Kumaoni food at Abbotsford Nainital

Nainital is not just a hill station known for the beautiful Naini lake. This quaint little town is known for the wild life, the wild life conservators, educational institutions, clubs and the lush green pine forests with a blue hue that reflects magically in the Naini lake too.

Incidentally this is my birthplace too and there are many childhood memories attached to the lake, the sepia toned pictures in our family album have kept the memories alive. We have made a few quick trips to Nainital in between but I have been meaning to go and stay there for a relaxed holiday to get more insights into the culture and cuisine.

I got a chance to get a glimpse of the cuisine in the meanwhile, when EatwithIndia organised a culinary tour of Nainital is association with Abbotsford, the heritage home of Janhavi Prasada who graciously hosts guests in the ancestral property that has been converted into a home stay.

Along with Sonal Saxena of EatwithIndia we reached Abbotsford a little ahead of lunch time few weekends ago and what we experienced was nothing short of an ideal hillside holiday sprinkled with great food.While Delhi had already started getting hot around that time it was great to feel the nip in the air even during noon time.

After a customary welcome teeka, flowers and Rhododendron drink we headed straight to the lunch table set up at the Cafe Chica lawns.

The first thing served to start the lunch was sana hua nimbu and it was the best I had tasted till date. I took the recipe and created at home after I returned in fact. 

I was not particularly hungry but the Kumaoni home style food was so delicious I overate after ages, so much that I skipped dinner that day. The sticky hand pounded rice had come from Janhavi's aunt's farm and the kapha (Kumaoni spinach stew) felt like the best pairing with that flavourful rice. The other dishes like gahat (horse gram) ki dal, alu gutka, ganderi ki subzi, kheere ka raita, bhang ki chutney and bhatt ki chutney were all so flavourful we all took multiple helpings, mopping everything up with mandue ki roti.

We went for a long walk towards the Naini lake after lunch, enjoyed boating, walked around the markets and the mall road after lunch.

Janhavi cooked a country style chicken curry on wood fire for dinner and one of the guests Kunal Mandal conducted a quiz that I participated despite splitting headache. We talked about how and why we need to conserve regional traditional cuisines so the ingredients and cooking techniques are not lost forever. I couldn't stay on for dinner but heard it was as good as the lunch.

Next day Janhavi took everyone for a farmer's market walk and then to the boat club. Once back the lunch was laid down again in it's finery.

These were all Janhavi's family recipes, cooked expertly by their family cook who takes care of the home stay kitchen too. It's very rare that cooks can recreate family recipes so expertly but Abbotsford has kept the mark high, the food is to die for.

The mooli ki kadhi, home style mutton curry, methi chaman, khatta meetha kaddu, bhune tamatar ki chutney etc were all great, bursting with flavour and made so well. Thanks to EatwithIndia we got to taste all such homely food from the region, that too from the repertoire of a family. We tasted delicious Singhal, a spiral deep fried sweet pastry made by the cook and it was delicious.

The Cafe Chica at Abbotsford is quite popular among locals and travelers, although it is located at a steep climb but the view is worth it.

The alfresco seating is the best as you get to see lot of birds and the cheena peak in the background.

 I stayed in the Juliet room. Here is how the room looks.

The full length window opens to this breathtaking view.

My stay was short but I resolved to go back really soon to soak in the mountains, Abbotsford will be a natural choice now. All the rooms are different as it has been a private home, it actually adds to the warmth the homely hospitality extended by the people behind Abbotsford.

This short weekend trip packed so much and yet left us hungry for more.

Thank you EatwithIndia and Abbotsford for this cherishable experience. The taste of the best Kumaoni food I have had till date, will be etched in my mind forever.

a sattvic meal experience at Kiradu temple complex

Some meals are so special you remember them for a long time to come.

If you try and remember all your memorable meals, I am sure you would recall one or the other happy meal you enjoyed with great friends or family members, may be with strangers too but none of those meals would be had alone. Am I right?

And if you have ever had a meal at an exotic location out of nowhere, it is bound to stay with you forever. I will tell you about one such meal I enjoyed at the temple complex of Kiradu in Rajasthan which is now in ruins. And if I tell you that this meal experience was organized by the good folks at Suryagarh (Jaisalmer) you would instantly know it would definitely be good.

Of course Suryagarh food is memorable for everyone. But this sattvic meal exceeded my expectation by several notches. And to think that this sattvic meal was a part of the elaborate hawan and puja they organized at the neglected temple complex to unveil their new trail of the season, the Kiradu Experience.

All food that is prepared for the Gods is made with devotion and it comes through every bite you take. I know you would agree.

Kiradu temple complex is about three hours drive from Suryagarh and you drive on a singular road that goes straight till the horizon. There is vast expanse of desert both sides, sand often piled up on the road making small dunes and the driver has to be careful. The topography kept changing along the road and we passed the Desert National Park, spotting peacocks, Green Bee Eaters, Eagles, Falcons and some Chinkaras. There were herds of Camels too of course.

The only noticeable shrubs were the Calotropis that grew really huge. There were other desert shrubs including some tall grasses and the Kair, Sangri too.

The Suryagarh team had arranged for a high tea break at one of the villages called as Kesar Singh ki Dhani. It was such a wonderful surprise to take a detour into a village surrounded with sand dunes, find a few thatched huts, women and kids peeking from their homes and then you are directed towards one of those huts with a small door.

There was a low table set impeccably Suryagarh style, kudos to the team for such ideas and concepts. Now that I am working with them on a small project I know their trails and meal experiences are spectacular, this one was way beyond wonderful.

After having the chai with some of the villagers who joined us, we drove again to find the topography changing and some hills appearing gradually. Kiradu is a place surrounded by hills and is quite green compared to the Thar desert. The ancient name of Kiradu is KiratKup. Kirat dynasty finds a mention in Hindu scriptures and ancient history, I wouldn't go into finer details here but this nook of history is worth digging up.

Located in Barmer district this was an old civilization as we were told by Rajendar Singh Man, an official from INTACH, Barmer chapter. He claims the hills envelope an ancient city that is now buried under the bushes, trees and some sedimentation. Mr Man informed that the occurrence of rounded pebbles of a river bed suggest that this place got flooded by a river once and got destroyed or buried probably due to the forces of water. Forceful damage to the wall sculptures suggests some army had tried to destroy it revengefully. Several Mughal armies are responsible for the damage we were told.

The temples are beautiful, the history enchanting and the wall carving on them feels alive when you take a closer look. It is believed to have been under the reign of Parmar in 12th century but there is no trace of evidence how the whole temple complex got destroyed and the city got buried slowly. The temple complex was build some 400 years before that.

We found the stories from ancient Hindu scriptures carved in stone. Presence of some erotic sculptures makes these temples comparable to the Khajuraho temples but the INTACH officials kept lamenting about the sheer apathy of ASI.

I would want to dig deeper into the history and the art, Kiradu temple complex has ignited an interest for sure. The Iconography of these temples tells stories that need detailed interpretation. I was reminded of the fine work at Dilwara Jain temples that we had visited some 26 years ago.

The Kiradu temple complex had a group of more than120 temples and 5 of them can be seen in partly restored form. There is no facility for tourists apart from the road but that may be a blessing in disguise as this place is free of plastic and empty packets of chips and what not. I wish it remains the same and people who respect the ancient monuments have better access to these.

Suryagarh did a wonderful job by cleaning the premises and arranging a Hawan. This is an ancient Hindu way to invite the forces of the universe to bless a place or a cause, hoping this Hawan will be a beginning and ASI will take interest in unearthing more of these temples while preserving them too. Note that this temple complex was not accessible to civilians since a couple of months ago as Indian Army had a base here.

This little priest was part of the entourage of Hindu priests (Pandits) who had been invited from Barmer and was a lot more enthusiastic than the elder priests.

The collective chants of all these priests was good to hear after a very long time. Arvind's family organizes such large scale pujas back in Banaras and I have been part of a few of them. I kept thinking Arvind would have joined the chanting involuntarily as he has been doing since his childhood. My own family was not so much into pujas.

And just like Arvind's side of my family, this puja also commenced into a sattvic meal that was cooked on the spot. Chef Megh Singh Rathore and his team had arrived at the temple complex since noon and had cooked a lavish sattvic meal for all of us, the Pandits and all the workers deployed there. What a meal it was that we enjoyed in open air.

The tables were set old fashioned 'chowki' style and we were served alu mungodi ki subzi, mirchi ka kutta, poori, dal bati churma and pulao along with buttermilk.Desserts were mung ka halwa, some signature suryagarh mithais and some more kheer etc but I got my tripti eating the sattvic meal, desserts became unnecessary.

I will be sharing recipes of the mirchi ka kutta and alu mungodi ki subzi next. I need to keep this memory in the form of food too, after all the memories become tangible when the taste is recreated on our dining tables.

Stay tuned.

travel and food stories: Citrus County, a whiff of not so rural Punjab and a peaceful getaway

Few months ago in the peak of winter we booked a bus ticket and almost fled to a village in the Doaba region of Punjab. It feels very liberating when you are out of the clutches of the city life and work deadlines and your bus drops you by the side of a clean straight road lined with orchards of oranges and poplars. As if the honking cars have reincarnated themselves into tall and handsome poplars and lazy citrus trees overnight while you were sleeping in a luxury bus. Well, it felt almost like that.

Harkirat Ahluwalia received us and drove us to his home where he has created a wonderful cluster of yellow tents, bordering his huge verdant lawns, trees of several varieties of oranges, lemons and limes and a fire place. Citrus County has loads and loads of oranges, kinnows to be specific and the sweetest ones. 

This is when we realised we have been transported into a typical Canada influenced Punjab village. Pun intended.

Punjab villages have been quite prosperous owing to the very hard working Sikhs, both who stayed back in the land and who migrated to earn dollars and send them dollars back to the land. It is very common to find people hoarding super bikes and flashy cars, most fashionable western brands of clothing in these villages and you will see them relishing the kachhi lassi, safed makkhan and makki ki roti with the same fervour. The best of both worlds to be honest.

Citrus County has very nice and clean tents with spacious modern bathrooms and a personal verandah which is surrounded by some greenery that provides privacy in a very aesthetic way. It is an ideal place if you want a break from city life and want to read, walk around the village and orchards, swim and laze around till you get hungry.

What I liked about the tents is that they have a nice study table and chairs inside the tents, good for someone who wants to read or write or catch up on work. Many of us have to touch base with work too while traveling. They don't use plastic so the water bottles were actually recycled wine bottles that was a good change to see. The heating system in winters and air conditioning (during summers) is a huge facility that you appreciate in the extreme winters (and even summers) this place witnesses. 

They have a couple of rooms too and recently have built a Biker's lounge just besides the camp fire you see in these pictures. Harkirat is himself an avid biker and keeps going for long distance drives.

They have an efficient team of cooks who feed you warmly sitting close to the campfire. Though during winter months it felt too chilly during dinner time. We visited there in December last year.

Sometimes you would see Harkirat cooking a chicken curry by himself and fishing for complements, just like it happens in family gatherings. He would come up with a Sangria or his lovely wife Jasween would bake a cake sometimes.

You would get to taste some home made pickles and panjeeri, laddu etc made by their family elders and that is something very endearing about village life. Food at Citrus County is basic homely food, do not expect anything superlative here.

We met Harkirat's father Mr Bhagwant Singh Ahluwalia and we talked about varieties of citrus fruits and how he has planted so many fruit trees in their orchards and home garden. He is a treasure trove of stories about how this village Chaoni Kalan was established by his forefathers, how the Gurudwara was built and how he started growing kinnows on his land. I could sit and talk to him for hours if time permitted.

He also runs a highway dhaba called Dhaba Express as a hobby on the Chandigarh Hoshiarpur highway and the food is amazing. This is one dhaba you must stop at if you are driving past Hoshiarpur. If you are staying at Citrus County you can go there easily and eat the rustic dhaba style Punjabi food.

I like 'home stay' properties for the homely warmth and the stories that we share with the people who run such an endeavour. I think Citrus County brings back the joys of village life to you in a more comfortable and convenient manner. The best of both worlds as I mentioned.

You probably wouldn't get to dive into a pool (reservoir) at the 'tube well' the Punjab villages are known for but the swimming pool at Citrus County fills in for that quite aptly.

I recommend doing a tour of the orchards and see how kinnows are grown and harvested if you are visiting in winters. An early morning walk is a must do when you are there, every season has a new story to tell in such landscapes.

The village Gurudwaras and the markets are significant places you must visit. Citrus County keeps organizing events like Hola Mohalla and Baisakhi etc during significant Sikh festivals so you can plan your visit accordingly if you want to witness the festive colours.

travel and food stories : Raju's cottage in Goshaini, Himachal Pradesh, a quite serene place to unwind and enjoy great home cooked food too

Unwind the distress of urban life, unlearn the acquired circadian rhythm and undo the toxic damage done by the city life is what you intend when you head to such a place. I feel we do so much damage to our circadian rhythm in our working city life that it needs a repair in between. Heading towards the hills just to stay put for a few days is such a relief we experienced while spending time in Goshaini. Yes, we had planned we will not do any treks and hikes and just laze around for 5 days. Although we ended up doing a few impromptu hikes around the valley.

Goshaini is a small village located in Teerthan valley (Post Banjaar, State Himachal Pradesh) and falls in the Ecozone of The Great Himalayan National Park. Can you imagine we did not even go the the National Park while we were stationed there. But we had a plan to rest and that we did, planned the National Park visit for a few months later.

Last May a blogger friend Dhiren had gone to Goshaini and had come to my home driving back from there. And the way he praised this home stay at Raju's cottage both of us felt like going there at once. We tried to find a booking during our holidays but Raju's cottage is so popular it is always full, so we booked for the extended Holi weekend almost 8 months in advance. It was totally worth the wait and the commute. Note that we had to wait this long because both of us could not get free dates in the coming months due to work and other travel plans, and in the summer when we had time the homestay was busy mostly with families with school going kids. You can get bookings for your choice of dates if you are lucky. You will fell like going there right away once you know what it is. Read on.

And this is how you cross the gurgling Teerthan river to reach Raju's cottage. The fun begins. And mind you, not the city life kind of fun, this is for real, with real elements of nature thrown in for good measure.

Raju's cottage is a green roofed, wooden cottage that looks like this from the main road just a kilometer short of Goshaini bazar.

Our abode for five days, a peaceful home stay located at the base of apple orchards of Raju Bharti's family. That terraced landscape in the background of the cottage looks barren as it was just after the snow season and all the apple, pear, cherry, apricot and many other fruit trees were all barren.

We would sleep, read books, eat great food cooked by Lata ji (Raju Bharti's wife) and just laze around in the sun. But almost everyday we would go for long walks that would turn out to be at least 3-4 hours hike in the forests or neighboring villages. Just loitering around aimlessly and return for a late lunch.

Look at the people we met and talked along the way every day.

Huge pumpkins and hill cucumbers perched on slate tiled roofs, kids peeping from windows, coming to greet us and offering candies was common. Where do you find such simplicity and honest smiles in the cities?

Raju's cottage looked like this when we went up to the forest on one side.

And like this when we climbed steep hills and some concrete steps to reach Bandal village. The view below is when you climb about 30 minutes from Goshaini towards Bandal.

We found several birds and photographed loads of them. Will share more pictures of birds really soon. These are Russet Sparrows (a couple) enjoying their lunch.

Some of the Apricot and Plum trees had just started blooming. I even found Himalayan raspberries blooming, the one with Arvind's thumb is raspberry blossom. Himalayan raspberry is called Hisalu in Uttarakhand, might have a different name in Himachal.

It was first week of March, still freezing cold after a bout of snow in the valley and everyday we would see fresh snow on the neighboring peaks. It was raining a lot quite uncharacteristic to the month of March but was sunny enough to see the spring knocking at the door. Many stretches along the Teerthan valley had Plum orchards that looked painted white by the fresh blossom. Although there was a real danger of the pollens washing away and destroying the plum harvest this year.

We walked and hiked, finding new openings into the valley, witnessing new peaks, some shining with snow and some crowned with conifers, a lone house perched on a cliff, few kids playing cricket on any plain stretch of land available. We wold stop, breath in the crisp fresh air, ruffle the hill dogs and move on.

We were always late for the designated lunch time but would get a hot and fresh lunch served in the common dining room. I must mention that Raju's cottage has a common dining room, a vibrant place decked up with books, wooden artifacts and painted pebbles kept on the windowsills. The most interesting thing that I found were the huge crystal rocks placed everywhere. There were a few crystal rocks even in our rooms.

All the artwork is made by the guests staying there or is sent by them as a gesture of gratitude.

Food is served fresh, the curries and daal placed in hot plates, rice served in hot case casseroles and hot rotis being brought to each guest as you eat. Indian home style food and some local regional food with vegetarian and non vegetarian choices is what you would expect in such places but the warmth that you find here is something to cherish.

Absolutely home style meals served just like food is served in joint families, I loved this part quite a lot, more so because food is always a special experience for me. Raju's cottage and Lata ji's cooking didn't disappoint me even taste wise.

See what all we had. Traditional Himachali sidu, the steamed (leavened) whole wheat bread stuffed with poppy seed paste, served with a dollop of home made ghee.

The ghee had such an intoxicating flavour of nostalgia, reminded me of the ghee my grandmother would bring from our village. Slightly smoky and so flavourful, the sidu is steamed over leaves of galgal lemons (large pahadi lemons).

Ghee is made by the milk they get from the cowshed they maintain. All the milk, yogurt and paneer they use come from their own cows. How cool is that.

I spotted morels growing in Raju's orchard, it was the first time I had seen them growing wild like this.

Seeing my interest in morels, Lata ji cooked guchhi pulao (morel pilaf) one day. Her chciken and mutton curries are to die for.

Look at this gucchi pulao (morel pilaf). And that is a lot of morels considering it is so costly.

Here is sepu wadi (urad daal dumplings in spinach gravy) which is a popular recipe served in Himachal Dhams (wedding parties). A uniquely aromatic curry that I learnt cooking and recreated in my own kitchen after returning. Sepu wadi recipe will be shared shortly.

Getting breathless climbing mountains, returning hungry and being treated with such warming food is bliss. We did not want to come back.

Did I mention that each room at Raju's cottage has a small bookshelf too. At least our room had one and three extra rooms around the bedroom to laze around. Two of those rooms were river facing, the bathroom was also river facing and very very cold due to that. But thank God they rarely have power cuts so hot water was not a problem. They have installed solar heaters for the main kitchen and guest bathrooms too. There are solar lanterns for the guests if they have to go around in the night.

Raju Bharti is an interesting person, his father was a local MLA as he told and seems to have done remarkable work in the area. Raju himself has filed cases against corporates who wanted to build dams up the river and had arranged government sanction too. He was able to stop the making of dams on the Teerthan river and considers the river as her Goddess. He is a member of various committees overlooking the management of The Great Himalayan National Park and takes active interest in conservation of the mountain ecology. In fact if I write about all that we talked with him it will be a full fledged article here.

Raju's family has a few dogs and cats who are very friendly to the guests and the dogs are even trained to accompany them if they go to hikes alone. The dogs are named Goju, Bhalu, Bulbul and Yeti. They walk along and keep looking back to assure you are following them, else they will come back and sit with you while you gaze at the mountains and birds and the scalloped sky all around this valley.

The mountain goats will be curious about you but oblivious to the beauty surrounding them. You feel like you are the odd one in this beautiful place and then you wish to come back and fit in better.

I appreciate what Raju's family is doing at his fruit orchard too, growing everything organically and rearing cows for milk for the family as well as for the guests. Raju's cottage is run completely by his family members and they take pride in it. His two sons, Karan and Varun manage the everyday operations and his wife Lata ji cooks all the food with the help of lady who comes from the village to help in the kitchen chores. His nephew Vicky serves food to all guests and keeps asking for tea and coffee in between. All done with a smile.

Karan and Varun will coordinate with you once they confirm booking. You can get an overnight bus from Delhi, a few buses start from Himachal Bhavan (Mandi House) and others from ISBT, deboard the bus just before the Aut tunnel and Raju will arrange a cab pick up from there. You need to tell the bus driver in advance about your destination so he will let you know when it is time. You can contact Raju and his sons at his facebook page here to book and coordinate for cab pick up.

They feel like an extended family to me now. Isn't that a great achievement? No, not for them, I am talking about myself.

travel and food : the best places to eat in Mysore, the way we like it

I discovered Mysore masala dosa all over again. Yes I mean it when I say this. All of us siblings use to love the dosas my mom made at home with a creamy potato curry to fill the delicate dosas. And a plain coconut chutney and sambar that only she could make, other aunts we knew would make it differently. We were kids and never realised that dosas, sambars and chutneys can be of different types belonging to different states of the south India. We loved all the other dosa variants but the one mom made was always the best. We grew up on that dosa loving it absolutely.

And then somehow I spoiled it when I started cooking it myself. In my zeal of experimentation I added what I liked and although the resulting dosa was always good, it was not the same. We siblings would often talk about the subtly flavoured dosa mom used to make long long ago. By the way my mom was never fond of cooking and she wriggled out of making dosas or anything for that matter, as soon as we grew up and carried on with our own lives, all of us siblings I mean. We would never find any home made dosa when we went back and that 'mummy ke haath ka dosa' memory became dormant.

We always knew that mom had learned her dosa from some neighbor in Nainital when papa was posted there, which is my birth place too by the way. But there was never a question of where this neighbor belonged to. I discovered rather awkwardly in Mysore. The first dosa at the CFTRI students mess we had reminded me of 'mummy ke haath ka dosa'. The identity of the Mysore masala dosa downed upon me in a moment of epiphany, dormant memories awakened. I grew up eating this sort of masala dosa and never knew this was the one. The one called Mysore masala dosa. To us it was just masala dosa, sans an identity attributed to a place.

Later we discovered a few more stalwarts in the world of Mysore masala dosas. In Mysore of course. This used to a frequent breakfast masala dosa at the CFTRI students mess where we chose to have our daily breakfast.

For other meals we used to explore the city. Well mostly it was just myself as Arvind used to be busy in his official work he was there for. I saw all the museums, lakes, markets and a few temples in the 2 weeks we were there.

The best way to explore food in a city is to go around on foot or on public transport and see the street food if you can afford to. And I don't see any reason that can stop you from doing that, apart from a stomach infection if your immune system gets it as a shock. But I have never ever had a stomach problem with street food rather some five start food sometimes has caused a problem. Street vendors buy ingredients, cook and sell every single day and there is no recycling of ingredients, the food is served piping hot and things move quite fast. There is very little chance of contamination after the food being cooked as it is served immediately in most cases. And you should look for all such places where more people are eating to ensure good taste and the food is moving fast to ensure hygiene. You just have to take care of the water you drink and avoid all raw salads that's all.

The first great dosa I had in Mysore was at a roadside eat street that my friend Shubha Shashikant had told me about. This street is behind the Marimallapa college and the autowalas (the tuktuk drivers) know it as 'chaat street behind Marimallapa college'. These street food vendors come by the road only by evening and you would see many bikes and scooters of students parked there and some portly middle aged men probably on the return from offices lined up up to have a bite and loads of gossip. We also spotted a few families too who used the seat of their motorbikes as a table and were having a good time. There were few cars that stopped by and people had food inside the car but this eat street looks like more popular with students and office goers as we found herds of them enjoying plates after plates of good food.

 Our find of the day here was a Mysore masala dosa, very predictably you would say. I like the crisp but yet spongy dosa and the creamy mushy potatoes that they fill the dosa with. Simple clean honest flavours served in a humble way, each dosa costs 40 Rs. I remember everything on this street was either 40 or 30 Rs and the vendors had their own stalls of bottled water too. This dosa is smeared with a red chutney and then a dollop of creamy potato filling is slathered over it and the dosa is folded neatly. Served over a paper plate placed over a quarter piece of a newspaper.

And then we tasted and liked the idli and sambar vada as well, the benefits of 2 people sharing plates of food, we could taste more but not all. We tasted puliogare too but did not like it much. But many people were lining up for puliogare and gobi manchurian. Now gobi manchurian was one thing I could not muster the courage to try. There are stalls of golgappa too but not worth, we ordered one plate and tasted one golgappa each, couldn't eat the next.

Our driver had recommended another place called Guru Residency for a meal and we marched towards the place from CFTRI campus one day. This is a tall building of a hotel with the restaurant on the first floor. Quite crowded during Dassehra but this place is popular among the locals it seems. We ordered a masala dosa and an onion uttapam as these were the things we would like in a vegetarian restaurant in Mysore. While the dosa looked impressive with it's size, accompanied with 2 bowls of sambar and 2 bowls of coconut chutney, it was a good dosa but nothing great to write home about. We clciked only cell phone pictures as a big camera makes people really conscious and extremely curious at times in such places.

But we loved the Onion uttapam we ordered. I wish we had more appetite and try a few more things on the menu. In fact we could not finish the huge dosa between the 2 of us. Onion uttapam we finished, it was well made and really tasty with finelu chopped onions spread as a uniform layer on the uttapam. But the lentil curry that came with the uttapam was not our taste. Coconut chutney was average. We had coffee that was good if not the best.

The good thing is, that we tasted another great dosa at Hotel Vinayaka Mylari at Nazarbad. I hear this small restaurant is 70 year old and has been serving just dosa and idli since then. Dosa has a nice filling of masala and coconut coated beans (or other vegetables) and a blob of white butter is served over it. A plain white coconut chutney is served on the other side of the plate lined with banana leaf. We waited for our table for 30 minutes it was so crowded.

The most soft and spongy dosa I have ever had and the best flavour of fermentation that one can get in a dosa. The idli was very soft, I had idli with butter for the first time. This is a must visit place in Mysore. They serve coffee too and the wait staff is both men and women, they keep bringing more food to your table just like old fashioned wedding feasts and a small slip is produced as you finish. For 4 dosas, 2 plates of idli and 2 coffees our total bill was 90 Rs.

Only one picture was clicked before we dug into the dosa and then there was no looking back. We ate with our soul spread over the banana leaf and fingers smeared into a rustic pleasure. No time to think of clicking a picture.

Another day we met Shubha and her family in market and she suggested we taste this authentic Mysorean mithai called Halbai. Halbai is apparently available only at Hotel Dasaprakash so we walked to the Hotel to taste this. This mithai called Halbai is actually a pudding that is cut into squares. The taste is mild sweet with hints of coconut. Soaked rice and coconut is ground and strained and then cooked till thick along with ghee and sugar. The cooked mixture sets into a jelly like layer which is cut into squared and served per piece as most Indian mithais. We liked the subtle taste in this lesser known mithai from Mysore.

Later we tried the Mysore thali from Hotel Dasaprakash but it was not impressive. Although I liked the Ole (sooran) stir fry with curry leaves and coconut etc and another curry with coconut milk. Other elements in the thali were average.

Apart from these we were lucky to witness a food festival for a week called Ahar Mela that was very close to CFTRI campus where we were staying. We found a Coorgi stall and had our fill of Pandi curry, chilly pork, black chilly chicken, Coorgi chicken curry and fish curry with Nooputtu, Kadambuttu and Sanas.This food was so good we found ourselves at this stall every other day at dinner time.

And we got the food packed for our lunch most of the times. We made the best use of this opportunity you see.

Now a thing about the Mysore paak. The sweet (mithai) that Mysore is so famous for. We tried the regular Mysore paak and Kaju Mysore paak from Mahalaxmi Sweets on KR Circle road and found it good. I actually loved the kaju Mysore paak despite being cloyingly sweet.

The plain Mysore paak from Mahalaxmi is also good, slightly brown in the middle and nicely caramelized flavours.

We had heard great things about the The Guru's Mysore paak as these were the people who are supposedly the inventors of this famous mithai but the Mysore paak was so unbelievably sweet and ghee laden that there was no flavour of caramelized besan that it should have. You get a sandy texture of sugar in this one that spoils it for me. And about 2 weeks later when I tasted both these Mysore paak from different shops, I could taste bad quality ghee used in the Mysore pak from Guru Sweet Mart.

The brown one from Mahalaxmi sweets was the same in taste, taste of good quality ghee cannot be mistaken.

Mysore is a pace to be discovered slowly I feel. One cannot feel the pulse of the city in a hurry. One can go see all the museums the city boasts of and lakes and nature parks maintained really well but to eat I would always suggest to find some or the other street vendor or one of those small eateries we see along the roadsides. You never get the real taste of a place in five star hotels, it is the street food that brings you closer to the place.