OMG MTR WTF!

We figured the best way to ease your stomach back into Indian food after a bout of illness is to head straight for the 16 course meal at Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR to the locals). Arguably the most famous eatery in Bangalore, it's been around since 1924. The Chief Minister of Karnataka has stood in the queue for food here. And queue there was; we jumped out of our rickshaw straight into a crowd of 50 people standing outside a very unassuming building.

The doors opened promptly at12:30 for lunch, we bought a meal ticket for two for $5.50, and were then led by nudges and nods through a labyrinth of rooms and anterooms until finally making it to one of many "dining rooms". Not to be confused with the "family rooms" or snack rooms. On the way we passed our lunch...

... in buckets. The meal started slowly with fresh pressed grape juice served in solid silver cups. And then, the pace picked up. The food is served by a small army of barefoot men wearing candy striped dress shirts and lungis (man skirts) that hurry from room to room ladling food out of the metal buckets onto your metal plate. Over the course of the next hour they sloshed onto our plates coconut chutney, carrot-ginger salad, eggplant-potato curry, coconut potato curry, dosa (for sopping up said curries), a deep-fried pepper, wheat porridge that tasted like orange spice gumdrops, spicy dahl and rice with raita (yogurt and onion sauce), white rice, sambar served with a dollop of ghee, lime pickle, halva, and curd rice. Here is a photo from early on, before we had to put down the camera to focus on eating.

You kind of had to keep up to make room on your plate for the next dish, though Kristin did skip one or two. The meal was finished off with a bowl of ice cream over mixed fruit and a handmade paan, which is betel nut and spices wrapped in a betel leaf which you chew to aid digestion. It was probably one of our favorite meals ever.

- F. Seahorse and S. Mangosteen