Revel in the unique delights of South Indian cuisine at this new Central Phoenix diner.
By Nikki Buchanan | Photography by Jill McNamara
Back in the ’80s and ’90s, our local Indian restaurants hewed to the traditional dishes of Northern India – butter chicken, rogan josh, saag paneer – which we loved for their liberal use of dairy and garam masala spices. Valley diners happily mopped up all those rich, creamy sauces with puffy swaths of garlic naan, never considering that we were getting the merest sliver of India’s culinary diversity.
Recently, Indian restaurants in the Valley have embraced the concept of regionality, and the latest specimen is one of the best: Vayal’s Indian Kitchen, a splendid new Central Phoenix restaurant that features all the mainstream stuff but specifically showcases the cuisine of Southern India.
Encompassing the food of Bangalore, Madurai and other South India cities, plus Tamil and Sri Lankan influences, the region employs a lighter cooking style that utilizes rice instead of naan while flavoring just about everything with curry leaves, peppercorns, tamarind, coconut and chiles. You’ll taste these principles in action when you bite into ghee roast masala dosa, a feather-light, ultra-crispy crêpe made of fermented rice and lentil batter, stuffed with curry-spiked mashed potato, griddled with ghee (India’s clarified butter) until golden-brown, then curled into a long cylinder. It’s served with sambar (a bit like soupy, lentil-based dal), spicy tomato chutney and cooling coconut chutney. Sensational.
Next up: onion, chile and tomato uthappam, a spongy, pancake-like variation on dosa that looks a bit like a pizza, thanks to its colorful veggie toppings, but offers a lighter, crisper texture. I’m equally enamored of kothu parotta, a street food in which the soft yet crispy flatbread called parotta is shredded and cooked with salna (an onion- and tomato-based curry) and other ingredients in endless variation. Strewn with raw onion and served with cilantro raita and a lemon wedge, it’s light, textural and comforting.
Madras chicken curry is a complex, tomato-based mélange of Kashmiri chile powder, garlic, ginger and spices that delivers a healthy kick of heat. I complete my meal with a crispy fritter called medu vada, made with a savory batter of black lentils and spices. Its texture is akin to a cake doughnut, and like everything else, it’s dunked in coconut chutney or sambar.
Want a delicious education in South Indian cooking? School is in.
Vayal’s Indian Kitchen
Cuisine: Indian
Contact: 507 W. Thomas Rd., Phoenix, 480-401-2206, vayalskitchen.com
Hours: Tu-Su 11 a.m.-1:45 p.m. and 5-8:45 p.m.
Highlights: Ghee roast masala dosa ($10.99); tomato, onion and chile uthappam ($11.99); kothu parotta ($11.99-$13.99); madras chicken curry ($14.99); medu vada ($7.99)
