When I first came to Bangalore in 1994, I was struck by how different South-Indian food was from its token representation in a small North-Indian town where I grew up thinking uttapam was infact another word for a besan ka chilla. The idlis I ate in Bangalore’s Darshinis were naturally melt-in-the-mouth and not soggy. The sambhar here was unapologetically fiery on the tongue and the masala dosa was not thick and round but square, crisp, brown and packed with potatoes and onions and perky spices I did not even know the names of.
As time went by, I discovered more facets to South-Indian food, its regional and coastal typicalities, the uniqueness of cooking methods, the different types of oils used, secret masalas from family kitchens, the freshly ground chutneys, the endless ways of treating vegetables and rice, the full-bodied rasams. Having sampled the fare in modest Darshinis to eating thali meals at family favourites like Nagarjuna Chimney, RR, Bheema, Amravati and the iconic MTR, I thought I had more or less done the regional food trail.
But as it turns out, I had not even scratched the surface because there is far more to this story. Ask Vijay Abhimanyu, Managing Director and Venkatesh Bhat, CEO of the Billionsmiles Hospitality Pvt. Ltd who decided a few years ago to wed authentic recipes from secretive south-indian kitchens with the standalone fine dining restaurant idea. They created South-Indies and later bonSouth at Mantri Square, Malleshwaram.
And though Bhatt has extensively researched recipes across the length and breadth of South-India, there is a universe of taste as yet unexplored. bonSouth’s menu was the result of over two years of research and comprises recipes from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to address primarily under one roof, the variety in sea food and meat preparations in these four states.
The menu springs seafood surprises like Koondal Varuthathu (kalamari rings marinated with chilli paste, curry leaves and coconut and deep fried) and Meen Kaiadhina (seer fish slices marinated with chillies, cumin and pepper, dusted with semolina and deep fried). There are many crab and lobster dishes too.
On offer are also meat curries like Kozhi Melagu (boneless chicken cooked in an onion tomato masala, flavoured with pepper corns), a Mutton Ishtew (boneless pieces of lamb cooked in coconut milk with ginger, green chillies and curry leaves), the famous Hyderabadi Mutton Quorma (a rich lamb curry with ghee, shahi jeera and chironjee seeds), old favourites like Kori Gassi (boneless tender chicken simmered in a Mangalorean sauce) and Mutton Chettinadu (a spicy mutton curry with roasted spices and coconut).
Guests even come back just for a soups like the Masa Mavinakai (a lamb and mango flavoured soup thickened with coconut milk). Vegetarians like me have a lot to choose from bonSouth’s most favoured staples like Melagai Podi Button Idly (button sized idlies tossed with traditional gun powder), Paneer Porichathu (cottage cheese marinated with chilli paste, grated coconut, curry leaves and deep fried) and Urulai Melagu Varuval (baby potatoes marinated with crushed pepper and deep fried).
Even appams come here in regular, masala or egg variety. There are also dosas, string hoppers, a much longed for Veechu Parotta, (a thin bread with refined flour and fat) and my favourite Panchadhanyam Roti, a bread made of five different varieties of grains.
On June 10, I head to bonSouth where a Chettinad food festival will begin and go on till June 19. Chettinad, I am told has one of the most aromatic cuisines in India, and is redolent with rare spices like Marathi mokku (dried flower pods), Anasipoo (star aniseed), Kalpassi (stone fungus) .
The non vegetarians will have a feast to choose from, from Viraal Meen Kuzhambu (cat fish cooked in a tangy and spicy curry) to Nandu Masala (crab cooked with coconut and chettinad spices), Kari Varutha Curry (tender lamb cooked with coconut, garlic, shallots and spices), Naatu Koli Kuzhambu (country chicken cooked with traditional spices and coconut), and more.
To round it all off, bonSouth has its usual dessert delights like Kasi Halwa (stewed white pumpkin with saffron and sugar), Paal Paniyaram (soft lentil dumplings stewed in a cardamom flavoured sweetened milk), the melt in mouth Elaneer Payasam (tender coconut morsels in coconut milk and cardamom) as also the positively sinful Badam Halwa (almonds with milk and ghee).
For those who want life shaken and stirred, there is Rasavodka (a spicy vodka and rasam concoction), Quick Gun Murugan (tequila, vodka, lime juice, pepper and tomato chutney), Chennai Cocaine (vodka and black south Indian coffee) and more. And when coffee and vodka come together in a story, it has enough kick to not need a punchline!
For further details contact: Ph: 08022667377, 9901000700, Website: www.bonsouth.com
BonSouth, No 1 Sampige road (Bangalore), Mantri Square, 3rd Floor next to Oval Bar.
my first first experiance of proper south indian food was when i visited kerala in 1996 on my honeymoon trip. It was rather a long trip of 14 days starting from earnakulam, iddiki, kovlam-kanyakumari-ooty-mysore and ended up in bangalore. That time we had a very limited budget and we tried to cover up maximum places. I can still remember those 2 to 2.5 feet long dosaa, and those yummy idlies. In small towns of kerala, they did not have masala dosas on their menu cards, though they had dosas with potatos (being served separately) to be served as much as you want on demand like samber The rice used to so glued with each other (unlike basmati varient we used to have). We are vegetarians so had to stick to a limited variety.We still can’t stop laughing rembering an incident when we were so happy to find n order dishes ‘lady finger” and bringle on menu card of a resturant in matupurram. To our surprise the waiter served us samber with lady finger n bringle boiled in them and we kept laughing all the time.Food in Kerla n tamilnadu was damn cheap where a plate of idli (2 pcs) was cheaper than a bollle of coke. As far as i remember it varied from rs.6 to rs.12 per plate in kerala and even in resturants like sharavana bhawana in kanya kumari ,a masala dosa used to cost us rs.18 that time.When we reached bangalore we had enough of south indian food. We felt very happy to see a lot of resturants serving muglai good on brigade and mg road. and even discovered a resturant which served makki roti and sarson ka saag What bangalore lacked that time was a good chinese resturant or may be we couldn’t discover one.