London, East Ham – The experience

It’s general knowledge that the part of London, East Ham is dominated by the Asian Community. But only once you enter the area do you realise how Asian it can be. From the time you exit out of the underground station onto the streets of East ham, you start listening to different South east Asian languages varying from Tamil, Telegu, Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu and of course Bangla. That’s not all, you certainly feel like India, for the roads are littered, Paan stain nearly every feet, very Indian. A host of Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants and shops invite you.

A CD shop showcasing a Mohan Lal film poster and few other India films, a Paan shop, the famous Saravana Bhavan etc roll the red carpet into East Ham’s high street. It’s a buzzing environment. Being Saturday and the Indian festivals extending over from the weekend to Monday, to close the dussehra period, there are shops selling everything you want for the festivities. Also you find people selling calling cards and mobile connections with the cheapest rates to India and Pakistan and the other south Asian countries.

Then the faces, truly south East Asian. You can find loads of tamilians eating away, grannies and woman dressed in authentic silk saris to kids in pavadai’s, guys chatting away in Telegu or hyderabadi Hindi, or Malayalam, the experience is truly Indian. For a second you would be deceived to believe that you are in London, East Ham rather than brigade road in Bangalore.

The objective of our visit (My Bro was with me), was to go the famous Chennai Dosa restaurant to have their buffet breakfast. As we hit the first sign of the restaurant, and that I had researched about it on the net and that their website was impressive to say the least, I was totally stunned looking at the ambience. All you would find is a Bangalore darshini type or a local vegetarian outfit in Chennai. If you still did not get it, let me elaborate, plastic chairs with a table, whose top is of granite. Now you would be able to relate.

As we entered, it was full. They serve breakfast from half six in the morning to half eleven and we reached about quarter past ten and it was full. We were lucky to get a table for two and we quickly grabbed our seats. The next thing was for us to move onto the buffet and my life came back to see what was available in the menu. Super hot, Idli’s (not recommended can kill anyone, if you throw it at them), fantastic onion Uthappam’s, crispy on the edges, hot and extremely crispy Vada’s that were not oily (that’s the way, Vada’s need to be, brought back memories of Shanti Sagar and hotel woodlands in Bangalore), ghee filled Pongal, a little Oily Puri (Puri’s have to be oily, isn’t) with saagu, some sweet and of course Dosa’s to order.

As we filled our plates to our choice of the spread, we ordered a masala Dosa each for the table. I opened the inning’s and started to belt down my first take, and my taste buds were germinating and originating from the tongue which had died a few backs thanks to a very bread oriented diet. As we finished our first round, and dwelled into the second the Dosa’s arrived. Brilliantly brown, crisp, the right amount of ghee and some good masala. Oh!! I totally forgot to mention the phenomenal tenga chatni, Wow!!, my mouth is still watering as I pen it down. You could compare it any restaurant from south India and they would match it to the tee. Of course they had a few more varieties of chatni available.

As we started to dig deep into the Dosa, the guy who got us the Dosa had brought an extra ghee roast by mistake. Now the ghee roast was begging my attention and not to disappoint it, as soon as I finished the masala Dosa, I attacked the ghee roast and Man!, trust me that Dosa would give a run to any other Dosa, made in any part of the world – gorgeous.

By this time, I was feeling like a python (MP- Malla Pambu), after it had just finished a meal, unable to move or walk. But then such a great breakfast, without filter coffee would be a total injustice and so I took courage to order for one and washed it down my throat. Once that peak was achieved it was a struggle to get up and walk another 10 minutes to the station for our next train out of East Ham to our next destination.

To put all into one simple statement, I felt as if I was back in India, belting out in a restaurant and enjoying my time out. Thank god for creating East Ham and Chennai Dosa and for bringing back my taste buds and all this for less than 4 pounds each. What a deal? Chennai Dosa, I would certainly patronage you till am in London and of course, I would advocate it to any Indian in London or visiting London.

Till next time adios.