Spending Time Together

When I saw my sister push her luggage cart towards us at the airport, tears welled up in my eyes. Its been 5 years since we saw her last.

Keeping in touch over phone and e-mails apart, there's nothing like being together and spending time together. Doing special things for her is giving me so much joy.

She loves good food. Loves to eat outside. Vadai, bonda, parattha, phulkas and pulao are among her favourites.
How much fun she had last time, eating bondas and cutlets at the woodlands drive-in on her last visit. We shopped at Spencer's but ate at Woodlands on our way back home. She is so sad that it does not exist anymore. We will still visit to see the landscape and the trees in the new garden in its place.

I had planned to take her to maximum possible hotels within the 3 weeks she will stay with us. Chennai is bursting with so many places to try out good food.
The must-eat places which I must take her at least once are
Hotel Saravana Bhavan which I took her to yesterday itself. Each had a single bonda, vada and idli. She loved the sambar and the chutneys. I have always liked their strong filter coffee (with sugar :D).

She was amazed at the change with so many new buildings which have come up on most roads. She was clueless about roads and streets. It is for this reason I have decided never to let her go alone by herself in Chennai. I or someone will always be there to take her around. I remember the most pleasurable days I spent at her place in Ottawa in 1991. She took such good care of me. Even now I think I love Canada as a place to visit. Perhaps that was my first trip abroad and one loves the first place one sees.
Someone told me he loved London though he had visited USA and australia too. That is because London was the first place he visited.
Back to the places we will be visiting every evening, if possible, to try speaciality tiffins.

Grand Snacks for their hot and fresh boli and appams, etc.
Adayar Ananda Bhavan for ditto ditto.
Sri Krishna for their great tiffin combos which offer many varieties in one shot.
Sri Krishna's 'Rasam' restaurant for dinner one day.
Sanjeevani for a lovely, fresh and sattwic fare on offer is a must.
For that superb Hyderabadi Dum Biryani at Swati, Saravana Bhavan, Mylapore.
To the Pizza Hut for their crunchy, tasty pizza, breads and garden salad.
Nathan's one day for lunch perhaps.
Mathsya not to be missed time permitting.

The finale will be a lunch or dinner at the Copper Point at GRT Grand, a good place to eat at. The food is great there.

She has a big shopping list - to buy gold at GRT, clothes at Westend, kitchen ware at Rathna's, etc. I will have to juggle with hotels to fit in with her shopping list and areas she will have to visit. It requires a master plan indeed to do all of that.
There will some people who might invite her out to dinner or lunch.

Happy thinking of the happy times together.

Cheers.
Mahalakshmi.

Mom's Birthday Celebrations!

Since it is my mom's 83rd birthday today, I asked her where she wanted to go.
Sundays are usually beach and a nearby restaurant if we wanted to eat something.
But its been a long time since we went towards that side due to unseasonal drizzling, my returning late from work, etc.

She said beach and Sri Krishna Sweets which has opened a new branch at Besant Nagar just a few weeks back.

We sat for a while at the Elliots Beach in our usual place. The moon looked pale. Then we walked down to find Sri Krishna Sweets.

It is centrally located. Much has to be done to uplift the surrounding areas but I could see some work still going on.

We went through the menu card and ordered 1 each of Aloo Tikki with channa, Pav Bhaji and Corn Au Gratin. We could not do justice to Aloo Tikki so we wanted it packed to carry it back home to enjoy in leisure. When I asked about the Au Gratin the order-taker said it contained a bit of ice-cream to make it tasty! I knew it was the cream and cheese sauce he was mistaking for ice-cream instead of just cream. I was a bit worried how the dish would be if it did contain some ice-cream as he insisted it would :D !!

The pav-bhaaji had a queer taste due to mixing of some oil alongwith butter in between the bun halves. It could have tasted better with just butter.

We got a two-seater near the entrance door which had no fan and the AC too was not working. There was no running water in the wash room. Luckily a water bottle on the counter had some water so we managed to wash hands with it.

Despite all this, my mom enjoyed the outing on her special day, that was what mattered and not whether the AC was on or off, whether the Corn Au Gratin contained ice-cream or not :)

Since her having a good time was the main focus, all else faded into the background. Yet Sri Krishna Sweets of Besant Nagar could improve as we have all come to expect and appreciate good quality food for which they are known all over Chennai. Otherwise this busy centre will be a great let-down.

Mahalakshmi