Hyderabadi Biryani

I haven't been to Hyderabad, but I am a great fan of its Biryani. I first tasted it in Hyderabadi Biryani House (HBH) in Victoria road, Bangalore. It is near to Garuda mall and Lifestyle. It is 100-150 m from Life Style towards HAL airport road. I have tasted the best biryani in my life here. I have been a regular customer here for 4 years, but still I couldn't have enough of it.
After 7 years of studying and working in Chennai I got a job in Bangalore. After few months I moved to B'lore, with few of my office colleagues went to HBH for the first time. From then on we couldn't resist going there atleast once in a week.
The highlight in HBH is mutton biryani (MB). I don''t consider chicken and veg version of it as biryani. I never had anything else other than MB there. MB is served in plantain leaf, which is more hygenic, ecofriendly and traditional. One plate of MB is sufficient for 1 person. MB is filled with tender mutton pieces coated with freshly ground masalas and spices. The aroma of the MB fills the dining hall. Biryani is served with mirch ka salan and onion raitha. Rotis, northi Indian masalas, kababs, and tandoori items are also in the menu. But, I never looked beyond the MB.
The MB is very spicy here. The meat just melts in your mouth. The basmati rice is cooked with perfection carrying the aroma of the meat and spices. One will feel like eating more and more. They serve very good goat's meat here. One of the finest. After tasting the biryani here, I couldn't have the biryani anywhere else. You can dine in, carry away and home delivery (ph: 65979203) option is available for the near by localities.
Once me and my friend from Hyderabad went to HBH. When asked for his opninion he told, 'this is good, but you have to come to Hyderabad once and taste it'. He told it is damn good there. In my opinion, atleast once a non-vegetarian must taste the hyderabadi biryani in his/her lifetime (either here in HBH or in Hyderabad). Otherwise he/she misses something.
There is one more hyderabadi biryani house in Hosur road near to Forum. Guys, it's horrible. Please don't go there. The biryani here tastes like tamrind or tomato rice.
So guys ... ready to go .... HBH or Hyderabad :-)

MUMBAI

M U M B A I - I think this would be the word that every Indian would have spoken mostly in past 1 week. We all glued to the TV on those 3 days watching the incidents in mumbai...huh, what else we can do?

I am feeling ... I don't know what to say? It's like, a terrorist gets trained in our neighbourhood, once his training is over he just crosses the border and exhibit his skills in our country. We the Indians with a billion population waiting to be get killed. Today, Mumbai had the privilege of getting attacked by some terrorists. Next, I don't know which city is waiting for its turn.

Are we not going to do anything about it? Our so-called Prime Minister gave his usual speech in a very diplomatic way. They had a all-party meet, as if to change India in one day.

One week has gone by now the news about the attack started fading and by next week nothing will be heard of Mumbai. We all will turn to our normal life as if nothing had happened and thinking we will be safe hereafter; until another terrorist enter the country and butcher our people in some other city. Again we all will be glued to the TV watching the comfortable stay of Mr. Terrorist in our country LIVELY. I will be writing this kind of stupid blog again... ARE WE GOING TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT?

A Trip to Kerala

Recently, I have been to Kajanapara, Kerala. Our family has cardamom and pepper plantation there. Me and my wife Priya left Bangalore on 25th of July. There was heavy traffic on the roads due to serial bomb blast in the city and added to it heavy rainfall. Somehow, we reached Kalasipalyam but the bus had left already. We got some other bus and started our journey to my native P C Patti near Theni in Tamil Nadu.

Our family was waiting for us to come home safely. We left to Kerala by afternoon in 2 cars. Once we started climbing the ghat roads,the weather changed completely. Cool breeze with drizzling made the travel pleasant. We stopped near Puliyuthu for few minutes. We reached Bodimettu, which is the highest point in our route, by 3.30. Most of the vechiles that pass through will stop there for refreshment. Moreover, it is the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. We had refreshing hot Kerala tea and continued our journey.

We reached Poopara in another 20 min. It's a small town on the way, which connects Kajanapara, Munnar, and Rajakumari. We stopped there to buy some medicines for my mom. My wife was pestering me to buy some exotic bread variety, which she had in her last visit. We couldn't find it and bought her some other bread. I bought the fruit tea rusk, which is very famous in that locality. It started raining by that time. Kajanapara is 30 min travel from there. We reached there by 5.30 and had a good dinner and sound sleep that night.

We went there for a pooja which is done before the cardomom harvest. Next day morning, it was raining heavily. We made a tent with a tarpaulin and made the pongal out of great difficulties. We all were shivering and drenched completely by the rain. But in the end the hot, sweet pongal was ready. We made the plate out of cardomom leaves and had it. That afternoon we had a feast, and me and Priya left to Bangalore. It was a pleasant trip.