Established in 1924, Ananda Bhavan Vegetarian Restaurant is the oldest and most established Indian vegetarian restaurant in Singapore. Over a history spanning more than eight decades, Ananda Bhavan has gained a fine reputation for authentic Indian vegetarian cuisine at its best.

Ananda Bhavan has five outlets which serve close to 5000 customers daily. It started off at Selegie Road and slowly expanded to two at the heart of Little India, one at Changi Airport Terminal 2 and this is the one that is located along Syed Alwi Road, opposite Mustafa Centre.

This is an invitation to participate in the Putu Bola making demonstration and I got Chewy Charles to accompany me. Honestly speaking, I have not heard of the Putu Bola. It seems like it has been rendered virtually extinct in our generation. Ananda Bhavan Restaurant hopes that the Putu Bola will revive the nostalgic times with the older generation and gain new fans with the younger ones.

Celebrate this National Day at Ananda Bhavan, with sweet memories of the Putu Bola as it makes a comeback after close to 30 years on 8th August and 9th August to commemorate the nation’s birthday.

Considered a by-product of the Putu Mayam or string-hoppers, the Putu Bola is made with the residual rice flour from the Putu Mayam. The chefs of Ananda Bhavan were seen busy preparing for the Putu Bola making demonstration.

Mr. Nadarajan, Managing Partner of Ananda Bhavan Restaurant started the session proper by sharing with us the heritage of the restaurant and giving us an overview of the Putu Bola. Originating in the mid 1940s, the recipe was invented by the Putu Mayam sellers who had migrated to Singapore from India. Popularly consumed at breakfast, the soft and fluffy Putu Bola was inexpensive and filling. However, the once popular Indian dish slowly faded away from the local food scene by the early 1970s as an increasing number of Putu Mayam sellers gradually gave up their trade.

Mr. Nadarajan said that it is very important that we do our best to preserve Singapore’s lost traditions and heritage and hence this is a good opportunity to provide the younger generation with the opportunity to sample a slice of history.

The chefs had already prepared the mixture by adding water to rice flour. The mixture was loosely kneaded, sieved and then steamed for 10 minutes at 100 degrees celsius. Fresh desiccated coconut was then added to the steamed flour and the next step was to shape the mixture into balls of about 80 grams each.

For a first-timer, my ball of Putu Bola became smaller and smaller as bits of the mixture started to fall off as I was trying to shape it. Hehe but it looks okay in the end right? 😛

The mixture was steamed again for another 10 minutes at 100 degrees celsius. Hoo boy! All of us couldn’t wait to have a taste of the Putu Bola!

It was nice meeting some of the other bloggers who were present at the event – Leroy from The Hungry Cow, Amanda from Life Is What You Want It To Be and CalvinTimo from The Foodie-licious World .

The Putu Bola is served with a generous dose of grated coconut and red sugar. It is available at all five Ananda Bhavan outlets islandwide on the 8th and 9th of August and is priced at $1.20 per piece. Come on down now and experience a sweet slice of history!

I would like to thank Ms. Anu Ramasamy of Fulford Public Relations for the invitation and to Mr. Nadarajan for hosting this special event.

Ananda Bhavan Vegetarian Restaurant
95 Syed Alwi Road
Tel: +65 6295 9595

Opening Hours:
24 Hours daily