Category Eat and drink
The Devanahalli Pomelo-An UnForbidden Fruit
The fruit `mandi’ or market near Fun World on Jayamahal Palace Road is where one usually scrambles around for prized mangoes in the late summer. Vendors set up tents and literally squat here all through the season.But it continues to show off some seasonal flavour or the other through the year, albeit on a smaller […]
Love is Everywhere
February has always been my favourite month of the year. It’s when the stardust from New Year celebrations and resolutions makes way for spring flowers. Birds speed date in Bengaluru parks and the bees are equally busy. Trees prepare to bloom, the weather is perfect.High above the city, the sky blushes coral pink at sunset. […]
Sudha Chats-Warming Up Winter
After almost two weeks of incessant rain, the city thermostat has dipped to what we Bengalureans might call a deep freeze. While older residents say this socks and muffler weather reminds them of a time `when we didn’t even have ceiling fans at home’, I tell myself that a cup of hot tea and perhaps a bonda-bhajji […]
Written on the Wall-Prakash Cafe
I sometimes think that the history of India was influenced not just by battles and boundary extensions but also banquets. Vintage albums of India in the making contain innumerable images of dignitaries exchanging pleasantries or negotiating the future of their people while seated at formal dining arrangements. But in those photographs dominated by star personalities were other men […]
SWEET.MEATS and memories-ROYAL SWEETS
Long before cupcakes and other fancy sweet nothings arrived to influence neural signals and brain activity in modern Bengaluru, the late 19th century saw several bakeries popping up to cater to soldiers in the Cantonment. By the early 1900’s European confectioners including the Italian, G Baccala, on South Parade (Baccala’s is now the Deccan Herald […]
YOURS, MINE AND OURS-KOSHY’S PARADE CAFE
I’m going to get you a Koshy’s special fried egg sandwich!” says P Oommen Koshy (aka Prem) and disappears into the kitchen. While I wait, I smile at familiar faces, chat with those who stop by and recognise regulars who, like me, have cut their milk teeth in Parade Café (Koshy’s Restaurant) on St.Mark’s Road. […]
Nagarthpete-Another food street
I trot purposefully from the busy Chickpete-Doddapete junction on Avenue Road down towards Nagarthpete, following the path taken by one of four legendary bulls that were let loose here by Kempegowda I, the 16th century founder of Bangalore. It would have pounded furiously down this road centuries ago, heading, like the others, in the cardinal directions […]
Maratha Darshan-A piquant Past
I am sitting in Maratha Darshan off Queens Road. The nati chicken curry on my plate looks relatively innocent but it conceals a ferocious green chilli aftertaste that flashes fire periodically. It brings to mind Soyarabai, a feisty 17th century Maratha lady, sister of the powerful military commander Hambir (Hansaji) Rao Mohite. Bangalore is where she was […]
Placing Bengaluru 