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"

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.