I know I havent lived in Bangalore long enough to comment on its food scene, but the past twelve months' experience qualifies me to hazard one...
long ago and not so long ago, Bangalore and it's counterpart Hyderabad used to abound in what were called the Kamats and Shanbhags... those remnants of a beautiful era gone by, and sad, they have to be addressed as remnants... where men in white who waited the tables were more than anything else, smartly and neatly dressed and by the virtue of which were qualified to wait the tables... ask those Murthys, Sharmas, Mantripragadas, Rangaswamys, Raos and those dozens of Kannada, Telugu Brahmins who swore by it and by those tumblers of filter coffee... these places were the perfect addresses for the old world charm which is an oasis now... the chutneys and sambars would be gorged and gulped by gallons and these good men were only too happy to refill those perfect round vessels every time they went dry... the tables were clean and simple... no frills no jazz, and sometimes the better off ones in slightly upmarket areas were well cushioned... but all in all simplicity was the theme... this extended to the lighting as well... these were also the addresses for a few maddos like us of K-Circle, whose BBbath guzzling activities were meant to be witnessed... Quite sadly these are disappearing from the scene... they are far and few between in Hyderabad and it isnt much different in Bangalore... while a few Kamats can be spotted, Shanbhags, I fear are dinosaurs now... Masala Dosas would never appear that perfect brown, and roasted to perfection... or wait!
Circa '96 and '97....Bangalore was witnessing a mini revolution which later took Hyderabad by storm... these guys from northern Karnataka simply rewrote the rules what with their Darshinis and Sagars... get in Shiv, Sukh, Krishna, Sudha, Mayura to add to the names and more often than not you had names of the hotels that were literally a combination of any of these with darshinis and sagars as the tail... kind of incestuous, I must add... others stood up to their success stories, and quite literally... out went the chairs and the tables... people had to make do with round tables and some of which were attached to the walls, albeit in different shapes!!! you were the king if you could elbow your way out into the middle and find a place for yourself... the focus was on fast food(no, not the food we have come to associate that phrase with), okay quick food... where there was no time to reminisce the good days of The Indian Express or the Sudha Raghunathan concert at RangaShankara... eat and leave!... the prices were competitive and one didnt mind loosening the wallets for one got one's money's worth... quite a fatal blow to relatively high brow Kamat brethren, who came at a premium... the other aspect that interested a lot of folks was the fact that most of the fare was made could be witnessed, barring a few exceptions... again more often than not the focus was on cleanliness and promptness...
they were big enough to accommodate the Aryan food as well and may be, just may be the success of these places could be attributed to this...
somewhere in between were squeezed the small time players, who faded slowly into oblivion... these were the Gururajs and Raghavendras and the like... these were characterised by huge sign boards with huge embossed name plates adorning the entrances... these led to the cash counters that stocked apart from the obvious, a pack of Bournvita, a small charity box, a small case loaded with vadas and Mysore Paks... not to forget, the huge Raghavendra Swamy laminations that decorated the walls with their multicolored serial lights... they could be regarded as the poor man's Kamats and catered to the basic instincts of their clientele, culinary of course... they can still be spotted in small towns, mostly temple towns... wooden tables with flat perfectly rectangular uncushioned sofas, typified these joints...
no elaborate menus, the options were limited and could be rattled off by the waiter faster than the TGV...
the general feel that I get about Bangalore is that here people love to eat out... and I repeat, Bangaloreans love to eat out... there is absolutely no reason required for them... a general feel good factor prevails about this eating out phenomenon... men and women in all sizes and shapes and all counts of teeth come out and simply enjoy themselves... and it doesnt bother them if they have ordered Upittu or a Rava Dosa or a Kara Bath or a Chow Chow Bath for the evening, something which they would have eaten the same morning at their own places... and which by no means is a speciality for them... the feel good factor also percolates right down to the food and the decor... the biggest draw is the way food is served on a banana leaf that just takes the gastronomic experience to altogether a different level... right time for this? quite obviously the breakfast time... the food is almost always served in the most perfect manner and the visual satisfaction cannot be discounted... the decorations and the embellishments are all trademark Bangalore, to the extent of serving a bhelpuri with coconut gratings and groundnuts... the Grant Road, Matunga, Mahalakshmi, Dadar citizens would die of a heart attack...
ignore the carts that sprout as the dusk sets in and that rule late into the night at your own risk... take them for no dingy places... they serve the most sumptuous and quite surprisingly neat fare that you could lay your hands on... and may be these dudes want themselves to be taken seriously for their prices are quite high... end result? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... the civics, the wagon-Rs, the altos in the bylanes of Jayanagars and Malleswarams would vouch for that... car seva anyone?
then there are the Little Italys, the Mast Kalandars, the Grameens, the Olive Orchards, the Civets of JP Nagars, Indiranagars, Koramangalas, and the ITPLs... these are essentially heavy on your purse and that goes without saying... each one tries to carve a space for itself in the junta's minds with food that is meant to be different, esoteric at times...
tucked away in those little pockets of Bangalore are also the ghee stores that double up as idli vada stalls and like I said they are meant to be ghee stores that also sell coffee powder... quite mindboggling... items of breakfast double up as the savories for snack time with a few changes here and there... so dont be surprised if you find Janaki Hegdes or Prashant Gowdas ordering idlis at 6.00 in the evening something which would be met with a chee chee in Hyderabad ( "aur kuch nahi mila be khaane ku... item yeh kya khaara re... item hai kya"), a phenomenon Bangalore can afford to call its won... Madras comes close, I reckon...
Bangalore is not short of any Andhra style chains that probably would have made more moolah here than what they would have in their native... the non-veg delicacies served at Mayuras, Bheemas and Nandinis are touted to be part of folklore out here...
speciality ice cream shops that whip up the best of cold stuff money could buy here and with zany names attached to them, could be found at places deemed important...
messes both North Indian style and the southern could be easily spotted and my theory on how to spot and differentiate a North Indian customer from his southern counterpart all by just the eating habits with a special note on the Bengal species will form another post... coming soon
cuisines from all corners of the globe find themselves represented at some do or the other in Bangalore and speciality restaurants aren't any less...
all in all Bangalore is a paradise for gourmets and gourmands alike, quite a far cry from my Hyderabad (sad to say that as we do not want to budge from the plates that serve biryani and khubani ka meetha) dishing out stuff for all ages, colors, purses and ultimately doing best in what it can... keep up the feel good factor...
Red Herring: the diameter of the Masala Dosa is shrinking by the day out here and at a rate faster than my girth size... while I see my girth shrink stop at a point, the Masala Dosa refuses to stop, quite disproportionately to the cost... be warned, my dear budd from Ypsilanti, these round small wonders threaten to disappear before I count all odd numbers from 1 to 10 starting with 3, and remember, you read it here first... trust me, next time you come down here you shall be treated to such fantastic fare, you will refuse to leave these shores again, maa kasam...
long ago and not so long ago, Bangalore and it's counterpart Hyderabad used to abound in what were called the Kamats and Shanbhags... those remnants of a beautiful era gone by, and sad, they have to be addressed as remnants... where men in white who waited the tables were more than anything else, smartly and neatly dressed and by the virtue of which were qualified to wait the tables... ask those Murthys, Sharmas, Mantripragadas, Rangaswamys, Raos and those dozens of Kannada, Telugu Brahmins who swore by it and by those tumblers of filter coffee... these places were the perfect addresses for the old world charm which is an oasis now... the chutneys and sambars would be gorged and gulped by gallons and these good men were only too happy to refill those perfect round vessels every time they went dry... the tables were clean and simple... no frills no jazz, and sometimes the better off ones in slightly upmarket areas were well cushioned... but all in all simplicity was the theme... this extended to the lighting as well... these were also the addresses for a few maddos like us of K-Circle, whose BBbath guzzling activities were meant to be witnessed... Quite sadly these are disappearing from the scene... they are far and few between in Hyderabad and it isnt much different in Bangalore... while a few Kamats can be spotted, Shanbhags, I fear are dinosaurs now... Masala Dosas would never appear that perfect brown, and roasted to perfection... or wait!
Circa '96 and '97....Bangalore was witnessing a mini revolution which later took Hyderabad by storm... these guys from northern Karnataka simply rewrote the rules what with their Darshinis and Sagars... get in Shiv, Sukh, Krishna, Sudha, Mayura to add to the names and more often than not you had names of the hotels that were literally a combination of any of these with darshinis and sagars as the tail... kind of incestuous, I must add... others stood up to their success stories, and quite literally... out went the chairs and the tables... people had to make do with round tables and some of which were attached to the walls, albeit in different shapes!!! you were the king if you could elbow your way out into the middle and find a place for yourself... the focus was on fast food(no, not the food we have come to associate that phrase with), okay quick food... where there was no time to reminisce the good days of The Indian Express or the Sudha Raghunathan concert at RangaShankara... eat and leave!... the prices were competitive and one didnt mind loosening the wallets for one got one's money's worth... quite a fatal blow to relatively high brow Kamat brethren, who came at a premium... the other aspect that interested a lot of folks was the fact that most of the fare was made could be witnessed, barring a few exceptions... again more often than not the focus was on cleanliness and promptness...
they were big enough to accommodate the Aryan food as well and may be, just may be the success of these places could be attributed to this...
somewhere in between were squeezed the small time players, who faded slowly into oblivion... these were the Gururajs and Raghavendras and the like... these were characterised by huge sign boards with huge embossed name plates adorning the entrances... these led to the cash counters that stocked apart from the obvious, a pack of Bournvita, a small charity box, a small case loaded with vadas and Mysore Paks... not to forget, the huge Raghavendra Swamy laminations that decorated the walls with their multicolored serial lights... they could be regarded as the poor man's Kamats and catered to the basic instincts of their clientele, culinary of course... they can still be spotted in small towns, mostly temple towns... wooden tables with flat perfectly rectangular uncushioned sofas, typified these joints...
no elaborate menus, the options were limited and could be rattled off by the waiter faster than the TGV...
the general feel that I get about Bangalore is that here people love to eat out... and I repeat, Bangaloreans love to eat out... there is absolutely no reason required for them... a general feel good factor prevails about this eating out phenomenon... men and women in all sizes and shapes and all counts of teeth come out and simply enjoy themselves... and it doesnt bother them if they have ordered Upittu or a Rava Dosa or a Kara Bath or a Chow Chow Bath for the evening, something which they would have eaten the same morning at their own places... and which by no means is a speciality for them... the feel good factor also percolates right down to the food and the decor... the biggest draw is the way food is served on a banana leaf that just takes the gastronomic experience to altogether a different level... right time for this? quite obviously the breakfast time... the food is almost always served in the most perfect manner and the visual satisfaction cannot be discounted... the decorations and the embellishments are all trademark Bangalore, to the extent of serving a bhelpuri with coconut gratings and groundnuts... the Grant Road, Matunga, Mahalakshmi, Dadar citizens would die of a heart attack...
ignore the carts that sprout as the dusk sets in and that rule late into the night at your own risk... take them for no dingy places... they serve the most sumptuous and quite surprisingly neat fare that you could lay your hands on... and may be these dudes want themselves to be taken seriously for their prices are quite high... end result? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... the civics, the wagon-Rs, the altos in the bylanes of Jayanagars and Malleswarams would vouch for that... car seva anyone?
then there are the Little Italys, the Mast Kalandars, the Grameens, the Olive Orchards, the Civets of JP Nagars, Indiranagars, Koramangalas, and the ITPLs... these are essentially heavy on your purse and that goes without saying... each one tries to carve a space for itself in the junta's minds with food that is meant to be different, esoteric at times...
tucked away in those little pockets of Bangalore are also the ghee stores that double up as idli vada stalls and like I said they are meant to be ghee stores that also sell coffee powder... quite mindboggling... items of breakfast double up as the savories for snack time with a few changes here and there... so dont be surprised if you find Janaki Hegdes or Prashant Gowdas ordering idlis at 6.00 in the evening something which would be met with a chee chee in Hyderabad ( "aur kuch nahi mila be khaane ku... item yeh kya khaara re... item hai kya"), a phenomenon Bangalore can afford to call its won... Madras comes close, I reckon...
Bangalore is not short of any Andhra style chains that probably would have made more moolah here than what they would have in their native... the non-veg delicacies served at Mayuras, Bheemas and Nandinis are touted to be part of folklore out here...
speciality ice cream shops that whip up the best of cold stuff money could buy here and with zany names attached to them, could be found at places deemed important...
messes both North Indian style and the southern could be easily spotted and my theory on how to spot and differentiate a North Indian customer from his southern counterpart all by just the eating habits with a special note on the Bengal species will form another post... coming soon
cuisines from all corners of the globe find themselves represented at some do or the other in Bangalore and speciality restaurants aren't any less...
all in all Bangalore is a paradise for gourmets and gourmands alike, quite a far cry from my Hyderabad (sad to say that as we do not want to budge from the plates that serve biryani and khubani ka meetha) dishing out stuff for all ages, colors, purses and ultimately doing best in what it can... keep up the feel good factor...
Red Herring: the diameter of the Masala Dosa is shrinking by the day out here and at a rate faster than my girth size... while I see my girth shrink stop at a point, the Masala Dosa refuses to stop, quite disproportionately to the cost... be warned, my dear budd from Ypsilanti, these round small wonders threaten to disappear before I count all odd numbers from 1 to 10 starting with 3, and remember, you read it here first... trust me, next time you come down here you shall be treated to such fantastic fare, you will refuse to leave these shores again, maa kasam...
