[ Eden ]
Nancy speaks of "Bakes."
"It consisted primarily of boiled vegetables in white sauce, with a dusting of grated cheese on top, the whole thing put in the oven for the cheese to brown. it was the westernised housewife�s gesture to western food."
Which reminded me of the many times I encountered the dish in restaurants across Chennai, and across the country. There was only one place where the experience was enjoyable...
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In Besant Nagar, up narrow stairs, (somewhere on the street something says - or said - Panama?) there is a little restaurant called Eden.
Even though we always visited at night, I have the impression that it had an airy feel. I do recall large framed cross stitched pictures of vegetables around the wall, one at each table.
It is a vegetarian "western" restaurant, specializing in various types of bakes, some using "English" vegetables. (Speaking of which, I remember finding one greengrocer who carried some courgettes/baby marrows/zucchini and celery along with a few other odds and ends close to Pondy Bazaar and Nalli's.)
There were other items on the menu as well, but right now I can't recall them, crowded out by too many memories of the various bakes I had come across.
Beyond Spencer's Plaza, further north on Anna Salai, is Mathura (which I think is part of the Woodlands restaurants.) In the Tarapore building, mpo confirms. They had an interesting bake as well, along with the "Cream of Vegetable soup," the standard bland white concoction with a few peas, diced carrots and corn(?) floating in it, and the ubiquitous Cream of Tomato soup.
I don't know whether the latter still counts as "western," since just about every place in Chennai that offers a North Indian thali starts you off with this "tamater ka shorba," never mind that it came from the Maggi packet moments before.
And on the topic of soups, I remember how we giggled when in the more up market mughlai restaurants like the formal one in GRT Grand Days, the menu offered Sambar and Rasam under the Soups heading.
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Nancy replies with the name of the green grocer - Kennedy Vegetable Stall in Panagal Park, and the news that English vegies are now more freely available. This sets me off on another meandering.
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That's the place!
After a weekly trip there I'd slice the zucchini thinly, saute it with onion and then use milk and maggi mushroom soup to make it into a creamy sauce. Serve it with whatever pasta I could scrounge at that stage in Food World (NOT the Ramen noodle kind) and amaze the people at work with the "western" tastes. (Oh, did I mention adding the obligatory karam?)
We never bought an oven, but we selected the stove with the "grill" between the two burners. It had a little glass window and a doll-size tray that would fit two slices of bread - if they're really cozy. Since the heat came from the top it would broil the dish - got some nice (but minute) gratins. Unfortunately that was the first part of the stove that broke - the two gas burners are still working.
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These past few days since I have found Nancy's blog has been an amazing walk down memory lane for me. I am getting so homesick for India that I can cry. It has been three years since I have been there, and I am finding that I miss it more and more every day, and yet I have spent only a couple of years there. By contrast it is only some of the people that I miss of the country I was born and raised. India has a way of settling very firmly in one's heart.
