I sold a story to the Los Angeles Times Travel section, so you’ll have to wait for that (it’s still unscheduled) to hear about our 24 hours at home with the legendary Nimmy Paul.

On the last stop of our whirlwind temple tour, Daveena and I landed in Madurai and decided we were tired of picking up the first random guide who approached our rental SUV. Instead, we asked our hotel to find us a guide for Sri Meenakshi, and braced for the cost. We lucked out: The assistant […]

As we pulled into Kumbakonam, I took note of the brightly lit and bustling Meenakshi Bhavan. Since we’d had such a good meal at Saravana Bhavan in Chennai, I felt warmly disposed towards any establishment with “Bhavan” in its name, although I suspected there were probably quite a few.
We ended up enjoying some things that […]

This giant rock at Mahaballipuram is known as Krishna’s butterball. I thought it must be a relatively modern nickname, but apparently the concept of a ball of butter is not that new, and Krishna was known for being very fond of butter.
I’m guilty of posting things a bit out of order … Mahaballipuram is just […]

This is lunch in the nook outside our room at the heritage Hotel de l’Orient in Pondicherry, a former French colony.
Our room: Lovely.
Service: Excellent.
Food: OMG bland.
Proof that fusion isn’t always a good idea.
Hotel de l’Orient
17, Rue Romain Rolland, Pondicherry
Phones: (0413)-2343067, 2343068, 2346589

This was my real first South Indian meal: at the bustling Chennai branch of Saravana Bhavan. I thought it was cute how the guy at the table on the left was helping the boy (his son, I guessed) to eat. Notice how everyone eats with their fingers — right hand only, if you please! […]

The great thing about Tamil Nadu is breakfast: strong coffee with caramelly boiled sugared milk; light idli, rice-flour dumplings, fresh from the steamer; crackling curled sheets of dosai with a sheen of ghee; crisp-tender, savory doughnut-like vadai. It’s also what’s for lunch. Dinner is not traditional in TN; most people just have a light snack […]

As we set out for The Grand Sweets & Snacks, on the outskirts of Chennai, Daveena and I were in agreement: We didn’t like Indian sweets. If they weren’t dry as sawdust, they were rehydrated in sugar syrup and tasted of little else. No wonder Jeffrey Steingarten, the man who ate everything (or tried to) […]