My earliest memories of Bangalore was when I came with my parents and sister for a vacation, sometime in 1983, and I was very small then, but I faintly remember the trip and some what in bits and pieces. Apart from Brindavan Gardens and Bannerghata National Park, what etched my mind rather lingered on my taste bud was the excellent food at Sukhsagar in majestic. It was probably the only Sukhsagar in Bangalore then, but the food though being veg it created a benchmark for veg food all through my adolescence.
My next visit, was while I was in Bschool, and came over from Hyderabad, where my taste buds had been seasoned with the moghlai food and biriyani's and haleems of the world. The visit was to meet with friends from school days who were doing their engineering here. With limited budget and the new aquiantace to lager the motive of the visit was to enjoy "3W's" Bangalore was famous for.
It started with some snacking at Fanoos, – a great place for some quick rolls. A small corner joint on Hosur road, before the Vellara junction, which in earlier days only served Baddi Gosht rolls, especially the Mambo & Jambo rolls; today serves a good range of kebabs. A nice snack pick joint for parties at home. Only issue, No Parking!!
With the sunseting it was like a pilgrimage time, visiting Pecos, only because I was tired of hearing about this place!! A very odinary pub on Church Street off Brigade road. Look wise nothing special here, but what you get is chilled beer, great Jazz, some awesome dosas & non-veg curry, not to miss their chilli non veg starters. The Nostalgia comes for free!!
Midnight eating has been a habit of pub goers in Bangalore!! After a couple of drinks and rock music, its time to indulge in some Grilled Chicken, Ghee Rice and Butter chicken at Empire!! To be honest the butter chicken is nowhere near, to what you get in North India, but it’s just the traditional menu which has been followed through generations of pub goers. Today you get some fancy dosas as well, but trust me, it is better to stick to the basics; you may opt for kerela parathas, if you are not a rice eater!!
To cool off the spice, its time for some sweets, and what better than Corner House, a traditional ice-cream joint in Bangalore, I guess known to all. “Death by Chocolate” or DBC as it is better known is a desert of a life time. It’s got all to make you run a couple of kilometer extra the next morning, but its heavenly and a signature dish at Corner House. A word of cautious, share it else, you may land up with “Chocophobia”
That was my indulgence of local Karnataka cuisine. For me the non vegetarian cuisine has a lot of influence of different parts of Karnataka, especially the costal kind of Mangalore and the Coorgi style which at time you may feel borrows its ethnicity from parts of Kerala. The Tipu Sultan factor brought in some taste of the mughals into the traditional non vegetarian cuisine and created a fusion. If you take my advice, never try the biriyani at a local joint. Its is a concoction of a poor man’s pulao laced in some meat and ghee rice. The fried chicken kebabs (unusual to be called kebab) is something I liked apart from the grilled chicken, which is overly spiced if you compare is to a copy book grilled chicken recipe from the west.
This journey of my first glimpse continues with my new found taste bud in these five years I have been living here…
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