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Coffee Tales From Mysore
Sunday mornings I normally drive out of town, taking the series of fly-overs and racing into the verdant green of the Maharashtra hinterland. But before leaving town, it is my practice to stop at the Mysore Cafe (it advertises itself as "The Oldest Restaurant in Mumbai for South Indian Delicacies") at King's Circle for a cup of fresh filter coffee. It is the most famous coffee in town.
The cafe dates back to the late 1930s, and though it is called Mysore Cafe, it is actually Udipi. It belongs to the late A. Ramanayak's family, a part of the Udipi Sri Krishna Boarding Group. Fluffy idlis, crisp rava dosas, malgapudi chutney, medhu vadas with holes in the centre (without holes they become Mysore bondas), strong coffee with rich buffalo milk, and the best low calorie wafers in town. I shall deal with the coffee.
The place opens around 6 a.m. and by 6.30 the priests from the nearby Kerala temple are there having their coffee. Also, several regulars, lawyers, teachers, Matungadom's large population of South Indian bachelors, peering at their newspapers and having their first coffee of the day. They would return a couple of hours later for their breakfast, washed and talcumed and ready to face the world. On Sundays, when I drop in, around 7 a.m., the scene is not much different.
The coffee is made from what is known as plantation seed, which is the finest variety, grown in the hills of Coorg, where retired generals look after their coffee estates like their families. Its coffee can compete with Brazilian coffee. But it is not just the quality of the seed that matters, Nagesh Nayak, engineering graduate from the VJTI and first class throughout his academic career, now proprietor of the Mysore Cafe, tells me. It is the way you roast the seed, not over-roast, not under-roast.
And the way you powder it, gently like crushing a rose petal. There is a machine which does it, it sort of slices the coffee seed. Handle it too hard, over-roast it, and the aroma would be lost. This way it remains fresh, and when a man drinks the coffee, he remains fresh for four hours. Coffee addicts at the Cafe Mysore, of course, all know this. If the coffee is slightly off, they will reject it. The coffee is prepared in the South Indian filter, two large compartments holding 750 gms of coffee powder.
In the upper compartment, a little sugar, half a teaspoonful, is caramelised and spread over the filter. Then the coffee powder put on it, and boiling water poured on top through a jet. The decoction takes 35 to 45 minutes and they get 83 cups of coffee from one decoction. Ideally, they should get 110 cups, but the coffee here is strong. The coffee is then prepared with warm buffalo film (cow is healthy, but buffalo gives the real taste to the coffee,), directly bought from a dairy at Rs. 22 per litre, wholesale price. It is available at Rs. 7, 110 ml. per glass.
It is normally served in glass or mug, but you may ask for a dabra vati and drink it as the natives do, in two separate vessels, expertly pouring from one vessel to the other, a ribbon of coffee flying through the air. This, Mr. Nagesh Nayak explains, spreads the aroma of the coffee and further heightens the senses. The coffee itself is strong, masculine, and with a bitter chocolate after taste.
The best coffee I have had has been in Madurai, immediately outside the main gates of the Minakshi Temple, at a little but permanent roadside stall. It was early in the morning, I was on my way to the temple, having just arrived by the Rameshwaram Express, it was my day's first cup (dabra vati) of coffee.
Cafe Mysore is located on the circle of King's Circle. As you move from Dadar to Sion, it is on the second crescent of the circle. You cannot miss it. A board at the entrance announces: Oldest restaurant in Mumbai for South Indian delicacies. Another on the pavement declares: Only Nayak's offer you low calorie wafers. In front of the cafe, there are farsans and sweets neatly laid out on counters. Then two floors of the cafe, the mezzanine being air-conditioned. I prefer to sit downstairs, with the general crowd, it is good community eating.
The late Raj Kapoor used to eat there, regular, his favourite being rasam vada and dahi vada, and all the Ambanis eat there now. Anil Ambani is a regular client, every Sunday, noon, a parcel goes to their residence. Anil and wife, both like the rava dosas, I understand. And Mukesh drops in for onion uttapam, with the special sambar, on his way to Patalganga.
Everything around the place is `Mysore'. There is Mysore Boarding, Mysore Tailors, Mysore Printing Press, Mysore Concerns, which prepares coffee powder. Mysorean traders had once settled there, one by one they bought space and opened their shops, and every time the Vadiyar of Mysore came down to inaugurate it. The Nayaks ran the cafe for the Mysore owners and then bought it from them.
To return to the menu, tea is also available, Rs. 5, but Mr. Nayak does not have much to say about it. "It is simple, we make tea and we serve it." But idli is big business here. There was a time when only they used to make idli. Now everybody in town makes idli, and you even get readymade idlis in plastic packets, mass produced at Dharavi factories, but these are the originals. It has got something to do with mixing the right proportions of rice powder and udad dal, and fermenting to the exact degree, that's when you get the soft, fluffy idlis that may be eaten, if it came to that, minus sambar and chutney.
The sambar at the Mysore Cafe is vegetables or onions, rather sharp, and the chutney is always from fresh coconut, hence its life is short. They keep making fresh chutney through the day, as they do idlis. You get two large idlis, with the paraphernalia, for Rs. 8. There is also a garbad idli, garbad as in garbad ghotala, instead of sambar it comes with vegetable gravy, topped with crispy masala sev, and mixed with dahi, some onions.
A departure from normal are the kanda bhajis, made every day. They are described as the South Indian variety, more besan, a little hard. And the Mysore dosas. The coconut chutney has a little garlic and red chilli mixed in it, and for the Mysore masala, the chutney is spread on the dosa, and the potato bhaji filling has a little tomato in it. The cafe also has a good selection of South Indian dishes, including the jahangiri, made from udad dal and which is the grand aunt of the jalebi. There is Mysore pak, the South Indian boondi ladoo, and the wheat halva, made in pure ghee.
The last mentioned is made from a particular variety of wheat that grows in a small belt in Gujarat, it is soaked for a day, crushed, and the sap extracted from it. This sap has an elasticity about it that imparts the halva with its stickiness. It is prepared with sugar, almonds, and cooked in pure ghee. You can taste the ghee as you eat it. The whole thing takes five days to make and it has a long shelf life. It is also known as chikkat halva.
Note: Mysore Cafe is closed on Wednesdays. I wonder what does Matunga do for its coffee on Wednesday mornings!
- By BusyBee
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