Park Sheraton is holding the annual food festival of its South Indian specialty restaurant, Dakshin. The occasion is the restaurant's eleventh anniversary, and the festival will run for ten days from 14 till 23 April. Everywhere one looks in Dakshin one finds ethnic artifacts; Tanjore paintings on the walls, temple-bell-shaped light shades, silver thalis. And live instrumental Carnatic Music is rendered on the violin, flute, ghatam and mridangam.

The fare includes preparations from the four states, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka. It is unusual to find this many cuisine on offer at a food festival, but to make it even more excitingly complicated, Dakshin is offering a selection of its most popular dishes of the previous years! Regular diners here will peruse this section of the menu - Best of Dakshin - to find and renew acquaintances with old favourites. The best known "Oklie" must be the mini dosas from Iyer's Trolley. Each day has a special dosa that the chef prepares in a little stall that stands against one wall of the restaurant. The Banana Dosa is highly recommended. Just for this alone would Dakshin be worth a visit! The other dosas-of-the-day come with five varieties of chutney - coconut, tomato & onion, tamarind, ginger and peanut.

There are some very interesting sea food dishes; Nandu Koduku Melagu Masala (crab in peppery masala), Vaathu Varatharacha Kozhambu (duck curry of Madurai) and Meen Shunti (a Tanjore specialty of fish cooked on charcoal). Erachi Ishtu (Kerala mutton stew) is truly delicious with Iddiappam. No staple is needed for Kodi Gajala (chicken marinated and cooked with curds, chilly and onion).

Those who love greens should try Kempu - Padpe Upkari, a dry dish flavoured with mustard and garlic. Other good vegetarian dishes are Dosakal Pappukura (Lentils and Cucumber with Onion and Garlic) and Murungakai Palakottai Kootu Curry (a Tanjore concoction of drumstick and jack fruit seed). To accompany these four cuisine there are five pickles; Lemon, Avakkai, Gongura, Garlic and Maavadu, as well as three festival specials; Ambalakkai, Sadavari Kilangu and Kopakai (Papaya). The Kopakai pickle is slightly bitter and will go well with mutton dishes.

There is a good selection of rice preparations too, flavoured - according to the diner's choice - with Tomato,  Lemon, Coconut, Tamarind or Curry Leaf. The Khaima Choru (rice with mutton mince, eggs, greens chillies and capsicum) promises to be very good. For dessert, one can probably settle for Chakkara Gadda Payasam (sweet potato payasam).

Dakshin, it is interesting to note, is rated by the catering industry as one of India's top ten specialty restaurants. A chef who is one of the most respected in this trade prepares the food. All that a diner needs to do is partake and enjoy.

Arun Masilamoni