The South Indian Mess

Did you know the word "Mess" as it applies to a place where you eat, has its roots in the military? Fascinating!

During a conversation with a friend who lived in Pune, I mentioned that I was craving proper S. Indian food, especially the Tamil-style food where you get heaps of rice and buckets of sambar. Telugu people eat their curries, dals and sambars with rice, Tamilians on the other hand (atleast the ones I've met) first mix sambar into rice and then eat their curries and dals with this rice. It's like sambar rice replaces plain rice as a base. And I loved eating like this when I was in IIT. It was delicious but more importantly it was fast. I ate my meals during lunch time in less than 10 mins, leaving about 20-30 mins for a quick nap before the afternoon classes.

So my friend gave me directions to this S. Indian mess hall. I followed his directions (Hospital, Temple, Mess Hall) all the way up to the Temple but as I stopped my scooter and looked around, I couldn't find the mess hall, and frankly I felt it would be silly to ask them for "a South Indian mess hall" both because it would be too generic and because it might piss off some people.

At this point, while I was driving up and down looking up at the buildings, I heard a group of guys speaking Tamil! I figured these guys would definitely know what I was looking for but again, I didn't feel like asking them. So instead I reasoned that since it was lunch hour, these guys might be headed to the same location I was, so I just followed them! And my hunch was right. Soon I saw a sign that read "South Indian Mess".

The food was exactly as I had imagined it. I would have preferred a different curry but that's just nitpicking. Ultimately I was licking the sambar off my fingers before going to wash them, and that should tell you how happy I was to be eating there. It might become a regular thing for me, let's see.

Meanwhile, I also got the 4-1-1 on a Tyagaraja Tribute coming up in Jan. Good Sunday.