Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Food At Maiyas Bangalore
"Maiyas" is a food joint situated in Jayanagar.
Its a 4 storied restaurant serving South Indian and Gujrati meals along with other regular South Indian snacks and sweets. Always Buzzing with activities and as per some of my colleagues you would be lucky if you could make it inside the dining hall of the restaurant during the lunch hours without standing in a queue.
There is a waiting area though outside the dining room at each level of the restaurant.
I have never heard of its name before till one of our colleagues took us for a treat there.
Shame on me that I never heard its name before, for ever since that day, I have become a big fan of Maiyas.
Mavalli Tiffin Room or MTR is a well known brand in India. It is known for its pre-packed food articles and the assortment of masalas. MTR was founded by Parampalli Yajnanarayana Maiya and his brothers.
Moreover, the MTR Restaurant at Bangalore near Lalbagh has numerous unique stories about its food (refer Wikipedia).
I have never been a great fan of South Indian food, so I have never been to the MTR Restaurant at Lalbagh
The "Maiyas" at Jayanagar belongs to the same family as is the MTR Restaurant.
When we sat for the South Indian Thali, I was taken aback when we were served a beautiful ginger drink in a silver tumbler. They say silver is good for health. We drank to our health.
The main course began with a tomato soup and for a change it really was made from tomatos.
This was followed by a traditional moong dal , cucumbur mixed salad I suppose followed by alu ki sabji for the Poori, papad, pickle.
The pooris were freshly made and it went down well with the alu sabji.
Once I was done with the pooris, the next was the vegetable biriyani. I never believed I will ever like a Veg Biriyani over a Non Veg one. But this Veg Biriyani deserved a five star rating. The sambhar ,the other 2/3 sabjis, the chips all were good and soon to my utter surprise, my thali was EMPTY!!
Next came the white rice. I vehemently wanted to say NO first but the person serving us the food insisted upon having some. So be it I said.
With a dollop of pure ghee and Rasam, the rice tested heavenly. I have never seen such ghee being served anywhere else except for at home.
There were some chatnis - made from coconut - which were served and to my utter disbelief I had licked them off clean from my plate.
I wish I could have more but I did not want to miss on the others to follow - The Payes (payasam), the curd and the ice cream.
What amazed me most about the food I had there was that each of them were so pristine and so full of flavours that each of them made me crave for more. Each of the dishes I believe must have been perfected over the period of time to a level where there remains no scope of ambiguity about further improvement.
I am planning to visit the MTR Restaurant now, I want to stand in its legendary queue of food lovers and wait for my turn to get a taste of another sumptuous South Indian meal like the one I had at "Maiyas"
Its a 4 storied restaurant serving South Indian and Gujrati meals along with other regular South Indian snacks and sweets. Always Buzzing with activities and as per some of my colleagues you would be lucky if you could make it inside the dining hall of the restaurant during the lunch hours without standing in a queue.
There is a waiting area though outside the dining room at each level of the restaurant.
I have never heard of its name before till one of our colleagues took us for a treat there.
Shame on me that I never heard its name before, for ever since that day, I have become a big fan of Maiyas.
Mavalli Tiffin Room or MTR is a well known brand in India. It is known for its pre-packed food articles and the assortment of masalas. MTR was founded by Parampalli Yajnanarayana Maiya and his brothers.
Moreover, the MTR Restaurant at Bangalore near Lalbagh has numerous unique stories about its food (refer Wikipedia).
I have never been a great fan of South Indian food, so I have never been to the MTR Restaurant at Lalbagh
The "Maiyas" at Jayanagar belongs to the same family as is the MTR Restaurant.
When we sat for the South Indian Thali, I was taken aback when we were served a beautiful ginger drink in a silver tumbler. They say silver is good for health. We drank to our health.
The main course began with a tomato soup and for a change it really was made from tomatos.
This was followed by a traditional moong dal , cucumbur mixed salad I suppose followed by alu ki sabji for the Poori, papad, pickle.
The pooris were freshly made and it went down well with the alu sabji.
Once I was done with the pooris, the next was the vegetable biriyani. I never believed I will ever like a Veg Biriyani over a Non Veg one. But this Veg Biriyani deserved a five star rating. The sambhar ,the other 2/3 sabjis, the chips all were good and soon to my utter surprise, my thali was EMPTY!!
Next came the white rice. I vehemently wanted to say NO first but the person serving us the food insisted upon having some. So be it I said.
With a dollop of pure ghee and Rasam, the rice tested heavenly. I have never seen such ghee being served anywhere else except for at home.
There were some chatnis - made from coconut - which were served and to my utter disbelief I had licked them off clean from my plate.
I wish I could have more but I did not want to miss on the others to follow - The Payes (payasam), the curd and the ice cream.
What amazed me most about the food I had there was that each of them were so pristine and so full of flavours that each of them made me crave for more. Each of the dishes I believe must have been perfected over the period of time to a level where there remains no scope of ambiguity about further improvement.
I am planning to visit the MTR Restaurant now, I want to stand in its legendary queue of food lovers and wait for my turn to get a taste of another sumptuous South Indian meal like the one I had at "Maiyas"
Monday, November 1, 2010
Marriage invitation at Hyderabad
I had attended some marriages during my stay at Hyderabad and in all the marriage receptions I was bowled out with the food that was served.
In one of my project leaders marriage - I was surprised to see the variety of pickles that were on display. There were around 10 different kinds of pickle, different kinds of powder, there was the sambhar, the rasam and the salans - baigan ka salan and the mirchi ka salan. There were Dosas and there was Biriyani. There was curd and their was curd rice. All finally wrapped up well with ice-cream and hot gulab jamoon.
The reception looked like a movie set with the bride and the groom wearing a gigantic garland standing on the stage and a huge gathering sitting in rows. The ladies wore all possible kind of gold jeweleries and were draped in a variety of bright colored Kanjeevaram sarees.
In another marriage reception - the scene was similar to what I had already seen - the display of jewelery was awesome and so were the gifts. The gift we had brought for the couple, looked nothing in comparison to the 500/- rupee bundle served in a silver plate - gifted to the bridegroom by one of the guests.
In one of my project leaders marriage - I was surprised to see the variety of pickles that were on display. There were around 10 different kinds of pickle, different kinds of powder, there was the sambhar, the rasam and the salans - baigan ka salan and the mirchi ka salan. There were Dosas and there was Biriyani. There was curd and their was curd rice. All finally wrapped up well with ice-cream and hot gulab jamoon.
The reception looked like a movie set with the bride and the groom wearing a gigantic garland standing on the stage and a huge gathering sitting in rows. The ladies wore all possible kind of gold jeweleries and were draped in a variety of bright colored Kanjeevaram sarees.
In another marriage reception - the scene was similar to what I had already seen - the display of jewelery was awesome and so were the gifts. The gift we had brought for the couple, looked nothing in comparison to the 500/- rupee bundle served in a silver plate - gifted to the bridegroom by one of the guests.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Food For Thought!
They say necessity is the mother of all inventions.
So when it came to cooking, it was pure necessity which made me take up cooking
Ever since it has been a great journey.
Experimenting with various ingredients made me discover a great hobby in cooking.
I was in Secunderabad when it all began. The egg masala and the Tandoori Roti outside the Secunderbad station was my first tryst with Hyderabadi food. Wow!! I had never seen such big Tandoori Rotis in my life and as a matter of fact I have never seen them anywhere else so far. The egg masala was boiled eggs in a thick gravy. This takes me to another incident with Tandoori Roti. We were roaming around Hyderabad when we came across a restaurant named "Mezbaan" which we believed would be serving good North Indian food. Two of us ordered for murgh mussalam and six tandoori rotis. An elderly gentleman who was serving the food laughed at us and said - "First you have 2 rotis and then if needed I will serve you more"...Soon we realized that we were going to be served with those King sized Tandoori rotis.
In and around Secunderabad there are a host of eateries which serve a variety of food - starting from Biriyani to the Softee ice-cream. Parathas with Keema was part of breakfast and seeing the oil draining out from the keema was to be seen to be believed. Thanks to one of my roommates - I had the pleasure to have such a breakfast one day and as they say...the rest was history.
The Biriyani at Paradise was an experience in its own. It was simply amazing.The combination of spices, the rice, the color, the flavor all made it all so memorable. However, the Biriyani was too spicy for most of us. So when we wanted to have something at the lighter side we went for the Chicken Shashlik at the Paradise. It was an Indian version of Chicken Shashlik - with a pulao served with barbecued chicken and vegetables.
The Supreme Biriyani at Paradise was meant for four people. Served in a boat shaped dish it was a huge amount of food one could get. One of my room-mates was a die hard foodie. For him the quantity of food was more important than the quality. He took six of us for Biriyani at Paradise and ordered for 3 Supreme Biriyanis. When the Biriyani was served to us, we were completely perplexed. It should have been called Superman Biriyani instead of Supreme Biriyani. So all of us started digging into the Biriyani mountain and soon we gave up. We could barely finish 1.5 of them and the third untouched one lay on the table glaring at us. We asked the waiter to pack the remaining Biriyani - dividing it into 6 parcels. We came out each carrying a parcel. But what to do with this we had no idea. Maybe we can have it for next morning breakfast or lunch - someone suggested.Once again Biriyani in 24 hrs? Hell not even in 48 hrs would it be possible to have Biriyani again. There were few beggers on the street and we knew what to do next. We did not wait to see what happened next because people watching us were surprised at our generosity.
Next to the Hussain Sagar, there were few eateries where you would get the best fried fish.
Dipped in a reddish concoction and deep fried thereafter, the fish would taste amazing.
After almost a month trying to adjust to Hyderabadi food, we got desperate for Bengali food. Thanks to the Secunderabad station we found a restaurant which served fish. The masala papar, the fish fry the phulka roti, the plain yellow daal....we loved the place.
When I was coming to Hyderabad - fresh from college, I had never been out of my state so far ever.
My mother was always worried that I would not be getting good food at Hyderabad.
But Hyderabad introduced me to my hobby -cooking
But before I begin to speak about my cooking I want to continue a bit on my experiences about food across the country.
So when it came to cooking, it was pure necessity which made me take up cooking
Ever since it has been a great journey.
Experimenting with various ingredients made me discover a great hobby in cooking.
I was in Secunderabad when it all began. The egg masala and the Tandoori Roti outside the Secunderbad station was my first tryst with Hyderabadi food. Wow!! I had never seen such big Tandoori Rotis in my life and as a matter of fact I have never seen them anywhere else so far. The egg masala was boiled eggs in a thick gravy. This takes me to another incident with Tandoori Roti. We were roaming around Hyderabad when we came across a restaurant named "Mezbaan" which we believed would be serving good North Indian food. Two of us ordered for murgh mussalam and six tandoori rotis. An elderly gentleman who was serving the food laughed at us and said - "First you have 2 rotis and then if needed I will serve you more"...Soon we realized that we were going to be served with those King sized Tandoori rotis.
In and around Secunderabad there are a host of eateries which serve a variety of food - starting from Biriyani to the Softee ice-cream. Parathas with Keema was part of breakfast and seeing the oil draining out from the keema was to be seen to be believed. Thanks to one of my roommates - I had the pleasure to have such a breakfast one day and as they say...the rest was history.
The Biriyani at Paradise was an experience in its own. It was simply amazing.The combination of spices, the rice, the color, the flavor all made it all so memorable. However, the Biriyani was too spicy for most of us. So when we wanted to have something at the lighter side we went for the Chicken Shashlik at the Paradise. It was an Indian version of Chicken Shashlik - with a pulao served with barbecued chicken and vegetables.
The Supreme Biriyani at Paradise was meant for four people. Served in a boat shaped dish it was a huge amount of food one could get. One of my room-mates was a die hard foodie. For him the quantity of food was more important than the quality. He took six of us for Biriyani at Paradise and ordered for 3 Supreme Biriyanis. When the Biriyani was served to us, we were completely perplexed. It should have been called Superman Biriyani instead of Supreme Biriyani. So all of us started digging into the Biriyani mountain and soon we gave up. We could barely finish 1.5 of them and the third untouched one lay on the table glaring at us. We asked the waiter to pack the remaining Biriyani - dividing it into 6 parcels. We came out each carrying a parcel. But what to do with this we had no idea. Maybe we can have it for next morning breakfast or lunch - someone suggested.Once again Biriyani in 24 hrs? Hell not even in 48 hrs would it be possible to have Biriyani again. There were few beggers on the street and we knew what to do next. We did not wait to see what happened next because people watching us were surprised at our generosity.
Next to the Hussain Sagar, there were few eateries where you would get the best fried fish.
Dipped in a reddish concoction and deep fried thereafter, the fish would taste amazing.
After almost a month trying to adjust to Hyderabadi food, we got desperate for Bengali food. Thanks to the Secunderabad station we found a restaurant which served fish. The masala papar, the fish fry the phulka roti, the plain yellow daal....we loved the place.
When I was coming to Hyderabad - fresh from college, I had never been out of my state so far ever.
My mother was always worried that I would not be getting good food at Hyderabad.
But Hyderabad introduced me to my hobby -cooking
But before I begin to speak about my cooking I want to continue a bit on my experiences about food across the country.
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