Dakshin – Southern Spice

I was in Hyderabad recently for the launch of my book - Microwave Cooking Made Easy. It's a city that I love to visit and one of my most favourite haunts there is Dakshin, the restaurant of the ITC Kakatiya Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Begumpet.

At Dakshin you will have an excellent opportunity to taste the cuisines of southern India in a luxurious ambience. For Dakshin beholds the style of traditional service and authentic presentations and rightly so, because I feel the south is invariably looked upon as a homogeneous entity up north and some of us are ignorant of the fact that there are regional variations in this geographical unit. One look at the menu of Dakshin gives us a glimpse of the varied cuisines of the south. The restaurant has, over the last two to three years, worked on the concept of the community kitchen wherein the cuisines of communities have been showcased through food festivals in which one can choose dishes from the Saraswat, Moplah, Mudaliyar and Chettiar cuisines.

I always go there to sample the main menu from the four southern states. It is a la carte fare with heartening news for the veggies as there are a variety of vegetarian dishes. The ambience is neat with old style furniture but what catches the eye is the sparkle of copper utensils used to serve the food. There is too much to taste. But I can recommend a few dishes to make the task simpler. Start off with Vasantha Neer - tender coconut water with a dash of lemon juice, honey and mint. Absolutely soothing and you need it to prepare the stomach because the Andhra specialties that follow are fiery! Or cool the gut with Majjiga - buttermilk flavoured with green chillies, ginger, coriander leaves, curry leaves and a dash of lemon. Definitely different. Warm up to the meal with a starter such as the Kodi Roast, which is boneless chicken in green chilli sauce. And boy! it does burn your tongue. When we ordered the Royyala Egaru we did not expect the prawns to be so succulent, red hot with ginger and garlic dominating the taste buds. It was a definite hit, though by now I had tears running down my eyes. In contrast, Dakshin Chapa Vepudu is smooth on the palate being fried fresh water fish with freshly ground spices. And it just slithered down our throats. I had a second helping - obviously it was so good. I also enjoyed the Tomato Pappu - a dal tempered with green chillies, garlic and onions with tomatoes adding their special colour and flavour.

Another of my favourites is chicken made the Tamilian way - Kozhi Melagu Curry, tender chicken cooked in a pepper gravy, hot but it doesn't have the fieriness of the chillies. Combine it with a relatively different Kathrikai Kara Kozhambu - eggplants, onions, garlic pearls in tamarind gravy with the onions dominating which goes well with rice. One should not miss out the Udipi Masa Stew, which is a stew of tender lamb with coconut, peppercorns, garlic and garam masala. From Kerala try the Meen Moilee (fish in coconut milk), Kai Stew (vegetables in creamy coconut milk), which is best eaten with Appams. Just watching the chef dish out a perfectly kadai shaped appam with the deft movement of his wrist is a treat to watch. Of course the batter should be right. It's quite tricky. For the perfect recipe you will have to watch Khana Khazana or refer to my books. The other breads one could choose: Veechu Porotta, Puri, Iddiappam and Kal Dosai. And the array of pickles, chutneys and papads - the variety is so much that it is pointless to try to remember their names.

My advice is just enjoy! But do leave space for the cooling Basundi in the end. That and Elaneer Payasam, which is tender coconut at its best in a kheer form. You need their soothing effect after all that fiery hot stuff.