Secret? Not quite

One of my favorite hobbies is of course eating :) While new restaurants and international cuisines are 

making a big headway in Chennai there are lots of eateries serving local cuisine and each has a distinctive taste and loyal fan following.

Ratna Cafe in Triplicane is one such hotel. Established in 1948 well thats what the board says, located at the junction of Pycrofts Rd and Triplicane High Road its doing quite well thank you and has even opened a branch at T'Nagar.

In house specialities is of course the famous Idly and their trademark secret recipe Sambar. The Idlies are somewhat larger than normal though flatter and the waiter carries a good sized mug full of sambar and he pours it over your plate slowly.

The trick is of course to cut your idly into very small pieces to soak up the sambar,you can ask him to pour a second helping and voila you have a plate full of idlies mashed into the sambar with its distinctive aroma. Oh and welcome to Chennai, you have arrived !

Order a coffee and some other day perhaps a vada to go with your idly and sambar, or as a standalone item, same procedure, cut the vada into small pieces to soak up the sambar. Jalebi is of course another delicious item there together with the traditional Dosai.

Dont be put off by the sorry looking entrance, they are renovating it seems, enjoy the food, shouldn't cost you more than Rs 50/ for idly sambar and coffee.

IPL Schedule

The way to Express Avenue aka don't circle Anna Salai

If you are going to the Express Avenue by bike don't go down Patullos Road. There is no entrance for bikes but cars can enter via Patullos Road. Wish the ExpressAvenue wallas open a gate for bikes.

I went down that road found that there is no entrance the hard way, circled back to Anna Salai took the street next to ClubHouse road (which is a dead end if you must know) since Thiru Vi Ka Road where the Woodlands theatre is located is one way.

Really sucks man this metro crap.... Wish I could come back after 2013....

Nice to know I am not the only one whining... Hindu carried a news item today about business owners lamenting about the fall in their business which depends on walk ins.

Well the price you pay for infrastructure...

A genuine secret and a rant.

First the secret....

The Mint Street is one of the longest streets in North Chennai, one end starts from opposite the
General Hospital (Rajiv Gandhi Hospital) and the other end terminates at the Mint clocktower approx 4 km give or take a few metres...

Full of commercial buildings, a substantial North Indian population have their houses and businesses there, we will be returning to it quite a few times in this blog as it houses lots and lots of secrets....

 There is this interesting article in Monday's Hindu newspaper about a Mehta Vada Pav shop running for 50 years on Mint street, Gujaratis selling Maharashtrian food to Tamilians . Weird right, but you ain't seen nothin yet...

One thing that bugs me is there is no mention of the exact location of this shop. In a 4 km stretch packed with shops and bylanes with not even an inch gap between buildings, you can search for days and be none the wiser without inside knowledge.

Mission: Locate this shop. Time frame : soon... this way I am safe...  ha ha.


Now for the promised rant.

< Begin Rant>

I am already beginning to hate this Metro Rail coming up in Chennai. Ok forget the dug up roads, damned diversions (you must see Anna Salai) and dust....

Whole parks have been ripped apart to provide a concrete montrosity. Shenoy Nagar park gone, Ashok Nagar park gone,  huge trees along the Anna Nagar Arch cut down. Is it worth it ?

Hey are you going to compensate for the loss of green cover? not likely if the past record is anything to go by... the only green I am going to see is the color on the metro cars most likely...

and I am saving another rant for the heritage buildings affected by this Metro Rail.

< End Rant for now>

pics pics pics have to take them....

Websites for Mock Tests.

Some websites for taking mock tests,  useful for students.



www.ipractice.in/
Test Tool for TN State Board Exams.


www.tcyonline.com
Useful for entrance exams such as MBA, GATE, engineering, medical and school based exams.


www.mycbseguide.com
For CBSE students.

www.learnhub.com
Career Counselling, Practice tests for engineering, medical, law and management entrance exams.

www.excellup.com
Classnotes for classes VIII to XII and MBA courses.

Chennai Cheetahs Theme Song [HD] - Official

In the World Series Hockey, Chennai Cheetah's theme song... rocking ain't it

Not exactly a secret....

Came across this website Meterpodu a new startup. As you might know autorickshaws dominate private travel in chennai and there are tons of horror stories about fleecing and rude behaviour.It is the only unchanging albeit nasty face of chennai  and politicians remain gutless to tackle this menace, less said about the police the better.

Meterpodu attempts to crowdsource the travel rates between various points within chennai so a visitor or even a chennaite can know the approximate travel fare.

Nice innovation but the usage as usual depends on the net savvy and the site lacks a feedback feature to gauge the impact.

Chennai's secrets is back again

Its been a long time since this blog has been updated, with Chennai transforming day by day there are lots of things happening and this blog will keep up the latest trends.