An Ode To A Dish!!!

Hey all u hot blooded guys out here...this is my personal ode- true limerick style- to Nigella Lawson, TV's presiding domestic godess of all things sweet and treacly. Go drool:-))

nigella's not just another TV cook
she turns heads and always gets a 2nd look
she know the way 2 a man's heart
is thru mousse, pudding and the occasional tart
but she's more edible than her cakes, in my book

Le Burp!

Le Club (pondicherry)

This is perhaps the hippest French restaurant in town, and is managed by Raj, who also manages the spiffy heritage Hotel De Pondicherry, and the much nicer( read, cheaper) Granada Garden which is his pvt property. He'll let that out to you if you're nice to him/nice to me/buy me a case of carlsberg/let me sing to you after the carlsberg.
But hey, lets not stray from his table of wonders , which is why we're here.
Le Club has got an avant garde casual look about it, but the prices are decidedly upper crust. Still, the food's good, and who cares about the odd franc or two when you can commune over Moet et Chadon ( leave the carlsberg to boors like me) in a garden among old friends, some of whom you've known for the last 5 minutes:-)
Here're sum of the culinary winners on show( at least some time back, but chances are most of the old regulars will still be on the menu)

• Bourride de poisson à la Sétoise ( its a fish thats not called wanda, but is groovy all the same as my seafood lovin friends confirm. Me....i restrict my opinion to 'she'food, but dont tell my wife please:D)
• Chateaubriand with Bearnaise sauce ( sounds good. therefore must taste good as well.)
• Norman chicken (meet the hen that conquered the saxons)
• Grilled shrimps with Basilic ( just a prawn with a bad tan)
• Fish with peas -a nice slice of saucy " Capitaine"
• Coq au vin - essentially a very drunk rooster accompanied by the culprit, a local red wine 'Bosca Cabernet Rouge'. This wine is quite strong at the first sip, but you'll soon be a nodding aquaintance. And you'll nod off very fast if you dont watch it.
The Dessert( that is if u still have the space in ur tummy/cash in ur wallet/both):
• Fondant Chocolate • Chocolate mousse • Profiteroles • Hot Lemon Cake
Hmm...now what's stopping u yobos from hittin the ECR?

Oh, what a mess!

Mylai Karpagambal Mess: Ok, if u guys think the name's a tonguetwister, wait till you check out the menu:-). This is a place with a definite ambience. But hey, ambience dont hafta mean 5 star foofah right? This place is older than my grandad, and has more wrinkles than his grandad. Its tucked away in the orthodox underbelly of Mylapore, by itself one of those quaint busy places that preceded the city of Madras. They make the some of the finest 'podi' dosas with oodles of ghee. For the uninitiated, that's a dosa where crunchy gunpowder is added halfway thru the cooking, and served hot on ur thali. Their oothappams rock too, as does their pongal/vada combo. Evenings, they also serve keera vadai and ela vadai, which essentially are vadais made with greens. The second is a vadai made by pressing batter onto a certain leaf and is supposed to be chlorophyll rich. Ideal for those who want to proclaim their eco friendly conscience by going green:-).
The piece de resistance, however, is their badam halwa, a recipe handed down over generations, without much loss. Pity it stays only a few seconds in the mouth before melting. Pity you can spend only a few minutes here, before impatient patrons conspire with 'business minded' waiters to ensure u eat fast and leave fast, so the next set of acolytes can sit and pay obeisance to Mylapore's presiding culinary deity.

The Yeast Coast Road

Ok, for this one, i'm meandering down the ECR, all the way to...Pondicherry!
The Pizza Place Under the Tree( Pondicherry): Well, ok...its actually in Auroville, and as die hard aurovillians tell u, t'aint Pondy dude:-)))
But geography apart, this place is awesome. And then some.
Just take the road adjoining the Daily Bread Bakery and go down the rickety path(aint they all rheumatic?), past the Serenity guest house( or is it gentleness or solitude...sheesh some such name), and on the left u'll find a big tree after a parched lake. Under that tree is a brick/thatch cafe run by the guys who used to cook at Aubergine, a Hotel run by some European with a brinjal mania.
They toss up a mean greek salad and salads with olives and organic blue cheese, and country style garlic bread.Toss in sum fantabulous pastas, and wood fired pizzas and u are in heaven. Just to add to the flavor are the stupendous Crepes.
These guys are the antithesis of a Fast food joint. They sure take their time, but who cares about things like time in a place like Pondy...ooops Auroville:D
Last I went was more than a year back and 4 of us had salads, pasta, bread, crepes, pizza and it worked out to 240 rupees totally. Now that's what some places charge for just the Pizza:-)
Btw, another guy down the road makes the bestest edam, camemberte, feta and other cheeses and i buy from him in qtr kg packs for a fraction of what they cost in the deptmental stores:D
Check it out folks. I guarantee u'll all be sayin 'cheese' till ur jaws ache:-)

Q) Why did the Malayali cross the border?

Ans) : To eat at KALPAKA(Royapettah), where holy cows become beef fry. Where homesick mallu boys go to savour the kinda food their grannies never made. Where homesick mallu mols go to size up the homesick mallu boyz:-). Where you'll have to jostle for space on the table, while the beef jostles for space in ur tummy with the fish fry and kappa with meen curry.
Not much fun if ur vegetarian, but if you want the most sinfully delicious beef on earth, hoof it across to this unpretentious joint. Its just off the Music Academy, towards Lloyds Road.
So all u Debo Nairs can just get dropped off at the Academy and walk those few metres to work up a head of steam.

The Italian Connection

'Bella Ciao' is a true blue Italian eatery tucked away in a lovely house on the Thiruvalluvar Nagar Beach just after Valmiki Nagar.
Run by Ciro and Tania who came down from Italy almost a decade back, this place serves authentic Italian food for those who like their pasta aldente and their antipasti with just the right infusion of herbs:-) I, personally couldnt care a fig, but this is one place where all those fancy sounding dishes actually taste good.If you're a group of 4, this would be my suggestion:-
Ditch the soup, and start with a zesty salad. Either the Baggio salad which has a kick to it, or the Al Capone which certainly does the number on ya:-)Toss in a basket of flaky, soft bruschetta with lots of garlic and olive oyl, and descend directly to the main course. Now that's a bit of a twister. What exactly is the main course? Is it the pasta, the pizza, or the meat and seafood? I'd like to suggest all three
Pizza? Do i hear u guys groan and mumble sumthing about Domino's and Pizza Hut? Banish the thought. This is the real McCoy....crisp, wholesome thin crusts slow-cooked on a traditional wood fired oven. I'd suggest the Formaggi( with 4 sinful cheeses) or the Siciliano ( the Capa di capo of pizzas)...or if u have the time and inclination, a propah Calzone.
Now we can't NOT check out their pastas. I'd suggest their vodka penne that's an 'absolut' beauty, and the Bolognese with tender lamb. Now that ur carnivorous appetite is well and truly stoked, you'd do well to move on to the Capretto al Vino, essentially lamb cooked in red wine( talk of old wine in new meat).
And with the sea literally lapping onto the verandah, it'd be a sin not to throw in some barbecued crustaceans as well. If this sounds like a mouthful,you can always burn some calories by walking down to the beach or playing 'catch' with the resident boxer or the baby donkey that romp in the garden. Now i'd like to warn some of u not to fall for the ole temptation and mutter 'nice ass' when the donkey passes and a comely lass is around. I have it from a trusted source that its been tried before, just a million times, and Tania's mom is reputedly adept at administering the spatula on errant heads:-))).
Oh, btw, they also serve some great white wine and play italian music, and if Ciro's in the mood/ hard up/both, he might arrange to take u deep sea fishing in a small catamaran.
Sea, sand, muzik, pasta...what more do u want? Paris Hilton?

Taste of Triplicane

I'm talking about Ratna Cafe. The original one, in the dingy lanes of Triplicane, sharing space with cows, goats, hens and other forms of life that you wont usually find on their menu.
Strictly vegetarian. And it has been for almost a century.This place is an ode to the humble lentil. Its a temple where the presiding deity is the Sambhar, and all else are just there to make up the pantheon.It is perhaps the only place where Idlies and Dosas are served as accompaniment to the sambhar, which, btw, is ladled out in huge mugs. Come in on a sunday morn and you'll see people of all shapes, sizes, ages and dispositions slurping away without a thought for propriety. You dont daintily pick at ur food here; you devour it with an auditory accompaniment of grunts, squeals and belches. For the faint of heart and graduates of epicurean finishing schools, this is valhalla. For those who love to eat without allowing things like table manners to come in the way, this is manna. So the next time any of you is in Chennai, and you want to check out some herbivore sanctuaries, u know where to find the Great Indian Sambhar!