Dakshin Darshan

On my way to the USA, I had a quick dinner at Dakshin, the speciality South Indian restaurant of the ITC Maratha at Mumbai. Here are a couple of pictures from this delightful South Indian restaurant. The mini-dosas they serve as starters are a fun sampling before the actual meal: one was a pesaruttu, made of different varieties of lentils, another made from bananas and dates, and the third of the regular variety.

The dinner itself was fiery, hearty and left me feeling very full - like a good South Indian meal ought to! But it is the small touches like the dosa sampler and the 'filter coffee' served in stainless steel that brought a smile to my face.

I remember how they served coffee at the Udupi restaurants in Mysore where I spent much of childhood. The waiter would swiftly go from table to table balancing dozens of stainless steel cups of hot, steaming coffee. At the table, he would create a froth in every cup by quickly pouring the coffee to and fro between two cups - one held high up and another low down - with the panache of an expert bartender mixing cocktails.