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.

The incident at Sagar Veg. Restaurant

This is one of my 2-3 regular destinations for dinner. It's a tiny
restaurant, more like a "mess". They even has a wholesale rate for
dinner orders - if you buy 30 dinners in advance, you get them at 15%
off, and you can use the dinners whenever you want. The place is run
by a friendly but meek Telugu guy called Seenu, but that's not the
reason I frequent the place. They have a good Punjabi menu that goes
with their usual dinner plate, "Chinese" and South Indian dishes. It's
cheaper than the Punjabi restaurant right next door and the dishes
taste really good. They even brought back their Pav Bhaji menu as of
last night.

Last night I reached my neighborhood much earlier than I have in the
past few days, so I wanted to just pick up something and eat at home
while watching TV. So I got a pulav and while waiting for them to get
my food ready, I picked up the Telugu newspaper and started reading
it.

The big story in the paper was about these two Engg. college girls who
had acid thrown on their faces by a guy who felt he was rejected by
one of them. Since this is a family blog I won't talk about what I'd
like to do to that guy. But yeah, I was very upset and started
thinking about how some of these criminal acts get carried out with
impunity and how the guy could imagine he could get away with it. I
didn't even finish reading the story when I became aware that the
unusually loud background chatter at the restaurant was actually a
full blown argument. I looked up from the paper and there was a
sizable group standing up and arguing about something in
Hindi/Marathi. Considering that the restaurant is smaller than my
living room was in Houston, it was pretty crowded. I couldn't quite
tell what was going on but it looked like Seenu had to pay these guys
some money and there were atleast two thugs who were arguing about who
owed how much to whom. There were a couple of guys shouting, a couple
of elderly statesmen type people trying to calm everyone down, and
then the usual 5-10 onlookers who can be counted on to show up
whenever voices are raised.

There was cussing and shouting and threatening directed in various
directions and I had to try hard not to make eye contact with anyone
because they didn't seem like the type you want to make eye contact
with. Slowly the crowd moved out of the restaurant and my food
arrived. But I couldn't pay Seenu since he standing out. I tried to
ask the head waiter if I could just pay him instead and he just asked
me to pay him later. Then he went into the kitchen and closed his
door! I didn't think I was in any immediate danger, and for that
matter, I have a feeling this was a "routine" collection of
"protection money" or something, rather than a loan that Seenu didn't
repay, which I would imagine would be a much more serious issue. But I
couldn't wait to get out all the same. I was dying to ask the waiter
what exactly the matter was but I had to keep reminding myself not to
get involved into this thing. I just hope when I go to eat there
tonight the restaurant and owner are both back to normal.

Thai restaurant in Pune

After seriously craving some Thai food, I managed to find one in Koregaon Park yesterday, courtesy of some new people in met in the city. Koregaon Park is a really cool part of Pune. Very rich and flush with interesting restaurants, and from what I hear, lounges and bars. I got to see a lot of White people and "posh" Indians. I couldn't tell if they were NRIs, kids of NRIs who were visiting India or just wannabes. (Speaking of which, I actually got to see some "gangsta"-style Indian kids at the mall, complete with pants hanging below their bottoms and spiked hair etc. Wow!)

I suppose I was craving food exactly like Thai Kitchen in Austin but I was a little disappointed. Especially by the Thai Iced Tea. It has a hint of lemon in it, which I did not care for at all. We also got veggie dumplings (not great) and I got a Burmese noodle dish which was actually quite interesting. I would go there again, but with lowered expectations. Apparently there's a Native American-themed lounge in that area as well. Should be fun to see the Indian interpretation of the American Indians.

Their menu was very interesting in its design. The restaurant isn't just a Thai restaurant, they serve food from all of South-East Asia. So the left side of the menu reads like a travel guide, and actually more like a travel diary, with pictures, details of local shopping etc, and the right side is the actual menu. Reminded me of a menu I saw in a restaurant in Hyderabad a long time ago which was printed in the style of those ancient Indian texts and I loved it so much I asked the waiter to give me one of the menus to take home. He looked at me like I was weird but he gave it to me anyway. I guess I've gotten too old to pull off behavior like that anymore or I'd have asked for a copy of this menu as well.

I think I'm close to receiving visitors in Pune, now that I know a few restaurants to show as well as the touristy spots I've been to.

Decadence

The lassi from heaven. Or is it hell?

Last week as we went out to get some supplies for the lab at work, we stopped by this dinky-looking restaurant very close to work. The place looks like it serves only milk products - plain milk, lassi, ice cream etc. Apparently this place is quite famous and the guys wanted me to try this item called "Lassi, Double Malai". Malai (మీగడ) is basically cream. The stuff you get when you churn unhomogenized milk; the stuff that when you melt in a pan you get ghee.) Except this is fresh, thick, greasy cream. The stuff I can imagine Lord Krishna craving for as a kid. As fatty as you can imagine. They add two spoonfuls of this (funnily enough, the menu doesn't have a "Lassi, Single Malai") stuff to the already sweet, thick lassi. This is the equivalent of one of those enormous burgers you get at BK or McD's - it looks like it could give you a heart attack just by looking at it.

On the other hand, it's sooo good. So decadent. Even if you got a heartattack from having this stuff, you'll die with a smile on your face. They serve it to you in simple steel glass with a spoon in it. It can't be more than a 100ml of liquid in there. You dig into the malai and lick the spoon clean. Sometimes by the time you finish the malai, there's hardly any lassi left. That's how much the ratio of malai to lassi is.

If you want to be jealous of one item of food I'm eating here, this has to be it.

Veggie rule in India!!!

Well, I always knew that we get veggie food in abundance in India. But even though I read about the veggie labeling in India, it was nice to walk into a grocery store and not have to wonder if a certain product had meat/meat products in it. Ironically, my go-to restaurant for lunch is a place that serves meat along with the veggie food and cooks them all in the same vessels, hence negating the advantages of eating in India. I suppose my justification for going there is that I go there to eat the eggs which provide a little protein boost.

So this is where the weirdos are hiding - Austin in Pune

I'm sitting at this place called "German Bakery" in Pune right now.
I'm logged wdith my laptop and my USB card. I just uploaded this
picture from my phone using the bluetooth connection on my laptop. I'm
feeling really geeky right now.

I'm also feeling terribly nostalgic for Austin. This place is full of
hippies. I don't see any ashtrays or hookahs otherwise I'd assume
they're all stoned from their body language. About half of them were
non-desi (the population turned more brown in the next hour as I
stayed here). We had White, Asian folks mingling with browns. (There's
a Buddhist store right next door.) The bakery itself sells a variety
of food and drinks. There are pastries of course, omelets, salads.
Fruit juices, a bunch of exotic coffees. I just had a couple of White
chicks walk in looking very Austiny. One of them sat at the table next
to me and kissed the brown guy with the long hair on both his cheeks.
Very chaste, so definitely NOT his girfriend. And started talking some
philosophy immediately, I kept hearing the word "love" like, "This is
what love is, you love everyone. Universal love". There was a White
guy who was talking in perfect Hindi. I could go on, but you get the
idea.

And to think, I found this place by accident. It's Friday evening and
I decided I was going to find a Coffee Day and park myself there till
I felt hungry and then went in search of the closest Subway. Instead I
walked into this place by accident.

I'm so thrilled right now.

Another one McBites the McDust

It's a big week for the franchise restaurants. After Domino's, it was the turn of McDonald's. It me quite some time after McD came to India but I finally did it.

There's this big multiplex near my place and that's a very "happening" place. Young people hang out there. There's a pool table and a bunch of restaurants. This is the same multiplex that had the Subway too.
This multiplex is becoming a regular coffee shop-esque place for me. I take a book and chill there for a few hours while watching people.

At the McD's I ordered the "McVeggie". The patty looked so much like a breaded-chicken patty that I had to ask them if they were sure this was a veggie sandwich. It was basically a vegetable cutlet in a sandwich. Honestly, I prefer the Burger King Veggie Whopper that doesn't even have a patty in it but this wasn't terrible. This McC also had a value menu, with Rs. 10 ice cream cones etc. They don't give you the cup for soda and ask you to fill it yourself, obviously that can lead to misuse in India. At the same time they didn't fill up the cup with ice either. That would have brought some furious complaints from the customers.

A different Chaat

There are many days when I just have chaat for dinner. The meals plate is too much rice for the nighttime and I have to drive out for a kilometer and a half to get to the decent restaurants. And even there I have to pay more for relatively unhealthy food. So I just go to the local chaat place and have one or two items. I even tried out the mobile chaat place. I reasoned that my immune system must be pretty strong now. But as much as my body can handle the unhygenic conditions there, my brain and eyes couldn't take it and I just had to stop eating there.

Chaat here is different in subtle ways from the way it was in Hyderabad. I haven't had good Pav Bhaji here. One place smashed the hell out of the veggies and the result was a goo that had more spices the vegetables. Then there's Dabeli. I haven't tried this yet, but will do so pretty soon. Imagine pav bhaji in which the bhaji is sandwiched into the bread and then served like a burger, that's pretty much Dabeli. The bhaji is supposed to be sweeter with pomegranate seeds or grape halves sprinkled over the stuff. I'm very curious to try it out.

There was exactly one place where Pani Puri was served in the traditional style - with the guy cracking opn the shells, filling them with peas and added the juices to the shells before serving each one in your place. Instead, even the mobile places serve them all them once - lay out the puris on the plate and then fill them all at once with the fillings. Maybe it's more hygenic (less dipping of the arm into the pot of juices) or maybe it avoids the confusion over how many puris you've had. After a plate of pani puri it seems routine to ask for (and sometimes be served even without asking for) a "masala puri". This is perhaps to cleanse your palate (ha!!) after the pani puri. It's just a single shell with the boiled peas but topped off with some combo of chaat masala, sev and some optional other spices. It's basically dry. If you get two plates of pani puri you get two masala puris!

At the chaat shop near my place I asked for Sev Puri once. What I got looked a whole lot like Dahi Puri. (In Hyd, Sev Puri consisted of veggies stacked on top of a flat chip.) I asked the guy what the difference between this and Dahi Puri was. He said "More Dahi"!

Bhel puri is different too. It's tastier (more flavorful), which isn't always a good thing. Actually in general a lot of the chaat items tasted sweeter than what I'm used to. Of course, this is an ongoing experiment and my data currently is confined mostly to local places. Once I explore the other parts of Pune and try the goods there, I'll get a better idea of Pune chaat in general.

Domino dancing

Had lunch at Domino's Pizza today. For some reason I'd been really craving Subway's today (for that matter I'd been craving eating all American food) but the closest Subway to my office was still quite far away. So I settled for Domino's which was within walking distance.

I'd been expecting to pay a ton based on my first lunch in Pune. But the prices were reasonable. I got myself a "one person veggie combo" - a two-topping personal pizza with a Coke (my first Coke since I got to India I think). The toppings were seasoned panneer and onions. I thought it would be too little but it was filling enough. A little too hot for my liking but not too bad.

The best part of the whole experience was when the lady behind the counter asked me for my name. I was thrilled beyond words could describe when I could just say my real name instead of one of the many Americanized names I used to use in the US. Of course, the correct spelling of my name on my bill and the correct pronunciation with which my name was announced when my order was ready were just icing on the cake.

What was kinda unsettling to see was a box which said, "Drop your unused flakes here", referring to the pepper flakes they provide in small packets. I examined the box and either the waiters or the other customers had dropped off unopened packets of pepper flakes in there. What exactly were they doing with these? Reusing them?? I know it's unopened, but it's still gross to think that these unopened packets were in someone else's plate.

Another thing that bugged me was when after I placed my order and gave the person behind the counter a Rs. 100 note (my bill was Rs. 85) she asked me for Rs. 5 in change. And then said, "I don't have a Rs. 20 to give you back. I'll get it for you later." That pissed me off. It's one to expect that in a local restaurant. This is supposed to be a big chain and if they can't keep a good amount of change with them, that is annoying. What was worse was that after my meal I had to go to the counter myself to ask for my change and she still didn't have it! I had half a mind to yell at her.

Domino's pizza, if you're reading this, you gotta shape up.

Subway in India: Main sauce

The original plan was to eat with my dad at Subway. Except, the last two times I was in Hyderabad, something or the other kept coming up and I kept missing it. So it was going to do this in Pune.

I had to pay Rs. 10 to park my scooter in the first place to get into this place! What struck me as I looked at the menu was the all the sandwiches were 6" ones. They do have footlongs but they're hidden somewhere in the menu, I had to search for them.

I ordered a Panner Tikka sandwich. It's made similar to the chicken sandwich, where they have seasoned pieces of Panner in small cups and they microwave them and put them in the sandwich. Another thing I learned is that most people just add all the fixins on their sandwiches. Makes sense, Indian being cheap would ask, "What can I get for no extra charge?" and go ahead and add everything they can.

After added the veggies, the guy asked me, "What sauce sir?" So I asked him if he had any Chipotle sauce. He said he didn't. So I was looking at the sauces and he says, "Would you like to have some main sauce sir?" I looked at him, "Main sauce, what's in the main sauce?"
"It's main sauce sir. It comes with the sandwich."
"Yeah I know, but what's in the main sauce."
Now it was his turn to stare at me.
"Sir, with the Paneer sandwich the regular sauce is the main sauce."

This was rapidly turning into an Abbot and Costello routine. Finally I looked at the sauce and it was green in color. "Do you mean MINT sauce?" I asked him.
"Yes sir."
"OK! I'll have some of that."

"OK sir, any more sauces?"
"What do you have?"
"We have Southwest sauce."
"What?? I just asked you if you had Chipotle sauce."
"Yes sir, this is like Chipotle sauce."
I didn't want to argue anymore about how the name of the sauce is "Southwest Chipotle". So I just asked him to pack it up. Interestingly he packed the two halves of the footlong in seperate packages. Like it was inconceivable to him that any one person would eat the whole footlong.

Hmm, maybe that's a sign.

Gulab Jamun and Paan

We had a visitor from the Houston centre at work and he wanted to present a few ideas on the direction of the group.

(I work in a team of four engineers, who in turn work for a group called Baroid, which is one of the many groups (PSLs) in the company.)

So anyway, we had a big group meeting. And you know how in the US you have either doughnuts or pizza for meetings like that. We had Gulab Jamun at this meeting! I couldn't stop smiling. A very nice touch.

For lunch I've been eating out of the delivered lunch boxes that we get. Thing is, they've been getting unreliable - they don't always arrive in boxes, the sometimes come in bigger containers that we have to serve ourselves out of and they were late one day which just isn't acceptable. So the canceled the boxes ("dabbas"). I found out from a colleague about nearby lunch options and he took me on a walk to a couple of places. It was a pretty decent meal for less. I even had egg after a long time. As we were waiting for the others to finish, I spied a Paan shop close by. I just couldn't resist it. Paan after lunch at work! So I had one made - boy, did he put a lot of effort into making a good paan! - and chewed it on the way back to work.

There's a "naturopathy" treatment centre there. They offer lunch/dinner as well. Am I going to be trying out that place? You bet!