Mavalli Tiffin Rooms, Serangoon Road

From what I had gathered, Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (438 Serangoon Road, tel : +65 6296 5800), a.k.a. MTR, is quite the lauded institution in Bangalore which was started in Karnataka way back in 1924. It has quite a bit of an interesting history which I will not elaborate here. The chain of restaurants is currently run by the 3rd generation of the family that had started it. 

About half a year ago, they opened up here right in the middle of Little India serving food made with ingredients imported from their country. The food was great!

We headed here for a late breakfast over the weekend. The menu required a bit of perusal since certain items were only available on fixed days and time of the week. A late breakfast was also a little too early for their rava idli so we settled for the regular rice ones. These were soft, light and very tasty - especially when doused with the little steel container of ghee and their accompanied coconut chutney.

I hadn't had a kesari bath since the currently defunct Chellas. This was basically a pudding - or porridge as they described of semolina and vermicelli, done with ghee, cashew nuts, raisins and flavoured with saffron. Tasted exactly like I remembered them and good enough for returns.

Amongst a number of dishes MTR is known for, was their bisibele bhath. Which I read also originates from the state of Karnataka. The name translates from their language into "hot lentil rice". Essentially it was a hot spicy porridge with vegetables, curried, with tamarind annndd...a little steel container of ghee for enrichment. It has also been a while since I've last had these. It was great by the way. I liked those little crispy stuff on the side that they served this with.

Their masala dosa made from rice batter, black lentils and stuffed with potatoes was delicious stuff as well. This was quite different from the regular dosa/thosai that we have locally. The skin was crisp, had a little bit of chew in the middle and came in a hue of darker brown; flavoured generously with again more ghee. Ghee like butter, makes everything taste better.

The wash down was their filtered coffee which seemed to be some sort of specialty of theirs. It was okay, drinkable stuff but I'm not sure if Indian coffee is a thing for me.

Looking forward to coming back again.

Raj at Soho @ Farrer

The old spot that Raj used to be at is the current Murugan Idli Shop. For a while, I thought that the business had folded but they've actually just relocated to Soho @ Farrer (172 Race Course Road). A more convenient location methinks.

We came by for a late lunch and started off with a refreshing raj kachori - some say the king of chaats. We've had one previously at Balaji Bhawan which was a sad representative of the snack. This one was way better. The giant puri shell was filled with beans and lentils and nuts and spiced potatoes before being slathered with curd, tamarind chutney and mint/coriander chutney followed by a sprinkle of sev. A giant dahi gol gappa, chilled and a party of flavours.

Raj has something call a guchi pulao. What I could discover from the overlord whose name ends with 'oogle' was gucchi pulao - which was a pulao made with morel mushrooms. It would seem that the loss of a 'c' resulted in this one being made with canned button mushrooms. What a world of difference.

It was delicious. Rich with the taste of ghee, a little aroma from saffron and flavoured with bits of sweetness from dates. I'd eat this again.

We wanted something with gravy and this was their butter daal fry. A dish of spiced simmered lentils which we ate like soup.

Raj's onion cheese tomato uttapam looked more like a pizza than uttapam. It was pretty good. Especially with that orange coconut chutney which was kickass tasty. 

It was just too bad that their masala tea was quite tasteless. Won't be getting this the next time. Not getting much flavour from the tea or spices. I'm surprised that their chai was a weak link since the food had been enjoyable every time we visited.

Murugan Idli Shop, Syed Alwi Road

If you didn't already know it, Murugan Idli Shop (81 Syed Alwi Road, tel : +65 6298 0858) is based off a chain from Chennai selling stuff like idli, vadai and dosai. This shop in Singapore has been around for some years and I've been wanting to come down for the longest time. The design of the shop sign is a platter of five steaming idli, so guess what's good here?

We started with a couple of idli. Their ghee podi idli were those steamed rice cakes coated with spice powder and ghee. It was pretty damned good with the chutney that they had ladled over the tray. So good that I scraped the banana leaf clean of them after I ran out of those delicious idli. See the bowl of sambar over at the side? That rocked too.

Some tasty lemon rice in a little plastic bowl served with a helping of delicious chickpeas in an even smaller bowl. Both were easily inhaled.

We tried a meduvadai. The Indian donuts were piping hot and tasted freshly fried with a crisp exterior that covered the moist, dense and soft insides. These fried snacks sure helped us mop up the chutney.

And in the spirit of adventure, I tried their jigarthanda; a sweet milky drink made with agar agar.and The name translated into "cold heart"? It didn't turn up looking like what I had expected, but I guess it was pretty much the same thing. Something sweet and cooling for our recent sweltering heat.

Paneer uttapam from Kebabs 'n Curries

I noticed that there was a paneer uttapam on the menu the last time we were here Kebabs 'n Curries so that's what it looked like. A crispy orangey yellowy crusty pancake. 

Could definitely taste some of the crumbled paneer that was sprinkled all over the uttapam but I couldn't figure out what the other colours were. I did think that the yellows resembled egg but I don't think those were. Anyway, didn't get much of the paneer experience from this uttapam - which was a little disappointing. Today's coconut chutney was too gingery for me too.

Kailash Parbat, Syed Alwi Road

This (93 Syed Alwi Road, tel : + 65 6291 5545) vegetarian restaurant located just across the road from Mustafa was another chain from India that has established a number of outpost. This one was a short walk from Murugan Idli Shop. From what I could gather, they've been around for quite a while and are present in New York and London as well. They also seemed to be famous for their chaats.

I like dahi puri. That's puri shells filled mostly with sweetened yoghurt amongst other things. Other things like taramind chutney, some spicy green chutney, a generous sprinkle of crushed sev and coriander. This one didn't have coriander of course. A party in the mouth snack with sweet, sour and spiciness paired with crispy and creamy textures.

Those balls are masala cheese marvel. From what the menu described, they're made of spiced cheese and paneer which are deep fried. Strangely, they reminded me of the fish cutlets from Shami which were made of potato and fish.

Another tasty starter we tried was their kaju mutter tikki. These were deep fried patties made of potato, green peas and cashew.

There was an awesome serving of basmati rice cooked with palak (spinach). As green as it looked, it tasted rather buttery as well so I guess there must have been quite a lot of ghee involved. I'd eat this again in a heartbeat.

More carbs in the form of their bhatura. These ones had cheese in them and the texture of the flour was a little thicker than those I've had previously. The flavour reminded me of Chinese dough fritters and rocked with the sliced onions on the side and....

...were accompanied curried chick peas. These delicious spicy chick peas were tender and not hard like some.

This was their paneer butter masala. Which was for the most part, an equivalent of the cottage cheese version of butter chicken.

And black lentil dhal with kidney beans. This was really rich and heart clogging buttery. 

With all the rich gravies, we needed naan to mop them all up.

Even though we were almost bursting the seams after the chai and lassi, we somehow didn't pass on the malai rabri. A dessert of thickened milk with sugar, cardamom and bits of pistachio. Cool, sweet and creamy dessert.

One must understand (and accept) that while these may be vegetarian, the richness is not going to be doing your heart any favours. But we walked away from this meal adorn with smiles so that's a good thing. And I'm definitely coming back.

S.P. Vilas, Tekka Food Centre

Breakfast of a coconut uttapam from S.P. Vilas (#01-286 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). I've only had this variety once before at Kebabs 'n Curries. What's distinctive about this one was the quality of the chutney - they didn't taste generic and were delicious with a home made quality to them. One could say that there was more character to the nuances of their flavours. Especially the coconut one.

Came across some fried balls which the stall has which I believe are known as bonda. They were sweet and bread-y with flavour from cardamom, fennel and cumin. Also thought I noticed some yellow lentils in them. I like these. 👍🏼

A re-revisit to MTR 1924 that's been a long time coming

It's been some years since we've eaten at MTR 1924 (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六). The last time was back in 2017. Menu's changed a little so that presented a tiny problem. We'd be overwhelmed by the choices again since there's new stuff to explore and old stuff in the background beckons. 

The strategy was to get a bunch of stuff we haven't had before and also not to neglect the oldies.

Oldies like their delicious and hearty bisibele bath which was in no way diminished compared to what we had in the past. I've just learnt that there is nutmeg in this. Still satisfying like how we remembered it. 

The same could be said for their competent masala dosa.

Getting their rava idly still makes me a little skittish because of the chopped bits of coriander in the steamed rice cake. Today's look greener and fresher than usual. 😅

Thankfully as with previous experiences, the coriander flavour was mild to non-existent. Especially true when it's eaten with chutney and those wonderful drizzles of ghee.

This is where the stuff that we haven't had before begins - the shavige bath. Yes it's vermicelli and looks like bee hoon. There're bits of bell peppers, long beans, mustard seed, cashew, lemon and shredded coconut. And probably a couple of other stuff I've overlooked. Flavour's mild in spite of the colour intensity but that being said, it was delicious.

This was their rasam vada. Pretty sure it's been around on the menu for forever because it's just a vada in rasam. Great flavouring from the tangy broth. Was surprised that a large part of the dense fluffy insides of the vada wasn't soaked through.

Pudi idly - I'm guessing that's another way to call podi. A salty spice powder packed with heat mixed with ghee I think, coats these mini idlys. This was the spiciest item we've had here so far and I love it for the buttery heat on the rice cakes.

Interesting, this was call 'buns'. Looked like a non-oily poori...or hum chim pang. Skin's thicker than both of those and was a little sweet. We ordered this because the ingredient listed bananas and it did have a faint banana taste. Served with coconut chutney. Nice.

That's a kashaya - a drink that was said to be spicy and bitter when we ordered it. Tried it out of curiosity. From what the menu described, it's a milk based drink with ginger, pepper, cumin and coriander seeds. The flavour reminded me of Po Chai pills (保濟丸) or guilin gao (龜苓膏). Took a while for me to reconcile that Chinese herbal flavour with the colour and that it was a spiced drink from an Indian restaurant. 

Revisiting MTR 1924

This was an anticipated return to MTR as we were rather happy with the experience in the previous visit. We dropped by over the weekend for dinner ordering some snacks and their Sunday menu specials.

We started with a couple of vada - a regular one and the curd vada, the latter which was soaked in curd/yoghurt and sprinkled with boondi. Frankly, I liked both. The one in the curd was more refreshing.

One of their Sunday specials was the neer dosa, which translates into water dosa. From what I had gathered, the origins of this particular type of dosa is Tulu Nadu, a region in Karnataka. It wasn't browned like the regular one and was chewier. The batter didn't have the sour of fermentation as well. This was served with coconut chutney and a mix of jaggery and grated coconut which made me feel like it could have been a breakfast item rather than dinner.

The other Sunday special was their pudina (mint) rice. Even though mint was used in the cooking, that fresh minty flavour was barely residual. Instead, this was largely a savoury dish. So delicious that we didn't have the slightest problem inhaling the bowl of it. I'm quite impressed by how these guys can dress up starch.

MTR apparently manufactures canned drinks as well. We had initially thought the drinks were made in the kitchen. Still the badam milk was smooth and sweet with bits of almond and flavoured with saffron and cardamom while the creamy lassi was rose scented. Another delicious meal.

More breakfasting at Saravanaa Bhavan

Back at Saravanaa Bhavan for breakfast.

What might this bowl of ivory cream be?

Curd vada. Spiced savoury fried donut in sweetened yoghurt.

Like Komala Vilas, I prefer their uppuma/upma over their pongal.

If anyone was wondering what's uppuma or upma, they're a spiced semolina porridge/pudding. This piping hot serving from Saravanaa Bhavan has lentils, green peas, curry leaves and mustard seed and is flavoured with ghee. 😋

More sev blanketed chaat.

It's dahi puri this time. Sans coriander. Pretty tasty ones here with generous drizzles of the coriander/mint and tamarind sauce. Could taste the potatoes and peas inside the puri.

Trying their cheese dosa.

Crispy on the edges and cheesy in the middle with the tang of fermented rice flour. 

Cheese was deliciously salty and there was enough for some short stringy pulls. 👍🏼