The joys of a Irani

As Matunga increasingly becomes a veggie only ghetto, there is a pressing need to appreciate Koolar. Koolar which has been a lot in the news is a fairly traditional Irani (With high prices mind you). It is by far my Irani of choice and where I prefer to meet. At one point my desire was to eat through all the dishes on the menu card but my stomach and heart failed me.  My top 5 dishes there are the cheese masala omelet, bhurji, fried eggs (20 for 1, 25 for 2), Fried eggs alti palti and the kheema. The kheema mind you ranges from the spectacular to the average and depends on your luck. All of these washed down with chai - medium strong.

Meals Galore

Well coming suspiciously close to my last post about Vegetable Sets I did end up getting one from Manis the last week. The concept was pretty good with 1 a decent potato curry (dry), A very very competent avial, A ok Sambar (with small madras onions yummy!!) and a kickass pulinji. For a price point of 60 bucks it was insanely great value. Frankly the food was by no means very good but given the choice of having Udupified south Indian this was far better value.

And a few random thoughts - Why do we not get peeled Madras Onions here ? The SPencers and the ilk in Chennai and Bangalore seem to have them but no sign here. Madras Onions are so intensely flavorsome that they must be amongs the top 10 veggies of all time.

Vegetable Set and Match

Back in the days when Sion, Matunga, Wadala and Sion Koliwada were South indian ghettos (as opposed to the Gujju Ghettos that they are now. Soon I'll need a permit to eat non veg I tell you... Down boy)  there were three great bastions of meals in Matunga. You had South Indian Concerns, Society Mess and Mysore Concerns. And for all those who pipe up and say Udipi Rama Nayak @ Matunga station - Shaddup always was, is and will be a gujjufied Udipi meals place. There was a synchronicity to their meals across the week. Thursday was Potato Curry and Onion Sambhar at Society and Friday was the same @ Concerns.  Families used to select their meals on the menu...

And the glorious concept of vegetable set where you got only the veggies and made the rice at home ahhh that was bliss. Anyway that was then and now Concerns has stopped with the food, Mysore Concerns is now a Country Liquor bar and what was Society is now taken over by Mani of Podar college fame. Mani's is now the only place in Matunga where you can get a "meals" ala South India.