A tour of the old city and the street food carts

A foodie's bicycle ride to the old city of Hyderabad always intrigues me. We embarked towards Charminar at 6 a.m. in the morning from “The Bike Affair” (TBA). The foodie rides are sporadic, so the riders prefer not to miss them, even if they have to get up early in the morning over a weekend.

It was nice and balmy when we started our ride. My mind had started dreaming and imagining a voracious group of cyclists with flaunting jerseys and twinkling lights, standing agape at “Govind ki Bandi” - a popular street food cart serving delicious south Indian snacks (butter idly, dosa, and masala vada). A myriad of tea cups filled to the brim with “Irani Chai”, served with “Osmania biscuits” at “Nimrah Hotel”. These cookies are so soft and tender that it melts in your mouth within seconds, pacifying your taste buds.

All the food joints are in close proximity to Charminar - a monument and mosque located in Hyderabad, India. This particular ride is so famous in Hyderabad that TBA doesn’t need to tout to decoy the riders to join. Moreover, this is an aberration for riders from their routine training rides that they do, giving a nice view of the monument soaring in the center of a crowded place.

I have heard a lot that the food you eat on the ride is earned, and is priceless. To earn an extra plate on reaching Charminar, I and Parmender took a detour (we were faster than our group, and were pushing hard on the pedals), and went for climbing the monster - the “Whisper Valley” hill. This hill, with an average gradient of 6% scares people even on motorbikes, but it was a refresher for me since I had stopped taking this route after doing “The Tour of Nilgiris”. We pedaled for around 29 k.m. to reach the old city. I could see people staring at us (It’s an aberration for them to see so many cyclists on a single day). The thing I abhor most about visiting the old city is that the attitude of most of the people is gibberish. They will try to speed their bikes/cars on seeing the cyclists, and then suddenly stop in front of you, pass comments and abuse you.

“Govind ki Bandi” is one of those places where you have to wait for a long time before your order is put up on the hot flat iron plate for preparation, and served to you. To avoid the rush, I and Parmender took the turn immediately towards the cart rather than visiting Charminar first (of course we couldn’t get our picture clicked with Charminar, and bicycle but I was more interested in the food). Unlike other carts in a milieu, Govind (owner of the cart) takes care of the hygiene in the food he serves by using some of the fine quality ingredients for the preparation. Also, he is putting meticulous effort by serving the food on a banana leaf, and not using plastic cover for the take-away’s.

There you go, the “dosa” batter was spread on the iron plate, a quarter butter slice (that’s a lot for one dosa) was squeezed on the top with a couple of tomatoes, spices, and a special item that looked like a paste of onions mixed with a lot of Indian spices. Within minutes, the mouth watering, enthralling “dosa” was waiting for the riders debilitated by hunger. By the time our group reached this place, we were eagerly waiting for the butter fried “Idly”. I saw the melancholy faces of the tired riders turned into the smiling one’s after seeing the dripping butter (Their stomach’s will not remain empty for long, as the “masala vada’s” were also on it’s way). Stupefied by the taste of “dosa”, “idly” and “masala vada”, now it was the time to head to Nimrah Hotel where the “Irani Chai” with the “Osmania Biscuits” awaited us. I am not a big fan of tea, but the taste of the “Irani Chai” left me stunned. It’s an irony that the taste of street food is much better than a sumptuous feast at any hotel.

It was time to head back, with Sun God shining bright, more weight to carry (hope you counted what all we ate), and heavy traffic which barely seemed to move. Lucky enough to be able to briskly pass through the traffic hurdles by transgressing traffic signals and squeezing between cars (advantages of being a cyclist!), I and Parmender pushed hard, got separated from the group to reach home early, and not get tanned by sunlight.

I look forward to more of these rides with TBA.

** Photos by Dharma Teja