South Indian Food..Not Ready yet

I am not talking about same old ‘Idli’, ‘Dosa’ or ‘Uttappa’…I am talking about REAL south Indian food…Authentic! Yesterday, I went to ‘Vithal Kamat’s Soul Curry’ on Mumbai-Pune highway with my family.

My curiosity was tickled as soon as I entered the restaurant, as I could see all south Indian crowd inside ( crew and customers )  After attempting to read the menu for a few minutes…it was clear that I was at a wrong place. South Indian is not my type. This has nothing to do with the food itself…because everybody else thought, that it was awesome. I cannot consume such a large quantity of coconut in one go. Also I thought that the taste was a bit extreme….either too sweet or too spicy. Our 4 course dinner included

• Corn Wada (not a south Indian dish but was served with coconut chutney..so..)
• Uppam with Drumsticks and Banana Flower silk curry (too spicy)
• Curry leaves rice with Aviyal (was shockingly sour)
• Chikoo milkshake (for me and Payasam for the others)

Probably our selection was altogether wrong. I was more than disappointed (partly because I had to miss Jayasurya’s dazzling century). My mom hails from south India and I did not have a faintest idea about south Indian food. When you live in Sangli…outing essentially means going to a typical pure veg restaurant (like- Shiv Sagar) for Punjabi food. So I was not prepared, mentally, for such a changeover.

I should have taken things step by step. Suggestions and directions are welcome. I should work a bit more to develop my taste!