Satiating the South-Indian Soul in You

I love my Idli Dosa. 

And the Vada and sambar, and good rasam and delectable chutneys.  

Now that you know my bias, you can understand why it is important for me to find a restaurant serving good South Indian cuisine wherever I am. 

Thus, this ode is to Sarvana Bhavan, Connaught Place (CP). 
Though there are 2 outlets of the same in the area, this is about the most amazing food and filter coffee experience at the Sarvana Bhavan in the outer-circle, at P-15. The other outlet, equally reputed, is on Janpath.

Having eaten South Indian food at Karnataka Bhavan, Andhra Bhavan, Sagar Ratna, and Haldiram, in Delhi, Sarvana Bhavan's taste and quality definitely impress me every time I pay a visit. It would be safe to say that it is one of the BEST SOUTH INDIAN (Vegetarian) RESTAURANTS in Delhi. 

First things first. The Food, simply put, is Amazing. 

The Dosas, are piping-hot, golden-brown, and absolutely crisp. The filling is flavorful and proportionate rather than just being a huge, un-finishable, lump of mashed, boiled potatoes, as experienced across many eateries in the city. The Sambar is yummy and served hot, with frequent replacements and refills. It also has abundant use of vegetables and thus tastes authentic and extremely tasty.

The Idlis are soft and fluffy, melting in your mouth almost instantly, and the awesomest feature about them is the accompaniment by the mighty, "Gunpowder". This fiery, red-hot, chutney is a Southern-specialty and believe me, no one in Delhi does it better than Sarvana Bhavan! Served in ghee, it is one of those accompaniments that can force you to order an extra plate of Idli on a completely full and satiated stomach.

The plate looks almost like a color palette! 
From the left, the tongue-tingling array of chutneys includes the traditional coconut chutney in white, the mint and coriander infused green chutney, the gunpowder in Ghee in the small bowl, and a tangy garlic and tomato chutney with plenty of red chillies. The last bowl is the aromatic and spicy, hot sambar, completing an interesting and inviting spectrum of flavors for the palate. Even a picture can make the salivary juices flowing!

Other offerings like upma and uttapam, and rice preparations and pooris, are equally tasty and interesting, and though the food is too tasty for you to notice the ambiance or the super-quick and efficient service, it still helps to have an uninterrupted supply of sambar and chutneys, and water and any asked-for refills. 
The seating is comfortable and almost always in high-demand and short-supply! The place is especially difficult to get-into during meal timings and on Sundays (which are typically considered South Indian food days by most North-Indian families!!). However, the experience is worth the while and most certainly justifies the time that you have to spend standing outside, sandwiched between a McDonalds on the right, and a pan-shop on the left, as you wait to park yourself inside and munch on some gorgeous food!

Rounding up the meal, is one of my all-time favorite things in the world. FILTER COFFEE! Revered as the drink of Gods, Coffee is one of those things I can live my entire life on :) Devour yummilicious food and drink scalding-hot, extra-strong, almost poisonously dark coffee forever. Happy thought :):)

The beautiful, aromatic, heavenly-smelling, and boiling-hot filter coffee at Sarvana Bhavan is actually like a little piece of God. Like a window to heaven really. Gurgling gently, calling me with a frothy face, it is the most-apt completion of a phenomenal and insanely filling meal. 

Clean, cooled, and happy, the Sarvana Bhavan eatery, in addition to the yummy food and coffee, also offers multiple sweets and other traditional preparations like butter-muruku, and  namkeens, and coconut barfee and ladoos, from a small corner on the ground-floor of the restaurant that doubles up as a selling counter. 

As you begin to move out with a satisfied heart and tummy, there is another winner, a parting-gift of sorts, that the restaurant offers, which has the potential to brighten up your entire day. If you are a fennel or saunf fan that is. The roasted, sweet, and extremely flavorful fennel on offer is too good to resist and is one of the items you'll invariably end-up asking for more of. The solutions is right there, behind the counter. 

Now the meal is complete. Tanked-up on lovely food, satiated with heavenly-smelling coffee, and mouth-shut due to flavorful fennel, you walk out, trying to catch the staff's attention to pass generous smiles, but they are busy with someone else already. Another customer needs an urgent chutney re-fill. And so the service at the Sarvana Bhavan (meaning everyone's hall  or everyone's place) goes on. 

Well, so long, till another day, another batch of dosas and idlis, and of vadas and coffee! The love affair shall continue. Hoping to catch some of you South Indian food lovers over some coffee at the Sarvana Bhavan someday!

Spotted!

Coffee and Books!! A matchless combination :)

Described by some as the 'Best Book Store of Delhi', and revered by some as probably one of the best in the world, Faqir-Chand-and-sons leads a quiet existence in a not-so--quiet part of Khan Market, Delhi.

How do you know they mean business? Well do take a look at the picture below! (Picture credits: stephanieho)

My heart is literally overflowing with love. 
Wish I could live my entire life just inside this little piece of heaven!

Fooooooooooooood Morning Delhi!!!!!

Rain-soaked, shivering, chilly Delhi. 

Tuesday morning, yawning lazily, rubbing its eyes as it slowly takes over from Monday night. The weather and the early morning making you crave for something unhealthily tasty. 

The ideal time for some Delhi-type gallivanting!

A trip to The Pracheen (ancient) Hanuman Mandir (Temple of the Hindu-God Hanuman) near Connaught Place or CP, is sure to get you food, both for the soul, and the tummy, all days of the week, but especially on such a wet, hungry, full of craving, Tuesday Morning.

Located on Baba Khadak Singh Road, the temple comes alive at about 4 in the morning (yes you read it right! 4 am), with a long queue forming for the Aarti or morning prayer. Tuesdays are particularly busy and full of excited energy. 

The temple complex, right opposite the long lane of State Handicraft Emporiums, has interesting flower and prasad shops, the typical offerings for the "Monkey-God". His favorite sweets 'Boondi' and 'Ladoos' are in ample supply, catering to the needs of the hungry souls and stomachs! 

In addition to the "sweet-tooth addict's dream come true" yummilicious Boondi (see picture above), the complex also offers some very interesting options like fresh and piping-hot bread pakoras, sinfully fried with besan (gram flour) on the outside and deliciously tender, with melt-in-the-mouth stuffing on the inside!

However, the star-attraction of the morning, in addition to Hanuman-ji, is not the bread-pakora but another deeply fried, oh-so-awesome, eagerly-awaited, snack, that has a long line of contenders waiting for it at the halwai-shop (sweet shop). 

While the batter gets literally battered, to get molded into these part-round, part-UFO  shaped delicacies, the crowd grows. People on cycles and in Audis, on foot and in Mercedes,  on Scooters and in rickshaws, stop and eagerly count the people standing in front of the shop, mentally estimating the time it will take for them to get their hands on some of the beautiful, golden-brown, fried awesumness. 

And then the wait ends. 

A huge basket of too-hot-to handle kachoris or fried flattened balls made of fine flour stuffed with a heavenly mixture of pulses and aromatic spices arrives. The excitement and eagerness is palpable, with all conversation ceasing, and everyone waiting to count how many are being bought by the people ahead in the queue. Hoping, and silently praying that all the hot ones wouldn't finish before their turn comes. 

The speed and efficiency in distribution is amazing. Out comes a small disposable bowl, in goes one kachori, on it goes a huge spoon of some spicy potato-gravy, and you are good to go. Oh, take-away is possible too. Some take 30 kachoris, with the potato-gravy packed separately, evidently to feed a waiting-in-anticipation family back home!

It is impossible to eat more than two! 

Heavily stuffed and smoking hot, the Kachoris are a perfect match for the rainy Delhi morning. Interesting, spicy, full of flavor and character, and perfect with a hot cuppa of tea, the snack is a reflection of everything Delhi is. 

So, while the homeless sleep on the footpath in the complex and ask for food as Tuesdays usually witness many people offering free food to those sitting around temples, people drive down in big cars to enjoy Kachoris and bread pakoras. The same contradiction that silently lives in all our cities.

But we overlook it. We are untouched by it. It is almost like a shadow, one that we can avoid.

We are happy to come for Aarti and bread pakoras, for tea and Kachoris, for peace for the soul and the stomach. We are happy to feel bad for "them", feel the correct amount of sadness while we devour the snacks and sip the tea. 

We go back, to come again another Tuesday morning, looking for God and food...for peace and satisfaction, and for the best Kachoris and tea in Delhi. 

Blood and Tears. A Story Told Right...

It was a regular Sunday evening. Nothing special.

Nothing except a play that we planned to see. Sunday evening entertainment.

Nothing prepared us for it. 

Oh, we have read Manto before. Yes. 

We have seen Partition-based movies before. We have also heard and seen stories of the horrors that accompanied that time and became the norm rather than an exception. 

But nothing prepared us for it.

Tears flowed freely, as one story after another was enacted. Almost as good as Manto had written them, or maybe better, because they made accessible to a large audience, a widely misunderstood and misinterpreted writer. The pathos, anguish, and heart-wrenching pain of the characters coming alive through brilliant acting and phenomenal direction. Toba Tek Singh, Khol Do, Gurmukh Singh Ki Wasiyat, Sahay, and Sharifan, bruising you with their utter honesty to the harsh words written by the master, of pathos, and of naked, brutal, honesty.

So while Toba Tek Singh screamed his lungs out and left you wondering if he, in his madness, had more sense than any of the 'luminaries' who thought they would make lines on land and divide souls, a beautiful Sakina surrendered her body in 'Khol Do', signifying the surrender of the human spirit itself, to brutality and naked plunder. 

Anguished sobs could be heard across the hall. 

And while Sahay and Gurmukh Singh KI Wasiyat were precise, blunt, and sharp to the point of injuring your heart, it was Sharifan, drawing the curtain on the play, that made us want to scream out in pain. The expression of violence and brutality, and of vengeance in the form of rape of young girls from both religions, gave us goosebumps and tears, but in addition, made us question the complete futility of violence of any kind, just as Manto had intended. 

So, this was not, after all, regular Sunday evening entertainment. 

As I hugged Shilpi Marwaha, one of the lead artists of the play, I cried and said thank you. It was an expression of gratitude for translating so beautifully to life, the lines of pain and anguish written by Manto, to reflect one of the worst periods of communal tension in the world. 

Well Delhi, it is your chance to understand and witness the work of a phenomenal writer, who is as contemporary as he is of a certain period. Do make the most of this opportunity by watching this enactment by the Asmita Theatre Group.

 For more information, you can visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Asmita-Theatre-Group/289399154409346.

For information about an upcoming play of Manto in the city, please visit

https://www.facebook.com/events/257864307667132/