Dosas in Ernakulam / Cochin / Kochi?

I can’t say how much I used to dread having to eat vegetarian food in Ernakulam (Cochin / Kochi) when it’s not the usual puttu, appam, idiyappam. Most hotels that have the Udupi tag in this city serve trash in the name of Dosa and hence when Benoy Chettan said “Let’s go to Pai thattu, they have a huge variety of dosas” I wasn’t quite enthused. Lijo Chettan came that night and said “Have you tried Pai thattu, I go there every night with Benoy, the dosas are amazing” and then I thought I should go there just once and see how the foods is.

Pai Brothers is on a small lane off MG Road, the lane is called Pai Brothers Lane and shows up within a kilometer of turning into MG Road from Banerji road. They’ve advertised that they have 36 types of dosas however their price list has more than double that number. There is no service at the table and guests are expected to pay first, get the bills and produce them at the cooking counter to be served piping hot dosa. Butter dosa, egg dosa, duck egg dosa, VOLVO dosa, family dosa, tomato onion dosa, kanchipuram dosa are some items which stood out from the usual masala dosa, onion dosa fare.

The dosas were tasty, the chutney wasn’t. The sambhar served with the dosas were very nice. A meal for two would cost anywhere from 150 to 300 bucks depending on if you want to eat 1 dosas each or 3. This eatery is open from 6 PM in the evening till 2 AM  early morning, Benoy Chettan says that it’s actually open till 4 AM. So the next time you are driving through this city and dread eating the dosas served in all the Udupi places head to Pai Brothers, just make sure it’s in the evening. Their address is:

Pai Brothers, Pai Brothers Lane, MG Road, Ernakulam - 35

Italian food

The last three days into the weekend were hectic beyond comprehension. Waking up at 12 noon on Sunday meant that I caught up on just a small percentage of lost slept over the week. "Let's go fine dining, treat's on me", said Josh. "Let's do it", I said and jumped out of bed. "Where are you thinking of going?", I asked to which Josh replied "Let's do some good food today dude, surely non vegetarian and not your usual Brindavan". "Fine, give me 10 minutes" I said and off I went for a bath.

Ten minutes later we were driving in Koramangala 6th block passing Koramangala club for the third time trying to fine Fiorano Ristorante when I said "Do you know where exactly it is or have an address somewhere?". "Dude, I've been here a couple of times okay, it's somewhere here I'm sure, my geography is not that bad !". "Oh well tell me about it" I said with a wry smile which could beat any fox in a 'wicked smile' competition. "My geography was very good, believe me" said Josh to which I asked "And when was that?". He replied "In school probably, that was when you didn't even know me" to which both of us laughed loudly and finally found the restaurant. I've known Josh since VII standard.

Fiorano also is the name of Ferrari's test track outside Maranello. To the uninitiated Maranello is Ferrari's headquarters in Italy. I've eaten authentic Italian food only once before in my life on an overseas trip and I was looking forward to a good meal. I'm very open in trying out new cuisines.

Josh was a pro in cuisines, especially foreign and was a good person to go with if you were in a mood to try Greek, Italian, Mexican or Mesopotamian cuisines. Having woken up with a blistering headache I badly needed a drink to take the migrane away and drink we did - virgin mary & bloody mary. We went through a rather elaborate italian meal:

Fritto Di Calamari (deep fried squid rings)
Stracciatella con pollo (chicken soup with cheese, italian spices and egg)
Spaghetti Alla Carbonara (spaghetti with bacon, eggs and parmesan cheese)
Costollette Di Maiale (grilled pork chops served with sun dried tomatoes, mashed potatoes and grilled pineapples)
Tiramisu (chocolate cheese cake flavoured with rum)
Mango Cheese Cake
Lemon Cheese Cake

After enjoying every morsel of food the restaurant had to offer Josh exclaimed "It's when the bill comes that the sinking feeling comes back damn". We walked out of the restaurant and started driving homewards when the sms tone went beep beep beep. You have made a debit card payment of Rs.2848 in Fiorano Ristorante said the message. "Dude, why can't they tell us before we make the payment too" said Josh. "You are about to make a payment of Rs.2848 should be a value-add banks can do, don't you think?"