Its been a long time since I posted here… I’ve been going thru some personal stuff and also, the situation of the food scene here at Trivandrum has been a bit sad in my opinion where new restaurants kept opening and closing so fast like even within a week, pretty much all serving run of the mill food that all look and taste the same… There were a couple of places that served good tasting food but by the time I could write about them they closed… The reason why I am writing now is that I found the food tasted unique compared to other places and from what I hear, they seem to be doing well enough to not get closed anytime soon…
So, I heard about this place called Chaikaari from my parents who happened to notice the place as they were driving home after shopping and tried visiting for dinner there… So, when I checked out their menu it peaked my interest cause unlike the other South Indian vegetarian places, the photos and the names clearly indicated that its based on Karnataka style cuisine… So, just to try for the first time, and also since I personally prefer having Dosa to Idly, I went for a Benne Dosa and Ghee Dosa… The below photo shows how they arrived… Both Dosas were served with three Chutneys and Sambar… Benne Dosa alone had a small piece of Kesari as can be seen in the photo…
So, lets first talk about the Benne Dosa… Basically Benne means butter and so, its Butter Dosa, which we do find in most vegetarian restaurants here… But, the Karnataka style Butter Dosa or Benne Dosa is different from the others that we see… The texture and taste of the Dosa is different cause over at Karnataka, the way they make the Dosa batter is different from how they do in Tamil Nadu, with the use of puffed or flattened rice and other ingredients and we at southern Kerala tend to be more influenced by the Tamil culture… Here, the Dosa was served on a piece of Banana Leaf and along with the three Chutneys as shown in the pics below, which I felt to be the Coconut Chutney, a Chutney made out of Red Chillies and Onions and then the third one was clearly a Tomato Chutney… Coming to the taste, the Dosa had a nice fragrance and taste of Butter but what I felt was that the batter ended up being ever so slightly a bit too sour for me personally… But every single bite of that Dosa had just enough taste of Butter in it… As for the Chutneys, I felt that it clearly was made by someone who knows what they are doing as all three chutneys were nice and flavorful with just the right seasonings… The quantity of chutneys were good enough to thoroughly enjoy the Dosa with… As for the Sambar, even though it looks like a typical Sambar that I have seen in Bengaluru, it didn’t have that sweet taste from the use of Jaggery… Instead it was a savory and thick Sambar that seemed to work well with the Chutneys and the Dosa… Lastly, the Kesari that was included with this Dosa was yummy… Reminded me of the Kesari my mom makes at home…
Coming to the Ghee Dosa, this one was different in the sense that unlike the Benne Dosa this one was incredibly thin and crispy even after the time it took to deliver to my home… Every bite had enough taste and fragrance of Ghee as well, unlike pretty much every other place that serve Ghee Roast where you get the taste of Ghee only at certain areas of the Dosa like the Center… I think this was made completely covered in Ghee like seen in some of the popular videos we see in social media… However, I wouldn’t say the amount of Ghee was too much in any way as it felt just the right amount to enhance the taste of the Dosa… Another thing I noticed is that this Ghee Dosa didn’t have that extra sourness in its taste like how I felt with the Benne Dosa… Overall, I liked this Ghee Dosa better than the Benne one… The combination with the Chutneys and Sambar was simply great with it… My only complaint is that I wish they had included another piece of the Kesari with this as well 🙂
Thats it for now… Lol.. I can still smell that Ghee and Butter in my hand as I am typing this 🙂 I for one am hoping to be able to visit the place soon and get to try more from their menu… Feel free to do the same and let me know your thoughts in the comments section below…
