This is a really small place in the small town of Madikeri. It is run by a couple, we never saw the wife who cooks. Food for two including chicken, mutton, pork and a veg thali that had sambhar and rasam and a bean coconut fry was 360 rupees. The rice portions were massive, we returned a bowl and got a discount too.
Now, all the three curries tasted different. The gravies had nothing similar. The pork was the most alien flavour – it was hard to figure what it was. I have never had a pandi curry before and this one just put me in my place, food blogging got totally pissed on.
The mutton gravy was sweet with caramelised onions. The chicken was interesting because it was slightly sweet but there were no caramelised onions in it. Not sweet the West Bengal way but not at all spicy or hot but not even bland way.
What he called sambhar because he thought we were idiots was actually a Kootu. But sambhar is a much easier reference when they see outsiders. The rasam had loads of coriander leaves and pepper. I asked for extra servings.
What’s remarkable is that with much better access to spices, how they have not turned the tap on in their curries. The balance in each curry as well as the diversity in the gravies was an awesome surprise.
