We are ravenous and ready to eat anything by the time we get to Sree Vidya Meals Room that has been tantalising us all morning on Facebook with the day’s special. Not too far from work, my colleague and I reach there at 2.30 pm (feverishly thinking about alternatives if the place is shut). But no! The doors are wide open and a beaming Lakshmi T Priya welcomes us in and seats us at a table (I sit on a stone bench that runs along the wall).

The meals room is a no-nonsense affair and brightly lit and focussed only on the business of serving food to its customers. Just outside is the menu of the day written in chalk. We must have looked starved; before the banana leaf is placed in front of us, two cups of steaming hot wheat and coconut milk paaysam is served to us.

Lakshmi started the all-vegetarian Kongunad style restaurant only recently. “It is possible to get a lot of our non vegetarian dishes perhaps, but the equally impressive list of vegetarian cuisine is hardly out there,” she says. As a vegetarian I am delighted and the happiness only grows as wholesome, vegetable-filled, non-paneer dishes are served one by one. A kothavarangai poriyal smells tantalisingly familiar, and oh so fragrant. “That is because EVERY spice is hand pounded every day,”says Lakshmi.

It began, like all good food stories do, with Lakshmi’s grandmothers. “Alamelu Ammayi was a queen of thokkus, pickles and non-vegetarian fare and while Rajalakshmi Ammal cooked vegetarian delicacies like none other. I grew up watching both of them cook.” They were affectionate, says Lakshmi, but strict, and tolerated no short cuts or laziness in the kitchen. Nothing made them happier than cooking for near and dear ones. It is that generosity of spirit and giving that inspired Lakshmi to open this Meals Room.

“I want to revive country recipes and produce and bring alive my grandmothers’ recipes. They only used local and seasonal fare and I am doing just the same.” She is a farmer first, says Lakshmi, and nothing pleases her more than cooking from what grows on her farm including the native oils that are milled there. “‘Farm to table’ is a philosophy that I subscribe to completely.”

Lakshmi and Mani are the only cooks. “I have watched him cook for 45 years! We both cook from our heart and soul.” She brushes aside our awe that just the two of them handle the cooking and says, “it takes no more than what it takes to turn out a meal at home. Just requires a bit of planning, that is all.”

The Meals Room serves a different menu each day of the week. So be prepared to be pleasantly surprised when vegetables like pirandai, thoodhuvalai, ponnangani keerai and thandu kovakkai appear on your plate. We enjoy an exemplary pachadi that we try hard to decode. Lakshmi takes pity on us and reveals that it is a kovakkai pachchadi! “We are not inventing anything; just reviving old recipes and I follow my grandmothers recipe to the last word,” she says, plonking down two beautiful, glistening urundais onto our elai. The kadalai podi urundai is a peanut and red chilly powder fashioned into balls that Lakshmi encourages us to eat with hot rice and gingelly oil. Someone had a brilliant idea when they told her to patent it!

Lakshmi wears her love for her grandmothers on her sleeve. “I am dedicating this restaurant to them. I learnt about integrity, passion and the importance of keeping my kitchen and surroundings scrupulously clean. They taught me that food tastes good only when one cooks from the heart and, even today if I am upset about something, I wait till I have resolved the matter before I enter the kitchen1”

The sambar follows. “You must come again and taste Alamelu Ammayi’s vengaya thokku. And the arisi paruppu sadham, kollu rasam, pirandai chutney, surakkai thattai payiru kulambu and pachai payiru kadaisal,” Lakshmi tells us. And throws in a mention of adhirasam as a possible dessert too!

We assure Lakshmi we will be back for more and stagger out, after calming down our protesting stomachs with comforting jeeragam and karuvapillai rasam.

Recipe for arisi paruppu sadam

Serves 4

200 gm ponni rice

200 gm toor dal

Small onions peeled 100 gm

Red chillies 6

Tomato 50 gm

Sesame oil 100 gm

Mustard 1/2 tsp

Jeera 1/4 tsp

Sambar powder 10 gm

Turneric powder 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves

Salt to taste

Water 750 ml

Method: Soak rice and dal together in water for half an hour. In a pressure cooker, add oil and season with mustard, jeera, curry leaves, red chillies. Sauté small onions and garlic till transparent, add tomato and salt and then soaked rice and dal. Fry for a minute, then pour in water, add sambar powder, turmeric powder and bring it to a boil. Cover and pressure cook for two whistles. Serve with ghee, puli kaichal and sutta appalam. Can be eaten with curd too.