Chennai :

Chennai Corporation’s canteen has gone herbal. Providing a haunt for the city’s health conscious, it now follows the motto ‘food is medicine and medicine is food’. Making the whole package at Ripon Buildings even more mouth-watering is the subsidized pricing.

The menu boasts of traditional south Indian food items which have been given a twist with some exotic medicinal plants and herbs. The canteen serves avarampoo (Cassia auriculata) idli, avarampoo dosa, tail millet idli, mudakathan keerai (balloon vine) dosa and thoothuvalai (purple-fruited pea eggplant) dosa. “The avaram flower prevents diabetes. Eating it once a week in any form will reduce the sugar levels in your body, ” says Dr Veerababu, who runs the canteen.

Kezhvaragu dosa and manathakkali dosa are the other specialities. “Manathakkali cures stomach ulcers. Thoothuvalai prevents phlegm formation in thebody,thus preventing cold and cough,” reads a poster in the canteen. The canteen also serves herbal tea, herbal soups, juices and ginger buttermilk.

However, the one dish that caught everyone’s attention was the vegetarian omelette. “This helps people who have recently turned to vegetarianism or veganism,” says Dr Veerababu.”Itis madeof neermulli which has the properties of egg. The mixture is beaten with vegetables on a pan and made into an omelette,” he says.

Every one may like the pricing. The idlis are priced between 2 and 5, paniyarams, omelette anddosas at 5 and meals at 15.”The aim is to draw daily wage labourers to eat healthy foodinsteadof cholesterol-ridden food from unhygienic stalls,” said a corporation official. The idea to set up a siddha food canteen struck the mayor when he opened Dr Veerababu’s siddha food restaurant in Saligramam six months ago. While the canteen drew huge crowds on Wednesday, some remained sceptical about the venture.

“Eating healthy food is alright once a week, but we would want to eat plain dosa and idli daily. These don’t appear on the menu,” said a staff member. A counter outside the canteen also sells banyan branches to clean teeth.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Chennai / by Pratiksha RamKumar, TNN / December 06th, 2012