People and Restaurants Galore

 In many ways this summer has been about food - different types of food and many new places visited. So let's start at the beginning.

Sadiccha, Bandra

This is a cute Gomantak restaurant next to the Bandra Cricket Club ground (MCG?). Serves great ea food thalis. Miskil knows this part well so she ordered for all of six us - there's thalis with all sorts of fish (pomfret, bombil etc), even tisrichya (clams I think or mussels), prawns, chicken and mutton of course but who eats that when in a Gomantak restaurant (though Satish and Raja did I think keeping gout in mind). Such meals are quiet, no sounds but those of appreciation. 500  bucks a head which I think is well worth it.  

Cafe Mondegar, Colaba

We were wondering, Miskil and I, should we hit the Irani restaurant near Churchgate, the Kerala food joint and then it struck me - Mondegar. Off we went (Satish and Raja went to do an interview with CNBC), with the promise of Kabir joining us. So there's this little section they had carved out which was AC and when I asked the steward if there wasplace in the AC room he said the whole place was AC - which it was. Now the lunch was made that much sweeter thanks to Anjali's marks coming out and she did quite well so we let loose. Beef chilly, king prawns for Anjali, all sorts of expensive dishes, Hoegaarden beer and well - the mood was expansive and we had a driver so we had enough to drink and eat. Someone played lovely music on the jukebox - don't even remember what it was. Except that we had a great time and Kabir very generously and surreptitiously went and paid the bill. But that was supposed to be my party for Anjali's success! Anyway we spent the next hour rummaging through the street shops for clothes and stuff for Anjali before heading home. 

Kabir, Anjali, Miskil and me

One O Eight Lifestyle, Pingle Farms

Malay's birthday treat and he invited us all. Now Malay has this brilliant way of picking the best places in town, figuring out exactly what to order etc. I have seen his talent when he picked one in Bangalore many moons ago. And once again he picked this brilliant place - minimalistic architecture, no booze, no non-veg either, some lovely food to eat and drinks to drink. He ordered some salads, starters, farm pizza, dessert and well we had a great time chatting and catching. There was Prakash and Gauri, theirtwo sons Malay and Kalpak, Shraddha, Raja, Satish, Shobha, Anjali and me. Good fun it was! 

Barometer, Kothrud

Next afternoon we hurried to Barometer in Kothrud for a lunch that Jyo had promised us. Gauri drove us all - Raja said he would join directly. Now this Barometer is a place where you cannot get a place easily so Jyo made reservations. The food is brilliant, starting with the perfect English breakfast in the morning. But since we went for lunch it was beer and all sorts of exotic stuff. Topping it all was a pork dish we tried which was delectable. Beer, good food, good company and the summer heat meant we were all knocked out for hours after. Thanks Jyo1!  

Shobhs, Gauri, Jyo, Satish, me and Raja (A must be behind the camera) 

Durga Cafe, Dahanukar Colony

The moment we went to Kothrud Anjali started dreaming about Durga Cafe in Dahanukar colony (and its cold coffee which is astonishingly priced at 40 bucks for what it offers). So we walked over there and well cold coffee is a must just as all the finger foods it offers. Its a  nice place on the road and we slide in and order our stuff and get out when you feel like it.  I guess we made more than 3-4 trips to Durga during our stay there and each was a rewarding experience. This one was one where these two went off I guess. 

Satish and A

Prithvi Hotel, Kothrud

Our very own breakfast savior when we want idli, vada, dosa etc. Prithvi makes decent sambar and chutney and does not mess up the simple South Indian items like most others do. So we slid into Prithvi one morning and ordered our idli, vada and dosa stuff. Always a saviour when we need this kind of food.

Touche the Sizzler Place, Camp

Now, in the early 90s Chhaya had introduced us to this joint which served great sizzlers, steaks. We invited Malay to drop in and he joined us for lunch - so it was me, Satish, Anjali, Shobhs and Malay - and the steaks. Anjali smartly ordered herself a kobe while I messed up my order again. When you go here, order only a kobe sizzler. I tried some fine dessert after that, really nice, but I forget the name now. Good conversation over lunch, some road side shopping at MG Road and off we went back home. Touche also had this weird practice then in the 90s of accepting only Amex cards and guess what, in a world where they were giving away credit cards free, Amex was the only one that charged, and on top of that wanted to be exclusive. So very few had Amex cards and it made no sense to go to Touche with a card, Then they changed their policy I think.      

Konkan Express, Kothrud

Konkan is a constant and always serves reliable sea food so we always hop in there (or at the new Fish Curry and Rice next to it). This time we ordered seafood from Konkan and added to a fine meal Satish made - rice, daal and sabzi. Knkan also hs various fish thalis - pomfret, bombil, prawns - and we always order some sol kadi to go with it. Heaven. 

Mirch Masala, Kothrud

This is a popular joint in Kothrud and though we never tried the restaurant we felt brave enough to order stuff like biryani and chicken tikka etc which was to satisfaction. No complaints.  

Tien, Model Colony

Now, we all met at Model Colony for a session and after the session Malay said he would take us down to a nice sushi place nearby. We walked down, a good ten minute walk, to Tien, a cute little place on the road right opposite a popular Ganesh temple it looked like. The sushi was brilliant though - many different types and I enjoyed the whole experience. Once again, some fine desserts were tried thanks to Malay's expertise.

Me and Malay at Tien

Green Park, Hyderabad

Anjali and I picked up Satish at the Begumpet Railway station and we decided to indulge ourselves with a biryani at Green Park. Now during the haleem season i had ordered a biryani from Green Park and it was brilliant so we decided to try the biryani there. The restaurant was slightly understaffed - tables not cleaned, waiters not present - but we finally got them to get us biryani. Anjali managed a stunt while serving herself where the biryani bowl fell on her plate, caused a huge clatter, but nothing happened except that he plate broke a bit. The biryani was pretty good.

Nimrah Cafe, Charminar

Part of our plan was to visit Charminar where Anajli could use her newly learned skills on her newly gifted DSLR camera from Satish. So we drove to Charminar, parked in our regular place despite one mischievous fellow telling us that we cannot park anywhere and walked to Charminar. Pictures taken we went to Nimrah, ate tie biscuits (filling), had chai and sped back. The idea was to stop at Kamath Hotel for breakfast. 

Kamath Hotel, Saifabad

This one had memories from my childhood. Our family visits to Hyderabad would culminate in Kamath where we would eat dosas and idlis and meals perhpas but what I cannot forget is the slab of chocolate ice cream my father would order. I don't remember how he would order for so many of us but he did and we managed to gobble it all up. After many years I went there recently and loved the ambiance and the dosa and declared it the best dosa (Anjali says Taj beats it). So we went for breakfast, ordered our ildi, dosa stuff, had coffee and headed out.

Minerva Coffee Shop, Somajiguda

An early morning photo shoot outing to Tank Bund resulted in breakfast at Minerva. I was disappointed at the pongal and despite the vada there was no salvaging it. I should have stuck to the pesarattu which they make quite well (they used to make a decent pongal as well before). 

Golconda, Masab Tank

Raja came and was in an expansive mood and suggested we head out for biryani. Now Golconda Hotel has some nice biryani and we decided to drop in at the Jewel of Nizam for some biryani. After a waiting list of 20 minutes we filed in and ordered a simple biryani which was complicated by Anjali who saw some exotic Machli Noorani dish and ordered that. Turns out to be a machli with some egg foil on it and it took a while to make. Interesting dish, biryanis were decent but nothing to rave about. I suggested they try the famous Anokhi Kheer and they all liked it until i told the what it was made of and then they went Ahhh!

10 Downing Street, Lifestyle, Begumpet

We decided to do one visit to 10 D which is fast becoming Anjali's haunt and well it was a pretty nice meals they offered us - some mid day combos with some beer etc. Anjali stayed with her regular stuff, some pasta and turned out that was the best order. Some shopping before at Lifestyle and well it turned out to be a decent outing for all concerned!   

Soda Bottle Openerwala, Jubilee Hills

Ruby and I went there for lunch. He tried fish and chips and I tried some sandwiches. Before that we had some Greek salad which was ok. Long conversation that went on well past the time I thought it would. But it was productive so it was good.