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Spice that's nice

Amaravathi invigorates with the spices of Andhra Pradesh. Rahul Verma returns rejuvenated

Illustration: Tony Smith

One day, when I was happily biting into an idli - which had come from the Andhra canteen at INS - a friend asked me if I had ever eaten a meal at Amaravathi. The name rang a bell, but I couldn't quite place it. So the friend explained that it was an Andhra restaurant in Karol Bagh. And it offered some great Andhra dishes, he held.

Investigation

The claim had to be probed. So I asked my comrade-in-arms, Raj (who lives in the neighbourhood), to go and do a recce of the place. He located it, and reported that it was a top-of-the-class restaurant, redolent with the flavours of southern spices.

I asked for directions, and fixed a lunch date with Raj at Amaravathi for the following day.

The directions are pretty simple, if you know West Delhi (but complex if you know Raj). Take the road going into Karol Bagh from Pusa Road. You will find Hotel Southern on the first major turning to the left. Amaravathi is in this very hotel, which is a mini Andhra Pradesh.

There is even a store in the basement where you can buy your rice, daal, spices and pickles that come all the way from Andhra Pradesh.

The restaurant is quite a big place - with some 100 covers in all. It is air-conditioned and comfortable, and the service is swift. The food, of course, is the way Andhra food should be - hot and spicy. We asked for a vegetable thali (Rs.55), chicken biryani (Rs.65) and a plate of mutton masala (Rs.70).

The thali

The thali came with two veggies - one consisting of small potatoes, the other comprising vadhi. It had hot rasam and sambar, a bowl of curds, rice, rotis and a papad. There was a little laddoo for dessert as well. The vegetables were tasty, and both the sambar and rasam wonderfully invigorating.

The chicken biryani came with a spicy salan and a cooling raita, but was disappointing, for I thought the rice hadn't soaked in the flavours of the meat. The mutton masala, with a thick gravy, was, however, good to eat.

There are all kinds of other dishes - ghee dosa (Rs.25), fish curry (Rs.55), egg porial (Rs.25), and so on. To satiate the unyielding Dilliwallah's appetite, Amaravathi also offers North Indian cuisine - from gobhi masala (Rs.40) and malai kofta (Rs.45) to chicken tikka (Rs.65) and butter chicken masala (Rs.70). Needless to say, I studiously ignored this part of the menu.

Take-away treat

The Andhra feast continued till dinnertime, because I had asked them to pack me a plate of chicken 65 (Rs.65). This, of course, is a dry and spicy chicken dish, which, legend has it, is cooked with 65 different spices. It livened up my dinner considerably. I am glad that Amaravathi and I are no longer strangers. In the coming days, I intend to turn what's now a mere association into a warm and abiding friendship.

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