Malgudi - taste of South

 Last week involved a bit of travel and which ended up in me eating out quite often. I took that as a good opportunity to try out some new places and some old favorites. My friend had been asking me about traditional South Indian cuisine and he is a meat eater to boot. So, we decided to go to Malgudi restaurant. It has got multiple outlets (2 that I know of in Bangalore - Outer Ring Road near Marthahalli and HSR Layout near Silk Board; 2 in Chennai - one in Hotel Savera in heart of city and other on OMR road near Sholinganallur). I do know a lot of folks who have been here and come away unimpressed. My only tip to them is that - you need to know what to order, with what as an accompaniment else the food won't speak volumes.
We landed in this place at around 8 pm and of course it goes without saying that I was starving. So, we quickly started off with Chicken and Nand (crab) rasam (soups..!!). To go with that, we ordered a couple of starters - Vazhapoo (Plantain or Banana Flower) Vada and Mutton Pepper Chops.

First the Rasam - was piping hot, fragrant and spicy; just the way it should be. The meat (crab / chicken) was so soft and well cooked that it was just falling off the bone. A brillaint start to the evening accompanied by two stars of Chettinadu cuisine - the vazhapoo vada and mutton pepper chops. The vada was crisp, fresh and the flavor of the vazhapoo could be absorbed over the fried snack and the spicy coconut chutney provided as an accompaniment. Mutton pepper chops was art form. Lots of folks go wrong in cooking mutton (since it is relatively tougher meat than chicken) but it has bags of flavor that chicken cannot even begin comparing to. This dish had the mutton cooked to a tender perfection and spiced just right with black pepper (it did not over power the natural taste of mutton), garnished with fried curry leaves lending a fragrant touch.
My friend and I are both healthy eaters and hence we decided to go for broke in the main course - Appam, Malabar Paratha with Chettinadu Chicken Stew and to wrap up - the legendary Chettinadu dish, Egg Kothu Paratha.

The appam was fluffy and the flour was neither sour nor salty. It was served with a cup of sweet coconut milk which acted as a perfect foil to the chicken stew. The stew was typical Chettinad style- spicy fragrant and filled with an abundance of tender meat. Picking up a piece of the appam, I folded it into a cone and scooped in liberal amount of chicken stew. As I popped it into my mouth and the spices kicked in, I would then spoon down a measure of sweetened coconut milk as an after taste. The malabar paratha was crisp, buttery and perfectly layered and went great with the chicken stew again. If you thuoght this would be heavy, think again.. the lightness of preparation in these dishes make us actually look forward to the last but not least dish of the day - the egg kothu paratha. I had this dish all over India at different places and I do respect the variations that crop up as individual innovations.. but there is nothing that would compare to the original. The dish was so finely chopped up, well cooked and mildly spiced that it was extremely light to tuck into. The masala, chopped onions and green chillies, curry leaves all add to the mystique. Definitely a dish to die for..
This kinda concluded our dinner since we were too full to try the dessert section. Food was excellent, the preparation perfect and the wallet factor - extremely affordable. The menu described above costs us around 900 Rs for two of us.

Location: In Bangalore and Chennai
Cost: Very affordable