Of Home and Coffee Houses

Sitting in the musty, confined interiors of the Indian Coffee House in Thrissur’s main round, right next to the famous old Jos theatre, I wondered what kept bringing me back to the joint. I know the Indian Coffee House is an establishment all over India, but I’m pretty sure the menu is not the same everywhere. The ones in Kerala have a delicious assortment of Mallu non veg cuisine including various preparations of beef which I doubt would be found anywhere else. But their food, while simple and inexpensive, is delicious to the taste buds. Starting from the regular favorite anywhere in Kerala, the porotta and beef roast. This is something I have to have whenever I’m in that city I call home. The biriyani’s are also great. This time around I tried out something I had never had before, called a Beef Omelet. As can be ascertained from the name, it is an omelet with beef inside it. Sumptuous.

The place is always crowded with the common junta of Thrissur and efficient in their service. There is something so typically Mallu and comforting about the place which is reflected in the town as a whole. The Thrissur Round, which is the main center of the city, is unique in its layout. The traffic bustles around the circumference of this round, while in the middle there is the famous Vaddakumnathan temple (where every year the famous Thrissur pooram takes place). This middle area has large courtyards and green lined avenues where one can take a stroll without ever realizing that it is bang in the middle of the heart of the city.

So what keeps bringing me back? Is it the familiarity of home? The realization that the place has a soul and the desire to soak in that soul once in a while? The beauty that my eyes are assured of reliving every time I take a trip, via Kunnamkulam, to my ancestral villages? Or the great food? Maybe it’s all of these. All I know is, when I think home, it is the place which first comes to mind.