Eatouts in Malleswaram...

I spent the last 10 years of my life in Bangalore.Nine out of these ten years were spent in Malleswaram.For those of you not from Bangalore,Malleswaram is one of those places in Bangalore that still holds a lot of charm and warmth,something that is fast disappearing in Banagalore. Old mansions, colleges/ schools, temples in every nook and gully ,even in the most crowded market areas,beautiful temples with banyan tree and courtyards.Nothing of this has changed during the course of time.Hope it never does too.

But Malleswaram was also the hunting ground for two huge foodies me and my sister.Our slightly built frames disguise the amount of gluttony we both are capable of !Our favourite :"Chats". How i miss those days....those places....This blogpost is for those memories...may it serve as a guide for yet another foodie like me!Let me rave and rant about my favourites( not inthe order of favouritism though!)

The Hanuman stores bhel-puri. For us folks studying in MES...it was a treat...nothing great....not many things thrown into it, but the tamarind chutney had the right tanginess and the taste was always consistent, bhel was crisp ,with dhania thrown on the top.

There used to be a store called Annapurna just in front of the famous Veena stores on Margosa Rd.This guy used to make wonderful Samosas.The best i tasted anywhere in Banaglore.He started Chaats later on ,but nothing as good as the Samosas.Numerous evenings after college have i spent there with friends.A favourite destination for us students to treat each other.These days kids have more money which they flaunt in coffee days and pizza huts!

Who has'nt heard of Veena stores? The little joint serves fresh made steaming idlis, crisp golden vadas and other stuff .The chutney here is fabulous in taste with the right amount of pudina.The crowd thronging this store is never-ending .

I think dosas and i think of CTR facing the Malleswaram grounds.Golden crisp dosas just the way i like it.Also good are the Mangalore Bajjis, Maddur vadas and Rava idlis here.Janatha hotel in the busy 8th cross road is famous, but i always preffered CTR.

Phalamrutha in a narrow road joining 8th cross street came later on...and attracted lot of people..(its a busy street) ..hmm ..i never found anything special there but sure the masala puri reminds me of the one you get in mysore (may be a weaker twin in taste though!)..

There used to be a joint called Buttersponge we used to go to during our college days...This was the place i ate my first veg grilled sandwich...pastries were good too.

A popular hangout for us MES collegians was the "Eatout" on the 15 th cross road.There was a time when this guy used to dish out north-indian (Malai koftha was yum) ,south-indian ,chats everything under the same roof for very reasonable prices.Then one fine day the restaurant closed down...dont know why?

On the same road later came on, a chat shop called "Sairams" which soon started dishing out sandwiches,pizzas,juices,icecreams everything in a small garage converted shop...The crowds (mostly students) were huge and we used to go there pretty often because it was near to home and also the chats were always customised the way we wanted it.The guy never grudged if we asked more meetha(saunth) 'n' number of time :)

"Sai shakti" was yet another place we headed to on days when we wanted to eat something different,tasty yet homely and light on the stomach. Not to mention that it was light on the wallet also.The joint exclusively sold North-indian stuff.The curries are nothing to write about.Iam sure there will be many joints giviing out better tasting stuff but this place was very homely and light.They serve phulkas and chapatis and the curries were always less oily,no artificial coloring and fresh.The lassis ( peda lassi) were good too.

Adyar Anand bhavan was one more place haunted by us .Nothing special about the chats here but one of the very few places in bangalore serving us "Jhal muri" and having stayed in Kolkata i can vouch for the taste.A special mention would be for the kai -murukus and karela chips here.

I forget the name of the bakery at Malleswaram circle but it used to serve good grilled sandwiches, burgers and ice creams and soups for Rs 5.Probably inspired from a famous eatery at Jayanagar

Adigas has come up quite recently ( under a year) and in true darshini style serve good dosas and other good south-indian stuff.They keep adding new things to the menu : Pesarattu, Neer dosa etc...Whatever we ate here was good. Shanti sagar just a stone's throw away was nothing different to write about.

One more place that comes to my mind is the small Dharwad Store opposite to Asha's food camp at 10th cross...hmm...the chilli bajjis and bondas were awesome...A taste very different and fiery.It also has very different sweets (i fail to remember the names though).There was something called Bidar Paan i guess.And of course the Dharwad Peda.

Asha's food camp was a nice eatery, darshini style but with seating arrangement.The first floor housed the service restaurant with North-indian menu.Not bad.
Asha sweets was a favourite place to have a quick bite .Bengali sweets ( sandesh,rossogulla), paneer samosas,dhoklas,veg rolls, dahi vadas, gajjar halwa...Iam salivating already.

Kanti sweets at Malleswaram circle was the place for Parathas served with curds and aam ka achar...Also good were the chats and Paneer manchurian (yum).

A joint called Nandini sweets opened up just before i left and the guy was extra generous in offering free samples( not that iam complaining)...Hmm...I remember the golgappas, dahi chats and rasgulla chat( made famous by Gangotree chats) were very good.Hope the joint is still there when i go back...

New Mangalore stores served up churumuri Mangalore isstyle which was very yummy and comes close to the ones you get at Kadri park, Mangalore.As far as other Churumuri stores are considered they dish out something which seems like a cross between bhel and churumuri .so much for cosmo culture! The actual taste for churumuri can be tasted at Mysore.

It may seem blasphemous to many that i omit "Halli mane" but then sorry...kadubus there are good so is the ragi rotti ,but i have eaten at better places...so not much to mention here.

So much so...i know i sounded like a severely malnourished glutton ...but then iam not repenting coz its my blog and i have a right to rant and rave here as per my wish :-)...Only a fellow foodie can understand all this....