A traditional vegetarian Tamilian meal fit for a king!

You will be greeted by Nithya, Jaideep and Duke, her Labrador, at their apartment in the centrally located neighbourhood of Dadar. Nithya is a Tamilian Brahmin and her food and cooking style and are heavily major influenced by the Iyengar community in south India. As you sip on your welcome drink she will tell you how the cooking of the Iyengar community is largely rice-based and is traditionally prepared without any onion and garlic. They use a wide variety of legumes such as lentils, parrupu (pigeon pea), ulundu (black gram) and kadalai paruppu (split chickpeas) and, like all south Indian food, there is also the use of coconut.

A traditional Iyengar lunch/dinner might include two to three varieties of rice, such as coconut rice, tomato rice or yogurt rice which are be eaten with kuzhambu (lentil and vegetable stew), saturmadu (a tangy soup seasoned with spices), vegetables in coconut gravy, or china urilakizhangu (small roasted baby potatoes) and paruppu usili (french beans). No south Indian the meal complete without appam (a pancake made with fermented rice) and poppadum (thin crispy wafers). To finish you’ll enjoy a sweet rice pudding called payasam. Despite the numerous restaurants in Mumbai that serve south Indian food none can compare to the taste of traditional home-cooked meal like this one!