Hi Makan Kakis,
Realising that besides the occasional thosai or appam, I’m a complete novice when it comes to Inidan vegetarian cuisine. Thankfully, a familiar face from TV cooking competition “King of Culinary”, celebrity chef SR Bala, was on hand to help widen my perspective at one of Singapore’s best known vegetarian institutions – Ananda Bhavan Vegetarian. The restaurant chain celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, making it one of the oldest Indian eateries in Singapore.
- READ: the full story at CNA Lifestyle.
- WATCH: Denise & Chef Bala’s visit to Ananda Bhavan on Mediacorp GOLD905’s FB Page.
- LISTEN:
Moving with the times has always been part of the Ananda Bhavan DNA and since the ’90s, innovations like automated kitchen processes and fast-food style self-service counters have been introduced, making them pioneers in their field. These days, look out for their latest implement, a robot server on wheels, to serve your banana leaf meals! Since their humble beginnings at a unit in Ellison Building, the brand has expanded to five outlets. Whilst retaining their roots in South Indian vegetarian cuisine, they have also introduced vegan and Jain-friendly dishes, as well as novel fusions including palak paneer pizza and Indian-Chinese offerings like idly Manchurian.
Chef Bala gained us access into the kitchen to watch set thosai being prepared by Chef Satasivam, who has been with the restaurant for 23 years. Also known as “sponge” thosai, it had a thicker, cake-like texture and looked quite different from the thin and crispy version I knew.
“This batter is different from the regular thosai. This has got fenugreek seeds and he has used par-boiled rice, poha. Poha is rice flakes,” Chef Bala explained. Turmeric powder gave it a beautiful golden colour. “It’s got a lot of health properties in it as well. There’s no artificial colouring, it’s all natural,” Chef Bala interpreted for Chef Satasivam.
Two set thosai were cooked on a hot griddle till fluffy and porous, with a lightly crisp exterior. They sandwiched a spiced vegetable filling and came served with five condiments: sambar (a lentil-based vegetable stew), coconut chutney, onion chutney, kurma and vengaya kose. Vengaya, meaning onion in Tamil, was the main ingredient in the traditional gravy. According to Chef Bala, it was Ananda Bhavan’s revival of an age-old recipe using simple household staples of onions and curry leaves. “The last I saw this was in India. I haven’t seen it in Singapore,” he said. The non-spicy gravy was silky and smooth, its simplicity belying its intense onion flavour.
Chef Bala also clarified that mild and creamy South Indian kurma “has more of gram dal (split chickpea), more of coconut. It’s lighter.” Not to be confused with North Indian korma, which is “a bit richer because it’s passed down by the Mughals. So it’s got a lot of almonds, cashews, cream.” The savoury nuttiness of the kurma complemented the earthy turmeric notes of the set thosai.
“And it does not have that fermented sour taste that thosai has. It is lesser in that sourness,” Chef Bala noted. Rounding off the dish was the spicy onion chutney, which I loved, and the coconut chutney which cooled the fire on my tongue. Dip after dip, bite after bite, the set thosai brought on a delightful complexity of flavours I simply had not expected.
The same could be said for Ananda Bhavan’s South Indian set meal, or Thali. Served on a banana leaf and best eaten with hands, there were more than a dozen components including white rice, mini chapati, vadai (doughnut-shaped fritters), papadum (spiced crackers), curd (traditional Indian yoghurt), pickle, sambar, pulikulambu (a tamarind-based vegetable gravy), rasam (soup made with pepper, garlic and tamarind) and three main vegetable dishes. As I marvelled at the varied and colourful array, Chef Bala encouraged me to taste a little of everything, explaining, “Indian food emphasises a lot on the six senses and the six tastes.”
The traditional healing practice of Ayurveda categorises foods into sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent; believing that meals should incorporate these six tastes for balance and good health. I was beginning to understand why the set came with so many different elements. We were meant to mix and match to bring out different nuances of flavour for a harmonious meal that was still exciting to the tastebuds.
The most surprising discovery of all was Chef Bala’s pro-tip on how to enjoy the thali set’s payasam of the day. In our case, the dessert was made from milk, sugar, spices, vermicelli and mango. Chef Bala’s instructions gave me licence to literally play with my food, so going completely against my natural instincts, I smashed some papadum over a portion of payasam then mashed in some vadai. This created a tasty concoction of contrasts, spongey vadai and crispy pappadum pairing astonishingly well with creamy-cool mango payasam. For the uninitiated, this is a savoury-sweet trinity worth saving for the last.
But if you have a second stomach just for desserts, try Ananda Bhavan’s Elayappam, another dish I would never have encountered without Chef Bala’s guidance. “Elay means leaf. This has been steamed in the leaf, that’s why they call it Elayappam,” he explained. Basically a banana leaf parcel of rice flour, jaggery and grated coconut, it had velvety yet firm texture similar to red bean paste. Chinese hoon kueh, Indonesian kueh nagasari and Mexican tamales also came to mind. To me, it was another wonderful example of how different cultures meet at these culinary intersections.
For this meat-loving writer, the greatest revelation was that vegetarian cuisine is not boring or bland – not when prepared in so many different ways and with such care. That, coupled with Ananda Bhavan’s hundred-year history of interpreting a cuisine from the Indian subcontinent that goes back thousands of years, served as a convincing testament to the versatility of vegetables.
- TASTE:
Ananda Bhavan Vegetarian
Address: 95 Syed Alwi Road, Singapore 207671
Open Daily: 7.30am – 11pm
Makan Kakis on Gold 905 