Thursday, January 3, 2013

The Great Maratha......... Maratha Darshan



What moves a person so much to devote time and effort to write about a dish or an eating place it has to be outstanding. I continue with my Southern sojourn with Maratha Darshan. A few posts ago I had written that my colleagues at Bangalore threw a challenge, the first salvo was with Namma  Mane (Kundapur Cuisine). The second salvo was fired with Maratha Darashan.

Now, Darshini is a vegetarian eating place in Bangalore. There are more than a few thousand in Bangalore. Bangalore has a great eating out culture for breakfast, lunch and  tiiffin. There are stand and eat Darshini, sit and eat Darshini and many more.

We are here talking about Maratha Darshan in Bangalore and why not 5 districts of Karnataka share their border with Maharashtra from the costal west to North. Why not a shared cuisine. Actually Karnataka is generous, the people respond or try to in the language you speak to them. Large hearted to embrace and introduce cuisine albeit, neighbors……. We ll know the number of Andhra style restaurants and eateries. For many years, I kept searching for original Kannadiga food now I am wiser.

Maratha Darshan is eatery, where the food is spicier version of perhaps the South Karnataka cuisine, however speaking to Naveen the son of the proprietor Shanthraj Lad. The story is his mother is from Madikeri in Coorg and father a Maratha settled in Mysore. Hence I was confused with flavors, part Vidharba- Kundapur-Coorg. A melee of flavors each of them, more delightful than the other.

Their signature dishes are Mutton Chops masala, Natti Chicken (country chicken), Meat Balls (Keema) in gravy. Their repertoire is large, we stuck to Kaleji (Liver fry, more offal), mutton chops and elegant chappatis. Flavors nice, crowded at lunch time, people standing and peering into your plates, waiting for you to finish and swoop in for the kill. There is plenty of fvoful curries with rice and Mudde ( Ragi balls)

They now have a branch at Malleswaram, however the parents started out on selling on a footpath, then on to a auto (three wheeler) and now two branches packed to the gills. Long journey, from their humble beginnings in 1992.

The food is outstanding and highly recommended. Abhijeet, Rabansh Sunanth and Satya Colleagues at Bangalore you win the round two as well.