Treat for vegetarians

RASSA, THE speciality vegetarian restaurant, is on Halls Road, Egmore. It was the name that caught my attention first. The thought of nava rasas in food intrigued me.

The fast food label did put me off at first, I confess. A lot can be said for and against homogenisation. And nothing promotes the process in food than the tag -fast food. The ambience was clean, tidy and pleasant. The menu was a single sheet affair with South and North Indian food. The usual Tandoori paneer, dosas, poori masala and the works were there.

But amidst all these were some unusual beauties too. Herb dosa (Rs. 20) was one of those that stood out. What a difference a few leaves of mint, coriander and other herbs make! Suddenly the plain Jane became a striking beauty. The next surprise was the coconut paratha (Rs. 30). A totally new creation. It's a pity that patents are not sought for new dishes too. Soon the same paratha will appear everywhere and the novelty is lost and the genius of the cook goes unappreciated. Life is just not fair.

To down the breads, the second one being alu paratha (Rs. 30), we had ordered baigan bagara (Rs. 35) and peas masala (Rs. 30). The first one was a delight. Peas masala was no match to the eggplant curry, still quite nice. Our starter, tandoori alu (Rs. 35) was also a pleasant surprise. Boiled potatoes scooped out and filled with alu masala and then grilled was certainly tasty. The night we had gone, there wasn't any stock of ice creams, which make the desserts. But we didn't mind it after all that lovely fare at reasonable rates.

It was such a treat to see ingenuity and flair in such a small enterprise. It is all right to talk about originality, fusion and experimentation in star hotels where the cost is absorbed by the customers. The true testing grounds are the small restaurants. And Rassa passed the test in flying colours.

MARIEN MATHEW

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