Tamil Nadu House
I've been hearing about the canteen at Tamil Nadu House for a while, some good things some not. When today again I heard words of praise I was there within the hour. Not very big, definitely dwarfed in comparison to Andhra Bhavan, but a worth adversary. You enter what is called the "VIP Canteen." At first we looked around some more, wondering where us plebeians go, but it seems everyone is a VIP at Tamil Nadu House. They have some North Indian and Chinese fare too but we stayed well away from that.
Behold our feast:
Mysore Plain Dosa
- Until recently, I had not really loved dosas. I loved the sour sambar, even uthapams, but dosas to me were quite passable. And as fate would have it, my mother loved them and would drag me to Sagar all the time. That's when i discovered the Mysore Plain Dosa - yes PLAIN, I still don't care much for their potato stuffing. It was the one dosa I enjoyed eating. Now I am a monster and love eating just about anything so yes dosas too have fallen in to that bottomless pit of my gluttony. Anyway, point being that I had to try everything and there were dosas on the menu, dosa, dosa, dosa, ah Mysore Plain Dosa, done! So it came with the 3 bowls (coconut and onion chutney and sambar) plonked on it. Sucks to say after reading all this that the dosa was OK, fairly enjoyable but a little thick in parts and quite soggy in most parts. I'm not too angry because with all the wet chutney inside it really is an art to get a mysore dosa crisp enough.
Porothas and Chicken Chettinad
- First lets talk about the porothas, which were absolutely divine! So soft and flaky and Mmmmmm good! The chicken Chettinad was a yummy hot peppery mess in my tummy.. a mess? Well yes because you didn't think all that spice is a pretty sight in there did you? Was not greasy and heavy but like something a mother would cook. I found it quite enjoyable.
Chicken Biryani
- Though it looks quite plain it was bursting with flavour. I know the Andhra Bhavan Biryani is the talked about one but to me this was even better. Personal taste i suppose. I don't want to keep repeating this one thing but it was something someones mother would make.! Not heavy, not very spicy, just really tasty!.. Think the rice had been cooked in some sort of broth/stock rather than a curry. I didn't even mind the measly one leg of chicken shoved in here since, we had more than enough meat on our table already.
Chicken 65
- Quite standard. Masala fried pieces of chicken. Was tasty, but not outstanding. Will probably skip it next time. I will give them that though it had been deep fried it wasn't greasily, dripping with oil.
Mutton Fry
- This was sooo yummy, especially with those divine porothas and a squeeze of lemon. Spicy, nice boneless pieces of mutton, and I love the flavour of curry leaves. The portion was actually hilariously small, especially after everything else, so we got a second one. This might sound weird but the first one was much better, the second one was a bit too salty. But still definitely dee-liscious!
Sooji Halwa
- Though it was cloyingly sweet and had some sort of artificial flavour to it, it was confusingly enjoyable. The first bite made you have the second, the second the third, and the third.. well the third pretty much was it and made you stop !
Budget: Cheap. We paid Rs.1100 for all this food, two cold drinks and two FRESH JUICES.
Contact:
Behind Chanakya Cinema. Make a left in its right there.
Tel: 011 230146529