Raghavendra Stores

Raghavendra Stores is located just outside Malleswaram Railway Station in Bangalore.

A favourite among morning walkers and others on their way to work, and some people without work, this place dishes up a mean idli-vada combo. Drenched in an excellent chutney, the consistency of which has been determined to precise perfection, there is even a dollop of butter on top if you like. The coffee too, as one might expect in Bangalore, is perfect for a day with a nip to the air.

There is no place to sit, but the boundary walls of the station will do.

Non-Sagar sambar-vada in Defence Colony

One of the things I miss most from Bangalore are cheap opportunities to eat several vadas.

An old lady waits with her cafe on wheels, as soon as you turn into Defence Colony from near the Andrews Ganj flyover. She is comfortable speaking Tamil or Hindi, and even understood me when I spoke to her in Malayalam. Last time I ate there, random policemen were fleecing her, and from what I saw, it could not have been a one-off experience.

The sambar had too few vegetables and too much asafoteida, and on my return to office I was feeling like a bit of a gas cylinder. It was quite tasty, but maybe I was too hungry. It did not matter. Two parippu vadas and two uzhunnu vadas for twenty five rupees is as cheap as you get at any Bangalore darshini.

In Malayalam you call them parippu vada (darker ones on the left) and uzhunnu vada. But as far as I know, parippu (kind of dal/lentils) is ground with water to make uzhunnu.















Here she is.