Bangalore's Idly Vada Sambar

Sorry, idly vada sambar is not available electronically!!! I am just sharing some of my thoughts on this wonderful creation and its bangalore connection. Wait a minute!! this is all about the "hotel" version of the I-V-S

Whoever has visited Bangalore and stayed for at least of days will realize the fact I-V-S(and chutney) is one of the lifelines of Bangalore. Idly / Vada attracts people from all walks of life - rich and poor, young and old. What makes it a popular choice? Sometimes I really wonder how someone came up with this idea of serving 2 idlies+vada+sambar? Why not Idly and dosa? or idly with upma? One of the answers can be: All these fit together in one small and manageable plate or a bowl ? Or is it simple economics which put these together? Forget it, whoever (for whatever reason!!) discovered this chemistry, it's a wonderful combination.

What is the IVS and bangalore connection? It could be because of
a)People - Yes, a middle class Bangalorean likes to eat outside
b)Place - Bangalore has lot of educational and business establishments which means there are a whole lot of hungry young people out there!!
c) Long distance commute means that you need to have a 2 tier breakfast - one at home and one after reaching your office because it could take 1 - 2 hours to reach the office?
d)Darshini (self serve restaurant)revolution - which virtually put at least one self service restaurant every 100 meters in the crowded areas.

So that does'nt mean you can walk in to any damn hotel in Bangalore and expect a good IVS. Tracking a good place requires some knowledge in local geography(to get to popular hotspots), some common sense(finding a busy joint), good eye sight(take a look at the vada mountain and guess when it is prepared!!) and trained nostrils(for separating the stale chutney). Darshinis and some of the old time hotels are always a safe bet. The darshinis have a great business model by having minimal overheads and great returns on investment. So the consumers pay less to get fresh and quality stuff. They also offer great taste combined with unlimited sambar and chutney!!. Depending on the place and how much you pay, chutney can be anything from coloured water to a divine creation.

Going further, not all localities in bangalore are loaded with good IVS(C) joints. I would say the old bangalore - basavanagudi, chamrajpet, hanumanth nagar and Jayanagar can be considered IVS capitals. Why they dominate over others? It's a good subject for an elaborate white paper...Well if you happen to go in the morning to any of these areas, you cannot escape the aroma of IVS coming from the darshinis. You will find middle, old aged people side by side with yound kids enjoying this stuff. It is very common in Bangalore to sign off a early morning walk with a Idly or Vada or both!!

Do you ever imagine how many idlies might be consumed in Bangalore. According to my conservative estimates it is at least 250,000 idlies every day considering at least 50 localities/ 10 darshinis/50 idlies per hour!!! I always evaluate a restaurant / darshini by first eating idly / vada. Going by the hotel industry standards, these are not "difficult to make" items and if I don't like the taste, I just walk off from there!!

How do you tell if the idly or vada is fresh? Here is how my friends used to ask simple questions
1)my friends: "is the idly / vada hot and fresh?"
hotelier's default response: "yes sir, very fresh, it is prepared just 15 mins ago"..that means at least one hour in reality. If he says one hour, it means at least 3 hours. If he says it's prepared couple of hours ago, it could be anything from 2-10 hours!!
2)my friends: Can I make out if it's hot by touching it?
hotelier's response1(annoyed): How does it matter? Sambar is hot!!
or
hotelier's response2(cool): Go ahead..its coming directly from the pan!!

So where does I-V-S stand today in competition? As far as bangalore is concerned, kids and the IT crowd are moving towards sandwiches, fruits, cereals, etc. Eating Idly / Vada may longer be the popular first choice. Things change over time and we need to wait and watch the breakfast preferences of today's kids.

See you Soon with another update!!