If there is heaven on earth it’s where you can taste butter, butter and more butter. And Pondicherry comes close to be that place, but strictly for gluttons, like us. More than sightseeing we got caught up in tasting some good pizzas, pastas, coq au vin and beef bourginion in Pondicherry. We researched a bit before this trip and were aware of the places we would visit and where we could get some good grub. This trip was very special to us; being our first road trip alone. Hubby dear was all excited using his navigator app on Ipad. And he gave me his co-pilot seat to track the routes. With a couple of misses and wrong turns we reached Pondi in 4.5 hrs from Chennai and that too after attending a colleague’s wedding for which we had driven nonstop from Bangalore the previous night. I had been to Pondicherry few months back, with freinds and I had made a special note of the places that impressed me. This was a culinary journey and so if you are expecting details on places to visit and shop, this is not the post for you. But if you think you would love to read more about the experiences of two ardent foodies, you are gonna love this post.
On the way back to our hotel, I had a sudden craving for dessert. We were discussing about our breakfast next day during our dinner at ‘Café d le Oriente’ and the spread at ‘Baker’s Street’, so when we found ourselves right in front of their doorstep I thought the universe was conspiring to let me taste a slice of heaven. I remember how mesmerized I was when I entered ‘Baker’s Street’. Hubby dear says my face had a glow he had never seen before. I was excited seeing tarts, tiramisu, éclairs and petit fours. Since it was closing time I could see that most of the trays were empty. I had an éclair and it tasted divine. We landed again the next day, after a walk at the beach, for a hearty breakfast. We amassed a bill for Rs 700, which is definitely costly, but then we tasted everything we fancied – a spinach quiche, a mushroom- ham omelet, plain omelet, orange juice, pineapple juice, bacon sandwich, butter croissant and we liked everything.
We visited ‘Baker’s Street’ again the next day to pack some breakfast for a trip to Pichavaram (second largest mangrove in the world). Pondicherry attracts people for three reasons- beach, booze and shopping. But mapping the city and familiarizing would not take more than a day or two. So if you have more than a weekend at hand, Pichavaram is one place you should not miss. I have lived all my life in cities with proximity to the sea and beach so these were definitely not my reason for a trip to Pondicherry. What excited me was the French food safari. So I would add a fourth reason why people should choose Pondicherry for a holiday, it’s to satiate one’s foodie soul.
Few months ago my friends from institute and I had visited Pondicherry and the first meal I had tasted then was at ‘Satsang’. With all the good experiences of that meal, especially the beef bourginion, which I first saw in the movie Julie and Julia, hubby and I decided that we would have our dinner there. But the food did not match our expectations. Hubby ordered beef bourginion and I kept wondering why it looked so different from the one I ordered few months ago, only to realize they served us Beef Burgundy instead of Beef Bourginion. I ordered a Coq au vin which turned out to be grilled chicken with French fries. What upset me the most was their slow service. There was no warmth and promptness to serve on the part of the waiters while compared to the other eateries we went to. We chose the rooftop and perhaps the staff at ‘Satsang’ was finding it difficult to manage two floors. I would recommend their Beef Bourginion and my suggestion is solely based on my memories of Beef Bourginion a year earlier. By then we had quite a few experiences to have a bench mark in our minds as to what was worth and what was not.
Another eatery that surprised me, my taste buds to be specific, was ‘Hotel Qualithe’ located at Rue De, Labourdannain. We missed them the day before, after our visit to Auroville, as we were late for lunch time. But the next day we were on time and found quite an impressive menu on their chalk board. And since we love pork we ordered Schezwan pork which was the spiciest I have ever had.
We also tried out a fish curry which tasted quite different from the typical Kerala fish curry we were used to. This was spicy but it was cooked in Mangalorean style with some tangy kokum that elevated the flavours to a different level. The redolence was so scary but when we had it with rice it was just the normal spice level peaked with lots of colour from Kashmiri chilies. I am usually skeptical of fish curries, prepared other than at home, or you could say I am an ethno centrist when it comes to fish. I want it prepared my style. But I broke this prejudice of mine at ‘Hotel Qualithe’ and though I was not completely happy we did manage to finish the fish curry served to us.
If you ever Google eateries in Pondicherry, wood fire pizzas are something that always come up. And having been to Italy I immediately switch off to the luscious imagery of prosciutto filled pizza coming out of the wood fired oven with a long peel. We could not make it to most places that promised these pizzas in Pondicherry. So on our last night in Pondicherry, we went to ‘Pasta bar Veneto’. It is not as expensive as it sounds and plus it has the American booth style seating. A small bar with some bar stools makes it look even more chic.
We ordered a Neapolitan pizza and Pasta Bolognese for Rs 540. Even though the place is small we loved the ambience. If you are a die-hard fan of Pastas and Pizzas this is one place you should visit. There is also a chocolate shop right across ‘Pasta bar Veneto’ which would amuse chocolate lovers, even more reason to go for your antipasti and Il Primo at ‘Pasta bar Veneto’ and then your Dolce from next door.
I hope the pics excite your taste buds and these suggestions can help those who wish to visit Pondicherry and learn the place through their palate.
Please read the post on pichavaram if you are intrigued by our description above. I know I haven’t done justice to describe this post adequately I should have paused to describe each dish we savoured a bit more elaborately but I was worried the post was getting extremely long. But I hope this post helps you while you plan your journey to Pondichery.
