The harvest augurs new beginnings. And Makar Sankranti and Pongal find the city’s bustling markets filled with sugarcane, ellu or sesame seeds mixed with boiled groundnuts that families nibble on in the evenings, with bella or jaggery, as children fly colourful kites and speak of good tidings to usher in positivity. Our city is bathed in the sunny hues of the harvest as the season’s best fare is cooked across kitchens in the city. The home-cooked fare is truly delectable, and there are places across the city that have favourites fished out for traditional foodies. With the general fervour of the festival at its height, we decided to tuck into the fare at South Indies, which had its special Pongal and Sankranti spread. Known for its basic, homecooked and traditional taste specs, the Indiranagar space was bustling with families busy helping themselves to heaps of what they loved the best.
The spread is a buffet of traditionals, and we started with a lightly flavoured coconut soup which came hot and light, as well as a tangy rasam. The mini pudi idlis were alright, with a tasty beetroot chutney. The dahi vada, however was a little too sweet. The urad dal vada was crisp and went very well with the coconut chutney.
Starters done, we proceeded to dig into the mains. We started with the kai kai stew, which was light. We would have liked more vegetables and the preparation was a bit flakey. The waiters kept the hot appams, kerala paranthas and dosas coming to the table as well. We tucked into the avail, which was tasty – yoghurt and coconut in subtle specs, along with the red pumpkin with flat bean curry which was average and not hot enough. We liked the bendekai with peanut masala, and also tried the pulses curry, which was average.
The mixed vegetable sambhar was bland and not very tasty - could have had more tang and taste in it. The curd rice, fried chillies, pickles, and other knick-knacks on a Pongal spread are a meal by themselves, although we were sad not to spot any local kosambari or salads on the buffet - favourites during Pongal. Clearly, it was a quickly rustled-up spread as the usual suspects on a harvest table were missing and so was the general flavour.
We did, however, like the appams and the dosa with the chutneys... but were a bit perplexed with getting slices of pizza as part of our starters. The paneer skewers, too. What had started as a wonderful respite of traditional food seemed to have somewhat lost its way, and that was unfortunate. The idea of most buffets is to serve hot, fresh fare that keeps being replenished, but much of the spread was luke warm or tepid at best.
The dessert counter, given the Indian predilection for much variety, had lots to choose from, including cut fruits, cake, etc. We opted for a festival favourite, the adapradhaman payasam. It was creamy, made from jaggery and coconut milk cooked for long on simmer. It was delicious, served hot and with some hot gulab jamuns. The yelneer payasam was light and subtle, and we didn’t care for the rasmalai that seemed more akin to a rosogulla dunked in badam milk. Personally recalling those days when South Indies started, and the fare that was portioned out, and the different chutneys, rasams etc, we do hope they get back their traditional manna and leave the all-you-can-eat from everywhere buffet to the other wannabes.
Meal for two: Rs 1,100
The Pongal buffet was only available on January 15 but the restaurant serves traditional buffets for lunch as well.
South Indies: 276, 1st Floor, 6th main, Defence Colony, 100 Feet Raod, Indiranagar. Call: 9653574
