Munchies alert !

Whenever I'm on vacation, I lose track of what day it is, as do most of you I'm sure. Time loses all meaning. So as I woke up at one in the afternoon on a Friday, I looked outside and was greeted by quite a gloomy day following perennial rain all night. Luckily for me, one thing that wasn't gloomy at all was my appetite. I was totally famished and realized after raiding my fridge, that this wasn't just ordinary hunger, but one that needed just the right meal to hit the spot. Within an hour, I found myself on the way to Koramangala for my first encounter with Cafe Thulp, a place known to satisfy even the most elaborate and complicated munchies !! I've been meaning to try out this quaint cafe for a while now, and when I told my companion Nikki how hungry I was, Thulp was the instant recommendation. So, did this meal do it? Read on for a bite of insight.

Cafe Thulp at first seems like an unassumingly small cafe, with minimalistic wood furniture where each table contains the basic ketchup, mayo and mustard. It strikes a personal note with customers by providing them with an array of comics and board games (a trend that is becoming increasingly common to cafes across this city). The walls are quite random and seem to just contain paintings or artwork without any particular theme. So we could see a whole wall dedicated to some pretty funky anime posters, some artwork of super heroes, and random pictures of flowers and landscapes. As soon as we sat down and finished looking around, we were handed two menus.

The selection on offer, though leaning toward some really succulent non-vegetarian stuff, has its epic moments of vegetarian glory as well. We started out with the Baba Ghanoush platter (Grilled eggplant and tahini purees served with pita bread), and the Vietnamese Lettuce wrapped, deep-fried spring rolls served with a very high quality soya sauce dip. Here is where I should mention, that Thulp has an absolutely original and innovative menu, with carefully thought out and extremely funny names for their dishes. Our spring rolls, for example, were called Springtime in Saigon. We also noticed things such as "Bug your bunny" (Carrot, raddish and cucumber sticks with dip) and "Bird on a wire" (Chicken Satay) and agreed that the naming conventions definitely deserved some credit. The spring rolls were perfectly fried but were oozing with sauce and oil, but were very very good and went perfectly with the soya sauce dip. The lettuce that they were wrapped in seemed as though it had been sitting out for a while. The Baba Ghanoush was spot-on , with the pita bread being fluffy and the ingredients being as fresh as ever !

As we were sipping on our mint flavoured lemonade which was pleasant, we agreed that we were quite pleased with the start, and we decided to order further. We chose their specialty beef burger with bacon and cheese, called "Moos your daddy", and two hearty sandwiches named "Peta Ka Beta" (Chilly cheese toast grilled with onions and tomatoes) and "The Bellagamba" (Tomato and basil with their home made garlic cream cheese). The Peta Ka Beta was absolutely perfect, and felt as though I had secretly walked into the kitchen and told the chef exactly how to make it. The cheese was perfectly melted and the veggies were fresh, making this the quintessential chilly cheese sandwich. The Bellagamba was very flavourful and wholesome, making it quite a filling sandwich for one person to finish. Quite enjoyable, but didn't match up to the other sandwich. Both sandwiches were served with a side of rosemary flavoured potatoes, which were quite nice.

If there was something that came close to the cheese sandwich, it was "Moos your daddy", rightly called as it really is the daddy of any beef burger I have ever seen. Nikki picked it up with two hands and it covered her whole face !! Moreover, the beef was tender, succulent and perfectly flavoured. We could only finish half of the burger and she had absolutely no qualms about packing it up for a wonderful snack later on.

Our dessert order was of a Chocolate Mudpie, and a slice of Blueberry Cheese Cake. The Mudpie was disappointing because of the quality of chocolate used in the pie, and we decided not to finish it fully. The Cheese Cake was the better dessert out of the two, but still didn't leave us as impressed as we were with the food. Luckily for them, my munchies were long gone after that incredible meal, and no average dessert was going to ruin any of it.

The total cost of the above meal came up to INR 995, which considering the portions, was real value for every buck spent. The service was quite efficient and polite, just as expected.

Isn't it weird how the pangs of hunger are enough to drive anyone to any corner of a city to satiate their appetite ? And when the food is this good, you can enjoy it at any time of the day. So as I journeyed back home after that bountiful meal and a fun game of Taboo, I was left with the memories of mammoth portions, quality ingredients and a homely atmosphere. Thulp not only restored my faith in quenching the most untimely of my gastronomic desires, but also in the belief that there still exists culinary innovation in our country which needs to be tapped and marketed well. A wonderful thought to sign off with, wouldn't you say ?

Thulp is located at 998, 1st Main, 1st Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. They can also be reached at www.thulp.in