Ever since my office moved from Kilpauk to Mylapore, I’ve been having a myriad of issues! of them, Food is the biggest one!

I used to leave my house at ~ 9:15 AM to reach the office by ~ 9:30 AM in peak traffic of Chetpet/Kilpauk area, am kind of used to waking up by 7 AM
(I sleep late say by 11 or 12 PM ), I had ample time to get my daily dose of news from online newspapers (www.deccanheraldepaper.com) – Bengaluru edition and some cooking time to make some quick breakfast and the same dish packed for lunch.

This routine soo worked for a year and then the news came in that we’ll have to shift our office in Radhakrishna (RK) Salai in Mylapore Area!. The building was stone’s throw away from Marina Beach and in out-skirts of one of the oldest localities of Chennai – “Mylapore”.

Mylapore put me in a deep dilemma! Being the hotbed of Chennai’s Brahmin culture and cuisine, I couldn’t’ resist being around this area to have some lip-smacking, Brahmin style, sattvic food, for which I could skip all the cooking at my house

To

The travel of 8 km reach here, of all I had to cross Gemini Bridge (the dreaded traffic junction near US Embassy ) costing me time and fuel

To tackle the traffic issue, I now started to work from 8 AM to 5 PM, which means there is no time for cooking or packing the same for lunch

Only when i settled down in this office I realized that there were no decent hotels or eateries around. especially for breakfast, as it is the most important meal of the day!

I vaguely remembered about this small hotel in Mylapore which serves breakfast only and has a cult-like following like hotels back in Bengaluru ( I mean Vidyarthi Bhavan, CTR and MTR Types)

So I and my workmate Ragul decided to try this out and went looking for it, Google Map showed that it was 1.5km away from my office( Voila So near yet so far!)

I quite did not realize how secluded this place was owing to its fame! yes, it was tucked away in a small lane in Arundale Street,

A small board welcomed us to world of an awesome Brahmin breakfast fanfair!

Manoj, looked like a 3rd or a 4th Generation owner or care-taker of this placed, asked how many seats, and we signaled 2 with our fingers

We were then let inside and sent into yet another smaller lane, which is the actual mess It housed 4 small tables and total seating capacity of 16 people in a crush space!

We ordered for “the” dish in Chennai ” Pongal” and there came a serving of Gatti( Hard) Chutney which is by far the best gatti chutney i’ve ever had!

Then came butter-soft idlies, which I dearly as a Bangalorean in Chennai, then came Vada – Perfectly cooked the Udupi Style!

The icing on the cake was one murderous cup of strong filter coffee which just gave me such a high that I started to miss namma ooru-Bengaluru

More photos soon!

Visiting this place has made me look back the last 3 years I’ve been in Chennai, I guess change is the only hope!

Let’s stop it here, come to Chennai, experience the rest yourself!