Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

I am fortunate to be in the presence of such a spirited group of
ehtusiasts. I lived in chennai for 30 years - grew up on a healthy
dose of english fiction but never read any tamil works/nor kalki, i
moved to singapore and was bestowed with the good fortune /my eyes
chanced on the project madurai site with Kalki's immortal links. I
finshed ps, ss and pk in a week ( it was a self inflicted marathon.

If only my eyes had opened to Kalki's greatness while still in
india, i could have made it to all your adventures, reliving ps. (
really jealous of all of you)

anyway I see that we have a globalforum here with lots of serious
stuff being discussed, below is a random blog with something to
humor your taste buds

its called - mallippoo idly in soy 16 Bangkok

Well a month after returning back from india, my tastebuds are back
to their usual self - screaming against the attack of soy sauce and
steamed stuff.... Well the cause for this particular outburst was a
small almost lost outlet in the crowded streets of bangkok.

Come to think of it - tom yums and sticky rice can hold their place
for a couple of days but after a week of eating stuff ordered by
looking at and not reading the menu .... I was almost down to my
last reserves when our IT implant ( chennaite of course) suggested
we try the Ganesh bhavan in bangkok ( am not joking now)....without
much hopes we did drag our tired selfs to a small outlet - nothing
great to write home about except the entrance had the third eye of
kan drishti ganapthi focussed solidly on us and a lady was crying
her heart out on Jaya TV ( yes you get Jaya tv in bkk - had to
request them to change channels and found one that played Charlie
chaplin as the circus tight rope artist).

The menu was pretty long - with english explanations for every item -
imagine trying to explain ama vadai ( soaked lentils deep fried
indian snack) and tell the difference from medu or masal vadai to a
german tourist. Or vendhaya Oothappam against masala dosai.

Anyway it was pretty late ( if there is at all the word late in
bangkok) so we ordered the quick stuff - idly....and out came these
heavenly white, smooth, soft, round idlys with assortment of cocunut
chutney, kothamalli chutney and sambar....i tried to pickup the
idlys and they broke off -----mallippooo idly in soy 16.

For a full two minutes I just admired their deft sqeeziness - then
dipped a fingerload into the white chutney and then ...... Heaven -
holding back tears of absolute ecstasy I called for the owner -
profusely showering him with choice praises ( inbetween ordering
three more helpings of 4 idlys) ( apparently he ships all his
ingredients direct from madurai - no wonder) - I told him his idly
was even better than murugan idly kadai and would almost match the
idlys of ratna café - infact if not for the superior sambar his
idlly would have been ahead.. He was really happy with this as he
told me that another client of his compared his idly to murugan ildy
kadai and he felt bad as he ( rightly) thought his was better. So
when I mentioned about ratna café idly, he wanted to know how theirs
matched....so I faithfully relay what I had told him below:

My first introduction to ratna café at triplicane was an accident -
a very troublesome old man ( a client) would never come on board (
my wife says I have a knack of getting customers by findind the
right chord and hiting it) - for a long time this old man was a
dificult proposition - there were no visible chinks in the armour,
so one day I casually asked him out for lunch and his eyes lit up -
and he suggested ratna café..

So we land at this very non discript hotel - typical kadapa kal top
tables, blue chairs but full of people. I was initally shocked at
the design of the cutlery - the plate was rather too deep - kind of
weird morph of a thattu with a dabara....almost like a dogs bowl
with no compartments for chutney or sambar....but then what happened
next provided the solution....a guy came with hot hot white idlys -
the biggest I have seen till date ( steam still coming off it) and
as soon as they landed another guy came with a bucket ( yes a
bucket) of sambar and poured the steaming broth over the
idlys....you are given two spoons to mix the two and ....the next
half hour we were in buloga sorgam.. You could almost see the halo
behind my head as I passed through a divine state - a state of sub
consious contentment..

I think they got it wrong in thiruvilaiyadal - it would have made it
more beleivable if arumuga and ganesh competed for a plate of ratna
café idly sambar instead of the gnana pazham....it was well worthy
of relinquishing your worldy possessions thus denied by your elder
brother of a plate of idly. How would KPS sung her immortal pazam
nee appa if this had happended - ratna café idly nee appa doesn’t
rhyme... Anyway idly rules....