State Bhavan Canteen Review - Gujarati Restaurant at the Gujarat Bhawan



Gujarati Restaurant, as the canteen or mess at the Gujarat Bhawan on Kautilya Marg is called, is open to both residents / guests and the general public. (Gujarat Bhawan is the State House of the Government of Gujarat in New Delhi). Currently, the Gujarati Restaurant has a fixed menu for breakfast and thali for lunch and dinner. They rotate the items daily and each meal has one Gujarati dish to appease the Gujarati cuisine fans. The restaurant plans on expanding and will introduce an a-la-carte  menu in 3 months.

 

The Gujarati Restaurant offers a cool air conditioned haven from the hot and humid streets of Delhi. The restaurant is on the ground floor and has about 10 to 12 tables spread around a biggish hall with a huge wall mounted television on one side. And coincidentally, the TV was tuned to a news channel showing Narendra Modi addressing the public after his selection as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate. There is enough space between tables not to feel crowded. When we went to the restaurant, there were 3 tables occupied with families. We opted to sit at a table nearest to the kitchen and immediately a water jug and a tissue holder  was brought over and the waiting staff then confirmed that we would have a thali. They brought the thali with two alu vada, salad and papad served. A server then brought over lobia / black eyed peas in rasa, gujarati dal, paneer stuffed alu, and a tendli sabzi. Next the server came around with piping hot phulkas in a casserole and glasses of chhaas. The service is excellent with the servers hovering around waiting to push more food on the plate. They had hot phulkas ready to be served the moment you were eating the last one or to top the katories of sabzis or dal. After the phulkas, they brought out a casserole of simple jeera muttar rice. The sabzis, dal and phulkas were unlimited and were brought over numerous times. At the end of the meal, we were offered fruit salad - the dessert of the day which was not included in the thali. The food was simple, freshly made, hot and served with a smile. In fact, our eating could not keep pace with their serving.  

 

We chatted with a young server and he told us that they had plans to expand in 3 months and would introduce a menu card then. For now, they have thali for lunch and dinner and include one Gujarati dish per meal after realizing that not all would like the sweetish taste of Gujarati cuisine. Today, we had Gujarati Dal for lunch, Gujarati Kadhi was planned for dinner and breakfast was fafda jalebi.

 

We were happy with the simple meal that was filling and cheap at Rs.90.00 per thali, Rs.20.00 for a fruit salad and Rs.30.00 for a plate of alu vada. A satisfying lunch for two at Rs.250.00. A definite recommend from us.  







The lunch thali at Gujarat Bhawan - papad, salad, black eyed peas, dal, stuffed alu, alu vada, tendli sabzi and phulkas

Ganesh Chaturthi

Has it ever happened to you that you are out of your city during a festival and the new place does not celebrate it at all. It is as if that festival does not exist. Since we moved to Delhi we missed action on some festivals that Bombay celebrates, like Ganesh Chaturthi. Mumbai would have witnessed so many idols being transported by big and small vehicles to homes and sarvajanik pandals. Chants of "Ganpati Bappa Morya" would be heard all around to the beat of Nasik dhol. The local pandal would bring Ganpati Bappa in a truck with a groups of youngsters dancing to film music in front of the idol. We would stand in our balcony and see them going by tapping our fingers in tandem with the music. In complete contrast, we don't see any action in Delhi and the lone Sarvajanik Ganpati we know of is at the Maharashtra Sadan on Copernicus Marg.

 

Last year, we went to the Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav at the Maharashtra Sadan and for the first time we saw few Marathi speaking people, together at one place in Delhi. The pandal was decorated simply and had a beautiful Ganpati Bappa, with a pujari doing the pujas. There was lunch set up on the grounds and hoping for a good Maharashtrian meal we went to the grounds only to find out it was a regular buffet Punjabi food. With our hopes dashed we went to the Canteen on the first floor and tried their thali. Nothing great to write about and yes, it could be described to a very small degree as a Maharashtrian thali. We were hoping they would have modaks, the steamed variety (ukdiche modak) but no luck on that front as well. Feeling disappointed we promised ourselves that we would try to be in Mumbai for the next year's Ganesh Chaturthi. But again this year, we are in Delhi, ruing that there is no indication of the festivities that Mumbai must be witnessing right now. So as appeasement we promised ourselves a visit to the Maharashtra Sadan for the evening aarti.

The evening aarti was at 6.45pm and it was simple with a few people, most probably employees at Maharashtra Sadan, singing the aarti songs. There were in all about 80 to 100 people gathered for the aarti. People could go and take darshan and prasad was distributed to all. There were 4 stalls in the grounds selling vada pav, puranpoli, modak, pani puri and some crafts. We were only interested in the vada pav, puranpoli and modak stalls and made a beeline and stood there even before the stall was set up. While we waited for them to get the stuff, more people had started gravitating towards the vada pav stalls. Goes to show how much the vada pav is missed by the Maharashtrians here! The minute one stall was set up we placed our order of vada pav, enough to take home for dinner and then bought some more from the other stall to eat right there. Satiated, we left from there with our booty - vada pav, fried modak, puranpoli and shengdaana chutney.

Ganpati Bappa at the pandal

Ganpati Bappa at the pandal

 People crowding at the vada pav stall

People crowding at the second vada pav stall

People on the dais seeking darshan

People on the dais seeking darshan

People on the dais seeking darshan



ye re ye re pavasa tulaa deto paisa....

ye re ye re pavasa tulaa deto paisa,
ye re ye re pavasa tulaa deto paisa,
paisa jaala khota, pavus aala motta!!!

Today, this song fits the bill for the Delhi rains. It has been raining for the last 4 hours now and doesn't seem in any rush to stop. And nor are we complaining! What a respite from the killer heat we had for sometime now.

We went out for lunch today and saw a lot of roads water logged. The roads near Bhikaji Cama Place had about a feet of water and the water was flowing in waves especially when buses went by. The road at the gate of the Institute of National Health and Family Welfare had turned into a river and as we drove towards Munirka we saw that the water was gushing down into the slums. The drain outlets at the side of the roads did not seem to help much or the accumulated water was too much. We could not take the Munirka turn and had to take the flyover instead because the water level was so high our car would have stalled.

We were surprised that the roads here flooded with just a few hours of rain. I don't think Delhi has a good drainage system like in Mumbai. Also, I remember reading that many natural water bodies in Delhi did not survive the onslaught of modernization. They could have been natural rain water collection spots.

All things said, this was a welcome change in weather and a cup of tea and pakodas made our evening!

State Bhavan Canteen Review - Malayali food experience at Kerala House

We were craving to eat Malayali food for sometime and hence decided to check out the canteen at Kerala House at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. The place primarily caters to the staff and guests staying there and attracts a few office goers from the area around. So go at a decent hour else food may run out because they cook limited quantities and do not expect too many people to come. We reached there at about 2.30pm and the man at the counter asked us to wait for a few minutes. On peeping inside we saw there were tables free and checked again with the man at the counter. He informed us that they had run out of rice and fresh coupons would be issued only once they were sure there was enough food!

The vegetarian thali is the standard available at the Kerala House canteen and then one can buy fish curry or fry or chicken curry or fry separately.

Once seated, a waiter brought a bowl of sambhar, a jug of rasam, a jug of sambhaaram (spiced buttermilk), a jug of water and glasses to the table. Slowly the waiter came with plates served with a cabbage thoren (sabzi), achaar (pickle), onion slices and payar mezhukaperati (long beans sabzi). The rice was then served. We had to ask for the papadam and they gave us broken bits and said they ran out of papadams. They also had fish curry and fry and chicken curry and fry, which one can order with the thali for additional money. We ordered the ailaa / bangda (mackerel) fish fry to go with the thali. They served the Kerala red rice and I bit into 2 stones when eating, guess they did not clean the rice in a hurry to cook it! The waiters don't come around so often with second servings so we had to call them over twice.

The verdict - the food was average - keeping aside the fact that I bit into stones and the fish was not salted and spiced enough. The rasam with garlic and the sambharam spiced with ginger was really good. They seemed to have made the payar mezhukuperati fresh after running out of cabbage thoren.

Don't expect the Andhra Bhavan's efficient standards here. It is a small room in the parking space partitioned off with wood. The waiters don't wear a uniform and there are about 7 to 8 tables in all here. There is a lot of old furniture from the guest rooms and a couple of old discarded cars (an Ambassador and a Standard NE) lying about in the parking space and this is right at the entrance!

Overall the Kerala House food was just ok, to be visited only if in the area.

 

P.S. Thoren in Malayalam is any vegetable cooked with a tadka of mustard seeds, green chilly and curry leaves with grated coconut added in the end. Mezhukuperati is when there is no grated coconut instead coconut oil is sprinkled in the end to the vegetable.