However, among all the food eaten outside, one meal that I had stands out in recent memory.
On a trip to Mangalore to attend a close pal’s wedding, I woke up late on the day I had to travel and had to skip breakfast for want of time. I did manage to satiate myself with a masala dosa at the Bangalore bus terminus at a place I will never eat again at, for the rest of my life, unless I am dying of hunger.
To compound my misery further, I hadn’t had dinner the previous night either, due to a drunken binge at Purple Haze, for a second visit in three days, and a lone bachelor staying in a swanky apartment without kitchen facilities can’t really eat tiles off the floor if he gets hungry.
A rumbling stomach, for not having had a proper meal in almost twenty four hours is not among the most desirable predicaments that I wish to put myself in. But due to lack of options, I was stuck on the KSRTC bus, that left Bangalore at 1130.
A traffic jam that lasted an hour at Nelamangala, in North Bangalore, made me even more miserable. People kept asking our bus conductor for when we would be stopping for a bite.
I don’t ever recall being as desperately hungry in my life before. Food is an amazing thing, it can help you get your mind off everything else.
After an ardurous journey of four and a half hours, the bus finally stopped at the “Kamath Drive-in” restaurant, in the vicinity of Hassan.
After jumping off the bus, as it was parking slowly, I ran towards the restaurant and ordered the most obvious thing that comes to one’s mind in such places, a vegetarian full meals.
For 25 Rupees, it was the best meal I ever had, comprising of a chappati with two curries, one of which had sprouts in it. There was some rice and sambhar and rasam, all of which just tasted absolutely divine. In addition, there was this dish made of eggplant pulp with raw onions in it, and the obligatory pickle and curds. I am drooling as I type this sentence out, those lovely memories being rekindled again within my being.
Usually a slow eater, I managed to thulp all this food within ten minutes, and then the smile on my face wouldn’t go off, even when I stubbed my toe on some flat surface. (Dorky as I am, I keep stubbing my toe or slipping. Hence no rampwalk for me.)
It wasn’t until later that it dawned upon me that I was going to attend the wedding of another ‘Kamath’!!!
Food is best.
I ate in the exact same place while we drove down from Bangalore
- VK
[...] Great food isn’t only about the taste, but also about the time when you eat it. For instance, here’s a post I wrote nearly four years ago about the best meal I have had in my life. [...]