Uppili

It didn't strike me until now, that I haven't mentioned about our lunch at Uppili's house.

Uppili is the name of the food counter at the Food Court in my office, where we get truly authentic home made stuff. They haven't been given a big space and have in fact been asked to provide only few food items.

Its being run by an Iyengar named Giri, who has his residence at Singa Perumal Koil. His brother-in-law (wife's brother and not sister's husband) helps him at the counter.

My group was the first to get his business going. In local parlance, our friend VKS, was Uppili's "mudhal boennee". Uppili has quite a regular clientele and even over the duration of almost a year, the excellence in quality has been sustained.

A few months back, Raj found out that Giri was providing lunch at home as well. So we all decided to check it out. I went under the impression that it was like a small "mess" and experienced a pleasant surprise when we went there. It was basically his home itself.

We were served food on a plantain leaf. On the dining table used by Giri and his family (wife and a very sweet kid who answers to the name of Srinidhi, Abhi and Varshini). The food was verrrrrrrrry tasty. Unlimited stuff. Ever since, we make it a point to go to their house for lunch especially when we bring our car.

The cost is Rs.25 (there was a price hike of Rs.3 a few weeks back). The menu typically includes 1 sambhar, 1 vetha kuzhmabu variant (if there is no v.kuzhambu, then it is some thogayal), rasam, appalam/vadam, thayir and 2 vegetables (side dishes). All unlimited. The only thing though, we have to check with Giri in the morning about availability of lunch, since its only his wife who has to prepare everything. They have a cook who prepares the evening snacks that is sold in the office and so if that guy goes on leave, she will not be able to prepare additional lunch.

The taste is really amazing. Its very difficult for one to not indulge in a big meal. The other thing I like is that its not prepared "commercially". The lady just cooks for 10 people or so and its pure home food. In fact, very often, the girl also eats along with us and she gets the same food that we do.

While some of us do have greater demands/complaints about this setup, in the overall scheme of things, I have absolutely no complaints. By itself, this option is fantastic and compared to the alternatives available in the Food Court, it is almost inhuman to find fault with Giri's food.

All in all its a very neat arrangement and for the 2 months we had the car pool going, we were there almost every day. Even now, the unwritten rule is that, if anyone of us comes by car, we should go to Uppili's for lunch.

On a related note, the snacks that they supply at work is also awesome. I am a HUGE fan of their peanut sundal and so is my mom. I always take home a pack on the days he puts serves this sundal. Its 5 bucks for one "dhonnai". Then he also serves adai avial on one day and pesarat on another. Even a melagu dosai on another day. All great stuff. And needless to say, the day he sells akkaara vadisal, I don't think he would have any left over to take back home.