Its Christmas Time In The City

The morning of December 9th dawned bright and festive as Raintree Media ushered in the Christmas mood with a singalong with popular musicians Stephanie and Michael Fernandes at Project Eve in Jayanagar.

Jingle Bells, Deck The Halls, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Jingle Bell Rock, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Silent Night, Joy To The World, Felize Navidad, We Wish You A Merry Christmas and many more songs had the guests on their feet.

Ms.Rajni Mishra, former Chief General Manager, SBI, Bangalore South, said, " It is a wonderful feeling to be here at this event to usher in the Christmas spirit; the festival brings the joys of sharing and giving".

From little kids to senior citizens, people of all faiths joined in the cheerful carols and favourite songs of the season. There was an infectious feeling of bonhomie and camaraderie as many voices from different walks of life sang in unison.

Nita Kembhavi, architect, who came with her 13 year old son Arnav, said, "It is a good beginning to the Christmas season; it's been a long time since I had attended a carols singalong, and I also wanted my son to come and enjoy this."

Anupama Mannar, former President of the Inner Wheel Club of Bangalore, said, "I enjoyed singing the carols; it reminded me of my school days. The ambiance was very nice."

Dr.Gertrude D'Souza said," It was a beautiful morning and the singing was superb".

Sandhya Mendonca, Managing Director, Raintree Media, said, "Christmas is more than a festival; it is a feeling and a season of joy and merriment, of love and kindness. We wanted to hold an inclusive event of merry melodies that warm the hearts and leave a smile on the lips".

Stephanie & Michael Fernandes

Sandhya Mendonca & Rajni Mishra

Shan Re

Swapna Mankani

Nita & Arnav Kembhavi

Dr.Gertrude D'Souza

Anupama Mannar

In memoriam: Ashokamitran (September, 1931 - March, 2017)

We were honoured to feature Ashokamitran, eminent author and winner of the Sahitya Akademy Award in 1995, in our book BEST OF Chennai Volume 2. Thank you Sir, for the words.

Avarekai comes to town! Food Street celebrates Avarebele Mela

 The Good City takes you to V V Puram in Bangalore where the winter special hyacinth bean, locally popular as Avarebele, has a street food festival in its honour for 17 years in row. 

Also, don't miss the quick guide to popular dishes!

Read the article & see the video* too 

The Sajjan Rao circle in Visvesvarapuram is ringed by many temples. The oldest are the Subramanya temple, which is also the most famous, the Venkataramana temple and Sathyanarayana temple.

If the devout come to offer prayers in the morning, they are equally fervent come evening.

They are headed not to a temple but to a lane that leads off Sajjan Rao Circle, Old Market Road, that has become famous as Food Street.

It is the place to savour local delicacies* like paddu, akki rotti, kodbale and a variety of dosas slathered with butter. In recent years, popular street food from other parts of India have also found their way here.

Today, we are in luck as the famous avarekai festival is going on. Avarekai or the hyacinth bean is a winter favourite and is supposed to have antimicrobial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, appetite suppressant, antispasmodic and even aphrodisiacal properties.

Did you know that Avarebele has an African Connection ?

It is believed that the hyacinth bean is from Africa and was brought to India sometime between 1600-1500 BC 

Once a year, avarekai is the 'Queen' of the menu, headlining every dish. Avarekai is commonly used in popular dishes akki rotti, uppittu and saaru. For the duration of this food fest, all the familiar favourites are there but with an infusion of this bean.

The avarekai dosa - a dense utthapam-style dosa liberally sprinkled with avarekai and served with a spicy saaru, avarekai holige, avarekai jalebi, avarekai idli, avarekai vada, avarekai kodubale, avarekai nippattu, avarekai bhaath and even avarekai cutlets!

           

 The traditional sweets like

      holige & jalebi also have 

  avarekai  in them! The only dessert that has so far escaped avarekai is the gulkand; made from rose petals, it is as unique as this Food Street, avarekai or no avarekai.

      

A quick guide to popular dishes on Food Street

Paddu, also known as gulliyappa in Kannada, paniyaram in Tamil and gundponglu in Telugu, this cute little dumpling made of fermented batter of urad dal and rice is a cross between an idli and a dosa.

Akki rotti is a roti made of rice flour that is patted on to a plantain leaf and released on to hot tawa.

Uppittu or upma is made of roasted semolina, cooked vegetables and seasoned with curry leaves and mustard seeds.

Saaru is a nourishing broth made with tamarind and jaggery extract, with dal or greens or just pepper.

Holige is a sweet flatbread made with split yellow gram, plain flour, jaggery or sugar, cardamom powder and/or nutmeg powder and ghee.

The avarebele mela is on from Jan 5 - 15, 11 am to 10 pm at 

V V Puram, Malleswaram & Nagarabhavi.