Rasanai in Coimbatore celebrates South Indian street food

Inspired by multiple trips around the five Southern States, Rasanai restaurant updates iconic recipes, from military mutton chops to poricha parotta, while retaining their core flavours

How do you serve kari dosa or kothu idiyappam — food from the streets of South India — in a restaurant setting? “That’s how the idea came about,” says Vikram Mohan, managing director of the Pricol Group,about recently launched Rasanai, which celebrates South Indian street food. Vikram says he and his team travelled to the hinterlands of the five southern states to perfect the menu. “I researched the history of food, how the various migrations resulted in certain food amalgamations, food habits etc. For example, the Arabic influences in Kerala’s biryani. It is made more like the Arabic kabsa.” A short tour of the 2600 square feet restaurant showcases a quirky mix of decor and plenty of indoor plants. While the doors featuring kolam designs look striking, it is the main wall displaying rows of evil-eye facemasks that draws diners to click a selfie.

Binu Thankachan, chief operating officer and Sheik Mohideen, brand chef for the group’s South Indian brands, recommend a list of must-trys. Over tangy, spiced, lightly-sweet pineapple rasam and crisp poricha parotta with paalkatti kaima (minced cottage cheese served as a canape on crisp, deep fried coin-shaped parottas) , conversation flows freely. The chicken, fiery with kanthari— infamous for being among India’s hottest chillies, is juicy and tender. The well-flavoured Sivaji Nagar military hotel mutton chops also make an impression.

I try the Ilai kaalan porichathu (oyster mushrooms marinated in a red marinade and deep fried) that makes for crisp bites. “Mushroom dishes are a part of Kongu cuisine. We discovered this recipe during our visit to a mess in Gobichettipalayam near Coimbatore. It was packed with people waiting to taste elai kaalan 65 served there. We replicated the recipe but added Kashmiri chilli powder to the thick batter before deep frying the mushrooms to give it a dash of red,” explains Sheik.

Chef Sheik says the diverse menu is a great opportunity to get creative with recipes. For example, a Pallipalayam chicken is served as a canape, piled on crisp, coin parottas. He adds that the Venad paal konju is a simple recipe with impressive results. “The prawns are cooked in thick coconut milk, so they are soft, juicy and have the nutty flavour of coconut.” Also try the lip-smacking eral thokkuor prawn picklewhere juicy, plump prawns are cooked in a spicy, flavourful masala.

Though the team piled on the kilos during the food-tasting sojourns, they came back with a wealth of culinary experience and built a list of 280 dishes, tired, tested, and standardised recipes. Binu talks fondly of their research: “In Nellore, we tried the chapala pulisu, a fiery fish curry that left us teary-eyed. We also tried the Nagarjuna chilli chicken there which is cooked with generous use of green chillies.”

The duo also stumbled upon some unique dishes like the vencha Godavari prawn and carrot 65 at a roadside outlet in Andhra. “An auto driver took us there for lunch. While enjoying the crunchy carrot 65, we also learnt that while the crispness comes from increasing quantity of corn flour in the batter, a dash of garam masala brings in the unique flavour while biting into it,” explains Sheik.

They perfected the popular military hotel mutton chops, which they relished at Shivaji Nagar Military Hotel in Bengaluru, after repeated trials. “The cooks refused to share the original recipe. When we visited the kitchen after lunch, we saw plastic bottles lined up filled to the brim with pickled lime. We realised that cooking the dish using brine and a paste of pickled lime brings a tinge of sourness which the dish is known for,” explains Sheik.