January 11, 2007

Chennai Chuckles

A lot of small roadside restaurants in Chennai proclaim:" High Class Vegetarian"

Also such a large metro and you will hardly find any common man's restaurants here. Only hotels, pronounced "O-tull".

It is so quirky. They certainly do not mean that the chefs are high class or that they encourage only high class patrons. And if you step in - u will see rickety granite top tables and make do Nilkamal plastic chairs or steel foldables. And definitely no provision to rest a weary head as in a hotel.

Yeah, yeah, I know they mean "good quality" when they say "high class". These are the small shack like eat outs of Chennai. And some of them serve amazingly yummy food- even if they are not highly classy in appearance . Oh, I love Chenna!

As "Celebrating Chennai" goes- there is a new FM station in town - Radio One. ( 94.3) Pretty neat launch. And all those who are sniggering, no nepotism here.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh how i miss my chennai... b'lore has lots of hotels that are supposedly good quality but they just suck. or there are all those sagars which serve only veg ( =yuck! :) ). if you want to try different cuisines, there are lots of places but there is always something screwed up in them. i enjoyed hampi trip mainly because of the great italian, thai,continental food they serve in restaurants that resemble chennai tea shops. unbelievable but true.

Artnavy said...

now that is interesting- tell me more on how to get to hampi and whre to stay - s first hand account rather than the spruced up travel links i have been visiting

Itchingtowrite said...

since u r publicising 94.3, i campaign for hindi hour

Anonymous said...

Good things always come in simple packagings. :)

www.withacupofcoffee.wordpress.com

karmic said...

I think I have seen such signs too, often at the most rickety of places and often misspelt too!

By Deepa and Supriya said...

"o-tull" LOL, i know what you are talking about...but believe me I would trade the nicer-looking-but-crappy-food Indian restaurants here in Dallas for those hole-in-the-wall joints that serve yummy food anyday. And sniggering, no way...we got our first ever Desi FM 104.9 station right here in Dallas (2 weeks ago. That's right!! I will write about it I think.

Anonymous said...

take a overnight train to hospet and then an auto to hampi ( 13kms from hospet).Plan to stay for 1.5 days so you can cover all places relaxedly and also eat a lot of italian food :). there are quite a lot of ruins to see. we took cycles (you can rent them for a day and cycle away... too gud) and saw 30% of the temples n ruins on day one and went to tungabadra river dam to watch the sunset (you can see the pic in my blog). plan to stay in huts by the river, if you choose otherwise, you can stay in ranjana guest house(mentioned in lonely planet) where they serve nice continental breakfast. mango tree restaurant is a place to eat by the river. they have stone benches on the floor by the river under a mango tree. must visit place. another good psychedelic druggy place with lots of fluorescent paintings and european food is restaurant shanti. they play amazing world music. we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner here on the 2nd day. its that good. dont be surprised if a waiter wearing a baniyan welcomes phirangs in italian or spanish. ;). cover the rest of the places on day 2 and get an auto to hospet and leave by bus or train overnight.

Fuzzylogic said...

Oh,how I miss those small shacky eatouts back home!Somehow the food they serve always tasted so much more yummy than any classy restaurant.I have not stayed long in Chennai to know those joints but Bangalore and Mysore have tons of them too.All the golgappas,chaats,chana choors,kachori,samosas..mmmm!
Nothing beats them:)

Artnavy said...

thanks analog- now post this on your blog along with teh snaps- it will be so useful to all

all the rest- Here is to yummy food irrespective of the venue

Kalpana said...

hmm...

Sudeep said...

about "high class" vegetarian restaurants in chennai, check this one.

Anonymous said...

You write very well.