Breakfast at Tiffiny's

No, I am not here to write about the 1961 American romantic comedy starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard called Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This is about breakfasts at Chennai where small meal like breakfast is called ‘tiffin’. This is a pictorial journey of ten days of sambar, idli, vada, pongal and lots of eggs. Yes, I am not egg-xagerating one bit! 

You think you can manage ten days on your own?

Ya, of course.

Maya, the house help will come and do the main meals for you. All you have to manage is the breakfast. Hope you can do it?

Arrey darling, tu jaa na. I can cook like a pro. In case you do not know, I am planning to take part in the next season’s MasterChef Australia. So just chill and don’t worry about me.

She chuckled at my blatant lie and said… Ok then bye. Just make sure you will send me a picture of your morning meal every single day.

Yes, sure, I will do it. Just go now before you miss the flight.

As soon as she left Chennai to head back home to Mumbai, half my confidence was gone. Not one or two days when you can just go out and eat but ten full mornings. And then the last condition of sending pictures to her as proof was nerve-wracking.

I opened the refrigerator and found a dozen eggs and a tray full of mangoes. I will survive… I started singing out aloud Gloria Gaynor’s song.

I set the alarms on my phone and time-piece for 6.30am and would always get up much before, open the windows, make myself a hot cup of tea and just enjoy the morning cup sitting in the dark room with the ceiling fan turning around, planning the morning coup.

Day One: Chopped onions and beat the eggs well before putting the liquid on frying pan to make scrambled eggs. Peeled and cut the Alphonso mango and put the pieces in a small bowl. Add a couple of sausages and it becomes a Supa Breaka...

Day Two: There were a couple of chapatis left over from the previous night’s dinner. Fried the eggs like omelette, placed the chappatis on top and made nice and hot egg rolls.

Day Three: With two days of eggs being fried on oil, decided to make twin water poaches that simply melted in the mouth with buns cut into half.

Day Four: It was time to take a break from the kitchen and dive into a heritage Chennai eating joint called Ratna Café at Triplicane. Started by Jaggilal Gupta ji from Mathura, this café started way back in 1948 and has since been quite a favorite of the locals who keep coming here. I sat opposite a smart looking man who said he has been living in Singapore for the last fifteen years but whenever he is in town, he makes sure he has one meal at Ratna Café. They pour sambar on the idlis and vadas like waterfall and soon the round balls get submerged in the delicious liquid gold and then when you start eating, you realise why the man opposite you never misses a trip here. Just for the records, on an average 1500 to 2000 litres of sambar, the signature product of Ratna Cafe, are prepared every day in this nostalgic place!

Day Five: The mother has written a recipe and he gets down to make what is known as Gola Paratha. It is a soft roll made with atta, eggs and milk, all mixed together and then fried over gentle heat like pancake. Please do not go by the various shapes of continents I was able to make, just feel the joy of following the recipe of Her Majesty!

Day Six: Cheese, egg twin burgers for a happy meal.

Day Seven:  The next-door neighbor, seeing my plight offered to take me to a newly opened place called Sangeetha at T Nagar. With valet service and swank interiors, this place seems busy even on a weekday morning. During office days, Murugan’s Idli used to be the place to go but now, the breakfast at Sangeetha consisting of ghee podi masala dosa and filter coffee was both delicious and sumptuous. This is a smart place with the waiters having hand held devices to take orders as compared to the menu handwritten on blackboards put up in the old tiffin rooms. The size of the dosa was so big that I stopped ordering for anything more.

Day Eight: A couple of boiled eggs with a good sprinkling of salt and pepper tastes heavenly in the morning.

Day Nine: Pav, Cheese, Hummus and eggs in between. This was a special preparation where the eggs are boiled to three-fourths level and then extracted from the shells to be mashed with butter and mayonnaise.

Day Ten: Called up an old-time friend who agreed to meet me near the famous Kapaleshwar Temple at Mylapore. On his recommendations went to eat at the Karpagambal Mess. When you enter the place which again is over seventy years old, you feel as if you are entering a temple with huge pictures of gods and goddesses covering every inch of the wall. Here we had two rounds of breakfasts. Round one included vada and ghee pongal served on a banana leaf. You better dip your fingers in the sambar and chutneys if you are to enjoy the heavenly food. We then got up and took a long walk to return for round two when we had ghee plain dose and one of the finest filter coffees you will ever get to drink. Everything about the place is simple and yet tasty beyond words. After all, the owners of the place have one motto, if the customers go back dissatisfied with the food served here, the house deity, Goddess Ambal, after whom the place is named, would be unhappy. 

On day eleven, before departure to Mumbai, made a sumptuous packet of spicy Korean ramen with fried eggs to temper the taste. No picture was taken for this one as it was not part of the agreement.

Every morning after laying my tiffin, I would diligently take pictures on my iPhone and send it to her and every time she would exclaim… wah.. kya baat…

Oh, how I wished I had more days to eat tiffins at Chennai’s old and famous places tucked in some small lanes of this beautiful city and possibly stocked more eggs to make more of the eggy dishes.

SS