 Is it too late to cast Johnny Lever as, uh, Dev? Johnny Lever? Yeah. He'd be a great Dev. Either him, I'm saying Johnny Lever, Govinda, or Prabhu. I'm going Johnny Lever though. Definitely. Box office, success. Throw him all off, make it Radica. Ha ha ha ha, I'd be down. Hey, welcome back to our stupid rakesy of the court. I'm Rick. You can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, for more cheese content, extra paper, and a bunch of other things we're gonna film for you. Today we've got a video that's called The Idli King of Bangalore. The Idli King of Bangalore! Uh, it's on the streets of Bangalore, India, the mother and son duo behind the, uh, sir, hundreds of Idlis a day. The, um, and so. Alright. That is cool. Uh, love Idlis, Idlis are delicious. Especially with the nice chutneys. You know, I'm trying to think of a food and I can't. Pizza. Is there a food from India that we've had that you don't like? And I'm not talking about, like, something like the breath thing of a pan or hajmola for digestives. Talking about anything from breakfast, lunch, dinner, and official desserts that you would say, I don't ever want to eat that again. Cause I can't think of one. Uh, depends on, I mean, spice levels is also. Ah, yeah, it doesn't count. That's obvious. That's obvious. You can only handle certain things heat-wise. But I'm talking flavors, like the taste of something that you didn't want to eat again. That you taste it and you were like, no, that's nasty. If stuff has rose in it and there's quite a bit of stuff that has had rose in it, that's usually the case. Um, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Usually it's a good flavor. It's just too spicy a lot of times. And equally blown away by each of the regions we've gotten to taste as well. Like they'll just, but don't say that to the guy from the UK who said that all Indian foods bland. And he also said it's one spice. Yeah, it's just one spice, which is the dumbest thing. He also thinks the world is flat. So. A lot of people have told me this, you know, that I was really gutsy and I had a lot of courage to let go of a lucrative career in investment banking to start selling the least when we started off Ireland in 2001, nobody had the slightest clue that we would reach this far. It leaves are fun to eat. I'm an old timer here. Let's say I'll be eating at the Irish place. Ever since he started, we stand out as the Irish. I do eat out. We also go to some fancy, fancy restaurants and come back. But the standard is I hear it. I can feel that the puffiness of it. Yeah, the squishy puppy. Hi, I'm Krishan Mahadevan. I'm the owner of a restaurant called as Ireland Lee. We've been in this business for the last 20 plus years and we focus on South Indian food. A couple of weeks after 9 11. Ireland Lee is known for its idli for the last 19 plus years was one of the only restaurants in Bangalore that is known to make only one dish that was the idli and obviously the chutney. And then, yes, owing to customer demand, the newer breakfast items like the Vada, Karabath and the Kesebath were introduced. Every Sunday, instead of going to the church, I come here and feel myself on Ireland Lee. It's very fresh. It's very tasty. Imagine this gentleman is survived only on idli and chutney. That talks about how delicious that stuff is. Idli is a predominant South Indian breakfast. Two main ingredients that go into making the idli are the rice and the kurad dal. Idli is a steamed rice cake. The batter, which is in a liquid state, gets converted into a solid state through steaming. Now, the making of an idli is not an instant process. The first step is to soak that happens the previous night and the dal is soaked for like about an hour or an hour and a half. So once the rice and the dal are soaked enough, we grind them. So this is the batter for the dal that is being ground and then the rice is already ground. So I will mix the dal with the rice batter and allow it to ferment and this will be your idli for tomorrow. We have plates with bumps and you will have a muslin cloth on top of a plate and then you will have craters on which the batter goes in and then it is steamed until it is cooked completely and that's your idli. Customers come and ask for idli recipes, but I will tell them. They are very secretive, I will tell them. Fried gram, coconut, green chilli, salt to coriander leaves. We have to grind the green chilli in a blender. We don't get the taste in the blender. If we grind it in a blender, it will get the taste. Usually start at 4 in the morning. I have an early bird. I prefer waking up early in the morning. So I am up before sunrise every day. We get the chutney ready and by 6.30 we ensure that the idli is ready on the table. We are open till 11.30 in the morning and that doesn't mean that we can wrap up by 11.35. We ensure everything is ready for evening and we shut up by about say 12.15. Evening again we start our day at 4 pm. We get the chutney ready before 6 o'clock. In the evening 6 pm we ensure that the idlis are ready and we operate till 9 pm in the night. For idlis again? Yeah. I thought it was idli. It's not just for breakfast anymore. I am a die hard Bangalorean. I have been here all my life. So this place is really close to me. So the year was 2001 and my dad had just quit his job. And then the area was just beginning to develop. You had a lot of bachelors coming in because that's when a lot of companies started coming to Bangalore to establish their offices. People were so engrossed in work and they didn't have time to cook. So that's when the idea of selling idli dosa batter struck him. The first step for IO Idli to grow was the batter business. And then people started asking, you're selling batter. Why not convert the batter into idlis and sell it to the public? When I was doing idli, it was more than 100 idli and 190 idli. On Sunday, I went to the idli for 253. That's how it was. Then the bachelors told me to open it in the evening. So when I opened it in the evening, I got a little bit of a pick-up. My bus was full full. Gotcha. I was like, okay, when I was a kid, I would come and get the chutney, put the cashew nuts etc. I was like, okay, he has an interest in it. But his parents let him study and let him study. But he was interested in it. So when I was at the age of 16, that's when my dad passed away due to illness. And that's when the whole responsibility came up on my mother. And I realised that it was time for me to step up. At a very young age, I was given the challenge, I was given the opportunity to make a lot of decisions. Throughout my academic life, I used to spend some time in the shop in the morning, then go to college, come back from college and spend more time in the shop in the evening. I started working at the age of 22. I finished my post-graduation, I started teaching in a college. Then I moved on to work for timing. And then I moved to an investment bank where I spent about four years working. I probably might have switched to three jobs, but the only thing that was constant in my life was I.O. Ridley. I used to spend about four, five hours of my time in the shop, go to the office, log in for about 15, 16 hours, or probably more than that, come back home in the middle of the night, get a couple of hours of rest, and then next morning, again, my routine starts. As much as I would enjoy it, it would start to take a toll on my health as well. Not bad. That's when I woke up in the morning and I realized, what am I doing with my life? How long am I going to sustain juggling three, four things at the same time? If I have to give up one, I have to retain one, what would it be? That was the biggest dilemma. It took me three months to convince my manager, and it took me three hours to convince my mother as to why I should quit a corporate job and manage my business. This is one memory of my father that I have, and I didn't want to let go of it. My heart and soul lies here. So I didn't want to try and juggle two, three things at the same time. Instead, I wanted to give my heart and soul to what I love doing, and that's what I'm doing right now. A lot of people have told me this, that I was really gutsy and I had a lot of courage to let go of a lucrative career in investment banking to start selling idlies. I mean, obviously, when we started off fire idling in 2001, nobody had the slightest clue that we would reach this farm. I don't know what to do when I start the business. It's a little bit of a pickup, but it's not that easy to expect a pickup. I've been here for 15 years. I have been coming since I was three. Around five, six years. I only discovered the place like one year ago. I've been here for nine years. I don't like idlies, but I really like the idlies here. The taste is really good, it's spongy, and the taste is really good. They're super soft, and I think the USP is the chutney mostly. It's really spicy. I just love the taste. Mostly idly. I like to have vada. Mother-in-law loves their karabhaat, kesari bhaat also. It's quite simple. The menu is so compact, it's so easy to order, and 10 rupees for a piece, it's phenomenal. New colour workers, white colour workers, moms packing food. Everybody has their healthy breakfast here, and move on to their different disciplines. It's my dream to provide affordable food to all the people. People don't come to me for ambience. People don't come to me because I'm located at a posh area. People don't come to me because I have fancy interiors. No, people come to me because I serve good food. And that's my focus. I want to see that smile on someone's face when they're eating a good meal. And you know, when I see that smile when I call my brothers and brothers, they just fly away. I don't think I am an icon yet. According to me, you can't really quantify these things. But yeah, I go to bed peacefully at night, so I guess I'm successful that day. It's a big deal. That is a big deal. Always do what you love. Do what you love, even if it's difficult, even if it's hard, even if other people are telling you you're a moron. Yeah. Even if it's not lucrative, it's just you'll be happier in the end. Doing what you want. Whatever it is. Whatever it is. What makes you happy in life might be in the corporate world. Who knows what it is. Yeah, exactly. If someone else that might really be what floats their boat. We were talking about this driving over here. How many people, one of the top 10 things that nurses and people who are at the bedside of people will pass away, one of the top 10 things they hear from people who, when they're dying and have lived a long life especially, is I wish I had followed my dreams. I wish I had been more true to myself. I wish I hadn't done what other people expected of me. So yeah, that's my favorite takeaway from this. I'd love to try the food, but my favorite takeaway from this is the fact that he gave up, and I very clearly, obviously his mom is going to be saying, why are you doing that? And he explained himself, but she clearly supports him. What were you saying? Exactly. Anyways, I don't know what he just said, but follow what you like doing and go hug your mother. Is that what you were saying? No, but that's okay. Okay. Or something about your mom. I don't know. Yeah, you know you did. I just got really horny. Yep. Anyways, let us know what other videos we can react to down below.