Culinary delights ...
Aaaah, after piddiddling around the house all morning, I finally got out around 12.30 to pick up Gay [pronounced "Guy"] and Sam to head for lunch. I lied in my last post coz I said that we were going to Bheema's, we actually went to this NEW place called Ponnuswamy Chettinad Hotel of Chennai ; or more commonly "Ponnuswamy's" - EVERYONE's been telling me about it -- and when I say everyone I mean two people :-) But still, it came highly recommended. SO, on the way to Bheema's I suggested it to the girls, and they were all for it, so we changed plans mid way - didn't throw us off too much since they're both fairly close to each other, and it wouldn't have taken hours through traffic to get there.
The place itself isn't the most impressive - small entrance, with a large bright yellow sign with the specials listed [chicken curry, fish fry, crab masala ... mmm]. As we enter, they were cleaning off a few tables [there are only 8-10 tables in all], so we were asked to sit for "ten or five minutes, madam". We of course took the opportunity to chat - I've known Gay and Sam since I was a wee tyke in elementary school - Sam has probably been to every birthday party I had until we were 13 years old! As she says, we beat each other up through school and thats why we're still friends [yeah I don't get it either]. We never keep up through email, or call each other when we're in the US [she went to school in Ohio, and is now finishing up in London] - but somehow, every time I'm in Bangalore, I track her down and we grab lunch toghether. Gay and I are a little better about keeping in touch, and we were at CAE together for two years - and practically lived at each others houses [and PJ's house] during that time!
Once we were seated, and had menus in hand -- we proceeded to examine the menus with great attention to detail. This is serious business! After some deliberation and conferencing, we decided on a couple of dishes - the much coveted prawn biryani, chicken kolumbu [curry], crab masala and my all time favorite - Gobi [Cauliflower] Manchurian. As we waited for the food to come, we prepared our banana leaves - yes, this is the fun part, we got to eat on banana leaves!!!! I'm convinced that food tastes better on the banana leaf!
Anyhoo, the preparation of the banana leaf isn't too complex-- its pretty simple. First you pour a little water on to the leaf to clean it, more often than not, the eatery cleans them before putting them out - but its part of the eating-on-the-banana-leaf ritual. One must clean it. Anyhoo, next you wipe it clean with a tissue [eh, you can just wipe it with your hand too]. By this point, the food had arrived - and we proceeded to dig in. All I can say is, this place is AWESOME. The crab masala was ok, next time we order the crab w/out the shell. BUT the prawn biryani was simply AMAZING! Honestly, it was REALLY really good stuff. I feel like I should can this stuff and ship it stateside. It's like GOLD! Actually, no - I think EVERYONE should come to Bangalore JUST to eat the prawn biryani at Punnuswamy's ... and hang out w/me of course :-)
Conversation was scarce during lunch, besides the mms and omg this is awesome, and we should come here everyday type comments. Of course, there was the usual tussle over the last serving of biryani. Just kidding ;)
Once lunch was over, we headed back to the car - we had spent all of lunch reliving old times, and talking about all the crazy things we had done, and all of our crazy plans for the future, etc. and even after the massive lunch that we had just consumed - we headed to buy softee [soft serve icecream] cones, just for old times. The price of soft serve hasn't changed in three years, its amazing and the kiosk is probably manned by the same dude!
In true Bangalore style, we headed back to Gay's house [she lives in a beautiful old bungalow off Richmond Road - I absolutely love it!] and sat around talking again, there was a lovely breeze through the windows -- I could have fallen asleep right there! But, I had to hit the road again ... it was time to make some more visits.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy, visited Amina Phuphu, stopped by to see Pavi - in her new digs [well not THAT new!] ... their apartment is awesome. What I love about Bangalore apartments, at least Shabu's, Sarah's and now Pavi's is --- they're so spacious, have beautiful large balconies - and when you sit out on the balcony, there's a lovely breeze that just reassures you that ... in the end, no matter how much traffic there is, no matter whats going on in the world, some things in Bangalore never change.
The place itself isn't the most impressive - small entrance, with a large bright yellow sign with the specials listed [chicken curry, fish fry, crab masala ... mmm]. As we enter, they were cleaning off a few tables [there are only 8-10 tables in all], so we were asked to sit for "ten or five minutes, madam". We of course took the opportunity to chat - I've known Gay and Sam since I was a wee tyke in elementary school - Sam has probably been to every birthday party I had until we were 13 years old! As she says, we beat each other up through school and thats why we're still friends [yeah I don't get it either]. We never keep up through email, or call each other when we're in the US [she went to school in Ohio, and is now finishing up in London] - but somehow, every time I'm in Bangalore, I track her down and we grab lunch toghether. Gay and I are a little better about keeping in touch, and we were at CAE together for two years - and practically lived at each others houses [and PJ's house] during that time!
Once we were seated, and had menus in hand -- we proceeded to examine the menus with great attention to detail. This is serious business! After some deliberation and conferencing, we decided on a couple of dishes - the much coveted prawn biryani, chicken kolumbu [curry], crab masala and my all time favorite - Gobi [Cauliflower] Manchurian. As we waited for the food to come, we prepared our banana leaves - yes, this is the fun part, we got to eat on banana leaves!!!! I'm convinced that food tastes better on the banana leaf!
Anyhoo, the preparation of the banana leaf isn't too complex-- its pretty simple. First you pour a little water on to the leaf to clean it, more often than not, the eatery cleans them before putting them out - but its part of the eating-on-the-banana-leaf ritual. One must clean it. Anyhoo, next you wipe it clean with a tissue [eh, you can just wipe it with your hand too]. By this point, the food had arrived - and we proceeded to dig in. All I can say is, this place is AWESOME. The crab masala was ok, next time we order the crab w/out the shell. BUT the prawn biryani was simply AMAZING! Honestly, it was REALLY really good stuff. I feel like I should can this stuff and ship it stateside. It's like GOLD! Actually, no - I think EVERYONE should come to Bangalore JUST to eat the prawn biryani at Punnuswamy's ... and hang out w/me of course :-)
Conversation was scarce during lunch, besides the mms and omg this is awesome, and we should come here everyday type comments. Of course, there was the usual tussle over the last serving of biryani. Just kidding ;)
Once lunch was over, we headed back to the car - we had spent all of lunch reliving old times, and talking about all the crazy things we had done, and all of our crazy plans for the future, etc. and even after the massive lunch that we had just consumed - we headed to buy softee [soft serve icecream] cones, just for old times. The price of soft serve hasn't changed in three years, its amazing and the kiosk is probably manned by the same dude!
In true Bangalore style, we headed back to Gay's house [she lives in a beautiful old bungalow off Richmond Road - I absolutely love it!] and sat around talking again, there was a lovely breeze through the windows -- I could have fallen asleep right there! But, I had to hit the road again ... it was time to make some more visits.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy, visited Amina Phuphu, stopped by to see Pavi - in her new digs [well not THAT new!] ... their apartment is awesome. What I love about Bangalore apartments, at least Shabu's, Sarah's and now Pavi's is --- they're so spacious, have beautiful large balconies - and when you sit out on the balcony, there's a lovely breeze that just reassures you that ... in the end, no matter how much traffic there is, no matter whats going on in the world, some things in Bangalore never change.
posted by zai5h at Thursday, June 23, 2005
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