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RELUCTANT GOURMET
No kitsch, just old-world charm
SHONALI MUTHALALY
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If you’re looking for good ‘home food,’ Annalakshmi is the place to head to
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Feel right at home At Annalakshmi
Celebrity chefs and hip restaurants. Exotic ingredients and flamboyant service. A cutting-edge DJ and a bottle-juggling bartender. In all the current drama and glamour of eating out in Chennai, it’s very easy for old-fashioned reticent restaur
ants to quietly slip off the radar. After all, they don’t pander to the ‘beautiful people,’ hire hard-nosed PR agencies or hold events with wearying regularity to ensure publicity. Yet, in the case of a restaurant like Annalakshmi, on Anna Salai, they still maintain great standards and that unbeatable old-world hospitality. Judging by the clientele on the night I tried it, the city’s older generation is still loyal: it was filled with groups of silver-haired friends, and NRIs presumably brought there by their parents for some genuine ‘home food.’ Astonishingly, a good number of Chennaiites, particularly people who have moved to the city over the past five years or so — have no idea the restaurant even exists, while a large number of the locals seem to be under the impression that it shut down a while back.
Perhaps it’s time to rediscover old Chennai institutions, and Annalakshmi’s a pretty good place to start with. It’s unexpectedly calm outside, for a restaurant set on such a busy arterial road, and that’s just the first in a series of surprises. Inside, it’s a cross between an ancient Indian oil painting that’s come to life, and the sets for a classical dance performance. Not kitschy, like all those new-fangled Indian restaurants that try to give you a glitzy, Bollywood-style India between your dal makhani and payasam, with random mirror-studded elephant sculptures and prints of doe-eyed Indian princesses. But not understated either, with silver peacocks, gleaming carved wood panelling and stone goddesses.
It feels right, though, not like they’re trying too hard. For those of you who have Chennai roots, and mothers, aunts or grandmothers who are fabulous cooks, this is everyday food, and you’re likely to be unimpressed. However, at a time when fewer and fewer people have time to spend in the kitchen, opting to snip open an instant-curry packet or pick up the phone and order pizza, this kind of food is fast becoming a luxury. Fresh vegetables skilfully steamed and spiced, rasam that’s rich in flavour, perfectly cooked rice and intense powders and pickles. They also do some unusual, refreshing juices, featuring ingredients like cool tender coconut water and ripe seasonal fruits. You can choose between a variety of meals, ranging from the sophisticated Mahalakshmi Preethi Bhojan to a meal designed for dieters. The food is served meticulously, piping hot and in courses.
And the service is really good, with waiters who look after you like fond aunts. You’re probably not going to get service this dedicated and affectionate anywhere else in the world — for a good reason. Annalakshmi is a voluntary organization, and all the waiters are volunteers, usually highly skilled and highly educated professionals. So the person waiting on you can very likely be a Ph.D. (It makes you very nervous about just how much to tip!) For expatriates and anyone from another state, who hasn’t been able to wheedle his way to a local home dining table, this is a good way to get an authentic taste of one face of Chennai. All proceeds of course go to charity. Annalakshmi has branches in Chennai, Coimbatore, Perth, Singapore, Malaysia, and as the Perth website states, “The food served in Annalakshmi is not prepared by hired chefs with secret French recipes hidden up their sleeves. Instead it is prepared with care and love by homemakers — mothers, grandparents, sisters and brothers.”
In some of these restaurants, you can “eat as you like and pay as you feel.” In Chennai, expect to pay about Rs. 400 per head. A price that will make a lot of people gasp, saying it’s expensive for a vegetarian restaurant serving food that could have been cooked at home. But, honestly, why should regional restaurants always be expected to charge peanuts? A regional thali is elaborate, complex and nutritious. Yet, strangely, it always seems easier to pay Rs. 700 for a mass-produced pizza.
Annalakshmi is at 804, Anna Salai. Call 28525109 or 42141210.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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