Café Dalal Street, known for serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks where patrons can witness the excitement of the bullish and bearish pulls on their prices, has added another element of surprise by offering toddy shop cuisine at a Zeaside pop-up organised for three days. These dishes are traditionally available at drinking holes across the four Southern States. “Wanting to offer something new we decided on this. Based on customers’ feedback we may include some of the popular items in our menu,” says Himashu Gupta, a partner of CDS.
The specially curated menu by Zeaside’s Chef Arun Kumar provides an opportunity to people to enjoy authentic coastal delicacies. “A number of small eats and meals emanated from the toddy and tea shops in the South. We have chosen a handful to create awareness that there is more to the Southern cuisine than idlis, dosas and uthappams.” Seem true as many customers were curiously enquiring about the dishes.
Those for quickies found the munchies platter of rajani peanuts (roasted peanuts with traditional tadka) along with the typical toddy shop namkeen mixture tasty. Many who relish their drinks with the fried stuff ordered crunchy ribbon pakodas.
The variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian snacks got the patrons’ attention. There is the Udipi tiffin platter – mini idlis, uttampams and bajjis (pakoras). The three chutneys made of dal and chillies with added tadka of curry leaves and mustard make the tiffin tasty. The other vegetarian alternatives are Chettinad kola urunda, spiced vegetable balls, deep-fried using Chettinad masala; kozhukattai, coastal version of momos stuffed with veggies and Konkan potato wedges. The last is boiled potatoes flashed fried in a mix of tomato base and red chilly powder lending it the colour and aroma.
Many visitors familiar with the legendary chicken 65 ordered it. The Chennai dish popular since the colonial times has chicken marinated in red chilly spice mix for a few hours and then deep-fried. People were equally eager to try the gunpowder prawns. “I discovered this Mangalorean dish – prawns rolled in gunpowder – being made in a shack. The taste was out of this world,” reveals Arun.
Mutton sukka, tender cubes of meat marinated in the Chettinad spice, found many takers as did the Kerala’s favourite fish fry. “For the fry only chilly powder, turmeric and pepper is used. The taste varies as per the fish and except basa all other varieties are used,” informs Arun to a group of professional bankers celebrating a colleague’s birthday.
Eyeing the family crowd, CDS and Zeaside have included appam with vegetable or chicken stew and Malabar parota with Chettinad vegetable kurma or Kerala mutton fry. In the stew ginger and chilly are infused in vegetables or chicken and then simmered in coconut milk. Kurma, the thick curry, has seasonal veggies while mutton is slow cooked in a mix of green chilly, pepper and chilly powder. The deep fried thin coconut slices give the taste and flavour a twist. As Delhiites love biryanis, two Southern variants namely the moplah (chicken/mutton/prawn) and suriani vegetable ones found place in the menu. Those who tried it found it to be different from its Northern cousins. Arun points out that while moplah is a Muslim preparation, the suriani is a Syrian Christian version.
The two desserts coconut kheer and coconut jaggery pudding found favour with children. “We are serving kheer in short glasses and pudding in sakoras giving it a quirky touch,” says Himashu who plans to bring in more such pop-ups and special dishes which gel with the ambience of the watering hole.
(Zeaside dishes available only on April 23 and April 24)
