lunch

L’Antica in the French Quarter of Pondicherry

L’Antica in the French Quarter of Pondicherry

Blog, Food and Drink

I wrote this on 1 March, 2019.

Coming to Pondicherry after 3 years, I find that the French quarter is home to many more pizzerias than ever before! There is one on every other street, its cozy interiors welcoming hungry souls in.

We were walking along Mission Street looking for a place to lunch in, when we spotted this joint. We were actually heading somewhere else, but the heat was maddening and our feet, wobbly.
In we dove therefore and 20 minutes later, found these in front of us. A medium pizza fetched us a small one free, hahaha.

Made in a wood-fired oven, each pizza was a succulent circle of cheese and vegetables, ringed by a crisp thin crust. The pizzas were biggish, the cheese fresh and the toppings, generous. As always, my family gave up along the way and it was left to me to finish them off.

L’Antica opened to customers three months ago. If you are looking for superb pizza and pasta in this part of town, you should check this out.

L’Antica on Mission Street, French Quarter, Pondicherry.

Note: I paid for this meal from my wife’s pocket! 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A simple lunch on a country road

A simple lunch on a country road

Blog, Food and Drink

I wrote this on 2 March, 2019.

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One of the joys of eschewing the highway and taking interior roads is the chance of discovering small, basic restaurants serving tasty local food.

Which is why we took the Chengam-Tiruvannamalai road to Pondy. We stopped for lunch at Ananda Bhavan, perhaps half a kilometer down the road from Ramanashramam in Tiruvannamalai. I had to have three helpings of everything on the plate (except for the greenery you see in that bowl) – so good was the food. The meal cost us Rs. 80/- a plate. Definitely worth a halt the next time I come this way.

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My date with millets.

My date with millets.

Blog, Food and Drink

I wrote this review on 7 March, 2019.

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The bisibele bhath, idlis, vada and kesari bhath looked just like the regular fare dished out at any Bangalore darshini. But there was nothing regular about them. They were all made from millets.

Lunch today was dedicated to the goodness and yummyness of millets. This was the first time I was sitting down to a multi-course millet meal. This lunch had been on the cards for the past four months. But since my friend and I had been keeping hectic travel schedules, we kept postponing this. Until today.

Siri Dhanya Upahara Darshini is a small restaurant near Coles Park in Bangalore East, that specialises in millet-based food. Spread over a small ground floor room and two rooms on the first floor, it is a bungalow repurposed into a restaurant. The decor is functional, though aesthetic. Service is attentive, yet non-intrusive. The food is tasty and filling, with the cooks doing a good job of blending millets in, without sacrificing texture or flavour. Moreover, they had shown restraint with the sugar in the kesari bhath (unlike in most of our other eateries).

The menu is similar to that of the typical Bangalore darshini. But most of the dishes are made from millets. While we had the dishes I mentioned earlier and a cup of coffee, I kept stealing glances at the tempting thali that was being devoured at another table. I have made a mental note to have that on my next visit.

The bill drew a mild gasp from us, because it was less than Rs. 200/-!

I understand that this restaurant is really popular amongst the local populace and pulls in a number of regulars. Thankfully, it was quiet when we went; so, we could yap as we ate. 

If you live anywhere close to Central or East Bangalore, this is a place worth checking out.

What we had:
Kodo millet bisibele bhath
Ragi dosa
Foxtail millet idlis and vada
Little millet kesari bhath

Siri Dhanya Upahara Darshini, Promenade Road, near Santosh Hospital, Coles Park.

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A summery affair

A summery affair

Blog, Food and Drink

With its excellent food and cheery decor, Cafe Monet is a good place for European delights and cold, summery drinks.

I wrote this review on 13 March, 2019. 

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Lunch today was a delightful, summery affair at Bistro Monet on 80 Feet Road, Indira Nagar.

My friend had a smoked chicken salad, followed by a mutton kheema and mint chutney sandwhich (made with a croissant), while I chose a ‘caramelised onion and mushroom sandwich’ (made with brioche). We had the lemongrass lemonade to go with the food.

The smoked chicken salad was (I am quoting my friend) ‘light, flavoursome and comforting’. The bright colours of the salad made for a wonderfully textured and calming visual.

The mushroom and onion sandwich was my indulgence of the week. I normally have a light lunch, or I find that my tummy goes to sleep taking all my senses in its wake. 😀
But the gooey cheese, the mildly crisp onions and well-cooked mushrooms combined to more than overcome my guilt of indulging. At least, this was a bloody tasty meal!
The butter-glazed brioche was so shiny I thought I could see my face in it. Sprinkling some chilli flakes into the sandwich added some oomph to it.

The mutton kheema and mint chutney sandwich was a hit too. My friend oohed and aahed his way through it, which is a big deal for him. The meat was cooked well and spiced just right. The tang of the mint chutney was a good foil for the spice of the meat. The puff pastry was fluffy and light, with just a hint of crunch in its flakes.

While all this action was going on, the lemongrass lemonade was trying its best to keep our palate calm (it did succeed to some extent!). Anyway, it managed to bring our temperatures down by a few degrees.

Bistro Monet has cheery interiors that are easy on the eye – the walls have bare sections alternating with sections that have framed food photos put up. Wooden tables go well with the light chairs and sofas. The well-lit counter and kitchen added life to the place.

I particularly liked the area just outside the door, which is lined with plants and had a lovely wooden bench.

Given all this, the prices came as a surprise. Our bill came to just Rs. 778/-, including a second mutton sandwich, that my friend took home.

An interesting addition to the cafe map of Indira Nagar, Monet stands for great food, good service, superb prices and a warm, breezy vibe. This cafe delivers on every count.

Note: We paid for the food and drinks.

Bistro Monet, near CV Raman General Hospital, 80 Feet Road, Indira Nagar, Bangalore.

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An Old Favourite

An Old Favourite

Blog, Food and Drink

Treat Restaurant in Indiranagar has been serving delicious North Indian food for 25 years! Its quality has remained the same throughout.

I wrote this piece on May 2, 2018.

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Last afternoon, we went to Treat, an old favourite, for lunch. I started going to this restaurant 10 years ago when I first moved to Bangalore. Treat was just a lazy stroll from my office. Since then, I have kept going back to it – perhaps twice a year – even though I don’t work in that area.

Every time I go there, I find the food same and different at the same time, if you get what I mean. This is one of the hallmarks of a great eatery: that the food has the zing of freshness every single time, even while the ingredients and cooking style remain unchanged. It is a tough job to make the familiar seem fresh each time to customers, but Treat has managed to do it for so long.

In the pictures are paneer makhanwala khaas, jeerewalaey aloo, masala anda (chopped tomatoes and onions drizzled on slices of boiled eggs), a basket of small-sized assorted rotis (naans, lachcha parathas, methi roti, plain rotis and kulchas) and a tray containing those essential accompaniments of any North Indian meal – pudina chutney, diced raw onions and pickle.

NOT in the pictures are our groaning tummies and smiling faces. 🙂

In speaking to the owner Mr. Pramod Chaudhry, I learnt that his family hails from Peshawar, migrating to India during Partition. He is an old hand in the hospitality industry, having worked abroad for a while and with Taj Mansingh in Delhi. At the Taj, he learnt from master-chefs who hailed from Lucknow and other places in the North. How well he learnt from them is evident from the rich, authentic flavours of the food served at Treat.

Masalas hand-ground on a mortar and pestle, paneer that is flown down from Delhi twice a week, recipes created by Mr. Chaudhry himself and warm service are just some of the small touches that add up to the Treat experience, overall.

Definitely a case of the sum of the parts being greater than the whole.

Sidelights: 1) Framed posters of Hindi films, photos of Ravi Shankar and Mohammad Rafi and a recreation of ‘the Indian life’ on one of the walls accentuate the Indianness of the restaurant subtly.

2) Check out the framed menu card hung on the wall. This is the very first menu the restaurant offered, when it opened in 1993: a priceless nugget from the past. Interestingly, the restaurant offered pizzas and sandwiches for a while, before setting cozily in its niche of authentic North Indian food.

 

P.S. We paid for the food ourselves, though we were given a 25% discount (because Treat turns 25), since I am a member of an online group of food-lovers. I have written this review of my own volition.

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