Banana Leaf is my quick ticket to Amrita's hometown Mangalore, apart from giving her the rich neighbouring benefits from Kerala, Andhra and Tamil Nadu.
People often confused me as Rao from Andhra. I used to cheekily say, “Not Andhra, but I am Rao from near Bandra,” as I used to reside in Mahim earlier. However today, let me put it on record that I am Rao from Karnataka. Well, how does it matter? To a non-South Indian, ALL SOUTH INDIANS ARE THE SAME and they speak the same language — alien!
All South Indians do take pride in bonding on certain commonalities like rice, rasam and papad being the basics to begin with. And no, we don’t bond on eating curd with noodles. That was just Mr Khan at his humourous best!
I am a very proud South Indian and when DNA trusted me to review five restaurants, it was almost impossible I would not write or rather rave about 
South Indian food. I truly and genuinely believe that South Indian cuisine is one of the best and varied cuisines among many Indian cuisines. The variety and the peculiar taste of South Indian food in Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Karnataka and Kerala, is only exclusive to these particular places. For example, the thali or rassam rice plate at Sarvana Bhavan in Chennai is only true to the city. And if you haven’t tasted Mangalorean food with our coconut based gravies and the variety of vegetable dishes, sprinkled with coconut... dude you are missing out on the finer pleasures of being Indian!
Banana Leaf is my quick ticket to my hometown Mangalore in Karnataka, apart from giving me the rich neighbouring benefits from Kerala, Andhra and Tamil Nadu. The interiors are typical, with a mural replica of Lord Venkateshwara and the Tirupati temple on the extreme left wall and, on the right wall, we see a larger-than-life poster of RK Laxman’s Malgudi Days, thus pleasing the Karnatacans.
Food is served traditionally on a banana leaf and as you find your way through the menu, you are already swaying to some Karnataka instrumental music.
For starters, the chefs special Mulgai green idli — four pieces of idli cooked in a green paste of coriander leaves, spring onion, ginger and garlic put together, is a Kerala specialty. For all you hotties, try the Idli Chilli Andhra style. This place is ideal to treat elderly members of the family and, for those who are diabetic, there is a special Oat uttapa and Ragi uttapa that’s totally mother’s homemade style!
The Kerala banana cutlets become an addiction — raw banana cooked in traditional Kerala spices and served along with wafers.
Also Bunts — thick puris made from fermented ripe banana and maida, what we call in Konkani as Gubbus roti, will be new for your taste buds. There is a variety of fresh juices and also the aerated drinks, but to sink into the complete experience of a truly authentic South Indian meal, my tip would be, go for the thin churned butter milk coupled with fine green chili chops and masala or the sweet and tangy aam panna or simply go ginger-lemon to charge your battery.
All the spices in the kitchen are especially imported from Chennai and the kitchen displays secularism between two chefs, Raju garu from Chennai and Babu from Kerela each bringing in tasty sentiments from their mother land. The regular dosas are certainly mouth watering but what makes it unique is the combination of mushroom sukka — mushrooms cooked in a dry coconut paste, or the paneer sukka. My favourite combo of the mushroom sukka with Karnataka’s pristine neer dosa.
The best trait about South Indian snacks are they are nutritious and healthy and can comfortably become your main course if you go on stuffing. But my expert advice would be hold your horses and make way for the lavish main course. Try the bestseller Kerala Malbar curry, which is veggies cooked in a coconut milk combined with a Kerala version of luchcha parathas, but cooked
on tava. If you are a devout rice eater like me, try this typical specialty from my native land — Bissi belle bhat, which is like a khichdi version of sambar rice and strategic vegetable. Or, the simple pleasures of sambar with rice can make you feel victorious.
The sambar here is of two kinds and the one that comes with rice is different from the one that comes with snacks. People also come especially to try out the Chettinad biryani and the Hyderabadi biryani. I have a small appetite, yet when I look up the menu, I wish some magic could happen and I could get to taste a little bit of everything on the menu. Thankfully, for ambitious people like me, there’s something called a thali! The Banana Leaf Special Thali is enough for two people to share and is a three-course meal that has the medu vada or uttapa for starters, accompanied by an assortment of six bowls of a variety of vegetable dishes, served with appams or neer dosa, one bowl of curd, and then you have a choice of bissi belley bhat, sambar rice, or curd rice and a bowl of traditional sweet dish — jaggery paisam or sewai paisam.
With all this richness comes a bonus scoop of ice cream. But your expert says skip the ice cream and specially order for the exotic yellneer paisam — tender coconut malai and almonds. It’s a cold dessert, not cooked. Or, the unique walnut halwa. Now your stomach is full... but yeh dil mangey more, so lounge around to some more gupshup as you order for the silk filter coffee. This could complete your three state-tour in about one hour and you could come out with a swash buckle like Quick-gun Murugan-Mind it!
Amrita Rao is an actor and a foodie.
Banana Leaf, Subham CHS, opposite Vikram Petrol Pump, Versova, Andheri West
Tel: 022 26289090
Rating: ****1/2
Meal for two: Rs 500 (Plus taxes)
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South Indian food. I truly and genuinely believe that South Indian cuisine is one of the best and varied cuisines among many Indian cuisines. The variety and the peculiar taste of South Indian food in Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Karnataka and Kerala, is only exclusive to these particular places. For example, the thali or rassam rice plate at Sarvana Bhavan in Chennai is only true to the city. And if you haven’t tasted Mangalorean food with our coconut based gravies and the variety of vegetable dishes, sprinkled with coconut... dude you are missing out on the finer pleasures of being Indian!)
For starters, the chefs special Mulgai green idli — four pieces of idli cooked in a green paste of coriander leaves, spring onion, ginger and garlic put together, is a Kerala specialty. For all you hotties, try the Idli Chilli Andhra style. This place is ideal to treat elderly members of the family and, for those who are diabetic, there is a special Oat uttapa and Ragi uttapa that’s totally mother’s homemade style!)
on tava. If you are a devout rice eater like me, try this typical specialty from my native land — Bissi belle bhat, which is like a khichdi version of sambar rice and strategic vegetable. Or, the simple pleasures of sambar with rice can make you feel victorious.
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