While we’re busy scouring the city for quinoa, buckwheat and other such exotic grains, an ancient one is slowly making its way back to the list. The humble millet family has always been important to India and especially south India. But with fast food becoming a way of life, millets have taken a backseat.
Meena Thennaapan, R&D, Mahamudra Restaurant agrees, “Basic recipes are lost in this generation; we want to bring the ancient food back, so we are hosting the Dhaaniya Virundhu Saapadu or the Millet Food Festival,” she says.
The Dhaaniya Virundhu Saapadu is available for lunch, snacks and dinner, although if you want to sample a wider variety of millet-based dishes it’s best to go during lunch to sample theirspecial thali.
We start with a refreshing, herb-filled glass of neer mor, perfect to slake one’s thirst in Chennai’s hot, sultry weather. Next is a millet soup, almost lentil-like in its taste and consistency, which is very light on the palate. The starters offered-- kuthiravali kozhukattai and the cheesy millet ball-- are markedly different from each other but are equally addictive. The cheesy millet balls are particularly delicious and surprisingly non-greasy, a welcome relief from regular fried food (where you constantly have to wipe or lick the grease off your fingers).
Moving on to the main course, the thinai adai , paired with aviyal (a classic combination) and the kara chutney, has all the marks of a good, crispy adai. Like all traditional thalis, the one we’re served too has, what Chennai calls, ‘variety rice’—in this case, samai pulav and varagu arisi thengai sadam, which are both delicious. Pair them with the pachadi and the immensely crunchy pavakka-peanut chips and you’re set.
Instead of white rice, Mahamudra serves a steaming bowl of saamai rice that goes well with tomato pappu, enna kathirikkai kuzhambu and the arachu vitta rasam. Corn thayir sadham might sound unusual but is surprisingly a perfect way to round off the meal.
For dessert, we’re served a samai payasam, thinai ladoo and ragi halwa. While the samai payasam is nothing to write home about, it’s the thinai ladoo and the ragi halwa that leave us sated. The one good thing about all this food though is that it’s incredibly light on the stomach, helpful when you have to go back to work after lunch like we had to.
The Dhaaniya Virundhu Saapadu is on till the 20th of this month. Mahamudra is at Old No.50, New No.117, Luz Church Road, Mylapore. Details: 43535555
