Thanks for all the mails that have come in. Many of you want to know how exactly I select my street food destinations each week. Well, I don’t have an agenda. I simply go on a drive and randomly enter any eatery that comes my way. I never tell them why I am eating there and pretend to be a tourist collecting pictures of food as a hobby. Most of them would never answer if I told them the truth.
Here’s my foodie adventure for this week. It’s Friday and I take a long drive towards Porur. Heavy traffic and brightly-lit restaurants have transformed this place into a busy township. There are hospitals, industries and company guest houses around this area that need food delivered on a regular basis.
Shivas is an 800 sqft restaurant on the highway that is housed partially in a concrete building and a tin roof. It has four parts to it: The entrance, the tandoor room, the soot-covered kitchen and a TV room. There are several chairs at the entrance and in the TV room. A lone man is dining inside, laughing at a comedy show running on TV. A middle-aged man gives me a dirt-ridden menu card. The food list is certainly plagiarised. From sweet corn chicken soup to lollypop chicken to Schezwan chicken they have almost everything. Try ordering and you will know instantly that they have only chapathi, tandoori chicken, rice and other regulars. I order for the prawn clear soup (Rs 30). It comes in 50 seconds. Pepper water, two pieces of halved prawns, egg drops, noodles and salt. Unpalatable! I go to the wash basin and further lose my appetite. Underneath the sink there are piles of old coke bottles, tins, cans and an unbearable stench.
“You don’t look like the kind who has come to eat,” the man at the counter says. “I have just moved in to Chennai and still in the process of setting up the kitchen,” I say trying to convince him. He nods and sends a quarter piece tandoori chickens (Rs 45). The vinegar and the old onion salad give a pungent taste. I ask for egg podimas (Rs 25) and it comes in looking like a little mountain on a plate. Full of pepper and an excess of onion. The food here is over priced and the ambience is highly intimidating. “Give me your address. We even home deliver,” says the man as he hands me the bill. I smile and pretend not to have heard the question. I head straight to Park Sheraton for a Tiramisu. This is what I call icing on the cake!
Avg cost for two: Rs 150/
Shivas, No 119, Mount Ponnamalli Road, Porur
Tele : 24763876