A gastronomic weekend

The Saturday night loomed large and invitingly ahead of us. We were five of us, all friends from college and just out of a hectic week, desperate to make the most of the 30 or so hours of ‘freedom’ called the weekend, that has become so much of a luxury these days.
So it was that at 8.30 in the night, we decided to toss between hanging out at a local coffee house or take a trip to another former regular weekend haunt, not frequented for sometime, by us.
It turned out to be an easy choice, given than hunger pangs had set in and we had no intentions of filling up our stomachs with caffeine of any kind.

So off we went to V.V. Puram and to the Food Street. The Food Street, as the name suggests, is a narrow street that serves up some of the best short eats in the city and has quite a character attached to it.
The narrow street is full of life with cars and bikes occupying every possible inch of whatever little parking space that is available. It is not an uncommon sight to see families drive up, park, the head of the family rushing out, jostling with people to pick up his order in one of the many small shops on this street and rush back to his vehicle where the family is waiting eagerly to devour the heavenly content brought by him.

Our timing was just right and we reached there by 9.30 in the night, the best time to hit the Food Street. This is when the street ‘revs up’, if you may.

The journey began when the wafting scent of hot bread and just-out-of-the-oven cakes hit us as soon as we set foot on the street. The heavenly scents emanated from the renowned VB Bakery, which is the first shop on the street. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is perhaps, a tactic initiated by design, by the bakery to lure customers.

We began with their well known cream biscuits / cookies and honey cakes. While the cookies are better at some other places I know (notable Variar Bakery in Rajajinagar), the honey cakes are definitely something to die for. They just melt in your mouth. Period!
We then moved ahead to the litany of small eateries that line this street for the main course. One needs to be ready to fight with fellow foodies to catch the shop owner’s attention in these eateries and this task calls for some astuteness, found only in regular, experienced visitors to this street.
This course began with some amazing stuffed deep fried Capsicums and raw bananas (called Baalekaayi Bhajjis in Kannada– I couldn’t come up with a better English equivalent for the same!). The stuffing consisted of cut onions, tomato pieces, salt, pepper, coriander leaves and red hot chilli powder, of course, customized to ones requirement. It is a wonder how he manages to cut the banana into such thin slices, though!!

This was then followed by the most crispy Masala Dosas and piping hot, fluffy Idlis. The coconut chutney that went along with it was wonderful while the red tomato chutney lacked the zing normally associated with it, in that particular shop.
Watching the man inside the shop churn out his dosas is in itself a sight to behold, forget wading into his end product. There is a large platform that is heated up from underneath; a really large tawa, if you want a simplified description. I saw him turn around upto 12 dosas in one go, all done in a jiffy. The other sight, which is either interesting or depressing, (basis your liking or disliking of fatty foods) is the one where he pours out oil on these dosas directly and straight out of a large hole in the oil pouch, placed deftly by his side. It is his most important weapon in command, because the final taste of his dosa, it seems, depends heavily on this one particular act. The more oily it is, the more crispy the dosa turns out to be.

Done with the main course, it was now time to hit the dessert eateries, my personal favorite.

I have no doubt that the food street can compete quite well with some of its more establish brethren as far as desserts are concerned.
We simply had to have the Jamoons that were bobbing up and down invitingly in the sugar syrup, placed in as large a wok as I have ever seen anywhere else. Next on the list was some wonderful Pista ice cream and fruit salad, served to us in a plantain leaf with paper as an added protection underneath the leaf. Talk of protecting the planet!!

The Pièce de résistance was the Masala Pepsi / Mirinda / Limca (given that we were five of us, we could buy and share every one these three drinks). According to old timers who were around the place, this drink can be traced back to one particular shop in Seshadripuram and has gradually made its way to Food Street. ( I do not know if this story is true, will have to check the facts) The ingenuity in this drink is in the fact that the colas taste many notches better than in their original avatars. Chat Masala and salt, it seems is added to the cola to give it that extra fire power. The effect of ‘soda’ in colas, which can be irritating for many, gets totally negated once the masala is added. Even for someone like me who doesn’t drink colas, this is hard to resist every time I am there and I ended up having two glasses this time to top an eventful and gastronomic evening.
It was 11.30 by the time we reluctantly dragged ourselves out of the Food Street.
One more weekend with something to do. Don’t know when my lucky star is going to go into hiding and I am going to go back to “boring weekends”!! :)