Two More Eateries and a Third on the Way

It has ceased to surprise me any more to read about the opening of newer eateries in Hyderabad, especially in the Jubilee Hills areas. So it isn’t with any particular alarm that I write here about the two new eateries I read about recently somewhere. While the two new restaurants are not exactly located in Jubilee Hills, they are close enough. However, while these two new restaurants have actually opened their door to patrons there’s indication of another new restaurant coming up right in the middle of Jubilee Hills where all the foodie action is. The first eatery called ‘Big Dosa’ opened its doors in the Hitec City at Madhapur which is more or less the backyard of Jubilee Hills where incidentally the original Big Dosa is located at Road No 45. The second eatert, another branch of ‘Kholanis,’ opened within sneezing distance of Jubilee Hills, at Toli Chowki.

It isn’t also surprising to learn that there’s a certain class of people in the city who don’t put anything into their mouths unless one of the ingredients is cheese or such exotic stuff. These folks simply cannot bring themselves to eat stuff the way it is eaten by everyone else. They seem to want dishes more suited to their status/pay/style than to their tastes. While everyone in the country likes to have their dosas with nothing other than the potato-onion-peas filling with coconut chutney and sambar these folks seem to prefer their dosas with fillings of Cheddar Cheese and Feta Cheese. It is to cater to the tastes of this kind of crowd that places like Big Dosa come up. It is one thing to eat food according to one’s hunger and quite another thing to eat food according to one’s earnings. So, the honest-to- goodness humble dosa priced at twenty or thirty rupees isn’t classy enough for this crowd. They want a dosa that has something more than the plain filling never mind that it costs a couple of hundreds. So here we are, the ordinary crowd, going through life eating dosas with potato-onion fillings while there’s this hip crowd going in for dosas with cheese fillings. I wonder what this crowd is trying to tell us- that the calories from the potatoes in the usual filling aren’t enough for them or that their tastes are exotic and more evolved than anyone.

The second new eatery in Hyderabad is, according to Serish Nanisetty who reviewed the place in MP last Monday, is ‘another branch of Kholani’s’ at Toli Chowki. Toli Chowki, for those not familiar with Hyderabad is not far from Jubilee Hills. Jubilee Hills, I imagine, must have more than three fourths of the classy restaurants of Hyderabad though not more than .00000001% of Hyderabad’s population lives there. The other news is that Big Dosa has plans to open four more new outlets in the city and I only hope they open at least one of the branches in this part of the city. On my way to Landmark on Sunday I saw a board announcing that Hotel Sitara is set to open very soon at the place where once a store existed on Road No 12 close to Ohri’s and other joints. I don’t know how soon is soon but I am prepared to wait. What else can I do?