The Three Foodies !! - 2 - Sagar Ratna, DLF Place, Saket

Ha ha! Rasam, the Aroma !!

This post is actually only for ‘Rasam’ lovers. I almost tasted rasam last time when I was at my house during my vacations at Chennai by November 2013. So after almost three months I taste rasam. This time it was at completely different region, which is not known for rasam, instead famous for Daal Makhni and Rajma, Delhi it is.

This time it was not three of us. My team accompanied me, my company colleagues on a team lunch.

To accommodate the taste of everyone, the only option is to take you where there are multiple outlets and each member can have food of their own choice. There will be no question of the taste or no comments on the price that you are spending to cherish the moment. This happens once in a month (Yeah, I am lucky to work for this company, not to forget I had to clear a test and two interviews, to be here).

So we were at the Food court, DLF Place, Saket at Delhi. Yes! A food court, I understand the happiness to be at a food court for that I love to eat food. I am amidst fifteen kiosks of great food servers from the past not known what to eat in first place, then the confusion, What to order and where not to order from?

So out of previous experience going to malls and eating in food courts since 2010 at Chennai, the mantra to eat in a food court is simple, you got to decide the cuisine first then, the hotel/sever that make that particular cuisine tasting the best.

This comes only out of practice I too had difficulty during my initial phase eating at malls, as in Coimbatore we were known only to restaurants and not for food courts.

The more time and food you waste ordering in a food court, the more knowledge and expertise you develop in ordering and enjoying food.

Like I said simply make up your mind on what you are going to have, if necessary try one extra dish and nothing more.

Okay, coming back to the story of Rasam.

Working for an IT company, its natural that I have a team and time to discuss my schooldays or moments that I cherished and lots of other discussions to keep your stress out, on one such conversation I happened to quote 'Rasam naa Vadavalli mammi thaan' meant Rasam means what Vadavalli aunty used to prepare for me.

This lead to my craving for rasam all of a sudden, I had to disturb my two friends about rasam and even asked them to check online recipe and method to prepare it at out place. All the online methods or plans to make rasam at home did not yield a fruitful result.

That is when I came to a conclusion to have a complete rasam rice unlimited offered at Andhra Bhavan. You see always there is this thing called fate, you plan and he too plans accordingly. Here is the twist, unfortunately one goodu boy met with an accident and the doctor has requested him not to strain his legs. So I had to wait for my time to taste. Not knowing how long will it take for him to get his leg will become all right as we travel to taste foods in three or more. We make sure one of us is not missed on the taste that other is going to enjoy almost in all cases.

There happens to be exceptions, but not for rasam as the conversation was with this goodu boy who also wanted to taste rasam, and rasam can wait naturally.

The more you wait the more beautiful the thing look, it is applicable to food as well, but you got to know where it is served with the wright taste and procedure.

After a day, my mobile phone beeped with a notification that the team is scheduled for team lunch, in two days, my mind-voice says (use paniruda kaipulla, [Vadivelu]) this is the chance for me to taste rasam that I desired to have not knowing when.

So as planned we went to the food court in the near by mall, DLF Place Saket, Delhi South.

I had to pause for a moment as here in most hotels they serve dhal, rice, roti and paneer as meals. I had to look out for a south Indian hotel that serves rasam, luckily for me there was Sagar Ratna; they had rasam rice in their menu. I immediately gave my cash card and said one rasam rice jaldhy dhena.

The cost of the plate was 120/-INR plus tax.
 Served with 200-250Gm of Rice in a plastic plate and a pappad.
The Rasam is served in a cup about 150-250 Ml.
There is a mixed vegetable pickle served with the above.

The food is limited. The rasam was Famous Mysore rasam with more of coriander and spices.

The best part of having rasam is drinking it, its more or less a tomato soup rich in spices and taste. They also serve Rasam and pappad as starter for 45/-INR plus tax.

[pic curtesy zomato.com]

Ah! The aroma of rasam brought my Vadavalli Mammi's memory and days. I have tasted rasam almost every day she prepares, while I generously miss what my mother or granny makes at home. This mammi had a specialty in her hands in preparing rasam. May be next time when I go to Coimbatore will taste rasam one more time from my Vadavalli Mammi.

My dad is a patron to rasam, my granny or my mother used to cook rasam daily for my dad and my grandfather, I was not a big follower of the rasam that My granny or my mom used to prepare, still I like to taste rasam occasionally. May be, I am following my dad and Grandpa’s way but with some simple specification of taste (only Mysore rasam).

Next time if you wish to taste something from the South Indian try Rasam Rice from Sagar Ratna, DLF Place, and Saket at Delhi.

United we stand divided we fall. What if it happens the other way ?

What if India gets divided in itself?

Just for a moment I got a thought what if India gets divided among itself to form a new Country? Something like the European union, called the Indian Union.

I know India now is already divided to twenty-eight states, okay 29 including Telegana and 7 union territories (UT), err.. Wiki and the election commission of India say we are still one short of twenty-nine.

Okay lets come to the point, Now that we are 28 states and 7 UTs and we see nothing similar or common in all these states and UTs. Every state have their own way of governing the people, only certain institutions are governed by the so-called center and financial regulations are done based on the Central Government budget.

If given the chance for a state to prove it, can’t they do it? The Railways, the Banks are the most commonly referred central agencies that show their profit loss pan India.
We people speak different language, we have our own style of living, differing from the way we address people professionally, different in the way we dress for occasions. The food that we eat is different. The ways we celebrate the common function are different.
Hence, why not give a separate hand in governing too?

If you see the most gainers out of this divide and rule concept will be the state that have a port with them to perform the global trading, viz., Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Gujarat, Orissa and Karnataka. These states will definitely continue to prosper and perform better economically compared to the rest of India.

The most dangerous or affected part will be the people or the state from the extreme North and Central India. The J&K will have too less security and its easy for the neighbours to attack and take their region of country, same in case of the North-East states too which are also troubled by the intrusion of the neighbours.

I say the Central India too will be affected since we all know Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are known only for their labor in other states, still agriculture in most parts of south of MP is the source of income for the entire state. Where as Bihar is still requesting for special status as they fare poor in all fields compared to others.

So a plan can be made to combine three or four state to gain the best possible outcome.

If J&K, Haryana, Punjab, Uttaranchal and UP Combine, they have some power to define terms in their region.

Similarly Gujarat and Rajasthan can combine, Orissa Bihar and Chhattisgarh.

MP, MH can form a single region.

The Northeast all can join the WB, also Sikkim to WB.

Down south it’s really a war of the states. Every state has its own regional political party, regional trade of business and regional advantage. Only thing might be Kerala should join Tamilnadu or Karnataka as per their interest. Or all the four can join to one single state or country, then there is every chance the global ranking increases.

All the above-mentioned are just a perspective; I am not saying it is mandatory for the states to be united to get them recognised.

Globally there is every chance that the Indian Union can beat the European union and can go one level higher. We still know that the 41% of Indian population is below the poverty line, this issues can be addressed and reduced easily, once you are divided you get to know how this 41% is divided regionally and the lowest can be concentrated for being better, thus reducing the BPL value.

When it comes to education all the regions have one esteemed university that provides international level of education. Every region has its own Millionaires who are at some rank in the top 100s. Every state has its own Co-operative banks run for the people. The nationalised banks still can do better once divided as they can also boast of their branches across the globe.

Every state at an average of 500KM has an airport, so connectivity between the regions should not be a concern. The state government in most cases already own the roadways; only the highways differ from state to the national which has nothing much to do here, they will do what they are doing now, still we pay tolls at national highways and not knowing whether it reaches the right person or the department.

The education system will be different. The sports development increases naturally, we have almost an international recognised team in all possible Olympic Sport but we are not able to perform up to the expectation.

Already we take feature films different for different region of people also the box office for most of the films released today are faring well.

Given a separate status and free governing authority over the state will definitely differentiate people between others, still you cannot say people do not boast. We are made to showoff the importance one self and of the place from our early child hood days itself.

The biggest advantage might be in reduction of Corrupt officers and Corruption.
There will be better government institutions and the elected representative will do well for the people and betterment of his/her region.
There will be proper utilisation and distribution of your taxes. There is every chance the difference between the service tax and service charge collected in any restaurant is known, reduced or even abolished.

The Law body can remain the same only thing is the supreme court that is the final decision making authority might have to face less charges or cases.The Judgement and hearings from the High courts will be faster. There will be better implementation and followers of law.

The saying A law maker should not be a law breaker will be witnessed.

The one big disadvantage might be the operation of railways and Defence as discussed earlier.

If there is capability to run the banks regionally then there has to be options to operate the railway’s region wise. We have zones of railways so that it self can help in diversification of the world’s largest rail network.

The telecommunication is already divided as, if we are out of our home network we are roaming in other region; I think that is where the first hint of diversification started.

So there might be chance of survival of the fittest, if there exists a chance in the future that India is divided from republic of India to Indian Union, still everyone gets to have their own chosen government by elections and taxes vary from place to place. You get to enjoy more benefits if your region is doing better than the others.

As we all know the universal Joke on the UN worldwide survey.

The only question asked was: "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"
The survey was a huge failure...
In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant.
In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant.
In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant.
In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.
In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.
In South America they didn't know what "please" meant.
And in the USA they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.

So the divide and rule concept can work out better in years to come for the development and sustaining ourselves for the global requirement.

All thoughts of readers are welcome.

Please don’t say I am a Desa Drohi, I still cast my vote to elect the right government.

This post of a mere thousand words is just a thought; if you give a deep dive you can understand where the divisions of states is heading.

The Three Foodies !! - 1 - Andhra Bhavan Canteen, Central Secretariat- Delhi

After being idle for a month at delhi knowing my route from my guesthouse to the office, I wanted to explore the place, as I am at Delhi for the first time.

I had my two buddy friends a Keralite Tamilian and another Chennai Tamilian, who eat and crave for good food. So I will be posting our experience of hotels and street foods that we had in and around Delhi.

All these started as we wanted a reason to explore the place, you can say tourism but that will be a planned one. We wanted to roam around places and in the same do something useful out of it. So we started on a mission to find good South Indian foods across the places of Delhi.

So I am just going to explain the place, type of food they serve, what we had. My satisfaction to the money I paid and after effect of the food taken. I know there are many blogs out there giving in detail infomation and hotel owned web sites that explain their cuisine better.

This is just for the humor and the satisfaction to explain foodies culture from my end.

The first thing that comes to mind at Delhi for someone from Tamil nadu is the rice that you would have missed and the smell of sambar and rasam. The right place is the Andhra Bhavan(AB) Canteen run by the Andhra State house at Delhi.

The only servings offered is full south indian meals consisting of the Nellore Boiled Rice, A sambar, Rasam, Curry, Roti/poori, Pappu(Dhaal), Curd, Sweet. All these are vegetarian.

This is what a full meals plate in the AB canteen is served, the cost per plate is 100/-INR and they offer unlimited serving.

For a non-vegetarian they have the side dish as Chicken and Fish Fry/Masala costing 120/- to 150/-INR.

To reach this place, you can take a share auto from Central secretariat Metro station, the charge is nominal maximum of 20/person INR.

Once you reach the canteen, you will have to collect the token paying in advance for the food that you are going to have, Meals is common to all and side dish differs from order to order. There is no extra service tax or VAT to be paid. What amount is displayed on the menu is what you will have to pay.

The token has a number and is called by a manager and he will guide you to your seat. Please note I have not missed a month, its always rush on weekends and during night in the weekdays. So you will have to wait for minimum of twenty minutes to get your seats on any given day.

The canteen is closed on all public holidays. Also on Tuesdays.

Once you are at your seat another manager collects the bills or the recipient you had already paid in advance . He gives the nod to serve the food, only on his nod you get to have your food served.

The plate with a sweet and bowl curd already present is served first. Then you are served with the Curries and Pappu. Then you can have either roti/poori which is unlimited.

Once you are satisfied with poori/roti for starters, you can request the server to serve with boiled rice. In the mean time you will have two bowls filled with Sambar and Rasam respectively served.

Once the rice is served, its customary to start with Parupu Podi (Dhaal Powder) and Ghee with the rice at any Andhra Canteen. Then you can go on with you style of eating. The traditional Gongura Pickle is available a plenty for your taste.

You have your side dishes served separately. The best part of the food is so Spicy, I would recommend you to save the sweet for the last after you have curd.

The curd and sweet is limited, if you want extra then you will have to pay additional 20/-INR respectively for the same quantity.

On Sundays you get to have The famous Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, but  this is only for the early bird that catches the prey. I remember my friends missing the Biryani at 1 30 PM IST. The Biryani is served only on Sundays.

The morning are served with Pongal and idli, and I think most people do not have or engage themselves for the breakfast at AB Canteen. The reason being everyone here misses the rice, sambar, rasam in their daily routine, so everyone prefers having their full meals either in afternoon or for Dinner.

The one thing that every South Indian at Delhi would love to get themselves killed for the food they serve. The reason being you do not get the southern taste in such a good quality, QUANTITY in that price.

There are Southern Chain of restaurants like the Famous Saravana Bhavan, The Sagars' but the cost of food is high and they serve only limited food.

So first place successfully explored and enjoyed is Andhra Bhavan Canteen- Central Secretariat, Delhi. Please note the canteen is closed on Tuesdays and all public Holidays. Also the rates mentioned are subject to change.

The plates:-

Menu Card:-

interiors:-

Bon Appetit,

What I am actually doing ?

As said,

I writing.. no time publishing..

Many goes in here soon to be posted.