Fishing in Pune - Coconut Grove, Near Camp

Yes, so I know I've been talking about Bombay for the longest time. I reluctantly need to switch cities now; under duress, I will state.
So not too far from Bombay, we have Pune. It's not half bad. Food-wise, in fact, I'd say it's pretty good. A little more varied than Bombay. And there have been some gems that I have found here...

The first, in random order, of course, is this place very near the Pune Railway Station. It's in a tiny, slightly sidey-looking corner, just as the road turns off towards the station. Every visit since childhood that I have made to Pune, I have seen the green sign towering above the trees "Coconut Grove" and I have been dying to see what exactly you get here.

I managed to go very recently, and I was pleasantly surprised. It's quite the amazing little discovery.
A warning, though. This is not the place for vegetarians. Honestly, if you can't eat chicken, mutton and fish, then don't bother going to Coconut Grove. I'm sure the vegetarian food is good too, but really...

Anyway. You get here some fantastic Indian coastal cuisine. Goan, Keralite, Andhra, and Maharashtrian; or some mix thereof. Another warning, at this juncture: When they say 'spicy' in the description, I'd suggest you take their word. Order something mild. And I mean MILD; because if you aren't a spice-eater, then you're in severe trouble, if you don't.

So... Order anything sukka... Prawn, clam, mutton... I've had them and they're unequalled by anything I've tasted. Order any seafood, and it'll be good. We had the bombil fry twice and it was amazing both times; melt-in-the-mouth stuff, that bombil...

The stew was good as well. Too mild for me, but I loved what others needed two glasses of water to swallow... The stew is well spiced, mild, full of that wonderful stew-taste, and pretty great with appams. Yes. Appams. And neer dosa. Fantastic stuff. Order one at a time, and ask them for another the second you get the first. This ensures that your food doesn't get cold and your appams won't sit on your plate, waiting for you to eat the first.

The meat is all very nicely spiced and cooked. There is just the right amount of coconut and gravy on every dish, the service is friendly and prompt and the ambience is homely and comforting.

I suggest you have the sol kadhi as well, it's refreshing and goes well with all the food.

Another suggestion is that you stick to the Indian food and not divert to other cuisines. Not because I doubt the quality, but because the coastal fare is too good to be side-tracked for anything else.

A definite win in  my book, I'm recommending this to everyone I meet. Give it a shot, if you're in the area. The prices are great as well. You won't regret it.

For the First Time in Years

This is the story of the day I decided to stop eating the tripe I've been paying monthly installments for, and decided, along with the room-mate, to order in.

So we were debating and deciding and counting out our pennies, and we decided to go ethnic and get a little closer to our titular roots. Besides, we'd heard nice things about this little hole in the wall, and I'd spent a good, long time trudging around in the by-lanes of South Mumbai trying to find it. Seeing as there was so much effort invested in this venture, we went ahead and decided to splurge a little and get us some South Indian fare from Taste of Kerala.

Now, if you're planning on actually dining in on site, you'd better be prepared to wait for a table at meal times, because this place is beyond cost-effective and placed in the prime business area of the city. At what is known as Fountain, if you're on the road going towards the famous Victoria Terminus, now Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus, just before the large CitiBank on the right side of the road, there is a turning. Take that right turn and then take the immediate next right turn. You will see a small temple to prove you're on the right path. A few steps down, and you're outside Taste of Kerala.

Assuming you've seated yourselves, and have had a look at the menu, I'll just say this: Order anything.
Although, since I haven't sampled the Chinese stuff on the menu, I'll just stick to the regular, Indian fare.

At breakfast time, the counters will be full of steaming idiyappam, appam and dosai, among other things. After that, it's only available for dinner.

If you're there for lunch, you must have their 'Porotas'. What a concoction! They're these beautifully flaky parathas made from refined flour and O Lord, they're amazing. I haven't eaten such amazing porotas since the 'Malabari Parathas' from a stall by the side of the road in Kochi, just entering town. With them, order any gravy. No, really, anything. Be warned, the place is South Indian, and food will be slightly on the spicy side. But while you're huffing your way through, you won't regret a bit of it.

When we ordered in, we got one chicken dish per person and ten porotas, to be equally distributed.

We spent, for the two of us, Rs. 184. No, I kid you not.

And after that, we were too stuffed to move. But it was the most amazing meal in ages. If they haven't run out, they even wrap the porotas in banana leaves before they put them in paper.

If you're dining in, make it a point to order the seafood. They have the very fear-inducing 'Price as per size' next to a lot of the seafood, but when I went with my bill payment guaranteed by my parents, we did get some prawns and some pomfret. The beautifully spiced and cooked prawns were perfectly sized for satisfaction (although, that may just have been luck) and the fried pomfret was fresh and clean to taste, and had the flavor I remembered from days when, as a child, the fisherwoman would deliver live catch at the door. Each dish was Rs. 350. Which, given the current rates and the size of the fish and prawns, was tantamount to eating for free. For four people, including the fish, prawns, one chicken dish, one surmai curry and around 16 porotas, the total bill was Rs. 1035.

And the staff is nice enough to smile at you, remember you (much to my embarrassment, seeing as I order from ToK like I'm starving for months) and service is very efficient.

Honestly, I love it.

Oh, also. Friends have raved about the vegetarian thali. I'm a meat-eater, but I think I'll take them at their word.