Today's class on Operations in Service Industry by Mr Jakate was by far the only class where i was active listening to the faculty for the whole time... And when i looked to my left i saw my room mate sitting next to me and reading an article about Supply chain in Retail industry and to his horror finds out that the author of the article is in front of him giving examples of retail chain models... After a while the topic changed to Udipi hotels in Mumbai .. Now .. i don't know what status Udipi hotels enjoy in Mumbai , but we from hyderabad regard udipi hotels as an essential part of our lives. More than half the population lives on these udipi hotels and you can find an average of atleast one udipi hotel or atleast a tiffin center/bandi in every street ...
I lived in Kukatpally for over 25 years and my home was the second house in our street . The first building on the opposite side of the lane, the one diagonally opposite to our house was 'Brindavan Hotel' which was basically a tiffin center turned mess .... it was run by a family, the owner Ramu had 2 kids who played with us sometimes.. My sister and i were very much fond of the chutney they make in the hotel.. It was this green, coconut - groundnut chutney with a lot of green chilli which just makes u go crazy when you taste it ... My sister never liked the chutney my mom makes, and i was bored of eating the same all the time though it was tasty . One day my mom asked Ramu if he would give just chutney in a tiffin box and he charged Rs 5 for a small box of chutney .. Slowly we got used to this and my mom would only make idlis or dosa and we would get one or two boxes of chutney depending on the number of people.... Once in a while when my mom was ill or when my parents had to go out leaving both of us, they would ask us to get breakfast from there. Every time i went to the hotel to get breakfast, i would sit beside the Grinder and watch how the idli batter is being grinded and would watch it like that for 10 minutes or so.. Ramu never said anything for i was not even 10 years old. I remember when we wanted to remake our home and the old structure was demolished and started building everything from scratch, we rented the house opposite to ours to live there ... In the evenings we used to order Mirchi bajji and Tea from the hotel for the people working and i used to have Bajjis with them .. But during the same time the hotel was closed as the owner of that building wanted to make more money by turning it into 3 shops ... I felt bad that Ramu and his family had to go to a new place and the chutney is still remembered by me n my sister, more than 15 years after we had it for the last time .
I lived in Kukatpally for over 25 years and my home was the second house in our street . The first building on the opposite side of the lane, the one diagonally opposite to our house was 'Brindavan Hotel' which was basically a tiffin center turned mess .... it was run by a family, the owner Ramu had 2 kids who played with us sometimes.. My sister and i were very much fond of the chutney they make in the hotel.. It was this green, coconut - groundnut chutney with a lot of green chilli which just makes u go crazy when you taste it ... My sister never liked the chutney my mom makes, and i was bored of eating the same all the time though it was tasty . One day my mom asked Ramu if he would give just chutney in a tiffin box and he charged Rs 5 for a small box of chutney .. Slowly we got used to this and my mom would only make idlis or dosa and we would get one or two boxes of chutney depending on the number of people.... Once in a while when my mom was ill or when my parents had to go out leaving both of us, they would ask us to get breakfast from there. Every time i went to the hotel to get breakfast, i would sit beside the Grinder and watch how the idli batter is being grinded and would watch it like that for 10 minutes or so.. Ramu never said anything for i was not even 10 years old. I remember when we wanted to remake our home and the old structure was demolished and started building everything from scratch, we rented the house opposite to ours to live there ... In the evenings we used to order Mirchi bajji and Tea from the hotel for the people working and i used to have Bajjis with them .. But during the same time the hotel was closed as the owner of that building wanted to make more money by turning it into 3 shops ... I felt bad that Ramu and his family had to go to a new place and the chutney is still remembered by me n my sister, more than 15 years after we had it for the last time .
And then my love for south Indian food grew zillion-fold and as my tummy got bigger, I came to a stage where I could eat 3-4 items for breakfast. My breakfast at Happy Homes usually comprised of one Masala Dosa( diameter 16 inches) and One plate Puri ( 2 X 8 inches), to add to this sometimes I could take back a parcel of a plate of wada ( 2 X 4 inches) and / or a plate of idli when I was extremely hungry after my jogging …… I share a very special relationship with my food. I really don’t like people sharing my food, I mean eating from my plate, especially in a tiffin center … I don’t get the feeling that I had the entire thing if someone takes a part of it and I am bound to order another one.. Yes you can call it obsessive compulsive disorder if you want …. Anyways there is no better way to start a day than have a couple of south Indian varieties of breakfast and a cup of filter coffee … The right mixture for you to keep you dreamy until it is time for lunch …. If you look at a typical south Indian school or college student's lunch box the probability that it is Idli p(I) or Dosa p(d) is p(I U D) = 0.2 and both are mutually exclusive events. The best part is yet to come in the evening during the snacks time … The Dosa Batter which is left over in the morning in the hotels is made into crispy Punugus in the evening starting at 5 until 9 in the night … 8 Punugus are served with 2 types of chutneys, karipatha powder and very limited grated onion in a small paper plate of diameter 5 inches …. People eat atleast 2 plates and they charge a mere Rs 10 per plate …..
And then if you still want to have a large variety of food for dinner, you can go to a popular mess and order for full meals. The names of these hotels generally end with 'Bhavan' and these Bhavans do not discriminate between lunch n dinner menu. In a very busy Bhavan the seats are all filled by the time you go there and some people are standing beside the tables holding a pink/yellow coupon in their hand. You can see that the moment the person sitting gets up, the person standing next to him sits .. So I too follow the same when I go there. The waiter comes with a plate and holds in his hand an equipment which has 4 bowls all held together by a handle and a frame welded to each other. The four bowls contain – Palak Dal, Aloo Kurma, Bhindi / gobi Fry, lauki/ brinjal chutney (50 % of the times) …. And then there are six other small bowls on the table which contains – Mango pickle, Nimboo pickle, ginger pickle , gongura pickle (hibiscus sabdariffa, coz u north Indians do not know it), and 2 kinds of Podi (Powder) … You will get only 2 spoons of ghee if you ask them….. Sambar here is irresistible and the primary reason why people go for full meals rather than plate meals… And the sambhar is also the reason for low productivity in government offices and the pot bellies of south india … forgot to mention the small 50 ml cup of curd and mysore pak which you will need at the end to wash the masala down … I have thrived on this during my engineering days especially at Arya Bhavan and managed to turn my cross section into the shape of a masala dosa at Happy homes which is not exactly a circle .....
Talking of all this i remember the first thing that came into mind when i saw that deloitte was coming for recruitment was that i would go back to the regular routine of udipi hotels and have unlimited number of dosas and puris and wadas.... Anyways deloitte has give me a Middle finger, but here is a list of Udipi hotels i always frequented and have always loved, not sure if these still remain in the same conditions today .. Rita, Satish and Kwaja might be knowing exactly what i am talking about
1. Happy Homes - link is given above. As far as i know, good breakfast closest to home is this place ..
2. Udipi Home - SR Nagar - Number 1 on my list any given day. Roasted butter masala Dosa, Crispy & brown from outside , smooth and yummy from inside ... i have been here hundreds of times ..
3. Dwarka - Lakdikapul, This was the Kohinoor diamond i should say, not many people go there now.. Last time i went was with Anu and only the taste was good ...
4. Cafe Nandini - Madhapur, Don't miss the coffee ... This is probably the only place in the closeby which gives you good coffee - Barista and CCDs can go jump into the newly built septic tank enroute durgam cheruvu ...
5. Swati Tiffins - Mehdipatnam, Sec'bad station, Good old college days ...
6. Swathi Coffe Shoppe - Hyderguda - Number 2. I have always been there with Rita and Charan and this is the only place wher i had an open dosa , an utappam which looks had aloo masala topping and over it is a layer of kandi podi, looks like a pizza and tastes yummier than it .
7. Chutneys - How much i hate it on weekends ,that much i like it on weekdays .. Not a typical udipi hotel but can go there for the taste n the experience of it .... Mostly north Indians who don't feel like eating in cheap udipi hotels go there ....
8. Minerva !!!!!!! - I hardly see 3-4 tables out of 3 dozens filled and servers dont know jackshit about anything on the menu , so do the customers ... but fast service and tasty food ...
And the list goes on ...........
Talking of all this i remember the first thing that came into mind when i saw that deloitte was coming for recruitment was that i would go back to the regular routine of udipi hotels and have unlimited number of dosas and puris and wadas.... Anyways deloitte has give me a Middle finger, but here is a list of Udipi hotels i always frequented and have always loved, not sure if these still remain in the same conditions today .. Rita, Satish and Kwaja might be knowing exactly what i am talking about
1. Happy Homes - link is given above. As far as i know, good breakfast closest to home is this place ..
2. Udipi Home - SR Nagar - Number 1 on my list any given day. Roasted butter masala Dosa, Crispy & brown from outside , smooth and yummy from inside ... i have been here hundreds of times ..
3. Dwarka - Lakdikapul, This was the Kohinoor diamond i should say, not many people go there now.. Last time i went was with Anu and only the taste was good ...
4. Cafe Nandini - Madhapur, Don't miss the coffee ... This is probably the only place in the closeby which gives you good coffee - Barista and CCDs can go jump into the newly built septic tank enroute durgam cheruvu ...
5. Swati Tiffins - Mehdipatnam, Sec'bad station, Good old college days ...
6. Swathi Coffe Shoppe - Hyderguda - Number 2. I have always been there with Rita and Charan and this is the only place wher i had an open dosa , an utappam which looks had aloo masala topping and over it is a layer of kandi podi, looks like a pizza and tastes yummier than it .
7. Chutneys - How much i hate it on weekends ,that much i like it on weekdays .. Not a typical udipi hotel but can go there for the taste n the experience of it .... Mostly north Indians who don't feel like eating in cheap udipi hotels go there ....
8. Minerva !!!!!!! - I hardly see 3-4 tables out of 3 dozens filled and servers dont know jackshit about anything on the menu , so do the customers ... but fast service and tasty food ...
And the list goes on ...........
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