Historic Idly Place At Vijayawada
“What does one eat at Vijayawada?”, exclaimed my colleague as we were boarding the flight for a work trip there.
Well, Vijayawada might be an unassuming town with some traction now as Andhra Pradesh govt.’s offices are set up there, but it has interesting food to offer. One of these places is the historic Babai Hotel, which is over 75 years old and still has a massive following.
Some of the prominent politicians of Andhra Pradesh, including the widely respected previous CM of the state, NTR were frequent visitors of this place. It’s known to be a hotbed of political discussions, and who knows, some of the historic political decisions for the state must have originated here.
But the reason all of this happened at Babai Idly was because of their ghee Idlys that just melt in the mouth and pongal that doesn’t let you leave Vijayawada. The idlys are typically given with ghee on top of it along with their famous gatti chutney. The pongal has the right balance of gooey-ness and ghee in it. You can feel the warmth of the pepper in it.
You can see dedicated junta come here in the morning by 0630hr along with their newspapers and spend an hour here. It’s interesting to see how Babai has become a part of their lifestyle.
