Adyar-Tiruvanmiyur Food Walk - Epic!

After the Mylapore Food Walk last week, I was quite eager for the next edition - Adyar-Tiruvanmiyur. An impressive lunch at a friend's place left me thinking if I'd ever be able to eat anything at this food walk. Fortunately, the long walk ensured that I didn't have to worry too much and I was careful to not eat everything that I saw. I had miniscule portions and my intention was to interact with the people who turned up.

Stop 1: Thirumala cutlet stall - right next to Adyar Bakery on Sardar Patel Road. (Lifestyle, Shakes and Creams). For a group of 24, 15 cutlets, 300 gm pakoda and about 10 bajjis - the bill totalled to 199. The cutlets were soft on the inside, and crunchy on the outside, the pakoda fresh and crisp. 

Stop 2: Coronet Juice Center - right at the corner. The Sharjah milk shake is supposed to be killer here - with frozen milk, dates and bananas - it's supposed to cause a momentary brain freeze. I quite didn't like the taste of this or the strawberry flavored one but the falooda was excellent with fresh fruits and mild sweetness. Cost about 480 for a group of 24 - with about 4 sharjah shakes, a couple of faloodas and 2 strawberry shakes.

Stop 3: This entailed a long round about walk to the Adyar Telephone Exchange - via Ramkay agencies. Sri Lakshmi Sagar Hotel. This place is quite old and one of the places that let patrons dunk their idlis in a sea of sambar and eat with much relish. For our table, 4 plates of idli sambar and 2 coffees - Rs 120.

From there, it was an adventure of sorts as 11 of us suddenly decided to hop into a 47A that stopped at the signal and head to Tiruvanmiyur while the rest of them broke their heads on how to reach there! :P

Stop 4: Sri Krishna Tiffin Center at the end of Chitrakulam Street, Near Marundeeswarar Temple. This place is famous for their vadai and getti chutney (thick coconut chutney). And they were surprised to see a bunch of girls and guys walking in with huge cameras and appetites. Food started flowing in. Parottas, set dosais + vadacurry, vadai chutney, chapati kurma, podi dosai - burrppppp! This is by far the best eatery in all these years of my street food eating. The vada curry was top class and the parotta was super soft and required no side dish! An overall bill for god knows how many of all those mentioned above would have touched Rs 500.

Stop 5:  Juice Tree near Marundeeswarar Temple. The guys ordered some juice to refresh while some of us just stretched our legs. This has been an excellent day. I sampled some kiwi juice and an eight fruit zinger - I loved both! 

An overall average of INR 100 per person, on this lovely Food Walk. Don't miss it next time! 

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Mylai Food Walk

As part of the Mylapore Fest, the CFG group decided to do a Mylapore Food Walk. I have eaten in all of these places that we visited today; yet this was special because of this gang!

We all assembled near Karpagambal mess (and we decided we wouldn't go in there - the quality has terribly gone down) and walked down to Kalathi News Paper Mart. This place is known for their rose milk and has been in existence ever since time immemorial. This is at the corner of East Mada Street and South Mada Street. At Rs 12 per glass, this is the best thirst quencher in this little corner of the world.

From there, we headed to Rayars Mess. This tiny non-descript mess is tucked away amidst a row of houses and apartments in Arundale Street, off Kutchery Road, Mylapore. It can seat a maximum of 8 people at a time and their adai aviyals and onion rava dosais are to die for. As a gang of 20 people descended into this tiny lane, there were people looking down upon us from their balconies and wondered if they should dump their garbage on us for ruffling the feathers of this quiet locality.

At Rs 800 for 20 people, for a massive order of rava dosais, adais, potato bondas, coffees, gulabjamuns, this place is total value for money. Please note that this can get super crowded and on Sunday mornings, typically, there are people waiting outside by the dozens.

As the taste buds craved for more, we hit Mamis mess, a little mess that works on self service model, on Pichu Pillai Street, Off East Mada Street. This is diagonally opposite Kalathi News Paper Mart. We raided this place amidst all the honking autos and yelling vendors, picking our way between the gypsy maalais and earrings! The order here included piping hot vazhakai bajji and molaga bajji, and strong filter coffee.

It was time up, as the Mylapore Fest would start shortly and we wouldn't be able to take our bikes and cars out. So we had to miss jannal kadai. Jannal Kadai is a small little shop, opp the West Entrance of Kapaleeswarar Temple, which hands out bajjis and bondas through a window and hence the name :)

We wound up in Mylapore and headed towards Kotturpuram to meet the regulars at Kalakkal Cafe. Kalakkal Cafe is a brilliant initiative as part of Vidya Sagar, which promotes the cause of wheel chairs and helps connect people who use wheel chairs. It was a great experience to meet people who are totally independent despite being on wheel chairs. Karthik runs his own library - Sri Chakra Lending Library and if you'd like to donate books, please feel free to do so! UmmulKhair has finished her law course and now works with a law firm. Kalakkal Cafe operates every 2nd and 4th Saturday. Please lend your support! It need not be monetary, just spending some time with these people makes life colorful for all of us!

And that marks the beginning a great weekend!

Cheers!

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