WISHING ALL OUR CUSTOMERS A VERY HAPPY DIWALI

To celebrate Diwali Festival, we have added many Special South Indian dishes on our menu for the period of 27 Oct 08 - 31 Oct 08. To mention a few of our specials,

• Rava Dosai

• Appam & Vada Curry

• Idly / Dosai with Paya

• Kuzhal Puttu

• Special Chettinadu Curries

• Meen / Crab Kozhambu

• Banana Leaf Special Soup

Orders over £ 5 will get a free sweet dish.

PLEASE DO COME ALONG WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO CELEBRATE DIWALI WITH OUR TRADITIONAL

SOUTH INDIAN FOOD

 

Hurry along to haven of South Indian cooking With its Stunning Prices
STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE
- RON MACKEENA (THE HERALD)

Oh yes, I linger outside and look, ignoring the “hey mister” cheek from the genuine, bona fide, snot-nosed Glasgow urchins who seem to find something highly amusing about my exquisite Tesco unit. I look again. And again. Can this really be it? And finally come to the conclusion this has got to be it. This being a café-cum takeaway with all the style of a café-cum-takeaway brackets low-rent division.

I come looking for genuine south Indian cooking – a place where most customers apparently eat with their hands. What I get is this. Front door wide open, freezing wind gushing in. Tables? Two wall-mounted planks with a few tantalisingly short stools beside them, a tub of plastic cutlery in the corner and polystyrene dishes from the earlier meals still lying around. Uninviting? You betcha.

But then, I’m not here for the décor. I’m here for what the man behind the customer has just done. Poured a mix of ground rice and lentils onto a smoking hot griddle, spread it, flipped it, toasted it filled it and folded it into probably the best dosa I have ever tasted. Ever. It’s crisp at the edges, warm and soft in the middle, and full of flavours of freshly baked bread despite the face there’s not a drop of wheat anywhere near it. The egg? Yes, I wonder about that, just as I am having the last bite. “Where’s the egg filling I ordered, mate?” I ask in an, erm winning way. One of the many blokes behind the counter, in among the flaming gas rings and gigantic bubbling pots, answers. “The egg, sir, is brushed on the inside of the dosa. See?” And I do.

You learn something new every day. Like the fact the fiery hot rasam- or soup – I have been drinking has that sweet-sour taste because of the tamarind and tomato, coriander seed and all sorts of spices are contributing to its throat burning deliciousness. No need to ask what’s in the keerai vada – deep –fried patties, ground gram lentils mixed with dill ginger and chilli, enlivened by bursts of fresh leaf coriander in every crisp bite.

Good food, this. And astonishingly cheap. That soup? Comes in 90p. The dosa? That’ll be £2.50, mate. The recently made and mild coconut chutney that comes with it? Thrown in free, as are the little dishes containing sambars, lively sauces peppered with mustard.

As the meal has progressed so have the serving dishes. We’ve climbed the culinary crockery chain from polystyrene, to stainless- steel tray, until frinally lamb chettinad arrives in a burnished copper dish with a side of steaming basmati rice. How much? Er. £4.90, including rice or chapatti.