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South side story

The food served at Gowrishankar is as authentic south Indian as it gets

PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.

ROCKING CUISINE The food tastes as great as it looks

Eating a well-cooked meal gives a high that rivals anything a narcotic, alcohol or chemical can give. This epiphany came to me as I was digging into the fantastic fare at Gowrishankar. This restaurant, at the Mayflower business hotel, is part of the Sree Annapoorna Sree Gowrishankar Group from Coimbatore and serves authentic south Indian food. And authentic here is not just an adjective; for, never have the paniyarams been more fluffy, the adai so crisp, the dosa so crunchy, ooh! the list is deliciously endless.

In Coimbatore, Gowrishankar is a well-known name with upwards of 12 outlets in the erstwhile Manchester of India (indulging in a little Raj nostalgia is no crime!). P.R. Babu Varma, Chief Operating Officer, said: "We chose Bangalore as there is no authentic south Indian Tamilian eatery here. The other reason for choosing Bangalore is that it is close to Coimbatore, which makes the logistics easier as all the raw materials are sourced from Coimbatore. The chefs are from there and they insist that if the ingredients were sourced locally, there would be a difference in taste and consistency. You know, even water makes a difference. I wish there was some way of getting Coimbatore water here!" he comments wistfully.

Fit for a king

Breakfast, which is served between 7 a.m. and 10.30 a.m., fulfils the criteria for a meal for a king. Have a Gowrishankar breakfast under your belt and you could go and break stones, lay roads and conquer the world well in time for elevenses! The breakfast includes rava dosa (masala onion, ghee, podi) oothapam (vegetable, onion, tomato, cabbage) and dosa (plain, masala). There is the idli, sambar idli and mini idli and vada. Then there is rava pongal, appam and stew and godhumai (wheat) upma with curd. And let it not be said that the menu is exclusionary — there is poori as well.

The non-exclusionary nature of the menu extends to the lunch and dinner menus as well with north Indian fare like the ubiquitous paneer butter masala coyly looking from the corner. "We want families to eat here and in families you would have people with different tastes. We do not want to turn away a family because there is no north Indian food."

So now you have conquered the world, climbed the tallest mountain and forded the vast ocean and it is time for Rajabhojanam. As the name suggests, it is meant for king so bring out the purple and dive right into a dizzying variety of dishes from the rocking keera vadai to soup, avial, sambar of the day, rice, vathakolambu, appalam, poriyal, kootu, dessert and a beeda! Is that cool or what?

You can indulge in all sorts of gastronomic delights at Gowrishankar, 283/19, 11th Cross, Wilson Garden, Bangalore 570 027, Ph: 40155900

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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