Dinner at Coringa

Last night, we had our third Khoj meal of the semester, at Coringa. Coringa is a restaurant located in Yelahanka, serving Coastal Andhra delicacies.

Coringa: the rooftop restaurant with a view of Yelahanka

One of the confounders of Coringna, Mr. Srinivas Velidanda, was the guest speaker for SWAD Forums last week. He shared with us the concept of Coringa. Their aim is to go beyond the stereotypes of Andhra food as the standard fiery hot Andhra meals most popularly known. They want to showcase the true flavours and varieties of vegetables, meats, rices, daals and sweets of Andhra Pradesh.

After the SWAD Forum Guest Lecture with Mr. Srinivas Velidanda

Most of our diners last night were attendees of this talk, so we were all excited in anticipation for the menu he had prepared for us.

The group enjoying some garlic rasam

The evening began with hot garlic rasam as an appetiser. On the main menu was Arbi Fry, curry leaf chicken, chili crabs, stuffed bitter gourd, and stuffed brinjals. Then came dibba roti, which literally translates to fat roti. It is made of dosa batter, that is pored into a large vessel and shallow fried till crisp on the outside, somewhat like a wada. Dibba roti was served with onion chutney and jaggery, and mutton curry. Next was sesame rice and banana stems in mustard sauce. The meal was accompanied by 4 types of chatnis – a raw onion chutney, a sweet and spicy ginger ghutney, a mango pickle raita and a raw tomato and yougurt chutney. We ended with a sweet called borelu – which is obattu or pooran poli filling, made into small dumplings, covered in dosa batter and fried. The correct way to eat borelu is to press a little hole into the centre, fill it with warm ghee and pop the whole thing into your mouth. It’s an explosion of ghee and pooran! So divine!

Dibba Roti with Onion Chutney and Jaggery

Four Chutneys that accompanied the meal

It goes without saying that one of the most memorable dishes of that meal was the chili crab. Made with just 3 simple ingredients of green chilies, salt and crabs it was an amazing amalgamation of the burning spice of chilies and the sweetness of crab meat.

Look at the amount of ground chillies on that plate!

Coming from a family that does not eat much spice, I have never been brave enough to try a full Andhra meal. In fact, Coringa is located just about 10 minutes from my family home, and I pass it quite often, but for the fear of the spice alone, I have never actually dined there. This experience definitely debunked that misconception or stereotype about Andhra food for me – not ALL Andhra food is fiery hot. There is in fact a wide variety of home-style Andhra food, which is modest but so flavourful. Half the dishes were not even very spicy, but had a lovely balance of sweet, salty and savoury flavours. I know I’ll be visiting again soon, especially considering it’s so close to home!

After dinner at Coringa with Mr. Srinivas Velidanda