Thursday 30 August 2007

My favourite food joints in Chennai

I have been in Sweden for more than 3 weeks now and already started feeling homesick. I think i need to be specific here. I have started feeling foodsick. I am missing the garlic rasam that my father makes when i am at home, my wife's chappathis and north indian sidedishes and similarly my favourite food joints in chennai. So, the essence of this blog is to post a list of my favourite food joints in chennai. Here, it goes:

1.Night kadai opposite to brilliant tutorials in Masilamani Street, T.Nagar, Chennai. The podi dosai is so famous here and the sambhar taste has no words to describe. And very cost effective too. 2 idlis, 1 podi dosai and 1 sambhar vadai should cost you 28 rupees.

2.Mami's soups in Station Road, West Mambalam. Soup of the day costs Rs.6 and all other soups Rs.5. Very good taste.

3.Manikandan sundal kadai in Bakthavatsalam Street, West Mambalam, Chennai. The prices are a little bit on the higher side and the quality is not great but the combos he provides is what makes the place tick. You can try sundal/molaga bajji with a pinch of chilli powder and lemon added to it or you can try sundal/potato bonda combo or sundal/samosa. I am a favourite of the chinna molaga bajji that is made here. The shop is usually crowded between 6-8p.m in the evenings.

Listening to Haridwaramangalam Palanivel spl.thavil for ramanavami festival after a plate of sundal/molaga bajji and 2 potato bondas during April in Ayodhya Mandapam is a connoisseur's delight. :-)

4.If you come from Lake View Road in West Mambalam and take a left to doraiswami subway you can see a sundal kadai on your right. No shop name and all that but all the items are good here. My favourite is molaga bajji fry.

5.Sundal shop next to Sarada Vidyalaya, Panagal park. All items only Re.1 and Sundal costs Rs.3. Very good taste.

6.Chappathi shop opposite to Deluxe Tea bar in Thambaiah Road, West Mambalam. Run by a north indian and is a very good place for hot chappathis in the evening. You can see a lot of bachelors in the evening trying to munch a few chappathis on the way back from work.

7.Hot chappathis in Nanganallur opposite to Roja Medicals. Place to try different types of Chappathis like Alu, Onion, Gobi, Panner, Raddish etc. They provide dal and Sabji as sidedish. Only problem is the owner who will always ask for change(even when u eat for Rs.90 and give Rs.100, he will ask for change) and keep on saying not to park vehicles near the shop entrance.

8.Sundal kadai run by a marwari near Rangarajapuram railway gate. The chilli bajji is typical north indian since they do it with a filling that comprises of potato masala, onions and some more vegetables. Golgoppa is of superior taste and for me, it resembles the one that i get in Kolkata near my wife's house.

9.Bajji shop located on the east entrance of Kapali koil, Mylapore. You can get different types of bajji here. Close to this you have a tiffin centre that is run inside a house where you get "Arisi Upma" in the evenings. They also have Dosai and Adai and they cost Rs.3 each.

10.Bajji Shop in Radha Nagar main road, Chromepet. Run by two brothers, you can get different types of bajji here. The onion chutney sidedish is too good.

There are so many places apart from this but i want so share them in a different blog after some time.

2 comments:

VS.Senthil said...

Amazing narration with mild touch of losing those things presently. I'm sure, in our dictionary, synonym of gourmet will point to you as live example(hope gokula too agree to this). Your kindling words really drives me immediately to those 'Kaiyendhi bhavans'(KB). Got strucked by the narration of arisi uppama kaadi along with namma mylai bajji kadai. Truly, a good narration of famous KBs around chennai.
In fact, it takes me to nostalgia of our good times in those shops (myself came with you to 5 out of 10 KBs)

Anonymous said...

Oh my God!! Vasu, you are really rubbing the salt on my wounds, as Mr.Gokul said. Its really sad for people, who survive with Pizzas and Burgers, to read this. Neways, good one :) Kudos to u'r gourmet taste..
And one more trivial suggestion - the blog template u guys are using is a li'l too difficult to read for long. My eyes take some time to read anything in the comments page, after looking at the black main page. Just a thought!