Just Walking Around

Breakfast -----The first Meal of the day

Every morning in any regular household in Mumbai its like a battle scene. The members of the family rushing about the home , brushing , bathing packing their bags , shouting at the top of the voice if some thing is not found. The scene is much like envisioned in that famous song Jame Raho from Taare Zammen Pe…

Kas ke joota, kas ke belt Khons ke andar apni shirt
Manzil ko chali sawaari Kandhon pe zimmedari

Hath mein file, man mein dum Meelon meel chalenge hum
Har muskil se takrayenge Tas se mas na honge hum

Duniya ka naara - Jame raho Manzil ka ishaara - jame raho

Yeh sote bhee hain attention Aage rehne ki hai tension
Mehnat inko pyaari hai Ek dum aagyankari hai

Duniya ka naara - jame raho Manzil ka ishaara - jame raho

And in all this rushing around we forget the most important thing , that is having a hearty breakfast. During a busy morning , its easy to let breakfast fall low in your list of priorities but taking just a few minutes to something to eat can really make a difference to your day. Breakfast provides the body and brain with fuel after an overnight fast – that’s where its name originates , breaking the fast. Without breakfast you are effectively running on empty, like trying to sart the car with no petrol.

Nutritionist advise breakfast should be eaten within two hour of waking. Apart from providing us with energy , breakfast foods are good sources of important nutrients such as calcium , iron and B vitamins as well as protein and fibre. The body needs these essential nutrients and research shows that if these are missed at breakfast, they are less likely to be compensated for later in the day.

Ask me as a Sales person with conference calls and meetings lined up through out the day, lots of time it happens that I would be rushing from one meeting to another and by the time you feel like having lunch its already 3pm in the afternoon and then you end up have some sandwich or a salad.And your body is left craving for food and energy.

I still remember that one day in Bangalore a few years back I had gone for a few Sales meeting. I was staying in the heart of the city at a office designated hotel . As usual I was thinking of skipping my breakfast when the colleague who joined me at the hotel suggest we go to one of the local favorites – Mavalli Tiffin Rooms commonly known as MTR.The best south Indian food chain which can give even McDonalds , Dominoes or KFC a run for their money. Its a unique experience. This vegetarian venture first opened its doors in Bangalore in 1924. Mavalli Tiffin Rooms is now in the hands of the third-generation owners, Hemamalini Maiya and her two brothers.Hemamalini gave up a promising career in engineering to take over the family business in 1999 when her father fell ill. She maintains that MTR is successful exactly because it has not tried to reinvent itself.  

 The decor is decidedly tired -- faded curtains and scruffy walls, plain tables with red plastic garden chairs.  There is a huge waiting room with wooden benches lined up like in old railway station waiting rooms where you wait your turn. Once your turn comes you are ushered in the main dining area by the wait-staff. The wait-staff look like they are from another era, dressed in shirts and loincloths and walking barefoot. You get seated and order for the yummiest and piping hot breakfast. We ordered and were served rava idli, which Mavalli Tiffin Rooms claims it invented. The soft steamed bread is made from semolina instead of the usual rice flour, a recipe that dates back to grain shortages during World War II.

The idli arrives with coconut chutney, a spicy sambar and a vada, which is a delicious savory donut made from lentils. For me, the pièce de résistance for me is the masala dosa, freshly made, steaming hot, straight from the kitchen. A small bowl of ghee is available to pour over your dosa if you need a coronary overload.

Rather like a stiff pancake, but made from rice flour, the crust of the dosa is crisp, melt-in-the-mouth and has a pleasant caramel-like aftertaste. The center is filled with seasoned potato and onion. It is perfect and lip smacking…

In hindsight we did the right thing having a hearty breakfast at MTR because as usual by the time we were done with the meetings it was nearly 4pm and I had to rush off to the airport to catch my plane back home.

As we are on the topic of breakfast another place to have great breakfast is the Prashanth Upahar Ghar. In Indore, breakfast is equivalent to poha and jalebi. Any corner eatery worth its salt will have this delicacy steaming in large 'kadhais' on an open fire. In a neighboring kadhai, the halwai will be frying delicious circular patterns of jalebi, and dipping them in yellow sugary syrup. But Prashanth Upahar Ghar's poha and jalebi are the best. The poha is soft and fluffy and mildly spiced, while the jalebi is crispy goodness personified. This combination of sweet and savoury gives a good kick-start to the day.

Indore is a complete paradise for vegetarian food, but if you crave red meat, Johnny's is the place to go. The mutton hot dog is the most delicious dish you can snack on. The patties are succulent and juicy between two soft round buttered buns with extra servings of thinly sliced onions and chutney. You may think these look more like burgers than hot dogs, but that's what they are called here and no one is complaining. In the evenings, the place is packed and it can be a while before you get served.

Another one of my favorite breakfast joints is the unique restaurant in Nagpur going by the name of what else but – The Breakfast Story

The Breakfast Story is one of a kind restaurant in Nagpur , which is well known for its all-day breakfasts. This quirky place lays a lot of emphasis on its look and interiors. It features creative uses of recycled and second hand goods to give a vibrant and cheerful look to the place. Here you will find shopping trolleys as news paper stands to having games like snakes and ladder engraved on the furniture. The Breakfast Story changes its menu daily except for the egg dishes and the side orders. Charming and quirky , The Breakfast Story is a great place to relax and have a breakfast while reading newspaper or chatting with family and friends.

But if you are an assal Fan of that Maharashtrian spicy & fiery concoction called Missal you can not and should not miss eating at Sadhana Missal in Nashik.

Nashik is known for Missal. Every other hotel has “special” Missal on their menu. There are new missal places mushrooming every few weeks, trying very hard to differentiate themselves in some way. A year back during my visit to Glaxo and Mylan for exploring some business , I spotted this board near Jihan circle which read- Chulivarchi missal. Meaning missal cooked on a stove. And for those who don’t know what Missal is- it is spicy vegetarian legume curry, served with bread by the side. When food is cooked on a “chul” (wood fire stove) it has a distinct  smoky flavor. I don’t know if it is the slow cooking process or the smoky wood flavour, but food does taste better when cooked on a “chul”.

Sadahna Missal which is on Gangapur road, on the way to Sula is the original chulivarchi missal place. I specified original cause many have followed now. Tejas, the owner, told me that the family has been in the missal business since 55 years. When he returned from the UK to Nashik, he felt there was no missal place in Nashik, where families could hangout. Most of the missal joints are not very well maintained, small and crowded places. As a result, people had to sit all cramped up, eat quickly and leave. And so, he decided to come up with a Missal place which could double up as a family outing

So next time you are rushing off with out breakfast in the morning pause for a while and think again. As the famous saying goes “Breakfast like a King , Lunch like a Prince and Dine like a pauper”