Adventure comes in various forms and my trekking buddy Gaurav had come up to me recently with a very different plan than our trekking/biking outings. The adventure was EATING @ Hyderabad. I was shocked to hear the idea of traveling all the way from Bangalore to Hyderabad just for some food. My upfront response was - chal yaar, Koramangala mein sab kuch milega..kuch khaake aa jate hain.It was then that he shared his R&D on the delicacies than he had found on the internet and planned for. For a change & looking at his detailed investigation on the internet, I agreed for the same and we finally booked the bus scheduled to start from Bangalore (HSR Layout) on next Friday. Having stayed before at Hyderabad for one of my previous jobs, I ask my former roommate (Yash Kesari) about his whereabouts and am glad to know that he is still in Hyderabad and staying on rent, which also turns out to be our stay location during our visit. Gaurav prefers posting the event on FB to make some noise for the event.
Its a routine busy Friday evening in Bangalore. I start from office by 4 and reach house in an hour to get set for our food trip. 30 minutes of effort and my bag is pack for the 2 day trip. Being punctual , I reach in time at the decided location. Being the other end of the habit of punctuality, Gaurav struggles to pack his bag and somehow reaches the spot in a haste.
Unsure of the bus' exact pickup front, we rush here and there before getting calm and waiting for the bus. Few more minutes of wait and finally our bus arrives at 7:30 PM. The Non AC SRS bus turns out to be pretty comfortable and our journey starts through the busy traffic streets of the city. The bus roams through different parts of the city and after around 90 minutes we reach the same Old Airport Road which we had crossed an hour back. We wonder what the driver is trying to achieve by this. Its almost 9 PM and we both are now hungry enough. Finally, the bus reaches Hebbal which marks the last point in the city. We quickly ask the cleaner about the dinner halt timings and in a relaxed tone he says 11:30 approx. We wonder what sort of food trip is this - starting with a hungry stomach for such a long time. Somehow, Gaurav manages to quickly grab 2 chaat items from a roadside cart. The bus starts and we somehow are able to finally put some chaat stuff in our stomach. An hour of travel after that and bus stops at a very ordinary restaurant. Looking at its condition, we wonder whether its better to starve all night or take the risk of having something. We gather courage and end up having 2 biryanis instead of having the safe mode. Our bus starts post dinner and Gaurav goes to sleep soon. I enjoy the journey till around 2 AM or so when finally I doze off.
Its around 5:45 AM and I am waken up by some strong cold winds. Its an awesome feeling at times when travelling by an bus in an overnight journey and waking up with the fresh air passing by. I enjoy the morning journey for around 30 minutes or so when the cleaner shouts out our dropping point name. We get a shock here - we are dropped at a place which is around 12-15 km away from the mentioned dropping point by SRS. We quickly understand there's not much point arguing with these fellows who have already made this practice a routine. Gaurav unaware of anything quickly decides to take a cab who is very happy to charge 350-400 bucks for the small ride. Being a former resident of the town, I somehow recollect of the shared rickshaws here at Mehdipatnam and we decide to try one. Soon, a shared rickshaw comes around, going towards Gachibowli and we start our first local ride at 20 bucks per head. 20 minutes of ride and we reach Gachibowli and I am literally taken aback to the memories of 2010-2011 when I was working in Hyderabad and staying in this area. I call Yash to break him from his sleep and get some advice on reaching the address. 5 minutes of walk and we are there in his complex. Entering the flat, we are presented with a view that's a very routine view for most group of untidy bachelors. We meet Yash and quickly start planning the places that we are going to try for the day. I and Gaurav start with Yash's scooty to pick up our rented 2 wheeler for roaming around in Hyderabad. We reach back to Yash's room and pick up him and start the food outing.
Gaurav prefers being a pillion and I start the ride on our rented scooty. Yash follows on his 2-wheeler. Our first destination is Shah Gouse restaurant which is just few kms before Mehdipatnam.We land up there at around 11:30 AM and order the most famous delicacies - Mutton curry with Rumali roti and
Nihari Paya. 15 minutes of wait and we are served with the Rumali Roti and Mutton Kheema Curry. A click here of the awaited first dish and we start with our first treat of the weekend. One of our awaited Paya soup turns out to be available only in the evening at this restaurant and so thats remains on our to-do list. We are done with our first food bite and we pick our vehicles to start for our next destination. Its a very famous bakery - Subhan Bakery - somewhere in Mehdipatnam. Upon reaching there, we found that its so much crowded that its not possible to get inside the shop at all without being hurt. We see a similar shop next to it with the same name and we decide to try some pastries from this so called duplicate shop. Some more addition to our food bite and we head next to have some cool stuff at the FAMOUS ICE CREAM shop - yess - the name itself is FAMOUS. We try some
variety here which is very tasty and available only in this shop itself. It's around 3 PM and we are seriously done with good amount of stuffing. We visit the nearby Karachi Bakery and get some packed stuff from there . Next destination is the famous Shadab hotel located in the old Hyderabad area. Traffic sense here is horrible. We somehow manage and get park our vehicles there.We order what the hotel is famous for - Mutton Biryani. The deeply fried mutton just melts in your mouth and is one of the best item I had in this trip.
Next we set off to have a power nap. We decide to visit the Lumbini Garden.30 min of ride to reach there and upon entering , we spot out some empty lawn space and we all are flat down. Gaurav and Yash quickly fall asleep.I keep enjoying the beautiful view of the Hussain Sagar lake.
Co-incidence to meet friends on any outing is not so uncommon for me and that's what happens here.One of the my college mates gives me a casual ring to inform that he is also in Hyderabad and asks for plans to catch up, if possible. The surprise comes when I learn from him that he and his wife are on the way to Lumbini Garden for a casual evening outing. I wonder if its just a co-incidence or what !!! By now, Gaurav and Yash wake up and I tell them about the possibility of meeting my old -friends at the other end of the park. They seem to express like - "Tere friends hain....Toh hum kya kare !!" I convince them that it wont take more than 10 minutes of our planned time. What a moment to meet close friends suddenly after 8 years. Next, we head to a local shop to expirement pathhar ghosh. For a change, it turns out to be pretty average. Having done with enough of food street experiments , Gaurav asks if we would be OK with a dinner at a well-known bar in the Inorbit mall. A change is always good and we agree. This mall used to be our (my and Yash's) go-to place for every weekend when I was in Hyderabad. Visiting here refreshes a lot of memories. We pick a table which is out in the open and offers a nice view of the nearby areas with cool breeze flowing around. We order some non veg food and Gaurav inspires us to try out some hookah. Some trials by me and Yash but we fail to enjoy the feel. Having spent enough time here, we finally decide at 11:45 PM to
make a move. We are passing through the mall to get out and we barely see a soul in the mall. The scene reminds me of the movie - Darr @ the Mall. We quickly drive and doze off . Day 1 Ends.
Its a Hyderabadi Sunday morning - we wake up fresh and start gearing up for the second day. We try crispy Masala Dosa from a local food shop @ Gachibowli. Yash mentions of preferring to stay at home. So its just 2 of us for the day. The first attraction for the day is Pista House and we start for the same at around 11 AM. An hour's drive and we reach the CharMinar area completely busy with people all around. A walk for 10 min and we are at the entrance of the Pista House - A sweets shop - as seen from outside and the way leading inside towards the restaurant. This one is again famous for some non-veg and we order Tandoori starter and Biryani. The quantity offered here is really way too much for a single person. We have a heavy lunch and manage to get up with great courage & inspiration for the next eat-outs. While getting out of Charm Minar area, we come across a nice ice-cream shop and we go for tasty frozen ice-cream - an option for beating the heat at Hyderabad. Its around 3 and we decide to visit Shah Ghouse restaurant again for the Paya soup. We manage to reach there by 4 PM and we await the serving of this famous soup. It finally is served and we find it somewhat OK than what we had thought of. It almost 4:30 PM and our bus is scheduled at 8:30 PM to start from Hyderabad. So we quickly think of covering 1 more attraction nearby- The Golconda Fort and it turns out to be a fantastic way to complete the food trip.
The sunset time is perfect and we manage to get a nice view of the city from the hill. Few snaps here and we finally head back home to pack up. It seems perfectly fine to skip dinner and we bid Yash and drop the scooty to the concerned person's shop. 10 min walk from there to the bus stop. Our bus arrives almost in time and with lots of food and lots of memories, we leave back from Bangalore. The well-built highway helps us ensure good sleep and we reach Bangalore on a fresh Monday morning.
