Bangalore Diaries - 1

It's been a couple months since TH and I moved, lock stock and barrel, to Bangalore. The first thing that we did as soon as we landed was, of course, find great places to eat. Food helps us settle in at a new place. Since TH is busy for the most part of the week, we have to cram all our food-scouting trips into the lone Saturday each week. So far, these are the places we've visited. Some are gems, some passable - none has been outright bad. Bangalore's looking good !!

1. Habanero

This Tex-Mex place caught our fancy because a) we adore Mexican food and b) it's a 5-minute drive away.  We ordered nachos, a chipotle chicken burger and grilled chicken with salsa and cheese. The food was quite good - better than we had expected. The nachos were delicious - especially with the spicy pineapple salsa. The chicken was tender, and the chipotle burger juicy and spicy. The manager greeted us when we arrived, and our server was polite and adequately knowledgeable. All in all, good experience. P.S. - very sorry about the lack of photos on this one. Next time !

2. Hard Rock Cafe

I had been to HRC in Delhi and Mumbai and liked them both; TH hadn't had a chance to experience HRC in India yet, therefore this was an easy decision. We had to wait about 10-12 minutes for a table, and there was no seating at the bar (!!!!), but hey, it was Saturday night. We ordered a chicken burger and mac and cheese (no points for guessing which was mine). The burger was rated "ok" by TH, but it was the mac and cheese for which I'll gladly make the 40-km round-trip again. Divinely cheesy, with a crisp breadcrumb topping and generous chunks of chicken - it was one of those totally-worth-it calorie bombs that I never regret. I did end up bagging half of it (very large helping), and that's where the weirdest thing happened. Our server dumped the remainder, even as I was yelling at him not to ! He appeared to be a little high, or deaf, because I was barely a foot away from him and screaming not to drop my precious food into the dustbin. He did. The manager was gracious enough to pack another portion for me to take home, but this was the strangest experience I've had in a restaurant.

3. Nagarjuna Cafe

We had been in Bangalore for over a month now, and still hadn't set foot in an Andhra food joint. For no good reason (I love Andhra food !). So we hunted down the best-rated Andhra place, and arrived one fine evening - only to find a very limited selection of chicken dishes. On the plus side, they served their meals on banana leaves !!! Yay for authenticity ! We ordered what sounded good on the menu, and to their credit - they do justice to the dishes that they do have on the very short menu.

The fish curry was spectacular - coconutty, not too spicy, very flavorful. The chicken had us in tears and blowing our noses (and that's how I like it) - spicy, peppery and falling off the bone.

From the far left - mixed pakoras, meen moilee (fish curry), Andhra chicken and paneer tikka masala (that clearly did not belong here).

4. Taco Bell

Yes !!! Bangalore hosts India's first Taco Bell. Curiosity got the better of us - I had to compare the fare offered here to the stuff I ate back in TB's home country. We ordered 2 burritos, quesadilla, cheesy potatoes and nachos. While slightly Indian-tasting, the burritos and quesadilla were very good. The cheesy potatoes, unlike in the US, had veggies on them along with the cheese, which put me off a bit. The nachos/salsa was the biggest disappointment though - the nachos were stale, and the "salsa" was ketchup with some chopped onions and coriander. No thanks. Will return, but no more nachos for me !! 

5. Toit

Bangalore's premier craft brewery, Toit is the hangout for some of the coolest crowds in the city. It's located in an area saturated with eateries, but we still had to wait a half hour for a table on Saturday afternoon. The atmosphere is fun, relaxed and upscale, and I loved the backdrop of brewing equipment on display. We ordered a beer sampler (4 small glasses), cheesy nachos, a chicken burger (TH's order is starting to get predictable) and Banger and Mash. The beer was goooooood - we picked out our favorites to order next time - as was the burger. The nachos were ok - crisped up wedges of pita (not corn chips) with melted Amul cheese on them. Would've liked a better cheese blend - cheddar, mozzarella, bleu or American. The burger was plump and juicy. The "bangers" were plain, store-bought chicken sausages, and the "mash" quite mediocre and bland. I could've whipped this up at home, better and cheaper. Will return for the beer though !

  

                                           
6. California Pizza Kitchen

This US import, which I incidentally never sampled over there, was discovered while mall-hopping one lone Thursday. I ordered the spaghetti with tomato, garlic and basil, and boy, did that turn out to be an excellent choice !! Fresh, garlicky tomato sauce, with shredded and infused basil, beautifully grilled chicken and perfectly cooked pasta - I slurped up this one in no time ! A bit on the pricey side, but absolutely worth it. I don't know if I'll ever order anything else here. Can't get enough of this !

Honorable mentions - Chili's (old favorite), Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken (super spicy, but not exciting enough) and Krispy Kreme. KK in particular seems to score over Dunkin Donuts, for the simple fact that they have an on-site bakery, so you get fresh donuts all day. DD, however, has a central production facility that makes donuts in the morning and distributes to the store, so if you go in the evening the donuts tend to be stale. 

Anyhoo, Bangalore is now home (for the foreseeable future), and I will dig out every single note-worthy eatery here. I promise !!

Meri Maggi: A Bowlful of Memories - Part 1

Hot and soupy, straight from the pan. Cold and congealed, in a plastic lunch box. With veggies. With chopped-up boiled eggs. With ketchup (yeah !). With chicken curry. Al dente. Starchy soft. In a bowl. On a plate. Masala, Tangy Tomato, Sweet and Sour.

No matter how you liked your Maggi, everyone in India under the age of 40 has memories of it. Each one of us remembers waiting for that one day of the week when mum would oblige us with Maggi in the lunch box, or for dinner, while grumbling about its lack of nutrition. I even had a pact with my best friend - she would share her Maggi lunch with me, and I would share mine. That way, we could enjoy Maggi twice a week. Such cunning !

It's the stuff legends are made of. Dorm cafeterias and university dhabas boast of "their" way of cooking it. Hot plates and electric heaters are smuggled into hostel rooms for the sole purpose of making a (very) late snack of it. It is sustenance for the millions of hungry souls inhabiting the colleges and universities of India, and increasingly abroad. It is what I still yearn for on a rainy day (and on days when the maid fails to show up). After exhausting evenings of partying and dancing, a shared bowl of Maggi stifled the rumblings of our collective stomachs.

It's a simple food - flour noodles, and a packet of seasoning. Boil water, add noodles and seasoning, cook until soft. And to this day, I haven't managed to cook it in the stipulated "2 minutes". It usually takes me 8-10. 

But I digress. False advertising aside, Maggi delivered on its promise of being a tasty, spicy, quick and easy meal (it never claimed to be healthy, until a whole-wheat avatar was launched in 2008). While many households reserved it for an evening snack for the kids (after a vigorous game of tag), many a harried mother has given in to its temptation as full-blown dinner on days when chopping veggies, frying onions, making curry and rolling out chapattis seemed to be just way too much.

We never had much say in when and how much of it we could eat; we could salivate for weeks before the elders deemed it ok - "Chalo aaj Maggi bana lete hain". Ahhh ! The joy ! The anticipation ! The aroma wafting from the kitchen as the saucepan bubbled !

And then came college, with the inedible dorm food and the perennially broke situation. We all turned to our only savior - the only thing that remained edible no matter who made it - and we all over-did it. Maggi for lunch, dinner, and late-night snack. All week. All month. All semester. Towards the end of my 4 years was the only time in my life that I was slightly revolted by it.

To be continued........

Crunchy,spicy goodness - Magic Masala

Ahh ! Frito Lays ! The creator of The Chip - that tiny bite of crisp saltiness that gets you hooked. You can choose from a smorgasbord of flavors; some favor the plain salty, some the subtlety of sour cream, and yet others like it cheesy. 


None of those pansy-a$$ flavors for me, though. I like bold, fiery - I want my chip to kick me in the face ! In India, my staple favorite (for years) has been the Magic Masala flavor of the rippled Lays. It's been a constant companion - for studying until the wee hours in college, through the tumultuous years at the job, late night chats or books that I can't put down.


It's what I instinctively reach out for when it rains, or when I get bored of bland foods, or simply when 1 am (or 6 pm) cravings hit. It was an easy (though unhealthy) snack at work - packaged, non-perishable, cheap, and delicious. 


So you can imagine my chagrin when I discovered that my favorite blue bag had not made it to the shores of USA ! I searched desi grocery stores all over Houston and Frederick and Jersey, to no avail. Was I doomed to making do with Doritos, or having dad spend ridiculous amounts  to ship me a few bags ? 


Up until now, yes. But then...........a miracle ! We walked into the friendly neighborhood desi grocery store in Greenville, and presto ! There it was - the familiar flash of blue that had me drooling in anticipation.

I happily slapped 2 packs into our shopping cart; the husband recoiled in horror ! He knew what was coming - arriving home to a sea of crumbs, blue wrappers and a fat wife smelling of garlic and paprika. 


That's when I swore to myself I'd never let that happen. I no longer eat these by the pound; I stretch one 2-oz  bag a whole week. I now treat these calories bombs like an indulgence, not a meal. And I gargle with mouthwash afterwards. 


All is well.


Uh oh, it's 1 am..........


P.S. Some say chips go best with beer; I say nothing beats a chip chased down with a cold Thums Up (more on that later).