Iyengar Speciality

Ask any of your Iyengar friends about his food. He'll probably name puliyogare and plead ignorance beyond that. The fact is that many Iyengars in Bangalore have forgotten about their cusine. Only some of them speak about their temple town in Melkote in Mandya district (Iyengars call the place Narayana- pura). Here, the tradition is kept alive by expert cooks who practice traditional Iyengar cooking. In Bangalore, few Iyengars will serve you hasi kootu anna (a mixture of raw vegetables in coconut, coarse ground rice) or menasu kootu anna (a pepper urad dhal rice-a sort of kichdi) and may not know gojju (a bhindi tadka in tamarind gravy). But the happy news is that you don't have to travel to Melkote for Iyengar cuisine. Go to Jayanagar instead. Opposite the NMKRV College for Women, there is Kadambam, a squeaky clean restaurant that opened over a year ago and speacialises in Iyengar delicacies; panchakolambu sadam, ulandogere, kanjeepuram idli, nuchinunde, gasegase payasam, avarekai dosa, and so on. Don't ask what they are. Best to go to Kadambam and find out for yourself. You will be in for a treat. The whole range is not available on a single day. They offer three or four Iyengar items along with staple items - and what they offer in the day may be different fron the menu in the evening. On our day, they had sakkare pongal, ambode (a large masala vada ) sabsige rice (a pulav with pudina) and sajjappa, a sweet stiff puri with flour stuffing. Our mini meal had plain rice with Iyengar rasam, which we found milder and thicker than the usual. The sambar was also distinctive with an eclectic, spicy flavour. The avarekai palya had a trace of grated coconut and was pan- fried to perfection. Sajjappa provided a grand finale to the delightful meal. For the good and mouth-watering food that the two of us ate, all we had to spend was Rs 37. Kadambam has no weekly holiday and is open everyday from 7 am to 9.30 pm. Courtesy Saturday Times, 8/6/96

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