On a lot of Sundays the boundary between breakfast and lunch blurs. Not just the hours but also the dishes. Thus it is pretty normal to be spooning cereal at noon or raiding the refrigerator for cake early in the morning. The act of padding across to the fridge, bleary-eyed, hungry and willing to gorge on leftovers, can get quite a fillip when there are goodies stocked there. The eyes open to a surprised circle when the fridge serves up Banana Walnut cake. The microwave uncovers the hidden aroma in a few seconds and what was to be operation hunger satiation transforms to operation instant bliss.

It is amazing how much my mental landscape of an area is dotted with food joints. A visit to Gandhi Nagar would immediately bring to mind Grand Sweets, a stop near Adyar’s Hotel Traffic Jam would trigger the memory of an article mentioning an overseas visitor’s food poisoning after eating there, a drive past Woodland’s Drive-In would conjure up the image of a lip-smacking kara bhath, a traffic halt near Nalli Chinnaswamy Chetty would cause longing for a chilli-cucumber and so on the memories, rushing out unbidden, at crossings and turnings; every new food experiment carefully tucked away in that landscape for instant recall later.


When you go down Anna Nagar‘s second avenue, that grand road which leads from the Round Tana and connects it to the Thirumangalam junction, past the Blue Star landmark, you will soon come to a left turning that leads to the Grand Sweets Anna Nagar Branch. Right at that turning point is a barely noticeable bakery on the first floor of the corner building, marked with a board saying Prima’s Bakery in green and red.

Unless you are very lucky, when you reach the landing outside this bakery, you will be caught in a sea of people all trying to buy stuff at the bakery. With a well-stocked bread section and a mind-boggling snack section (some 10 varieties of veg puff all with minor variations!), this place is very popular. What draws me to this place every time I am in the area is their Banana Walnut cake. The browniest (it does look like a plum cake clone but never mind), tastiest Banana Walnut cake that I have had in Chennai (If you know a better one in the city, send me a line). Unless your run of luck continues, you will be told that the cake is sold out (yes, 7 out of 10 times it happens to me) when you ask for it. But I keep trying whenever I go past that turning, because it tastes so very good, because if you are going to put on weight you might as well do it eating something you like, because it is simply irresistible.

{Aside: Prima’s Bakery has a stall in the Madras Egmore station as well. It is right outside the side entrance to the main platform}