Thindi Beedi - The Multi Cuisine Food Complex
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The Thindi Beedi was shown to me recently by my friend Shankar Narayan. I am quite embarrassed my self, that being a Bangalorean for 25 years now I had to know about this from somebody else. So shame on you Bangalore guys who still don't know about this. Well, even if you don't know about this you must have heard of the legendary VB Bakery in Vishweshwarapuram (VV Puram). By the side of it, is this poorly lit street - aptly named "Thindi Beedi" (translates to Food Street).
If you are looking for variety for your evening snacks, this is where you can get it. The only thing common among most of the dishes that you get here is that they are mostly "Vegetarian". Let me walk you thru all the stalls that I visited this Saturday Evening.
We started off with a Plate each of Gobi Manchurian and Baby Corn Manchurian. Although, Gobi Manchurian is no longer considered Chinese with all the South Indian masalas in it, it was proudly classified as "Chinese" by the proprietor along side a variety of fried rice and noodles. There were so many orders that he had to keep an assistant each to issue coupons and collect them in exchange for the dishes. Our orders were processed in about 15 minutes. We (me and 4 of my friends) had a lot of catching up to do and so could not really complain about the delay... But others did not seem to mind either.
Next up I wanted to have Masalapuri... I kind of like the uniformity in its taste where ever it is. Its almost like a IUTF standard. But I was encouraged to conserve my appetite for items that we get to eat only here. So we went to a bonda kiosk. You may wonder how is bonda different in VV Puram. But chefs here as innovative as the Italian fashion designers(no points for guessing where that simile came from). Any way he served the same old Capsicum bond cut into pieces and garnished with onion, coriander and carrot gratings. I don't know if it was only my mind set that day... It did taste different. Inspired by this, we took a bonda of banana slices. In an attempt to conserve enthu and appetite, we sacrificed eating dahi vada, Alu bonda, nippat, maddur vada and other fried dishes which were available at that stall. One pleasing fact that most of the dishes were served either on banana leaflets or paper... Usage of plastic was bare minimum...
We skipped many other stalls that made comparatively routine snacks like Dosa, Masala Dosa, Onion Dosa, Set Dosa... gunta pangalalu (Wondering what it is??), Bhel Puri, Churmuri... and so on.. We reached another big attraction on Food street - the Corn delicacies. Here you get all kinds of corn... American corn, - Mexican corn- Indian (Mandya) corn, big corn or small corn, baby corn or adult corn, stripped or with clothes, cut or whole and so on... I was thinking that he is just keeping a flower over your ear... (a colloquial expression that amounts to "taking some one on a ride") But it did turn out that he has that kind of variety... We ate 2 sets of Baby corn cut into small pieces and served over the skin of normal corn with a patented masala combination. The kick was no less than center shock gum. We reserved the other varieties for our future visits and moved on.
Till now it had been only masalas... We thought we ought to have a reprieve from spices. We tried Basundi... Sadly it is served in a small plastic cup. But the taste is excellent... rich and creamy. The taste linger on the tongue for long. After basundi, we ordered one plate of gulkhan & butter. It was not all that great although it was served with a Elakki Banana and a cherry. Malleswaram dwellers like me who are used to Bhagyalakshmi Gulkhan stores which has set the standard for taste and quality all thru our Bangalore expect more. But gulkhan did add to the unending variety on the Food Street.
Finally, to digest all of these we had a refreshing "Masala Soda" After a hour long of variety food, we decided that we go back to our respective homes and crash.
But one thing is definite that I will be back on the food street for more...
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