Tag: food

Jowar Roti Meals at Kamat

(Image credit: flickr user chocolate geek)

Went to Kamat Swad over the weekend. I had tried the Jowar Meals here before (well I had tried it at Kamat Bugle Rock), but the wife had not tried it before .This is one type of meals that is worth trying atleast once. My review of Kamat Swad and the Jowar Meals:

  • Excellent ambience – 3rd floor of Kamat Swad .
  • Directions: From Sony World Junction, Koramangala, drive towards BDA Koramangala. You will see a Panasonic show room on the left. Make an Uturn immediately. The Kamat is the second building on the left, once you make the U-Turn
  • Despite being the top floor, the A/C was tuned beautifully to be at the perfect temperature – not too cold, not too hot. Both the wife and me had the exact same comparison – it felt like being under a tree.
  • The 3rd floor serves only Jowar Meals. But I did see a family in the next table, for whom, the waiter had brought Idly from the first floor for the baby. Good customer service, Kamat. Keep it up. There are some hotels, who just go overboard with their rules.
  • The meal is served on a clean banana leaf.
  • Awesome buttermilk is served initially, and also topped up.
  • A dhokla type appetizer and toasted papad is served.
  • A few leaves – I have no idea what leaves – are served. Peer pressure made me swallow my pride and swallow the leaves as well 🙂
  • The main meal starts off with Holige (for the tamil folk – this is our traditional poli ; and for the Maharashtrians, this is the Puran Poli). Awesome stuff, especially with the generous spoon of ghee 🙂
  • 3 gravies and one raita are served. 2 of the gravies are legume based – sprouts, channa, peanuts etc. This brings out the similarity in food between the North Karnataka regions, and Maharashtra. There is one egg-plant based gravy. The gravy was consumed with gusto, and the eggplant was gingerly kept aside (I hate eggplant!!).
  • The star of the show obviously is the super soft Jowar roti’s that are served. A small cube of butter is initially put on the roti. You can ask for more if you want. But the roti’s keep coming, and coming .. until you say STOP. 🙂
  • Then white rice is served. And Sambar, Rasam, and curds.
  • An ice-cream with fruit-salad is the finisher.
  • The above is the special meal. The difference between the special and regular meal is that the special meal has the poli, and ice-cream etc.
  • Service is Ok. As regular readers would note, our bar was not quite met. We had to ask for refill of water.
  • Even before we were finished, the bill and 2 bananas (wierd combination) were brought and kept at our table. I guess that was an indirect suggestion to scoot.
  • Reasonably priced meal (Rs 160 per person)

Pav Bhaji Pasta

When it comes to food, the wife and I are both passionate and adventurous. So R came up with this brilliant idea last weekend – Pav Bhaji Pasta.

  

Click on images for larger pics

 1. Cook pasta the usual way (boil in water with a few drops of olive oil and salt until Pasta is cooked and soft).

2. Make Pav Bhaji the way you like (or just google for Pav Bhaji Recipe)

3. While the Pav Bhaji is simmering, add the pasta, and toss.

4. Garnish with grated cucumber, finely cut coriander (or whatever entices you).

5. Optionally add grated cheese.

Casa Piccola – Koramangala

Last week, I picked up something to eat from Casa Piccola in Koramangala. I have heard about this joint for quite some time. Following is a terse review from me:

  • Ambience is mixed. When I say it is mixed, it is both sparse and nice at the same time. The entrance is gloomy. The insides are spacious. The tables are nice, and have some western paraphernalia embedded in them (not to ask what connection western american influence has on Italian cuisine).
  • Two days a week, an old gentleman comes and sings country music (again American western music vs italian?? But then I guess it is difficult to get Opera singers!)
  • After you get out of the puzzled look trying to figure out the musical connection, the music is actually pretty nice. All about y’all getting on the horse, and going for the bounty, and the lady came home, and there was soup on the table, etc etc. Typical country music.
  • Lastly, the food is not spectacular. I ordered the Pasta Primevera – supposedly their speciality – and I was not impressed ;-(.
  • Disclaimer is that — a team mate of mine says that the food in Casa Piccola Indira Nagar is better than the one in Koramangala – But I am not willing to bet my money again.


Worlds best Masala Dosa and Vada Sambar – CTR and Janata

My wife and I are proper foodies. We just love food – any food (anything vegetarian that is). The facilities/admin manager at my workplace knows that -since I am probably the only guy who goes and thanks him for the good free food we get 🙂 Anyways, he has been telling me of a couple of really old food joints in one of the core kannadiga-heartlands of Bangalore – Malleswaram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleshwara ). It is where True Bangalore lives. Beautiful, breezy, clean, no pollution. Nice. Anyways, getting back to food, He had mentioned two joints, each famous for different things.

The first was CTR – Central Tiffin Room, aka CTR. Apparently the name board alone has changed to Sree Sagar. Why do I say – apparently? Because the new name board is written fully in Kannada as well. So I would not have realized it either ways. My dear manager friend had given me spot-on directions, to reach the place, and even where to park (opposite side of the road – near the ground periphery – the cops ticket you if you park on the hotel road). But he had not mentioned how big/small it was. If you are going there for the first time, I am pretty sure, you will miss the hotel in the first go (like we did). But ask anyone, they will point you to the hole-in-the-wall entrance.


                                         You will defenitely miss it, if you do not know how to read Kannada.


                                            The worlds best butter masala dosa (benne masala dose).

Once the dosa had been gulped down, it was time to go to the second joint that my manager friend had recommended – Hotel Janata – famous for its Vada Sambar. You need to walk down to eigth cross for this (CTR is in 7th Cross). It is but a 10 minute walk. It is difficult to miss this hotel though. English name board and prominently displayed too.

                                                                              Hotel Janata

                                                             The worlds best vada sambar.

All in all, what started off as a ‘what-the-he**, let us just try these places today’ morning, became a wonderful morning spent on delectable kannadiga good.

*BURP*. I mean *AMEN*, I mean *Thathaasthu* :=)