Street treats

Street treats
The Hindu

FOOD STREET. No prizes for guessing what it is famous for. Located in the heart of Bangalore at V.V. Puram, Food Street or V.B. Bakery Road as it also known, is a mecca for hardcore foodies. The road has it all: bun-butter congress, akki roti, masala dosa, gulab jamoon, potato bonda, American baby corn masala, badam milk and paneer fried rice to name a few.

The road is barely 150 meters long and it has dozens of eateries that serve vegetarian food (sans eggs or mushrooms) that will go well with any palate. The road is a one-way and thank god for that, because there's no way two-way traffic can squeeze through this narrow and congested street.

Most unusual

Right at the entrance of the road is the good old V.B. Bakery, which is famous for dumroot, bun-butter congress, and bun-butter jam. Of the three, the bun butter congress is unique to this bakery. It is a masala bun stuffed with a generous portion of butter and peanuts mixed with chilli sauce. Priced at Rs. 7, it is a true taste-bud tingler.

Just up the road, opposite the temple, there's a small eatery (most of them don't have names) that serves some of the best akki rotis in town. The rotis are served with a dollop of butter on top and three different types of chutneys — coconut, onion, and chilli. The rotis are an unbeatable texture of crispness and softness and go very well with the chutneys.

There are a number of dosa joints that line the street and the variety of dosas range from the humble plain dosa to the foot-long paper masala dosa served with fresh coconut and onion chutneys.

The bonda shop that is located diagonally opposite to the fruit juice centre makes art out of bondas. It serves four types of bondas — potato, chilli, capsicum, and banana. The bondas are first sliced in two and the slices covered in a local version of coleslaw made of carrots and onions. They are then served with a dash of salt, chilli and lemon. The shop is usually open for business by 6.45 p.m. but hurry to buy your bondas, because the store is usually exhausted by 9.30 p.m. The bondas are priced from Rs. 2 onwards.

Most Chinese food available in the city is Indianised, but a pushcart on Food Street has perfected the art of `curryfying' Chinese food. Located diagonally opposite the bonda shop, it is manned by four boys and serves some absolutely delicious rumali rotis with gravy, paneer and gobi rolls, paneer fried rice and noodles, and the usual gobi and baby corn manchurian and paneer 65. The rolls, rice and noodles are priced from Rs. 15 onwards while the rotis cost Rs. 10.

Cornwallahs

But no mention of Food Street is complete without the cornwallahs and their pushcarts. Parked right at the end of the road, these vendors don't stop at just roasting and boiling corn. They offer dishes like butter baby corn, American baby corn masala, and the seasonal mango corn mix. The number of recipes is just mind-boggling and the customer can mix 'n' match any recipe. The carts are even equipped with fans and ingenious devices to cook the corn. Now, after the main course if you are looking for dessert you can choose between ice-cream and fruit juice, and gulab jamoon and badam milk. Or if that isn't enough, you can try the absolutely sinful pheni with badam milk and powdered sugar.

So, what are you waiting for? Get off your couch and rediscover the art of stuffing yourself silly. Food Street opens for business by 6.30 pm and is open till well after 11 pm.

* * *

* Ambience: Drive-in buffet
* Wallet factor: Very affordable
* Speciality: Everything
* Service: Self-service