Food and thoughts...

Am fond of good food. In this "avarekai" season(Wikipedia says avarekalu is called hyacinth beans in English), tasted a lot of avarekalu dishes - avarekalu usli, averekalu uppittu, avarekalu chitranna and what not made of avarekalu! Enjoyed. :)

Yesterday happened to have some yummy sea food. Have you tried squid before? It tastes somewhat like prawn. I was initially hesitant to lift the lid of the dish and see how it looks (lol!), then it looked quite good :) It went well with appam. Try it sometime.

I have been having sea food for months now. Having been a vegetarian all my life, and taken to eating seafood(I cant say meat so easily, btw I eat only sea meat, so seafood is surely a better word! :P) from about a year or so, I still have a lot of hiccups seeing it like plain food. I went to this Matyadarshini Aquarium in Vizag recently, there were many kinds of fishes on display - they were quite beautiful.And after that, I could not bring myself to eat fish for a couple days! Funny, isnt it!

Thindi Beedi (ತಿಂಡಿ ಬೀದಿ )...

There is a famous street in V V Puram, Bangalore called “Thindi Beedi”(which means food street in Kannada). This is a must visit place for any food lover. Went yesterday evening there and it was crowded as usual. The shops are quite small and there is a crowd almost outside every shop. There are some temples also on the road. It is not a long stretch, but you get lots of chaats and “thindi”s  there. Bajjis, bondas, pakodas, all kinds of chaats – Bhel puri, pani puri, masala puri, cutlet chaat etc, variety of dosas, rottis, desi cool drinks like masala lime soda and the list is just endless. I regret not taking a picture as the post idea occurred much later. 

Chaat burger!

We were walking around Joshimath. There was this big copper colour container tilted in a weird angle, such that its big base was visible. It was placed inside a mobile cart with tomatoes, onions, chilies, lemons at the base of the standing vessel. Was very curious - it was most definitely some kind of eatery, but what? Could not find the vender. I was hoping we come back on the same road, and we did. It was a "chaat burger" stall! The vendor had all the veggies- onions, chilies, tomatoes, boiled potatoes and channa ready. He mixed them all with some masala and lemon in the big copper container to make a tangy, spicy saucy mixture, slit the bun and filled it with this. Every bite was surprisingly delicious! hmmmmm yummmm!

The mobile tea shop!

It was a busy, narrow, winding lane of Rishikesh, on either sides there were small shops selling all kinds of things - jewelry, clothes, bags, books, items of religious significance like rudraksh etc. I noticed a tea vendor serving tea. What was different was how he was preparing tea freshly as he moved along and served both shop keepers and their clients alike! He had a covered kerosene stove on top of which he had placed a kettle of milk. There was another plastic bucket in which he kept his milk can, disposable tea cups, tea powder packet and a container along with a filter to prepare and serve the hot tea. The tea tasted very good. His shop was amazingly mobile and was a good business idea compared to the stagnant shops. Given the fact that the streets were quite narrow, a mobile tea shop works thoroughly well for some of those lanes of Rishikesh. 

Food tips for myself

1.Drink plenty of water. Especially when angry, help yourself for a glass of water("Gussa pele", like in Chak De!)
2.Drink milk for stronger hair and bones.
3.Have green tea whenever you feel like having coffee or tea.
4.Whenever you get lots of chocholates, share them, good for the heart and the waistline!

Food show...

I like this show called "Highway on my plate" on NDTV goodtimes. Its hosted by two food loving guys Mayur and Rocky. I like their sense of humor. These guys dont go to posh looking restaurants and give you their take on the cuisine there. They travel on highways, get lifts from trucks, carts and any other means of transport available and take the viewers to the dhabas, hotels and street side food shops. It may not be the best food. I dont know what attracts me to watch the show. Given the fact that I have some reluctance for road side food(yeah, may be because I studied biology till twelfth) it seems very interesting to see the road side food shops. Of these guys one is a vegetarian - Mayur and the other is a "pure" non vegetarian - Rocky. From what I gather from watching the show they have known each other for a long time now, a few decades in fact. They share a great rapport which makes the show fun to watch. I have a strong feeling there is no script as such for the show. They also show some interesting places like a palace or fort or the market place, whatever is famous in that particular city/town. There were some episodes in busy market place where they are selling chaats or sweets. They talk to the locals and ask them where they love eating and sometimes go there as well. The places visited are not based on whether they are small or big enough. Its just whatever comes up next on that highway which has some "good" food on offer - or thats what it looks like! There could be some obvious connection between the highways, trucks, food and travel,humour and me! Thats what makes me watch it I guess!