Brickfields food adventure

During the Chinese New Year, I decided to take a stroll along Brickfields and I stumbled upon a place which sells 'puttu atta' and 'puttu ragi'.

Well, most of us are familiar with 'puttu mayam' - those strings of beehoon-like snack served with coconut shavings and brown sugar.

Well, there's also 'puttu bambu (bamboo)' where the powdery white rice mix is steamed with a few raisins in bamboo sections and 'puttu piring' where the mix is steamed in slightly flat metal plates with dark brown sugar inside.

Now, there's 'puttu atta' where the mix is wholemeal and 'puttu ragi' has a darker mix made of ragi (not sure what that is). Communication with the staff was difficult, punctuated with lots of head shaking and smiling.

However, they were nice enough to let me take some photos. One even offered to pose for me!! Guess they are used to 'tourists' (ha, ha)!

Notice the unique steaming 'towers' too! The mix is stuffed into the long towers and placed over the base in the stove.

Indian Vegetarian - by Brahmin chefs

TRY THIS !

Bajji (Indian snack ala 'tempura')
Slices of potato, onion, bread, carrot coated in a red batter & deep fried.

Vegetable Kofta
An assortment of vegetables topped with a thick creamy gravy and a few cashew nuts. Not spicy at all.

There's a story behind how I ended up with both. Being a bit of a glutton, to accompany the one tosai I ordered, I thought I'd try a side dish picked randomly from the menu - the Vegetable Kofta. The waiter informed the guys in the kitchen. There was some talk & movement in & out of the kitchen. After sometime, he came back & said that they couldn't make it because the cook was away. He recommended the bajji instead but it was deep fried, so I was hesitant but finally gave in as he was quite persuasive.

So, I tried the bajji, which was crispy but way too oily. I took only 1 1/2 of the 4 piece set and packed the rest. Then to my surprise, the kofta appeared! Apparently, the cook came back and saw the order. So I tasted a bit of it- it was good - and packed the rest.

That reminds me - On an earlier visit, when I ordered Teh 'O' kurang manis (tea with no milk and less sugar), but I got teh halia 'O' (ginger tea with no milk) instead! Such, an adventure eating here - you never know what you'll get! Maybe that's why I keep going back there, ha.ha...

Set Lunch
They also have set lunches served in large metal trays lined with banana leaves. A mountain of white rice comes in a small oval platter placed in the centre of the tray, surrounded by 5 small cups of curried veg., 1 cup rasam (sour soup), 1 cup buttermilk, 1 cup payasam (sago & milk dessert), 2 small deep-fried salted dry chillies & 1 piece of pappadam.

As I was cutting down on carbo, I had to ask them to reduce the enormous rice portion, twice. It was still quite a lot but I gave up trying to lessen it. The guys just could not believe it and I didn't want to be a difficult customer.

Lunch is served only from 12 noon. So, I can only have the set lunch on weekends or public holidays. Tosai & snacks like bajji, samosa and vadai are available throughout the day. There's also supposedly a healthier version of the (rice) tosai - 'atta tosai', made of wholemeal flour like in a chappati. But it was quite a letdown as the atta tosai turned out to be a rubbery pancake.


Shop : Bakti Woodlands, Jalan Leboh Ampang (opposite BSN)