Meal #30: India (Part 2: Southern India)

South India is a highly linguistic-cultural region of India. The predominant Dravidian language family consists of 23 languages indigenous to, and spoken principally in, South Asia by more than 210 million people. The four major Dravidian languages of southern India – Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam – have independent scripts and long documented histories. Nevertheless, for many diners there was something lost in translation with this meal.

Madras Banyan Tree
Specialising in South Indian Cuisine
924, Nepean Highway, Hampton East
Tuesday to Sunday 6pm to 10 pm

Madras Banyan Tree is a loud, busy restaurant specialising in South Indian Cuisine. It is so busy that in order to cater for our large group, they had to squeeze a couple of small tables together between the entrance and the service counter. The décor at Madras Banyan Tree is simple but stylish, focusing on earthy tones, small Indian paintings, and the occasional ‘shrine-on-a-ledge’.


This week’s sojourningly intrepid, South Indian sampling ingesters (alliteration is fun!) were Ruvinda, Dylan, Rami, Caroline, Sai, Paul, Deb, Nick, Naomi and Dom


Entrée:

Plain Idli – Plain rice cakes served with coconut chutney and sambar

Mains:

Vegetarian Thali – Rice, bread, sambar, rasam, two veggies, dhal, yoghurt, pickle, pappadam, medhu vadai and sweet
Non Vegetarian Thali – Rice, bread, sambar, rasam, veggies, chicken, lamb, pickle, pappadam and sweet
Lamb Masala – Lamb pieces cooked in a thick rich spicy gravy

Special Dosai – Surprise yourself with our house speciality king size dosai

Drinks:

Mango Lassi

Entrée:


Idlis’ are traditional South Indian steamed rice cakes made from fermented rice and lentil dough. They are fairly flavourless on their own; however they come to life when eaten with sambar (lentil broth) and/or spicy coconut chutney. Idlis’s are very crumbly, which makes eating them with cutlery almost impossible, so we resorted to the tradition eating utensil for this dish – the hand.

Mains:


Most diners opted for the set meal – Thali. The name for this dish comes from the “Thali” or dish in which it is served. The Thali comprises of a metal plate with a number of small metal bowls known as Katoris on it. It offers a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes, papadam, bread and rice. It even included dessert! This meal enabled diners to taste a variety of dishes in small servings. Highlights included: sambar (lentil broth), lentils cooked with tamarind, onions, tomatoes and spices; lamb in a mild vindaloo-like sauce; chicken in a cinnamon-based sauce; and medhu vadai, a savory doughnut.

The special dosai was definitely special! As the description on the menu suggested, we were surprised by the king size dosai – it was friggen HUGE! Major props to Nick for eating the entire thing!!! Oh, and if you were wondering, dosai is a traditional savoury pancake made out of rice and lentil dough, and was served with a selection of dips including chutney and sambar.

Overall:

It is amazing how people on the same table can have completely different dining experiences. Half the table enjoyed their meal, while the other half were not overly fond of theirs. Most of this negative feeling was due to vegetarian thalis being served about 10 minutes after the non-vegetarian thalis, and that many of the thali dishes were served luke-warm. Our South Indian experts at the meal, however, thought that the food was excellent and very authentic (even being served on traditional metal plates), and that the food didn’t need to be any warmer. Perhaps Madras Banyan Tree was too authentic for some diners (although there is no excuse for a restaurant to not serve all the mains at the same time). At $16 and $18 respectively, the vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis are great value for the amount of food you get, although it may be advisable to bring your own portable microwave…