BangaloreMirror
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FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2013
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same about selling coffee and tea, andhence doesn't sell either.Over the years, apart from the change inthe price of paan, Chacha feels that there isachange even in everything around him. “Itwas clean and green here before, but nowthere are so many highrise buildings aroundmy shop,” says Chacha. When he started, he would sell a paan for 20 paisa. But today, one maghai paan is Rs 15. People from all walksof life visit his shop including the starsfrom Sandalwood - Puneet Rajkumar and Uppi saar (Upendra) who are his regular clients. The shop opens at 7.30 amand Chacha says there is not a moment torelax... business is brisk and he can restonly when he shuts shop for the day at11.30 pm.
—Khushali P Madhwani
and red tins have various powders that Cha-cha uses to make his paan. Right in the cen-tre of the matchbox shop is a wooden boxwhich is the ‘parcel counter’.Occasionally when Chacha is travelling,the paan is prepared by four boys from hisvillage who have learnt the tricks of thetrade. “Paan banana dikkath ki cheez nahi hoti (It is not a difficut task tomake paan),” says Chacha. Since the last five decades, Chacha has been using the same masalas to prepare the paan.“The recipe has never changed becauseit's such an easy item to prepare.”He uses gulkand, khajur, kesar and more. Chacha has never sold cigarettes. “There is no effort in selling a cigarette pack because you are just giving a pack to a customer. You're not making anything,” says Chacha. He feels the
A
s a 17-year-old boy, 50 years ago, Gulabchand Singh came to Bangalorefrom Allahabad. He came here to study but didn't want lose himself inbooks and instead got inspired by his brother who had a paan shop on BrigadeRoad to start his own. His brother, four years older to Singh, suggested that heopen a paan shop on St Marks Road at theKoshy's corner. Ever since, on a car seat covered with aplastic gunny-bag, in a white kurta pyjama,Gulabchand Singh (popularly known as Cha-cha) sits and prepares paan that Bangalo-reans consider the best. Maghai Paan Shopis a 6’X7’ shop that is blue and brown.When you stand for a paan, your eyeswill linger to the wall at the back of the shopwhere three photos of Hindu gods are prom-inently displayed. The tiny blue, black, silver
BM SAVEUR:
MAGHAI PAAN SHOP
This paan shop is a must-stop shop for any Bangalorean returning from a dinner and passing St Marks Road
O
ne of the lesser known mean-ings of the word ‘tilt’ is a com-bat between two mountedknights – like a joust. The Tiltwe visited bills itself as Ban-galore’s first destination gastropub. Iknow a certain Monkey who mightpick a joust over that, but since Kora-mangala IS Bangalore for a lot of peo-ple, we’ll let that pass.When we’d dropped in at Tilt acouple of months back, we had theluxury of choosing our seating at 8pm on a Saturday, but this time, peo-ple who walked in at that time didn’teven have a choice of where tostand. The place was packed – theground floor, the mezzanine seat-ing, and the outdoor option! I getthe feeling that a certain DJ TT had ahand in it, but even otherwise, judg-ing from our experience – the foodand the general vibe – the place de-served it. The interiors include hattips to music in the form of postersall over, but we wondered whetherthey had gone a bit overboard withthe grunge look. However, the restof the experience easily takes overbefore you start paying attention tothe details. ‘Familiar’ is the wordthat Tilt uses to describe the music itplays, and it was exactly that. Yes, abit loud, but everyone seemed to behaving a blast, and that brought thepainful realisation that age was notreally tilting in my favour!
Appetisers:
The menu is an eclecticmix of various cuisines, with manyfusion twists. In addition to the regular menu, there’s also a barsnacks menu. A rainy night menumeant that we had to try a soup. The Broth of leeks and charred Za’a-tar flavoured chicken got a few pointsjust for the unique presentation, andthe mildly spicy soup didn’t disap-point on taste either. We missed theGerman snail sausages in the dish,but the Pork Cocktail sausages andthe superb sauerkraut seasoningquite made up for it. Billions of BlueBlistering Barnacles was up next –grilled seafood, mushroom ceviche,crisp Basil chiffonade chicken withchlorophyll mayo and Peruvianbread. We found squid, prawn, andfish; the mayo deserves a specialmention for the flavour it lent to the dish. The Old Monk Chickencrispy chilli hot wings has been a fa-vourite and continued to be every-thing it promised. Alcoholic adven-tures continued with the Sangria,which had brandy in it, and was ac-tually good! The Tilt Kiss(mocktail version) was notbad either, but the Cos-mopolitan turned out tobe toosweet.
Entree:
Technically, themini wharf burgers arepart of the bar snacks me-nu, but given that we were afew drinks down, we tilted it to-wards the main course! I was warnedthat their appearance was deceivingand they’d be quite filling. I thinkthere is some tasty truth in it. The Fu-silli in creamy pesto with mush-rooms was thick and creamy, butmight have felt a little ignored in thecompany of meatier dishes. Capris-cisico calebresse was our pizza of choice, mostly thanks to its namedropping among ingredients – hamand bacon, to be specific. But thethin pizza was only average, thoughquite filling. For those interested,there is also a Man vs Burger cham-pionship that’s always on.
Afters:
Fromthe half-a-dozen op-tions, we chose the Chilled straw-berry bisque and the Crème Brule(sic). The former also had pis-tachio quenelles and ri-cotta cream, which com-plemented thestrawberry flavour, butcouldn’t really elevatethe dish. The CrèmeBrulee was crunchy andcustardy, but the custardwas a little too hard. Youcould go with the Giandujahot chocolate soufflé which hasfried chocolate biscuits and a choco-late vanilla creamy 'soup' whichcomplement each other well.
In all:
Tilt has a lot of things goingfor it – good food, energetic vibes and from a few experiences,superb music. What it can work onare the details eg. dog-eared menucards. If they do, there’s nothingthat stops the establishment from going ahead full tilt, evenamidst the gastronomic abun-dance that’s Koramangala.
Bangalore Mirror reviews anonymously and pays for meals
Food with many fusion twists
BM VERDICT
Cuisine
International,Pub cuisine
Owner(s)
Prashant, Lohit,Arvind
Chef
Manikantama Naidu
Alcohol
Yes
Wine List
Well-stocked bar
Price range
For about
`
1,500, youcould share a drink, anon veg starter, a couple of main coursedishes and a dessert (Inclusive of taxesand service charge)
Parking
Street parking,though they havesome heavily contested space in front
Wheelchair
No
accessService
Friendly and prompt
Sound level &
Excellent music, but
Music
you might need tocommunicate onWhatsApp
Ambience
Functional, comfortable
Hours
11.30 am – 11.30 pm
Home delivery
No
Reservations
Absolutely must, unless you want togive the evil eye toseated diners
G P
4 B C 5 B 1 M K – 5 P 0 2
Broth of leeks and Chicken Soup; PorkCocktail Sausages; Mini Wharf Burger;Billions of Blistering Blue BarnaclesManu Prasad
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