OOTA BANGALORE and a Reunion

The Heaving Table at OOTA hosted by Shibanee Sagar

Show off mode on! Don’t say I did not warn you 😃

Many years ago there was a video that was viral on social media when it was limited to FB. It was a video of 2 chefs and their epic journey across Karnataka researching, tasting and learning about it’s hyper local cuisine. I was totally mesmerised. I had returned to Mumbai and so did not get a chance to check out the restaurant immediately. It was named Oota. Pictures floated across social media from patrons. I shared all the links on my school group on WhatsApp. It was just the beginning of WhatsApp too. Shibanee hadn’t mentioned it to us classmates until then. Several times I drooled over the pictures on the internet and told my classmates that I was dreaming to eat there. 

Left to Right me, Chanda, Shibanee and Vidya

This time when I visited BLR I planned to meet up the Annites who lived there. I hadn’t met Shibanee and Anaheeta after school at all. It was a long gap since I had met Vidya and Chanda too. My only condition was that we meet at Oota and that too with Shibanee.

Well Oota Bangalore is a hospitality venture a passion project by Shibanee’s husband Kamal Sagar. Together they run the architecture and design company Total Environment. If you are a Bangalorean you know how amazing their work is! 

At Oota that passion reflects in its menu and ambiance. A huge space of wood and metal furnishings and decor. Ethnic in character. A wonderful space to hold the theme of hyper local Karnataka menu. 

So when we met after 38yrs we exchanged euphoric hugs. Shibanee and Vidya were already there. Chanda joined in after sometime. I was given the privilege to order knowing that I was so passionate about food. For an ethnic fine dine Oota menu is designed to impress the technocratic crowd of Bangalore. So I chose from the tablet screen. The attendant helped and recommended that I choose from the ongoing Mango Habba menu. Shibanee 

generously instructed that I should taste everything😁 

So you see the first picture. The table was heaving under all that food. While She herself ate a simpler thali before she rushed to a construction site. I was thrilled that she could give us atleast an hour together. 

Anaheeta missed meeting Shibanee but we stayed longer and caught up on all those 38yrs. 

What we ate: 

1. Started with a A unique raw mango cooler from Havyaka Brahmin cuisine, Malnad which looked like mango Panha yet it was different sound and taste too. Trroiin! the drink gets its name from the act of downing it in one gulp. Made with raw mango, green chilies and salt, and seasoned with mustard seeds, jeera or cumin seeds, hing (asafoetida) and curry leaves. Decorated with a slice of mango with salt n red chili. 

2. Goli Baje, Coastal Karnataka. Deep fried spiced flour dumplings flavoured with cumin, coriander and yoghurt

3. Sabbakki Vade, Coastal Karnataka. Deep fried sago pearl cakes flavoured with fragrant dill leaves and peanuts

4. Maddur Vade, South Karnataka. Deep fried discs of rice, semolina, onions, rice flour and spices originating from Maddur

5. Biscuit Roti, Coastal Karnataka. Mangalorean stuffed sweet and spicy pooris

6. Khara Kadbu, Karnataka. Steamed spiced lentil and rice dumpling

7. Capsicum Bajji, Green capsicum stuffed with tamarind and mint chutney, onions, carrots, lemon and sev

8. Anjal Fish Fry, Coastal Karnataka. Seer fish shallow fried in coconut oil topped with crispy masala crumbs

9. Platter of crunchy papads 

10. Platter of lipsmacking chutneys

Right to left : Shibanee, Chanda, Vidya and me

11. Desserts 

 

Ragi halubai for Anaheeta

Mango Shikarani with warm mango holige for moi

Pecan pie for Chanda

Mango icecream with cut mango for Vidya

The food was superbly researched and executed outstandingly. Not one dish to complain about. That is the level of passion Oota shows and feeds the patrons with. I am genuinely blown away with the food. 

Proud of Shibanee and Kamal 🙏🏽

I wish I can take someone special for a meal there soon. 

Janai Atya

While I was away in BLR Janabai or Janai atya passed away. Today was her Dashakriya ceremony. 

She was my Dad’s cousin. Older than him. 

He would always describe his sister as DASHING. 

When they were kids she would carry my Dad. She could ride a buffalo 🐃 and would take them to the farm to fertilise it by grazing them. So the dung could be spread in the field. She went to the weekly bazaars of Poynad to sell dried fish ever since she was a teen. She would get narlipak and khapti from there with her hard earned money for her favourite cousin brother that was my Dad. 

She was a young mother of 3 kids when her husband went absconding. She used to go to Sasoon dock and then retail at Crawford market. Her’s was good old cash business. She bought her own small flat in Vashi when there wasn’t even train service available and she had to take a ST to Mankhurd station from where she would take a Harbour train to Sasoon dock. She was that strong Koli woman so stereotyped by films. No nonsense types. I remember how someone on the bus was harassing her and she showed him the fish chopper Kathi and threatened to make keema of his middle appendage  🤣🤣 घावटून टाकीन ! 

Both her sons did Techinal diplomas and the second son our Jackie has monopoly is private speed boats and yatch maintenance across India today. The daughter too is doing ok for herself. We are proud of our atya and what she achieved! 

I have some lovely memories of her from my teenage years when she visited us more often. Probably we imbibed being DASHING from her in our own way!

Buono Pizzeria Alibag

20 Oct 2023

Buono Pizzeria! Be swept over by their quality. Eating out in Alibag is not something I enjoy too much. So this came as a superb surprise. Actually I had watched a food review on YouTube and so I came here today. 

My order 

1. Brutus salad: freshness in every bite.

2. Classic garlic bread with generous amounts of olive oil. 

3. Bianca top notch execution and fresh basil. The dough was perfectly chewy. 

Teaching my driver about authentic Italian. Told him to chuck the cutlery. Italians eat Pizza with fingers. This Bianca was top notch !

4. Coke from the can to digest all the indulgence.

 

5. Tiramisu authentic! Very few can make the original. 

Buono I will come back again !

Closing with Coffee

AND with that last coffee on the curb side we said farewells. Farewell Odisha!

Next day for morning flight Sai dropped me at the airport. Those 12 days in Odisha were packed with so many memories. It has taken 2 month for me to post it all. Hope you enjoyed watching and reading the experience through my eyes. Do let me know what you think?

The Gudiyas of Pahala

Pahala that famous destination for Chenna poda and Rasgulla. Recently it received a GI tag. Pahala lies on the highway connecting Bhubaneswar to Cuttack. On our way back from Cuttack we stopped here to enjoy some Chenna poda & steaming hot Rasagulla! 

It is an amazing experience to watch the making of the Rasagulla there. A whole long line of sweet shops doing the same thing and therefore excelling at it. 

Camera 📸 and banter @mycookingcanvas

A Grand Feast at Dalma

On my last day in Bhubaneswar we were looking for a light meal in a South Indian place. I had experienced everything I thought and as we walked by we spotted a big board saying DALMA. Probably this is the only restaurant that I had heard of a lot but had not tried it out. So we marched right up to the dining hall on the first floor. Ordered a veg thali and a Khoinga mach besaro and mutton. While everything was delicious the star ⭐️ of the meal was the Bael ki chutney. A celebration of sorts of having Chef Sai Priya with me. This was a grand meal beyond my expectations!

P.S: Before well meaning friends throw batons at me let me declare that we shared the meal.

Cuttack Fame Dahi Bara Aloo Dum

Cuttack and it’s Dahi bara aloo dum. Odia people eat it through the day all day. It is one dish ubiquitously found across the cities and country side. It is a chat made up of dahi bara or a moong and udid dal vada that’s deep fried and soaked in butter milk then topped with aloo dum and ghoogni. Sprinkled with raw onions fine chopped and sev. I went to Cuttack and tasted it I can claim. 😉😃

Breakfast under ₹50

Scenes from our drive thru rural Odisha are so entertaining. The vegetables stall neatly organised and its proud owner. The produce tell tale the season. It was just after Sankrant and this pile of Tender chana greens was so tempting I would have bought them spontaneously lest we were on the road. I did buy bor on one such non descript place. Here was a pile with semi ripe and ripe ones in the bag. The ripe gooey ones not for nothing are called शेंबडी बोरं 😆😆 in Marathi. Those Odissi dancers with whom we wanted pictures. 

The tiny shop frying puris tempted us. After a quick inspection we decided to eat inside where there were less than 3 tables. Hot puris and aloo sabji, aloo chop, Rasagulla for me and idli sambar for Sai. All for a princely sum of ₹50 add to that chai! 

Yes South Indian food is very common in Odisha telling us that food and cultural influences are fluid and cannot be boxed. This overflow from Andhra as Odisha shares borders.

Caught the train passing by the level crossing.

Canoes beckoning to explore Mangala Jodi. Colorful Moore hens everywhere and Kaash phool swaying luxuriously in the breeze. 

So much of Odisha to fill in my tiny heart…

Art can’t fill your stomachs!

Learnt this the hard way. When I booked this stay at Pipul Odi Museum Resort at Barkul, Odisha for 25 Jan 2024. I was blown away by the pictures. Least expected that we would be treated so shabby at the resort. 

I am ok with simple food at a restaurant but if they are lazy and care a hoot about their customers they need to be exposed. 

On Swachchanda is my complete review of Pipul Odi museum resort in Chilika that was terrible experience. Saved only by my tough girl Sai Priya!

We had reached by evening and ordered tea and veg pakodas in the room. So we thought ok we could have dinner there.

The worst of all experiences was when we went for dinner to their restaurant and ordered tava fried fish and schezwan fried rice. The rice was nothing schezwan and had corn n peas in it. Which means a pulao was showered with chili flakes and brought to us. The fried fish was deep fried, a prepped fish for curry. 

Sai @mycookingcanvas the tough girl she is summoned the manager made him taste the food and made him take it back. She ordered him to serve staff meal of dal rice to us along with fish besaro. 

The hotel was so shameless they billed for it! We paid but we also want everyone to know our terrible experience!!!

😂😂😂😂😂

Tempted by Meetha at KaliJai

On this visit to KaliJai mandir on the island of the same name. We talked to the poojari and he narrated the Sthan mahatmya to us. Read about the fascinating legend on Swachchanda. It’s in the middle of Bharat’s biggest lagoon between the shores of Barkul and Parikuda. Amazing location as an island should be. 

 

Yet it’s the journey that made it enjoyable. There isn’t much to see except this mandir. There are a few shops that sell sweets and eatables. We enjoyed some fresh jhal mudi scrambled up in front of us. 

I was tempted by the simplicity of the rustic sweets and respect for that sweet maker. There were coconut ladoos, colorful khaja, khasta gaja etc. Sai bought me some khasta gaja. Those are the brown ones. 

Tell me what sweet makers are called in Odia? Not halwai for sure! 

The answer to that is Khadik / Moira / Modak.

Later after returning to Barkul jetty we had a simple meal of prawn curry and rice with some mixed vegetables at the OTDC restaurant.

Finding Donut in Swosti Chilika

📸 @mycookingcanvas 

I simply love breakfast buffets during travel. Eat to your stomach’s fill and go explore the world without a worry. You are fueled for the day. 

While I am aware that all bakes and other desserts are ordered from out in hotels, I am sometimes surprised at the well made items. Not all but some just are pleasant surprises especially if it’s in a remote place like Swosti Chilika. Look at my breakfast plate. Who eats bhajji for breakfast? 😜 Hotels make you fall into scandalous choices. But then buffets also serve Pao bhaaji and without fail mention that Mumbai ownership 😆😆 but I digress. 

The glazed donut on my plate was a real donut. Real deep fried and not baked. I have some pet peeves you know! 

Similarly in a stay in Dharwad in my roadtrip last year I found a superb croissant.

In a buffet wean out the not so interesting and eat the best stuff. Yet when it comes to bakes that is the toughest unless you have been a baker or maker of donuts in this special case 🤩🥳