Korea on my plate

Chennai's food scene has moved far beyond the cliches of idlis at Murugan's Idli Shop, filter coffee at Apoorva's Sangeetha and murukku and adhirasam from Grand Sweets. An influx of expatriates from the Far East employed in the city's auto plants, for one, has brought about welcome additions to the culinary landscape. On your next trip, head to these restaurants for a taste of the new gourmet explosion

MOMOYAMA
CUISINE: Japanese
There is a thrill one gets from tracking down restaurants that are hard to find and Momoyama takes great pride in making this hunt as difficult as possible, even though the Japanese restaurant is on TTK Road, a prime location in Chennai. You could drive past the unremarkable multi-storey building many times and never know that it houses the restaurant, since the sole signboard outside is for a skin clinic.

Farooq Basha, the manager, says the owner was very clear about not advertising. "If you are not sufficiently passionate about eating here, you would give up the search and go home," he says, matter-of-factly.

The restaurant is divided into booths with wooden partitions, and a hostess in a kimono guides us to our table. The menu runs into several pages, and though there are no descriptions to guide first-timers (since it is assumed you have made it this far because you are passionate about Japanese food), there are photos. We order a sashimi set lunch, tekka maki (maki is a type of sushi roll), katsudon, oyakadon and California rolls, a popular "fusion" version of a sushi roll. Our wait is enlivened by random pop music from the 1990s and a refreshing salad of shredded cabbage and carrot with a tangy dressing.

The tekka maki, rolls of sticky sushi rice and tuna wrapped in seaweed, turn out to be very good, and vanish as quickly as they can be picked up with the chopsticks. My main course, the sashimi, is arranged artistically on a black platter with some greens and a dollop of wasabi, and comes with sticky rice and miso soup. The soup is excellent, but I am unlikely to repeat what was my first experiment with sashimi soon, though it's no fault of Momoyama's. I would have been better off with something like the delicious katsudon, a bowl of sticky rice with giant bits of pork, vegetables and fried egg, with sauce, or the oyakodon, which is similar, but made with chicken. Unlike the tekka maki, the delicious California rolls are "inside out" rolls, with rice covering the seaweed inside, and a bit of mayonnaise.

For a Japanese meal, the prices are not exorbitant, with the sashimi meal costing Rs 700 and the katsudon, oyakodon and California rolls at Rs 450 each, while the tekka maki is Rs 250.

So is it worth your while to try and track down Momoyama? Absolutely. Even if you are not a fan of sashimi.

Address: Old No.16, New 24/1, 1st Cross Street, TTK Road (near the Japanese Consulate), Alwarpet
Price: Rs 1500 for a meal for two

INSEOUL
CUISINE: Korean
The rivalry between Japan and South Korea may not be as well known as that between Japan and China. But it exists. So it is only apt that when I go to InSeoul, a Korean restaurant, the owner's friend points out that Koreans prefer to use the slippery steel chopsticks rather than the wooden ones favoured by the Japanese. This, he says, has helped in boosting the average IQ of the Koreans to 106 while that of the Japanese is a piffling 105. He picks up a sesame seed with his shiny chopsticks to rest his case.

Still, the slipperiness of the chopsticks is not a sufficient impediment to prevent us from wolfing down the food, whether it's the various complimentary starters or the main course. The kimchi, the familiar fermented cabbage, is spicier than any I've tried before - a welcome change. The other starters are equally good, whether it's the roasted baby potatoes or the kimchi jeon, batter fried kimchi. For the main course, we order a dolsot bibimbap, kimbap and bulgogi. The kimbap is the Korean version of the sushi roll. The bibimbap arrives steaming in a black stone pot, called a dolsot, and has rice, sauteed vegetables and meat, topped with a fried egg, and makes for a wholesome, tasty meal. The clear winner, though, is the bulgogi.

A traditional Korean preparation of marinated, shredded beef that has been grilled, this version is divine. The beef, which is imported from the US according to the menu, is the best I've had in recent years. To balance the slight sweetness of the marinade, there is a giant bowl of lettuce and some sauce, though I ignore both for the most part. At Rs 1,000, the bulgogi is a tad pricey but the quality of the beef, the flavour and the generous portion justify that tag.

InSeoul is rather vast, with minimalist decor, with not many tables occupied during lunch. A thumb rule to judge whether to eat at a restaurant is the number of customers thronging the place but InSeoul is an exception. Perhaps not enough people have heard about the bulgogi yet.
Address: No 530, TTK Road, Alwarpet
Price: Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 for a meal for two

BURMA BAZAAR
CUISINE: Burmese
Located in north Chennai, near the old quarter of George Town, Burma Bazaar is said to have been set up by the Tamil who fled Burma to sell their households goods, but it is now famous (or notorious) as a thriving grey market. Having heard that it is possible to find authentic Burmese food there, I enlist the help of Kiran Masi, a restaurateur intimately familiar with the neighbourhood, in my quest.

The Burmese food stalls are on Second Line, Beach Road and there are some six on the stretch. We sample the athoke, or atho as the locals call it - a sort of cold salad of noodles, vegetables, a sprinkling of coriander leaves and masala. There are also boiled eggs with a spicy onion topping that you can pop into your mouth, and mohinga, a soup made of plantain stem and fish. Despite the crowd, the food turns out to be underwhelming - the atho is a bit like chaat, but less tasty. The mohinga is better, though too dilute. All the stalls seem to be serving the same food, and the mohinga at the fourth stall from the beginning of the lane turns out to be decent as well. The food is cheap (less than Rs 50 for the soup, boiled egg and the "atho") and filling, which might explain the crowd.

Masi later says Burma Bazaar has excellent beef kababs though the stall was shut that Friday. If you are in Chennai, you should visit the historic George Town for the beautiful architecture of buildings like the Madras High Court. But I would not recommend trekking all the way solely to sample the Burmese food.