Pondicherry - Food...er...time stops here

Beautiful rain soaked Pondicherry. Sigh. The French quarter is so lovely! The streets are wet but clean. Walking under the green canopy, feeling the fat droplets of rain, telling myself not to think about getting back to Chennai - rather sums up my holiday here. I can never tire of walking here. It seems to be the most natural thing to do. Every time I come here I find something new to do.

This time too after driving down the scenic ECR, we checked into Executive Inn, a hotel conveniently placed in the French quarter and close to the promenade and the famous Manakula Vinayagar Temple. We were hungry and we were familiar with the menu at Executive Inn. So after a decent meal of butter parathas and paneer matar, we were ready to walk. I never have any particular destination in mind when in the French quarter of Pondi. I was sure I’d chance upon some charming shop that I’d missed out the previous time.

And that’s what happened. We walked about the promenade taking in the cool breeze and overcast weather. Some people were walking furiously, some leisurely. Many families were dressed to the nines and sitting near the Gandhi statue. All in all, it seemed festive. Soon it was time to check out a place for dinner.

At the far end of Goubert Avenue, the road curves towards Subbiah salai where we have the much talked about Le Club. Since we had already eaten over there and had found nothing great to write home about, we moved on. After some curio shopping, we retraced to Subbiah Salai as S had seen a lounge bar called Asian House. I was skeptical about it as I was not really keen on trying anything Asian in a place which is so on-your-face French. I was dubious about the menu there, and was trying to coax S into La Terrase which I had read about that morning in my quest to find some of the good restaurants in Pondi. My powers of persuasion won and we sat down at La Terrase only to find out that they didn’t serve Beer/alcohol. Since our man wanted a nice cold beer after the walk, we had no other choice but to walk into Asian House.

I was surprised to find myself in a nice well lit place with pictures on brick wall. The picture I have put here is from their website and it was exactly what I’d seen there too. Maybe they were a bit optimistic when they called it a zen lounge bar with DJ and boutique thrown in, coz the DJ wasn’t there and the console was a tiny little place. The boutique was a small cabinet filled with brass items on sale. That left the lounge bar/ restaurant, which I guess is what you really notice. The waiters were courteous and attentive encouraging us to order more – which we just couldn’t do considering the way we pigged out in the afternoon. So I was happy with my tangy garlic chicken and he was happy with his corn and cheese gratin (which of course was so not Asian). The cheese in the gratin was yummy and the bread rolls were fresh and hot from the oven. The butter was fresh and light. I thought I’d embarrass myself by stuffing it all into my mouth. It was that good. So they did offer a bit of Continental cuisine along with the predominant Asian fare – Chinese, Indian and Thai, if I remember right.

As we were enjoying the cuisine inside, the clouds had opened up and it had rained. But thankfully when we stepped out there was no rain. So we walked to Adyar Ananda Bavan for a dessert of badam milk and walked back to our hotel.

The next day we contrived to go to La Terrasse for lunch as we missed it the previous day. So after the complimentary breakfast at our hotel which included a set continental menu of bread and eggs made to order and Indian menu of idlis/dosas/parathas/pooris, we walked to Rue Francios Martin in search of a shop selling leather goods. S wanted to pick up sandals which he’d seen last time. We didn’t find the sandals he wanted but we stumbled into Auroboutique which sold handmade paper, which is a flourishing industry there. We browsed there to our heart’s content and after dumping our purchases in the car, we were off to La Terrasse for lunch. It was a disappointment for me.

Seated near the kitchen, S had a ring side view of the chefs…no, I’d call them cooks, making hand-stretched pizza base, baked in wood fire oven. But the authenticity of the pizza stopped right there. It was such an amateur job that I was inspired to get home and try a hand at baking pizzas. Every pizza had a tomato slices placed over a watery sauce. Over the tomatoes was a very basic topping with melted cheese that didn’t have any flavor. I was terribly disappointed but S gamely ate his entire veg pizza. I was surprised to see the number of foreigners dropping in to have lunch. Surely these guys catered to their taste. Anyway, I just wanted out and was happy to pay the modest bill and search for a dessert which will make me forget this miserable excuse of a pizza. We drove to the promenade and entered Le Café, a lovely café overlooking Rocky beach. I promptly ordered a brownie with ice cream and was delighted when I got a sinful looking huge piece of brownie that was soft and chocolaty.

Mollified by the yumm dessert, I was ready to take on the evening’s walk and our visit to the Manakula Vinayagar Temple. The Elephant God here is known for fulfilling wishes of the many devotees who throng that place and S wanted to offer his thanks for an earlier benevolence. From there we went to Mission Street, a busy street housing all kinds of shops but my eyes were on Casa Blanca and surprises of surprises, there was a Hidesign showroom which also had a café on top. The menu was pasted on the wall outside and I liked what I read. So after whiling away time in Casa Blanca and buying some accessories, we walked across to the Hidesign café. It was on the 3rd floor. I managed to climb up all the floors without once glancing at all the lovely bags on display. My love for the over-priced yet beautiful bags was a known thing and S was amused that I did not bow to temptation this time.

Once we trudged up the wooden stairs I was surprised to see a small elegant kidney shaped place overlooking the street below. The view was unmarred by beautiful glass bay windows. The drapes were satin and of a rich colour with beautiful tiny lights twinkling on one side of the ceiling. It looked as if sparkling flowers were hanging above our heads. The tables were lined with leather pieces and topped with glass. And there were only four tables of which two were occupied by elegant ladies with casually dressed men. Definitely this was one of Pondicherry’s few fine dine cafés. S happily ordered his beer and we ate a classic meal of chicken and veg classic burgers. Sigh. Anything that pleased my stomach makes me deliriously happy and that’s how I felt lounging there, with an August issue of Bazaar in my hand admiring photographs of their cover story, of beautiful women at all ages, including a tucked and trimmed Shobaa De in her sixties.

As I bit into my cheesy burger I wondered how much I had to sacrifice to achieve that. Between my right hand and left, well… clearly the hand that held the burger won. I was definitely going to be cushioned and lined in my sixties. But it would all be so worth it!