When Nishanth asked me if I wanted to go to The Zha (ழ) cafe for a CFG Showcase, I was reluctant. My first experience, in their Adyar outlet, wasn't impressive. In fact, it was negative. But then, I thought, since this outlet is closer to work, might as well try it out. And I am glad I said yes.
OK, now people come on, say with me - ழ - roll your tongue and from the bottom of the throat, say ழ. No, not la. ழ. And not jha / za either ! Right, I give up.
Funny how English doesn't have this letter and we have to get to weird spellings to write this. And as unique as this letter is to Tamil, explains Arasi, is this restaurant. Arasi owns The ழ Cafe.
I had a very difficult day at work, and all I wanted to do was unwind. And this place let me exactly do that ! I wish the wi-fi had worked, so I could have sent out some emails urgently, but then, glad it didn't, else I wouldn't have enjoyed the evening.
The entire CFG gang was around and the fun began.
The specialty of this place is its ability to serve food starting from the local tea kadai menu to funky sandwiches and English dorai menu (consisting of toast , omelettes and the likes). And Arasi made sure we were served a bit of everything.
The evening began with some kadalai putting, er, eating peanuts and few other nuts and plate full of pori urundai, palli mittai, butter biscuit and some other goodies.
Nishanth walked in so late, that I thought he'd get only the palli mittai ;-)
Mean time, Bharani started playing with the
pallanguzhi (a traditional game), and the juices and
vaazhapoo vadai started making the rounds. The juices were called
Jalapula Jungs and
Spoonlings (I have no clue why the name). The good thing about the
vadai,
bonda and
bajji here is there was absolutely no oil sticking on to the fingers. I was handling the camera and eating at the same time and was surprised to see there were no oil marks on the camera.
The mint chutney was awesome. There were cheese balls,
adai and
vellam (jaggery) - S - you'd have loved the adai, it was super spicy, kaara aval, sweet aval, karupatti kaapi, panangalkandu paal, rose milk, adhirasam with banana (now, this one was innovative), veg kaati rolls, sundal sandwich, and most of all, my beloved MAGGI !
That said, I also loved the interiors here. They had the soppanasundari car of
Karagattakaran fame, an auto, low seating, medium seating, high seating, a tree with a sombu and a vadivelu comedy track pinned up on the tree (
kaiya pudichi izhuthiya).
Learnings for today:
a. Wheat = maida. :P - courtesy Sathish
b. Panangalkandu = sugar from the palm tree coming no, that getting converted to candy form, no ! ;-) courtesy - Bharani
c. PG quit eating parotta and biriyani (oh wait, you still haven't decided on that one, no?) :P
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| Pallanguzhi |
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| Vaazhapoo Vadai |
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| Inippu Aval |
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| Risk.. er. Rusk ! |
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| Palm Sugar Candy Milk ;-) |
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| Bajjiiiiii |
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| Bonda |
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| Adirasam, with Banana drizzled with honey |
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| Cheese filled what? |
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| Veg Kaati Rolls |
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| Kaara Adai + Vellam |
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| Sundal Sandwich |
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| Kaara Aval |
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Maggi Maggi Maggi
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And finally the star attraction - Soppana Sundari Car ! :)
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