11 May,2011 09:06 AM IST | | Swati Kumari
If you think that South Indian cuisine is all about Idli, Dosa and Sambar, visit this restaurant to change your view
True to it's name which in Sanskrit means a unique precious jewel 'mani', this restaurant serves rare and special delicacies from all the four states of south India right here in the Capital. Tucked in a tiny corner in Saket, Kaustubh is about simplicity and homeliness with waiters scurrying around wearing mund (traditional white dhotis), nadaswaram playing in the background, food served on steel plates with banana leaves -- to showcase their traditional best.
Kaustubh thali
No fancy dressing
A Tirupati idol stands welcoming you as you climb up the three low steps. Theu00a0 wooden furniture in the well-spaced out hall and ethnic block-printed wallpapers in different colours create a homely feel. There was mellow, instrumental, classical music playing which comes across as a good change if loud luxury tires you. The elaborate menu is broadly divided into sections and has only vegetarian dishes from the entire southern peninsula -- Kerala to Andhra Pradesh to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Since I do not hail from south India, I found the details described after the name of each dish to be highly interesting.
Dosa delights
In two minds about which state to begin our food journey from, we asked for suggestions and were advised to begin our meal with Keerai vadai (deep-fried urad dal and spinach) which was quite oily along with a unique preparation, Cheese onion capsicum roll dosa. We teamed them with piping hot rasam and coconut water.
While waiting for the main course, I Googled about the nutrition content in a dosa and found that it is a healthy combination of dal and rice and provides both cereal and pulse. Diabetics and obese people should stick to Sada dosa since Masala dosa contains potato, which is rich in starch and has minimal fibre. The diet conscious should avoid digging into the coconut chutney, as it increases the fat content.
Aromas of South
In the main course, we tried some tongue-twisting Malabar porotha with kadala curry, Idiyappam with kai kurma where the kurma was very authentic and quite delicious. The Appam with kai stew was also good. If this is not what you are looking for, choose from a wide variety of dosas available here -- Kaalan (mushroom) dosa, Poondu (garlic) dosa, Chettinad masala or select from a whole host of utthappams and annam (rice) assortments stocked here.
Rice is a staple in south India, which the south Indians have with sambar or curry. We ended our meal on a sweet note with Sewayian payasam which was served hot and was not painfully sweet. If you don't want to experiment, there's the Rava kesri, different flavours of ice creams and kulfis or filter coffee. Bliss!
