Awesome Foursome - The Eat-Outs

Well, well, well....seems like pachu remembers our little ventures too well, guys i would like to recieve more comments and feedback to my blogs, they act as a source of inspiration and also indicates it is not just me writing and reading it myself :-) ...a sincere request.

Let me go back in time, to our good ole college days(actually i had left out a few happenings in my previous blog), a time when we were ready for the most daunting tasks and when we did things we thought coooooool!!!We, the AF(u shd know what this means by now!!) were brought up in the same kind of society where we didnt have much exposure to the riches of five star hotels, and the extravagant discotheques which were the IN thing in bangalore those days. We didnt get to stay out late in the nights at pubs and discos, all we used to do was have a late dinner and get huddled up in one of our houses watching late night movies and the usual guys talk.

When i give these a thought, i really dont see anything that we have missed by not doing things our other friends were ritualistic about, we had quite a few friends who used to get this saturday fever, those days, we had to go to college all 6 days and hence, it is not friday fever, never missed a saturday night at MG Road/Brigade road, roaming around and...i dont really know what they did apart from getting drunk!!But we had our own ways of enjoying our life and i think we did the most appropriate things at correct phases of our life.

I cannot just give such statements without actually providing instances of our ventures which lead to discoveries that we regard with utmost respect even to this date!!

First in a series of eat-outs comes the CTR, which stands for Central Tiffin Room, located in the heart of malleswaram, right opposite to the grounds. It is a nondescript looking place that, surprisingly, has a board that reads ‘Shree Sagar’ in Kannada outside the hotel but retains the price board inside with ‘Central Tiffin Room’ written on it. It is situated on 7th Cross, at the corner of Margosa Road. I love the old pendulum clock and the Bhagavadgita sayings that is hung on one side of the wall. It is a small, old fashioned, not-so-clean food joint, which we stumbled upon one of those days and had the best ever masala dosas. We had been to other hotels famous for masala dosas like vidyarthi bhavan and janata hotel...but CTR stands a class above all these!!!Raghu and me were particularly crazy about finding these new joints and trying out new stuff, and we always came back from CTR with our bellies full. Well, there is one more good reason to eat well once you go there - there is always a long wait before you can squeeze into one of those small wooden tables, and all that waiting will surely make you gulp 2 dosas and a plate of mangalore bajji without any problem. The mangalore bajji acts as an appetiser while you have to wait for your dosas!!!!I should add here, we have influenced our spouses to be hard-core fans of these 'benne masaal dose' now and we never miss an opportunity to take a plunge into the crispy golden colored dosas accompanied by the colorful pudina chutney and the delicious kai chutney from time to time.

Then there was this road-side stall famous for egg-omelettes at Bashyam circle, rajajinagar. We used to frequent that place a lot...though there was no place to sit there, we had to remain on our bikes/sit on the stone slabs next to the shop. Kishore's favourite there being half-boiled, pachu never liked such places, but me and raghu made the most of it, sometimes even finishing our dinner by having a variety of egg-dishes. Well, who says dont eat at road-side dhabas/stalls, as long as you have your immune system in place, you are in no danger, and no need to resist the urge to enjoy all sorts of food.

There was another such joint, which we visited only once, and can always remember the experience, it was called Gundappa hotel, as such, there was no hotel in place, and the name was just a way of spreading word among friends. It was located near Corporation area (behind pallavi theatre), there was this old ruin with a small hotel(??) next to it. We just couldnt digest the fact that it was so renowned in the locality, that we had to wait a long time before finding our way inside the so-called hotel. Once we were in, there was this long wooden bench(what we have in our schools for the kindergarten students), and.....thatz it!!!!There were people all over, there was a small verandah, a hall inside, and maybe a couple of rooms too, all had this long benches, with people hungrily pouring over the remains of whatever they had ordered. We found it a little too clumsy, but were already inside and had to take a bite. Well, we waited patiently on the bench, for someone to come and ask us what we want....instead this person comes out, and hands us a plaintain leaf with ghee-rice in it. Well, we accepted that as it was steaming hot, and smelled awesome, and gulped it down in a few minutes. Next there is this guy coming around and handing over masala dosas which are cut in half!!!!HEY....who is placing our orders here????Then later we realised that people are expected to come and eat whatever is given to them, there is no choice except - yes / no....you dont want something, u just sit watching others. They serve some 3-4 items a day, and i should say, we really enjoyed all there was that day.

Now, this other experience is what only me and raghu had, pachu and kishore were taking a safe bet not to join us in any such expeditions, but i should say, guys you really missed it this time!!!!!!!Everyone must have heard and visited the infamous MTR hotel near Lalbagh entrance, but a very few are aware of the fact that MTR opens up at 5am in the morning with the only entrance being the back-door, where you have to cruise along the kitchen, and catch that flight of stairs to an open hall with tables neatly arranged and already waiting to get filled up. These were the kind of news we were all ears for....and once we heard about it, me and raghu planned to pay a visit. Previous night, he came over and slept in my place, and early morning, we left on my bike at 4.30am to MTR, it was cold and breezy, but we managed to reach our destination after being chased by a few stray dogs and i should say raghu is particularly fond of these dogs(after getting bitten a couple of times near his primary school). Well, there we were in front of MTR, but it was closed shut and we wondered what we are expected to do, standing out in the cold. Right then we saw people going to the back, and we followed them to be lead into the hotel, we saw these people in kitchen, busy cutting vegetables and making their dishes ready for the day. They didnt pay notice to us passing by, and we entered this hall, which was almost empty except for a couple of old people here and there. So we just went and sat in a corner table,waiting for our food. Practically within minutes we saw that every table was filled up and to our most annoying surprise, we realised all of them were almost in their 50s or 60s, and we stood distinctly apart. Anyway that didnt discourage us from our endeavour, and we stayed put till this guy comes along and asks us that we have occupied their 'regular' table, now what is that supposed to mean???But he was kind enough to allow us to join them and hey let me tell about the food now....MTR serves this idli with this special 'avarekaye saru' ONLY from 5am to 6am in the morning( i think it is seasonal too), and we made the best of it that day, wow, mouth-watering stuff. Hey raghu, do u remember what else we had that day....i kinda forgot. After our lip-smacking breakfast we went around lalbagh, watching the early joggers and the laughter-club people having their hearty laughs at nothing.

I really wonder how raghu comes to know of all these joints, but it surely is worth visiting and enjoying all these different types of scrumptious food at various joints. I remember we had been to this Vishnu Bhavan, located in one of these clumsy localities of KG road, just below the famous kempegowda theatre. Raghu said it was famous for it's bread and banana jam...i said the place looks awful, but still we went for it, never repented later!!!!

So much for our eat-outs, do let me know if i missed out some of our other favourites, i will be expecting more comments, thoughts and ideas for my next blog. Hey, if any of you people find relevant snaps to post in these blogs, do send them to me. More in my next blog, keep waiting!!!!