A few weeks ago, when talking about
a few of my favourite restaurants, I mentioned in passing that Tooting was pretty much
the place in London to go for authentic South Indian food. No, you wouldn't have gleaned that impression from watching
Citizen Smith, but it's true nonetheless.
And having dangled that carrot bhaji in front of your noses for a while, it's probably about time I backed up this assertion with a couple of reviews; As it happens I've eaten in a couple of the area's South Indian restaurants recently with a view to comparing the twain, so here goes!
 |
| Beware of the Goddess |
If you're not used to South Indian food, it can come as quite a surprise, being substantially different from the more common Tandoori cuisine, which is of North Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin.
And indeed British.
See, pretty much all 'foreign' food in this country has inevitably been Anglicised over the past few decades. However, I suspect that most of the stuff on the menus of the
Vijaya Krishna and
Radha Krishna Bhavan in Tooting has a more credible ethnic provenance than, say, the Chicken Tikka Masalas and King Prawn Baltis you'll find in your average Tandoori house.
One thing you'll notice is that there are relatively few meat and chicken dishes on the menu, and plenty of fish and vegetarian options, as is typical of the diet in Goa and Kerala. And while the majority of North Indian restaurants seem to be Muslim-owned and run, both these places have a distinctly Hindu flavour, specifically a dedication to
Krishna (though the Radha Krishna Bhavan actually has a huge statue of the Goddess
Kali in the corner, watching over all who eat there!)
But this head-to-head contest is strictly Krishna vs Krishna with no interference from other God(ess)s permitted, and there can, of course, be only one winner...
