This short stint of veganism is taking me through a totally different world, which i would not have stepped into otherwise. For the first time, i am looking at dishes which i had never looked at so far. Visted Krishna Cafe once, and most weird thing was ended up eating in Sriram Mess in Madurai. Adding to the list was Cholayil Sanjeevanam. Saw the name first in few tweets of my friend, and this time decided to go for it with <a href="http://saikrishbe.wordpress.com" targer="_blank">Sai</a>.
Located the hotel near Madiwala, "Cholayil Sanjeevanam". The tag, "vegetarian health restaurant" did frighten me. I was not expecting "medicine" food on a sunday afternoon, but once i entered, i realized there is nothing to fear about. The ambience was good. The waiter walked us slowly through the menu items and tried explaining each one in great detail. It started with a slice of banana, followed by five different soups. If i recollect them in the correct order, they were, Date Juice, Nut Milk, Veg Clear Soup, Harita Buttermilk and juice of Banana stem.
This was followed by four uncooked vegetable dishes, of which i remember just puttu, a dish made of banana stem i think and vegetable pickle made of carrot and onion. After uncooked vegetables, it was semicooked vegetables, with White Pumpkin, Papaya, yellow pumpkin and Olan which was made of banana leaves. This was followed by Fully cooked vegetables, which were greens and cabbage.
After this we feasted on the usual rice, sambhar, rasam with brown rice being an addition. To end it was payasam and Butter milk. Looks like having food in order, has a lot of benefits. I dont remember much of what i read about each item and their benefits, so i will stop with just this. Cost of "Rajakeeyam" was 300.
Now, coming to the important question, did i like it ? I would say it was different and good but definitely not the one i would prefer. Sai had visited it in Chennai already, and being a genuine grass eater, liked the food to the core. Anyway I would be grateful for my decision, bcoz for the first time in life, i ended up eating Pumpkin, banana leaf and few other item, which i am sure i would not have touched in lifetime :-)
