A true South Indian gem in Lucknow

Tundey kababs, biryani, sheermal, etc, has competition from vegetarian South Indian cuisine!If there is any cuisine that has given the  Avadhi food some serious competition and that too on home turf, it is the lip-smacking south Indian food.

But then the idli, dosa, vada, sambhar have been tantalising the Lucknowi palate for over  years now. Surprised?  When I set out to find out options in the city for those who love trying something simply southie.

Informs Vijay Mishra, manager of Brindavan (Indira Nagar ),  one of the oldest South Indian joint in the city “he saw the demand for South Indian food and decided to set up shop here. Since then he have been catering to Lucknowites who are fond of traditional Keralite food. The thali they serve is also a big hit more so as it has the variety of authentic dishes from the backwaters of Kerala included in it."

And they have been more than happy in the business as cash registers keep ringing. What is very encouraging is that North Indians do drop in regularly to savour our dishes but South Indian and even tourists visiting Lucknow having heard of our special preparations come to get a taste of  dosa."

Brindavan  serves popular breakfast and lunch joint serving South Indian delicacies from Karnataka. Food  from the different states of South India have their own uniqueness and I was surprised to find that Lucknowites have a taste for more than just idlis and masala dosa."

Brindavan offers specialities from Karnataka like uttapams with seven flavours - stuffings with a red chutney and vegetable juliennes; and also another special dish -  Maharaja dosa .They have a  unique upma made from green gram and garnished with chillies and onions. They are now even trying to introduce more of such novel South Indian delights."

 Vijay Adds "I am so confident as I have seen the eagerness with which customers order the South Indian Thali as they want to savour as many dishes from the South Indian cuisine. The thali has rasam, sweets, papads, idli, upma, veggies and much more, and gives one a chance to try the taste of South in a single platter."

By and large, South Indian cuisine is perhaps the hottest of all Indian food. Meals are centered around rice or rice-based dishes. Rice is combined with Sambaar (a soup-like lentil dish tempered with whole spices and chillies) and rasam (a hot-sour soup like lentil dish), dry and curried vegetables and meat dishes and a host of coconut-based chutneys and poppadums (deep-fried crispy lentil pancakes). South Indians are great lovers of filter coffee.No South Indian meal is complete without rice in some form or other – either boiled rice or Idlis (steamed cakes made from rice batter), Dosas or Uttapams (pancakes made from a batter of rice and lentil flour). Daals (lentils) are also a part of most meals.