When you work for the government you learn to be simple. In fact, the government life is informed by its simplicity in every thing. Save a greedy and corrupt few, a majority of those who work for the government live a simple life. The clothes are simple, the thoughts are simple, and even the habits and tastes are simple. Naturally, being in the government I am no exception. I try to lead a simple life down to my food habits. A couple of times a week I indulge in what I call my own version of I –Tea or if you prefer, Irani Tea at a nice place like Paradise. Last Friday it was one such day when I was in the mood for I Tea so off I went to Paradise Bakery.
It isn’t a large variety of stuff one gets at Paradise Bakery to snack on but it is mouthwatering enough. There are the four varieties of puffs (egg, mutton, chicken and veg), biscuits (Osmania, Salt, Rota, cashew, Roat etc) and of course, the cakes and pastries. I don’t much fancy this stuff as much as I do the chota samosas which unfortunately almost everyone at Paradise seems to fancy too. Because you don’t get them every day and the day you find them considerable yourself very, very lucky. Last Friday was one such lucky day finding four chota samosas in the shelf. By the time I took out my wallet two of them disappeared. I managed to get the remaining two. I put them in a plate with two salt biscuits and settled down at a table to finish them off before having a cup of the chai.
If an Irani café were to stock only a couple of snacks then it would be Osmania biscuits and chota samosas. So far I haven’t been to any Irani café where I haven’t found chota samosas on the menu. Paradise bakery is no exception. The chota samosa at Paradise is quite a delicacy. One has to taste it once to know how it feels in the mouth. The chota samosas at Paradise are some of the best I have tasted in Hyderabad. It is neither very large nor very small but just large enough to last beyond two bites. I haven’t exactly tried to find out what the filling is so I cannot write here what is inside a chota samosa. The only thing I can identify is onion- small, bits of fried onions. The exterior is crunchy and the chota samosa is best eaten between sips of Irani chai which seems to taste better that way.
Though there are other items on the menu I stick to chota samosas on the days I find them. I find there’s nothing to beat this combination of Chota samosas and chai as the simple man’s ‘I Tea.’
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