A Gujarathi treat at 'Mithai'

It was another boring day at work. The dirty bug we are trying to nail has been evading us for the past three days. And every time the software crashes... it is due to a different reason. Adding to the gloom the grubby horizon turned a threatening dark grey. Bugged of debugging and aimless browsing, I swiveled around in my chair to see the same state of affairs with Bali. Feeling the strong mutual bond of corporate boredom, I walked over to his cubicle to have a small chat. Somehow the topic changed, drifted, transmogrified ... to good restaurants in Chennai. Out of the blue I was reminded of an unassuming eat out in Vadapalani, Which I happened to visit with my family one late evening. As soon as I talked of this place, (btw ... it is called “Mithai” ) Bali suggested that we have dinner at this place today. Realizing, that dinner could potentially make up for the whole wash out day I had had, I agreed to the idea. Calling up home to leave word of my new plans, we made our way towards ‘Mithai’.

‘Mithai’ is a small Gujarathi restaurant serving sumptuous, wholesome, tasty and above all sensible food at reasonable prices. It is located on the Vadapalani Murugan temple road, just a few paces away from Hotel Saravana Bhavan (The self proclaimed Robinhood of South Indian Origin... Bhaa ... that’s the last place on earth I would like to eat at.) Even before we went to ‘Mithai’, we had decided that we would have the Guju Thaali. It is a neat little place, playing decent Bolywood numbers and boasting of polite and prompt service. One look at the menu cards, we ordered for the Thaali and decided to have ‘basundhi’ for desert. Had the place not been so small and the manager not staring at me as if I was going to blow up the place into smithereens, I would have snapped a few shots of the place and a plate full of food. But that’s ok; I guess all food lovers would by now having the laden plate dancing in front of their eyes.

There were three medium sized ‘phulkas’ and a cup of ... hmmm... great smelling ‘basumathi’ rice. There were two varieties of curry, One Dhal item, one ‘moli’ sort of sweetish stuff and a cup of ‘bhoondhi raita’. As frills there were a few ‘fryums’, a stuffed ‘mirchi bhaji’ and a small glass of butter milk. At first it appeared that we might be in need of some more stuff. But half way through the thaali, we were convinced that we are going to need some extra exercise to lay off the dinner effect. Wiping clean the last morsel off the plate, we ordered for cold, rich and heavy ‘basundhi’. Melting in the delight of thickened condense milk dissolving in our mouths, we thanked all the greater Gods of the higher heavens for having invented north Indian sweets. (Hey! ... wait a minute. ‘Basundhi’ is actually a south Indian delicacy. The north Indian counter part is called ‘rabdi’. )

Paying our bill we walked out into the cool night breeze with the Guju delight still lingering on our taste buds. So, there! We hit upon another garden of delight, and the list keeps growing!!!