The world’s best chai kadai
“Eat’N’Drink” is arguably the best chai kadai / tea shop in the world. They’ve got over thirty items on a menu that covers some great variations on Chai, Coffee, Sandwiches, Bunwiches, Samosas, Vadas, Bondas and … a Kerala Banana Fry that’s a complete meal in five inches.
There are two things that really make this a great stopover*. One : the taste factor which is 10 on 10. Two : the price factor, which is absolutely drop-your-jaw. Who’s it run by? No marks for guessing: a bunch of enterprising, young Malayalees:)
While regular chai is Rs 3 a cup, Ginger, Lemon and Special Chai are Rs 5 for a small cup and 10 for a larger cup. Black, Ginger and Mint Coffee come at the same kind of pricing. A “Bun Omlet” as they spell it, is Rs 10; a “Double Bun Omlet” is Rs 15. A Vegetable or Egg Sandwich is Rs 15. A cup of Maggi Noodles is Rs15. Vadas and Bondas are Rs 5 each; Egg / Veg puffs are Rs 7 each. Check out the Vermicelli Sweet Milk (also 15) if you want something that tastes like Kheer.
Location : Kammanahalli Main Road – a little past Sathya Hospital, if you’re driving towards the Ring Road. Just look for a huge Banyan Tree to your left and go roughly 30 yards beyond that. Eat’N’Drink is a corner shop, to your right. (I think it’s across the road / opposite Kanti Sweets.)
* Open from 5.30 am to around 11 pm. This is a stand-by-the-counter-and-drink-your-chai kind of place. The interiors could be a wee bit smoggy, if you’re the fussy type. My advice : forget the fuss and enjoy your Chai and Kerala Banana Fries.
This is Dr Jaiprakash, my regular chai buddy
at this chai kadai.
This place rocks ! It’s all that the author mentions and more …
Our Dr., looks cool with hot tea in hand !!!
“chai kadai” – perfect Tandi phrase to call a tea shop in Bangalore. What’s Tandi (rhymes with the Kannada word handhi)? It’s Bangalore’s local language: 50% Tamil + 50% Hindi + 0% Kannada.
Guess it’s too much to expect a “chahaa angadi” or at least a “chai angadi” on the Bangalore Met blog. Hell, I’d have been happy with just “tea shop”.
Dear “libranlover”:
If you were in Bangalore and did visit this place, you wouldn’t waste time doing toss-ups over “chahaa angadi” or “chai angadi.” You’d be doing a toss-up over ginger chai or masala chai.
Let’s not get semantic over “chai”.
Dear Sir,
Instead of being so glibly dismissive of your readers’ sentiments, it would serve you well to be more open and sensitive to them. If you had been so, I would not have had to waste my time repeating these sentiments yet again. FYI, I have done so once before on your post: http://bangalore.metblogs.com/2009/03/28/thali-unlimited-at-brindavan-hotel/.
PS: It also helps to look up big words in the dictionary (like ‘semantics’) to avoid using them incorrectly.
Sincerely, etc.
LL
The word “semantics” itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation.
From Wikipedia.
I’d like to close on further comments from this reader.
Sir,
Wikipedia is quite right when it talks about semantics as denoting a problem of word selection. In the context of this blog post, my comment was not about word selection, but about language selection.
It is certainly your privilege to decide what words and what language you will use in your blog post. As a reader, it is my privilege to comment on the same. As long as I am not revealing anybody’s personal information nor using bad language, everything’s good. If you don’t want to have a dialog, that is your choice too and I won’t force it.
I actually like your posts – they are more useful than some of the other writers here. Especially your posts about food. I have noted some of them to try out the next time I am in Bangalore. I thought you’d be open to some sincere reader feedback. Doesn’t appear to be so.
Have a great day.
LL