Monday, December 7, 2009

Food stalls @ Marina Beach

I happened to go to Marina Beach (one of the longest beaches in the world). I went there at around 9pm and most of the vendors and food stalls on the beach were closing. Given below are a list of food stalls that I came across on the beach leading all the way to the waterfront. These stalls were exactly behind the Gandhi statue on beach road.
>>A few pepsi stalls vending bottles of pepsi, mirinda and 7 up. Surprisingly there were no vendors of coke or coca cola products.
>>Ice cream vendors – there were vendors of quality walls, amul ice creams and arun ice creams – I guess, the latter two are slightly cheaper compared to quality walls with a range of basic cup ice cream offerings.
>>Chat stalls – there were quite a few of these – selling channa (chick peas boiled in Indian spices), samosa (a fried snack with an outer pastry shell stuffed with potato and other vegetables cooked with spices), cutlet and the traditional chat fare of bhel puri (a snack, primarily composed of puffed rice, onions, coriander and tamarind), pani puri (fried – puffed hard wheat bread – the puri, stuffed with mashed potato with dried red chili and served with a watery sauce made primarily with tamarind, green chili and coriander). The snacks here start at INR 10/-.
>>There was this stall selling raw mango (with salt and red chili powder) and boiled peanuts served with finely chopped onions, green chili and coriander starting @ INR 5/-.
There was one tea shop serving tea, coffee, milk and some snacks such as chili bajji ( a spicy snack – batter fried large green chili – like a jalapeno) and bonda ( again a fried snack – primarily a batter fried mashed potato which is mildly spicy).
>>There were a couple of sandwich shops dishing out both grilled and non grilled sandwiches. There were egg (bread omlette) and vegetable sandwiches in offer – prices starting @ INR 10/- per sandwich.
>>I also came across a couple of vendors walking around the beach, hawking cotton candy in plastic covers @ INR 10/- a pack and muruku (a crunchy, fried Tamil Nadu snack made primarily with rice flour) @ INR 5/- for two pieces.
I had finished my dinner by then and did not eat any of the stuff.
What was noticeable was that all the stalls served only vegetarian food (spare the eggs in the sandwich stall).
The food available was that which can be served in a hurry to the common man and was quite cheap.
However, it is sad to note that most of the stalls used plastic cups, paper plates and plastic covers – all of which end up polluting the beautiful beach.
There were a number of other stalls along inner road that runs alongside the Marina and a number of other outlets scattered around the beach – I shall write about them on another day.

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