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Vegetarian meal in Dakshin Restaurant at Adyar Park
After years, for lunch, I went to the Dakshin restaurant in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Chamiers Road, Chennai. Dakshin is famous for serving South Indian delicacies from the four states, especially its lunch menu topped with a piping hot filter coffee. Apart from the food, the place is popular for the live music rendered by artists on a stage in the centre of the restaurant. The restaurant and the music performance have been immortalized in a scene in the Tamil film Singaaravelan (1992) starring Kamal Haasan and Kushboo. For the last few months, it is being rumoured that the Crowne Plaza Hotel premises has been sold to a realtor and…
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Tasty vada in Chennai-Bengaluru Highway
Today evening, while driving to Bengaluru (Bangalore) from Chennai by Chennai-Bangalore Highway (National Highway 48, new number) after about two hours when I had covered about 90 km I was craving a snack and coffee. From my previous trips, I like the Hotel Aryaas which was another 60 km (comes after Vellore and before Ambur when travelling from Madras), but today I will be missing it as I was planning to take the Chittor-Kolar road to Bengaluru instead of continuing on NH48. I spotted a Murugan Idli restaurant in Kaveripakkam and tried their Vadai (வடை in Tamil) and a coffee – the Vada (a fried snack made from black gram…
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Fresh natural sugarcane juice for the summer
Nothing beats freshly pressed sugarcane juice for relief during the Indian summer. This new shop in Ashok Nagar, Chennai serves hygenic, natural juice for just INR 25 (33 US cents) per cup. The conversation with the owner revealed that unlike his competition, he uses only fully ripened sugarcane shoots as they give the wholesome taste in the squeezed juice – after tasting a cup, I agree with him. The Google Maps location is here. #indiansummer #chennai #naturaljuice #sugarcanejuice
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Hotel Lakshmi Prakash, Salem
I am in Salem this week, and a friend recommended I visit the famous vegetarian restaurant, the Hotel Lakshmi Prakash (லக்ஷ்மி பிரகாஷ், சேலம்) in Brindavan Rd, Fairlands, Salem. Today we went to the hotel for dinner, which is in the busy market area of Salem for dinner and it was buzzing with customers, so we got a parcel and left to avoid the crowd. The ghee roast (முறுகல் நெய் தோசை) and the Rawa dosa (ரவா தோசை) were yummy, well worth the trip and the wait. The price was reasonable. Remember, when coming from the bypass to take the road below the bridge and not get on the flyover that goes…
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Tasty South Indian food I had near Tiruchengode area
When you are travelling, you get tastiest food at unexpected places. Today we experienced that at two places on our travel to Salem (Tamil Nadu) and surrounding region. Outside the cities it is safe and wise to always eat the local cuisine and to avoid eateries where you don’t find any locals but only tourists. Breakfast in Tiruchengode town, Tamil Nadu Today early morning after our darshan at Namakkal temple, we were on our way to Tiruchengode temple when we were looking for a good enough restaurant for our breakfast. There were many bakeries along the Attur-Rasipuram-Erode highway (Tamil Nadu State Highway 76) but cakes, puff (stuffed spicy pastry) and…
