Bytes of Bengaluru: A piece of puff

Bytes of Bengaluru: A piece of puff
Rajajingar’s OG Variar & Sons is rarely empty and the puff is one of their star bakes
By Priyadarshini Nandy

Where can you find some of the best puffs in the city? The verdict is still out there, but people still have their favourites. Mirror takes a bite into the ‘flaky’ world of savouries


There’s a puff in every corner in the world. Just that they’re called something else.

The Pastel (Brazil), Borek (Balkan, Mediterrenean, West Asia, Eastern Europe), Pastelis (Syria), and the curry puffs of Malaysia. And then there are the puffs of India.
Historically speaking, credit could be given to the French (for probably inventing the puff) and the British (for introducing it to India). While each region of India has its own speciality, south Indian puffs are a world apart. Because in south India, no two puffs are the same. Dramatically speaking, of course.

In Bengaluru, one can find puffs of all kinds, mostly savoury, typically stuffed with vegetables, meat, or eggs. And then there’s the brain puff. Every puff lover has a favourite place where they go for their regular fix. Mansoor Ali, who’s quite popular among the city’s food loving community for the Bengalurubyfoot conducted walks, shares his love for the not-so-humble puff. “My first memories of the puff date back to the early ’80s when my father would take us to the popular Iyengar Bakery in South Bangalore – the Vishweswarapuram Brahmin’s Bakery, or VB’s in short. This was started by the relatives of the person who had started the first Iyengar Bakery, Bangalore Brahmin’s Bakery in the 1890s. We would procure stocks for a whole week from here. Along with their honey cakes, Japanese cakes, rusks, buns and breads, would be the puffs. VB Bakery had two types of puff: one filled with a sugary pink cream filling and another that’s stuffed with vegetables,” he reminisces.

“After graduation, my work involved site visits. In those days, often, there would be no restaurants in sight on the outskirts of the city. So my favourite snack would be an egg puff from a Kerala bakery. Sometimes on our way to the old Airport we would stop at Fatima’s, All Saints or even Koshy’s bakery in Richmond town. This is where I discovered the chicken, mutton and the egg puffs. These three iconic bakeries were started by migrants who landed up in Bangalore with just a few rupees in their pockets,” he adds.

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What exactly is the puff?

A puff pastry is ideally a flaky pastry made from multiple thin layers of dough and fat (or butter). It is repeatedly folded and rolled out. And it’s always baked, never fried. One can fill up the pastry with many treats – including sweet things – and it’s typically eaten warm because once the crust settles, it can get soggy. So if you end up with a greasy puff in your hands, your baker isn’t doing it quite right.

As for the origin of the puff, a version of the story goes like this: In 1645, a Baroque artist called Cladius Gele (or Claude Lorrain) accidentally invented the puff because his father who was quite sick was put on a diet of flour, butter and water, and Gele was trying to make a buttery bread for his dad. However, the modern-day puff pastry recipe appeared in the 1607-Spanish recipe book called Libro del arte de cozina (Book on the art of cooking) written by Domingo Hernández de Maceras. The first French recipe of puff pastry was published in François Pierre La Varenne’s Pastissier françois in 1653.

In Bengaluru, most puffs are a reminiscent of what the British used to eat with their evening tea. The modern day desi puff however has a star ingredient – the fried onions – without which a puff is really not a puff. And how good a bakery treats the filling – meat or no meat – is equally important.


The veg puff at VB Bakery

The veg puff at VB Bakery



Veg v/s non-veg

An interesting thing about some of the Iyengar bakeries is the while they would never serve meat-filled puffs (because the Iyengars are vegetarian), some of them were okay to make egg puffs, which is then not considered a non-vegetarian item. “During the ’90s, the erstwhile Nilgiri’s store on Brigade Road used to serve puffs stuffed with chicken kidney too,” Ali says. And then there’s the test of loving puff: “During Ramzan, I would visit the famous Albert Bakery in Frazer town and it is here that I was introduced to the brain puff. “It is stuffed with goat brain, so I really wouldn’t recommend this unless one is used to the squishy texture. But these are so
popular that they get sold out within hours, and often one has to place an order in advance,” Ali says. Incidentally, in Bengaluru, veg puffs continue to be more popular, with the egg puffs following close.

The best puff

This is an argument that can go on for days. Is the puff at an Iyengar bakery better than the one found at Koshy’s, or is it the other way round? Egg puffs are known to be as good at a Mangalurean bakery as they are at a Malayali shop.

The one thing we know for sure is that people have their loyalties firmly in place. While some may swear by the flaky vegetable puff at OG Variar & Sons (Rajajinagar), and more so because they’ve started adding peas and American corn to the filling, others still go back to Iyengar Bakery. And then there are those who won’t budge from their regular dose of paneer or capsicum puff from Srinivas Brahmin’s Bakery in Gandhi Bazaar. Incidentally, the egg puffs at Sri Jayalakshmi Bakery (Lalbagh Road), where the puffs are served hot with a spicy egg masala gravy filling, are often considered to be the best by many ‘experts’.

And when it comes to the meaty puffs, names such as All Saint’s Bakery on Brigade Road (for mutton and chicken), Koshy’s Bakery in Richmond Town (for egg and chicken), Excelsior Bakery in Shivajinagar (for chicken) and BP Bakery on CMH Road (extremely popular for their mutton puffs) come up. At the end of the day, you know your puff best.



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Want a quick list of where to find some of the best puffs in Bengaluru? Here are Mansoor Ali’s picks:

1 Vegetable & sweet puffs from VB Bakery in VV Puram

2 Mutton/Chicken/egg and Brain puffs from Albert Bakery, Frazer town

3 Veg & Fruit puffs from OG Variar & Sons, Rajajinagar

4 Baby corn & Capsicum puff from Srinivas Brahmins Bakery, Gandhi Bazaar

5 Mutton/Chicken/egg and veg puffs from All Saint’s Bakery, Brigade Road

6 Chicken/egg & veg puffs from Fatima Bakery, Brigade Road

7 Egg & chicken puffs from Koshy’s bakery in Richmond Town

8 Chicken/paneer puffs from Excelsior Bakery, Shivajinagar

9 Mutton/Chicken puffs from BP Bakery, CMH road, Ulsoor

10 Chicken/egg and veg puffs from Thomson’s Bakery, Frazer town

(If you have a favourite place that didn’t make it to the list, let us know about it and we’ll check it out as well)


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