Went to Khar near the station on the west side to check out the newly-opened South Indian Brahmin Cafe. We went basically to check out their much-touted (on social media) benne dosa. Truth be told, it was highly disappointing. For Rs 220 you are served two thick dosas with a blob of tasteless potato palya, coriander chutney, and decent sambar. There was no benne or white butter on top. We had to ask for it. Normally benne dosa is golden brown with a shiny texture. This one was more like an uttappa made of grainy batter. The thattai idli was large and yum. The place boasts of 90 varieties of dosas! The kai dosa made of shredded cucumber too was passable. The place also serves north Indian and Chinese veg cuisine. As for the ambiance, it was just about OK.
A Special Guest At The Ambani wedding
The enduring image of the wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant is that of the scion respectfully touching the feet of Shanteri Nayak, owner of Cafe Mysore. The video shows Anant excitedly calling out to Radhika and introducing her to Shanteri, who is not a celeb but a humble widow carrying on the culinary legacy of her late father-in-law, A Rama Nayak, and late husband Nagesh. In fact it was Nagesh, a pleasantly talkative hotelier, who refurbished the cafe, which is regarded as one of the oldest Udipi joints in Mumbai. A very customer-friendly hotelier, he was on first-name terms with his regular clients. He introduced interesting items like idli gadbad and dilkush dosai. He air-conditioned the mezzanine section and priced the filter ‘kaapi’ very high. This was not because he was greedy but because the Laila-Majnus from nearby Khalsa College occupied the tables for hours on end ordering only kaapi, while other customers had to wait! Nagesh introduced the farsan counter where you could pick up the best Madras mixture, banana wafers, masala potato wafers, et al. He had a small office above the cafe where he would serve the best of scotch with masala peanuts and wafers to select friends, including yours truly
Some good news
Last Friday the Press Club, the popular watering hole of journos, celebrated the first anniversary of its karaoke section. It was a full house. Stand-up comedian, the ever-popular Navin Prabhakar, had the journos in guffaws with his trademark ‘pehchan kaun’ jokes. Ace singer Chetan Rana was there. Sachin Sawant and Clyde Crasto, spokespersons of the MPCC and NCP (Sharad Pawar), respectively, were special guests and they surprised all with their singing talent. For a change, the scribes didn’t mind facing the music!
Tailpiece
The best thing about rain, as Charles Chaplin said, is that even if you cry no one will know.
(Compiled by S Balakrishnan)