Dakshin the South Indian specialty restaurant of Sheraton New Delhi Saket is quite famous amongst Delhiites for its delicious food and traditional ambience. Apart from their extensive menu Dakshin is conducting a promotion which highlights certain aspects of Tamil Muslim cuisine. This 10-day long promotion Sahibu Virundu ends March 3. “Recipes of Tamil Muslims are time tested and passed down through generations, many garnished with Arabic methods and Sri Lankan ingredients,” says Chef Vel Murugan.
Leaving all the other mocktails aside, I decided to start with a glass of fresh coconut water for a change, and what a refreshing change it was! Light, sweet and healthy. Before starting with the Sahibu Virundu menu, Chef Murugan served me some selected starters from the Dakshin regular menu. I asked the chef to serve the fastest moving appetiser of the restaurant and immediately I was served some shallow fried rice dumplings. I liked the spice levels and crispiness of the dumplings.
Next to follow was a fish variant where the fish was marinated in onion, tomato, tamarind and then wrapped in banana leaves before putting it on the grills. It was juicy and delicious. Technique of wrapping it in banana leaves gets the marination to be absorbed to its core.
So far all the starters were good but it was the Sukka Chaps, a delicacy from Chettinad region which was the best. Never had such succulent lamb chops and that too marinated in South Indian spices and herbs.
Though the lamb chops had excellent after taste and I didn’t want to move on Chef Murugan came and politely nudged me, “Sir, your main course is ready.” Now it was time to taste Tamil Muslim delicacies. I tasted the poritcha sila meen first. Again a tasty fish delicacy, but this time extremely spicy and why not? It’s marinated in chilli paste and pepper and then fried. Fish was tender and had perfect crust but tasted a bit tangy due to the tamarind juice. Next was the Kalari Kari, a mutton dish having subtle flavours and a thick gravy. And that thickness in its texture was due to the raw banana which was added in its final stages of preparation. The curries were accompanied by a biryani variant called kozhi iddiyappa biryani. And its basic ingredient was not rice but rice vermicelli. I liked it as it was light on stomach and seemed quite healthy with lots of veggies and chicken in it.
I ended with the tasty coconut milk kheer.
Meal for two: Rs.4000
