Tasty Chennai - I

While Bangalore was very pleasant, I had no such luck in Chennai. I stepped out into the hot, humid morning at the airport and quickly made my way to the waiting car and drove to The Trident. Later in the day, I dined at the Samudra, a Indian seafood restaurant at this hotel. The Sea Bass Varuval made of grilled fish maninated with fresh ground pepper, curry leaves and chillies and other spices was delicious. So much so, I ordered another portion.


The Moplar Lamb Biryani from Kerala was good too and came with a bowl of gravy along with the raita. The Moplars are a distinct community from Kerala, who like the Chettiyars of Tamil Nadu, have been long known for their culinary traditions that was heavily influenced by the Arab traders who came here to buy Indian spices. We ended dinner with some apple jalebis and ice-cream which were rather ordinary.


Incidentally, the Trident has a pretty good spa with trained Indonesian therapists. Try the Balinese massage here if you have a few hours to spare. The spa is housed in a low-rise colonial-style building on a lush green garden adjascent to the pool. Very nice!

The last time I was in Chennai was in March and stayed at the GTC Grand. I have already written about their excellent Mediterranean restaurant, Azulia. Given how much I had enjoyed that experience, I decided to also try their other restaurant, Copper Point.

Copper Point serves Indian cuisine and has a good selection of both North Indian and South Indian specialities. Having just come from New Delhi and a trip to the Bukhara, I wasn't going to try North Indian food here! I ordered a Kerala Pepper Chicken with appams and sat back to enjoy the live South Indian music.

The interiors were decorated with shiny copper and brass utensils. On this Sunday night, the restaurant was quite crowded. A musician was playing South Indian classical on his violin, with tabla and ghatam players accompanying him. The diners were equally engrossed in the food and the music, and the musicians acknowledged by taking requests.

The chicken was succulent, fiery and spiced just right. But the highlight today were the excellent appams and the meen moilee. Made right in front of me in a live station, the appams were amazingly light and soft with crispy edges. The meen moilee, another Kerala speciality, is made of mildly flavored white sauce made of coconut milk and spices. Excellent stuff!

I ordered a dessert of gulab jamuns bobbing in rabri. Unfortunately, these were a letdown. The jamuns were hard and no good at all. I should have stayed away from the desserts altogether.

I was up early next day. I was shivering - the damn AC was on overdrive for some reason; I had to switch it off completely. As is my usual practice in Chennai, I stayed with vadas and idlis for breakfast. While they were good, the ones at the Raintree last time were better.

BTW, the GRT Grand has a pretty good gym and spa. Apparently, the Ayush spa is a Hindustan Lever venture that specializes in Ayurvedic treatments including massage therapies and body scrubs. Try it if you are here!

For lunch, a colleague took me back for a grand vegetarian lunch at Saravana Bhavan. I gorged on the sambhar, rasam, and multiple vegetable and rice dishes in front of me. For once, I didn't miss meat. :)

Update: I was shocked to read in the newspaper that Saravana Bhavan's founder has been convicted for murder. Read this and tell me if you will eat their sumptuous meals again.