Sanjeevanam

Never knew chennai had such options....A health restaurant serving sattvic food ....(that which is freshly prepared and served immediately and where the concept of serving reheated food is anathema)...

well wanted to try this place after the excesses of the year ending jamborees. you need to get in early though...at 2.00 pm we were about to be turned away but for some effective bit of calojing by sriram and senthil :-)

We were lead into a house cosmetically converted into a "Kerala tharvadu lookalike" with small rooms leading into one another with seating around functional tables seating 4 -6.

Its a strictly course driven meal...wherein the first item served was a small bowl of sweet pineapple chunks as an appetiser. The next in line was a series of tiny glass bowls filled with pink, white, amber, green liquids...there were a total of 5 in all. We were informed that food would be served as soon as we are done with these healthful cups of vegetable soup, juice, minted buttermilk etc. The next course was 8 varieties of starters ...hope i remember all ...well here goes...there was a banana stem pachadi, mango salad (with the fresh bite of green chillies), a kerala style simply done glistening white pumpkin olan, a flavourful cabbage poriyal, some kind of pulinkari ( veg + dal + spices) side dish, a tomato and coconut based pachidi and i dont remember the other 2...but guess you get the picture .....
what follows is the rest of a traditional south indian meal of 2 dry vegetable dish, rice , sambhar, rasam, moru (buttermilk). Finally for dessert they serve pure honey which they pour into the cup of your palms ... slurping and licking the dripping sweetness of authentic honey was what the meal was all about ....fingerlickin good ;-)

Some trivia about the place...

The food is prepared only in earthen, bronze and copper vessels by specially trained staff. Usage of substances considered an irritant to the system like vinegar, red chilli and sugar, are totally avoided. Pepper, curds and honey are used instead...

while leaving don't miss the natural products counter...selling all natural products like ginger, coriander coffee, honey, palm candy etc...i picked up a packet of Kasthuri manjal...oh the things we do for vanity...(its supposed to be an awesome facepack)