following in the footsteps of the all-time famous Madurai Muniyandi Vilas. The similarity ends there. Murugan is all about tiffin items, whereas Muniyandi is all about heavy duty food; where Murugan is completely vegetarian, Muniyandi cannot be appeased without meat; and now, where Murugan has sought to play down the Madurai connection and become part of the Chennai mainstream, Muniyandi will never think of stooping to such levels. Maybe Murugan Idli is more Madras than Madurai these days. Their website lists five locations in Chennai and only three in Madurai.

Anyone walking into Murugan Idli expecting several varieties of idli is bound to be disappointed. They only have the regular soft idli, but several varieties of vadas, dosas and uthappams. Dreams of Kanchipuram idli, rava idli, ghee idli, idli upma, or even the miniature '14 idlis' are missing completely. There is idli and then there are the other tiffin items. It wouldn't be so bad if there was some level of consistency to the texture and the taste of the idli; sometimes it is hot to the point of being sticky and at other times it just melts in one's mouth. About inter-location variances, the less said the better. There is always a niggling doubt if all the outlets are run by the same management - except for the steel receptacles to hold the flimsy plastic water cups in place, there is little else that's common to them.

But when they get it right (and they very often do), the idli is just ambrosia. That's when one understands that all the others are just pretenders, there can only be one idli, as some of the purists say!

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The area around Gemini Circle is teeming with offices. Many of the office complexes here were built at a time when cafeterias in offices was an unheard-of concept. Chances are the employees wouldn't have liked it, too, because they were used to bringing lunch in their tiffin carriers; an all purpose 'lunch room', which doubled up as storage space and many a time as a nice snooze spot was all they asked for, so the multiple storeys of the tiffin carriers could be spread around and maybe a communal lunch had with the colleagues.

As the pace of the workaday increased, lunch from home became a rare luxury; add to that the Parsn Manere coming up as an office complex for small businesses, many of them were just half the size of a lunch room anyway. That's when there was an explosion of lunch options within half-a-kilometre radius of the Gemini Circle. They included roadside vendors, lunch deliveries, dinky little vehicles with candy-stripe awnings that would drive up, park and unfold their wares at lunch time only. Many of those options, especially the step-out-of-office-to-eat ones, died out quickly. Palimar is one of the survivors from that era of the 1980s.

Of course, the food is not what it used to be. Somehow Palimar seemed to be always opening another restaurant somewhere else; those would be good for a while, but would then shut down rather quickly. With so much of attention focussed on the new locations, the quality at the 'original' Palimar has kept on its downward track, more's the pity!

The Eater's Digest - 4

This was one of the 'happening' places in Chennai, in those days when Coke and Pepsi could be seen only in Hollywood movies and pizza was what Cakes & Bakes gave us. Good to see they are still going strong!

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Vegetarianism used to be quite the norm in Chennai. Even today, there are some landlords who would not let their houses out to folk who eat meat - apart from the belief that meat-eating causes man to absorb animalistic tendencies, they do not like the idea of the kitchen being used as a mini-slaughterhouse. By and large, major taboos around eating meat have faded out and with vegetarianism coming back into 'fashion', it is far easier to resist peer pressure, whether your preference is for the vegetables or the meat - unlike the past, where non-vegetarians would deny such tastes and vegetarians would get defensive about their choices.

Fashionable vegetarianism has opened up more options for dining out. Apart from Saravana Bhavan and its clones, there are a few others that have tried to pick up vegetarian niches; one such is the Sanjeevanam restaurants, which have gone uber-vegetarian, by introducing a lunch menu, where courses are served - and are expected to be eaten - in a particular order. Unlike other thali lunches, where you can eat the dishes on the side in any order you choose (and ask for multiple helpings), the Rajakeeyam lunch regulates what you eat, too. Though at first look, the portions appear small, the restaurant ensures you are well fed by the time you finish your payasam (dessert).

Took this picture of the lunch menu when I had gone there for dinner once. Though dinner is good, I would prefer to go there for lunch, despite the possibility of having to wait a while. There is one peculiarity that many might find irritating; the waiters enforce it as a strong suggestion and I think it is good practice to follow it, but quite a few people ruin their digestion by being irritated at the denial of what is a basic necessity. That's right, Sanjeevanam strongly recommends that, if you are going for the Rajakeeyam lunch, you keep your water glass unfilled until you have finished eating!

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One of the most well known food secrets of Chennai is Cornucopia, THE restaurant for European style food. Very unpretentious, with just about 20 tables, you might miss it if you are driving too fast on Cenotaph Road. The cooking is excellent, the portions just right (and you can choose half portions, too), the service runs smoothly as a background process and the prices are reasonable. What more can you ask for?

This is a make up post - for not being able to post yesterday. :/